RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIESibn al-I:Iamiq witnessed the arbitration agreement, and I:Iujr was in
charge of 'Ali's right wing at the Battle of Nahrawan.^69
Those who stayed with 'Ali closed ranks around him against both
Mu'awiya and the Khawarij. In 658 they swore to be "friends of those
whom he befriended and enemies of those to whom he was hostile.^70
They tended to justify their support by insisting that 'Ali was right
in whatever he did. 'Ali's legitimacy was based on the claim that he
was the heir (Ar. warith) and executor (Ar. wa$i) of Mu}:lammad, and
his relationship to Mu}:lammad was compared to the relationship be-
tween Hariin (Aaron) and Miisa (Moses) in the Qur'an. The concept
of 'Ali as the wa{i occurs in poetry associated with the Battles of the
Camel and of Siffin and in the poetry of 'Ali's Basran protege, Abii
I-Aswad ad-Du'ali, along with the comparison to Hariin and rather
fulsome praise,71 The description of 'Ali as Mu}:lammad's wa$i may
go back to the issues surrounding the disposal of Mu}:lammad's prop-
erty at Fadak, but it also had obvious implications for hereditary
political succession. Some of 'Ali's followers said that he had inherited
more than just property and leadership. Abii Dharr is supposed to
have claimed in Madina that Mu}:lammad had inherited Adam's
knowledge and that 'Ali was the wa$t of Mu}:lammad and the inheritor
of his knowledge. In 656 Malik al-Ashtar is said to have called 'Ali
wa$t al-aw$iya and the heir of the knowledge possessed by the proph-
ets.^72 It is worth noting that when Mu'awiya took up the leadership
of those who demanded revenge for the death of 'Uthnian after the
defeat and death of Tal}:la and az-Zubayr at Basra, he did so as the
nearest and oldest adult male relative of 'Uthman and claimed to be
'Uthman's wait (Ar.),73 It would seem that appeals to kinship were
made by both sides in the first fitna but in different ways.
When 'Ali was assassinated by a Khariji at Kufa in January of 661,
his son al-I:Iasan briefly attempted to succeed him. But he had no real
support among the Iraqi ashra(, and the partisans of 'Ali were no
match on their own for the forces of Mu'awiya. The general opinion
favored an end to the fighting, so al-I:Iasan recognized Mu'awiya and
returned to the Hijaz in order to prevent further bloodshed. 'All's
partisans in Iraq now found themselves out of favor. I:Iujr ibn 'Adi,
69 Ibid., pp. 176, 182, 187, 198,209-10,223.
70 Montgomery Watt, Formative Period, p. 40.
71 Jafri, Shi'a Islam, p. 93.
72 Ya'qiibi, Ta'r"ikh, n, 198-99,208.
73 Dlnawari, Akhbiir at-tiwiil, pp. 212-13.