By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 27 August 2026
Podcast: What Do We Know About Islam’s Origins?
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Tag Archives: Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan
Assessing the Historicity of Abu Bakr, Islam’s First Caliph
Review: “The Sacred City” (2016)
Was Islam’s Ka’ba Always in Mecca?
A Note on the Mu’tazilites and the Office of the Caliph
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 4 June 2025
Muslim belief is that the Qur’an is “uncreated” (ghayr makhluq). While the Qur’an was revealed to Muhammad over twenty-three years (610-32 AD), the “speech of God” (kalam Allah) in these revelations had existed co-eternally with God. This was once a point of serious dispute in Islamic theology, and the outcome of that debate was an important waymarker in the development of Islam.
Islamic State Bids Farewell to the Caliph
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 10 November 2019
The 207th edition of Al-Naba, the weekly newsletter of the Islamic State (IS), published on 7 November 2019, devotes its main editorial to Ibrahim al-Badri (Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi), the first “Caliph” when the “Caliphate” was declared in June 2014, who was killed on 27 October 2019.
