Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, The Remem-

brance of Death and the Afterlife (Kitab dhikr al-mawt 

wa-ma bdahu): Book XL of the Revival of the Religious 

Sciences (Ihya ulum al-din). Translated by T. J. Winter 

(Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 1995); Jane Idle-

man Smith and Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, The Islamic 

Understanding of Death and Resurrection (Albany: State 

University of New York Press, 1981).

fitna

 

(Arabic: punishment by trial, 

temptation)

The term fitna has several meanings. In the con-

text of early Islamic history, it refers to one of sev-

eral armed conflicts, or civil wars, that occurred 

within the Muslim community (

umma

) during 

the seventh and eighth centuries. These wars led 

to the establishment of the U

mayyad

  c

aliphate

in  d

amascUs

, the rise of the k

haWariJ

 sectarian 

movement, the schism between the Sunnis and 

the Shiis, and the founding of the a

bbasid

 c

aliph

-

ate

 in b

aghdad

. The first fitna occurred when 

the caliph U

thman

 

ibn

  a

FFan

 was assassinated 

in 656 by a group of dissidents from e

gypt

 who 

were angry with the favoritism he had shown to 

members of his clan, the Abd Shams, a prominent 

branch of the q

Uraysh

 tribe in m

ecca

. Uthman’s 

successor, a

li

 

ibn

 a

bi

 t

alib

, m

Uhammad

’s cousin, 

declined to avenge his death, which earned him 

the enmity of Uthman’s supporters, including 

Muhammad’s wife a

isha

 

bint

 a

bi

 b

akr

 and some 

leading c

ompanions

 

oF

 

the

 p

rophet

. Ali defeated 

these opponents at the Battle of the Camel that 

same year, but this only led to a clash with 

Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan (d. 680), a close relative 

of Uthman, and Muawiya’s Syrian Arab supporters 

at the Battle of Siffin in 657. This confrontation 

ended with an arbitrated peace that left the ques-

tion of leadership in the Muslim community unre-

solved until 661, when Ali was assassinated by the 

Khawarij, a dissident faction that had opposed 

Ali’s peace agreement with Muawiya at Siffin. The 

first fitna ended in 661, with Muawiya becoming 

caliph

, inaugurating the reign of the Syrian-based 

Umayyad Caliphate (661–750).

The second fitna occurred when h

Usayn

 

ibn

a

li

, grandson of Muhammad, rebelled against the 

Umayyads and was killed with a group of loyal 

supporters at k

arbala

, Iraq, in 680. The tragic 

story of his death as a martyr has since assumed a 

place of central importance in the religious life of 

the Shia, and it is remembered by them annually 

during their a

shUra

 rituals. Other factions in the 

early Muslim empire also rebelled at this time,