 Namaskar. I hope that all of you are fine and doing great in your life. This particular session I'm going to tell you a very important information that after a lot of requests made by many of the students and my friends that please make a detailed series on the Middle East because Middle East is one of the region that is always in news. A region where great power politics has always been there. A region which is seeing a religious conflict. A region where you have huge human prices which is going in Syria and Yemen. A region which has always been a US dominant region now is seeing the influence of China in this particular region. A region which has been very critical to ensure energy security across the globe. That's why Middle East is a very very important geostrategical space which has its own unique challenges, which has its own unique opportunities and which has its own unique geopolitics. But the problem is that most of us do not understand what is the root cause of all these conflicts. What is the conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia? What is think going in Sudan? What is there going in Syria? What is there going in Yemen? Israel, Palestine conflict? All these regions that you call Middle East, West Asia, we will read them one by one about all the countries. What is happening in Yemen? There will be a video on that. What is the tension between Saudi and Iran? There will be a video on that. In this way, I am going to launch. There will be a lot of videos in that series. And in all those videos, each aspect of Middle East will be covered. From which, not only from an exam perspective, but from your own knowledge, you will get a much better perspective. Because all these series will have a detailed analysis. All these will incorporate what is there in the news. And when I talk about news, it does not only cover the Hindu and the Indian Express, but with respect to international relation news, more than five to six newspaper apart from other magazines are being covered. So if you do not read anything about Middle East, you just rely on these sessions. So I can assure you, I can't assure you about everything, but I can assure you that from Middle East, you will get information in this session, in the videos of this series. It can be that these videos are big, some videos are small. That depends upon how much time I have to give. And that basically depends upon the relevance of that particular topic. So that is why you should see this series with confidence. We will cover each and every dimension, each country. All the organizations here, like Gulf Cooperation Council, Arab League, all that is happening in the news, covered everything in Middle East. To tell you this, because it was requested for a long time, why do not you do a detailed analysis on Middle East, because this region is very difficult to understand. And if you understand it, it is a very superficial understanding, not the real understanding. And that's why, because of the paucity of time, I was not being able to release this particular session or the series of the videos, but now finally, as I've got the time, so I thought that let's do this particular. And that is why we will start this series. This series will be going on for a long time. There will be a lot of videos in it. Every two or three days or one day when you keep getting videos, you will subscribe to the channel and you will get updates. And again, I have already told you. If you have to contact me, my name is Suja, you can always feel free to get in touch with me. I will provide you my email ID. You can write to me. I will provide you some questions. You can write the answer and send it to us. It will provide you feedback by checking you. So you should enjoy this entire Middle East. You can get in touch with me so that I can resolve whenever I get the time. But my objective is that I will explain Middle East very well. Because it is very difficult to explain, but still after a lot of research and effort which I have put in making this interactive PPT, so I hope that you will benefit from it. So before going into the real politics and the real current affairs which is associated with the Middle East, we will first understand the basics of Middle East. What is the root cause of the whole struggle and geopolitics of Middle East? And you know the root cause is the division in the Muslim community. You know that Islam is one of the oldest religions. And there are two very important factions. One is your Shia and one is your Sunni. And primarily, the whole geopolitics of Middle East is a fight between the two communities. Whether the Shia will be the leader of the Muslim world or whether the Sunni will be the leader of the Muslim world. What is the relationship between Shia and Sunni? So in today's session, which is the first video of this particular Middle East series, we will talk about the difference between Shia and Sunni. And how the differences between Shia and Sunni are the main reasons for today's dispute. So before understanding