The Umayyad Rise to the Caliphate
31
supporters accepted him, but they were no longer able to carry out a
consistent armed struggle against him. The remnants of ‘Ali’s party
formed the basis of what was to become known as the Shi‘a (the
‘Party’ of ‘Ali), supporting the claims of ‘Ali and his descendants to
the imamate and developing into a number of sub-groups as their
religious and political ideas became more elaborate. Eventually they
posed a greater threat to Umayyad rule than did the Kharijites and
were to play a major role in the movement
which finally ended the
Umayyad caliphate. This, though, was in the future. For the time
being, 661 saw the end of the
Fitna,
the reunification of the divided
Muslim community, and general recognition of Mu‘awiya as caliph.
With hindsight it was seen as the beginning of the Umayyad dynasty.
If we accept the data provided by Muslim tradition, then, the
Umayyads, leading representatives of those who had opposed the
Prophet until the latest possible moment, had within thirty years of
his death reestablished their position
to the extent that they were
now at the head of the community which he had founded. As a result
the
Fitna
has often been interpreted as the climax of a struggle for
power within Islam between that class of Meccans typified by the
Umayyads, the wealthy and powerful leaders of pre-Islamic Mecca,
and those, largely from a lower social stratum, whose acceptance of
Islam was more wholehearted. To use expressions frequently
applied, it was the result of a struggle between the old and the new
aristocracy.
Within this interpretation some have taken
a more strongly anti-
Umayyad line and argued that the civil war was consciously
engineered by the old aristocracy in order to regain the position it had
lost with the triumph of Islam. In this view Mu‘awiya plays an active
role by delaying answering the appeals of the caliph ‘Uthman for help
when he was faced with the rebellious Egyptian soldiers in Medina,
arousing the Syrians by holding an exhibition in the mosque of
Damascus of the dead ‘Uthman’s bloody shirt or severed finger, and
even plotting with his relative, the keeper of ‘Uthman’s seal,
to ensure
that any possible compromise between ‘Uthman and the Egyptian
rebels would break down. The aim of all this was to ensure that ‘Ali,
whose succession to ‘Uthman was seen as inevitable in any case,
would succeed to the caliphate in circumstances which would cast
doubt on his legitimacy and enable the old aristocracy to turn the
situation to their own advantage. Others have taken a more moderate
line and seen the emergence of the old aristocracy as the new leaders
of Islam as an unconscious and almost inevitable process since they