Encyclopedia of Islam

fitna

  

241  J

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including one led by Ibn Zubayr, who created a 

rival caliphate in Mecca that lasted from 681 to 

692, when it was destroyed by Umayyad forces 

from Damascus. The third major fitna began in 

744–745, when Shia in Iran and Iraq rebelled 

against the Umayyads. In 750, these opposition 

forces defeated the Umayyad armies and replaced 

their caliphate with a new one led by the Abba-

sids, rulers who claimed descent from Muham-

mad’s uncle Abbas. Other, more localized fitnas 

occurred, but these three not only determined the 

course of early Islamic history but also shaped 

the development of the doctrines, practices, and 

institutions of Sunni and Shii Islam. Indeed, one 

of the chief justifications for having a strong ruler 

was to prevent fitna from bringing chaos to the 

community of Muslims. Also, the major 

hadith

collections included chapters devoted to tradi-

tions about the great fitna that would beset the 

community leading up to the end of the world and 

the final judgment.

Likewise, the q

Uran

 uses fitna in the negative 

sense of a trial or punishment that God inflicts 

upon humans or has allowed them to undergo, 

usually to test their 

Faith

. Thus, God tested the 

prophets  m

oses

 and d

avid

 (Q 9:126; 38:24) as 

well as ordinary people (Q 21:35) and permit-

ted  s

atan

 to tempt the evil-minded (Q 22:53). 

Evildoers will be punished with the fitna of being 

forced to eat the bitter fruit of the Zaqqum tree 

in hell (Q 37:62–66). Children and property are 

worldly temptations that test the faith of believers 

(Q 8:28).

In modern times, fitna has become a very 

politically charged term. Conservative Muslim 

authorities accuse 

Women

 who go without veiling 

in public of being embodiments of fitna (sexual 

temptation), thus undermining the moral fabric 

of society. F

atima

  m

ernissi

 (b. 1940) and other 

Muslim feminists argue that such men are invok-

ing medieval understandings of fitna to justify the 

segregation of women and the curtailment their 

freedoms. In a

lgeria

,  s

yria

,  e

gypt

,  i

raq

,  s

aUdi

a

rabia

, and elsewhere, political demonstrations, 

popular uprisings, and insurrections have often 

been labeled with the term fitna by leaders and 

official media sources who hope thereby to quell 

the dissent or violence and maintain public order.

See also 

eschatology

; s

hiism

; s

Unnism

.