1,MUAWIYYA BIN ABU SUFYAN(R.A)-THE FIRST UMMAYAD RULER:
Muawiyah I (R.A); 602 – 9 May 680) was the the first(or the second ruler after uthma(R.A)) of the Umayyad Dynasty. After the conquest of Mecca by the Muslims, Muawiyah's family converted to Islam. Muawiyah is brother-in-law to Muhammad who married his sister Ramlah bint Abi-Sufyan in 1AH. Muawiyah (R.A)became a scribe for Muhammad(SALLA' ALLAH ALAI'H WA AALIHI WASSALAM), and during the first and second caliphates of Abu Bakr and Umar, fought with the Muslims against the Byzantines in Syria.

When his elder brother Yazid (Governor of Syria) died of the plague, Umar ibn al-Khattab (R.A) then appointed Muawiyah(R.A) as Governor of Syria in 640 CE. However when Ali(KARAMULLAH WAJ'H)was appointed the fourth and final Rashidun Caliph, he expelled Muawiyah(R.A) from the Governorship. Muawiyah refused to obey Ali(R.A), and had some level of support from the Syrians in his rebelliousness, amongst whom he was a popular leader.Ali(R.A) called for military action against Muawiyah(R.A), but the reaction of the political classes in Medina was not encouraging, and thus Ali deferred. Eventually Ali marched on Damascus and fought Muawiyah's supporters at the inconclusive Battle of Siffin (657 CE).

Ali's(KARAMULLAH WAJ'H) son Hasan ibn Ali signed a truce and retired to private life in Medina. Muawiyah(R.A) thus established the Umayyad Caliphate, which was to be a hereditary dynasty,and governed from Damascus in Syria instead of Medina in Arabia.

As Caliph, Muawiyah(R.A) developed a navy in the Levant(modern syria) and used it to wage a war against the Byzantine Empire in the Aegean Sea and the Sea of Marmara. The Caliphate conquered several territories including Cyzicus which were subsequently used as Naval bases. The war ended in an unsuccessful siege of Constantinople.

Muawiyah I(R.A) is a reviled figure in Shia Islam for several reasons. Firstly, because of his involvement in the Battle of Siffin against Ali(KARAMULLAH WAJ'H), whom the Shia Muslims believe was Muhammad's(SALLA' ALLAH ALAI'H WA AALIHI WASSALAM) true successor secondly, for the breaking of the treaty he made with Hasan ibn Ali(R.A), after the death of Hassan ibn Ali(R.A), one of broken terms being appointing his son Yazid as his successor; thirdly, on account of his responsibility for the killing of Hasan ibn Ali(R.A) by alluring his wife Ja'dah binte Ash'as to poison him; and fourthly by distorting Islam to match his unislamic rule and fifthly, for the deaths of various Companions of Muhammad(SALLA' ALLAH ALAI'H WA AALIHI WASSALAM).

Early life

Muawiyah bin Abi-Sufyan(R.A) was born in Hejaz (602 CE) into the Banu Umayya sub-clan of the Banu Abd-Shams clan of the Quraysh tribe. The Quraysh controlled the city of Mecca (in the west of present-day Saudi Arabia) and the Banu Abd-Shams were among the most influential of its citizens. Muawiyah(R.A) and the rest of his family were staunch opponents of the Muslims before the ascendancy of Muhammad(SALLA' ALLAH ALAI'H WA AALIHI WASSALAM). Along with his two older brothers Yazid and Utbah, Muawiyah(R.A) was one of the members of the hunting party of his maternal uncle Waleed bin Utbah that pursued Prophet Muhammad(SALLA' ALLAH ALAI'H WA AALIHI WASSALAM) during the hijrah (migration), when the Holy Prophet and Abu Bakr (R.A)were hiding in Ghar al-Thawr (Cave of the Bull).

In 630, Muhammad(SALLA' ALLAH ALAI'H WA AALIHI WASSALAM) and his followers conquered Mecca, and most of the Meccans, including the Abd-Shams clan, formally submitted to Muhammad(SALLA' ALLAH ALAI'H WA AALIHI WASSALAM) and accepted Islam. Muawiyah(R.A), along with his father Abu Sufyan, became Muslims at the conquest of Mecca when further resistance to Muslims became an impossibility.Some scholars hold the view that Muawiyah(R.A) was the second of the two to convert, with Abu Sufyan(R.A) convincing him to do it.

Muhammad (SALLA' ALLAH ALAI'H WA AALIHI WASSALAM)welcomed his former opponents, enrolled them in his army and gave them important posts in what was to become the Caliphate. After the Prophet Muhammad's(SALLA' ALLAH ALAI'H WA AALIHI WASSALAM) death (632) Muawiyah (R.A)served in the Islamic army sent against the Byzantine forces in Syria. He held a high rank in the army led by his brother Yazid ibn Abu Sufyan.Governor of Syria

Caliph Umar(R.A) had appointed Muawiyah Ibn Abu Sufyan(R.A) as governor of Syria. In the year 640, Umar(R.A) appointed Muawiyah(R.A) 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(R.A) 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(R.A) periodically dispatched land expeditions into Anatolia.

According to the chronicler Theophanes the Confessor, Muawiyah I(R.A), 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(KARAMULLAH WAJ'H) to the caliphate, when a new and decisive phase of Muawiyah's career began.

