The Caliphs: The Rise and Fall of Arab Power Podcast Review
Around April 2026 I started listening to an excellent podcast called The Caliphs: The Rise and Fall of Arab Power by Zayd (himself a Lebanese from a mixed Sunni/Shia family) and I finished it over the course of about 4 months. It tells the political narrative of the history of the Arabs from the rise of Islam through the fall of the Abbasids (or at least when they ceased to be leaders of a unified Ummah, in the 10th century AD), but it starts about 100 years before Islam, and briefly tells the story of the Prophet (PBUH), before discussing the caliphs. It also tells it from a relatively secular/academic perspective, and took pains to emphasize when sources differ on events, particularly during the early days of Islam. It is in a similar style as some other history podcasts I’ve listened to like History of Rome and The Hellenistic Age. What is particularly neat about it is that its sources are essentially 3 histories written down in the 9th and 10th centuries by 3 different Arab historians who had used a combination of oral and written sources to write a history of the events since the time of the Prophet (PBUH).
When I comment on my previous knowledge and interpretation of events as described by this podcast, I will be drawing from what I was told as growing up as part of the current prevailing Sunni narrative, as well as books I’ve read related to this topic which include:
· No God but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam by Reza Aslan
· The First Dynasty of Islam: The Umayyad Caliphate by G. R. Hawting
· The Great Caliphs: The Golden Age of the Abbasid Empire by Amira Bennison
· The Modern Middle East: A History by James Gelvin
· The Prophet Muhammad: A Biography by Barnaby Rogerson
I also will give a disclaimer that I am not a theologian or religious scholar, and when I discuss a “prevailing Sunni narrative”, I am of course making a huge generalization based on my experiences growing up in my community.
The Early Days of Islam and the Rashidun Caliphate: (up to and including episode 17)
First I wanted to discuss the time of the Prophet (PBUH), the first 4 caliphs, and the start of the Umayyad Caliphate. This podcast spends about 1 episode (~25 minutes) on pre-Islamic Arabia, about 1 episode on the life of the Prophet (PBUH), but starts to slow down and take its time with the first Caliph, Abu Bakr.
To (very) briefly summarize the social organization of the Arabs in the years before Islam, the Arabs were divided amongst many tribes throughout the Arabian peninsula. These tribes were largely nomadic, but there were some large settlements, such as Medina and Mecca, that were more permanently settled. Mecca in particular was an important stop in trade routes, as well as a site of religious pilgrimage due to the presence of the Kaaba. The dominant tribe that controlled Mecca was the Qurayshi tribe, which was itself divided into multiple clans of varying import, two of the most important of which were the Umayyads and the Hashemites. The Prophet (PBUH) was part of the Hashemite clan. Tribes largely acted independently, and the largest and most powerful organizations of Arabs were the tribal confederacies that were in service of the Byzantines and Sassanids.
When the Prophet (PBUH) began spreading the word of Islam in 610 AD, he had supporters from various clans of the Quraysh, but they were generally outnumbered and persecuted and were forced to leave for Medina in 622 AD (ie. the Hijra), and shelter amongst the Muslim converts there, who belonged to different tribes. During this time, some of the most ardent enemies of Islam were the Quraysh of Mecca who had not converted, in particular prominent members of the Umayyads. Eventually the Muslims would return to Mecca, and (largely) bloodlessly conquer it, with conversion of the vast majority of the remaining Quraysh. During the life of the Prophet (PBUH), through a combination of conquest and treaties, the vast majority of the Arabs of the Arabian Peninsula would convert to Islam.
As early as the death of the Prophet (PBUH) and the selection of Abu Bakr to succeed him, sources differ on events, primarily because the initial Sunni-Shia split is based around who should succeed the Prophet. The prevailing Sunni narrative however, emphasizes several things fairly consistently:
· The Sahaba (or early Muslims amongst whom the Prophet (PBUH) lived) are thought of highly
· The first four Caliphs in particular (Abu Bakr, Omar, Uthman, and Ali) are thought of highly and it is generally considered taboo to criticize them
· There was a high level of unity amongst the Ummah (or Muslim community) and the transitions of power from one caliphate to the next, particularly for the first 4 caliphs, was relatively peaceful
· Disputes due to tribalism virtually vanished after the time of the Prophet (PBUH), as the people were united under Islam
I will summarize some key aspects of the rule of these first four caliphs that have stood out to me, but these will be very simplified summaries. The selection of Abu Bakr as the first caliph happened rather abruptly, as after the Prophet (PBUH) died, there convened a small group of notable figures in Medina. Initially there were some of the prominent Medinans who want to put themselves forward as successors, but the argument from the Meccans was that the role of the Ansar (the Medinans) was to support the Meccans, the true inheritors of the mantle of Islam. This, in my opinion, flies against what we’re traditionally taught that the Prophet (PBUH) only held individuals superior in terms of piety rather than tribe or blood.