Shia and Sunni, you will have to know what is Abrahamic religion? Abrahamic religions are basically three religions. Islam, Christianity and Judaism. That is Jews. There are three primarily Abrahamic religions. There are many other things, for example, Druze and other things. But there are three major Abrahamic religions. That is Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Now the basic principle of this is Abrahamic religion. All are monotheistic religion. Monotheistic religion means that they believe in God only. So they believe in one God, but they believe in many prophets. God is the same, but there are many prophets. Prophets are messengers of God. So God sends these prophets into this world to spread their message. To spread their message. So unlike Hinduism, where we believe in diversity of energy. But in these Abrahamic religions, they believe in one form of energy. That's why they are monotheistic religion. One God, many prophets. And the most important prophet who believes in Abrahamic religion is Prophet Abraham. He believes in the most important prophet. But there are some differences which increase these three religions. You can read it separately because that's a big topic. But that's not required as of now. We just needed a basic information. These are all Abrahamic religions. And the most important concept of Abrahamic religion is their monotheistic religion. That means they have only one God, but they have many prophets. Now let's talk about the similarities. These are Islam, Christianity and Jews. These are all major components of Abrahamic religion. So what are these similarities? Their similarity is that God has created the world and has absolute authority over the world and humanity. It's simple. All religions believe that God has created this world. This is important. God reveals himself to a few people. Prophets, messengers of God. So God has created these prophets. Please go to this earth and carry my message. The city of Jerusalem is again a very important place. So all the three major Abrahamic religions, we will read further. When we will talk about Israel-Palestine conflict, we will see the significance of Jerusalem. How does Jerusalem become very important for the three religions? 10. They all believe in afterlife. You will do the same in this birth. So either you will be going to a paradise, heaven or hell. These three religions have a very important concept. They believe in the afterlife where the dead are judged according to their action. And on the basis of their actions, they will be either going to the hell or they will be rewarded going to the paradise. So we had to give you some basic information about what are Abrahamic. Now, after leaving Abrahamic religions, we will talk about our major religion, on which the whole Middle East is involved. That is Islam. So to understand Islam, we will have to know a little bit about the origin of Islam. How did Islam originate as a religion? So before that, let's see Muslims believe in one God, that is Allah, who has revealed his word to humanity through special messengers known as prophets. Again, this concept of Abrahamic religion is one God. And who is God for Muslims? Allah. Now, how will Allah give his message to this earth via the help of prophets? The messenger of God. And Allah's final prophet was whom? Muhammad. Who was Allah's final prophet? Muhammad. To whom Quran was revealed. To whom Allah revealed Quran. So this is your basic information about Islam. That Allah is the creator of this world. And Allah has been spreading his message via the help of prophets. And who was the last and the most important prophet? That was the prophet Muhammad. The one whom Allah revealed Quran. The Quran is a spiritual book of Islam. Now let's talk about Prophet Muhammad. So Prophet Muhammad, who has established Islam on this earth, let's understand a little bit about him. So Prophet Muhammad was an ordinary person from Makkah in Saudi. He was an ordinary person from Makkah who received a divine revelation from the God. It is said that Prophet Muhammad had a dream since childhood or he heard a voice. Because it is said that God revealed these messages to him. Allah gave him these messages that you should go and spread this message in this world. Right? So he was an ordinary person from Makkah who received a divine revelation from God. And after this message which he got from the divine personality, he then started to start a new faith in Arabia, Arabian Peninsula. And what is the time? 610 to 632 C. See? So Prophet Muhammad always had this dream. He would hear a voice in which he would receive divine messages. And on those divine messages which he probably has received from Allah, on the basis of such messages, he started to preach a new faith that is the faith of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula. And these revelations, these Prophet Muhammad, the messages God gave him, were compiled in which book? In the Quran. All these messages which God revealed to Prophet Muhammad, were compiled