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The First Fitna and rise of the Umayyads

656–661 CE·Politics & governance·Arabia / Mesopotamia / Levant (Islamic world)·
656–661 CEDate
Politics & governanceCategory
17Empires active
Date
656–661 CE
Category
Politics & governance
Region
Arabia / Mesopotamia / Levant (Islamic world)
Era
Post-Classical / Medieval
Significance

The First Fitna was the first civil war within the Muslim community, triggered by the assassination of the caliph Uthman by rebels in 656 CE amid grievances over alleged nepotism.

Ali ibn Abi Talib, cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, became the fourth caliph but faced revolt from rivals who demanded vengeance for Uthman. Ali defeated one faction led by Aisha at the Battle of the Camel in 656, then fought the Syrian governor Muawiya to a stalemate at the Battle of Siffin in 657, where the controversial decision to seek arbitration split off the puritanical Kharijites. In 661 a Kharijite assassinated Ali, and Muawiya secured the caliphate, founding the Umayyad dynasty and moving the capital to Damascus. The war ended the era of the four 'Rightly Guided' Rashidun caliphs and replaced consultative succession with hereditary dynastic monarchy. Its disputes over legitimate leadership of the community proved foundational and irreparable, seeding the enduring division between those who became Sunnis and the partisans of Ali (shi'at Ali) who became the Shia.

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