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292-697: The battlefield was located in Siffin, a ruined Byzantine -era village at the right bank of the Euphrates in the vicinity of Raqqa in present-day Syria. It has been identified with the modern village of Abu Hureyra in the Raqqa Governorate . Ali frequently accused the third caliph, Uthman , of deviating from the Quran and the Sunna , and was joined in his criticism by most of the senior companions of

584-462: A sensational victory against Bulgaria and the Kievan Rus' in 971. John in particular was an astute administrator who reformed military structures and implemented effective fiscal policies. After John's death, Constantine VII's grandsons Basil II and Constantine VIII ruled jointly for half a century, although the latter exercised no real power before Basil's death in 1025. Their early reign

876-510: A binding solution on the basis of the Quran. He was silent at this point about revenge for Uthman and removal of Ali from office. Ibn Muzahim names Abu al-A'war al-Sulami as Mu'awiya's envoy to Ali. The proposal of Mu'awiya was accepted by the majority of Ali's army, reports al-Tabari. Nevertheless, the opposition to arbitration was a sizeable minority in Ali's camp, consisting of those who now realized

1168-467: A combination of external threats and internal instabilities caused the Roman state to splinter as regional armies acclaimed their generals as "soldier-emperors". One of these, Diocletian ( r.  284–305 ), seeing that the state was too big to be ruled by one man, attempted to fix the problem by instituting a Tetrarchy , or rule of four, and dividing the empire into eastern and western halves. Although

1460-574: A confrontation of Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law with the son of Muhammad's arch-enemy, Abu Sufyan, who had led the confederate armies against Muslims in the Battle of the Trench . This attitude is also reflected in a report by the Sunni al-Tabari, in which a companion of Ali likens the battle against Mu'awiya to Muhammad's battle against the polytheists ( mushrikun ) or rather its continuation. In Iraq, it

1752-645: A considerable increase in the size of urban settlements, together with a notable upsurge in new towns. Trade was also flourishing; the Venetians, the Genoese and others opened up the ports of the Aegean to commerce, shipping goods from the Crusader states and Fatimid Egypt to the west and trading with the empire via Constantinople. Manuel's death on 24 September 1180 left his 11-year-old son Alexios II Komnenos on

2044-464: A contested legacy to Roman identity and to associate negative connotations from ancient Latin literature. The adjective "Byzantine", which derived from Byzantion (Latinised as Byzantium ), the name of the Greek settlement Constantinople was established on, was only used to describe the inhabitants of that city; it did not refer to the empire, which they called Romanía —"Romanland". After

2336-576: A council ( shura ) after Mu'awiya, and preference for the Banu Hashim over the Banu Umayyad in pensions. Another condition was that Mu'awiya should end the ritual cursing of Ali in mosques, writes Mavani. Jafri similarly notes that the terms are recorded differently and ambiguously by al-Tabari, Dinawari, Ibn Abd al-Barr, and Ibn al-Athir, while al-Ya'qubi and al-Mas'udi ( d.  956 ) are silent about them. In particular, Jafri finds

2628-470: A council to appoint the new caliph per his earlier agreement with Amr. When Amr took the stage, however, he deposed Ali but confirmed Mu'awiya as the new caliph, thus violating his agreement with Abu Musa. Similar variants of this account are recounted by Ibn Muzahim and al-Kufi. The Kufan delegation then reacted furiously to Abu Musa's concessions, and he fled to Mecca in disgrace, whereas Amr was well-received by Mu'awiya upon his return to Syria. The common view

2920-571: A grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad , Hasan briefly ruled as Rashidun caliph from January 661 until August 661. He is considered as the second Imam in Shia Islam , succeeding Ali and preceding his brother Husayn . As a grandson of the prophet, he is part of the ahl al-bayt and the ahl al-kisa , and also participated in the event of the mubahala . During the caliphate of Ali ( r.  656–661 ), Hasan accompanied him in

3212-510: A handful of companions. In the opinion of Ayoub, the Syrian army was loyal to Mu'awiya, whereas Ali's troops were mostly semi-nomadic men unaccustomed to a central authority. To support his view, Ayoub cites a tradition attributed to al-Hajjaj ibn Khuzayma. He reportedly brought the news of the assassination to Mu'awiya, praised the loyalty of his army, and added that with Ali were men who often interrupted his speech and questioned his command. As for

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3504-595: A large number in Venice. According to chronicler Niketas Choniates , a prostitute was even set up on the patriarchal throne. When order had been restored, the crusaders and the Venetians proceeded to implement their agreement; Baldwin of Flanders was elected emperor of a new Latin Empire , and the Venetian Thomas Morosini was chosen as patriarch. The lands divided up among the leaders included most of

3796-460: A lengthy conflict against Sasanid Persia and ended in 363 with the death of his son-in-law Julian . The short Valentinianic dynasty , occupied with wars against barbarians , religious debates, and anti-corruption campaigns, ended in the East with the death of Valens at the Battle of Adrianople in 378. Valens's successor, Theodosius I ( r.  379–395 ), restored political stability in

4088-616: A letter to Mu'awiya that demanded his pledge of allegiance to Ali and made it clear that he would be dismissed from his post afterward. The caliph argued in his letter that his election in Medina was binding on Mu'awiya in Syria because he was elected by the same people who had pledged to his predecessors, as reported in Waq'at Siffin , authored by the Shia Nasr ibn Muzahim ( d.  828 ), one of

4380-495: A letter, which he refused. As the news of the mutiny against Hasan and the attempt at his life arrived, however, both sides abstained from fighting and awaited further developments. Veccia Vaglieri writes that the Iraqis were reluctant to fight and a group deserted every day. By one account, 8,000 men out of 12,000 followed Ubayd Allah's example and joined Mu'awiya. When Hasan learned about this, al-Ya'qubi writes that he summoned

4672-406: A letter, who rejected it, possibly perceiving the proposal as a stratagem for Mu'awiya to take over the caliphate step by step. Alternatively, had Ali accepted Mu'awiya's proposal, the Islamic territory might have been irreversibly divided into two parts, suggests McHugo. Mu'awiya now sent Jarir back to Kufa with a formal declaration of war, which charged Ali with the murder of Uthman and vowed that

4964-651: A line through the Adriatic Sea and south to Cyrene, Libya . This encompassed most of the Balkans , all of modern Greece, Turkey, Syria , Palestine ; North Africa, primarily with modern Egypt and Libya ; the Aegean islands along with Crete , Cyprus and Sicily , and a small settlement in Crimea . The landscape of the Empire was defined by the fertile fields of Anatolia , long mountain ranges and rivers such as

5256-570: A military strategist, Amr was believed to be an illegitimate child of Abu Sufyan. He had conquered, and then governed Egypt, but was later removed by Uthman. After his dismissal, Amr incited rebellion against Uthman, and later publicly took some credit for the assassination of Uthman by the Egyptian rebels. However, he soon changed his tone and pinned the murder on Ali, possibly fearing the Umayyads' wrath, or perhaps realizing that he would not receive

5548-498: A mutiny at his military camp near al-Mada'in . Among the five surviving accounts, Jafri prefers the one by Abu Hanifa Dinawari ( d.  895 ), which states that Hasan was concerned about his troops' resolve by the time he reached the outskirts of al-Mada'in. He thus halted the army at Sabat and told them in a speech that he preferred peace over war because his men were reluctant to fight. According to al-Mada'ini ( d.  843 ), Hasan also quoted Ali as saying, "Do not loathe

5840-641: A post in Ali's government. After arriving in Damascus, Amr officially swore his allegiance to Mu'awiya in 657. He thus pledged to back the Umayyads against Ali in return for the life-long governorship of Egypt. This pact turned a suspect in the assassination of Uthman into his avenger, and also later gave rise to a story recorded by some historians, including al-Baladhuri and the Shia-leaning al-Ya'qubi ( d.  897-8 ). Amr privately confesses in this story to selling his religion for worldly gain. Even though

6132-552: A power base in Syria which made his removal difficult. Ali replaced Mu'awiya with Ibn Abbas , who feared the retaliation of Mu'awiya and asked Ali to postpone his appointment until his rule was firmly established, according to al-Baladhuri. There are some reports of early correspondence, and al-Baladhuri writes about a letter by Ali that asked Mu'awiya to report to him in Medina. Alternatively, Madelung suggests that Ali contacted Mu'awiya only after arriving in Kufa, following his victory in

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6424-454: A pretext for him to seize the caliphate, according to Jafri. In the surrender ceremony, Mu'awiya demanded Hasan to publicly apologize. Hasan rose and reminded the people that he and Husayn were Muhammad's only grandsons and the right to the caliphate was his and not Mu'awiya's, but he had surrendered it to avoid bloodshed. Mu'awiya then spoke and recanted his earlier promises to Hasan and others, saying that those promises were made to shorten

6716-407: A problem for Mu'awiya, who planned to designate his son Yazid ( r.  680–683 ) as his successor, in violation of the peace treaty with Hasan. Jafri thus believes that Mu'wiya should be suspected in the murder of Hasan, which removed an obstacle to the succession of his son. This view is echoed by Momen and Madelung. Hasan did not disclose who he suspected of his poisoning, fearing that

7008-708: A related account, al-Ya'qubi quotes Mu'awiya as saying, "May God not allow me and [my father] Abu Sufyan drink from the spring ( hawd ) of the messenger of God if they [the enemies] ever drink from this water." Soon, however, the Iraqis drove off the Syrians and seized control of the watering place, though Ali permitted the enemies to freely access the water source. For Ayoub, this episode is an example of how Mu'awiya used religious language for military and political gain, while Ali held religious imperatives above all. The two sides at Siffin engaged in skirmishes and negotiations. This continued for some three months, certainly through

7300-455: A request from Mu'awiya to subdue a Kharijite revolt near Kufa. He wrote back to Mu'awiya that he had given up his claim to the caliphate for the sake of peace and compromise, not to fight on his side. Between his abdication in 41/661 and his death in 50/670, Hasan lived quietly in Medina and did not engage in politics. In compliance with the peace treaty, Hasan declined requests from (often small) Shia groups to lead them against Mu'awiya. He

7592-469: A share of five thousand dirhams in Umar's system of state pension. According to Ibn Isfandiyar , Hasan also took part in an expedition to Amol during the caliphate of Umar, though the veracity of such reports have been questioned by Paktchi et al. Defying Uthman, Hasan joined his father in bidding farewell to Abu Dharr al-Ghifari ( d.  652 ), who was exiled from Medina after he preached against

7884-450: A small fleet of 100 ships to defend the capital, but other than that he was indifferent to the populace. He was finally overthrown when Isaac II Angelos , surviving an imperial assassination attempt, seized power with the aid of the people and had Andronikos killed. The reign of Isaac II, and more so that of his brother Alexios III , saw the collapse of what remained of the centralised machinery of Byzantine government and defence. Although

8176-417: A speedy and marked improvement. Gradually, however, Andronikos's reign deteriorated. The aristocrats were infuriated against him, and to make matters worse, Andronikos seemed to have become increasingly unbalanced; executions and violence became increasingly common, and his reign turned into a reign of terror. Andronikos seemed almost to seek the extermination of the aristocracy as a whole. The struggle against

8468-405: A truce and then offering Ubayd Allah a million dirhams to switch sides. Ubayd Allah accepted and deserted at night to Mu'awiya, who fulfilled his promise to him. The next morning, Qays ibn Sa'd took charge of Hasan's troops as the second-in-command and denounced Ubayd Allah in a sermon. Mu'awiya now sent a contingent to force surrender but was pushed back twice. He then offered bribes to Qays in

8760-452: A truce must have appealed to them, or because some in his camp saw the ceasefire as an opportunity to regain their influence over Ali. While this majority wanted the fighting to stop, there was also probably a minority that was certain of victory and wanted the fight to continue, and yet another minority that followed Ali unconditionally. For his part, Ali is said to have exhorted his men to continue fighting, telling them to no avail that raising

9052-517: A two-month siege on 29 May 1453. The final Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos , was last seen casting off his imperial regalia and throwing himself into hand-to-hand combat after the walls of the city were taken. The Empire was centred in what is now Greece and Turkey with Constantinople as its capital. In the 5th century, it controlled the eastern basis of the Mediterranean running east from Singidunum (modern Belgrade ) in

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9344-426: A victorious Ali, who likely intended to restore the Islamic leadership in Kufa at the cost of its tribal aristocracy that had emerged under Uthman. On the other hand, Mu'awiya's victory would have meant the subjugation and loss of Iraq as the base of their power. Therefore, they reluctantly participated in Siffin and readily accepted the arbitration offers. The opinion of Hinds is close, while Shaban similarly writes that

9636-605: A year after the initial agreement, it appears that the two arbitrators met together, first in Dumat al-Jandal , halfway between Iraq and Syria, and then in Udhruh , in southern Palestine . This is the understanding of Madelung, Veccia Vaglieri, Caetani, and Bahramian, while some others believe that the two arbitrators met only once. In Dumat al-Jandal, the proceedings lasted for (possibly three) weeks, likely extending to mid-April 658. The account of al-Tabari depicts Abu Musa as opposed to

9928-471: Is considered the most reliable, reporting that Hasan had fifteen sons and nine daughters with six wives and three known concubines. His first marriage was contracted with Ja'da , daughter of the Kinda chief al-Ash'ath ibn Qays , soon after Ali relocated to Kufa. Madelung suggests that Ali with this marriage intended to establish ties with the powerful Yemeni tribes in Kufa. Hasan had no children with Ja'da, who

10220-445: Is described as a good orator, he might have also suffered from a speech defect, according to Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani. In contrast to Hasan, Madelung suggests that Husayn might have inherited his father's "fighting spirit." The sources hostile to Hasan interpret his peace treaty with Mu'awiya as a sign of weakness, saying that Hasan intended to surrender from the beginning. Some authors instead suggest that Hasan's decision to abdicate

10512-541: Is evidence that some Komnenian heirs had set up a semi-independent state in Trebizond before 1204. According to the historian Alexander Vasiliev , "the dynasty of the Angeloi, Greek in its origin, ... accelerated the ruin of the Empire, already weakened without and disunited within." In 1198, Pope Innocent III broached the subject of a new crusade through legates and encyclical letters. The stated intent of

10804-547: Is impossible to precisely date the foundation of the Byzantine Empire. In a series of conflicts between the third and first centuries   BC, the Roman Republic gradually established hegemony over the eastern Mediterranean , while its government ultimately transformed into the one-person rule of an emperor . The Roman Empire enjoyed a period of relative stability until the third century AD , when

