SCHISM 65Compromising with the enemy disappointed a faction of Ali's most
committed followers, and these younger, more radical of his partisans split
away. They carne to be known as Kharijites, "ones who departed." This
splinter group reformulated the ideals of Ali's followers into a revolution-
ary new doctrine: blood and genealogy meant nothing, they said. Even a
slave had the right to lead the community. The only qualification was
character. No one was born to leadership, and mere election could not
transform someone into the khalifa. Whoever exhibited the greatest au-
thentic devotion to Muslim values simply was the khalifa, no election
needed. He was, however, accountable to the people. If he ever fell a hair
short of complete moral excellence, he forfeited his right to high office and
someone else became khalifa. Through what actual machinery all this de-
motion and promotion was to occur, the Kharijites didn't say. Not their
problem. They only knew that Ali had squandered his entitlement and
needed to step down; and since he didn't step down, one young Kharijite
took matters into his own hands. In the year 40 AH, this hothead assassi-
nated Ali.
Ali's partisans immediately looked to his son Hassan as his successor,
but Mu' awiya swept this challenge aside by offering Hassan a sum of
money to renounce all claim to the khalifate. Mohammed's older grand-
son, heartbroken and war-weary at this point, stepped aside. He had no
stomach for continuing the fight, and under the circumstances now pre-
vailing, claiming the khalifate could only constitute a power grab, and
what good was that? And so the Umayyad dynasty began.
Ali's death ended the first era of Islamic history. Muslim historians
carne to call the first four post-Mohammed leaders the Rightly Guided
Khalifas. Life in their time was certainly not undiluted sweetness and won-
der, but in calling them the Rightly Guided Ones, I don't think responsi-
ble Muslim historians mean to suggest such perfection. Rather, they're
saying that the evolution of the community from the time of the Hijra to
the assassination of Ali was a religious drama. Yes there was bloodshed and
heartache, but the turmoil didn't stem from petty people vying for power,
money, or ego gratification. The four khalifas and Mohammed's close
companions who formed the core of the Umma in this period were hon-
estly striving to make the revelations work. Each of them had a handle on
some essential aspect of the project, but no one of them was big enough to