When Abu Bakr ascended, he faced a divided Ummah. Many of the Arab tribes not from Mecca or Medina had renounced Islam or put forth their own prophets. Abu Bakr’s focus then was the re-unification of the Arabs, something which he was able to achieve during his short tenure before his death. During his time as caliph, the vast majority of the leaders he appointed were from the Quraysh.
He would appoint Omar as his successor. Omar would be caliph for about 10 years, and during that time the Arab armies would have a lot of military success against the Byzantines and Persians. He would take the step of ensuring the Arabs did not intermingle excessively with the conquered people, leaving the governmental systems of the new lands in place, and building Arab garrison cities on the frontiers where Arabs would live separately that were funded by tax revenues from conquered lands. He set aside a percentage of the conquered wealth to be used for the treasury for the burgeoning empire. While he took great pains to discourage ostentatious displays of wealth, and was aggressive about replacing governors he felt were too focused on the accumulation of wealth, he did almost-exclusively appoint governors from among the Quraysh. He would ultimately be assassinated by a Persian.
Uthman would be chosen as his successor by a committee of 6 Quraysh chosen by Omar just before his death. He would also be caliph during a time when there were great military victories, and he would be personally pious and accomplished the important feat of having the Quran put together as a single document. However, while Omar took great pains to avoid the appearance of nepotism, Uthman, himself an Umayyad, placed the majority of governmental positions under the control of Umayyads, and was not active in replacing or disciplining those governors who were preoccupied with the accumulation of wealth or power or who were openly impious. This led to widespread (how widespread would depend on what sources you believe) anger about how he was governing, and an Arab rebellion in Egypt against the governor would result in them going to Medina and assassinating Uthman.
In the wake of Uthman’s assassination, Ali, who was widely loved throughout Medina and who had gained esteem with the rebels by trying to arbitrate between them and Uthman was selected as Caliph, still a Quraysh but a Hashemite for the first time. This would result in a civil war that would last the entirety of Ali’s time as Caliph. The major factions included the majority of the Arab tribes in the peninsula aligning behind Ali, the non-Umayyad Quraysh (of whom the Prophet’s wife and daughter of Abu Bakr, Aisha, would be a leading voice) based out of Mecca, and the Umayyads with their loyalists led by Muawiya, the governor of Syria who during the time of Uthman had consolidated a tremendous amount of power. Ali would defeat the Meccan faction in battle, but the conflict against Muawiya would be much longer and bloodier (and be defined by an overt reversion back to Arab tribal loyalties), and would ultimately end with the assassination of Ali and in the wake of his death, the most powerful man in the empire, Muawiya, would become caliph and defeat all internal foes who opposed Umayyad rule.
Setting aside the strictly religious aspects of this time period (a difficult task, perhaps) one of the things I had most admired about the life of the Prophet (PBUH) is the socially transformative nature of the new religion. In a society where tribal affiliations were paramount, where there was rarely an abundance of resources and the majority were barely eking out a living, where the poor who could not make ends meet were left to fend for themselves and beg on the street, and where women were valued so little that female infanticide was an established practice amongst the Arab nomads, Islam changed a lot. The Prophet (PBUH) emphasized a social transformation of the Arabs that was much more egalitarian, where social standing was determined by piety rather than tribal affiliation, where the society’s excess wealth would be collected for distribution amongst the most needy, where excessive accumulation and displays of wealth would be looked down upon, and where new protections for women would be implemented that (for their time) were very progressive.
It seems pretty clear to me, at least trying to piece the real events together from various compiled sources, that while the strictly religious obligations of Islam may have been followed by the first 3 caliphs, some of their actions, and in particularly some of the actions of Uthman in particular, were a betrayal of that promise of egalitarian social transformation. By initially prioritizing the Quraysh in virtually all positions of power and governance (under Abu Bakr and Omar), and later explicitly empowering and enriching their own family/clan in the Umayyads (under Uthman), they ensured that as the Arabs transformed from desert nomads to part of a multicultural and multireligious empire, a hierarchical power structure based on wealth and clan would be preserved.
