Abu Bakr (573 - 634) was a companion and father-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad and the first of the Rashidun caliphs, the four early leaders regarded by Sunni Muslims as rightly guided. [1] A Meccan merchant of the Banu Taym clan, he was among the earliest converts to Islam and Muhammad's closest associate. On Muhammad's death in 632 he was acclaimed leader of the Muslim community, and in a caliphate of roughly two years he suppressed the revolts known as the Ridda wars and launched the campaigns that began the early Islamic conquests. [2]
Background and early life
Abu Bakr was born in Mecca around 573 into the Banu Taym, a clan of the Quraysh tribe, and was known as a cloth merchant with a wide knowledge of Quraysh genealogy. [1] Sources describe him as a man of modest wealth and standing rather than one of Mecca's leading aristocrats. He is traditionally identified by the name Abd Allah ibn Abi Quhafa, with Abu Bakr as his common appellation.
He was among the first adults to accept Muhammad's message, and the closeness of the relationship was reinforced when his daughter Aisha married the Prophet. [2] The honorific al-Siddiq, meaning the truthful or the one who affirms, is attached to him in Muslim tradition for his acceptance of Muhammad's account of the night journey.
Companion of the Prophet
Abu Bakr used his means to purchase the freedom of enslaved converts persecuted in Mecca, among them Bilal ibn Rabah. [1] When opposition in the city made the position of the Muslims untenable, he accompanied Muhammad on the migration to Medina in 622, the event from which the Islamic calendar is dated, and the two are described in the Qur'anic tradition as sheltering together in a cave during the journey.
In Medina he took part in the major engagements of the Prophet's lifetime, including Badr and Uhud, and led the pilgrimage of 631 on Muhammad's behalf. [3] During Muhammad's final illness he was designated to lead the communal prayers, a fact later cited in support of his claim to succeed him.
The caliphate
Muhammad's death in 632 left no agreed procedure for succession. At a gathering of Medinan leaders at the Saqifa of the Banu Sa'ida, Abu Bakr was acclaimed as khalifa, or successor, with the support of Umar ibn al-Khattab. [2] The decision was accepted by most of the community but became one of the foundations of the later division between Sunni and Shia Islam, since Shia tradition holds that Ali ibn Abi Talib had been designated as Muhammad's rightful successor.
Several Arabian tribes treated their allegiance as having lapsed with the Prophet's death, withholding the alms tax or following rival prophetic claimants. Abu Bakr rejected any compromise and prosecuted the Ridda, or apostasy, wars, restoring the authority of Medina across the peninsula. [1] He then dispatched armies under commanders including Khalid ibn al-Walid against the Sasanian territories in Iraq and the Byzantine provinces of Syria, beginning the expansion completed under his successors.
Death and legacy
Abu Bakr died in Medina on 23 August 634 after a short illness, having nominated Umar to succeed him, and was buried beside Muhammad. [3] His caliphate lasted a little over two years.
Muslim tradition remembers him for personal austerity and for refusing to enrich himself from public revenue. [2] He is also associated with the first efforts to gather the scattered records of the Qur'an into a single written collection, a project completed under the third caliph, Uthman. [4] For Sunni Muslims he ranks as the most excellent of the Prophet's companions; Shia accounts view his assumption of the caliphate as a usurpation of Ali's right, and the disagreement remains a defining feature of Islamic history.
