What issue led to the split between the sunni and shia in islam? the shia believe only arabs could be muslims. arguments began over what should be included in the five pillars the shia wanted to change the direction of prayer to jerusalem rather than mecca. they disagreed over who should lead the muslim community after the death of muhammad.

When Muhammed died in the year 632, he, much like Alexander the Great, did not appoint a successor. So, there was much argument who would lead then a young growing religion. The Sunni Muslims believed that the new caliph should be Abu Bakr while the Shia believed that Muhammed’s cousin Ali should be the leader.  

in his book, the riddle of the rosetta stone, james giblin talks about how there was a young british polymath and physician named thomas young who made a lot of advances on the deciphering of the rosetta stone. he says that even though young made a lot of mistakes because he was working under false assumptions, he also made huge contributions like deciphering three out of the seven symbols (more than anyone else before him). young published his findings and continued his good work but he wasn't able to progress much further due to some unfavorable situations, he still laid the basis for many other scholars and of course for the man who has been generally known to have deciphered it, jean-françois champollion