Muawiyah I

Muawiyah I (Arabic: معاوية بن أبي سفيان; Transliteration: Muˁāwīya ibn ˁAbī Sufyān; 602-680) was a Sahaba (companion) of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad PBUH and later the Umayyad caliph in Damascus. He engaged in a civil war against the fourth and final Rashidun (Rightly Guided Caliphs), Ali (Ali ibn Abi Talib) (Prophet Muhammad's son-in-law) and met with considerable military success, including the seizure of Egypt. He assumed the caliphate after Ali's assassination in 661 and led until 680.

Because of his involvement in the Battle of Siffin against Ali, whom the Shia Muslims believe was Prophet Muhammad's true successor (see Succession to Prophet Muhammad), the belief that he broke the treaty he made with Hasan ibn Ali by appointing his son Yazid as ruler and the belief that he was responsible for the deaths of various companions, Mu'awiyah has been hated and reviled by generations of Shi'a.

Early life

Mu'awiyah ibn Abi-Sufyan was born (c. 600) into a powerful clan, the Banu Abd-Shams, of the Quraysh tribe. The Quraysh controlled the city of Mecca, in what is now western Saudi Arabia, and the Banu Abd-Shams were among the most influential of its citizens. His father, Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, opposed Prophet Muhammad PBUH before becoming a Muslim after Prophet Muhammad PBUH conquered Mecca.

In 630 CE, Prophet Muhammad PBUH and his followers conquered Mecca, and most of the Meccans, including the Abd-Shams, formally submitted to Prophet Muhammad PBUH and accepted Islam. General consensus among early Islamic historians is that Muawiyah, along with his father Abu Sufyan, became Muslims at the conquest of Mecca when further resistance to Muslims became an impossibility. According to some historians Muāwiyya accepted Islam at an earlier date in defiance of his relatives.[citation needed]

Prophet Muhammad PBUH welcomed his former opponents, enrolled them in his army and gave them important posts in what was to become the Rashidun Caliphate. After Prophet Muhammad's PBUH death in 632, he served in the Islamic army sent against the Byzantine forces in Syria. He held a high rank in the Rashidun army which was led by his brother Yazid ibn Abu Sufyan.

Governor of Syria

Caliph Umar (Umar ibn al-Khattab) had appointed Yazid Ibn Abu Sufyan as governor of Syria. In the year 640, Umar appointed Muawiyah as governor of Syria when his brother died in an outbreak of plague. Muawiyah gradually gained mastery over the other areas of Syria, instilling remarkable personal loyalty among his troops and the people of the region. By 647, Muawiyah had built a Syrian army strong enough to repel a Byzantine attack and, in subsequent years, to take the offensive against the Byzantines in campaigns that resulted in the capture of Cyprus (649) and Rhodes (654) and a devastating defeat of the Byzantine navy off the coast of Lycia (655). At the same time, Muawiyah periodically dispatched land expeditions into Anatolia.

According to the chronicler Theophanes the Confessor, Muawiyah I, after capturing Rhodes sold the remains of the Colossus of Rhodes to a traveling salesman from Edessa. The buyer had the statue broken down, and transported the bronze scrap on the backs of 900 camels to his home. Pieces continued to turn up for sale for years, after being found along the caravan route.

All these campaigns came to a halt with the accession of Ali to the caliphate, when a new and decisive phase of Muawiyah's career began.

Conflict with Ali

Muawiyah fought a protracted campaign against Ali, allegedly seeking justice for the assassinated caliph Uthman Ibn Affan. Aisha (Aisha bint Abu Bakr) (Prophet Muhammad's PBUH widow), Talhah (Talha ibn Ubayd-Allah) and Al-Zubayr (Abu ‘Abd Allah Zubayr ibn al-Awwam) were all in agreement with Muawiyah that those who assassinated Uthman should be brought to justice. However, Ali refused to apprehend and punish Uthman's murderers, citing rebel infiltration of the Muslim ranks, resulting in Muawiyah's refusal to acknowledge Ali's caliphate.

Muawiyah did not participate in the campaign by Aisha, Talhah and Al-Zubayr against Ali that ended in the Battle of the Camel. The city of Basrah went over to them but they were defeated in battle by Ali. Talhah and Al-Zubayr were killed. Ali pardoned Aisha and had her escorted back to Medina.

Ali then turned towards Syria, where Mu'awiyah was in open opposition. He marched to the Euphrates and engaged Mu'awiyah's troops at the famous Battle of Siffin (657). Accounts of the clash vary – however, it would seem that neither side had won a victory, since the Syrians called for arbitration to settle the matter, arguing that continuing civil war would embolden the Byzantines. There are several conflicting accounts of the arbitrations.

In the meantime, dissension broke out in Ali's camp where some of his former supporters, later known as Kharijites, felt that Ali had betrayed them by entering into negotiations. Ali set out to quell the Kharijites. At about the same time, unrest was brewing in Egypt. The governor of Egypt, Qais, was recalled, and Ali had him replaced with Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr (the brother of Aisha and the son of Islam's first caliph Abu Bakr). Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr's rule resulted in widespread rebellion in Egypt. Mu'awiyah ordered 'Amr ibn al-'As to invade Egypt and 'Amr did so successfully. Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr was killed.