11096-549: Is in connection with Hujr ibn Adi and Amr ibn al-Hamiq, both loyal to Ali. When the caliph learned that they were openly dissociating from and cursing the Syrians, he asked them to describe the evil in their actions instead of vilifying them. After the Battle of Siffin, however, Ali introduced a curse on Mu'awiya in the qunut s of his fajr congregational prayers when the latter declared himself caliph in Syria. A report by al-Tabari indicates that Ali directly negotiated with

11388-405: Is less evidence for any violence here than in the case of the first caliph, Abu Bakr ( r.  632–634 ), even though many broke with Ali later, claiming that they had pledged under duress. At the same time, that the majority favored Ali in Medina might have created an intimidating atmosphere for those opposed to him. At the time of the assassination, the key governorships were in the hands of

11680-449: Is no consensus on a "foundation date" for the Byzantine Empire, if there was one at all. The growth of the study of "late antiquity" has led to some historians setting a start date in the seventh or eighth centuries. Others believe a "new empire" began during changes in c.  300   AD. Still others hold that these starting points are too early or too late, and instead begin c.  500 . Geoffrey Greatrex believes that it

11972-503: Is often accused of poisoning him. Umm Bashir was Hasan's second wife and bore him his eldest son Zayd, his daughter Umm al-Husayn, and probably another daughter Umm al-Hasan. Umm Bashir was the daughter of Abu Mas'ud Uqba ibn Amr , who had opposed the Kufan revolt against Uthman. Madelung writes that Ali was hoping to bring Abu Mas'ud to his side with the marriage. After his abdication and return to Medina, Hasan married Khawla, daughter of

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12264-468: Is quoted as saying that Uthman was killed by those indignant about his transgressions. Even when pressed by Mu'awiya's envoys, the report adds that Ali refused to say that Uthman was killed wrongfully. Madelung sides with this judgment of Ali from a judicial point of view, saying that Uthman probably did not sanction the murder of Niyar ibn Iyad Aslami, which triggered the deadly raid on his residence, but he obstructed justice by preventing an investigation into

12556-412: Is that the arbitration failed, or was inconclusive. This sentiment is perhaps summed up by the early historian Khalifah ibn Khayyat ( d.  854 ) in one sentence, "The arbiters agreed on nothing." The arbitration nevertheless strengthened the Syrians' support for Mu'awiya and weakened the position of Ali. It also gave the former an opportunity to regroup, according to Momen. After the conclusion of

12848-407: Is the conclusion of Ayoub that he might have had two scenarios in mind: The first one was keeping the rule of Syria and annexing Egypt, as he indeed proposed to Ali's envoy, Jarir. Another clause of this same proposal was that Mu'awiya would not recognize the successor of Ali in case of his death, which suggests that Mu'awiya might have considered himself the future caliph after Ali. The second scenario

13140-473: Is the view of historian Bernard Lewis ( d.  2018 ) that the position of Ali was weakened by tribal disunity and insubordination. To illustrate the division among Kufans, Ayoub cites an account by Ibn Muzahim to the effect that some asked Ali for permission to accompany his army without engaging in battle until they made up their minds. In contrast, Syria was ruled by the Ghassanids before Islam, and

13432-442: Is unsure, while Wilferd Madelung strongly rejects the accusation, saying that it "stretches the imagination" in the absence of any evidence. In turn, he accuses Marwan, the bellicose secretary of Uthman, while Hugh N. Kennedy holds Uthman responsible for the letter. The caliph was assassinated soon afterward in the final days of 35 AH (June 656) by the Egyptian rebels, during a raid on his residence in Medina. Ali played no role in

13724-401: The ridda tribesmen of Kufa and all newcomers to the city from their clans. These formed the largest bloc in Ali's army. They followed al-Ash'ath ibn Qays, who told Ali that his clan would not fight for him if he refused the Syrians' call, as reported in Waq'at Siffin and Moruj. Ali might have thus faced a mutiny, and was forced to recall al-Ashtar, who is said to have advanced far towards

14016-534: The sayyid s ( lit.   ' chiefs ' ) of the youth in the paradise. Madelung adds that this hadith is widely reported, while Veccia Vaglieri ( d.  1989 ) notes that its authenticity was disputed by the Umayyad Marwan ( r.  684–685 ). The same source and the canonical Shia source Kitab al-Irshad narrate the prophetic hadith, "He who has loved Hasan and Husayn has loved me and he who has hated them has hated me." Similarly,

14308-715: The Tactica , a military treatise; and the Book of the Eparch , which codified Constantinople's trading regulations. In non-literary contexts Leo was less successful: the empire lost in Sicily and against the Bulgarians , while he provoked theological scandal by marrying four times in an attempt to father a legitimate heir. The early reign of that heir, Constantine VII , was tumultuous, as his mother Zoe , his uncle Alexander ,

14600-502: The Banu Kath'am , which was divided to Iraqi and Syrian branches. The number of troops is uncertain. According to Nasr ibn Muzahim ( d.  828 ), both armies numbered around 150,000 by one report, whereas another report puts the numbers at 100,000 and 130,000 for Ali and Mu'awiya, respectively. As for their Islamic credentials, a considerable number of Muhammad's companions were present in Ali's army, whereas Mu'awiya could only boast

14892-536: The Catalan Company ravaging the countryside and increasing resentment towards Constantinople. The situation became worse for Byzantium during the civil wars after Andronikos III died. A six-year-long civil war devastated the empire, allowing the Serbian ruler Stefan Dušan to overrun most of the empire's remaining territory and establish a Serbian Empire . In 1354, an earthquake at Gallipoli devastated

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15184-706: The Council of Clermont and urged all those present to take up arms under the sign of the Cross and launch an armed pilgrimage to recover Jerusalem and the East from the Muslims. The response in Western Europe was overwhelming. Alexios was able to recover a number of important cities, islands and much of western Asia Minor. The Crusaders agreed to become Alexios' vassals under the Treaty of Devol in 1108, which marked

15476-684: The Council of Piacenza in 1095, envoys from Alexios spoke to Pope Urban II about the suffering of the Christians of the East and underscored that without help from the West, they would continue to suffer under Muslim rule. Urban saw Alexios' request as a dual opportunity to cement Western Europe and reunite the Eastern Orthodox Church with the Roman Catholic Church under his rule. On 27 November 1095, Urban called

15768-475: The Danube , he pushed his troops too far in 602—they mutinied, proclaimed an officer named Phocas as emperor, and executed Maurice. The Sasanians seized their moment and reopened hostilities ; Phocas was unable to cope and soon faced a major rebellion led by Heraclius . Phocas lost Constantinople in 610 and was soon executed, but the destructive civil war accelerated the empire's decline. Under Khosrow II ,

16060-750: The Danube . In the north and west were the Balkans, the corridors between the mountain ranges of Pindos , the Dinaric Alps , the Rhodopes and the Balkans . In the south and east were Anatolia, the Pontic Mountains and the Taurus - Anti-Taurus range, which served as passages for armies, while the Caucasus mountains lay between the Empire and its eastern neighbours. Roman roads connected

16352-636: The Empire of Trebizond , was created after Alexios I of Trebizond , commanding the Georgian expedition in Chaldia a few weeks before the sack of Constantinople, found himself de facto emperor and established himself in Trebizond. Of the three successor states, Epirus and Nicaea stood the best chance of reclaiming Constantinople. The Nicaean Empire struggled to survive the next few decades, however, and by

16644-464: The Kharijites ( lit.   ' seceders ' ), who later took up arms against Ali in the Battle of Nahrawan (658). They soon labeled anyone who opposed them as nonbelievers, who had to be fought, thus becoming the forerunners of Islamic extremism , according to some. Donner suggests that the seceders, among them many of the qurra , may have feared being held accountable for their role in

16936-641: The Komnenian restoration , and Constantinople would remain the largest and wealthiest city in Europe until the 13th century. The empire was largely dismantled in 1204, following the Sack of Constantinople by Latin armies at the end of the Fourth Crusade ; its former territories were then divided into competing Greek rump states and Latin realms . Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261,

17228-689: The Normans who arrived in Italy at the beginning of the 11th century. During a period of strife between Constantinople and Rome culminating in the East-West Schism of 1054 , the Normans advanced gradually into Byzantine Italy . Reggio , the capital of the tagma of Calabria, was captured in 1060 by Robert Guiscard , followed by Otranto in 1068. Bari , the main Byzantine stronghold in Apulia ,

17520-581: The Pechenegs , who were caught by surprise and annihilated at the Battle of Levounion on 28 April 1091. Having achieved stability in the West, Alexios could turn his attention to the severe economic difficulties and the disintegration of the empire's traditional defences. However, he still did not have enough manpower to recover the lost territories in Asia Minor and to the advance by the Seljuks. At

17812-621: The Quran and the sunna , a council should appoint his successor, and Hasan's supporters would receive amnesty. Hasan retired from politics and abdicated in Medina where he died either from illness or poisoning, though the early sources are nearly unanimous that he was poisoned. Mu'awiya is commonly viewed as the instigator in the murder of Hasan, which removed an obstacle to the succession of his son Yazid I ( r.  680–683 ). Critics of Hasan call his treaty with Mu'awiya an indication of weakness, saying that he intended to surrender from

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18104-633: The Renaissance . The fall of Constantinople is sometimes used to mark the dividing line between the Middle Ages and the early modern period . The inhabitants of the empire, now generally termed Byzantines, thought of themselves as Romans ( Romaioi ). Their Islamic neighbours similarly called their empire the "land of the Romans" ( Bilād al-Rūm ), but the people of medieval Western Europe preferred to call them "Greeks" ( Graeci ), due to having

18396-458: The Roman papacy . In 780, Empress Irene assumed power on behalf of her son Constantine VI . Although she was a capable administrator who temporarily resolved the iconoclasm controversy, the empire was destabilized by her feud with her son. The Bulgars and Abbasids meanwhile inflicted numerous defeats on the Byzantine armies, and the papacy crowned Charlemagne as Roman emperor in 800. In 802,

18688-457: The sea walls of Constantinople , overhaul provincial governance, and wage inconclusive campaigns against the Abbasids. After his death, his empress Theodora , ruling on behalf of her son Michael III , permanently extinguished the iconoclastic movement; the empire prospered under their sometimes-fraught rule. However, Michael was posthumously vilified by historians loyal to the dynasty of his successor Basil I , who assassinated him in 867 and who

18980-401: The "Umayyad propaganda" reflected in the account of al-Zuhri, quoted by al-Tabari. Since Ali and his house rejected the conduct of Abu Bakr and Umar in the shura after Umar in 23/644, Jafri believes that the clause about following the Rashidun caliphs was inserted by later Sunni authors. That Mu'awiya agreed to an amnesty for the supporters of Ali indicates that the revenge for Uthman was

19272-417: The "uniting" and not "dividing" Sunna of Muhammad, and to do so only if they could not find their answer in the Quran. Making peace was the only objective listed in the agreement, which also guaranteed the safety of the arbitrators and made their ruling binding. The agreement also initially referred to Ali by his official title of amir al-mu'minin ( lit.   ' commander of the faithful ' ) but this

19564-510: The 532 Nika revolt he rebuilt much of Constantinople, including the original Hagia Sophia . Justinian took advantage of political instability in Italy to attempt the reconquest of lost western territories. The Vandal Kingdom in North Africa was subjugated in 534 by the general Belisarius , who then invaded Italy ; the Ostrogothic Kingdom was destroyed in 554. In the 540s, however, Justinian began to suffer reversals on multiple fronts. Taking advantage of Constantinople's preoccupation with

19856-408: The Arab efforts to capture Constantinople in the 670s , but suffered a reversal against the Bulgars , who soon established an empire in the northern Balkans . Nevertheless, he and Constans had done enough to secure the empire's position, especially as the Umayyad Caliphate was undergoing another civil war . Justinian II sought to build on the stability secured by his father Constantine but

20148-433: The Banu Hashim and Banu Umayyad, respectively, soon gathered with weapons. Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya reportedly intervened and reminded Hasan's burial request. He was then buried in al-Baqi. Dinawari writes the Umayyads shot arrows at the body during the standoff, and this is also the Shia view. Madelung suggests that Mu'awiya later rewarded Marwan for his stand by reinstating him as the governor of Medina. As Hasan's body

20440-448: The Battle of the Camel, and was perhaps emboldened by that challenge to the authority of Ali. Once in Kufa, Ali dispatched his first emissary, Jarir ibn Abd-Allah al-Bajali, a notable Yemenite and Uthman's governor of Hamadan , who volunteered to represent Ali because of his personal ties with the Umayyads. His was nevertheless deemed unfit for the task by some, including Malik al-Ashtar, who questioned his loyalty. Jarir carried with him

20732-476: The Battle of the Camel. He might have waited this long perhaps to have the upper hand after his victory or perhaps because Mu'awiya was not a serious contender for the caliphate anyway, considering that he was a taliq (those pardoned by Muhammad when Mecca fell to Muslims), the son of Abu Sufyan , who had led the confederates against Muslims, and Hind, who was responsible for mutilating the body of Muhammad's uncle Hamza . For his part, Mu'awiya had waited through

21024-544: The Battle of the Camel. The majority in Ali's army also pressed for Abu Musa, even though he was reportedly neutral, and despite the opposition of Ali, who said he could not trust Abu Musa because he had earlier agitated against him. Ali was also apparently concerned about Abu Musa's political naivety, or about his neutrality. The alternatives proposed by Ali were Ibn Abbas and al-Ashtar, according to Ibn Muzahim, both of whom were rejected by al-Ash'ath and other Yemenites, and also by

21316-467: The Byzantine administration's policy of heavy taxation and abolishing of the levy. The weakening of Georgia and Armenia played a significant role in the Byzantine defeat at Manzikert in 1071. Basil II is considered among the most capable Byzantine emperors and his reign as the apex of the empire in the Middle Ages . By 1025, the date of Basil II's death, the Byzantine Empire stretched from Armenia in

21608-531: The Byzantine borders by agreeing to a truce at the cost of a "humiliating" tribute to them. He left the protection of his western borders to three local Palestinian commanders, probably because Muhammad ibn Abu Bakr faced internal problems as Ali's new governor in Egypt. Siffin is described in Arabic sources as a conflict between the people of Iraq and Syria, in which most tribes were represented on both sides, such as

