fought the Battle of the Camel, proving his
determination no matter how high the cost, but he had
not chosen that battle and had done all he could to avoid
it. And now, despite his anger, he would do all he could
to avoid further bloodshed, trusting that Muawiya
shared his horror of civil war.
In time some would say that this was naive on Ali’s
part, even foolish. Others would say that he was misled
by his own sense of honor, and that his hesitation in
taking military action against Muawiya was that of an
upright man confronted with a man who was anything
but. But then hindsight is always wise. All that can be
said for certain is that in the standoʃ between Ali and
Muawiya, right may have been on one side, but political
adroitness was on the other. Only faith could imagine
that the former would prevail.
Hoping to pressure Muawiya into obedience, Ali led
his battle-tested army north out of Basra to Kufa, a
hundred and ɹfty miles closer to Damascus, and
prepared for a long stay. The message was clear: if
Muawiya wanted a confrontation, the whole of Iraq
would be against him.
The former garrison town of Kufa was now a thriving
city on the banks of the Euphrates, with villas built by
Othman’s administrators lining the river. But Ali refused
to take up residence in the former governor’s mansion.
Qasr el-Khabal, he called it, the Castle of Corruption.