by John McHugo
But there was another possible candidate, apart from Abu Bakr and Umar, who seemed to fulfil the requirements for leadership. Unlike both of them, he had a following among the Ansar. This was Ali. His links with Muhammad were even closer than those of Abu Bakr or Umar. He was the son of Abu Talib, the Prophet’s uncle, who had played a major role in Muhammad’s own upbringing. When Muhammad had begun preaching and received hostile reactions, Abu Talib had given him protection under the tribal code (even though Abu Talib was not a Muslim, and never converted). Ali became a Muslim while still a boy or teenager, even before the adult Abu Bakr.
On the night of the Hijrah, Ali stayed behind to deceive the Meccans about Muhammad’s departure. He courted danger by sleeping in Muhammad’s own bed so that any potential assassins who peered through the window would not realise Muhammad was gone. He also tidied up Muhammad’s affairs in Mecca before leaving for Medina. In Medina, he married the Prophet’s daughter Fatima, and gave Muhammad two grandsons, Hassan and Hussein, whom the Prophet knew as small children and adored. Later, Ali also married a granddaughter of the Prophet, Umamah bint Abu al-‘As.9 Ali proved himself to be a mighty warrior and is reported to have received sixteen wounds at the Battle of Uhud. This is a characteristic that the sources do not attribute to Abu Bakr or Umar in quite the same way – although Abu Bakr did carry the battle standard on at least one occasion, and it is safe to assume that Umar was no mean warrior.
One practical and legitimate reason to exclude Ali from consideration would have been his youth. He seems to have been at least thirty years younger than Muhammad and Abu Bakr, and over a decade younger than Umar. It might have been difficult for him to assert his authority over the quietly voiced charisma of Abu Bakr or the forceful Umar, with their greater age and experience. Both had been playing important roles in the Prophet’s mission while Ali was still a boy. There are also suggestions that Ali’s judgement was sometimes poor – something that his subsequent career would arguably demonstrate – in a way that the judgement of the two older men was not.
There were, then, understandable reasons why Ali may have been passed over. It is possible that Abu Bakr and Umar both dismissed him as a serious candidate and considered that he would make a disastrous leader. But they may also have had personal reasons to reject him. The hasty meeting at which Abu Bakr was proclaimed leader of the community took place in Ali’s absence, since Ali was engaged in preparing the Prophet’s funeral rites. There has always been suspicion that Abu Bakr, Umar and the other Companions who elected Abu Bakr were acting swiftly so as to pre-empt Ali’s candidature. It is possible – some would say likely – that if a formal assembly of the Prophet’s Companions had been convened Ali might have been chosen.
Aisha was intensely hostile to Ali, which may well have influenced Abu Bakr against him. This ill-feeling arose from an incident during the Prophet’s life that could have had dire consequences for her. Within a year or two of her marriage to Muhammad, she had mislaid a necklace at an encampment. She slipped out of her covered litter and found it but, when she returned, the caravan had set off, the camel drivers assuming that she was still inside the litter. Expecting them to come back to look for her, she waited. A young man riding a camel, who had fallen behind the army, came upon her and rescued her. However, that evening when she arrived riding his camel, which he was leading by the halter, malicious gossip began.
If Muhammad had been cuckolded, it would have caused immense damage to his prestige. It would also have tested relations between him and Abu Bakr to destruction. The gossip was blamed on the Munafiqun, whose malicious intention was to weaken Islam. Even though the gossip was not widely believed, there seems at first to have been a nagging doubt in Muhammad’s mind – or possibly he was just disconcerted by the gossip. Eventually, that doubt was dispelled when he received a Qur’anic revelation that Aisha was innocent. By then, however, he had already questioned many about what they thought. When he asked Ali, he received the following response: ‘God hath not restricted thee, and there are many women besides her. But question her maidservant, and she will tell thee the truth.’10
The maidservant told Muhammad she was confident of Aisha’s innocence. By suggesting that Muhammad ask her, Ali might almost be said to have appeared supportive of Aisha. But his other words cannot be ignored. When he said ‘there are many women beside her’, this would have been devastating for Aisha. It could only be encouragement for Muhammad to divorce her. His words were also interpreted as attempting to pressurise the maid into making a confession of her mistress’s guilt. What Ali said infuriated Aisha, leaving her with a long-lasting enmity towards him.
