In the Footsteps of Martyrs 175scholars and Quran reciters, he also set Umayyad precedent by not
directly meddling in the theological and legal controversies of the
Ulama. However, like his ancient ancestor, Qusayy, Mu‘awiyah recog-
nized the role of the Ka‘ba in bestowing religious legitimacy to politi-
cal rule. He therefore purchased from the ahl al-bayt the right to
care for the Meccan sanctuary and provide shelter and water to the
pilgrims.
By centralizing his authority in Damascus and securing his posi-
tion as Caliph with a mobile and highly disciplined army (not to men-
tion a powerful naval fleet, which he used to conquer territories as
distant as Sicily), Mu‘awiyah managed to pull together the disparate
regions of the Arab domain under his rule, ushering in a period of
enormous expansion throughout the Muslim lands. But although he
took great pains to style himself in both manner and conduct as an all-
powerful tribal Shaykh, rather than as a Muslim king, there can be
no question that Mu‘awiyah’s centralized and absolutist rule was
deliberately meant to imitate the dynastic empires of the Byzantines
and Sasanians. Hence, having completed the transformation of the
Caliphate into a monarchy, Mu‘awiyah did what any other king would
do: he appointed his son, Yazid, to succeed him.
Considering his nearly wholesale slaughter of the Prophet’s family
at Karbala, it is not surprising that the traditions have been unkind to
Yazid. Mu‘awiyah’s heir has been portrayed as a debauched, licentious
drunkard more interested in playing with his pet monkey than in run-
ning the affairs of state. Although this may not be a fair depiction of
the new Caliph, the fact is that Yazid’s reputation was sealed from the
moment he succeeded his father. For his succession marked the defin-
itive end of the united community of God and the unambiguous com-
mencement of the first Muslim—and distinctly Arab—empire.
This is why Kufa was in revolt. A garrison town teeming with freed
slaves and non-Arab (mostly Iranian) Muslim soldiers, Kufa, which
had served as the capital of Ali’s brief and turbulent Caliphate, had
become the locus of anti-Umayyad sentiment. That sentiment was
perfectly embodied by the heterogeneous coalition of the Shi‘atu Ali,
who had little else in common save their hatred of the Banu Umayya
and their belief that only the family of the Prophet could restore Islam
to its original ideals of justice, piety, and egalitarianism.