Ummah in the context of "Caliphate"

The Hijri calendar (Arabic: ٱلتَّقْوِيم ٱلْهِجْرِيّ, romanized: al-taqwīm al-hijrī), also known in English as the Islamic calendar, is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days. It is used to determine the proper days of Islamic holidays and rituals, such as the annual fasting and the annual season for the great pilgrimage. In almost all countries where the predominant religion is Islam, the civil calendar is the Gregorian calendar, with Syriac month-names used in the Levant and Mesopotamia (Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine), but the religious calendar is the Hijri one.

This calendar enumerates the Hijri era, whose epoch was established as the Islamic New Year in 622 CE. During that year, Muhammad and his followers migrated from Mecca to Medina and established the first Muslim community (ummah), an event commemorated as the Hijrah. In the West, dates in this era are usually denoted AH (Latin: Anno Hegirae, lit. 'In the year of the Hijrah'). In Muslim countries, it is also sometimes denoted as H from its Arabic form (سَنَة هِجْرِيَّة, abbreviated ھ). In English, years prior to the Hijra are denoted as BH ("Before the Hijra").

The terms Islamic world and Muslim world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs, politics, and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is practiced. In a modern geopolitical sense, these terms refer to countries in which Islam is widespread, although there are no agreed criteria for inclusion. The term Muslim-majority countries is an alternative often used for the latter sense.

The history of the Muslim world spans about 1,400 years and includes a variety of socio-political developments, as well as advances in the arts, science, medicine, philosophy, law, economics and technology during the Islamic Golden Age. Muslims look for guidance to the Quran and believe in the prophetic mission of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, but disagreements on other matters have led to the appearance of different religious schools of thought and sects within Islam. The Islamic conquests, which culminated in the Caliphate being established across three continents (Asia, Africa, and Europe), enriched the Muslim world, achieving the economic preconditions for the emergence of this institution owing to the emphasis attached to Islamic teachings. In the modern era, most of the Muslim world came under European colonial domination. The nation states that emerged in the post-colonial era have adopted a variety of political and economic models, and they have been affected by secular as well as religious trends.

The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire was the third Islamic caliphate, founded by a descendant of Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 CE), from whom the dynasty derives its name. The preceding Umayyad Caliphate was overthrown by the Abbasid Revolution in 750 CE (132 AH), after which the Abbasids ruled as caliphs from their base in Iraq, with Baghdad as their capital for most of their history.

The Abbasid Revolution had its origins and first successes in the easterly region of Khurasan, far from the Levantine center of Umayyad influence. The Abbasids first centered their government in Kufa, Iraq, but in 762 the second caliph al-Mansur founded the city of Baghdad and made it the capital. Baghdad became a center of science, culture, arts, and invention, ushering in what became known as the Golden Age of Islam. Baghdad housed several key academic institutions, such as the House of Wisdom, and along with its multi-ethnic and multi-religious population, made the city famous as a centre of learning across the world. The Abbasid period was marked by the use of bureaucrats in the government, including the vizier, as well as an in the ummah (Muslim community) and among the political elites.

Twelver Shi'ism (Arabic: اِثْنَا عَشَرِيَّة, romanized: Ithnā ʿAshariyya) is the largest branch of Shia Islam, comprising about 85% of all Shia Muslims. The term Twelver refers to its adherents' belief in the twelve successors, referred to as Twelve Imams, and their belief that the last Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, lives in occultation (ghayba) and will reappear as "the awaited Mahdi" (al-Mahdi al-muntazar) alongside Isa al-Masih (Jesus Christ), son of Bibi Mariam (The Virgin Mary), in order to restore justice and peace.

Twelver Shi'as believe that the Twelve Imams are divinely appointed as both spiritual and political successors to the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and that they possess special knowledge and authority to guide the Muslim community. According to Twelver theology, the Twelve Imams are exemplary human individuals who rule over the Muslim community (Ummah) with justice, and are able to preserve and interpret the Islamic law (Sharia) and the esoteric meaning of the Qur'an. The words and deeds (sunnah) of Muhammad and the Imams are a guide and model for the Muslim community to follow. As a result, Muhammad and the Imams must be free from error and sin, a doctrine known as Ismah (literally 'protection') or infallibility, and must be chosen by divine decree, or nass, through Muhammad.

The Rashidun (Arabic: الراشدون, romanized: al-Rāshidūn, lit. 'the rightly-guided') are the first four caliphs (lit. 'successors') who led the Muslim community following the death of Muhammad: Abu Bakr (r. 632–634), Umar (r. 634–644), Uthman (r. 644–656), and Ali (r. 656–661).

The reign of these caliphs, called the Rashidun Caliphate (632–661), is considered in Sunni Islam to have been 'rightly guided' (Arabic: rāshid), meaning that it constitutes a model (Sunnah) to be followed and emulated from a religious point of view.

Maslaha or maslahah or maslahat (Arabic: مصلحة, lit. 'benefit, public interest') or maslaha mursala (Arabic: مصالح مرسلة, lit. '"sent", "transmitted", "unbonded", "open" or "unconditional" public interest'), comes from the term "Salihat" (good deeds, also linked to Islah and Istislah), is a concept in Sharia (Islamic divine law) regarded as a basis of law. It forms a part of extended methodological principles of Islamic jurisprudence (uṣūl al-fiqh) and denotes prohibition or permission of something, according to necessity and particular circumstances, on the basis of whether it serves the public interest of the Muslim community (ummah). In principle, maslaha is invoked particularly for issues that are not regulated by the Qur'an, the sunnah (the teachings and practices of the Islamic prophet Muhammad), or qiyas (analogy). The concept is acknowledged and employed to varying degrees depending on the jurists and schools of Islamic jurisprudence (madhhab). The application of the concept has become more important in modern times because of its increasing relevance to contemporary legal issues. The opposite term of maslaha is mafsada (مفسدة, harm). Islamic politics is itself predicated on maslaha, and is such changeable, as it must respond to the exigencies of time. The term is different from bidah.

The first Islamic state was established by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in Medina in 622 under the Constitution of Medina. It represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah (nation). After Muhammad's death, his companions known as the Rightly Guided Caliphs (Rashidun) founded the Rashidun Caliphate (632–661), which began massive expansion and motivated subsequent Islamic states, such as the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750) and Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258).

Muhammad came to the city of Medina following the migration of his followers in what is known as the Hijrah (migration to Medina) in 622. He had been invited to Medina by city leaders to adjudicate disputes between clans from which the city suffered, and was received positively by the city's Jewish and pagan residents as an arbitrator. As a result, he was accepted by popular consensus as the city's political leader, establishing the first Islamic state with his role.