in the Quran. Next. After the Holy Quran. Quran is the most important book. Even after that, there are some important texts in the Muslim community. So after the Holy Quran, the sayings of the Prophet, which Prophet himself said, there are messages in the Quran which Allah gave to the Prophet. So he went to the Quran. And the Prophet Muhammad himself said, that has been called as Hadith. So after the Holy Quran, the sayings of the Prophet, which is known as Hadith, and descriptions of his way of life, how Prophet Muhammad lived, we call it Sunnah. So Hadith, basically are the sayings of the Prophet and Sunnah is basically the description about how Prophet Muhammad lived his life. So these are some of the very very important essential fundamental texts in the Islamic community. Quran, Hadith, and Sunnah. So you should be knowing this about Prophet Muhammad. Now comes, that in the Muslim community, Shia Sunni was divided. It is called as Kizm. Kizm means division. So how did this happen? Why did the Muslim community divide into two factions? In Shia and Sunni, what is its origin? Its origin is that the last Prophet, that was the Prophet Muhammad, he passed away in 632. And when he passed away, he did not appoint any of the successor. He did not appoint any of his successor. And when the successor did not appoint any of the successor, then the problem was solved from here. So basically from here, two factions came into the Muslim community. One faction was to say that the successor of Prophet Muhammad had the right to choose him. People should elect that person via consensus. But there was another group that we call what they wanted to say, that whoever comes into the relationship of Prophet Muhammad, the bloodline relationship, the relationship of the bloodline relationship, they should appoint the successor of Prophet Muhammad. So on one side people are saying that the successor of Prophet Muhammad has the right to choose you. People will elect them via consensus. The second set of people in the Muslim community are saying that no, no, no, the real successor of Prophet Muhammad that person has to have some kind of bloodline relationship with Prophet Muhammad. So the first consensus supporters become Sunnis. And the bloodline relationship advocates became Shi'a. Look at this. Leadership should be awarded to qualified individuals. Second, legitimate ruler must come from Muhammad's bloodline. So they chose Abu Bakr and they chose Ali because Ali had a bloodline relationship with Prophet Muhammad. So this is basically the origin of schism in Islamic community. On the one hand people were supporting that the successor of Prophet Muhammad should be decided as per the consensus. And on the other hand there were a group of people who were saying that no, no, Muhammad's real successor would be someone who is belonging from the blood relationship. So this is the Shi'a Sunnis that we have. So let's look at the Sunnis. If we look at the Sunnis community then we have to say that the Sunnis community were supportive of Prophet Muhammad's successor. That should be selected from the people via the consensus. That means Sunnis community was opposed to succession based on Muhammad's bloodline. They never supported that. And on this basis Prophet's successor should be determined by consensus. And elected his most trusted and hence these people, the Sunnis community they elected his most trusted companions most trusted companions of whom Prophet Muhammad first came Abu Bakr, then Umar then Uthman and finally Ali. So who was the first one to choose Abu Bakr? And lastly he chose Ali. So the Sunnis community these four Caliphs means leader of the Islamic community these four Caliphs respect each other. But when we talk about Shia then Shia basically thinks Ali is the most important figure because Ali had that bloodline relationship with Prophet Muhammad. So you have to remember this again I will tell you the key points what you have to know here. So first of all the Sunnis community the Sunnis said that any successor that successor should be elected via consensus. Elected via consensus. They should be selected via consensus. And what did Shia say? No, not by selected rather the successor that should belong that should have a bloodline relationship with Prophet Muhammad. And that's why the Sunnis first chose Abu Bakr then Umar then Uttman and finally Ali. But the Shia community the Sunnis consider the four Caliphs as the leader of the Islamic community. One is God then Prophet then Caliph and under Caliph we will go ahead and see. So who are the Caliphs? The leaders of the Islamic community. Leaders of the Islamic community. So the Sunnis community the Sunnis community gives equal respect to the four Caliphs. And the first Caliph considers Abu Bakr but the Shia community who gives all the significance to Ali? Because Ali had a bloodline relationship with Prophet Muhammad. Prophet Muhammad Prophet Muhammad So this is your basically the division and now keep one more point in the Sunnis that the Sunni