When Alī was assassinated in 661, Mu'awiyah, as commander of the largest force in the Muslim Empire, had the strongest claim to the Caliphate. Ali's son Hasan ibn Ali, after an initial defiance of Mu'awiyah, gave up and retired to private life in Medina.

Rule

After giving himself the title Amir al-Mu'minin (Commander of the Faithful) in the year 661, Mu'awiyah governed the geographically and politically disparate Caliphate, which now spread from Egypt in the west to Iran in the east, by strengthening the power of his allies in the newly conquered territories. Prominent positions in the emerging governmental structures were held by Christians, some of whom belonged to families that had served in Byzantine governments. The employment of Christians was part of a broader policy of religious tolerance that was necessitated by the presence of large Christian populations in the conquered provinces, especially in Syria itself. This policy also boosted his popularity and solidified Syria as his power base.

Mu'awiyah instituted several Byzantine-style bureaucracies, called divans, to aid him in the governance and the centralization of the Caliphate and the empire. Early Arabic sources credit two diwans in particular to Mu'awiyah: the Diwan al-Khatam (Chancellery) and the Barid (Postal Service), both of which greatly improved communications within the empire.

To have an insight into Mu’awiyah’s character, we may mention what Ibn Katheer reports in his history book Al-Bidayah wal-Nihayah.

"At the height of tension when fighting was about to erupt at Siffin between Ali and Mu’awiyah, Mu’awiyah was informed that the Byzantine Emperor raised a very large army and was drawing very close to the borders of the Muslim state. He wrote to him, giving him a very clear warning, 'By God, if you do not stop your designs and go back to your place, I will end my dispute with my cousin and will drive you out of the entire land you rule, until I make the earth too tight for you.' The Byzantine Emperor was scared off and abandoned his plans"

Mu'awiyah died May 6, 680. He was succeeded by his son Yazid I. Mu'awiyah had held the expanding empire together by force of his personality, through personal allegiances, in the style of a traditional Arab sheikh. However Mu'awiyah's attempt to start a dynasty failed because both Yazid and then his grandson Muawiya II died prematurely. The caliphate eventually went to Marwan I a descendant of another branch of Mu'awiya's clan.

Legacy

Mu'awiyah greatly beautified Damascus and developed a court to rival that of Constantinople. He expanded the frontiers of the empire, reaching the very gates of Constantinople at one point, though failing to hold any territory in Anatolia. Sunni Muslims credit him with saving the fledgling Muslim nation from post civil war anarchy.

One of Muawiyah's most controversial and enduring legacies was his decision to designate his son Yazid as his successor, thereby creating a dynasty. According to Shi'a doctrine, this was a clear violation of the treaty he made with Hasan ibn Ali, in which he said he would not make his son his successor.

Sunni View

Many Sunni historians see him as a companion of Prophet Muhammad PBUH, worthy of respect, and many Sunni revere him as such, taking issue with the Shia vilification of him. However, Muawiyah is seen, not as a hazret (a title of utmost respect; used only for prophets, saints and the Rashidun), but as a king. Sunnis believe that the legacy of Muawiyah was shadowed by his ambition -he fought against the Rightly Guided Caliph of the time, Ali; and he transformed the regime from an elective monarchy into a hereditary one by designating his son Yezid as his successor.

A Sunni hadith says:

"..Muawiyah who was really the best of the two men said to him, "O 'Amr! If these killed those and those killed these, who would be left with me for the jobs of the public, who would be left with me for their women, who would be left with me for their children?" Then Muawiya sent two Quraishi men from the tribe of 'Abd-i-Shams called 'Abdur Rahman bin Sumura and Abdullah bin 'Amir bin Kuraiz to Al-Hasan saying to them, "Go to this man (i.e. Al-Hasan) and negotiate peace with him and talk and appeal to him." So, they went to Al-Hasan and talked and appealed to him to accept peace..."

Sunni scholars interpret Hasan's willingness to abandon his claims in favor of Mu'awiyah as proof that Hasan did not view Muawiyah as an apostate, renegade and hypocrite. Hasan, they say, did so for the sake of peace and ending the civil war.

Shi'a View

The Shi'a tend to vilify Mu'awiyah. His supposed conversion to Islam before the conquest of Mecca is dismissed as a fable, or mere hypocrisy. He opposed Ali, the rightful Imam, out of sheer greed for power and wealth. His reign opened the door to unparalleled disaster, marked by the persecution of Ali, slaughtering of his followers, and unlawful imprisonment of his supporters, which only worsened when Yazid come into power and the Battle of Karbala ensued. Mu'awiya is alleged to have killed many of Prophet Muhammad's PBUH companions (Sahaba), either in battle or by poison, due to his lust for power. A few historical figures killed by Mu'awiya include: the Sahaba Amr bin al-Hamiq, Malik al-Ashtar, Hujr ibn Adi (to which the families of Abu Bakr and Umar condemned Mu'awiyah for, and the Sahaba deemed his killer to be cursed) and Abd al-Rahman bin Hasaan (buried alive for his support of Ali).

The killing of the two children of Ubaydullah ibn Abbas can also be found in Sunni and Shi'a texts.

[...] Then he [i.e. Mu'awiyah] was informed that Ubaidullah had two infant sons. So he set out to reach them, and when he found them - they had two (tender) forelocks like pearls - [and] he ordered to kill them.
Source

Wallahu ta'ala a'lam