Conflict with Ali(KARAMULLAH WAJ'H)

Muawiyah(R.A) fought a protracted campaign against Ali(KARAMULLAH WAJ'H), allegedly seeking justice for the assassinated caliph Uthman Ibn Affan. Aisha(R.A) (Aisha bint Abu Bakr) (Muhammad's widow), Talhah(R.A) (Talha ibn Ubayd-Allah) and Al-Zubayr (R.A)(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(KARAMULLAH WAJ'H) claimed that he was not able to apprehend and punish Uthman's (R.A)murderers fearing rebel infiltration of the Muslim ranks. This resulted in Muawiyah(R.A) refusing to acknowledge Ali's caliphate.

Muawiyah did not participate in the campaign by Aisha(R.A), Talhah (R.A)and Al-Zubayr(R.A) 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(R.A) and had her escorted back to Medina.

Ali then turned towards Syria, where Muawiyah (R.A)was in open opposition. He marched to the Euphrates and engaged Muawiyah's(R.A) 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. One account suggests that Muawiyyah’s(R.A) army were ordered to adorn the tips of their swords with pages from the Quran in an attempt to confuse the army of Ali (KARAMULLAH WAJ'H)and prevent them from winning the battle. As a result, the army of Ali(KARAMULLAH WAJ'H) ceased fighting so as not to bring harm to the Quran. Muawiyah(R.A) proposed a cease-fire which Ali(KARAMULLAH WAJ'H) agreed to and it was decided to end the conflict through peaceful talks.

In the meantime, dissension broke out in Ali's camp where some of his former supporters, later known as Kharijites, felt that Ali (KARAMULLAH WAJ'H)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 Abu Bakr(R.A) (the brother of Aisha and the son of Islam's first caliph Abu Bakr(R.A)). Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr's rule resulted in widespread rebellion in Egypt. Muawiyah (R.A)ordered 'Amr ibn al-'As to invade Egypt and 'Amr did so successfully.

When Alī (KARAMULLAH WAJ'H)was assassinated in 661, Muawiyah(R.A), as commander of the largest force in the Muslim Empire, had the strongest claim to the Caliphate. Ali's son Hasan ibn Ali signed a truce and retired to private life in Medina.

Muawiyah (R.A)said later: "I never fought against Ali(KARAMULLAH WAJ'H), only about Uthman's
(R.A) death".That was attested by Al-Sharif al-Radi in his book, he said:
In the war... When we met people of Al-Sham, it seemed that our God is one, our prophet is the same, our calling is the same, and no one is more of a believer than the other about believing in Allah, or the prophet. The misunderstandings were about Uthman's blood, and we have nothing to do with it.


In the year 661, Muawiyah(R.A) was crowned as caliph at a ceremony in Jerusalem.Muawiyah 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.

In a manner similar to Byzantine administrative practices, Muawiyah(R.A) instituted several 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 Muawiyah(R.A) : the Diwan al-Khatam (Chancellery) and the Barid (Postal Service), both of which greatly improved communications within the empire.

According to Arab historian Ibn Kathir-a prominant sunni scholar

At the height of tension when fighting was about to erupt at Siffin between Imam Ali(KARAMULLAH WAJ'H) and Muawiyah(R.A), Muawiyah 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

However, other scholars contend that he simply placated the Byzantine emperor with offers of land, gold, and slaves.

Muawiyah (R.A)died on May 6, 680, allegedly from a stroke brought on by his weight. He was succeeded by his son Yazid I. Muawiyah(R.A) had held the expanding empire together by force of his personality, through personal allegiances, in the style of a traditional Arab sheikh. However Muawiyah's(R.A) 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 Muawiyah's clan.Muawiyah and Mawalis

In accordance with the ways of Empire, Muawiyah(R.A) favoured his Arab subjects over non-Arab Muslims (the Mawalis) - the discriminatory treatment of non-Arab Muslims by the victorious Umayyad forces are documented by both Sunni and Shia sources as in the example below concerning Muawiyah's commands to his governor Ziyad ibn Abih.Appearance and habits

Shia Muslims and both several pro-Ali Sunni imams like Imam Nasa'i and more anti-Shia Sunni imams like Bukhari and Muslim, were of the opinion that Mu'awiya was lazy, gluttonous, and obese to the point of not even being able to ride a horse. Nisa'i and Sahih Muslim narrate a Sahih hadith, wherein the Prophet Muhammad summoned Mu'awiya who snubbed him and continued eating his meal - Muhammad then cursed Mu'awiya(R.A) with the words: "May Allah never fill his belly!" Nisa'i was not the only Sunni scholar who accepted this hadith - there were many others, the foremost being the imams Bukhari and imam Muslim who compiled the Sahih of Muslim.It has been argued that in the Arabic culture and language the expression is a colloquialism which means a wish that the person's belly be so full of blessings of Allah (in the form of food) that his belly cannot take anymore, or that he wishes the persons blessings to be without an end. This is similar to the English saying of a father saying to his son in a soccer match to "Break a leg". However, the two pre-eminent Masters of Sunni Hadith, Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslim, have rejected absolutely the latter apology for Mu'awiya, and Imam Muslim indeed places the Hadith-e-Muawiya(R.A) in the Chapter of those Cursed by Mohammad.[33] Further, the Imam Nisa'i was murdered when he recited this Hadith in the presence of pro-Muawiya Arab-speaking Syrians as it was perceived as a curse of Mu'awiya, which debases the unreferenced suggestion that the term was a form of praise and not condemnation.Shias often question why there are no reliable precise accounts of Mu'awiya actually participating in any battles after his conversion to Islam - no names of enemies he personally defeated in combat are known.