Charting the history of Islam from the death of the Prophet Muhammad to the present day, John McHugo describes the conflicts that raged over the succession to the Prophet, how Sunnism and Shiโism evolved as different sects during the Abbasid caliphate, and how the rivalry between the Sunni Ottomans and Shiโi Safavids ensured that the split would continue into the modern age. In recent decades, this centuries-old divide has acquired a new toxicity that has resulted in violence across the Arab world and other Muslim countries.
Definitive, insightful, and accessible, A Concise History of Sunnis and Shi'is is an essential guide to understanding the genesis, development, and manipulation of the schism that for far too many people has come to define Islam and the Muslim world.
John McHugo is an honorary senior fellow at the Centre for Syrian Studies at the University of St. Andrews. He is the author of Syria: A Recent History and A Concise History of the Arabs.