The Rashidun Caliphate was the early Islamic polity led by the first four successive caliphs: Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali, collectively known as the Rashidun, or "Rightly Guided" caliphs. These ea
Ottoman miniature paintings depicting Muhammad (center) and the Rashidun caliphs Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali, c. 16th century
Sasanid style coins during the Rashidun period, featuring a crescent-star, fire altar, depictions of Khosrow II, and an Arabic bismillāh in the margin).
Tombs of the caliphs Abu Bakr and Umar (right), in Medina, present-day Saudi Arabia
Muhammad's widow, Aisha, battling the fourth caliph Ali in the Battle of the Camel (16th-century miniature from a copy of the Siyer-i Nebi)
The Umayyad Caliphate or the Umayyad Empire was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty from 661 to 750. It succeeded the
Rashidun Caliphate
…These early caliphs led the Muslim community (Ummah) from the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in 632 CE to the establishment of the succeeding Umayyad Caliphate in 661 CE, and marked the beginning of the transition out of late antiquity into the Near East's Islamic period. The title Rashidun stems from the Sunni…
Arab-Sasanian-style Umayyad coin minted under Mu'awiya I rule in Basra in 675/76 in the name of the Umayyad governor Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad. The latter's governorship later spanned all of the eastern caliphate. His father Ziyad ibn Abihi was adopted as a half-brother by Mu'awiya I, who made him his practical viceroy over the eastern caliphate.
Abd al-Malik introduced an independent Islamic currency, the gold dinar, in 693, which originally depicted a human figure, likely the caliph, as shown in this coin minted in 695. In 697, the figural depictions were replaced solely by Qur'anic and other Islamic inscriptions
The Dome of the Rock, located within the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, is considered the oldest surviving major Islamic building.
The expansion of the Muslim Caliphate until 750, from William R. Shepherd's Historical Atlas. Muslim state at the death of Muhammad Expansion under the Rashidun Caliphate Expansion under the Umayyad Caliphate Byzantine Empire