ABU BAKR. - The first successor of Muhammad as head of the Muslim community: thus the first in the series of caliphs (v. CALIPH), and in particular of the first four, known in Islam by the title of rāshidān ("rightly guided" or "orthodox"). A contemporary, or perhaps a few years younger than Muhammad, belonging to a family less prominent than the Meccan Quraysh, he formed a friendship with the future prophet, it seems, 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 in the painful initial period of preaching at Mecca, and of the hostilities soon manifested by his fellow citizens toward the prophet, the faith and moral support of A. B. were among the firmest aids on which Muhammad could count. His character, gentle and firm at the same time, his loyalty and faithfulness which became proverbial and were to earn him the epithet of aṣ-ṣiddīq ("the loyal"), allowed him to surmount without wavering 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 abandonment of Mecca for Medina by Muhammad, A. B. was always at his side, and accompanied him on the adventurous journey, and in the refuge of the cave to escape his pursuers. From then on he was also known by the name of "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., though without holding special official offices, was constantly in the circle of the most faithful and intimate "companions" (Ṣaḥāba) of the prophet, 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 at Muhammad's side on all the great days of early Islam, at Badr, at Uhud, in the War of the Trench.
The caliphate of A. B., to which he ascended in June 632, lasted a little more than two years, but proved decisive for the consolidation of the embryonic Muslim state, the crushing of centrifugal forces, and the beginning of the great conquests outside Arabia. With inflexible firmness, the new head of the Islamic community suppressed the secession of various recently converted Arab tribes. Once this movement of apostasy (ridda) was overcome, expeditions were begun both against the Byzantine empire and against Sassanid Persia. In both these undertakings, great decisive victories were to be won by the Arabs under the second caliph 'Omar, but A. B. himself lived long enough 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 last triumph, on 23 August of the same year, he died, designating as his successor that 'Omar to whom he himself largely owed his election, and under whom Arab Islam was to rise to world power.
Except among the Shiites, who regarded him as the first usurper of the legitimate rights of succession of 'Alī (v.), throughout orthodox Islam the first caliph is venerated as a man of extraordinary piety, probity and wisdom, which innumerable maxims and anecdotes tend to highlight. Even granting a certain process of idealization, he remains one of the loftiest personalities of early Islam, combining deep religiosity with notable practical gifts as a statesman. To him is due, finally, the first collection of the Qur'anic revelations, which he promoted during his caliphate, but which remained for personal and private use, and was later supplanted by the canonical collection under 'Othmān.
Bibliography2 works
Francesco Gabrieli