What if the Rashidun Caliphate Reunited Today?

During the Islamic Golden Age, the Rashidun Caliphate was the first Islamic Caliphate, immediately following the Prophet Muhammed's death in the year 632 AD and lasting for a grand total of just 29 years. Despite this, the caliphate still managed to achieve great things during its existence including to grow to become the 16th largest empire in all of history, stretching all the way from modern-day Tunisia, to modern-day Pakistan, even encompassing almost all of the Middle East and the whole of the Arabian Peninsula, at its territorial peak in 655. However, the empire was also deemed incredibly unstable from the beginning as its extreme diversity among the population was the reason for its demise in 661, after Civil War broke out in its borders, marking the de-facto end of the Rashidun Caliphate. But what if it reunited today?

If it were to reunite today to grow to the same world borders it had at its territorial peak, the first things we would need to think about a reunited Rashidun Caliphate is its land area, population and cities. Starting with its land, a total of 24 modern-day countries would lose all or some of their territory to the empire: Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Turkmenistan, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. 1 of these would be located in Europe, 2 in Africa and the vast majority of 21 being in Asia.

As a result of so many countries making the caliphate up, it would have a very large land area, standing at roughly 6.4 Million Sq Km (2.47 Million Sq mi). This would be enough to make it the 7th largest country in the world, by area, significantly larger than many other big countries such as India (3.287 Million Sq km) and Argentina (2.780 Million Sq km), but still smaller than the giants of Australia (7.692 Million Sq km) and Brazil (8.515 Million Sq km).

Like many empires I have compared with in the past, despite being smaller than Australia in land area, the Rashidun Empire would have more than 10x times Australia's population i'm sorry Australia with a massive 403 Million people living in its borders. With this amount, the caliphate would ascend to be the 3rd most populous country in the world, surpassing some other very populated countries such as the United States (333 Million) and Indonesia (273 Million), but obviously still well behind India (1.38 Billion) and China (1.44 Billion). Egypt, alone, would be home to 1/4 of the empire's whole population, making it the caliphate's most populous country, by far.

As well as all of this, a reunited Rashidun Caliphate would boast some very impressive cities, located all across the country. First, however, if we had to choose a capital city, Medina, in Saudi Arabia would be the most likely option as not only it was one of the empire's historic capitals or is one of the most important cities in the its largest religion, Islam, but is also still a decently-sized urban area with a moderate population of 1.5 million. Despite this, Cairo, would be the biggest city in its borders with a very big population of 21 million, dwarfing Medina in comparison. Here would be the rest of the top 10 most populous urban areas in the Rashidun Caliphate:

Coming on to the topic of the wealth of the Rashidun Caliphate now, its economy would also be very substantial, with a total Nominal GDP worth about a whopping $4.178 Trillion. With this amount, it would be enough to place the empire in 5th, and very nearly 6th, place, steaming ahead of other big economies like the United Kingdom ($3.108 Trillion) and India ($2.946 Trillion), but just very slightly behind the almost equivalent Germany ($4.230 Trillion) and Japan ($5.103 Trillion).

Now moving on to the individual wealth of the caliphate's citizens, their average yearly salaries wouldn't stand at a particularly high amount, mainly due to some poor regions of the empire, especially Yemen, which has a GDP Per Capita below $1,000. On average, the Nominal GDP Per Capita of the whole country would roughly be $12,848, giving it the 78th highest wages amongst many other countries and territories, including American Samoa ($8,845) and Iran ($12,725), and the Seychelles ($13,140) and Monserrat ($13,523), of which it would be wedged between.

On top of all of this, a reunited Rashidun Caliphate would also control a gargantuan proportion of the world's oil reserves, specifically about 60%, since practically the entire Middle East would be in its borders. Crude Oil would probably become its largest export as well, as it would be a major producer in the product to many countries that already rely solely on the Middle East for their oil.

The religious and ethnic groups prevalent within the Rashidun Caliphate would also be very interesting to talk about.

Obviously, as it is centred in the Islamic world, Islam would by far be the most followed religion, like most caliphates and Middle Eastern empires I have covered before, accounting for almost the whole population at 96.2%, which would be split between 65.1% Sunni and 31.1% Shia. However, other minor religions would still make up a small percentage of the empire: Jews, mostly populated in the Israeli part of the caliphate would account for 1.7%, while Christians would be not far behind at a very small 1.2%. The final 0.9% would be a mix of various other tiny religions with less than 1% each and irreligious people such as Atheists.

Unlike its Religious groups, the Ethnic Groups of the empire would be incredibly diverse, with barely any one ethnicity making a huge majority. Despite this, Arabs would be the largest ethnic group in its borders, making up just about 56% of the population. Next would be Persians, mostly focused around the east of the empire, making up a small 15%. This would be followed by Azerbaijanis at 8% and Kurds close behind at 6%. Turks and Israelis would almost be equivalent in percentage with both accounting for about 2% each. The final 11% of the population would be a mix of various other small ethnicities in the caliphate's borders.

The next thing we need to think about the Rashidun Caliphate's demographics is the languages that would be spoken within its international borders. Very similar to its Ethnic Groups, Arabic would be the most spoken first languages amongst the population, with roughly about 62% speaking it. Following quite far behind at 15%, would be Persian, as the second most natively spoken language in the empire. Next, some other small languages spoken in its borders would also be spoken, such as Kurdish at 10.2%, Azerbaijani at 7.4% and Turkish at 2.1%. The final 3.3% of the population would be a mixture of speakers of various different tiny languages with a share less than 1% each in the whole.

Since there would be a few languages significantly spoken in different parts of the Caliphate, choosing an official language would be quite hard to decide on. However, in my opinion, there would most likely be a few official languages like Persian and Arabic as they would both be the two most spoken.

Slightly off topic to its Demographics, we come to the last thing we need to think about a reunited Rashidun Caliphate which would be its military power.

Beginning with its manpower and army size, the empire would possess a staggering count of 2,143,100 Active-Duty troops, which would be more than enough to be the 2nd largest force in the world, way ahead of India (1,455,550 troops) and the United States (1,388,100 troops), and just very slightly behind China (2,185,000 troops). Also, the Rashidun Caliphate would have a Reserve force, as equally impressive, of 1,254,300 troops, bringing its army to a total size of 3,397,400.

Now looking at the budget to fund this very big military, it would also be a quite significant amount of $126.6 Billion. This would also stand at a high rank as the 3rd highest budget in the world, ahead of India ($71.1 Billion) and Russia's ($65.1 Billion) budgets, but still remaining behind China ($261 Billion) and the United States ($732 Billion).

One big advantage for the empire's military would be that it would possess an amount of Nuclear Weapons, controlling Israel's stockpile of 80-400 nukes. In addition to this, it would also inherit the current Nuclear Program in Iran, which would also allow it to get its hand on many more of these.

Now that we have covered over all of the major topics we would need to think about the Rashidun Caliphate, here is a brief overview of its strengths and weaknesses it would have if it reunited today in the real world.