Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan was the founder of the Umayyad dynasty, which ruled the Islamic world from 661 to 750 C.E. He was the first Umayyad caliph, and under his rule, Islam took on a new shape as a powerful imperial force within the medieval world. However, he has been a controversial figure within Islam and wider historiography, with some perceiving him as a tyrant and others as a shrewd and successful leader. Find out more about this influential and contentious caliph...
Caliph
The ruler of a caliphate; seen as a successor to the Prophet Muhammad as the religious and temporal leader of Islam
Caliphate
A political-religious state governing the Islamic community in the centuries following the death of the Prophet Muhammad
Ameer Muawiya: Early History
Muawiya has an interesting background, not least because his father, Abu Sufyan, was vigorously opposed to the Prophet Muhammad. How did he change from being the son of an opponent of Islam to becoming the leader of the Islamic world?
Ameer: A ruler or commander in Islamic countries
Ameer Muawiya in Islamic Calligraphy, Wikimedia Commons
Early life: Abu Sufyan and Conversion to Islam
Muawiya was born at the turn of the seventh century, between 597 and 605 C.E. His father, Abu Sufyan, was a prominent merchant from Mecca who was also the leader of the Quraysh tribe. This tribe held polytheistic views, which meant that Abu Sufyan clashed with the Prophet Muhammad, who had founded the last monotheistic religion, Islam.
Polytheistic religion
A religion that believes in many different gods or deities.
Monotheistic religion
A religion that believes in one deity
In Islam, 'Allah' means 'the God' to reflect their belief that Allah is the only deity.
Relations between Abu Sufyan and the Prophet Muhammad softened in 629, partially because of the Prophet's second marriage to Muawiya's widowed sister, who had embraced Islam. When Muhammad captured Mecca in 630, the whole family followed her lead and converted to Islam, although some historians speculate that Muawiya had secretly become a Muslim a couple of years earlier. Muhammad made Muawiya a scribe to attempt to reconcile with the Quraysh.
Muawiya's Rise to Power
After the Prophet Muhammad died in 632 C.E., the Rashidun caliphs took power of the emerging Islamic community - Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali. Under the Rashidun caliphate, Muawiya and his elder brother became commanders of the Islamic forces in the Muslim conquest of Syria. Muawiya became governor of most of Syria after his brother died of the plague in 639 C.E.
Muawiya proved an effective ruler, making shrewd political decisions. When Caliph Uthman took up leadership, he extended Muawiya's power further by enlarging his governorship to include the whole of Syria and Palestine. Uthman was also an Umayyad like Muawiya, and he liked appointing his kinsmen to high positions.
Rashidun Caliphs
The first four caliphs to rule the Islamic world, Rashidun in Arabic meaning 'rightly guided'
After Uthman was assassinated in 656 C.E, civil war broke out in the Islamic community - the First Fitna. The first uprising, led by Muhammad's widow against Caliph Ali, was put down quickly. However, Ali soon turned on Muawiya since he saw him as a potential rival.
| Ali | Muawiya |
| Reason for opposing the other side | Saw Muawiya as a potential rival. | Wanted revenge because Ali's supporters had killed his kinsman, Caliph Uthman. |
| Background | Son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad | Son of the primary opponent of the Prophet Muhammad |
| Military victory | The Battle of Siffin - Ali's forces were dominant at this battle in 657. However, the battle did not end as Ali expected. | |
| Moral victory | | When Muawiya realised he would lose the Battle of Siffin, he ordered his men to put Qur'an pages on the ends of their lances. Ali's men refused to fight men who bore the Qur'an and thought Muawiya must be a very pious man to want to settle things by Qur'an rather than bloodshed. Thus Muawiya won the moral victory at the Battle of Siffin. |
| End of the First Fitna | Ali was assassinated by one of his own supporters who turned on him. He had appointed his son, Hasan, as his heir. | Muawiya negotiated a financial settlement with Hasan in exchange for his abdication. Thus Muawiya then became caliph, and he reunited the Islamic empire. |
Qur'an
The holy book of Islam
Ameer Muawiya as Caliph
Painting of Caliph Muawiya before the conquest of Cyprus, Moustafa Farroukh, Wikimedia Commons
Muawiya ruled as caliph from 661 to 680 - let's look at how he got this position and what he did during his time as ruler.
Muawiya's Accession to Caliph
Muawiya's Syrian army made great territorial gains, including Egypt in July 658 C.E, which represented a major blow to Ali's authority.