After Muhammad’s death, it took Ali six months to offer his allegiance to Abu Bakr, and even thereafter the relationship between the two men remained cool. Towards the end of those six months, Ali’s wife, Fatima, died. Her burial took place at night, so that Abu Bakr could not attend – a very pointed snub indeed to the leader of the Muslim community, especially as she was the Prophet’s daughter. Could it be that she always considered Ali the rightful successor to Muhammad? It is also possible that while she was still alive she prevented Ali from accepting Abu Bakr as the leader. Ali does not seem ever to have renounced completely the hope of leading the community at some stage in the future.11 He would subsequently say that he considered himself to be the rightful successor to Muhammad, and only gave way to Abu Bakr for the sake of the unity of the community. This can be seen as part of a pattern of behaviour that reflects well on Ali since, as we shall see, there would be other occasions when he put the harmony of the community before his own interests and ambitions.
Accounts have survived from two of those involved in what happened during those crucial hours that followed the Prophet’s death.12 One is that of Aisha. The other is that of Ali’s (and the Prophet’s) cousin Abdullah bin Abbas. Not surprisingly, they provide very different narratives that support the position of the person each is closest to: Abu Bakr, in the case of Aisha, and Ali in the case of Abdullah (although relations between Ali and Abdullah would not always prove to be cordial).13
Aisha presents her father as the Prophet’s choice. She also portrays Abu Bakr as concerned with ensuring that the Prophet’s own blood relatives received their full inheritance rights; at the same time she goes out of her way to paint those relatives in a negative light, even mentioning an attempt by the Prophet’s uncle Abbas to force medicine on the dying Muhammad, which he did not want. For his part, Abdullah bin Abbas maintains that the Prophet did not make a will in favour of Ali as his successor, but this was probably because Aisha and Hafsa prevented Ali being on his own with Muhammad during his final hours. They always made sure that the father of one or other of them, that is to say Abu Bakr or Umar, was present. When Muhammad suggested that he should write a letter of guidance to the Companions – the Muslim faithful who knew him personally – Abdullah asserts that Umar prevented it. ‘The Messenger of God is overcome with pain,’ he said. ‘You have the Qur’an. The Book of God is sufficient for us.’14 Abdullah also states that his father, Abbas, suggested to Ali that he should raise the question of the succession directly with the Prophet. Abbas was confident that Muhammad would either tell Ali he should be the successor or at least insist that the Quraysh take good care of Ali and the Prophet’s other relatives. But Ali declined. For her part, Aisha has a story to counter that of Abdullah: the dying Muhammad asked her to call her father because he wanted to write him a letter. The Prophet feared there was ‘someone else’ – and this could only be Ali – who would have vain hopes of leadership once the Prophet was dead.
Aisha and Abdullah, then, give opposing views as to who the successor should be. They were adamant in those views, but both their accounts are self-serving. Aisha claimed that the Prophet died in her arms. Abdullah maintained that he died in the arms of Ali.15 It is also unsurprising that an atmosphere of distrust between supporters of Abu Bakr and Ali can be clearly detected at this time. It mirrored the pre-existing loyalties of
competing families, as well as the splits in the Muslim community that we have already discussed. The Prophet’s clan, the Banu Hashim, excluded Abu Bakr from any part in the funeral rites, while Ali took a leading role in them. In what may have been an act of retaliation, Abu Bakr deprived them of their share of inheritance of state lands acquired from unbelievers, even though this was provided for in the Qur’an.
