Historical Essay Example: Sunni and Shia, Islam and Arab, Ottoman and Persian Empires

The tension amid Iran and South Arabia is fundamentally summarized in two things: the first of the things is the battle to be the great nations in the Middle East; the second reason is which between the two countries represent the local strongholds of the two divides of Muslim. Saudi Arabia kingdom is governed by Sunni monarchy also called the house of Saud. Almost all of the Saudi Arabia population strictly adheres to the faith of their leaders (Brecher, 2018). On the other hand, the Islamic Republic of Iran is ruled by Shia and up to 90 per cent of the citizens in Iran belong to the denomination.

Both Saudi Arabia and Iran are major oil producers with Saudi significantly covering larger land mass. The population of Iran is twice larger than the land size. The theological divide has since time immemorial driven the wedge of the Sunni and the Shia but every country has failed to appreciate the fact that one country is more legitimate of the other prevailing faith.

How Sunni and Shia Developed

The conflict between Sunni and Shia has been in place for 1,400 years now. The battle dates back to years soon after the death of Prophet Mohammed in 632. It is said Prophet Mohammed died before appointing the successor, the act that led to a massive split over the fast growing religion in the successful years (Andersen, 2017). The question posed most of the time is whether only the blood of Mohammed and its relations should reign or the next leader of the religion should be chosen over a democratic consensus.

The arguments have been complicated always boiling down to the fact that the Sunni always believe that Abu Bakr, the trusted friend of Prophet Mohammed was the first equitable leader of Islam (caliph). Shia on the other hand Ali, the cousin to Mohammed and son-in-law was the rightful leader chosen by Allah to rule the Muslims. Both Abu Bakr and Ali eventually became leaders with Abu Bakr being the first after Mohammeds death and Ali becoming the fourth leader immediately after the assassination of the two caliphs (Arjomand, 2017). The schism did hit over to who was to become his successor.

Muslims of the Sunni branch always argue that the interpretation of Islam followed by them observes the Sunnah (Prophet Mohammed ways). However, Shias argument suggests Ali was the equitable first caliph and that only his posterities could claim to be the only true leaders of Islam. The pressure cannot be eased by Hadith (Feitelson and Tubi, 2017). Prophet Mohammed himself was quoted as saying: that his Ummah community, will be divided into 73 sects and that all of the sects but one will be in constant fire. Certainly, Sunnis and Shias both claim that Muslim sect that is pure.

Geographical Split of Sunnis and Shias

The larger part of the Muslims in the whole world is made up of the Sunni which amount to up to eighty five percent of the Islam religion devotees. The Sunni are spread all over the universe right from Morocco to Indonesia and they make up the North Africa and Middle East prevailing religion. Shia Muslims are dominated in Iraq, Iran, Bahrain, and Azerbaijan with some bits of the Shia populating Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, and Kuwait (Bandeira, 2017). The Kingdom of Bahrain despite being in the minority group, it has constantly been ruled by the Sunni House of Khalifa. For more than two decades, Iran was under the leadership of the Sunni Saddam Hussein who in his tenure seriously oppressed Muslims of the Shia sect.

Iraqs present wrangles are fuelled religious rivalries that tormented President Bashar al-Assad together with his family adherents of the Shia Alawite branch, though most of the Muslim groups in the country that are composed of the Islamic State terror group are all Sunni Sect. the current civil war happening in Yemen is a religious denominational war, where Iran support the Shia Houthi who conquered the Sunni government. The led coalition of Saudi on the other hand has fought to reinstate the leadership of Sunni.

Arab Empire

The major part of history in the Arabian Peninsula occurred in the early 7th century, the period that saw Prophet Mohammed introducing Muslim, the new religion to the universe which united various opposing tribes of Arabs. With the introduction of the new religion fervor, armies of Arab nation endeavored to divide the world of Muslim. They attacked the neighboring lands resulting in the founding of the large empire in history, the Arab empire.

Mohammed was born in the main trading city of Arab, Mecca in 570. He was of the tribe of Qurraysh and his name meant highly praised in Arabic. The prophet knew not his father and when he was 6 years old; his mother scampered from the earth. His paternal uncle, Abu Talib, took care of him till he matured into adulthood (Bandeira, 2017). With no compact family and finance, Mohammed involuntarily worked hard in the early years of his life so as to support part of his upbringing. He worked on different jobs like cleaning buildings, tending sheep, and different various merchandise. He later was employed by an affluent widow by the name Khadija. Mohammed could then travel around Arabia and its neighbors while on the widows business missions. It was due to such travels that Mohammed became much interested in religions and foreign religions.

