Sunni and Shia Islam part 2 | World History | Khan Academy

Where we left off in the last video, we were in the year 656, and the third Khilafah Uthman, or Usman, is assassinated. Ali is chosen to be Khalif. Remember, Shia believe that Ali should have been Khalif immediately after the death of Muhammad, and they cite the events of Ghadir Khumm as evidence that that is what Muhammad intended. But Ali becomes Khalif in 656.

This sparks what is called the first fitna, or the first Muslim Civil War, because Uthman has a fellow member of the Umayyad clan. The Umayyad clan, they're also Quraysh, just like Muhammad's clan, the Hashemites, who are also Quraysh. Uthman's family member, Muawiya, has been governor of Damascus since the time of Khalif Omar, and when Uthman is assassinated, Muawiya is not happy.

When Ali comes to power, he thinks that Ali is not making a solid effort to put the assassins to justice, and he refuses to pledge his allegiance to Ali as the Khalif. Now, the other context here is that Muawiya has already built a significant military force, and that force is becoming stronger and stronger. This leads to a lot of tension. Muawiya wants Ali to bring the assassins of Uthman to justice, and Ali wants Muawiya to pledge allegiance to him, who is now Khalif.

Now, just for a little bit of extra context, Ali also decides to move the capital of the caliphate to Kufa, which is in modern-day Iraq. Now, things are getting increasingly tense, and this is where we have Aisha entering into the picture. We talked about Aisha in the previous video; she is one of Muhammad's wives, married at a very young age, and she is considered a very strong figure in early Islam.

So, she leads a delegation, really an army, in order to convince Ali to bring the assassins of Uthman to justice. They meet in Basra, once again in modern-day Iraq, and while they are talking about or negotiating what Ali needs to do, some of Ali's followers, as the narrative goes, were a little bit more extreme and really didn't want a peace broker between Muawiya and Ali. So, they attack, and that leads to what is known as the Battle of the Camel, which is depicted here, named after Aisha's camel. It becomes a very bloody battle.

Aisha is really one of the leaders in this battle; once again, you can imagine a very, very strong figure in early Islam. But Ali's forces are victorious, and they send Aisha back home. Then she goes into something of a political retirement. It is somewhat inconclusive, but then that leads later on to what is known as the Battle of Siffin. The Battle of the Camel was in 656; the Battle of Siffin is in 657.

In this situation, you once again have a delegation, or really an army, on the side of Ali meeting an army directly now with Muawiya at Siffin. Once again, they are not fighting for roughly 100 days; they want to negotiate something. But some of the more ardent followers of Ali don't want any form of peace with Muawiya, so they attack Muawiya's army, and you have a very bloody battle that ensues.

Now, both sides don't want all of this bloodshed in this burgeoning Muslim Community, so they decide to let it be decided by arbitration. Now, the arbitration, according to the accounts that I've looked at, say that they decide that neither Ali nor Muawiya should be Khalif, and that it should be an election from the Muslim Community. Now, Ali refuses this, and what's interesting about this is the accounts I've seen is that those same zealous folks who you could say instigated the Battle of Siffin during this Muslim Civil War are no longer trusting Ali, that he can protect them, that he is the strong leader they need.

So, they are the ones that then decide to assassinate him, and are successful in assassinating Ali. After the assassination of Ali, his son Hassan comes to power, officially as Khalif based in Kufa. But remember, you have this very powerful leader in Muawiya, with a very significant military leading or in control of the Levant and the governor of Syria.

So, they enter into a treaty. Clearly Hassan sees the writing on the wall; he can't really fight Muawiya by force; he really doesn't have strong control much further than this region around Kufa. So, he gets into a treaty with Muawiya, where he gives control of the caliphate to Muawiya, and according to that treaty, as long as Muawiya allows the next Khalif after his death to be based on some form of an election, let the Islamic world choose the successor afterwards.

But then later, Hassan goes into something of a retirement; he dies in his mid-40s, and some accounts say that he was assassinated, poisoned by his wife, maybe due to the Umayyads who didn't want him around. Then, in 680, Muawiya dies. Now, according to the treaty between Muawiya and Hassan, it should have been some form of an election there.

But Muawiya, before his death, makes Yazid the successor. And so, Hussein, who is another son of Ali, Hassan's younger brother, and by this point Hassan is dead, he says, "Hey, this is a breach of the treaty," and does not pledge his allegiance to Yazid. But there's a group in Kufa who say, "Hey, we will support you." So, Hussein goes to Kufa, but on the way there, and he's with his family when Yazid catches wind of this, he sends an army to stop them.

Yazid's interest is essentially to eliminate Hussein and his family so that you don't have any other legitimate claimants to the caliphate, especially because, remember, Hussein is a living descendant of Muhammad. So, you then have this event where Yazid's forces intercept Hussein's caravan in Karbala. This is known in the Shia tradition as the Tragedy of Karbala, because at Karbala, you have Hussein's family getting massacred. There's an account that his six-month-old son is beheaded and killed along with Hussein.

So, this becomes the defining event of the Shia tradition, the Tragedy of Karbala. We've already talked about their belief that Ali should have been the Khalif from the beginning. But now you have Yazid proclaimed Khalif who murders, who kills off, according to Shia tradition, a significant member of Muhammad's family and does this in a bloody, bloody fashion.

Even to this day, a significant part of the Shia tradition is mourning what happens at the Battle of Karbala. This is not a part of the Sunni tradition. The Sunni tradition views this as a tragedy, as an unfortunate event, but they do not view this as a significant part of their theology. Also, as part of Shia tradition and theology, the Battle of Karbala is the determining event, the thing that Shia mourn in their religious faith. They also believe that the leadership of the community should be by Imams who are descendants of Muhammad, which is not believed by the Sunnis.