Abu Bakr was already quite elderly at the time of his election and died only two years later. By then he had proved a decisive leader who had certainly repaid the trust placed in him by those who chose him. Not only did he quash the rebellions that broke out after the death of the Prophet and secure Arabia for Islam, but he directed the Muslim armies – largely led by members of the old Qurayshi aristocracy16 – towards Greater Syria, which at that time was part of the Byzantine, or Eastern Roman, Empire, which had its capital in Istanbul. Abu Bakr was noted for following the instructions of Muhammad to the letter, but used his authority to make sure that the Quraysh received their reward for supporting him.
One of Abu Bakr’s first tasks as the successor to the Prophet had been to send armies out to make sure that the tribes across Arabia remained within Islam and continued to make the payments they had agreed to send to Muhammad. From a strictly Muslim standpoint, this was problematic. As Umar is reported to have put it: ‘I was ordered to fight all people until they say “there is no god but God”. If they say this, they safeguard themselves and their property from me.’17 While Abu Bakr took away the inheritance of the Prophet’s family, including the shares of the prophet’s daughter Fatima and his grandchildren Hassan and Hussein, he did not deprive the Prophet’s widows of their legacies. Aisha, of course, was the most prominent widow. He transferred the large land holdings belonging to the Prophet to the treasury. This decision increased the funds available for the armies. As Abu Bakr’s health failed, he nominated Umar as his successor and persuaded the community to accept him. There was no suggestion of any elective process. Umar was far from popular, even among some of the other early Companions. Abu Bakr’s success in choosing his successor, and persuading the community to accept that choice, must therefore be seen as another sign of his strong charisma.
IV
After Umar succeeded Abu Bakr he tried to arrange a compromise over the issue of the inheritance that should be due to members of the Prophet’s family, and even admitted that the appointment of Abu Bakr had been over-hasty. But he was unswerving on the point that leadership could not, under any circumstances, go to the Prophet’s family. Others were already jealous of the fact that the Banu Hashim could claim the honour of being the family of the Prophet; the rest of the Quraysh would not tolerate them also acquiring leadership of the community.
The success of Umar’s ten-year reign vindicated Abu Bakr’s decision to nominate him as his successor. Those ten years were a period of truly dramatic conquest. Umar’s headstrong and outspoken nature made him another formidable champion of Islam. During the Prophet’s life he had taken a hard line towards the pagan aristocracy of Mecca. He had wanted the Meccan captives at Badr killed rather than ransomed, had objected to the compromise over pilgrimages to Mecca reached at Hudaybiyya, and had suggested that Abu Sufyan should be executed rather than pardoned after the final surrender of Mecca.18
Muslim armies had occupied the whole of Greater Syria and Iraq, Egypt and part of modern Iran by 644, when Umar was assassinated by a Persian slave in an incident that seems to have had no political motivation. Umar had also begun to organise the Muslim state on a more formal basis than hitherto, most notably by using lands expropriated in the conquered territories to pay pensions to the conquerors. Now that he was ruling over the Muslim community he did not question the fundamental role of the Quraysh, but stressed the precedence of those who were early converts at the expense of the old aristocracy. The conquests of Greater Syria and Iraq were now proceeding apace, swelling the coffers of the state with booty. The riches at his disposal for distribution were thus of an altogether different order than those which Muhammad or Abu Bakr had commanded.
The leading positions during his reign were largely occupied by early Muhajirun Companions. For Umar, precedence in acceptance of Islam was the most important qualification for leadership, but he also gave important roles to some of the Tulaqa’ (the late-converts from the Quraysh). After the death from plague of the distinguished Companion Abu Ubaidabin al-Jarrah, who had been Umar’s first choice as governor of recently conquered Greater Syria, he seems to have had little option but to appoint members of Abu Sufyan’s family to replace him.19 He nominated Abu Sufyan’s son Yazid, who had been one of the generals leading the invasion of Greater Syria, to become the governor of Damascus. When Yazid, too, died from the plague, Umar replaced him with his brother Mu‘awiya, whose role expanded to that of governor of the whole of Greater Syria.