community the authority of the Sunni community the authority is based on the Quran and the traditions of Muhammad So the leader of the Sunni community where does he get the authority from? From the Quran. So Sunni religious scholars who are constrained by the legal president have more or less authority over their followers than their Shia counterparts. This is an important thing that basically the Sunni community the leaders they have to follow what the legal text says that is what the Quran says you have to follow it. But when we read the Shia community the leaders of the community have more power as compared to what you see in the Sunni community So we will go ahead and understand but basically you have to understand that this is different. Now let's talk about the Shia So the Shia community is the same Who is the most important for them? Ali? Because Ali had a bloodline relationship What bloodline relationship? Ali was Prophet Muhammad's first cousin first cousin and closest male blood relative Why? Because he was Ali was also married to Fatima who was Prophet Muhammad's youngest daughter So that's why the Sunni Shia community consider Ali as the most important leader of Islamic community Now look at the second point Shia believe that God always provides a guide that God always provides a guide First comes Imam and then the Ayatollahs and then the Ayatollahs So Imam means the Caliphs, the leaders those who became Ali Caliphs and after that who comes? Ayatollah So first God, then Prophet then Imam, then finally Ayatollahs So now that you know Iran, what does Ayatollah mean? Experienced Shia scholars So the word Ayatollah is basically connected with Shia community Because Shia community believes that God always provides a messenger God always provides that guide to shape where the humanity should proceed to So that's why in Iran you will see the concept of Ayatollahs There is a lot of respect in Iran because the concept of Ayatollah is that they are basically again a guide which has been sent by God that is Allah to this particular world to guide the humanity So you will also have to remember that in Saudi Arabia there is a Sunni population and in Iran there is a Shia population So wherever there is a Shia population you can see the concept of Ayatollahs See what we talked about earlier See what we talked about There is no such concept in Sunni In Sunni the leader has less power But in Shia community when you become Ayatollah you have huge amount of power because you are a messenger of God again You are a person who has been sent by God to this particular world to guide the humanity That's why Ayatollahs experiences a huge amount of power in Iran So this happened between Shia Sunni But again in Shia community there are many differences not that Shia is a monolithic rock There is a lot of debate in Shia Now who is the debate basically how many imams are there So even within the Shia community there are those differences over the proper line of succession Mainstream Shias believe that there are only 7 imams Imams means men who lead prayer in Mosque Some people believe that there are only 7 imams We don't want to go so deep But just to understand that Sunni and Shia are from major factions but they are being sent back depending upon who is the succession and who will be the succession There are many things being sent Shia and Sunni are not monolithic rocks That's what you have to sympathy Basically Islam and Abrahamic religion So we have read 4 things What is Abrahamic religion What are the core fundamentals of Abrahamic religion Then we talked about how Islam originated from Prophet Muhammad What is Quran, what is Hadith, what is Sunnah And then we have started how this debate started the origin of schism in Islam How Shia and Sunni started without success So after that this fight started Sunni community was saying if we have bloodline relation then it chose Ali and Abu Bakr So this is the basic information Now let us try to understand where Shia and Sunni are divided You can see that in 10% Muslim 85% Muslims are Sunnis So Sunni population is dominant 85% are Sunnis and only 15% are Shia in Muslim community So this is the first thing Now see where they are divided So if I talk about Sunni Muslim So where is the maximum Sunni in Saudi Arabia Where is the maximum Sunni in Egypt So this is in UAE So this is the whole Sunni dominant belt Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt And if we talk about Shia So look, Iran and Iraq Primarily, the rest is in Yemen You have Shia and Sunni in Yemen There is Shia and Sunni in Syria There is Shia and Sunni But the major chunk of Sunni population is in Saudi, UAE, Egypt The major chunk of Shia population is in Iraq and Iran And the rest in Minority Majority, both are in Yemen In Syria and here in Yemen and in Syria this is how it works So this is your geographical distribution of where the Shia and Sunni population Thanks Now this is what I was saying that again, Sunni and Shia Again, we have Hanafi, Hanbali and Maliki And similarly