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Today, the most important religious split is between the Sunnis and the Shias (Shiites) within Islam. Unlike divisions in other faiths - between Conservative and Orthodox Jews or Catholic and Protestant Christians - the split between the Sunnis and Shia has existed almost as long as the faith itself, and it quickly emerged out of tensions created by the political crisis after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. In a sense, what are now two different forms of Islam essentially started as political factions within the unified body of Muslim believers. Over the past few centuries, Christians have mostly been able to live alongside their co-religionists, but the split between the Sunnis and Shias is still so pronounced that many adherents of each branch view each other with disdain if not as outright apostates or non-believers. The religious divide is perhaps the most important fault line in the turbulent Middle East today, with Sunni nations like Egypt and Saudi Arabia at odds with Shiite nations like Iran. At lower levels, non-state groups like the Islamic State and Hezbollah are fighting each other in ways that cross state lines in places like Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria. Although it is technically a split in religion, the divide has had substantial global ramifications for decades, and there seems to be no end in sight. Of course, just the way Christian relics have been venerated by different denominations, Muslims of all sorts also have valued relics over the course of nearly 1,500 years. In Islam, relics are objects or remains associated with prophets or holy people, kept and venerated for their spiritual significance. However, it is also important to note that Islam does not place the same importance on relics as some other religions, such as Christianity, do. In Islam, the primary holy relic is the Kaaba in Mecca, which is considered the central holy place and is surrounded by numerous other relics, including items associated with the Prophet Muhammad. Other s