Leadership succession in early Islam: Exploring the nature and role of historical precedents

When Muhammad died in 632, he had left no clear indication as to whom if anyone should succeed him as a leader of the Islamic community. According to tradition, both Moses and Jesus before him, as founding figures of Islam's sister Abrahamic faiths Judaism and Christianity, had publicly announced their choices. In the present century, as has been the case for the last fourteen hundred years, Islam is still reeling from the sequence of events that took place over a fifty year period, as leadership of the rapidly growing Muslim community was established and contested. Not only would these events lead to the development of ruling dynasties with hereditary succession, they would also give rise to the major division between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. In what follows, I examine the succession to Muhammad from a history of religions perspective to determine what part the dynamics of succession play in effective leadership practice and in the survival of a social institution. At the same time, in a post-9/11 world, I hope to demonstrate the value of exploring leadership in the context of the world's religious traditions, especially that of Islam.