look at Shia, 12 which is in 12 Imams 7 Imams, after that Zaydi and Alawi So again, Shia and Sunni have further factions Now look at Hanbali and Wahabi And this Wahabi is in Saudi Arabia So in Saudi Arabia Which Sunni do you have in Sunni And which Sunni in Hanbali And Wahabi is in an extreme form of Islam Similarly look at Iran, in Iran we see 12 So it's not like these 3 Shia are in Iran Shia is also very divided So in Iran primarily which Shia are 12 which is in 12 Imams Similarly in Saudi Arabia which Sunni are in Hanbali and Wahabi in that Because this is an extreme form of Islam A very strict form of Islam So here you have this conflict Now this conflict Shia went on one side Sunni went on the other side So how did the fight start So how did the fight start First when the Islamic rule came First when the Islamic rule came Then for a few centuries For about 10 centuries For a few centuries Sunni people ruled So when Islam-Islam everything had come There was a rule in the world So for 10 centuries Who ruled you Basically Sunnis dominated the entire kingdom And what was the name of their dynasty Safavid dynasty And how long did this go on? 1500 Sorry Sunnis dominated the first time 9 cities of Islamic rule Until the Safavid dynasty was established in Persian-54 The Safavids They were initially Shia propagators Initially Sunnis were dominating How long did this go on Until the Safavid dynasty When the Safavid dynasty established In Persia, that is the modern day Iran And who did the Safavid dynasty promote? Shia So this Safavid dynasty Now gradually a new empire Has come That is the Ottoman Empire And who is the maximum in the Ottoman Empire Look at the seat of Sunni Caliphate So whose Ottoman is yours? Sunni Caliphate So these two have started to fight Safavid dynasty and Ottomans And gradually These two empires collapsed And the influence of which Shia and Sunni started to live So basically The origin of this conflict Is that when Islamic rule was established Until the 9th or 10th centuries Until the 10th century Sunni ruled Who challenged the order of Sunni For the first time in the Safavid dynasty And who was the champion of the Shia cause Safavid dynasty was established Its own during Persia That is the modern day Iran And who did Safavid dynasty challenge in the future And who are the Ottomans They are the propagators of Sunni Islam And where is the seat of Ottomans In Turkey So today in Turkey you will get Sunni population And in Iran you will get Shia population So look at this As these empires faded That is the Safavid Ottomans When empires faded Their battles roughly settled The political borders of modern Iran And Turkey Their battles roughly settled The political borders of modern day Iran And Turkey by the 17th Until the 10th century Where Ottomans were There were maximum Sunni people And where Safavid dynasty Were primarily Shia So that became Iran And this became Turkey So Turkey also wants to be a champion Of the Muslim world Because in Turkey you used to get Ottomans seat And the center of that was Turkey Today in Turkey you see the policies Of Erdogan To be the leader of the Islamic world So this is your Basically the origin of the conflict Like this Look at this Safavid empire And look at this This is Mughal, Mughal was ruled in India And this is Safavid Look at this Persia, Iran There were Shia people here And this is Ottoman Which is the Turkish-Egyptian area And look at this Saudi Arabia When this empire ended Turkey or Egypt or Iran So this is the Mughal empire Safavid empire And finally the Ottoman empire There was Sunni and here was Shia Now look at the problem This is the start of the war This is the Islamic rule But what is the cause of this war Why is Shia-Sunni fighting today If you have to trace Where does this war start So that initiation Was Primarily because of the Iran's Islamic Revolution In the year 1979 In 1979 There was an Islamic Revolution in Iran What is in that Iran's Islamic Revolution Basically Before 1979 In Iran, whose government was Mr. Pahlavi Mohammad Raza Pahlavi Until before 1979 And this particular person He was a liberal person Generally he was called Pro-West And he was revolted against this That You cannot accept western liberal principles This is an Islamic country We have to protect our culture We have to protect our civilization We have to protect what the God says We have to implement Sharia and other things like that So against this There is an Islamic Revolution in Iran In which Pahlavi was overthrown So this is the person It brought down the Iranian monarchy Under Pahlavi And turned Iran into a Shia Theocratic Republic Theocratic means religion-based Not democratic It is religion-based Theocratic Republic Even now in Iran There is democracy in that sense Like what is in the UK On one side is your monarch And on the other side is your leader On the other side is your monarch And on the other side is your head of government Which is the prime minister It happens in Iran as well On the other side is your elected personal