66 • 5 THE EARLY ARAB CONQUESTSto Islam, but he then turned 180 degrees and became the Prophet's secre¬
tary. Some of his descendants' drinking and sexual exploits, though amus¬
ing to read about, shocked the pious Muslims of their day. However, the
Umayyads kept control of the caravan trade between Syria and Yemen, and
their business acumen helped them to choose policies, reconcile dif¬
ferences, and neutralize opposition. The Umayyad dynasty, though con¬
demned by most Muslim historians on moral grounds, built up the great
Arab empire.Mu'awiya's Successors
What Mu'awiya achieved was almost buried with him in 680. Yazid, his
designated successor, was hated by Muhammad's old Meccan companions
and by some of the Arab tribes, despite his victories in earlier battles
against Byzantium. The animosity went back to Yazid's childhood. His
mother, one of Mu'awiya's favorite wives, had detested the settled life of the
Umayyad court and pined for the bedouin camps of her youth. To this ef¬
fect she wrote a poem, grossly insulting to Mu'awiya, that convinced him
that she and her son, still young at the time, belonged in the desert. Yazid
grew up with his mother's tribe, Kalb, becoming a bold warrior but a heavy
drinker. Upon his accession to the caliphate, he favored his tribe over its
great rival, Qays. During the early conquests, the tribes had formed two
large confederations involving most of the Arab soldiers: one "southern"
and including Kalb, the other "northern" and including Qays. During
Yazid's reign, their rivalries escalated into a full-scale civil war, part of
Islam's second fitna.
Husayns Rebellion: The Beginning of Shi'ism
Before we cover the second fitna, let us tell you about a small rebellion, not
in itself a threat to Yazid's power but one that has since taken on immense
significance in Islamic history. Remember that some Muslims still abhorred
the very idea of an Umayyad caliphate and wanted the leadership of the
umma restored to the Hashimite clan, preferably in the person of a direct de¬
scendant of the Prophet. Muhammad had no sons. His son-in-law, Ali, had
been killed, as had Hasan, leaving the Prophet's other grandson, Husayn, as
the only possible claimant. Husayn was a pious man who had lived most of
his fifty-four years quietly in Medina. But when Yazid succeeded Mu'awiya
in 680, Husayn refused to recognize the new caliph as legitimate. Some
Kufan foes of the Umayyads, thus encouraged, talked Husayn into rebelling
against them. Intimidated by their governor, though, most Kufans withheld