21900-472: The Byzantine threats. In contrast, after the Byzantines' defeats, Ali might have expected all provinces to equally share the burden of immigration. Shaban has a similar view. Verse 17:33 of the Quran was cited by Mu'awiya to justify revenge, "If anyone is killed wrongfully, We give his next-of-kin authority, but let him not be extravagant in killing, surely he is being helped," although Madelung suggests that

22192-589: The Empire by land, with the Via Egnatia running from Constantinople to the Albanian coast through Macedonia and the Via Traiana to Adrianople (modern Edirne ), Serdica (modern Sofia ) and Singidunum. By water, Crete, Cyprus and Sicily were key naval points and the main ports connecting Constantinople were Alexandria, Gaza, Caesarea and Antioch. The Aegean sea was considered an internal lake within

22484-432: The Empire. The emperor was the centre of the whole administration of the Empire, who the legal historian Kaius Tuori has said was "above the law, within the law, and the law itself"; with a power that is difficult to define and which does not align with our modern understanding of the separation of powers. The proclamations of the crowds of Constantinople, and the inaugurations of the patriarch from 457, would legitimise

22776-546: The Family of the Prophet. Ali's commander Qays ibn Sa'd was the first to pledge his allegiance to Hasan. Qays offered his oath based on the Quran, precedent ( sunna ), and jihad against those who declared lawful ( halal ) what was unlawful ( haram ). Hasan, however, avoided the last condition by saying that it was implicit in the first two. About this episode, Jafri ( d.  2019 ) suggests that Hasan

23068-478: The Fazara chief Manzur ibn Zabban. Khawla already had two sons and a daughter from Muhammad ibn Talha , who was killed in the Battle of the Camel. After her father protested that he had been ignored, Hasan presented Khawla to her father and remarried her with his approval. Khawla bore Hasan his son, Hasan . Hasan in Medina also married Hafsa bint Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr . It is said that al-Mundhir ibn al-Zubayr

23360-686: The Imam victorious. Hasan was born in Medina in c.  625 . Sources differ on whether he was born in the Islamic months of Sha'ban or Ramadan , though most early works give his birthdate as 15 Ramadan 3 AH (2 March 625 CE), which is annually celebrated by the Shia. Hasan was the firstborn of Muhammad's daughter Fatima and his cousin Ali . Their union holds a special spiritual significance for Muslims, write Nasr and Afsaruddin , and Muhammad said he followed divine orders to marry Fatima to Ali, narrates

23652-513: The Iraqi qurra . Veccia Vaglieri and Rahman write that the Iraqis were so convinced of the legitimacy of their cause that they insisted on the neutral Abu Musa, whereas others suggest that they were impressed by his piety, or his beautiful recitations of the Quran, or that he stood for provincial autonomy in Kufans' view. Mu'awiya was represented by his top general, Amr ibn al-As, who acted solely in

23944-568: The Iraqi nobles and reproached them for their unreliability and fickle-mindedness, echoing the speeches of Ali after Siffin. Mu'awiya now sent envoys to propose that Hasan abdicate in his favor to spare Muslim blood. In return, Mu'awiya was ready to designate Hasan as his successor, grant him safety, and offer him a large financial settlement. Hasan accepted the overture in principle and sent his representative(s) to Mu'awiya, who sent them back to Hasan with carte blanche , inviting him to dictate whatever he wanted. Hasan wrote that he would surrender

24236-543: The Islamic prophet Muhammad , including Talha and Zubayr . Uthman was also widely accused of nepotism, corruption, and injustice, and Ali is known to have protested his conduct, including his lavish gifts for his kinsmen, the Umayyads . Ali also protected outspoken companions, such as Abu Dharr al-Ghifari and Ammar ibn Yasir , from Uthman. Ali appears in early sources as a restraining influence on Uthman without directly opposing him. Some supporters of Ali were also part of

24528-514: The Islamicists Farhad Daftary and John Kelsay say that the actual murderers soon fled (Medina) after the assassination, a view for which Jafri cites al-Tabari. Closely associated with Ali was Malik al-Ashtar, a leader of the qurra , who had led the Kufan delegation against Uthman, even though they had heeded Ali's call for nonviolence, and did not participate in the deadly siege. A leading Egyptian rebel with links to Ali

24820-399: The Kufan tribal leaders and enlisted in his army some 40,000 muqatila ( lit.   ' fighting men ' ), 17,000 of their sons who had reached the fighting age, and 8,000 clients and slaves. In Basra, however, Ali's governor was only able to recruit some 3200 men. In Syria, Uthman's bloodstained shirt was taken from town to town to incite the people to revenge, though the support for

25112-465: The Kufan tribes had benefited from Uthman's policies and were not enthusiastic about the war with Mu'awiya. Jafri further suggests that the Kufan tribal leaders probably resented the egalitarian policies of Ali, as he divided the treasury funds equally among Arabs and non-Arabs, and among late- and new-comers to Kufa. This is also the view of Ayoub. There are different views as to why the qurra preferred arbitration. Perhaps they welcomed arbitration by

25404-580: The Mongol invasion also gave Nicaea a temporary respite from Seljuk attacks, allowing it to concentrate on the Latin Empire to its north. The Empire of Nicaea, founded by the Laskarid dynasty , managed to recapture Constantinople in 1261 and defeat Epirus . This led to a short-lived revival of Byzantine fortunes under Michael VIII Palaiologos , but the war-ravaged empire was ill-equipped to deal with

25696-662: The Muslim community and changed its course. 35°57′00″N 39°01′00″E  /  35.9500°N 39.0167°E  / 35.9500; 39.0167 Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire , also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire , was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred in Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages . The eastern half of the Empire survived

25988-461: The Muslim rule to Mu'awiya if he would comply with the Quran and sunna , his successor would be appointed by a council ( shura ), the people would remain safe, and Hasan's supporters would receive amnesty. His letter was witnessed by two representatives, who carried it to Mu'awiya. Hasan thus renounced the caliphate in August 661 after a seven-month reign. This year is considered by a number of

26280-587: The Normans were driven out of Greece, in 1186 the Vlachs and Bulgars began a rebellion that led to the formation of the Second Bulgarian Empire . The internal policy of the Angeloi was characterised by the squandering of the public treasure and fiscal maladministration. Imperial authority was severely weakened, and the growing power vacuum at the centre of the empire encouraged fragmentation. There

26572-432: The Quran because they had been fighting to enforce the rule of the Quran all along. Alternatively, Kennedy suggests that the qurra may have wanted a compromise with the Syrians that would have restricted the caliph. His argument is that the Iraqi qurra had opposed Uthman to gain more financial and political autonomy. They were thus willing to grant the same autonomy to the Syrians. In contrast, Jafri first argues that

26864-451: The Quran on their lances, shouting, "Let the Book of God be the judge between us." The fighting thus stopped at once. Bahramian lists two precedents for this: Before the Battle of the Camel, a representative of Ali, carrying a copy of the Quran, had summoned the rebels to the book. The war broke out when that man was killed by the rebels. Then during the Battle of the Camel, Ka'b ibn Sur al-Azdi,

27156-413: The Quran was for deception. The account of Ibn Muzahim too reflects this attitude of Ali. Despite his pleas, the majority of the qurra and those reluctant for war insisted on accepting the call to arbitration. In the former group, Mis'ar ibn Fadaki and Zayd ibn Hisn al-Ta'i, who both later became Kharijite leaders, threatened to kill Ali if he did not answer the Syrians' call. The latter group included

27448-550: The Quran. There was no response at first, possibly because some tribal chiefs were bribed by Mu'awiya. Hasan's companions now scolded the crowd and inspired them to leave in large numbers for the army campgrounds in Nukhayla. Hasan soon joined them and appointed Ubayd Allah ibn Abbas as the commander of a vanguard of twelve thousand men tasked with holding Mu'awiya back in Maskin until the arrival of Hasan's main army. Ubayd Allah

27740-680: The Sassanids occupied the Levant and Egypt and pushed into Asia Minor, while Byzantine control of Italy slipped and the Avars and Slavs ran riot in the Balkans. Although Heraclius repelled a siege of Constantinople in 626 and defeated the Sassanids in 627, this was a pyrrhic victory . The early Muslim conquests soon saw the conquest of the Levant , Egypt , and the Sassanid Empire by

28032-548: The Shia historian Ibn A'tham al-Kufi (ninth century). He soon launched a propaganda campaign across Syria, charging Ali in the death of Uthman and calling for revenge. Mu'awiya also wrote to Amr ibn al-As to join him in Damascus , possibly to draw on his political and military expertise, or perhaps he hoped that Amr would bring the neighboring Egypt under his rule, having failed earlier to intimidate Ali's governor of Egypt to switch sides. A Qurayshite companion of Muhammad and

28324-500: The Shia who might have transferred the blame to his daughter. Alternatively, the Sunni al-Haytham ibn Adi identifies the daughter of Suhayl ibn Amr as the murderer . Another account by the Sunni al-Waqidi pins the crime on a servant of Hasan at the instigation of Mu'awiya. Yet another account is that Yazid proposed to Zaynab bint Ja'far ibn Abi Talib , who refused and instead married Hasan. The enraged Yazid subsequently had Hasan poisoned. A recent article by Burke et al. examined

28616-601: The Sunni Ibn 'Abd al-Barr ( d.  1071 ) lists Hasan as a commander at Siffin and the Shia Nasr ibn Muzahim ( d.  827-8 ) narrates that Mu'awiya offered Hasan to switch sides at Siffin but was rejected. Haj-Manouchehri writes that Hasan persuaded some neutral figures to support Ali at Siffin, including Sulayman ibn Surad al-Khuza'i. He adds that Hasan vigorously opposed the arbitration process after Siffin, alongside his father. In November 658, Ali placed Hasan in charge of his land endowments. In January 661, Ali

28908-602: The Sunni al-Suyuti ( d.  1505 ), among others. Ali reportedly had chosen another name in Sunni sources but deferred to Muhammad who named the child Hasan ( lit.   ' good, virtuous ' ). To celebrate his birth, Muhammad sacrificed a ram, while Fatima shaved Hasan's head and donated the weight of his hair in silver. Hasan was raised in Muhammad's household until the age of seven when his grandfather died. Early sources widely report Muhammad's love for Hasan and his brother Husayn, saying that Muhammad allowed

29200-454: The Syrian camp, reportedly separated from victory by "a horse's gallop." He initially refused to stop fighting, perhaps sensing imminent victory. Contrary to all these reports, an account by al-Kufi suggests that Ali welcomed the call to arbitration, even comparing it to the Treaty of Hudaybiyya (628) by Muhammad. This account is also what John Kelsay and Reza Aslan prefer, with the latter saying that most of his men pleaded with Ali to ignore

29492-427: The Syrians had never pledged allegiance to Ali in the first place, even though similar cases were judged to be apostasy by Abu Bakr. This last argument was also put forward to justify the rebellion in a letter directed at Ali and attributed to Mu'awiya. Elsewhere, Ali is said to have barred his followers from cursing the Syrians, saying that it might jeopardize any remaining hopes for a peaceful resolution. One such report

29784-502: The Syrians were thus accustomed to a central authority and obedient to Mu'awiya, according to Wellhausen. After leaving Kufa, Ali's army took the route through al-Mada'in . They reached Siffin early in the summer of 36/657, a location west of the Euphrates. There, the forces of Mu'awiya were already waiting for them, and prevented them from accessing the watering place. A messenger of Ali now told Mu'awiya that they did not wish to fight

30076-461: The Syrians without proper warning, to which Mu'awiya responded by fortifying the forces who were guarding the water. Their justification for depriving Iraqis of water was their claim that their enemies were the murderers of Uthman. This is indeed what al-Imama wa al-siyasa quotes from al-Walid ibn Uqba, an advisor to Mu'awiya. In the opinion of Madelung, however, Mu'awiya and the Syrians were perhaps carried away by their own propaganda against Ali. In

30368-422: The Syrians would fight Ali until he surrendered Uthman's murderers. Then there would be a Syrian council ( shura ) to elect the next caliph, the declaration continued. Ali replied to this letter that he was innocent and that the accusations of Mu'awiya lacked any evidence. He also challenged Mu'awiya to name any Syrian who would qualify to vote in a shura . As for handing Uthman's killers to Mu'awiya, Ali asked

30660-470: The Tetrarchy system quickly failed, the division of the empire proved an enduring concept. Constantine I ( r.  306–337 ) secured sole power in 324. Over the following six years, he rebuilt the city of Byzantium as a capital city , which was renamed Constantinople . Rome , the previous capital, was further from the important eastern provinces and in a less strategically important location; it

30952-481: The Turkish invaders at the Battle of Hyelion and Leimocheir , brought troops from the capital and was able to gather an army along the way, a sign that the Byzantine army remained strong and that the defensive program of western Asia Minor was still successful. John and Manuel pursued active military policies, and both deployed considerable resources on sieges and city defences; aggressive fortification policies were at

31244-474: The Umayyads, their often late conversion to Islam might have suggested expediency to Ali and the Ansar. Ali was nevertheless advised to initially confirm the governors of Uthman, some of whom were unpopular, to consolidate his caliphate. He rejected this advice and replaced nearly all those who had served Uthman, saying that the likes of those men should not be appointed to any office. In this and other decisions, Ali

31536-610: The West, Khosrow I of the Sasanian Empire invaded Byzantine territory and sacked Antioch in 540. Meanwhile, the emperor's internal reforms and policies began to falter, not helped by a devastating plague that killed a large proportion of the population and severely weakened the empire's social and financial stability. The most difficult period of the Ostrogothic war, against their king Totila , came during this decade, while divisions among Justinian's advisors undercut

31828-401: The West. Zeno ( r.  474–491 ) convinced the problematic Ostrogoth king Theodoric to take control of Italy from Odoacer, which he did; dying with the empire at peace, Zeno was succeeded by Anastasius I ( r.  491–518 ). Although his Monophysitism brought occasional issues, Anastasius was a capable administrator and instituted several successful financial reforms including

32120-596: The Western provinces to achieve an economic revival that continued until the close of the century. It has been argued that Byzantium under the Komnenian rule was more prosperous than at any time since the Persian invasions of the 7th century. During the 12th century, population levels rose and extensive tracts of new agricultural land were brought into production. Archaeological evidence from both Europe and Asia Minor shows

32412-522: The abolition of the chrysargyron tax . He was the first emperor to die with no serious problems affecting his empire since Diocletian. The reign of Justinian I was a watershed in Byzantine history. Following his accession in 527, the law-code was rewritten as the influential Corpus Juris Civilis and Justinian produced extensive legislation on provincial administration; he reasserted imperial control over religion and morality through purges of non-Christians and "deviants"; and having ruthlessly subdued