However, Ali was assassinated in January 661 C.E, before Muawiya could defeat him in battle. Ali was succeeded by his son, Hasan.
Muawiya negotiated a financial settlement with Hasan, which stipulated that Hasan would abdicate in exchange for a large payment. Muawiya was recognised as Caliph in the summer of 661. In so doing, he founded the Umayyad Caliphate, so named because Umayya was an ancestor he shared with the Prophet Muhammad, and therefore it boosted his legitimacy to rule.
Mu'awiya's Rule
Muawiya preferred to rule the caliphate by financial diplomacy than military force. He tended to bribe influential leaders in the provinces of his empire to be loyal to him by building up their power in exchange for their allegiance.
Muawiya waged a long war against the Byzantine Empire. Although Muawiya eventually lost this war and was forced to pay 3000 gold coins in tribute to the Byzantine Emperor each year, the war still benefited him through war spoils, the continued training of his army, and the prevention of any Byzantine campaigns into Syria itself.
He was more successful in his western military expeditions, conquering the region of Ifriqiya in central north Africa in 678 C.E.
Death of Mu'awiya
Muawiya died of illness in 680 C.E., at eighty years old. He appointed his son, Yazid, as his successor in an unusual move for Islamic politics, where successful commanders usually took over. His body was buried at the Bab al-Saghir gate of the city of Damascus.
Ameer Muawiya: Meaning of His Rule
Muawiya was a significant figure in many ways:
- He founded the Umayyad Caliphate, which would rule the Islamic world for nearly a century.
- He changed the shape of Islamic political rule. Whereas the Rashidun caliphs had styled themselves 'deputy of the messenger of God,' Muawiya and his successors adopted the title 'deputy of God'.
- He was a good diplomat, meaning that his administration ran peaceably despite ruling over many different tribes.
- He preserved the unity of the caliphate after a period of intense civil war that could have split the Islamic community in two. The significance of this watershed moment is borne out by the fact that traditional sources within Islam name his accession as 'the year of unification of the community'.
- He created a vast navy that made the Umayyad Caliphate the most powerful force in the eastern Mediterranean.
- Muawiya's war against Caliph Ali led to the Sunni-Shia split in Islam. Although this was probably not Muawiya's intention, the effects of his victory over Ali would change the political character of the Islamic community forever.
The Sunni-Shia Split in Islam
Over time, Islam split into two major branches: the Sunnis and the Shias.
The Shias believed that only descendants of the Prophet Muhammad (specifically through the line of Caliph Ali) should be able to be the rulers of the Islamic community.
In contrast, the Sunnis believed that any believing Muslim could become caliph so long as they had the right qualities.
Coins issued by Yazid, Muawiya's son and successor to the Umayyad dynasty, LouisAragon, Wikimedia Commons
Uthman and Muawiya
There is a debate about whether the Umayyads really began with Muawiya or whether it originated with Caliph Uthman, the third of the Rashidun Caliphs.
Conventional Sunni accounts of Umayyad history identify the start of the Umayyad Caliphate in 661 C.E when Muawiya came to the throne. This version of history makes a sharp break between the four 'rightly guided' Rashidun Caliphs, who were the Prophet Muhammad's closest companions, and the despotic Umayyad Caliphs, whose reign ushered in a focus on political kingship rather than the faith of Islam.
However, historian Andrew Marsham contests this view, pointing out that this overlooks the fact that Uther was an Umayyad and, therefore, the start of the Umayyads ruling the Islamic community really began with Uther, not Muawiya.
However, Marsham is clear in distinguishing between the significance of Uther and Muawiya in this way:
The history of the Umayyads as a family' [begins with Uthman.... but] one can arguably speak only of an Umayyad 'dynasty' after the 660s...brought about by Mu'awiya's transfer of the imperial centre to Damascus... After all, we do not know how Uthman might have sought to organise the succession, and power was only publicly transferred from one member of the family to another for the first time when Mu'awiya appointed his son Yazid as his successor. 1
Uther was assassinated in 656 C.E, partially because his policy of favouring his own relatives angered others in the Islamic community. Therefore, we will never know what his choice for succession would have been.
Muawiya: Perspectives and Historiography
Muawiya has a very contentious legacy within Islam and wider historiography.
Islam became divided between Sunni and Shia Muslims in large part because of the legacy of Muawiya's accession to the caliphate.
The Sunni-Shia Debate
Sunni perspectives:
From the eighth century onwards, Sunni historiography divided the history of the Caliphs into two - the 'rightly guided' caliphs of the Rashidun Caliphate, who had been divinely guided and moral exemplars, verses Muawiya and the later Umayyad Caliphs who were oppressive rulers.
