A Brief History of Sunnis and Shiites

Product details

In this captivating and multi-layered narrative, John McEwgo reveals how the great schism in Islam occurred. He presents the story of Islam from the life of the Prophet Muhammad to the present day, describing the conflicts that raged over the Prophet's succession, and how the Sunni and Shiite schools of thought developed as two different schools during the Abbasid Caliphate. He also explores how the rivalry between the two empires—the Sunni Ottoman and the Shiite Safavid—confirmed the continuation of the schism into modern times, and how the various events of the twentieth century and the beginning of this century shaped the reality of the conflict now.
This book is not without decisiveness and insight, and it is an essential guide to understanding what happened in terms of the emergence, development, and exploitation of the division that came to define Islam and the Islamic world.