The Caliphate of Mu`awiya

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The Caliphate of Muawiya

• Islamic History the First 150 Years

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Essays and Assignments

• Essay titles
• Text based assignment
• Deadline 14th August 2006

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Session Plan

1. A Brief Recap
2. Muawiya Triumphant
3. The Rule of Muawiya
4. Arranging the Succession

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Section I A Brief Recap
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Recap

• As these are arguably the most important years in
  Islamic history, a short recap is in order
• Muhammad left no unequivocal instructions
  regarding leadership of the Muslim community
  after his death
• Abu Bakr Khilafat Rasul Allah
• Umar Amir al-Mumineen
• Uthman Khilafat Allah ?
• Ali Amir Imam
• This historical order valorised by Sunni
  tradition as the period of the Rightly Guided
  Caliphs
• Seen very differently by the Shia as repeated
  attempts to deny Ali his rightful place
• In some senses, the debate regarding the nature
  of leadership is the key issue
• The debate turns increasingly violent as we
  reach the end of the period
• Umar, Uthman and Ali all die violent deaths
• The impact of the conquests

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Section II Muawiya Triumphant
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Muawiyah Triumphant

• With Alis assassination in 40AH (661CE) at Kufa,
  Muawiya becomes the most significant political
  force
• His forces proceed towards Iraq and encamp at
  Maskin
• Hasan ibn Ali is elected caliph/imam in Kufa
• Hasan said to have made the following
  stipulation
• You must be totally obedient, make peace with
  whom I make peace, and fight whom I fight (Tab.
  2.5)
• Felt to be equivocal and an indication that he
  intended to give in
• A force from Kufa is sent to meet Muawiya (or
  else is already present in the region)
• There are several divergent accounts of the
  subsequent events in the sources
• Tabari (in his usual manner) offers several
  different reports
• al-Zuhri (an important early historian) Hasan
  intended to make peace with Muawiya and one
  commander who did not agree was dismissed the
  other (Abdullah ibn Abbas) wrote to Muawiya
  asking for safe conduct and money (Tab. 2.1)

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Muawiyah Triumphant

• 2. Uthman ibn Abd al-Hamid al-Khuzai Hasans
  commander rumoured dead, causing panic Hasans
  tent plundered al-Mukhtar ibn Abi Ubayd
  al-Thaqafi intended to sell Hasan to Muawiya
  (Tab. 2.2-3)
• 3. Awanah similar to 2 Hasan reveals his
  peace plan to his close relatives and there is an
  argument about it Hasans commander resigns and
  they accept Muawiya (Tab. 2. 3-4)
• al-Yaqubi Hasans force commanded by Ubaidallah
  ibn Abbas, who then joins Muawiya for a large
  bribe Hasans tent ransacked when news of his
  peace initiatives becomes known (Yaqubi 2.254f.)
• Differences important
• al-Zuhri said to have been an Umayyad supporter
• Yaqubi a Shiite sympathiser
• Abdullah ibn Abbas and the Abbasids
• This may well account for the differences in
  their respective accounts

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Muawiyah Triumphant

• Forming an opinion about what actually happened
  thus difficult
• At any rate, Hasan sues for peace and comes to an
  arrangement with Muawiya
• In 41AH (661CE), Muawiya enters Kufa
• His opponents are either bribed or threatened
  into accepting his rule
• He thus becomes the caliph
• Hasan holds to his agreement until his death in
  49AH
• Shia sources believe that Muawiya had Hasan
  poisoned
• Leadership of the Bani Hashim then passed to
  Husayn ibn Ali
• Although we will encounter Husayn again in the
  next session, during this period he holds to his
  brothers treaty

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Section III The Rule of Muawiya
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Source Perspectives

• As we have seen, when exploring the sources for
  early Islamic history, we have to account for a
  wide range of perspectives
• Thus far, we have looked at the impact of the
  Sunni-Shia divide upon our sources
• However, this is only one aspect
• Our sources focus mostly on Iraq, Medina and
  related matters
• Other matters, considered somewhat peripheral to
  our sources, receive much less treatment
• Reasons?
• Many of our key writers from Iraq
• During the Abbasid period, when most of these
  sources written, Iraq was the capital (Baghdad)
• The Shia impact at Kufa
• This is particularly prominent during Muawiyas
  reign

