ABSTRACT
In a Europe which was obsessed by race, some saw the division as one between Semites and Aryans, the Sunnis representing the Semitism of Arabian Islam, the Shi'a representing the upsurge of Aryan Iran, in a racial revolt against Semitic domination. The split between Sunni and Shi'i began as a political disagreement, a difference between two groups of people over a political question, over who should be head of the community. Islam has a political character for which there is no equivalent in Christianity or Judaism, and which therefore has imparted a political content to religious differences throughout Islamic history. In the Islamic phrase the Prophet was uswa hasana, which might be translated into the modern language of sociology as "role model." The radical tradition inaugurated by the Prophet in Mecca was continued under his successors, the Caliphs, with the Islamic conquests known to Islamic historiography as futuh, which literally means openings.
