Uthman was a family man who led a simple life even after becoming the caliph, despite the fact that his flourishing family business had made him rich. Prior caliphs had been paid for their services from the bayt al-mal, the public treasury, but the independently wealthy Uthman never took a salary.
Born in the Hijaz (Arabia) into an Umayyad family in the Quraysh clan, Uthman was a companion of the Prophet. He was already in his mid-sixties when he was elected third caliph.
It most commonly refers to the leader of a Caliphate, but is also used as a title among various Islamic religious groups and others. Khalifa is sometimes also pronounced as "kalifa". There were four khalifas after Muhammad died, beginning with Abu Bakr.
Uthman's reign as the third caliph was marked with nepotism and departure from Islamic piety. He was assassinated by discontented rebels in his residence in 656.
Rashidun, (Arabic: “Rightly Guided,” or “Perfect”), the first four caliphs of the Islamic community, known in Muslim history as the orthodox or patriarchal caliphs: Abū Bakr (reigned 632–634), ʿUmar (reigned 634–644), ʿUthmān (reigned 644–656), and ʿAlī (reigned 656–661).
Abdülmecid II, (born May 30, 1868, Constantinople, Ottoman Empire [now Istanbul, Turkey]—died August 23, 1944, Paris, France), the last caliph and crown prince of the Ottoman dynasty of Turkey.
Born in Mecca and raised in Medina, the two most holy sites of Islam, the fifth caliph, Abd Al Malik Ibn Marwan, spearheaded the creation of many of the institutions that centralized the Islamic empire around his capital in Damascus and asserted its independence from Byzantine traditions.
It was only his violent death that came to absolve him in Sunni ideology from any ahdath and make him a martyr and the third Rightly Guided Caliph."
Ali was the caliph between 656 and 661 CE, one of the hardest periods in Muslim history, coinciding with the first Muslim civil war.
Succession after Muhammad's Death
Muhammad's prominent companion Umar ibn al-Khattab nominated Abu Bakr, Muhammad's friend and collaborator. With additional support, Abu Bakr was confirmed as the first caliph (religious successor to Muhammad) that same year.
Uthman reigned for twelve years as a caliph.
Earliest converts
The first converts to Islam at the time of Muhammad were: Khadija bint Khuwaylid - First person to convert and first free female convert. Ali ibn Abi Talib - First free male child in Muhammad's family to convert. Zayd ibn Harithah - First freed slave male convert.
Uthman ibn Affan, the third Rashidun caliph, was assassinated at the end of a siege upon his house in 656.
Mustafa Kemal Pasha promptly seized his chance. On his initiative, the National Assembly abolished the caliphate on March 3, 1924.
Richard Cavendish remembers the assassination of Caliph Ali, on January 24th, 661. When the Prophet Muhammad died in Medina in the year 632 of the Christian Era, he was the most powerful figure in Arabia.
In 610, when Ali was aged between nine and eleven, Muhammad announced that he had received divine revelations (wahy). Ali was among the first to believe him and profess to Islam, either the second (after Khadija) or the third (after Khadija and Abu Bakr), a point of contention among Shia and Sunni Muslims.
Shia Islam and Ali
Shia Islam holds that the Islamic Prophet Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib as his successor and the Imam (leader) after him, most notably at the event of Ghadir Khumm, but was prevented from the caliphate as a result of the incident of Saqifah.
Ali was the first of the Twelve Imams, and, in the Twelvers view, the rightful successor to Muhammad, followed by male descendants of Muhammad through his daughter Fatimah. Each Imam was the son of the previous Imam, with the exception of Al-Husayn, who was the brother of Al-Hasan.
In fact, Wahhabism, a revivalist movement that grew out of the Hanbali school, is a branch of Sunni Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. The name derives from its eighteenth century founder, the Hanbali teacher and reformer Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1792).
African Shia Islamic Movement is a Nigeria-based organization. Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky is the leader of the movement. It was founded in the 1980s, after Zakzaky traveled to Iran and was inspired by the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
Abu Bakr was the first of the Rashidun caliphs and oversaw a rapid territorial expansion of Islam. During his short rule from 632 to 634 CE, Abu Bakr spread Islam across the Arabian Peninsula.
In Shia Islam, Ali is considered the rightful successor of Muhammad whose appointment was announced at the event of Ghadir Khumm and earlier in his prophetic mission.