He met with Catholics in Syria, the country that was part of Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. He met Jews in other parts and Ethiopian (Abyssinian) Christians (Pardesi, 2017). When he discovered with people of varied faiths, he discovered the ways of God and Bible Prophets like Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, and many others of Jews and Christian religions. Mohammed could later marry Khadija and remained in marriage with her for 25 years when she died. The marriage to the rich lady allowed him more enjoyable times. He in in 610 travelled to Hira where he was awakened by an angel while sleeping in a cave. This is in accordance with Ibn Ishaq, the very first biographer of Mohammed.

The Arab system of government bestowed the population of great opportunities with Caliphs influencing the day to day lives of the citizens in various ways, right from making of coins to constructing rest houses for Travers passing by. The ruling of the empire observed the laws of the Quran and those of Hadith.

The Arabian Military were built battalion towns in the initial stages, nevertheless, migration which led townsmen to move to such areas, battalion towns changed to crucial urban centers for trade. The Arab city also gave Muslims a free and enjoyable life and they could move in the established towns to for exchange of goods and money.

Ottoman and Persian Empires To 1700

The Ottomans were involved in several conflicts with the Persian people up to until the 1700. The two empires fought over supremacy in the region in either religion or trade. Either of the two groups which were Islamic States acquired arms and ammunitions and all sought of weaponry to outdo the other despite the trade ties that existed between them. There is need to find the background groups that fought on behalf of the Persians in an effort to overpower the Ottomans who referred to themselves as super beings. Ottomans as the present Iraq and Iran as Persians are the current Saudi Arabia. It was not predicted how long it would take for the groups to drift away. The story and artifacts are found in the Ibn Khaldun's monumental analysis. Political leadership for Sunni Islam was held in a different perspective from that of the Shiites. They hold on leadership for those who hold justice in the society and those who stand for peace in society. On the other hand the Shiites relied heavily on leadership from hereditary lineages. For the Shiites, not held more weight that leadership as a result of inheritance. The bottom line in the fight for supremacy was religion and ownership of oil fields (Hunter, 2017). Either of the divide before the 1700 were well established in their empires and worked together as a one nation only to be influenced at the end of 1600 for reasons of legitimacy of religion where either groups claimed to be superior and richer in terms of wealth thus imposing rules on the other empire which later on reciprocation the empires split apart both in trade and religion as there were wars. It should be noted that the rift started small before it grew up to a resounding war and constant upheavals.

The Safavids and Ottomans

We need to first understand the present state of the Middle East. Getting on this brings up, another topic about two major groups of people in the region. The two groups were very close to each other based on religion which is Muslim but with time there developed a series of movements that saw the earlier and united one Ottoman split apart. Some of the Ottomans who in this case were the Sunnis collaborated with Safavids who were at loggerheads with Sunnis. It all started with the split of the Sunnis and Shiites that there emerged different groups of Muslims. Not all groups of Muslims at that time shared similar religion practices. They worked independently from each other and ensured that the later drift in 1700 (Hunter, 2017). The drift was so huge that people from either side from either Sunnis or Shiites relocated to common places. The leader of the Shiites as the moment by the name Shah Ismail believed in the system as well as movement of the Twelver Shiism further prompting his people to adapt to his way. The Safavids at the same time adopted different ways of adapting in order to subvert the ever growing Shish.

In 1501, Shah Ismails believes about religion of movements swept the Middle East. The movements later joined the Twelver Shiism and as such the establishment of Safavid state at the beginning of 1501. The merging of the earlier rifted group contributed by Shah was a great achievement in the history of the time. It was not predicted how long it would take for the groups to drift away. The story and artifacts are found in the Ibn Khalduns monumental analysis. Political leadership for Sunni Islam was held in a different perspective from that of the Shiites.

They hold on leadership for those who hold justice in the society and those who stand for peace in society. On the other hand the Shiites relied heavily on leadership from hereditary lineages. For the Shiites, not held more weight that leadership as a result of inheritance. The conflict between Sunni and Shia has been in place for 1,400 years now. The battle dates back to years soon after the death of Prophet Mohammed in 632 (Pardesi, 2017). It is said Prophet Mohammed died before appointing the successor, the act that led to a massive split over the fast growing religion in the successful years. The question posed most of the time is whether only the blood of Mohammed and its relations should reign or the next leader of the religion should be chosen over a democratic consensus. Sunanites believed in temporal powers just like it was for Muhammad in 632. It is therefore an odd incidence getting clerics in position of political leadership as opposed to the Shiites. Legitimacy for Sunanites is dependent on the matter not on the religious beliefs. In the history of Islam, there are many cases where leaders were demoted from power on showing characters that seems opposing the Islam religion together with its believes.

The Ottomans and the Mughals

These are the other groups of the Islam community that their separation and differences were not majored on religion. Their kingdoms were held differently apart courtesy of the background differences that existed amongst the Sunni origin. The Arab provinces acquisition due to the defeat of Mamluks in 1517 by Ottomans led to their conquest of major towns, inheritance of the l...