By contrast, few Ansar were promoted to significant positions during Umar’s reign. They seem to have been notably absent, for instance, from the lists of those who fought at the Battle of Yarmouk, the Muslim victory that led the Byzantines finally to abandon Greater Syria. There were others, too, who were overlooked in the new order of precedence. These were proud members of old, non-Qurayshi tribal aristocracies whose positions had been diminished with the coming of Islam and the consequent ascendancy of the Quraysh. Some of the Ansar and tribal leaders from these aristocracies played significant roles in conquering and occupying Iraq, in a way that seems to have been denied to them elsewhere. It may have been significant that Iraq had always been less important to the Quraysh than Greater Syria.
V
In the space of a couple of decades –including the twelve-odd years since the death of the Prophet – events had taken place that would transform the history of the world. Islam was not yet securely established as a new religion, and internal tensions that threatened its unity and survival can already be detected, despite the impressive expansion of the Arab conquerors riding under the banner of the new faith. There was now a vigorous new empire that was Arab and Muslim, but there were cracks beneath its surface – rivalries, jealousies and conflicts of interest between those leading it and among the warriors who provided its armed might.
The geography of the Middle East was also changing to accommodate this new empire. The empire’s capital was still Medina, but its main source of wealth was now the rich, conquered territories of Greater Syria, Iraq and Egypt. In all of these it now exacted tribute on a scale that would have been unimaginable to the people of Mecca and Medina just ten years before. In the new provinces, the Arab warriors were settled in cantonments near the edge of the desert. Sometimes, as in the case of Damascus, this would be in centres that were conveniently placed for their connection to Medina, and Arabia generally. In other cases, new cities had to be built. Most of the Arab warriors in Iraq were settled in the new towns of Kufa and in Basra, both equally handy for a quick return to Arabia if this should prove necessary, as well as for the arrival of reinforcements from Medina. Cities like Damascus, Kufa and Basra were now beginning to take on an importance that, in a fairly brief period of time, would mean they would become the main political centres of the new world the Muslims were creating.
CHAPTER TWO
How Civil War Came to Islam
I
Umar died on 3 November 644. He was not killed outright. He lived long enough to summon six of the most eminent survivors among the Prophet’s Companions to decide on his successor. Their task of finding a successor who could keep the community united would not be easy. The focus was on two candidates, Ali and Uthman bin Affan.
As we have seen, Ali would have been the Ansar’s choice. He was a member of this six-man college convened to choose a successor, but there was no member of the Ansar among the other electors. He was decisively rejected, partly at least because he was perceived as the Ansar’s candidate. Uthman, the other leading contender, also had strong religious credentials. He was an early convert and was known to be devout. As with Abu Bakr,
Umar and Ali, his closeness to the Prophet was underlined by marriage alliances. He had married two of the Prophet’s daughters. First, he took the hand of Ruqaiya. When she died, he married Umm Kulthum.
Despite these marriage ties, Uthman seems to have been a less prominent figure during the Prophet’s mission than Abu Bakr, Umar or Ali. However, as has been pointed out by Wilferd Madelung, a renowned scholar of early Islamic history, the fact that Muhammad successively gave Uthman two of his daughters in marriage was an even greater honour than that he accorded Abu Bakr and Umar by taking the hands of a daughter of each of them.1 Uthman had played no military role whatsoever during or after the Prophet’s life; it was something for which it would seem he was unsuited. Yet he was important for the Prophet because he was a rare early convert from the Banu Umayya, the dominant section of the Quraysh, which had been implacably hostile to Muhammad and his mission until the submission of Mecca. Uthman was a wealthy merchant – something that was rare among the early converts. Coming from the Banu Umayya, he was a close kinsman of Muhammad’s former arch-enemy, Abu Sufyan. For the main body of the Quraysh, he was now an acceptable choice in a way that Ali was not. The fear was that Ali would have opened the leadership of the community to the Ansar and more recent converts from all over Arabia, in a way that would have ended the privileged position of the Quraysh.