32704-571: The absence of his family and the majority of the Muhajirun ( Meccan Muslims). Ali, Fatima, and some supporters did not recognize the caliphate of Abu Bakr, saying that Muhammad had appointed Ali as his successor, possibly referring to the Ghadir Khumm in 632. Fatima died also in 632, within six months of Muhammad's death, at the age of about eighteen or twenty-seven years old. Shias hold that she miscarried her child and died from

32996-590: The administration's response. He also did not fully heal the divisions in Chalcedonian Christianity , as the Second Council of Constantinople failed to make a real difference. Justinian died in 565; his reign saw more success than that of any other Byzantine emperor, yet he left his empire under massive strain. Financially and territorially overextended, Justin II ( r.  565–578 )

33288-458: The appointment thus rekindled old tribal rivalries, according to Ayoub. While al-Ash'ath is also known to have expressed concern over the insecurity of Iran and the Byzantines' threat during the civil war, Kennedy suggests that he also preferred a weakened Ali. Jafri similarly writes that al-Ash'ath and other Kufan tribal leaders would have benefited from a deadlock between Ali and Mu'awiya: On the one hand, they would have lost their tribal power under

33580-469: The arbitration agreement. Bahramian puts their number at 12,000, citing al-Baladhuri and al-Tabari. Ali visited them and told them that they had opted for the arbitration despite his warnings, according to al-Tabari. The seceders agreed and told Ali that they had repented for their sins and now demanded that Ali followed suit. To this, he responded with the general declaration, "I repent to God and ask for his forgiveness for every sin," and also ensured them that

33872-416: The arbitration proposal, most likely against his own judgment. Here, Madelung criticizes Ali for this decision and suggests that he acted more like a tribal chief than the caliph. Later Ali defended his decision in Kufa, saying that he considered continuing the fight, alongside that minority, but feared that Hasan and Husayn would perish and with them the lineage of Muhammad. It is also possible that he expected

34164-436: The arbitration to collapse but reluctantly went along with it to exhaust this option which was favored by the majority in his camp who apparently hoped for an honorable settlement with Mu'awiya. In any case, the arbitration agreement divided the camp of Ali, as many there could not accept that he would negotiate with Mu'awiya, whose claims they considered fraudulent. It also handed Mu'awiya a moral victory as an equal contender for

34456-435: The arbitration, Syrians pledged their allegiance to Mu'awiya as the next caliph in 659, or by the end of April-May 658, according to Bahramian. Upon learning that Mu'awiya had declared himself caliph, Ali broke off all communications with him and introduced a curse on him in his congregational prayers, following the precedent of Muhammad. Mu'awiya soon reciprocated by introducing a curse on Ali, his sons, and his top general. With

34748-568: The aristocracy turned into wholesale slaughter, while the emperor resorted to ever more ruthless measures to shore up his regime. Despite his military background, Andronikos failed to deal with Isaac Komnenos of Cyprus, Béla III of Hungary who reincorporated Croatian territories into Hungary, and Stephen Nemanja of Serbia who declared his independence from the Byzantine Empire. Yet, none of these troubles compared to William II of Sicily 's invasion force of 300 ships and 80,000 men, arriving in 1185 and sacking Thessalonica . Andronikos mobilised

35040-407: The assassination of Umar. On the other side, Ammar ibn Yasir, an octogenarian companion of Muhammad, was killed fighting for Ali. In the canonical Sunni sources Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim , a prophetic hadith ( lit.   ' saying ' ) predicts Ammar's death at the hands of al-fi'a al-baghiya ( lit.   ' rebellious aggressive group ' ) who invite to hellfire. On

35332-482: The assassination of Uthman. Alternatively, Hinds and Poonawala believe that the seceders were disillusioned with the arbitration process, particularly by the removal of Ali's title of amir al-mu'minin in the final agreement and by its reference to the Sunna next to the Quran, as noted also in Waq'at Sifin . After being silent about it initially, the Syrians now said that they also wanted the arbitrators to judge whether

35624-403: The battle began on Wednesday, 26 July 657, and continued to Friday or Saturday morning. Ali probably refrained from initiating hostilities, according to al-Tabari, and fought with his men on the frontline when the main battle broke out, whereas Mu'awiya led from his pavilion. At the end of the first day, having pushed back Ali's right-wing, Mu'awiya had fared better overall. Amr ibn al-As was one of

35916-500: The beginning. Given Mu'awiya's military superiority, supporters of Hasan maintain that his abdication was inevitable after his soldiers mutinied and that he was motivated by the desire for unity and peace among Muslims, which was reportedly predicted by Muhammad in a Sunni hadith . Another Sunni hadith, also attributed to Muhammad, predicted that the prophetic succession would last for thirty years, which may have been interpreted by some early Sunni scholars as evidence that Hasan's caliphate

36208-423: The boys to climb on his back while he was prostrate in prayer, and interrupted a sermon to pick Hasan up after his grandson fell. On one occasion, Hasan later recalled, his grandfather took away a date from him and explained that receiving alms ( sadaqa ) was forbidden for his family. A hadith ( lit.   ' saying ' ) in the canonical Sunni collection Sunan ibn Majah names Hasan and Husayn as

36500-446: The caliph in return for Syria and Egypt and their revenues during the caliphates of Ali and his successor. The major historical accounts are unaware of this proposal, writes Madelung, which is nevertheless mentioned in a poem by al-Walid ibn Uqba , who was close to Mu'awiya. The latter kept this proposal secret evidently because it contradicted the public statements that his goal was to revenge Uthman. Jarir conveyed this proposal to Ali in

36792-472: The caliph vows to uphold the covenant with Mu'awiya. In another account by al-Tabari, Ali cites verse 16:91 for upholding the treaty when two Kharijites, namely, Zur'a ibn al-Burj al-Ta'i and Hurqus ibn Zuhayr al-Sa'di, appealed to him to revoke it. Many of the dissidents apparently accepted Ali's position, while the rest left for al-Nahrawan , a town near al-Mada'in, and there declared Abd-Allah ibn Wahb al-Rasibi ( d.  658 ) as their leader. These formed

37084-402: The caliphate of Ali in return for Syria and Egypt. An exception is Kennedy, who believes that Mu'awiya was sincerely seeking justice for Uthman. Some authors instead regard the call for revenge as a pious cloak for broader issues: Hinds and Poonawala trace back Mu'awiya's revolt to his demands to rule over an autonomous Syria, which was kept free (unlike Iraq) from uncontrolled immigration to check

37376-532: The caliphate within the Quraysh. Hassan also wrote that Mu'awiya had no true merit in Islam and was the son of Muhammad's arch-enemy Abu Sufyan . Mu'awiya replied that he was better suited for the caliphate because of his age, governing experience, and superior military strength, thus implying that these qualities were more important than religious precedence. Jafri comments that Mu'awiya's response made explicit

37668-651: The caliphate, a prerogative which was reserved for the Muhajirun in his view, as reported by Ibn al-Athir and Ibn Muzahim. The verdict was not made public but both parties learned of it anyway. In particular, Ali denounced the conduct of the two arbitrators as contrary to the Quran and began organizing a new expedition to Syria. Evidently not endorsed by Ali, the second meeting was convened in Udhruh in January 659, or in August-September 658, probably to discuss

37960-435: The caliphate, rather than a rebellious Mu'awiya against the sitting caliph, Ali. The two arbitrators were given a year to come to a decision, or until the end of Ramadan , some seven months later, but this deadline was flexible. In case they failed, hostilities would resume. Two days after this agreement both armies left the battlefield. As Ali returned to Kufa, some of his men seceded and gathered outside of Kufa in protest to

38252-409: The caliphate. In Ali's camp, Abu Musa al-Ashari was proposed as the representative by al-Ash'ath and the Iraqi qurra , who were led by Zayd ibn Hisn al-T'a'i and Mis'ar ibn Fadaki. Abu Musa was the former governor of Kufa, installed by the Iraqi rebels and later confirmed by Ali, who was dissuaded from removing him by al-Ashtar. Anyway, he was soon dismissed after opposing the war preparations for

38544-484: The caliphate. In Iraq, Ali called a council of the Muhajirun and the Ansar who unanimously urged him to fight Mu'awiya after the latter declared war. Some apparently suggested that Ali remain in Kufa and send a force against Mu'awiya, but the caliph preferred to take the command himself. As for the public, the Kufans were not united in supporting the war, either simply because of its expected toll, or because they were reluctant to shed other Muslims' blood, or perhaps because

38836-432: The caliphate. Jafri suggests that he might have hoped to force Hasan to abdicate or attack the Iraqi forces before they were fortified. Mu'awiya might have believed that Hasan would remain a threat even if he was defeated and killed, since another Hashemite could continue the fight. If Hasan abdicated in favor of Mu'awiya, he writes, such claims would have no weight. The view of Momen is similar. Their letters revisit

39128-400: The caliphate. Some Shia reports add that Ali also designated Hasan as his waliu'l amr , thus giving him his own authority to command, and also his waliu'l dam , responsible for punishing his assassin. Some authors have noted that Muhammad's surviving companions were primarily in Ali's army and must have therefore pledged allegiance to Hasan, as evidenced by the lack of any reports to

39420-422: The caliphates of both Ali and Mu'awiya. As an early companion of Muhammad, it is similarly the understanding of Madelung that Abu Musa did not support the caliphate of Mu'awiya, a taliq . With a strong preference for peace among Muslims, Abu Musa was likely willing to confirm Ali as the caliph, provided that he would reinstate Mu'awiya as the governor of Syria, perhaps because he was well-liked by his army, and on

39712-482: The call to arbitration but he accepted it and cited the Quranic verse 2:193, "if [the enemy] desists, then you must also cease hostilities." Fred Donner writes that Ali only reluctantly accepted arbitration. Notwithstanding these two, modern authors tend to view Ali as opposed to the arbitration, including Madelung, McHugo, Poonawala, and Ayoub. As for the motives of al-Ash'ath, Ali had confirmed him in his post as

40004-468: The canonical Sahih Muslim and Sahih al-Tirmidhi . Madelung suggests that their inclusion by Muhammad in this significant ritual must have raised the religious rank of his family. A similar view is voiced by Lalani. Muhammad died in 11/632 when Hasan was about seven. As his family prepared for the burial, a group of Muslims gathered at the Saqifa and appointed Abu Bakr as Muhammad's successor, in

40296-537: The canonical Sunni source Sahih al-Tirmidhi ascribes to Muhammad, "Whoever loves me and loves these two [Hasan and Husayn] and loves their mother and father [Fatima and Ali], will be with me in my station on the Day of Resurrection ." After an inconclusive debate in 10/631-2, Muhammad and the Najranite Christians decided to engage in mubuhala , where both parties would pray to invoke God's curse upon

40588-495: The capital, and Alexios Angelos was elevated to the throne as Alexios IV along with his blind father Isaac. Alexios IV and Isaac II were unable to keep their promises and were deposed by Alexios V . The crusaders again took the city on 13 April 1204 , and Constantinople was subjected to pillage and massacre by the rank and file for three days. Many priceless icons, relics and other objects later turned up in Western Europe ,

40880-408: The chief culprit in the murder of Uthman, even though the evidence suggests otherwise. The Muslim scholar Mahmoud M. Ayoub ( d.  2021 ) notes the often pro-Umayyad stance of the Western classical orientalists, with the exception of Madelung. When Uthman was killed in 656 CE by the Egyptian rebels, the potential candidates for the caliphate were Ali and Talha. The Umayyads had fled Medina, and

41172-402: The choice of Ali for the caliphate or a fresh shura , or because Abu Musa was adamant in his opposition to Mu'awiya. Madelung views the verdict about Uthman as a political one, a judicial misjudgment, and a blunder of the naive Abu Musa, who might have hoped that Amr would later reciprocate his concession. From the perspective of Abu Musa himself, his verdict did not authorize Mu'awiya to claim

41464-490: The circumstances surrounding Hasan's death. Using mineralogical, medical, and chemical evidence, they suggested that the mineral calomel (mercury(I) chloride, Hg 2 Cl 2 ), sourced from the Byzantine Empire , was the substance primarily responsible for Hasan's death. Because historical sources indicate that another member of Hasan's household also suffered similar symptoms, the article considers Hasan's wife to be

41756-469: The city had collapsed so severely that it was now little more than a cluster of villages separated by fields. On 2 April 1453, Sultan Mehmed 's army of 80,000 men and large numbers of irregulars laid siege to the city. Despite a desperate last-ditch defence of the city by the massively outnumbered Christian forces (c. 7,000 men, 2,000 of whom were foreign), Constantinople finally fell to the Ottomans after

42048-497: The claims were by al-Mada'ini and were often vague; some had a clear defamatory intent. In particular, the ninety-wives allegation was first made by Muhammad al-Kalbi and later picked up by al-Mada'ini, who was unable to list more than eleven names, five of whom are uncertain or highly doubtful. Veccia Vaglieri holds that the marriages of Hasan received little contemporary censure. In contrast, Lammens ( d.  1937 ) suggests that Hasan married and divorced so frequently that he

42340-421: The clause about a commensurate response was later ignored in the "frenzy of patriotic self-righteousness" created by Mu'awiya. Mu'awiya's other justification for revolting against Ali was that he had not participated in the election of Ali, or that the rebels were involved in the election. Regarding the emphasis on a Syrian shura after Ali, Mu'awiya's justification was that the people of Hejaz had abandoned

42632-416: The commanders of the Syrian army. Their advance guard was led by Abu al-A'war al-Sulami , who is credited with depriving Ali's troops from drinking water prior to battle. On the other side, Kennedy suggests that Malik al-Ashtar was an inspiration on the battlefield to many of the Iraqis, at one point saving his men from fleeing in panic. Early on, he is said to have challenged Abu al-A'war to single combat, but

42924-407: The condition that Mu'awiya would, in turn, recognize Ali as the caliph. Ideally, however, Abu Musa may have preferred a broad shura that included Ali and Abd-Allah ibn Umar. The latter was his son-in-law and also favorite for the caliphate. The similar account of Ibn Muzahim is that Abu Musa proposed removing Ali and installing the neutral Abd-Allah ibn Umar for the caliphate, even though Abd-Allah

43216-530: The conditions that caused the fall of the West in the 5th century AD, and continued to exist until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire remained the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in the Mediterranean world . The term "Byzantine Empire" was only coined following the empire's demise; its citizens referred to

