Conclusion • 69oppose Abdallah's partisans, and in July 684 the Umayyad supporters de¬
feated the opposing Arab tribes and drove them out of Syria.
Rebellions went on for almost a decade. In 685 a group of penitent Shi'is
in Kufa started a two-year revolt that was notable for its appeal to non-
Arab converts. There were several Kharijite uprisings—one could generally
expect them whenever there was trouble. It took years for the Umayyads to
crush the rival caliphate of Abdallah ibn al-Zubayr, but we must leave that
story for Chapter 6. Never again would descendants of the emigrant com¬
panions and ansar put forth their own candidate for the leadership of the
umma. Never again would a large group try to make Mecca the capital city
of Islam.
CONCLUSIONBetween Muhammad's death and the second fitna, the umma had grown so
large that Arabia could no longer be its political center. The Arabian tribes
that had carried out the conquests had formed a powerful aristocracy
spread throughout the empire, but their effectiveness as a police force was
fatally weakened by their rivalries. The government of the umma had ceased
to be an extension of either Arab tribal democracy or Muhammad's reli¬
gious prestige; now it was firmly grasped by a Meccan mercantile clan based
in Syria. Its administrative arm was a team of Arabs and Syrians, some of
them Christian, who carried on the ruling practices of the Byzantines.
Many of the Arabs, whether nomads, sedentarized Meccan traders, Medi-
nan farmers, or tribal warriors living in garrison towns, felt alienated from
this neo-Roman kingdom. Some of the non-Arab subjects had become
Muslims, but these mawali, especially in Iraq, were second-class citizens
who resented Arab claims to superiority. Shi'ite and Kharijite movements
reflected these various tensions. Meanwhile, most of the caliphs' subjects
remained Jews, Christians, or Zoroastrians, not Muslims who could be
counted on to support the umma whenever it was in danger. In sum, we
should marvel that Islam survived Muhammad's death, that it gained new
lands and adherents so quickly, and that it assimilated mighty empires and
civilized societies. Yet, in spite of these achievements spanning half a cen¬
tury, Muslims were not yet secure.