ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān

Mohammed (his face is behind the fire) on his horse Buraq with the three caliphs Abu Bakr, Omar and ʿUthmān (Muslim representation, 16th century)

ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān ( Arabic عثمان بن عفان, DMG ʿUṯmān ibn ʿAffān ; * 574 in Mecca ; † June 17, 656 in Medina ), known as Osman or Usman , was the third Muslim caliph after Abu Bakr and Umar ibn al-Chattab (644–656) and is considered the third rightly guided caliph by the Sunnis . His rule was illegal for Shiites .

family

Uthman's father was Affan ibn Abi al-As from the Umayyad family and his mother was Arwa bint Kurayz from the clan of the ʿAbd Shams ibn ʿAbd Manāf of the Quraish tribe . He was related to Abu Sufyan , one of Mohammad's greatest opponents . Uthman became a merchant like his father and was one of the richest men of the Quraish. Uthman is said to have been married to Umm Khulthum bint Mohammad and to Ruqaya bint Mohammad and was therefore called Dhū al-Nurayn (“The One with the Two Lights”). While most Sunnis believe this, most Shiites view the wedding as controversial and also deny that Umm Kulthum and Ruqaya were daughters of Mohammad at all, since Fatima bint Mohammad was the only daughter.

Conversion to Islam

Together with his relatives, he was one of the enemies of Mohammad in the early days of Islam. In 611 he joined Abu Bakr Mohammad at the invitation, which angered his clan. After converting to Islam, he took part in the emigration , but not in the Battle of Badr .

Election to the third caliph

Shortly before the death of the second caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab, he elected a committee of six people. It was made of:

• ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib
• Uthman ibn Affan
• ʿAbd ar-Rahmān ibn ʿ Auf
• Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqās
• az-Zubair ibn al-ʿAuwām
• Talha ibn ʿUbaidallāh

The body should lead lAbd ar-Rahmān. ʿAbd ar-Rahmān asked ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib if he was ready to rule according to the commandments of Allah, the example of the Prophet Muhammad and the example of the first two caliphs Abu Bakr and Umar ibn Chatab. ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib agreed to the first two terms, but refused to rule on the model of the first two caliphs. Then ʿAbd ar-Rahmān withdrew his candidacy and asked Uthman the same question. Uthman agreed to all three conditions. Saʿd, Zubair and Talha voted for Uthman and ʿAbd ar-Rahmān made Uthman the third caliph.

Caliph (644-656)

nepotism

Immediately after his inauguration, Utman placed family members and clan relatives in central governor posts. In any case, Syria had been in the hands of the Umayyad Muawiya since nUmar ibn al-Chattāb . He was the son of Muhammad's former opponent, Abū Sufyan ibn Harb . But Umayyads were also installed as governors in Kufa and Egypt. Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas , the founder of Kufa, had to give way as governor of this city to Uthman's relative, Walīd ibn ʿUqba. ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀs , the conqueror of Egypt, who was able to successfully repel a Byzantine attempt to re -conquer Egypt in 645, was replaced as governor by ʿAbd Allaah ibn Saʿd ibn Abī Sarh , a cousin of Uthman with a dubious past. When complaints about the governor of Basra , Abu Musa al-Ashari , were received in 649/50, this post was finally also filled with an Umayyad, namely ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿĀmir . Marwān ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam , also an Umayyad , rose to be the closest advisor to the caliph . This nepotist policy led to an alienation between the caliph and the body of companions of the prophets who had elected him to this office.

Military expansion

Nevertheless, the conquests under Uthman and his governors could be successfully continued. As early as 642, Muʿāwiya had sent the general Ḥabīb ibn Maslama from Damascus to fight in the Caucasus. He was able to take the Georgian capital Tbilisi in 645 and subjugate Armenia by 652 . In addition, Muʿāwiya built a fleet in the Syrian port cities, occupied Cyprus in 649 and pushed Byzantium back from the eastern Mediterranean. ʿAbdallāh ibn Saʿd undertook expeditions along the North African coast towards the west from al-Fus ināṭ and conquered Tripolitania in 647. In 652 he also subjugated Upper Egypt and brought the Kingdom of Nubia into a tribute relationship to the Islamic State. A military garrison was stationed in the city of Syene to control the Nubian tribute payments . 'Abdallāh ibn'Amir completed 650 with the intake of Persepolis the conquest of Persis (Fārs) and occupied 651/2 Sassanidian the North East Province Chorasan with the cities Nischapur , Marw , Balch and harat . In the same year, the Sassanid ruler Yazdegerd III fell. victim to an assassination attempt in Marw, which finally extinguished the Sassanid dynasty.

The establishment of diplomatic relations also began under Uthman. So 651 contacts were made to the Chinese imperial court in Chang'an and in 652 a contract, the so-called "Baqṭ" (from Latin pactum ), was concluded with Christian Nubia.