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Muawiyas Powerbase

• Wealth
• As we saw last week, the Umayyad family owned
  vast wealth
• This was primarily based upon land and as such,
  the Umayyad clan held wide estates throughout
  Muslim territory
• They were also arguably the most mercantile clan
  of the Quraysh tribe and even before Muawiyas
  reign they had wide business contacts
• The Syrian Army (ahl al-Sham)
• For the entire Umayyad period (some 100 years),
  the army of the Syrian provinces was the most
  powerful and well equipped military force in the
  entire Muslim empire
• Furthermore, given their closeness to the
  Byzantine border, the Syrian army was both fully
  trained and generally, expertly led
• Under Muawiya the Syrian jund were also very
  well paid
• Muawiya had been governor of Syria for a long
  time, since being appointed by Umar
• He had thus had ample opportunity to ensure the
  provinces firm loyalty

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Muawiyas Powerbase

• The Hilm of Muawiya
• Muawiya was renowned for the quality of hilm
• This term means approximately forbearance,
  tact, or perhaps even skill
• Hilm is the quality of the successful traditional
  Arab Sheikh someone who could get their own way
  through a combination of diplomacy, tact,
  shrewdness and argument
• In a very broad sense, comparisons with Julius
  Caesars clemency (clementia) are perhaps not too
  wide of the mark
• Muawiya is reported to have made the following
  statement
• I apply not the lash where my tongue suffices,
  nor my sword where my whip is enough. But if
  there be one hair binding me to my fellow men I
  let it not break. If they pull I loosen, and if
  they loosen I pull
• Muawiya was thus able to perform a delicate
  balancing act between the different power groups
  in the emerging Muslim empire

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Muawiyas Powerbase

• Tribal Support
• The picture of Muawiya that emerges from the
  sources is one of a master diplomat
• He certainly made extensive use of these skills
  in his dealings with the various Arab tribes
• A full account would be too detailed for our
  purposes
• However, Muawiya used monetary support and other
  means to ensure that he received and kept the
  support of most of the large Arab confederations
• He also used arranged marriages as a means of
  cementing important tribes to his regime
• He thus married an important member of the large
  tribe of Kalb

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Muawiyas Powerbase

• Bureaucratic Infrastructure
• Upon his accession, Muawiya moved the capital to
  Damascus (where it remained throughout the
  Umayyad dynasty)
• His control of Syria also brought him the
  services of a large number of former Byzantine
  and Sassanid civil servants
• These officials allowed him to draw on the vast
  experience of Roman and Persian bureaucracy
• He was thus able to develop and effective
  bureaucratic structure very quickly
• Greek remained the language of government in the
  former Roman lands throughout his reign
• Similarly, Persian was the lingua franca of the
  eastern half of the Muslim empire
• This can be seen in the production of very early
  Muslim coinage
• As we saw previously, the earliest coins were
  either copies or re-used Byzantine and Sassanid
  issues
• Using this coinage allowed him to create a degree
  of much needed economic stability

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Iraq

• Given this emphasis, our sources concentrate
  mostly upon Muawiyas governors of Iraq
• Two main personalities
• Mughira ibn Shuba
• A colourful character companion of Muhammad and
  something of a diplomat
• Ziyad ibn Abihi
• Another colourful character
• His name is interesting and means Ziyad the son
  of his father
• In other words, his father was not clearly known
  as his mother was a prostitute in Mecca
• Despite this, Ziyad seems to have been an
  intelligent and resourceful person
• Had a particular renown for public speaking and
  eloquence
• Muawiya later adopted him into his own family,
  declaring that they both shared the same father
  (Abu Sufyan) (Tab. 2.69)
• This elevated Ziyad into the higher echelons of
  the Umayyad family
• However, it has to be said that he was not
  universally accepted by the wider Umayyad clan

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Ziyads Opening Speech

• A famous speech
• Beware of night-prowling too, for no prowler
  will be brought to me but I shall shed his
  bloodBeware also of the summoning of the
  Jahiliyyah, for I shall cut out the tongue of
  anyone I find appealing to itWhoever drowns
  folk, I shall drown whoever burns folk, we shall
  burn whoever breaks into a house, we shall break
  into his heart and whoever breaks up a grave, I
  shall bury him aliveThere have been hatreds
  between me and some folks, but I put all that
  behind meIndeed, if I should know that one of
  you was overcome with incurable hatred toward me,
  I would not expose him nor disclose him unless he
  shows it to me openly. If he does, I shall not
  argue with himI swear by God that I have many
  potential victims among you, so let every man
  among you beware lest he be among them(Tab.
  2.76)

