Prophet's Dilemma: The Sunni Shia Split Part 1

Conflicted: A History Podcast

Zach Cornwell

Education, History, Society & Culture

4.8 • 610 Ratings

🗓️ 10 January 2021

⏱️ 100 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When the Prophet Muhammed died in 632 AD, it triggered a succession crisis amongst his followers. After the dust settled, two divergent branches of the faith remained – Sunni and Shi’a. It is a deeply misunderstood story that has been unearthed and repackaged in the 21st century to inflame political animus and give superficial labels to complex tensions. In this episode, we will examine the very human, very relatable drama that unfolded against the backdrop of the rise of the Islamic Empire in the 7th century. THE CAST Muhammed – The Prophet. A merchant-turned-messenger from God. Aisha – The Prophet’s favorite wife; Charming, fiery, and envious. Ali – The Prophet’s cherished son-in-law. Lion of God. Humble, loyal, and honorable to a fault. Fatima - Daughter of the Prophet and wife to Ali. Abu Bakr – Aisha’s father, Muhammed’s close friend, and first Caliph. Hussein – Grandson of the Prophet. Murdered at Karbala. Martyr of the Shi’a faith. SOURCES: Hazleton, Lesley. The First Muslim: The Story of Muhammed. 2013. Hazleton, Lesley. After The Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shi’a-Sunni Split in Islam. 2009. Louer, Laurence. Sunnis and Shi’a: A Political History. 2020. Hoyland, Robert G. In God’s Path: The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire. 2014. Betts, Robert Brenton. The Sunni-Shi’a Divide. 2013. Charles Rivers Editors. The History of the Sunni and Shia Split: Understanding the Divisions Within Islam. 2014. Armstrong, Karen Keishin. MuhammedL A Prophet for Our Time. 2007. Cole, Juan. Muhammed: Prophet of Peace Amid the Clash of Empires. 2018. Safi, Omid. Memories of Muhammed. 2009. Holland, Tom. The Shadow of the Sword: The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire. 2012. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Conflicted, the history podcast where we talk about the struggles that shaped us, the tough questions that they pose, and why we should care about any of it.
0:09.7	Conflicted is a member of the Evergreen podcast network, and as always, I'm your host, Zach Cornwell.
0:15.8	Welcome to episode 18, Prophet's Dilemma, the Sunni Kerala. If you were to hop in a millions upon millions of people converge on a small city in central Iraq a place called
0:56.2	Kerbalah if you were to hop in a helicopter and fly over the city of Karbala you would see a
1:01.6	gigantic white rectangular structure dominating the landscape a mosque at the center of which sits a
1:08.3	huge golden dome surrounded by gilded spires and slender minarets.
1:12.6	And circling this mosque are hundreds of thousands of pilgrims.
1:17.6	Some years there are millions, a river of humanity walking around the structure, over and over again.
1:24.6	It's more people than the naked eye can even really process, but as you look
1:28.5	closer at this procession, you see a panorama of colors, white, green, red, black, and gold,
1:35.5	and you see flags snapping and billowing in the breeze, banners rising high into the air,
1:40.8	and people packed so tight and so dense that it's hard to distinguish where one person
1:45.3	ends and the other begins. And as you get closer in your hypothetical helicopter, you'd start to
1:51.0	hear a tremendous amount of noise, a deafening wall of sound, and you'd hear the steady,
1:56.9	hypnotic beat of drums. You'd hear rhythmic chants and singing blaring through loudspeakers,
2:03.3	creating a call-and-response pattern with the pilgrims circling the mosque. Most Western eyes and
2:08.8	ears would, understandably, have no clue what they were looking at. Is this a celebration, a state fair,
2:14.8	a music festival? What is this? Well, this mind-blowing display of people,
2:20.3	sound, and architecture is called Asherah. It is a Shia Muslim religious festival that takes
2:25.9	place every year on the 10th day of Muharram, the first month in the Islamic lunar calendar.
2:32.2	Ashera is at its core an expression of grief and remembrance.
2:37.4	Remembrance of something that happened over 1,300 years ago, before the mosque was built,
	...

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