That’s not to say I agree with the Shia per se. The idea that the leader of the Ummah needs to always come from the family of the Prophet (PBUH) is antithetical to my beliefs, and in the ~1400 years since these events took place, there have been many messianic additions to Shiism that from a theological perspective I have no interest in. But I do think from a purely political perspective of the events surrounding the early days of Islam, Ali would probably have prioritized a much more egalitarian implementation of social restructuring that does more to preserve the Prophet’s social changes as well instead of just the dogmatic and overtly religious changes. While Ali would eventually become Caliph, and ascension to Caliph seems to be an attempt by his supporters to return the Ummah to a more “idealistic” and egalitarian system, Ali spent the entirety of his reign trying to reunite the Ummah, and any accomplishments he had made towards that end were ultimately subsumed by the reign of Muawiya. Instead, the Rashidun caliphate transitioned to the Umayyad caliphate, and it was these members of the Arab aristocracy, so empowered by Uthman, that would take up the mantle of caliph and transition the role to an explicitly familial one.
And of course, it’s possible I’m being naïve here. The Arab conquests are not without some degree of precedent (nomadic peoples banding together to topple/defeat a powerful civilization is an oft-repeated trope throughout history: the “Sea Peoples” of the late Bronze age, the Gauls against Macedonia and Rome, the Huns against Rome, the Mongols against everyone, etc.), but moreso than these other examples, the Arabs changed the cultural makeup of their conquered lands. They went from being desert nomads whose economy was based around trade, animal husbandry, and raiding, to controlling a massive empire containing within it many cultures, fertile lands, and large population centers. The Arabs did not themselves have any experience or political systems in place to be able to run such an empire, and it was inevitable that the success of their conquests would lead to a complete change in their own society and culture. While initially leaving the governmental apparatus and ruling class in place in many of their conquered lands, they would eventually adopt many of these governmental systems themselves (particularly Persian and Byzantine systems) for direct rule and administration. Because of the sheer magnitude of these changes over the next few hundred years, it’s best to avoid placing undue importance on the actions of these first few rulers of Islam.
The Umayyad Caliphate and the Abbasid Caliphate: (episodes 18-90)
The rest of the podcast tells the story of the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates, up to the point where the Abbasids continued to exist but had essentially lost control of most of their territory in the 10th century AD. We’ve previously discussed how the Umayyad caliphate began, with Muawiya outlasting Ali in 661 and transitioning the role of Caliph into an explicitly familial one as they ruled from Damascus. They were overthrown by the Abbasids in 750, a branch of the Hashemite clan. The Abbasids relied heavily on non-Arab soldiers from the East (ie. Persia), and to undermine the Umayyads as well as be closer to their own power base, would move their capital to Baghdad. They would last until Baghdad was destroyed by the Mongols in 1258, though their golden age (and what was considered the Golden Age of Islam) was really in the first approximately century or so after the dynasty began, and thereafter would be marked by alternating periods of strength and weakness as corrupt and/or incompetent caliphs wasted away the empire’s strength and finances and subsequently would periodically have parts of the empire break away. Ultimately the caliphs would lose political power completely and would become figureheads for Turkic or Persian generals.
I’m not going to recap all of it here, because it would need to be so abbreviated as to be incorrect, but for anyone who has an interest in this topic, this is a really valuable podcast primarily because of its relatively secular/academic look at the topic, while using Arab oral histories primarily put together in the 9th and 10th centuries as sources. These two caliphates are of particular importance because they are the only times that the Arabs are the dominant ethnic group that control the Islamic lands in a unified manner. After the 10th century, there are many different groups throughout the Islamic world running their own little kingdoms throughout the Middle East, North Africa, Spain, Central Asia, and even as far as India, but they are not unified in a significant way until the time of the Ottoman Empire centuries later, and the most powerful kingdoms of Islam that rise up after the Abbasids are usually Persian or Turkic in nature. While my initial reaction was, in a way, to be disappointed by how short-lived Arab dominance of the Islamic world was, I suppose if you step back to put it into perspective, it’s not so short-lived, it’s a longer period of time than the US has been around, 300 years is a fair chunk of time after all.
All in all, this podcast tells the compelling narrative of the pre-Islamic Arabs of the desert, the creation of Islam and its incredible spread in the decades that followed that would see the Arabs transformed from desert nomads into rulers of a vast multicultural empire that their prior forms of social, political, economic, and bureaucratic organization were utterly unprepared to handle. It tells the story of how the social and political transformation promised by Islam within a few short generations turned into just further examples of despotic and monarchical rule where the histories of the day primarily focused on political intrigue and endless internecine warring. And it covers how the Arabs who came to rule this massive empire were themselves changed by the peoples they had conquered, learning new customs and forms of political and bureaucratic organization that would go so far as to utterly change the Arabic writing system so that it could handle the tasks of running the empire. And we learned how within a few centuries, Arabs were sidelined within their own empire by the more numerous and better-organized Persians and Turks, such that many Arabs would revert back to their intensely tribal ways as they lost influence and the Islamic world would fragment into many smaller kingdoms.