- Karen Armstrong
port, even in Kufah. Muawiyyah made steady gains and many
of the Arabs remained neutral. A second attempt at arbitra-
tion, which tried to find another candidate for the caliphate,
failed; Muawiyyah's army defeated the resistance to his rule
in Arabia, and in 661 Ali was murdered by a Kharajite. Those
who remained loyal to Ali's cause in Kufah acclaimed his son
Hasan, but Hasan came to an agreement with Muawiyyah,
and, for a financial consideration, retired to Medina, where he
lived without further political involvement until his death
in 669.
The ummah had thus entered a new phase. Muawiyyah
made Damascus his capital and set about restoring the unity
of the Muslim community. But a pattern had been set. The
Muslims of Iraq and Syria now felt antagonistic towards one
another. With hindsight, Ali was regarded as a decent, pious
man who had been defeated by the logic of practical politics.
The murder of the man who had been the first male convert
to Islam and was the Prophet's closest male relative was
rightly seen as a disgraceful event, which posed grave ques-
tions about the moral integrity of the ummah. According to
common Arab belief, Ali was thought to have inherited some
of the Prophet's exceptional qualities, and his male descen-
dants were revered as leading religious authorities. The fate
of Ali, a man betrayed by his friends as well as his enemies,
became a symbol of the inherent injustice of life. From time
to time, Muslims who protested against the behaviour of the
reigning caliph would retreat from the ummah, like the Khara-
jites, and summon all true Muslims to join them in a struggle
(jihad) for higher Islamic standards. Often they would claim
that they belonged to the Shiah i-Ali, the Partisans of Ali.
Others, however, took a more neutral stance. They had
been appalled by the murderous divisions that had torn the
ummah apart, and henceforth unity became a more crucial
value in Islam than ever. Many had been dissatisfied with Ali,