60 • 5 THE EARLY ARAB CONQUESTS
- Uthman's mistake was to continue Umar's policies in a more complex
time, without having Umar's forceful character. Perceiving this, the Mus¬
lims in Iraq's garrison towns began plotting against him.
Uthman's Troubled Caliphate
Traditional accounts draw contrasts between the second and third caliphs.
"The luck of Islam was shrouded in Umar's winding-sheet," remarked a
survivor. Uthman complained from the pulpit of Muhammad's mosque to
the men of Medina: "You took it from Umar, even when he whipped you.
Why then do you not take it from one who is gentle and does not punish
you?" Why, indeed? Whereas Umar, during his caliphate, slept on a bed of
palm leaves and wore the same wool shirt until it was covered with patches,
Uthman amassed estates worth over $50 million while he was caliph.
Modern scholars play down the personality contrast, however, and stress
changing conditions within the umma. The influx of money and treasure
enriched Medina and Mecca far beyond anything Muhammad could have
anticipated and eventually beyond what his associates could assimilate.
Greed and vice proliferated, especially among the young—claimed their
elders. Once the early conquests had reached their limits (Cyrenaica in the
west, Anatolia's Taurus Mountains in the north, Khurasan in the east, and
the Indian Ocean and upper Nile in the south), the Arab tribesmen could
not change from border warriors into military police. They sat idly in their
garrison towns, bewailed the lost opportunities for booty, and plotted
against the caliphate in far-off Medina.
From about 650, Uthman's rule was threatened by a mixture of people:
pious old Muslims, mostly Medinans, who resented the way the Umayyads
were taking over the same umma they once had tried to destroy; Quran re¬
citers who had lost power because of Uthman's authorization of a single
version; and tribal Arabs who chafed at having no new lands to seize and
plunder. Of all the garrison towns, Kufa was the most restive. An open re¬
volt started there in 655, spread to Arabia, and reached Medina in 656. The
insurgents besieged the house of Uthman, who got no protection from
any of Muhammad's associates. A group of rebels from Egypt broke in and
killed the aged caliph as he sat with his wife, reciting from the Quran. Five
days later, Ali (r. 656-661) agreed, reluctantly, to become the fourth caliph.
Alts Caliphate
Thus began Islam's first time of troubles, which the Arabs call their fitna
(temptation). It seems unfair, for Ali appeared highly qualified for the