43508-407: The conduct of Uthman, though he generally neither justified his violent death nor condemned his killers. While he did not condone the assassination, Ali probably held Uthman responsible through his injustice for the protests that led to his death, a view for which Poonawala cites Waq'at Siffin . From this same source, Ayoub cites the account of the negotiations before the Battle of Siffin, in which Ali

43800-571: The contrary. In his inaugural speech at the Great Mosque of Kufa , Hasan praised the ahl al-bayt and quoted verse 42:23 of the Quran: I am of the Family of the Prophet from whom God has removed filth and whom He has purified, whose love He has made obligatory in His Book when He said, "Whosoever performs a good act, We shall increase the good in it." Performing a good act is love for us,

44092-550: The crusade was to conquer Egypt , the centre of Muslim power in the Levant. The Crusader army arrived at Venice in the summer of 1202 and hired the Venetian fleet to transport them to Egypt. As a payment to the Venetians, they captured the (Christian) port of Zara in Dalmatia , which was a vassal city of Venice, it had rebelled and placed itself under Hungary's protection in 1186. Shortly afterward, Alexios IV Angelos , son of

44384-447: The deadly attack, and his son Hasan was injured while guarding the besieged residence of Uthman at the request of Ali. He also convinced the rebels not to prevent the delivery of water to Uthman's house during the siege. Beyond this, historians disagree about his measures to protect the third caliph. Ali is represented by the Sunni historian al-Tabari ( d.  923 ) as an honest negotiator genuinely concerned for Uthman. Madelung and

44676-408: The deadly siege of his residence, and this view is echoed by the Islamic author Hassan Abbas and by the Shia scholar Muhammad H. Tabatabai ( d.  1981 ). Similarly, a letter ascribed to the besieged Uthman by al-Tabari and al-Ya'qubi alleges that Mu'awiya deliberately withheld the requested reinforcements to benefit politically from the caliph's death. It is also commonly believed that Marwan,

44968-475: The death of Uthman. Having failed to intimidate Ali's governor of Egypt to switch sides, Mu'awiya had also forged a letter from the governor to himself in which the latter supported the former's right for revenge, according to Madelung. In response to Ali's letter, Mu'awiya asked Jarir for time, then addressed the congregation at the next prayer, appealed to their Syrian patriotism, and received their pledge as amir to revenge Uthman, as detailed by Ibn Muzahim and

45260-504: The deposed and blinded Emperor Isaac II, made contact with the Crusaders. Alexios offered to reunite the Byzantine church with Rome, pay the Crusaders 200,000 silver marks, join the crusade, and provide all the supplies they needed to reach Egypt. The crusaders arrived at Constantinople in the summer of 1203 and quickly attacked , starting a major fire that damaged large parts of the city, and briefly seized control. Alexios III fled from

45552-498: The earliest historians of the civil war. The letter added that the election of the caliph was the right of the Muhajiran and the Ansar, thus explicitly excluding Mu'awiya, as a late convert ( taliq ), from any shura , and from the caliphate itself. The letter also urged Mu'awiya to leave justice for Uthman to Ali, promising that he would deal with the issue in due course. By this time, Mu'awiya had already publicly charged Ali in

45844-556: The early Muslim sources as 'the year of unity' and is generally regarded as the start of Mu'awiya's caliphate. Veccia Vaglieri finds certain variants of the treaty impossible to reconcile. She lists several conditions in the early sources and questions their veracity, including an annual payment of one or two million dirhams to Hasan, a single payment of five million dirhams from the treasury of Kufa, annual revenues from variously named districts in Persia , succession of Hasan to Mu'awiya or

46136-551: The early sources are nearly unanimous that Hasan was poisoned. Mu'awiya is usually identified as the instigator in the murder of Hasan. Aside from the Shia sources, this is also the view of some notable Sunni historians, including al-Waqidi ( d.  823 ), al-Mada'ini, Umar ibn Shabba ( d.   c.  877 ), al-Baladhuri , al-Haytham ibn Adi ( d.  822 ), and Abu Bakr ibn Hafs. These reports are nevertheless suppressed by al-Tabari, perhaps because he found them insignificant or far more likely because he

46428-540: The early sources. Jafri thus concludes that Hasan's final conditions in carte blanche were that Mu'awiya should act according to the Quran, sunna , and the conduct of the Rashidun caliphs , that the people should remain safe, and that the successor to Mu'awiya should be appointed by a council. These conditions are echoed by Madelung, who adds that Hasan made no financial stipulations in his peace proposal and Mu'awiya consequently made no payments to him, contrary to

46720-475: The east by allowing the Goths to settle in Roman territory; he also twice intervened in the western half, defeating the usurpers Magnus Maximus and Eugenius in 388 and 394 respectively. He actively condemned paganism , confirmed the primacy of Nicene Christianity over Arianism , and established Christianity as the Roman state religion . He was the last emperor to rule both the western and eastern halves of

47012-433: The east to Calabria in southern Italy in the west. Many successes had been achieved, ranging from the conquest of Bulgaria to the annexation of parts of Georgia and Armenia, and the reconquests of Crete , Cyprus , and the important city of Antioch . These were not temporary tactical gains but long-term reconquests. At the same time, Byzantium was faced with new enemies. Its provinces in southern Italy were threatened by

47304-687: The eastern parts largely retained their preexisting Hellenistic culture . This created a dichotomy between the Greek East and Latin West . These cultural spheres continued to diverge after Constantine I ( r.  324–337 ) moved the capital to Constantinople and legalised Christianity . Under Theodosius I ( r. 379–395 ), Christianity became the state religion , and other religious practices were proscribed . Greek gradually replaced Latin for official use as Latin fell into disuse. The empire experienced several cycles of decline and recovery throughout its history, reaching its greatest extent after

47596-537: The emperor's role as the leader of the Christian world, John marched into the Holy Land at the head of the combined forces of the empire and the Crusader states; yet despite his efforts in leading the campaign, his hopes were disappointed by the treachery of his Crusader allies. In 1142, John returned to press his claims to Antioch, but he died in the spring of 1143 following a hunting accident. John's chosen heir

47888-533: The empire's eastern defences. The emergency lent weight to the military aristocracy in Anatolia, who in 1068 secured the election of one of their own, Romanos Diogenes , as emperor. In the summer of 1071, Romanos undertook a massive eastern campaign to draw the Seljuks into a general engagement with the Byzantine army. At the Battle of Manzikert , Romanos suffered a surprise defeat against Sultan Alp Arslan and

48180-496: The empire's fall, early modern scholars referred to the empire by many names, including the "Empire of Constantinople", the "Empire of the Greeks", the "Eastern Empire", the "Late Empire", the "Low Empire", and the "Roman Empire". The increasing use of "Byzantine" and "Byzantine Empire" likely started with the 15th-century historian Laonikos Chalkokondyles , whose works were widely propagated, including by Hieronymus Wolf . "Byzantine"

48472-552: The empire, gaining only short-term success. To avoid another sacking of the capital by the Latins, he forced the Church to submit to Rome, again a temporary solution for which the peasantry hated Michael and Constantinople. The efforts of Andronikos II and later his grandson Andronikos III marked Byzantium's last genuine attempts to restoring the glory of the empire. However, the use of mercenaries by Andronikos II often backfired, with

48764-468: The empire; after his death, the West would be destabilised by a succession of "soldier-emperors", unlike the East, where administrators would continue to hold power. Theodosius II ( r.  408–450 ) largely left the rule of the east to officials such as Anthemius , who constructed the Theodosian Walls to defend Constantinople, now firmly entrenched as Rome's capital. Theodosius' reign

49056-469: The end of the Norman threat during Alexios' reign. Alexios's son John II Komnenos succeeded him in 1118 and ruled until 1143. John was a pious and dedicated emperor who was determined to undo the damage to the empire suffered at the Battle of Manzikert half a century earlier. Famed for his piety and his remarkably mild and just reign, John was an exceptional example of a moral ruler at a time when cruelty

49348-620: The enemies that surrounded it. To maintain his campaigns against the Latins, Michael pulled troops from Asia Minor and levied crippling taxes on the peasantry, causing much resentment. Massive construction projects were completed in Constantinople to repair the damage of the Fourth Crusade, but none of these initiatives were of any comfort to the farmers in Asia Minor suffering raids from Muslim ghazis. Rather than holding on to his possessions in Asia Minor, Michael chose to expand

49640-463: The enemy to recover and bury their dead when he advanced. It was perhaps around this time that Mu'awiya repeated his earlier offer for peace in return for the rule of Syria, according to Ibn Muzahim. His account adds that Ali rejected the offer again, saying that he would not abandon jihad against the enemies of God, even if he were to be killed in His way seventy times and revived each time. According to

49932-472: The fall of the west during the reign of Justinian I ( r. 527–565 ), who briefly reconquered much of Italy and the western Mediterranean coast . The appearance of plague and a devastating war with Persia exhausted the empire's resources; the early Muslim conquests that followed saw the loss of the empire's richest provinces— Egypt and Syria —to the Rashidun Caliphate . In 698, Africa

50224-414: The final day, however, Hasan and most of the guards are said to have laid down their weapons at Uthman's request. Yet another report states that Hasan arrived at the scene of Uthman's murder in time to identify his assassins. According to Madelung, Hasan later criticized Ali for not doing enough to defend Uthman. Ali was elected caliph after the assassination of Uthman. Immediately after his accession,

50516-584: The former Byzantine possessions. Although Venice was more interested in commerce than conquering territory, it took key areas of Constantinople, and the Doge took the title of " Lord of a Quarter and Half a Quarter of the Roman Empire ". After the sack of Constantinople in 1204 by Latin crusaders, two Byzantine successor states were established: the Empire of Nicaea and the Despotate of Epirus . A third,

50808-554: The fort, allowing the Ottomans (who were hired as mercenaries during the civil war by John VI Kantakouzenos ) to establish themselves in Europe. By the time the Byzantine civil wars had ended, the Ottomans had defeated the Serbians and subjugated them as vassals. Following the Battle of Kosovo , much of the Balkans became dominated by the Ottomans. Constantinople by this stage was underpopulated and dilapidated. The population of

51100-516: The governor of Azerbaijan under Uthman, but also warned him in a letter about embezzling public funds. The governor might have done so during his tenure under Uthman, and thus perhaps contemplated joining Mu'awiya in rebellion but was dissuaded from doing so. Ali later supported Hujr ibn Adi, a rival of al-Ash'ath within the Kinda tribe, and then removed the latter from his military post just before leaving Iraq, replacing him with Hasan ibn Makhduj. These last two belonged to different Yemenite tribes and

51392-449: The governor to surrender Hasan to Mu'awiya but was rejected. The Kufan vanguard arrived in Maskin and found Mu'awiya camped there. Through a representative, he urged them not to commence hostilities until he concluded his peace talks with Hasan. This was likely a false claim. The Kufans, however, insulted Mu'awiya's envoy and sent him back. Mu'awiya then sent the envoy to visit Ubayd Allah privately, telling him that Hasan had requested

51684-584: The governors was the only available course of action, both on principle and in practice. He contends that injustice was the main grievance of the provincial rebels and they would have turned against Ali had he confirmed Uthman's governors. Among these governors was Uthman's cousin Mu'awiya , who had been appointed as the governor of Syria by the second caliph Umar ( r.  634–644 ) and then reconfirmed by Uthman. Having ruled Syria for almost twenty years, without interruption and almost since its conquest, Mu'awiya had

51976-431: The heart of their imperial military policies. Despite the defeat at Myriokephalon, the policies of Alexios, John and Manuel resulted in vast territorial gains, increased frontier stability in Asia Minor, and secured the stabilisation of the empire's European frontiers. From c.  1081 to c.  1180 , the Komnenian army assured the empire's security, enabling Byzantine civilisation to flourish. This allowed

52268-522: The influential Syrian Shurahbil ibn Simt , whom he convinced that Ali was guilty in the death of Uthman, probably with false witnesses and reports. After some hesitation, Shurahbil became an enthusiastic advocate for Mu'awiya. Mu'awiya also reached out to the religious elite in Mecca and Medina, asked them to hold Ali accountable for sheltering the murderers of Uthman, and proposed that the next caliph should be elected by general consultation, emphasizing that he

52560-469: The injuries she suffered in an attack on her house , intended to subdue Ali, at the order of Abu Bakr. These allegations are rejected by Sunnis, who believe that Fatima died from grief after Muhammad's death and that her child died in infancy of natural causes. Hasan did not play a major role under the first three caliphs, namely, Abu Bakr ( r.  632–634 ), Umar ( r.  634–644 ), and Uthman ( r.  644–656 ). He might have had

52852-479: The interest of Mu'awiya. The arbitration agreement was written and signed by both parties on 15 Safar 37 (2 August 657). Abu Musa and Amr represented Ali and Mu'awiya, respectively. The two representatives committed to meet on neutral territory, to adhere to the Quran and Sunna and to save the community from war and division, a clause added evidently to appease the peace party. Citing Ibn Muzahim, Ayoub gives additional details: The arbitrators were to find guidance in

53144-494: The judge ( qadi ) of Basra, who counted among the rebels, walked to the battlefield with a copy of the Quran and pleaded for the fighting to stop. By this point at Siffin, Ali is estimated to have lost 25,000 men, while Mu'awiya might have lost 45,000 men. It was consistently Mu'awiya's position that battle was the only option acceptable to the Syrians. The Syrians' call for arbitration thus indicates that Mu'awiya had sensed imminent defeat, argue Madelung and McHugo. This tends to be

53436-420: The judgment of the arbitrators would not be binding if they deviated from the Quran and Sunna. He thus largely regained their support at the time. But when the seceders returned to Kufa, they spread that Ali had nullified the arbitration agreement, which he denied, saying that he was committed to the formal agreement with Mu'awiya. Similar statements are attributed to Ali by Ibn Muzahim and Ibn Abi'l-Hadid, in which

53728-413: The killing of Uthman was justified, about which the qurra had no doubts. Hinds and Poonawala thus regard the arbitration as a skilfully-planned manoeuvre to disintegrate the coalition of Ali. For Ayoub, the seceders were frustrated with a costly war that had achieved nothing and denounced the agreement that questioned the authority of the legitimate Muslim caliph, in their view. The seceders adopted

