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The Umayyad Rise to the Caliphate
conquests and settlements and the newcomers who migrated from
Arabia in the wake of the first conquests. These rivalries were
exacerbated as the government tried to increase its control over the
tribesmen by supporting the authority of leading tribal notables,
who had usually arrived after the first conquests, against the leaders
of lesser stature who had established their positions in the garrison
towns earlier. Hinds in particular has produced a body of evidence
which is impressive for its cohesiveness, but here we can leave aside
detailed consideration of these arguments and concentrate on the
importance of the
Fitna
for the Umayyads.
8
We have seen that Muslim tradition portrays the Umayyads
generally as late and rather reluctant in their acceptance of Islam.
This generalisation, though, is subject to at least one notable
exception. ‘Uthman b. ‘Affan was both a descendant of Umayya and
an early Muslim, and after the death of the Prophet he was one of the
inner circle which directed the affairs of the emergent Muslim state.
In 644 he was chosen as the third caliph following the death of
‘Umar. Although an Umayyad, ‘Uthman is not counted as one of the
Umayyad dynasty since he was chosen by the inner circle of early
Muslims, owed his election to his status as an early Muslim, and
made no attempt to appoint an Umayyad as his successor.
It was under ‘Uthman that the Golden Age of early Islam began to
become tarnished and the crisis which was to issue in civil war and
the irrevocable division of the community developed. Opposition to
him arose in several quarters, particularly in the garrison towns, and
finally in the summer of 656 a band of tribesmen from the Egyptian
garrison town of Fustat came to Medina where, after the failure of
negotiations, they attacked and killed ‘Uthman in his house.
There are a number of possible explanations for the rise of
opposition to ‘Uthman, and Muslim tradition preserves whole lists
of accusations made against him by his opponents. Prominent
among these accusations is the charge that he practised nepotism by
appointing his Umayyad relatives to important offices in the state.
Indeed we are told that, in addition to confirming Mu‘awiya as
governor of Syria, ‘Uthman appointed Umayyads to governorates in
Egypt, Kufa and Basra, and that he gave the important office of
keeper of the caliphal seal to another relative, the father of the future
Umayyad caliph Marwan. This has been interpreted as being no
more than a way in which ‘Uthman sought to increase his personal
control in the provinces at a time when important administrative
problems were arising, but more traditionally it has been seen as a
The Umayyad Rise to the Caliphate
27
result of a weakness in his personality and the ability of his clever
and unscrupulous family to exploit this weakness. However we
interpret it, tradition shows us the Umayyads to some extent
rebuilding under ‘Uthman the influence and power which they had
had before Islam.
9
‘Uthman’s murder was followed by the choice of ‘Ali, cousin and
son-in-law of the Prophet, as the next caliph. His appointment,
however, was by no means universally welcomed: personal and
political rivalries existed, and his opponents were able to use the
circumstances in which he had come to power—following a killing
which his opponents declared unjustified, and with the support of
those who had carried out the killing—to impugn his legitimacy,
even though he was not charged with having personally taken part in
the murder of ‘Uthman. ‘Uthman’s Umayyad relations were
prominent in the opposition to ‘Ali, but the first active resistance
came, not from them, but from other Qurashis resentful of ‘Ali’s rise
to power. The leaders of this first opposition to ‘Ali were ‘A’isha,
the widow of Muhammad, and Talha and Al-Zubayr, former
companions of Muhammad and members of the inner circle at the
centre of the state.
At the end of 656 they marched from Mecca, where they had first
proclaimed their hostility to ‘Ali, to Basra in Iraq, where they raised
an army to fight against him. Learning of this, ‘Ali too left the Hijaz
(never again the centre of the caliphate) and came to the other Iraqi
garrison town, Kufa, where he raised an army to fight the dissidents.
The two forces met, in December 656, outside Basra in a battle
known in tradition as the battle of the Camel, so called because the
fighting wheeled around the camel upon which ‘A’isha sat in her
litter. The result was a complete victory for ‘Ali; Talha and al-
Zubayr were killed, and ‘A’isha taken off back to Medina to be held
in limited confinement there.
10
The chronology and exact course of events are somewhat vague,
but generally tradition puts Mu‘awiya’s decision to come out openly
against ‘Ali only after the battle of the Camel. At first, we are told,
he limited himself to impugning ‘Ali’s legitimacy, demanding that
those who had killed ‘Uthman be handed over for punishment in
accordance with the law of blood vengeance, and arousing among
his Syrian Arab supporters fury at ‘Uthman’s murder. Although not
the closest relative of the murdered caliph, Mu‘awiya was the
Umayyad with the strongest power base, having governed Syria for
about fifteen years and, furthermore, being free from suspicion of
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