The Strengthening of the External Expansion of the Arab Caliphate to Northern Africa and the Caucasus during the Period of the Umayyads

Abstract

During the reign of the first four caliphs (righteous caliphs), the Arab tribes expanded the borders of their state from Egypt to the Amu Darya inclusive by military campaigns, while crushing the Sassanid empire. During the reign of the last righteous caliph, Ali ibn Abu Talib, a severe turmoil took place in the Muslim state because of the question of the conformity of Ali's coming to power with Islamic legality. Its roots lay in the dissatisfaction of many ordinary Muslims with the concentration of significant land areas in the hands of the highest officials of the state and the growing property inequality in the Muslim environment.