54020-547: The later part of his reign, John focused his activities on the East, personally leading numerous campaigns against the Turks in Asia Minor. His campaigns fundamentally altered the balance of power in the East, forcing the Turks onto the defensive, while retaking many towns, fortresses, and cities across the peninsula for the Byzantines. He defeated the Danishmend Emirate of Melitene and reconquered all of Cilicia , while forcing Raymond of Poitiers , Prince of Antioch, to recognise Byzantine suzerainty. In an effort to demonstrate

54312-409: The latter refused. On the second day, Mu'awiya concentrated his assault on Ali's left wing but his forces were pushed back by the Iraqis. Mu'awiya was compelled to flee his pavilion and took shelter in an army tent. On this day, Ubayd Allah ibn Umar was killed fighting for Mu'awiya. He had earlier fled to Syria when he learned that Ali intended to punish him for murdering some Persians innocent in

54604-415: The latter to pledge allegiance and then present his case before Ali's court. Ali viewed this as a rebellion against the legitimate Muslim caliph, that is, a challenge to "God's authority." Modern authors often suggest that Mu'awiya defied Ali after he deposed him as the governor of Syria, or conditioned his pledge to Ali on the revenge for Uthman, knowing that Ali would dismiss him after giving his oath. At

54896-417: The letter, and suspected Marwan, while a report by the Sunni historian al-Baladhuri ( d.  892 ) suggests that the caliph accused Ali of forging the letter. This is likely when Ali refused to further intercede for Uthman. That Ali was behind the letter is also the opinion of the Islamicist Leone Caetani ( d.  1935 ). Among other Western historians, Giorgio Levi della Vida ( d.  1967 )

55188-499: The liar. Madelung argues that Muhammad participated in this event alongside Hasan, Husayn, and their parents. This is also the Shia view. In contrast, most Sunni accounts by al-Tabari ( d.  923 ) do not name the participants of the event, while some other Sunni historians agree with the Shia view. During the event, Muhammad gathered Hasan, Husayn, Ali, and Fatima under his cloak and addressed them as his ahl al-bayt , according to some Shia and Sunni sources, including

55480-421: The main army. Meanwhile, Hasan was severely wounded in an abortive assassination attempt by the Kharijites , a faction opposed to both Ali and Mu'awiya. This attack demoralized Hasan's army and led to widespread desertion. Ubayd Allah and most of his troops also defected after Mu'awiya bribed him. In August 661, Hasan signed a peace treaty with Mu'awiya on the condition that the latter should rule in compliance with

55772-418: The measures he took to reform the government of the empire have been praised by historians. According to the historian George Ostrogorsky , Andronikos was determined to root out corruption: under his rule, the sale of offices ceased; selection was based on merit, rather than favouritism; and officials were paid an adequate salary to reduce the temptation of bribery. In the provinces, Andronikos's reforms produced

56064-433: The mid-13th century it had lost much of southern Anatolia. The weakening of the Sultanate of Rûm following the Mongol invasion in 1242–1243 allowed many beyliks and ghazis to set up their own principalities in Anatolia, weakening the Byzantine hold on Asia Minor. Two centuries later, one of the Beys of these beyliks, Osman I , would establish the Ottoman Empire that would eventually conquer Constantinople. However,

56356-424: The military campaigns of the First Fitna . Following Ali's assassination in January 661, Hasan was acknowledged caliph in Kufa . His sovereignty was not recognized by Mu'awiya I ( r.  661–680 ), the governor of Syria, who led an army into Kufa while pressing Hasan for abdication in letters. In response, Hasan sent a vanguard under Ubayd Allah ibn al-Abbas to block Mu'awiya's advance until he arrived with

56648-400: The misdeeds of the powerful. When Uthman's half-brother al-Walid ibn Uqba was accused of drinking alcohol, Ali asked Hasan to carry out the punishment of forty lashes, though the latter reportedly refused and Abdullah ibn Ja'far instead administered the penalty. Veccia Vaglieri does not mention any disagreements and writes that Ali meted out the punishment himself. She also suggests that

56940-434: The modern historian Husain M. Jafri ( d.  2019 ) highlight the attempts by Ali for reconciliation, and the Islamicist Martin Hinds ( d.  1988 ) believes that Ali could not have done anything more for Uthman. The Islamic author Reza Shah-Kazemi points to Ali's "constructive criticism" of Uthman and his opposition to violence, while the Bahai scholar Moojan Momen writes that Ali mediated between Uthman and

57232-412: The month of Muharram , in which fighting is prohibited in Islam. The long idle period reflects the troops' reluctance for battle, possibly because they were averse to shedding other Muslims' blood, or because most tribes were represented on both sides. Donner believes that neither of the two leaders enjoyed strong support among their armies. At any rate, the negotiations failed, possibly on 18 July 657, and

57524-495: The most capable Byzantine emperors, withstood continued Arab attacks, civil unrest, and natural disasters, and reestablished the state as a major regional power. Leo's reign produced the Ecloga , a new code of law to succeed that of Justinian II, and continued to reform the "theme system" in order to lead offensive campaigns against the Muslims, culminating in a decisive victory in 740 . Constantine overcame an early civil war against his brother-in-law Artabasdos , made peace with

57816-408: The most comprehensive account is the one given by Ahmad ibn A'tham , probably taken from al-Mada'ini, who recorded the terms in two parts. The first part is the conditions proposed by Abd Allah ibn Nawfal, who negotiated on Hasan's behalf with Mu'awiya in Maskin. The second part is what Hasan stipulated in carte blanche . These two sets of conditions together encompass all the conditions scattered in

58108-438: The murder, fearing that his aide Marwan was behind it. Still, in his letters to Mu'awiya and elsewhere, Ali insisted that he would bring the murderers to justice in due course, probably after establishing his authority. Quoting al-Ya'qubi and al-Kufi, Ayoub suggests that a mob from various tribes murdered Uthman and that Ali could have not punished them without risking widespread tribal conflict, even if he could identify them. Here,

58400-405: The new Abbasid Caliphate , campaigned successfully against the Bulgars, and continued to make administrative and military reforms. However, due to both emperors' support for the Byzantine Iconoclasm , which opposed the use of religious icons , they were later vilified by Byzantine historians; Constantine's reign also saw the loss of Ravenna to the Lombards , and the beginning of a split with

58692-415: The new caliph faced a rebellion led by Aisha , a widow of Muhammad and daughter of Abu Bakr , and Talha and Zubayr , two companions of Muhammad. Hasan and Ammar ibn Yasir ( d.  657 ) were subsequently sent to Kufa to rally support and raised an army of some 6,000 men. He also helped remove Abu Musa al-Ash'ari from the rule of Kufa, as the latter continued to hinder Ali's efforts against

58984-466: The newly-formed Arabic Rashidun Caliphate . By Heraclius' death in 641, the empire had been severely reduced economically as well as territorially—the loss of the wealthy eastern provinces had deprived Constantinople of three-quarters of its revenue. The next seventy-five years are poorly documented. Arab raids into Asia Minor began almost immediately, and the Byzantines resorted to holding fortified centres and avoiding battle at all costs; although it

59276-405: The news of their violence against civilians, Ali had to postpone his new Syria campaign to subdue the Kharijites in the Battle of Nahrawan in 658. Just before embarking on his second campaign to Syria in 661, Ali was assassinated by a Kharijite during the morning prayers at the Mosque of Kufa . In the long term, it is the opinion of Ayoub that the Battle of Siffin crystalized the emerging divide in

59568-444: The next caliph, though there is no evidence that he communicated or coordinated with them. Ali is also said to have rejected the requests to lead the rebels, although he might have sympathized with their grievances, and was thus considered a natural focus for the opposition, at least morally. It is also likely that some companions supported the protests with the hope of either deposing Uthman, or changing his policies, thus underestimating

59860-401: The next caliph: Amr supported Mu'awiya, while Abu Musa nominated his son-in-law Abd Allah ibn Umar, who stood down in the interest of unity by his own account, or more likely because he was intimidated by Mu'awiya, who also publicly threatened him in the closing gala. As for the final scene of the Udhruh meeting, one popular account is that Abu Musa deposed both Ali and Mu'awiya and called for

60152-468: The oath was identical to the one demanded earlier by Ali and denounced by the Kharijites. The view of Dakake is similar. Having been at war with Ali, Mu'awiya did not recognize the caliphate of his successor and prepared for war. He marched an army of sixty thousand men through al-Jazira to Maskin, about 50 kilometres (31 mi) north of the present-day Baghdad . Concurrently, Mu'awiya also corresponded with Hasan, urging him to give up his claim to

60444-411: The opposition to Uthman, joined in their efforts by Talha and Zubayr, and by Aisha , a widow of Muhammad. The last was critical of Uthman for religious innovations and nepotism, but also objected to him for reducing her pension. Among the supporters of Ali were Malik al-Ashtar ( d.  657 ) and other religiously-learned qurra ( lit.   ' Quran readers ' ). These wanted to see Ali as

60736-421: The opposition. On their way back home, some Egyptian rebels intercepted an official letter ordering their punishment. They now returned to Medina and laid siege to Uthman's residence for a second time, demanding that he abdicate. The caliph refused and claimed he was unaware of the letter, for which Marwan is often blamed in the early sources. Ali and another companion, Muhammad ibn Maslama , sided with Uthman about

61028-406: The outset of his reign, Alexios faced a formidable attack from the Normans under Guiscard and his son Bohemund of Taranto , who captured Dyrrhachium and Corfu and laid siege to Larissa in Thessaly . Guiscard's death in 1085 temporarily eased the Norman problem. The following year, the Seljuq sultan died, and the sultanate was split due to internal rivalries. By his own efforts, Alexios defeated

61320-521: The patriarch Nicholas , the powerful Simeon I of Bulgaria , and other influential figures jockeyed for power. In 920, the admiral Romanos I used his fleet to secure power, crowning himself and demoting Constantine to the position of junior co-emperor. His reign, which brought peace with Bulgaria and successes in the east under the general John Kourkouas , was ended in 944 by the machinations of his sons, whom Constantine soon usurped in turn. Constantine's ineffectual sole rule has often been construed as

61612-426: The political motives of Mu'awiya. This minority wanted Ali to resume fighting, and their proposal was likely favored by Ali too. He declined it, however, saying that they would be crushed by the majority and the Syrians who all demanded arbitration. Some of these dissidents left for Kufa, while others stayed, perhaps hoping that Ali might later change his mind. Facing strong peace sentiments in his army, Ali thus accepted

61904-443: The polity as the "Roman Empire" and to themselves as "Romans". Due to the imperial seat's move from Rome to Byzantium , the adoption of state Christianity , and the predominance of Greek instead of Latin , modern historians continue to make a distinction between the earlier Roman Empire and the later Byzantine Empire . During the earlier Pax Romana period, the western parts of the empire became increasingly Latinised , while

62196-410: The pope and Western Christian kingdoms, and he successfully handled the passage of the crusaders through his empire. In the East, Manuel suffered a major defeat in 1176 at the Battle of Myriokephalon against the Turks. These losses were quickly recovered, and in the following year Manuel's forces inflicted a defeat upon a force of "picked Turks". The Byzantine commander John Vatatzes , who destroyed

62488-439: The ports of southern Italy, he sent an expedition to Italy in 1155, but disputes within the coalition led to the eventual failure of the campaign. Despite this military setback, Manuel's armies successfully invaded the southern parts of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1167, defeating the Hungarians at the Battle of Sirmium . By 1168, nearly the whole of the eastern Adriatic coast lay in Manuel's hands. Manuel made several alliances with

62780-598: The prime mover of the rebellion and its future beneficiary. He and others observe the hostility of Aisha toward Ali, which resurfaced immediately after his accession in the Battle of the Camel (656). The orientalist Laura Veccia Vaglieri ( d.  1989 ) believes that Ali refused to lead the rebellion but still sympathized with them and possibly agreed with their calls for abdication. Among other scholars, Hossein Nasr and Asma Afsaruddin , Levi della Vida, and Julius Wellhausen ( d.  1918 ) believe that Ali remained neutral in this conflict, while Caetani labels Ali as

63072-660: The prime suspect. The article cites a historical document, according to which the Byzantine emperor (likely Constantine IV ) sent Mu'awiya a poisoned drink at the request of the latter. The authors thus conclude that their forensic hypothesis is consistent with the historical narrative that Hasan was poisoned by his wife Ja'da at the instigation of Mu'awiya and with the involvement of the Byzantine emperor. Before his death, Hasan had instructed his family to bury him next to Muhammad. According to Madelung, if they "feared evil," Hasan asked them to bury him near his mother in al-Baqi cemetery. The Umayyad governor of Medina, Sa'id ibn al-As ,

63364-411: The prominent Kufan tribal chief who undermined Ali at Siffin (657) by supporting the arbitration , and sabotaged Ali's campaign after being bribed by Mu'awiya, according to Madelung. As with Jafri, Veccia Vaglieri notes that many early sources hold Ja'da bin al-Ash'ath responsible for poisoning Hasan at the instigation of Mu'awiya, though she also observes that al-Ash'ath was regarded as a traitor by

63656-425: The promise of a broad shura for choosing the next caliph. Their presence was nevertheless a major coup, suggests Madelung, because Hejaz was still controlled by Ali at the time. In particular, that Abd-Allah ibn Umar accepted the invitation of Mu'awiya hints at his interest in the caliphate, contrary to the rumors showing him uninterested. The negotiations failed eventually, as the two arbitrators could not agree on

63948-414: The provincial rebels and the Ansar (early Medinan Muslims) were in control of the city. Among the Egyptians, Talha enjoyed some support, but the Basrans and Kufans , who had heeded Ali's call for nonviolence, and most of the Ansar supported Ali. Some authors add the (majority of the) Muhajirun (early Meccan Muslims) to this list of Ali's supporters. The key tribal chiefs also seem to have favored Ali at

64240-427: The rebels nevertheless left Ali exposed to accusations of complicity in the assassination of Uthman. It also appears that Ali personally did not force anyone for pledge and, among others, Sa'ad ibn Abi Waqqas , Abd-Allah ibn Umar , Sa'id ibn al-As , al-Walid ibn Uqba , and Marwan likely refused to give their oaths, some possibly motivated by their personal grudges against Ali. On the whole, Madelung suggests that there

64532-497: The rebels, urging the former to alter his policies and refusing the requests from the latter to lead them. This is similar to the view of the Islamicist John McHugo, who adds that Ali withdrew in frustration when his peace efforts where thwarted by Marwan. The historians Fred Donner and Robert Gleave suggest that Ali was the immediate beneficiary of Uthman's death. In turn, their opinion is challenged by Madelung, who argues that Aisha would have not actively opposed Uthman if Ali had been

