Rashidun
/ræʃɪˈduːn/noun
The first four caliphs of Islam, traditionally regarded in Sunni Islam as the rightly guided successors of Muhammad.
Did you know?The Rashidun title is a Sunni theological honorific, linking political leadership with the Arabic concept of moral and spiritual guidance rather than merely conquest or inheritance.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Semitic
Proto-Semitic
*rašad-
“To be rightly guided or to follow a sound, straight course; reconstructed ancestor of the Arabic root.”
Classical Arabic
Arabic
رَشَد (rushd)
“Right guidance, sound judgment, maturity, or rectitude.”
Classical Arabic
Arabic
رَاشِد (rāshid)
“Rightly guided, wise, or following the correct path.”
Early Islamic period
Arabic
الخُلَفَاء الرَّاشِدُون (al-khulafāʾ al-rāshidūn)
“The rightly guided caliphs, the traditional collective title for Islam’s first four caliphs.”
Modern English
English
Rashidun
“An English scholarly and historical term for the first four caliphs and their period of rule.”