First Fitna (656-661): Civil War After Uthman's Murder

The First Fitna was the first civil war within the Muslim community, lasting from the murder of Caliph Uthman ibn Affan in 656 to the rise of Mu’awiya ibn Abi Sufyan as caliph in 661. It set Ali ibn Abi Talib, the Prophet Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law, against the Prophet’s widow Aisha and then against Mu’awiya, governor of Syria. The war ended the Rashidun era, founded the Umayyad dynasty and created divisions that still shape Islam today.

Causes

Uthman, a member of the wealthy Umayyad clan of Mecca, became the third caliph in 644. During his reign the conquests slowed and the spoils that had enriched the armies diminished. Uthman appointed many of his relatives to rich governorships, including Mu’awiya in Syria and Abd Allah ibn Abi Sarh in Egypt, and was accused of favouritism in distributing land and money.

Discontent was strongest in the garrison cities of Kufa, Basra and Fustat, where early settlers resented newcomers and the power of Umayyad governors. Religious complaints were added, including criticism of how Uthman had imposed a single text of the Quran (see the Uthmanic codex) and burned other copies.

In 656 groups of rebels from Egypt and Iraq came to Medina. After negotiations broke down, they besieged Uthman in his house. In June 656 they broke in and killed him, reportedly while he was reading the Quran. It was the first killing of a caliph by Muslims, and it shocked the community.

Ali’s caliphate and the Battle of the Camel

Ali ibn Abi Talib was acclaimed caliph in Medina within days, with support from the rebels and many people in the city. Others hesitated. Aisha, daughter of the first caliph Abu Bakr and widow of the Prophet, joined two senior companions, Talha ibn Ubayd Allah and al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, in demanding that Uthman’s killers be punished. They gathered support in Basra.

Ali marched to Iraq, and the two sides met outside Basra in December 656. The fighting is called the Battle of the Camel because Aisha watched from a litter on a camel, around which the fiercest combat took place. Ali won. Talha and al-Zubayr were killed, and Aisha was treated with respect and escorted back to Medina. Ali then made Kufa his capital, shifting the centre of the caliphate away from Arabia.

Siffin and the arbitration

Mu’awiya, Uthman’s kinsman and the long-serving governor of Syria, refused to recognise Ali until Uthman’s murderers were punished. He had a loyal, well-organised Syrian army and the support of Amr ibn al-As, the conqueror of Egypt.

In 657 the two armies met at Siffin, on the Euphrates near modern Raqqa in Syria. After weeks of skirmishing and negotiation, heavy fighting broke out in July 657. Tradition relates that when Ali’s army seemed close to winning, Mu’awiya’s soldiers raised pages of the Quran on their lances, calling for the dispute to be settled by God’s word. Many of Ali’s men insisted on stopping, and he agreed to arbitration.

Each side named an arbiter: Abu Musa al-Ash’ari for Ali and Amr ibn al-As for Mu’awiya. Their meetings, usually placed at Adhruh in southern Jordan in 658 or 659, did not produce a lasting settlement. Instead the process weakened Ali’s position, since it treated him as an equal claimant rather than the recognised caliph.

The Kharijites and the death of Ali

A group of Ali’s soldiers rejected the arbitration with the slogan that judgement belongs to God alone. They left his army and became known as the Kharijites, “those who go out”. Ali defeated them at the Battle of Nahrawan in 658, but the survivors remained bitter enemies.

Meanwhile Mu’awiya grew stronger. In 658 Amr ibn al-As took Egypt for him, and Syrian forces raided Iraq and Arabia. In 660 Mu’awiya was proclaimed caliph in Jerusalem. In January 661 a Kharijite named Abd al-Rahman ibn Muljam struck Ali with a poisoned sword in the mosque of Kufa; he died two days later. His tomb is venerated at Najaf in Iraq.

Ali’s eldest son, Hasan, was proclaimed caliph in Kufa but soon reached an agreement with Mu’awiya and withdrew to Medina. Muslims later called 661 the “year of unity”, and Mu’awiya ruled as the first caliph of the Umayyad caliphate.

Key people

• Uthman ibn Affan (caliph 644–656): the third caliph, whose murder began the war.
• Ali ibn Abi Talib (caliph 656–661): cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, regarded by Shia Muslims as the first imam.
• Aisha bint Abi Bakr (died 678): the Prophet’s widow, who led opposition to Ali at the Camel.
• Mu’awiya ibn Abi Sufyan (caliph 661–680): governor of Syria and founder of the Umayyad dynasty.
• Amr ibn al-As (died c. 664): conqueror of Egypt and Mu’awiya’s arbiter and ally.

Consequences

The most immediate result of the war was a change of dynasty and capital. Mu’awiya governed from Damascus, which became the political centre of the caliphate for nearly a century. Medina, the city of the Prophet, never again served as the capital of a major empire, and power passed from the early companions to a dynasty with strong roots in Syria.

The war also changed the nature of the caliphate. Mu’awiya relied less on the moral authority of early conversion and more on tribal alliances, loyal Syrian troops and a court modelled partly on Byzantine and Persian practice. Before his death in 680 he named his son Yazid as successor, introducing hereditary rule. This decision provoked the Second Fitna (680–692), in which Ali’s son Husayn and the Meccan leader Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr challenged the Umayyads.

The conquests slowed during the civil war. Mu’awiya agreed a truce with the Byzantine Empire, reportedly paying tribute, so that he could concentrate on Ali. Expansion resumed after 661, in North Africa, in Central Asia and against Constantinople.

Finally, the war posed questions that Muslim thinkers debated for centuries: who should lead the community, whether a sinful ruler could be legitimate, and how far believers should obey or resist. Theology, law and political thought in Islam were all shaped by these early disputes.

Legacy

The First Fitna shaped the main branches of Islam. Supporters of Ali, the Shi’at Ali, held that leadership of the community belonged to him and his descendants; this view developed into Shia Islam, especially after Ali’s son Husayn was killed at the Battle of Karbala in 680. Most Muslims came to accept all four early caliphs as rightly guided, a view central to Sunni Islam. The Kharijites survive today in a moderate form as the Ibadi community, mainly in Oman.

Casualty figures from the sources are large and uncertain; later traditions speak of tens of thousands killed at Siffin, numbers modern historians treat with caution. The memory of Muslims fighting Muslims made “fitna” a byword for dangerous division.

Timeline

• 656, June: Caliph Uthman is murdered in Medina; Ali becomes caliph.
• 656, December: Ali defeats Aisha, Talha and al-Zubayr at the Battle of the Camel near Basra.
• 657, July: Battle of Siffin between Ali and Mu’awiya ends in agreement to arbitrate.
• 658: Ali defeats the Kharijites at Nahrawan; Amr ibn al-As takes Egypt for Mu’awiya.
• 658 or 659: arbitration meeting at Adhruh fails to settle the conflict.
• 660: Mu’awiya is proclaimed caliph in Jerusalem.
• 661, January: Ali is assassinated in Kufa.
• 661: Hasan abdicates and Mu’awiya is recognised as caliph.

Why it matters

The First Fitna ended the era of the Rashidun caliphs, moved political power from Arabia to Syria and created the Umayyad dynasty. Above all, its disputes over leadership and legitimacy became the starting point of the division between Sunni and Shia Islam.