Big Questions, part 4: the Early Caliphate

--What disputes erupted within the Muslim community following the death of Muhammad? Why and in the face of what threats did they adopt the institution of the Caliphate?

--What policies of the Caliphs Abu Bakr, `Umar, and `Uthman can be interpreted as intended to maintain a unitary state in response to all the forces that threatened to tear it apart?

--What were the policies of `Umar -- especially forced settlement in the garrisons and the establishment of the diwan -- intended to accomplish? What were their unintended consequences?

--How did policies intended to maintain a unitary state produce in the end serious social and political divisions within the Muslim community?

--As Islam was intended to replace ties of blood with the bond of common faith, what accounts for the emergence of a tribal leadership and tribal identities in the garrisons?

--What prevented the Arabs from following the standard path of new, partly pastoralist conquerors: that of rapid assimilation to the cultures they had conquered?

--How did the garrison Arabs and those on campaign express social and political dissatisfaction by casting it in an increasingly religious language? How, over the long term, did political and social differences become sectarian ones? (NB: We're not there yet).