SCHISM 61But a whole new class of nouveau riche had sprung out of the compost
of the Muslim conquests, and this elite was not interested in Ali's idea of
purity or his reforms. To them, Ali looked like a revolutionary threat, and
Mu'awiya looked like the guardian of their wealth and safety, the new
status quo.
Ali fired all the governors Othman had appointed and sent out new
men to replace them, but none of the fired governors agreed to step down,
except the one in Yemen, and he fled with all the money in the treasury,
leaving a bankrupt province for Ali's appointee to take over.
Meanwhile, trouble cropped up in another quarter. The Prophet's
youngest wife Ayesha happened to be in Mecca when Othman was assas-
sinated. When Mu'awiya began his ruckus, Ayesha threw in with him, in
part because there had always been bad blood between her and Ali. She an-
nounced her alignment with a fiery speech in Mecca. "0 ye people!
Rebels ... have murdered the innocent Othman .... They violated the
sanctity of the city of the Holy Prophet in the sacred month of hajj. They
plundered and looted the citizens of Medina. By God, a single finger of
Othman was more precious than the lives of all the assassins. The mischief
has not been crushed, and the murderers of Othman have not been
brought to book .... Seek satisfaction on these murderers. Only vengeance
for the blood of Othman can vindicate the honor oflslam."
Capitalizing on the passion she aroused, she assembled an army, con-
vened a war council, and mapped out a campaign. The ousted governor of
Yemen pledged all his stolen treasure to her cause. Flush with funds,
Ayesha led her troops north and stormed Basra, a key city in southern Iraq.
She dispatched Ali's loyalists quickly and took over.
At this point, someone started a whispering campaign charging Ali
himself with complicity in the assassination of Othman. Poor honest Ali
admitted that he bore some responsibility for the crime because when
Othman was pleading for protection, Ali had withheld his sword arm. The
thought that he might have saved Othman tormented the fourth khalifa of
Islam, and his honesty only fueled the rumors that undermined him.
Ali tried to raise an army to fight Ayesha, preaching that this was a
jihad and that people should rally to defend Islam as they had in days of
yore. But Muslims were confused, because Ayesha was calling for jihad
too, against Ali. Both sides claimed to be fighting for truth, justice, and