64824-403: The rebels. Hasan later fought in the Battle of the Camel (656) against Aisha, Talha, and Zubayr. Hasan also fought against Mu'awiya ( r.  661–680 ) in the Battle of Siffin (657), though (Sunni) sources do not view him as a prominent participant. Madelung writes that Hasan criticized Ali's alleged aggressive war policy, saying that it stoked division among Muslims. In contrast,

65116-441: The reconstituted empire would wield only regional power during its final two centuries of existence. Its remaining territories were progressively annexed by the Ottomans in perennial wars fought throughout the 14th and 15th centuries. The fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453 ultimately brought the empire to an end. Many refugees who had fled the city after its capture settled in Italy and throughout Europe, helping to ignite

65408-625: The recruitments, the historian Michael Lecker considers Mua'wiya's "fierce and at times cynical" propaganda more successful than Ali's. The former also promised better material benefits to tribal leaders compared to Ali, who applied strict measures to governors who embezzled money, and this in turn led to their defection to Mu'awiya's side. Lecker thus considers Mu'awiya's hilm or well-considered opportunism to be more successful at Siffin than Ali's piety. Some Arabic sources further contrast Mu'awiya's hilm or opportunism with Ali's futuwwa ( Islamic chivalry ). Shia sources also describe Siffin as

65700-452: The reign of Mu'awiya," which Madelung finds incredible. Taking the speech as a sign that Hasan intended to pursue peace, Kharijite sympathizers in Hasan's army looted his tent and pulled his prayer rug from under him. Alternatively, Jafri and al-Ya'qubi ( d.  897-8 ) hold Mu'awiya responsible for the mutiny through his network of spies, about which letters were earlier exchanged between Mu'awiya and Hasan and Ubayd Allah. As he

65992-403: The rule of an emperor. The senate had its own identity but would become an extension of the emperor's court, becoming largely ceremonial. Hasan ibn Ali Hasan ibn Ali ( Arabic : الْحَسَنِ بْن عَلِيّ , romanized :  al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ; c.  625  – 2 April 670) was an Alid political and religious leader. The eldest son of Ali and Fatima and

66284-400: The same source, also around the same time did Mu'awiya send his brother Utba to negotiate a separate truce with al-Ash'ath ibn Qays , the influential Yemenite tribal leader, who was not closely associated with Ali or his cause. By the next morning, the balance had moved in favor of Ali, as also suggested by al-Tabari and al-Baladhuri. Before noon, however, some of the Syrians raised pages of

66576-506: The second caliph Umar and a triple murderer, who had fled after learning that Ali intended to apply the lex talionis to him. Mu'awiya also separately wrote to Abd-Allah ibn Umar and Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas among the Muhajirun, and Muhammad ibn Maslama among the Ansar. These all vowed neutrality in response. The last one also accused Mu'awiya of abandoning Uthman in his life and taking advantage of his death. Mu'awiya soon privately visited Ali's emissary, Jarir, and proposed to recognize Ali as

66868-425: The secretary of Uthman, was responsible for the intercepted instructions to punish the rebels that set off the final siege. However, Lesley Hazleton , an author on religion and politics, further suggests that Marwan may have done so at the instigation of Mu'awiya. Abbas shares this view. Tabatabai writes that, during his own caliphate, Mu'awiya no longer pursued vengeance for Uthman, which was the basis for his claim to

67160-416: The separation of politics and religion, which later became a tenet of Sunni Islam. In contrast, Shia Islam vested all authority in the household of Muhammad. As the news of Mu'awiya's advance reached Hasan, he ordered his local governors to mobilize and invited the Kufans to prepare for war, "God had prescribed the jihad for his creation and called it a loathsome duty ( kurh )," referring to verse 2:216 of

67452-439: The severity of the opposition to Uthman. As their grievances mounted, discontented groups from provinces began arriving in Medina in 35/656. On their first attempt, the Egyptian opposition sought the advice of Ali, who urged them to send a delegation to negotiate with Uthman, unlike Talha and Ammar, who might have encouraged the Egyptians to advance on the town. Ali similarly asked the Iraqi opposition to avoid violence, which

67744-412: The slogan, "No judgment but that of God," highlighting their rejection of the arbitration (by men) in reference to the Quranic verse 49:9, "If two parties of the Believers fight with one another, make peace between them; but if one rebels against the other, then fight against the one that rebels, until they return to obedience to God." When they interrupted Ali's sermon with this slogan, he commented that it

68036-434: The story itself is apocryphal, Ayoub suggests that it may portray the popular perception of the conflict between the Ali and Mu'awiya, which the story presents as a conflict between "the people of religion" and "the people of this world," respectively. The Mu'tazilite Ibn Abi'l-Hadid ( d.  1258 ) gives Amr the credit for successfully spreading the rumor that Ali had killed Uthman. Mu'awiya also brought into his camp

68328-442: The succession of Muhammad. Hasan urged Mu'awiya to pledge allegiance to him with the same arguments advanced by Ali against Abu Bakr after Muhammad's death. Ali had said that if the Quraysh could successfully claim the leadership because Muhammad belonged to them, then Muhammad's family was the most qualified to lead. Mu'awiya replied that Muslims were not unaware of the merits of the ahl al-bayt but had selected Abu Bakr to keep

68620-411: The succession to Ali. Not part of the arbitration process, this second meeting was solely an initiative of Mu'awiya, who also invited the sons of prominent companions to take part, including Abd-Allah ibn Umar, Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr, Abd-Allah ibn al-Zubayr, al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba, and some others. Some of these were from Hejaz and had remained neutral throughout the conflict, perhaps lured to Udhruh by

68912-428: The term qurra in early sources loosely refers to two groups: The first group was the Kufan qurra who revolted against Uthman and loyally supported Ali, led by the likes of Malik al-Ashtar and Hujr ibn Adi. The second group was the Basran qurra and other tribesmen who conveniently advanced their claims under the cloak of Islamic priority. It was this second group that backed the arbitration proposal, following

69204-441: The third day, Mu'awiya turned down the proposal to settle the matters in a personal duel with Ali, brought forward separately by Ali and some of Mu'awiya's followers. Urwa ibn Dawud al-Dimashqi volunteered to fight instead of Mu'awiya and was promptly "cleft in two" by Ali. After another indecisive day, the battle continued throughout laylat al-harir ( lit.   ' the night of rumble ' ). Unlike Ali, Mu'awiya did not allow

69496-491: The throne. Alexios was highly incompetent in the office, and with his mother Maria of Antioch 's Frankish background, his regency was unpopular. Eventually, Andronikos I Komnenos , a grandson of Alexios I, overthrew Alexios II in a violent coup d'état . After eliminating his potential rivals, he had himself crowned as co-emperor in September 1183. He eliminated Alexios II and took his 12-year-old wife Agnes of France for himself. Andronikos began his reign well; in particular,

69788-429: The time, Mu'awiya was repeatedly accused of abandoning Uthman during the deadly siege of his residence, and Ayoub thus views Mu'awiya's claim of revenge as a pretext. Other modern authors similarly tend to consider Mu'awiya's call for revenge as a guise, intended initially to maintain his rule over Syria, or to seize the caliphate altogether later. For McHugo, this view is corroborated by Mu'awiya's secret offer to recognize

70080-424: The time. The caliphate was thus offered by these groups to Ali, who was initially reluctant to accept it, saying that he preferred to be a minister ( wazir ). Soon after, possibly after it became clear that he enjoyed popular support, Ali did accept the caliphate, demanding a public pledge at the mosque. One factor in his decision to accept the caliphate might have been to prevent further chaos, but his nomination by

70372-440: The timing of Mu'awiya's carte blanche problematic in al-Tabari's account. Al-Tabari also mentions a single payment of five million dirhams to Hasan from the treasury of Kufa, which Jafri rejects because the treasury of Kufa was already in Hasan's possession at the time. He adds that Ali regularly emptied the treasury and distributed the funds among the public, and this is also reported by Veccia Vaglieri. Jafri then argues that

70664-461: The tribal leaders, who then nominated as their representative Abu Musa al-Ash'ari with a known preference for Qurayshite domination. It was at this point that the disillusioned second group rejected the arbitration and formed the Kharijites. That the Kharijites consisted primarily of Basran tribesmen is also the view of the modern Islamicist Maria M. Dakake . Mu'awiya then conveyed his proposal that representatives from both sides should together reach

70956-401: The truth and it was now the Syrians who had to uphold the justice, as explained in a letter attributed to him shortly before the Battle of Siffin. In reality, however, this emphasis was likely to ensure his own caliphate. Madelung comments here that Mu'awiya later designated his son Yazid as his successor without any shura . As for whether and when Mu'awiya first aspired to the caliphate, it

71248-613: The two provinces. Madelung regards this account as fictitious because Hasan had just refused to join Mu'awiya in fighting the Kharijites. He adds that Hasan had made no financial stipulations in his peace proposal and Mu'awiya consequently made no payments to him. Madelung suggests that the relations between the two men deteriorated when Mu'awiya realized that Hasan would not actively support his regime. Hasan most likely died on 2 April 670 (5 Rabi' al-Awwal 50 AH), though other given dates are 49, 50, 48, 58 and 59 AH. Veccia Vaglieri suggests that Hasan died from an illness or poisoning, while

71540-419: The two sides readied for battle. Per Arab customs, prominent figures fought with small retinues prior to the main battle, which took place a week later. Historical materials are abundant about the Battle of Siffin but they often describe disconnected episodes of the war. Lecker and Wellhausen have thus found it impossible to establish the course of the battle. Nevertheless, it can be said with some certainty that

71832-442: The unpopular Irene was overthrown by Nikephoros I ; he reformed the empire's administration but died in battle against the Bulgars in 811. Military defeats and societal disorder, especially the resurgence of iconoclasm, characterised the next eighteen years. Stability was somewhat restored during the reign of Theophilos ( r.  829–842 ), who exploited economic growth to complete construction programs, including rebuilding

72124-427: The usage of the term is sometimes extended to Husayn's descendants as well. Tendentious (Sunni) reports describe that Hasan married seventy (or ninety) women in his lifetime and had a harem of three hundred concubines. Madelung regards these as absurd, and Pierce believes that these accusations were made by later Sunni writers who were nevertheless unable to list more than sixteen names. Madelung writes that most of

72416-439: The view of al-Zuhri ( d.  741-2 ), the Umayyad-era historian who adopted the pro-Umayyad account that depicts a greedy Hasan eager to renounce his caliphate for money. This must have been the official Umayyad account, distributed to legitimize Mu'awiya's rule in the absence of a council ( shura ) or election or designation ( nass ), suggests Jafri. While the vanguard was awaiting his arrival in Maskin, Hasan faced

72708-462: The view of many other modern authors, some of whom add that Mu'awiya was advised to do so by Amr ibn al-As, citing al-Tabari and al-Baladhuri, among others. The Syrians' call to arbitration on the basis of the Quran has thus been interpreted as an offer to surrender. Even so, Ali's army stopped fighting, perhaps because devout Muslims in his camp had been fighting to enforce the rule of the Quran all along, or simply because both armies were exhausted and

73000-444: The war was also not unanimous there. Among others, Shurahbil ibn Simt rallied support against Ali across Syria, directly accusing the caliph of killing Uthman in his speeches, according to Ibn Muzahim. To show the success of Mu'awiya's campaign against Ali, Bahramian cites a report by al-Tabari, according to which a Syrian soldier told his Iraqi counterpart that their prayers were invalid because they were led by Ali. Mua'wiya also secured

73292-493: The war. As reported by the Mu'tazilite Ibn Abi'l-Hadid ( d.  1258 ) and Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani ( d.  967 ), Mu'awiya added that he had not fought the Iraqis so that they would practice Islam, which they were already doing, but to be their master ( amir ). Al-Baladhuri writes that Mu'awiya then gave the Kufans three days to pledge allegiance or be killed. After this, the people rushed to vow allegiance to Mu'awiya. Hasan left Kufa for Medina but soon received

73584-408: The west, the warlord Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustulus in 476, killed his titular successor Julius Nepos in 480, and the office of western emperor was formally abolished. Through a combination of luck, cultural factors, and political decisions, the Eastern empire never suffered from rebellious barbarian vassals and was never ruled by barbarian warlords—the problems which ensured the downfall of

73876-443: The widow of Abd al-Rahman ibn Attab, who was divorced by Abd Allah ibn Amir. Hasan had no children with Hind. Hasan's other children were probably from concubines, including Qasim and Abd Allah (or Abu Bakr), both of whom were killed in the Battle of Karbala (680), and Umm Abd Allah , who married Zayn al-Abidin and bore him Muhammad al-Baqir , the fifth Shia Imam. Hasan's descendants are usually known as sharif , though

74168-410: The worst of mankind for neither they upheld a truth nor repudiated a falsehood. Perhaps as an opener for the peace negotiations, the two arbitrators first discussed the assassination of Uthman, most likely at the initiative of Amr. They reached the verdict that Uthman had been killed wrongfully and that Mu'awiya had the right to seek revenge, but could not agree on anything else, either because Amr blocked

74460-507: The wrong person might be punished. The Shia al-Mufid ( d.  1022 ) reports that Hasan's wife Ja'da bint al-Ash'ath poisoned him with the promise of 100,000 dirhams from Mu'awiya and marriage to his son Yazid. Jafri writes that the majority of Sunni and Shia reports are similar to this one, including those by Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, al-Mas'udi ( d.  956 ), and al-Ya'qubi. In contrast, Ahmed regards these reports as " Alid propaganda" against al-Ash'ath, Ja'da's father and

74752-399: The young Hasan and his brother Husayn lived in a state of obedience to their father Ali, following Ali whenever he opposed Uthman. In June 656, Uthman was besieged in his home by rebels. Hasan and Husayn were likely wounded while guarding Uthman's house at the request of Ali. In particular, the reports that Hasan was among the defenders are considered numerous and reliable by Madelung. On

75044-422: The zenith of Byzantine learning , but while several works were compiled, they were largely intended to legitimise and glorify the emperor's Macedonian dynasty . His son and successor died young; under two soldier-emperors, Nikephoros II ( r.  963–969 ) and John I Tzimiskes ( r.  969–976 ), the Roman army claimed numerous military successes, including the conquest of Cilicia and Antioch , and