However, the Sunni view of Muawiya is not completely negative. They respect him as a scribe of the Qur'anic revelation and ascribe him the status of a companion of Muhammad. They also believe that his war against Ali was an error of judgement rather than due to evil intentions.
Shia perspectives:
Shias believe that Ali was the true successor of Muhammad. Therefore, Muawiya's war with Ali means that Shias view Muawiya as an evil character. A particularly contentious issue is that Muawiya's father, Abu Sufyan, was an opponent of the Prophet Muhammad and only converted when Muhammad took Mecca. Therefore, they think Muawiya's conversion was false and that he was an unbeliever. Shias also deny that Muawiya can be properly understood as a companion of Muhammad and do not see him as a scribe of Qur'anic revelation.
The Good/Bad Ruler Debate
Some scholars see Muawiya as a politically astute leader.
- Julius Wellhausen and Stephen Humphreys, for example, portray him as an intelligent ruler who saved the Islamic empire through his shrewd policies.2
- Erling Petersen argues that political shrewdness won Muawiya the caliphate.3
However, other historians see him as a usurper.
- Wilferd Madelung is the chief advocate of this view, arguing that Muawiya did not deserve to become Caliph and that he debased Islamic ideals as ruler of the Muslim world.4
- Michael Morony critiques Madelung's view by arguing that he relies on sources that are highly biased against Muawiya that are shaped like salvation histories about the struggle of the rightful imam Ali against Muawiya.5
Imam
The leader of the Islamic community, especially one who succeeded Muhammad in Shiite Islam
The Caliphate Debate
Most Western scholars agree that Muawiya became caliph in 661 C.E, after the agreement that he made with Ali's son, Hasan. Julius Wellhausen puts it this way:
[Muawiya] was not a pretender and made no claim to the Khalifate. 6
Historian Hugh Kennedy goes one step further, suggesting that not only did Muawiya make no claim to be caliph, but that he wanted a council to select the next caliph.7
Meanwhile, coming from a very different perspective, Madelung argues that Muawiya did not claim to be caliph because he knew that he lacked the qualifications for it.8
However, Khaled Keshk argues that Ali and Muawiya were both contenders for the caliphate during the civil war and that because some in the Islamic community recognised Muawiya as caliph from the Battle of Camel onwards, his reign can be dated as early as 656 C.E.9
Keshk bases his argument based on the fact that Ali decided to go to war against Muawiya, which he thinks Ali would not have done if Muawiya did not represent a direct challenge to his rule.
Furthermore, Ali told his messenger to inform Muawiya that:
I will not accept him as a governor nor will the public accept him as caliph. 10
This statement is only understandable if Ali genuinely believed that there was a possibility that Muawiya was a rival for the caliphate.
If Keshk's opinion were the case, it would complicate the binary view of rightful Rashidun caliphs and bad Umayyad caliphs even further.
Mu'awiya - Key takeaways
- Muawiya was the first caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, ruling from 661 C.E. to his death in 680 C.E.
- Muawiya came from a tribe which had long opposed the Prophet Muhammad. However, they converted after Muhammad took Mecca and he quickly rose through the ranks to become first a scribe, then a commander, and then the governor of Syria.
- Muawiya fought against Caliph Ali, the fourth and last caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate. This would eventually lead to the Sunni-Shia split in Islam.
- Muawiya was a shrewd leader who preferred to rule through bribery than military force. Under his rule, the Islamic world expanded into central north Africa.
- Muawiya is a contentious figure within Islam and historiography. Some see him as a tyrant who had no right to lead the Islamic community, and others think that he was a good and politically wise ruler who managed to unify the caliphate after years of civil war.
References
- Andrew Marsham, The Umayyad World, 2020.
- J. Wellhausen, The Arab Kingdom and Its Fall, 1927; Stephen Humphreys, Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan: From Arabia to Empire, 2006.
- Erling Petersen, Ali and Mu'awiya in Early Arabic Tradition, 1974.
- Wilferd Madelung, The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate, 1997.
- Michael Morony, Review in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 2000.
- J. Wellhausen, The Arab Kingdom and Its Fall, 1927, p. 25
- Hugh Kennedy, The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphate, 2004.
- Madelung, The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate, 1997.
- Khaled Keshk, 'When did Mu'awiya Become Caliph?' in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 2010.
- Khaled Keshk, 'When did Mu'awiya Become Caliph?' in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 2010.
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