The History of the Four Caliphs

This is a book worth knowing well: a concise, fast-moving account of the four Rightly Guided Caliphs — Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali (may Allah be pleased with them) — with a closing section on Hasan ibn Ali. Shaykh Muhammad al-Khudari Bak al-Bajuri wrote the original Arabic work, Itmam al-Wafa fi Sirat al-Khulafa, with the layman in mind, setting aside technical intricacies to give a clear narrative of the battles and internal struggles that marked this founding era of Islamic history. Maulana Mohammad Mohammadi's translation carries that same directness into English.

The book is arranged in two parts tracing the caliphates in turn, and it reads well for a young student just beginning to study this period or a parent looking for something to work through with their family. Shaykh Abdur-Rahman ibn Yusuf's foreword speaks to what makes it useful: concise without being thin, comprehensive without becoming dense.

This Turath Publishing edition (2012, paperback, 231 pages) is a fitting place to start before moving into longer, more detailed histories of the era — a first, steady account of how the community was led in the years right after the Prophet ﷺ.