And your republic Which is your monarch Who are you? That is the Ayatollah In the same UK But here because that person is Ayatollah So again Iran has a president That person is a elected head of state That person is different What are we saying to him? Who is he? He is Ayatollah Rohwala And it is not monarch Because he does not come from a family It is not like Ayatollah Rohwala If he goes to Khamiri, he will be made his son No, it does not work like this That's why it's a republic It's not monarchy Like UK So what is the structure of Iran In Iran You have a president Who is your elected And on the other side Who has all the power And on the other side Who is your religious figure So our head of It is called Which we call as president in India So this person is known as Who is he basically What is the religion in India? But what is there That person has to be a Shia scholar A very expertise in Shia scholar A person who has divine personality Generally these are known as Ayatollahs Ayatollah And he has maximum power Although they are not directly in power They are directly in power But the religious pain He has a lot of influence So in this way There is a president in Iran And on the other side Religious personality So that's why it brought down the Iranian monarchy And turned Iran into a Shia Theocratic Republic Shia cleric Ayatollah Came to power Who are the guardians of the faith Who are Ayatollahs That's why Ayatollahs enjoyed huge amount of authority In the After 1979 There was nothing before 1979 After 1979 When Ayatollah came And that particular person Was in a mission To increase the dominance of Iran To increase the leader of the Muslim community So in this context Who will panic? Saudi Because there are Sunni people in Saudi So from here There is a turning point In our geopolitical aspect International So as soon as In 1979 You had an Islamic Revolution in Iran At the same time Saudi Arabia Started using all the tools To counter Iran Saudi Arabia After the Islamic Revolution A Shia's glory Will become a leader Saudi Arabia also started to counter Iran And here There is a turning point The United States of America Which was traditionally close to Iran Because of the Pahlavi regime Now the US started to pivot Now Saudi and US interests are Quite similar And from here The US-Saudi relations And from here The tension of US-Iran And the same thing is happening today US has put sanctions on Iran And Saudi Arabia Do you know how close they are to the US? So now when we will read The current context of US-Saudi relations To understand it That is primarily in the 1979 Islamic Revolution And this is why Because of the Islamic Revolution There are proxy wars in the Middle East Because Saudi Saudi wants to be a Hegemon Of the Sunni world And Iran wants to be a Hegemon Of the Shia world And both want to be Hegemon of the Islamic world So they can't fight So that's why they do proxy wars That you are in Yemen That you are in Syria That you are in Lebanon So in the same way after 1979 Two big countries of this area Saudi and Iran Play proxy wars everywhere But today you are seeing That Saudi-Iran relations Are being normalized in the news That's why they are doing it Because today's geopolitics Today's international politics Are quite different What was there in the 20th century Or the starting of the 20th The US is trying to get out of this particular area And invest its energy In the Indo-Pacific Where it's facing bigger challenges That is coming from China So in the same way We will connect all these things In the coming sessions You should have had such a background That what is the Shia What is the Sunni When did Iran's Islamic Revolution Come to 1979 How did Saudi-Iran's tension increase What is the current affairs news Which is a kind of geopolitical realignment Saudi-Iran's normalization You know there is a Quad in the West Which we call I2U2 you must have studied Abrahamic Accord you must have studied So we will read all these things In detail in this whole series It will be quite long There will be a lot of videos I have this target That every two days I will give you a video But I can promise you that All the videos will come And that will be a one stop solution For all your problems related to This particular geopolitical arena That is the East So in the same way I hope you liked this lecture Session And this series will be covered For the first time in such a holistic way That I can guarantee you Like this Subscribe to this channel Share it and enjoy it Because at the end You have to enjoy the process of learning Because more than exam The knowledge which you are getting through these things Will be a life changer Because you have to lead the world You don't have to be limited Only for a particular exam So I hope again that you have a great life You have a great evening And all the best wishes to you Will see you again in this particular series In the lecture number two Don't forget to like share and subscribe to our channel And press the bell icon To never miss an update