The History of the Sunni and Shia Split: Understanding the Divisions within Islam by Jesse Harasta & Charles River Editors

Author:Jesse Harasta & Charles River Editors [Harasta, Jesse]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Charles River Editors
Published: 2014-09-15T07:00:00+00:00

The Imam Husayn Shrine in Karbala, Iraq

Some Sunnis also observe Ashura, though not as dramatically as their Shia neighbors. In addition to its association with Hussein, who is respected in some Sunni circles as a pious opponent to Yazid’s corruption of Islam, it is also believed to be the date when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and is therefore an important date associated with the tyrannical pharaoh’s fall. Today, Ashura is a state holiday in Iran, India, Afghanistan, Turkey, Pakistan, Iraq, Azerbaijan, and Lebanon, only some of which have Shia majorities[18].

The Umayyad dynasty was relatively short-lived, lasting from the end of the Fitna in 661 until 750, a span of 89 years, but during this time, they held the single Muslim Caliphate together as a political entity and extended its borders into Spain and Portugal, the Sindh (today's southeastern Pakistan), the Maghreb in Northern Africa, and the Caucasus Mountains, making it one of the largest empires the world had ever seen. As with any large empire, there was considerable unrest across the caliphate, especially with the Umayyads becoming increasingly unpopular amongst Muslims and non-Muslims alike. This led to the Second Fitna (Civil War) in the 680s and 690s as well as the Berber Revolt in the 740s. The Berber Revolt opened a period of increasing instability and weakness, leading to the Third Fitna (744-747), increased taxes, declining central control, and finally the Abbasid Revolution of 750.

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