Pastlasby Oleh Voronko

State · 632 – 661

Rashidun Caliphate

A state of 632 – 661 — 29 years in the Middle East and North Africa. It replaced First Islamic state and followed Byzantine Empire, Sasanian Empire and Diocese of Egypt and 1 more. It was replaced by Umayyad Caliphate. The atlas records 37 things within it — wars and battles 21 · unrest and atrocity 1 · famine and plague 1 · treaties 1 · people 13. Its line of rulers holds 5 people.

For the full story, the article on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); this page holds what the record says of the state.

Stood
29 years
632 – 661
Rulers
5
the Rashidun
Most ground
7.10 million km²
in 647
Within it
37
recorded rows
Symbol
1
on record, with years
Map: Rashidun Caliphate in 647, its borders in gold among its neighbours
Rashidun Caliphate in 647, when it held the most ground the borders dataset draws for it: 7.10 million km². Its neighbours wear their tints, as on the atlas's own map. Borders from Cliopatria (CC BY 4.0), coast and rivers from Natural Earth, cities from Reba, Reitsma & Seto 2016 (CC BY 4.0), each city under the name it bore that year.

Where it sits in time

3000 BCE2000 BCE1000 BCE110002000First Islamic state: 622 – 632Byzantine Empire: 285 – 1453Sasanian Empire: 224 – 651Umayyad Caliphate: 661 – 750Rashidun Caliphate: 632 – 661

Five thousand years, 3000 BCE to 2026; the state in gold, what it replaced or followed and what replaced or followed it in grey.

Before and after

The states the record files it as replacing or following, and those that replaced or followed it - Wikidata's own statements, each read from this state's side.

Before it

After it

Rulers

The line of Rashidun - the office this state names as its head of state.

Abu Bakr · 632 – 634 · died in office, manner not recordedUmar ibn Al-Khattāb · 634 – 644 · killedUthman ibn Affan · 644 – 656 · died in office, manner not recordedAli · 656 – 661 · killedHasan ibn Ali · 661 – 661 · left office alive635640645650655660
killed, executed or dead in battledied in officeleft alive by a regular road
RulerReignLengthHow it ended · sourceTo the ruler before
Abu Bakr632 – 6342 yearsdied in office, manner not recordedread off the dates alone
Umar ibn Al-Khattāb634 – 64410 yearskilledWikidata's manner of death
Uthman ibn Affan644 – 65612 yearsdied in office, manner not recordedread off the dates alone
Ali656 – 6615 yearskilledWikidata's manner of death
Hasan ibn Ali661 – 661under a yearleft office aliveread off the dates alonechild

5 rulers, 5 with terms dated as terms, covering 632 – 661. Only 29 years of the line are dated - too short for a median. 2 of 4 handovers irregular - a killing, a deposition, a rival claimant, a rising or a coup beside it. The violent-handover count is withheld: power changed hands so often that any rising falls beside one (exposure 0.87, limit 0.6). A blank in the last column means no kin on record, which is coverage, never “unrelated”.

Ground held, by year

km² inside its borders as the borders dataset draws them, measured on an equal-area grid; a step series, held between the years the dataset maps.

640645650655660

3.21 million km² in 637, 5.87 million km² in 661; at its largest 7.10 million km² in 647. Cliopatria, CC BY 4.0.

Flag or arms

Each symbol with the years its own statement gives; the timeline flies the one of the year on screen.

  • Black flag
    flag, undatedBlack flag · Public domain

What happened within it, by century

Every row the atlas hosts under this state, by the century it began in: wars and battles in red, risings, regime changes and massacres beside them, everything else in grey. A tall bar is a century the record is full for, which is partly a fact about Wikipedia.

600 – 69933 rows · 21 wars and battles · 1 risings, regime changes and massacres

and 25 more in the atlas.

Among all states

Each measure against the states that carry it, never against all of them: a bar is the share of those states below this one.

  • How long it stood29 years

    stood longer than 26% of 3,187 states with a recorded end or still standing.

  • The most ground it held7,099,600 km²

    held more ground at its peak than 98% of 1,465 states with a border in Cliopatria.

  • Wars recorded per century1.0

    had more wars on record per century than 94% of 3,187 states, counting the wars the atlas hosts under each.

  • Rulers on record5

    has more rulers on record than 64% of 1,968 states with a line of rulers.

What led to it, and what came of it

The investigation's own picture: 17 causes the record names and 1 result, the strongest six of each at their own years, joined to the state by the kind of claim - a recorded statement solid, the article's sentence dashed, a theory dash-dot.

Sasanian Empire · Linked · 224 – 651Sasanian EmpireByzantine Empire · Linked · 285 – 1453Byzantine EmpireFirst Islamic state · Linked · 622 – 632First Islamic stateAbu Ubayd al-Thaqafi · Coincidence · 550 – 634Abu Ubayd al-ThaqafiHormuzan · Coincidence · 550 – 644HormuzanAbbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib · Coincidence · 568 – 653Abbas ibn Abd al-MuttalibRashidun Caliphate · 632 – 661Rashidun CaliphateUmayyad Caliphate · Linked · 661 – 750Umayyad Caliphate50010001500
linkedcoincidence

Open the investigation: every row with its evidence, the conditions at the time, the theories condition by condition, and the succession analysed.

Theories that apply to its ending

Of 3 theories of why states fall, 1 has every condition present at this ending; each is applied by its own logic, condition by condition, and whether its authors named this case is a footnote.

  • Demographic-structural breakdown

    Goldstone 1991 · Turchin & Nefedov 2009

    Applies by its own logic: 3 of its 3 conditions held here (it needs 2), and this is the kind of outcome it predicts — unrest, adverse regime change or the state's ending.

    • famine, plague or disaster within 30 y in the state, or population up 25% over 50 y — prior
    • overlapping reigns — rival claimants — within 20 y, or 3 or more changes of ruler within 20 y, or 2 or more reigns of two years or less within 20 y, or a monarch deposed or killed within 20 y — handovers 3
    • a war the state is fighting, still under way, or a war the state fought, ended within 10 y — warOngoing

Open in the atlas

Wikidata Q12490507 (CC0) · borders Cliopatria, CC BY 4.0 · coast and rivers Natural Earth · symbols from Wikimedia Commons, each credited above · data built 2026-10-06 · Pastlas v2.9.1, by Oleh Voronko. The published atlas and its data are for non-commercial use.