Second Fitna
The Second Fitna followed the death of the first UMayyad caliph Mu’awiya I in 680 and lasted for about twelve years. The roots of the civil war go back to the First Fitna after the assassination of the third caliph Uthman in 656. The events of the second Fitna intensified sectarian tendencies in Islam and various doctrines were developed.
About Second Fitna in brief
The Second Fitna was a period of general political and military disorder and conflicts in the Islamic community during the early Umayyad caliphate. It followed the death of the first UMayyad caliph Mu’awiya I in 680 and lasted for about twelve years. The roots of the civil war go back to the First Fitna after the assassination of the third caliph Uthman in 656. The events of the second Fitna intensified sectarian tendencies in Islam and various doctrines were developed within what would later become the Sunni and Shi’a denominations of Islam. The war involved the suppression of two challenges to the U Mayyad dynasty, the first by Husayn ibn Ali, as well as his supporters including Sulayman ibn Surad and Mukhtar al-Thaqafi who rallied for his revenge in Iraq, and the second by Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr. The latter was killed in the Siege of Mecca in 692 by Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, who reasserted control over the caliphate after defeating the Zubayrids at the Battle of Maskin in Iraq and killing Ibn al- ZubayR. The Second Fitnas ended with a treaty in 687 between Ali and the Kharijites, who had killed most of Ali’s forces at Battle of Nahrawan. The treaty brought a temporary peace, but no framework of succession was established, as it had in the past had failed to resolve the succession issue. In 688, Ali’s eldest son Hasan became caliph but challenged his authority and invaded Iraq.
In August, Hasan abdicated the caliphate to Mu’wiya, but Muwawiya was assassinated by a Kharijite force. In January 661, a treaty was established between Mu’Wawiya and Ali to settle the dispute, but the latter was assassinated in January, 661. The Treaty of Damascus was signed in January 662, ending the FirstFitna and bringing peace to the Islamic world. The First Fitnias ended in 683 when Ali’s son Yazid was crowned caliph, but Yazid’s forces were defeated in a battle near Basra and he died in November. The siege of Mecca was abandoned and most provinces recognized Ali, a cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, as caliph. Most of the Quraysh, led by Muhammad’s prominent companions Talha ibn Ubayd Allah and ZubayR ibn al.Awam, and Muhammad’s widow A’isha, refused to recognize Ali. They called for revenge against Uth man’s killers and the election of a new caliph through shura. The UmayYads reassertED control over caliphate after defeated the Zubaysrids and killed Ibn al. al-Walid in March 687 following a series of battles. In November 687, the U mayyads re-established control of the caliphate in Iraq. The Third Fitna ended with the treaty between Ali, Mu’ Nawawiya, and a faction of theKharijite forces, later called the Khijarites, condemning Ali’s calls for arbitration as blasphemous.
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This page is based on the article Second Fitna published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 30, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
