The Baha'i Studies Listserv > I am ignorant about Islamic history. Could you tell me what went > terribly wrong? And what's so bad about the Umayyads....?
Dear Tim, It's a long story. The Umayyads was the clan to which Abu Sufyan, Muhammad's major opponent in Mecca belonged. When Muhammad captured Mecca Abu Sufyan and his family found it convenient to convert. 'Uthman, one of Muhammad's early companions was also an Umayyad, but most of the clain converted much, much later. 'Uthman was eventually selected to be the third Caliph of the Islamic community after Muhammad's passing. After he became Caliph he began to appoint relatives to key positions, despite the fact that the usual practice was to give this positions to long standing Muslims, preferably those Muhajir who had immigrated with Muhammad from Mecca to Medina. The most important and lucrative post was the governorship of Syria which went to Abu Sufyan's son Muawiyyih. Uthaman's nepotism led to a great deal of dissatisfaction amongst the Muslim military since their fair share of the spoils of war were now going to Uthman's relatives. One group of solders stationed in Egypt came back to Medina to protest this practice in person. Uthman agreed to meet with them the next day but according to at-Tabari Uthman secretly gave an order for their execution. The soldiers then snuck into a mosque and stabbed Uthman to death while he was saying his prayers. As had been previously arranged, Ali was to succeed Uthman. His claim to the Caliphate, however was challenged by Muawiyyih who demanded that Ali commit himself to avenging Uthman's assasination. Ali refused, partly because of the circumstances that led to Uthman's death and partly because he did not wish to embroil the Muslim community in a blood feud. You may remember that Ali had originally foregone his claim to the Caliphate and let Abu Bakr have it because he placed the unity of the community over his own claims. In any case, Muawyyih then rebelled and his forces were set to meet Ali's in the field of battle when Muawiyyih suddenly called for mediation. Ali reluctantly agreed at the insistence of some of his troops. The mediators decided that both Ali and Muawiyyih should step down and let another person become Caliph. At this point some in Ali's party rebelled. These people, who came to be known as Kharijites, held that in agreeing to negotiate with Muawyyih, Ali had committed a grave sin which essentially made him an apostate. They therefore attempted to assassinate both Ali and Muawiyyih but succeeded in killing only Muawiyyih. While Shi'ites insisted that Ali's eldest son Hasan was now the rightful caliph, Hasan agreed to let Muawiyyih rule providing that he agreed that it would be Hasan and not his own son who would succeed him. Muawiyyih agreed but afterwards had Hasan poisoned so his own son, Yazid would take the throne, thus founding the first Muslim Dynasty that of the Umayyads. While Muawiyyih was not a pious man he was a competent ruler and establish the Islamic Empire on a strong basis politically. His son, however was neither pious nor competent, and Muslims chafed under his tyranny. The city of Kufa in particular had enough and asked Ali's younger son, Husayn to come assume leadership there. Husayn then departed from Medina with 72 family members and close friends. In the meantime Yazid, sent an army out to squash the rebellion in Kufa Husayn's party arrived from their long trek across the desert to find an army was cutting them off from access to the Euphrates river. The general commanding the army demanded that Husayn pledge allegiance to Yazid before they would let them get to the water. When they refused, Husayn's followers were gradually picked off over the next three days. When Husayn attempted to get his dying toddler down to the water, an arrow went through the baby's throat. Finally all the male members of Husayn's party including Husayn himself were slaughtered except for one son who was sick in the tent. The heads of Husayn and his followers were mounted on pikes and taken off to Damascus, the seat of the Umayyad Empire. When Husayn's head was thrown at the Caliph's feet he struck it with his staff. And old man in the court who had been a companion of the Prophet then burst out and tears saying "with my own eyes I have seen the Prophet kiss those lips you just smashed." For Husayn was the Prophet's own grandson. Gibbon describes the rise of the Umayyads in these words: "The persecutors of Mahomet usurped the inheritance of his children, and the champions of idolatry became the supreme heads of his religion and empire." warmest, Susan __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:leave-533412-27401.54f46e81b66496c9909bcdc2f7987...@list.jccc.edu Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [email protected] Or subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:[email protected] Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News (on-campus only) - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