75336-531: Was rightly-guided ( rāshid ). In Shia theology, the divine infallibility ( isma ) of Hasan as the second Shia Imam further justified his course of action. As the rightful successor of Muhammad in Shia Islam, Hasan's all-inclusive temporal and religious authority came from divinely-inspired designation ( nass ), which was not annulled by abdication to Mu'awiya, who usurped only the temporal authority. The imamate and caliphate are viewed as separate institutions in Shia Islam until such time that God would make

75628-464: Was a word of truth by which the seceders sought falsehood. He added that they were repudiating government even though a ruler was indispensable in the conduct of religion. Ali nevertheless did not bar their entry to mosques or deprive them of their shares in the treasury, saying that they should be fought only if they initiate hostilities. The accounts of the arbitration are highly tendentious. Nevertheless, after some months of preparation, or perhaps even

75920-719: Was accused by al-Mundhir. Hafsa's next marriage ended similarly. When she finally married al-Mundhir, Hasan visited the couple and forgave al-Mundhir for spreading those false rumors out of love for Hafsa. Hasan also returned Khawla to her father Manzur when he objected that he had been ignored and then remarried her with his approval. Hasan is also said to have divorced his wife Hind when he saw evidence of renewed love by her former husband. For Madelung, Hasan's divorces do not indicate any inordinate sexual appetite. He also writes that Hasan comes across as noble and forbearing in dealing with his wives. Madelung cites Hasan's advice to Husayn to marry his widow Umm Ishaq after his death. When he

76212-400: Was advised not to fight unless attacked and to consult with Qays ibn Sa'd, the second in command. Wellhausen ( d.  1918 ) names Abd Allah ibn Abbas as the commander of the vanguard, but this is rejected by Madelung, who suggests that the choice of Ubayd Allah indicates Hasan's peace intentions because the former had earlier surrendered Yemen to Mu'awiya without a fight. This is

76504-411: Was assassinated by the Kharijite Abd al-Rahman ibn Muljam . Hasan was subsequently acknowledged caliph in Kufa, the seat of Ali's caliphate. Madelung writes that Ali had apparently not nominated a successor before his sudden death but had often said that only members of Muhammad's household ( ahl al-bayt ) were entitled to the caliphate. As Ali's legatee, Hasan must have been the obvious choice for

76796-524: Was being escorted away to safety, the Kharijite al-Jarrah ibn Sinan attacked and wounded Hasan while shouting, "You have become an infidel ( kafir ) like your father." Al-Jarrah was overpowered and killed, while Hasan, bleeding profusely, was taken for treatment to the house of Sa'd ibn Mas'ud al-Thaqafi, the governor of al-Mada'in . The news of this attack further demoralized Hasan's army and led to widespread desertions. Sa'd's nephew Mukhtar ibn Abi Ubayd ( d.  687 ) reportedly recommended

77088-447: Was besieged in August 1068 and fell in April 1071 . About 1053, Constantine IX disbanded what the historian John Skylitzes calls the "Iberian Army", which consisted of 50,000 men, and it was turned into a contemporary Drungary of the Watch . Two other knowledgeable contemporaries, the former officials Michael Attaleiates and Kekaumenos , agree with Skylitzes that by demobilising these soldiers, Constantine did catastrophic harm to

77380-787: Was called mitlaq ( lit.   ' the divorcer ' ) and his behavior earned Ali new enemies. Madelung rejects this claim, saying that Hasan – living in his father's household – could not enter into any marriages not arranged (or approved) by Ali. In particular, the narratives in which Ali warns the Kufans not to marry their daughters to Hasan are fabricated. Madelung believes that Hasan's marriages in Ali's lifetime were intended to strengthen political alliances, as evidenced by Hasan reserving his kunya (Abu Muhammad) for his first son with his first freely-chosen wife Khawla. When Muhammad died in childhood, Hasan chose Khawla's second son Hasan as his primary heir. Hasan divorced his wife Hafsa out of propriety when she

77672-560: Was captured. Alp Arslan treated him with respect and imposed no harsh terms on the Byzantines. In Constantinople a coup put in power Michael Doukas , who soon faced the opposition of Nikephoros Bryennios and Nikephoros III Botaneiates . By 1081, the Seljuks had expanded their rule over virtually the entire Anatolian plateau from Armenia in the east to Bithynia in the west, and had established their capital at Nicaea , just 90 kilometres (56 miles) from Constantinople. The Komnenian dynasty attained full power under Alexios I in 1081. From

77964-448: Was carried to al-Baqi, however, Marwan reportedly joined the procession and paid tribute to a man "whose forbearance ( hilm ) weighed mountains." Following the norms, Hasan's funeral prayer was led by Sa'id ibn al-As , the governor of Medina . Hasan's tomb was later made a domed shrine, which was destroyed twice by the Wahhabis first in 1806 and then 1927. Sources differ about Hasan's wives and children. The account of Ibn Sa'd

78256-401: Was concerned for the faith of the common people ( awamm ) in this and similar instances, as suggested by Madelung and Donaldson ( d.  1976 ). Some other early Sunni sources deny the poisoning, saying that Hasan died of "consumption." At the time of his abdication, Hasan was about thirty-eight years old while Mu'awiya was fifty-eight. Jafri suggests that the age difference presented

78548-441: Was driven by his sense of religious mission, writes Madelung, while Poonawala suggests that Ali changed the governors to please the rebels. Donner has a similar view to Madelung and Shah-Kazemi maintains that justice was the key principle that molded Ali's policies in all domains. Even so, Madelung views this decision of Ali as politically naive. His view is in turn rejected by the Shia scholar Ali Bahramian, who believes that replacing

78840-449: Was given credit for his predecessor's achievements. Basil I ( r.  867–886 ) continued Michael's policies. His armies campaigned with mixed results in Italy but defeated the Paulicians of Tephrike . His successor Leo VI ( r.  886–912 ) compiled and propagated a huge number of written works. These included the Basilika , a Greek translation of Justinian I's law-code which included over 100 new laws of Leo's devising;

79132-494: Was heeded. He also acted as a mediator between Uthman and the provincial dissidents more than once to address their economical and political grievances. In particular, he negotiated and guaranteed on behalf of Uthman the promises that persuaded the rebels to return home and ended the first siege. Ali then urged Uthman to publicly repent, which he did. The caliph soon retracted his statement, however, possibly because his secretary Marwan convinced him that repentance would only embolden

79424-514: Was his fourth son, Manuel I Komnenos , who campaigned aggressively against his neighbours both in the west and east. In Palestine, Manuel allied with the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and sent a large fleet to participate in a combined invasion of Fatimid Egypt . Manuel reinforced his position as overlord of the Crusader states, with his hegemony over Antioch and Jerusalem secured by agreement with Raynald , Prince of Antioch, and Amalric of Jerusalem . In an effort to restore Byzantine control over

79716-408: Was his stepson, Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr , who was allegedly among those who killed Uthman. Other authors have rejected this accusation, though most sources seem to agree that Muhammad visited Uthman shortly before his death and rebuked him for his conduct. These two men and some other supporters of Ali were implicated by Mu'awiya in the assassination of Uthman. In this light, some authors suggest that Ali

80008-413: Was in love with her and his rumors compelled Hasan to divorce her. The rumors also ended Hafsa's next marriage and she eventually married al-Mundhir. Hasan also married Umm Ishaq bint Talha ibn Ubayd Allah . Mu'awiya reputedly asked her brother Ishaq ibn Talha to marry her to Yazid but Ishaq married her to Hasan instead and she bore a son named Talha . Another wife of Hasan was Hind bint Suhayl ibn Amr,

80300-487: Was invaded annually, Anatolia avoided permanent Arab occupation. The outbreak of the First Fitna in 656 gave Byzantium breathing space, which it used wisely: some order was restored in the Balkans by Constans II ( r.  641–668 ), who began the administrative reorganisation known as the " theme system ", in which troops were allocated to defend specific provinces. With the help of the recently rediscovered Greek fire , Constantine IV ( r.  668–685 ) repelled

80592-450: Was lost to the Umayyad Caliphate , but the empire subsequently stabilised under the Isaurian dynasty. The empire was able to expand once more under the Macedonian dynasty , experiencing a two-century-long renaissance . This came to an end in 1071, with the defeat by the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Manzikert . Thereafter, periods of civil war and Seljuk incursion resulted in the loss of most of Asia Minor . The empire recovered during

80884-497: Was marked by the theological dispute over Nestorianism , which was eventually deemed heretical , and by the formulation of the Codex Theodosianus law code. It also saw the arrival of Attila 's Huns , who ravaged the Balkans and exacted a massive tribute from the empire; Attila however switched his attention to the rapidly-deteriorating western empire , and his people fractured after his death in 453. After Leo I ( r.  457–474 ) failed in his 468 attempt to reconquer

81176-447: Was nevertheless considered the head of the house of Muhammad by the Banu Hashim and Ali's partisans, who had probably pinned their hopes on his succession to Mu'awiya. The Sunni al-Baladhuri in his Ansab writes that Hasan sent tax collectors to the Fasa and Darabjird provinces of Iran in accordance with the treaty but the governor of Basra, instructed by Mu'awiya, incited the people against Hasan and his tax collectors were driven out of

81468-406: Was not esteemed by the "soldier-emperors" who ruled from the frontiers or by the empire's population who, having been granted citizenship , considered themselves "Roman". Constantine extensively reformed the empire's military and civil administration and instituted the gold solidus as a stable currency. He favoured Christianity , which he had converted to in 312. Constantine's dynasty fought

81760-464: Was not interested in the caliphate himself. According to Ayoub, the Medinans rejected his request and accused him of deception and treachery, citing al-Kufi. Madelung similarly writes that al-Miswar ibn Makhrama refused to support Mu'awiya on behalf of the holy cities, asking him in a letter what a taliq whose father had led the confederate armies against Muslims had to do with the caliphate. Mu'awiya did, however, win to his side Ubayd Allah , son of

82052-483: Was not opposed to burying Hasan near Muhammad, whereas Marwan ibn al-Hakam strongly opposed it, arguing that Uthman had been buried in al-Baqi. In his opposition, Marwan was joined by Muhammad's widow Aisha , who is often considered hostile to Ali. Muhammad's companion Abu Hurayra unsuccessfully attempted to persuade Marwan to allow Hasan's burial next to Muhammad by reminding him of Muhammad's high esteem for Hasan and Husayn. Supporters of Husayn and Marwan from

82344-506: Was occupied by conflicts against two prominent generals, Bardas Skleros and Bardas Phokas , which ended in 989 with the former's death and the latter's submission. Between 1021 and 1022, following years of tensions, Basil II led a series of victorious campaigns against the Kingdom of Georgia , resulting in the annexation of several Georgian provinces to the empire. Basil's successors also annexed Bagratid Armenia in 1045. Importantly, both Georgia and Armenia were significantly weakened by

82636-437: Was omitted at the behest of Mu'awiya, or Amr ibn al-As. This was pressed by al-Ash'ath upon Ali, who reluctantly accepted it, apparently comparing it with the Treaty of Hudaybiyya, in which Muhammad was not referred to as the messenger of God at the request of the infidels. Variations of this account are given by al-Tabari, Ibn Muzahim, al-Kufi, and Ibn Abi'l-Hadid. The agreement thus treated Ali and Mu'awiya as equal contenders for

82928-441: Was overthrown in 695 after attempting to exact too much from his subjects; over the next twenty-two years, six more rebellions followed in an era of political instability . The reconstituted caliphate sought to break Byzantium by taking Constantinople, but the newly crowned Leo III managed to repel the 717–718 siege , the first major setback of the Muslim conquests. Leo and his son Constantine V ( r.  741–775 ), two of

83220-443: Was poisoned, Hasan also reputedly refrained from disclosing the suspect in his household to Husayn. Hasan has been described as closely resembling Muhammad in his appearance. Madelung suggests that Hasan might have also inherited Muhammad's temperament and describes him as a pacifist. Veccia Vaglieri writes that he was of mild disposition ( halim ), generous, pious, and known to have made several pilgrimages on foot. While Hasan

83512-454: Was probably already apprehensive about the Kufans' support and wanted to avoid unrealistic commitments. The oath stipulated that people "should make war on those who were at war with Hasan, and should live in peace with those who were at peace with him," writes the Sunni al-Baladhuri ( d.  892 ), adding that this condition astonished the people, who suspected that he intended to make peace with Mu'awiya. In contrast, Madelung notes that

83804-447: Was probably uninterested in it. This attitude of Abu Musa is also evident in an account given by al-Kufi and al-Tabari, who write that Mu'awiya sent al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba to assess the arbitrators' progress. He reportedly asked both what they thought of those who remained neutral in the conflict between Ali and Mu'awiya. Abu Musa answered that they were the best of mankind for they did not carry its burden, while Amr answered that they were

84096-467: Was soon at war on many fronts. The Lombards , fearing the aggressive Avars , conquered much of northern Italy by 572. The Sasanian wars restarted that year, and continued until the emperor Maurice finally emerged victorious in 591; by that time, the Avars and Slavs had repeatedly invaded the Balkans , causing great instability. Maurice campaigned extensively in the region during the 590s, but although he managed to re-establish Byzantine control up to

84388-399: Was that Mu'awiya would succeed in removing Ali from office. This is evident in some speeches and letters attributed to Mu'awiya before the Battle of Siffin, in which his case for the caliphate and seizing it by force is defended. Gaining political power by force soon became the common practice for Muslim rulers and was also legitimized by some (Sunni) jurists. Ali was openly critical of

84680-428: Was the norm. For this reason, he has been called the Byzantine Marcus Aurelius . During his twenty-five-year reign, John made alliances with the Holy Roman Empire in the West and decisively defeated the Pechenegs at the Battle of Beroia . He thwarted Hungarian and Serbian threats during the 1120s, and in 1130 he allied himself with Lothair III , the German Emperor against the Norman King Roger II of Sicily . In

84972-443: Was unwilling or unable to punish these individuals. In any case, the revenge for Uthman soon became the pretext for two revolts against Ali. Other authors have instead implicated Mu'awiya or his close associates in the assassination of Uthman. Madelung writes that Amr ibn al-As, a close ally of Mu'awiya, had earlier publicly taken credit for the assassination. At the time, Mu'awiya was also repeatedly accused of abandoning Uthman during

85264-415: Was used adjectivally alongside terms such as "Empire of the Greeks" until the 19th century. It is now the primary term, used to refer to all aspects of the empire; some modern historians believe that, as an originally prejudicial and inaccurate term, it should not be used. As the historiographical periodizations of " Roman history ", " late antiquity ", and "Byzantine history" significantly overlap, there

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