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Discontent

• As is perhaps to be expected, Muawiyas
  ascendancy did not meet with universal approval
• Much of Iraq still supported the Alid family,
  whilst there were a number of Kharijite groups
  scattered throughout the province
• Thus in 51AH (672CE), one of Alis closest
  supporters, Hujr ibn Adi, attempted to revolt
• The rebellion was small and easily overwhelmed
• Hujr was executed and was thus later viewed as an
  early Shiite martyr
• This is perhaps why, presumably under Muawiyas
  order, Ziyad altered the Kufan political
  structure
• Previously, each tribe at Kufa had appointed its
  own leaders
• Ziyad arranged the tribes into 4 quarters and
  appointed its leaders himself
• He undertook a similar measure at Basra (though
  here they were divided into fifths)
• This measure had two effects
• The government could appoint (and thus remove)
  local tribal leaders at will
• The tribal nobility had to confirm to Muawiyas
  government in order to retain their position

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Iraq Under Ziyad

• Furthermore, the most rebellious elements of Kufa
  and Basra were sent east to aid in the conquest
  and settlement of Khurasan (Tab. 2.81)
• Khurasan is broadly speaking eastern Iran and
  western Afghanistan
• Khurasan was the eastern most province of
  Sassanid Persia and was the effective border
• Beyond this, there were a number of small
  principalities, such as at Bukhara
• Then, beyond them, lay the Turkish empire and the
  Tang dynasty of China
• Ziyad also undertook a renovation of the main
  mosque of Kufa (Tab. 1.2492)
• Generally speaking, Ziyads approach was
  effective and despite some discontent, the
  province remained relatively quiet
• After Ziyads death, his son Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad
  is appointed governor of Iraq

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The Byzantine Wars

• Muawiya continued to war against Byzantium
• Although conflict had not really ceased since the
  early conquests, under Muawiya we see the
  emergence of regular campaigns
• The last remaining stronghold on the mainland at
  Arwad fell
• Cyprus, Rhodes and Crete were also attacked
• Regular annual attacks into eastern Anatolia
  (modern Turkey)
• In 668, Yazid ibn Muawiya laid siege to
  Constantinople
• In 674, Muawiya again laid siege to the city,
  which this time also included a naval blockade
• Constantinople remained under siege for
  approximately 7 years
• Byzantine North Africa was also attacked from
  Egypt
• Uqbah ibn Nafi overran modern Libya and Tunisia,
  founding his provincial capital near Carthage
  (al-Qayrawan)

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• Questions?

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Section IV Arranging the Succession
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The Succession

• As Muawiya grew older, he began to arrange for
  the succession
• The sources almost universally report that he had
  long planned to appoint his son Yazid
• To this end, he first consulted with the
  venerable elite of Medina
• They approved of his attempt to ensure a smooth
  transfer of power
• However, they did not approve of his son and
  rioted
• Although we will look more closely at Yazid in
  the next session, the sources almost universally
  portray him as a dissolute playboy
• Indeed, he is said to have had a particular
  penchant for dancing girls and pet monkeys!
• Muawiya is then said to have invited deputations
  from the provinces to Damascus and to have
  praised his sons virtues in front of them
• Taking the hint, these provincial leaders then
  demanded to pay homage to Yazid
• Muawiya then attempted to secure Medinan
  acquiescence by travelling to the city in person,
  at the head of 1,000 horsemen

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The Succession

• His main targets were as follows
• Husain ibn Ali
• Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr
• Abdullah ibn Umar
• Abd al-Rahman ibn Abu Bakr
• In other words, the sons of the most important
  companions of Muhammad
• All four men again repudiated Muawiyas idea
• At which, he is reported to have said
• At other times, when I speak in the pulpit, I
  permit everyone to say against my speech what he
  will but him who contradicts me today a sword
  shall silence (quoted in Wellhausen, 143)
• The men were then marched directly to the mosque
• These four men, without whom no decision can be
  made, have paid homage to Yazid so do ye also
  pay homage! (ibid)
• All four are thus said to have remained silent
  through fear

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The Succession

• Muawiya died in 60AH (680CE) and Yazid became
  caliph
• Although Muawiya was in many ways a successful
  ruler, his attempts to appoint his son Yazid as
  his successor were deeply unpopular
• Generally speaking, our sources feel that this
  act marked a radical break with previous practice
• From this point onwards, so our sources argue,
  the Muslim state descends into hereditary
  kingship (or mulk in Arabic)
• Moreover, this act also brought barely latent
  tensions to the surface
• And, in many ways, Yazids accession marks the
  effective beginning of the second civil war
• However, we will explore this in greater detail
  in the next session