ABSTRACT
According to Madâini, on the authority of AM Mikhnaf (Agh. 15, 71), M ila, wile of the murdered Khalifa Uthmân, sent his bloody shirt to Muâwia, with an account of the circum- stances of the murder, in which she quoted the prophetic verse, Sura 49, 9. The latest account from Saif which is preserved in Tabari (1, 3255) says that Nu'mân b. Bashir brought Uthmân's bloody garment and Nâila's amputated fingers to Damascus. The fingers are added, so Nàila herself does not fit in. According to a further statement of Saif, Muâwia displayed the gory relics in the mosque in order to stir up his Syrians. This exhibition lasted a whole year, because there was just a year between the death of Uthmân and the encounter at Siffin. Madâini, quoting `Awâna (Tab. 1, 3254 f. ; cf. Kâmil, 183 f. ; Dînawarî, 166 f.) only relates that, in front of Jarir, who was sent by Ali to demand his allegiance, Muâwia stirred up the vengefulness of the Syrians, and by doing so also created the desired impression. Thus the affair was only a mockery to make Ali afraid of attacking him. According to Wâqidî in Tab. 1, 3252 ff., Muâwia did not incite others against Ali so much as they did him. In verses which are still preserved, his cousin Walid b. Uqba reproached him with exchanging letters with Alt and not bestirring himself, as a relative, to fulfil his duty of revenge. He was by nature a diplomatist, and was all the less eager for the struggle with the people of Iraq because he was threatened at the same time by the Homans, and also by the Egyptians who were on Ali's side. He did not aim at the K halifate; his first ambition, at least, was only to hold fast to his province of Syria and get possession of Egypt, which he dared not leave to his opponents if he wanted to protect himself in the rear. Amr b. As also urged him to do this, for he regarded the mutiny against Uthm&n as a means to an end, and did all he could to get back his former province, and after the old Khalifa's death made an honourable but shrewd compact with Mu&wia in order to compass this (3253 f. cf. Dlnaw., 167 if.). So Mu&wia and Amr first marched against Egypt and succeeded in trick- ing Alt's stattholder there, Muhammad Ibn Abi Hudhaifa, and taking him prisoner (3252 f ., 3407 ff.), but they had then to turn back in order to meet Ali himself. Ali was the aggres- sor ; he was making claims upon the Khalifate and the rule of the whole kingdom. After making sure of Iraq and completing his prepara- tions, he left the general camp in Nukhaila, near Kufa,1 at the end of the year 36 (Spring, 657 A.D.), and made for the west where a number of Basraites had made their appearance. Mu&wia and Amr awaited him on the Syrian border in the plain of Siffin on the Euphrates, not far from Raqqa.2
