ABŪ BAKR. – The first successor of Muhammad as head of the Muslim community: thus the first in the series of caliphs (v. CALIFFO), and specifically the first of the four known in Islām by the title of rāshidān (“rightly guided” or “orthodox”). A contemporary of Muhammad, or perhaps a few years younger, and belonging to a less prominent family than the Meccan Quraishites, he became the future prophet’s friend, apparently even before the latter began his mission. Of Muhammad’s message, A. B. was one of the very first adherents (according to a scarcely reliable tradition, indeed the first), and during the painful initial period of the preaching at Mecca, and of the hostility soon displayed by his fellow citizens toward the prophet, A. B.’s faith and moral support were among the firmest aids on which Muhammad could rely. His character, gentle and firm at the same time, and his loyalty and fidelity, which became proverbial and were to earn him the epithet aṣ-ṣiddīq (“the loyal one”), enabled him to pass without wavering through the most difficult trials to which the followers of the new faith were subjected at that time. At the culminating moment of this crisis, the hijra (v.), or Muhammad’s abandonment of Mecca for Medina, A. B. was always at his side; he accompanied him on the perilous journey and into the refuge of the cave to escape his pursuers. From then on he was also known as the “Friend of the Cave,” and the Qur’an itself, in a famous passage, alludes to him as the companion of the historic migration.
At Medina, in the organization of the young Muslim community, A. B., although he held no special official offices, was constantly among the circle of the prophet’s most trusted and intimate “companions” (Ṣaḥāba), to whom he was also joined by ties of kinship when the latter married his daughter 'A'isha, who was to become his favorite wife. He was beside Muhammad on all the great occasions of the young Islām, at Badr, at Uhud, and in the War of the Trench.
The caliphate of A. B., to which he rose in June 632, lasted little more than two years, but proved decisive for the consolidation of the embryonic Muslim state, the defeat of centrifugal forces, and the beginning of the great conquests beyond Arabia. With unyielding firmness, the new head of the Islamic community suppressed the secession of various Arab tribes recently converted. Once this movement of apostasy (ridda) had been overcome, expeditions were begun both against the Byzantine Empire and against Sassanid Persia. In both these enterprises, great and decisive victories were to be won by the Arabs under the second caliph, 'Omar, but A. B. himself lived to see the first successes, such as the conquest of Hira in Babylonia (633) and the victory of 'Aḡnādain in Palestine (July 634). Shortly after this latter triumph, on 23 August of the same year, he died, designating as his successor that 'Omar to whom he himself owed his election to a considerable extent, and under whom Arab Islām was to rise to world power.
Except among the Shiites, who regarded him as the first usurper of 'Alī’s legitimate rights of suc-
cession (v.), throughout orthodox Islām the first caliph is venerated as a man of extraordinary piety, probity, and wisdom, which countless sayings and anecdotes seek to bring to light. Even allowing for a certain process of idealization, he remains one of the most exalted personalities of primitive Islām, combining profound religious feeling with notable practical gifts as a statesman. Finally, it was to him that the first collection of the Qur’anic revelations was owed; he promoted it during his caliphate, but it remained for personal and private use and was subsequently superseded by the canonical collection under 'Othmān.