Canonization of the Koran

Uthman achieved particular importance mainly because he had the Koran recorded in a standardized and from then on only officially valid version. At least two men had to testify with each verse that they had heard it directly from the mouth of the Prophet Mohammed. Only six verses have been documented in this way by only one witness, namely Zaid ibn Thabit , the former servant of the Prophet Mohammed. Other versions of the Koran, i.e. the first Koran codices, some of which were also written in other dialects and not the Quraishite dialect - the dialect of the Prophet Mohammed, which later became Standard Arabic - were collected and burned. As a result, the caliph made enemies especially with those who knew the Koran by heart (see: Hafiz ). Uthman ibn Affan also decreed that the suras, with a few exceptions, should be strung together lengthwise. The version edited by Uthman subsequently replaced all other versions of the Koran, so that today only its version is left. According to Islamic tradition, a copy of the Uthmanic Codex was sent to Medina , Mecca, Kufa , Basra and Damascus . At the same time, in order to prevent false traditions, the order was issued to burn all private Koran records as well.

A religious-political opposition emerges

The dismissal of the military leaders as governors, the allegedly unjust distribution of the spoils of war and the appointment of members of his own clan, the Umayyads , in the provinces soon led to tensions.

Because of this preference for one's own clan, an opposition soon formed against Uthman, who had their centers in Egypt and Iraq, where the distribution of taxes between the army and the state was controversial. In addition to the Prophet's widow Aisha , Ali Ibn Abi Talib also denied the rule of Uthman, since his claims to the caliphate, as the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, had again been ignored when Uthman was elected.

Assassination and division of the Ummah

Tomb of Othman in Baqīʿ al-Gharqad

Tensions reached their peak in 656 when Uthmans critics brought the Muslim garrison town of Fustat in Egypt under their control and prevented the governor appointed by the caliph from carrying out his official duties. Several hundred members of the opposition then moved to the seat of the Caliphate in Medina. At the same time, several groups from Kufa and Basra moved to Medina. Uthman responded to most of the rebel demands and even promised to remove the governor he appointed. When the Egyptian rebels set out for their homeland, however, they intercepted a message from Uthman calling on the allegedly deposed governor of Egypt to tough repression against the rebels. When the rebels confronted him with the news, Uthman denied any involvement in it. He was lynched by the rebels in his residence on June 17, 656.

It is believed by some that Aisha , Talha and az-Zubayr were also implicated in the murder. However, this has hardly been proven. This murder sets a precedent in Islamic history as the question of leadership within the caliphate was first resolved by force.

After the death of mUthmān, ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib was made caliph. His caliphate was not recognized by numerous companions of the prophets. ʿUthmān's relative Muʿāwiya , who was still governor of Damascus, refused to take the oath of allegiance to ʿAlī because he did not allow the murderers of ʿUthmān to be prosecuted. Many of the companions of the Prophets, who disagreed with Alī's exaltation, went to see him in Damascus. The widow of the prophet Aisha bint Abi Bakr and her two relatives al-Zubair ibn al-ʿAuwām and Talha ibn ʿUbaid Allāh denied ʿAlī's claim to the caliphate. They withdrew with their supporters to Basra and dared to face a military confrontation against ʿAlī in the camel battle . In this way, the assassination of ʿUthmān marked the beginning of the division of the Islamic ummah into various political-religious camps, which was never completely overcome.

ʿUthmān left several offspring. Of these, his son Abān acquired a special reputation as a traditionalist and compiler of a Maghāzī work.

See also

• List of caliphs
• History of islam
• Islamic expansion
• caliphate

literature

• Claude Cahen : Islam I. From the origin to the beginnings of the Ottoman Empire (= Fischer Weltgeschichte . Volume 14). Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1968, p. 28 ff.
• Wilferd Madelung: The succession to Muḥammad. A study of the early caliphate. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1996, ISBN 0-521-56181-7 , pp. 78-140.
• Ulrich Haarmann (ed.): History of the Arab world. 4th edition. Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-47486-1 .
• Gernot Rotter: The Umayyads and the Second Civil War. Steiner, Wiesbaden 1982, ISBN 3-515-02913-3 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Al-Mubarakphuri, Safi-ur-Rahman: Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum [ The Sealed Nectar ] Dar-us-Salam Publications, Riyadh 1996.
2. ↑ Asma Afsaruddin, Oliber: Uthman ibn 'Affan. In: Jon L. Esposito: The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2009.
3. ↑ ʿĀmilī: al-Ṣaḥīḥ min sīrat al-Nabī. Volume 2, pp. 207-220.
4. ↑ Fatima (sa), the Daughter of Muhammad (S), a Brief Biography. Retrieved September 20, 2018 . 
5. ^ Basit Abdul Ahmad: Uthman bin Affan, the Third Caliph of Islam. Dar-us-Salam Publications, Riyadh 2000.
6. ↑ Hadid: Nahj al Balgha. Volume 1, p. 188.
7. ↑ Tabari: al-Alamm. Volume 3, p. 296.
8. ^ Tilman Nagel: Mohammed. Life and legend. Oldenbourg, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-58534-6 , p. 142.
9. ↑ HAR Gibb: ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿĀmir. In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Volume I, Second Edition, Brill, Leiden 1960, p. 43.
10. ↑ F. Loekkegaard: bakt. In The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Volume I, Second Edition, Brill, Leiden 1960, p. 966.
11. ↑ Ephraim Karsh: Islamic imperialism: a history. Yale University Press, New Haven 2007, ISBN 978-0-300-12263-3 , pp. 32f.
12. ↑ Khalil Athamina: Abān b. ʿUthmān b. ʿAffān . In Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE. (BrillOnline Reference Works) At: referenceworks.brillonline.com ; last accessed on November 24, 2016.

predecessor	Office	successor
Umar ibn al-Khattab	Correctly Guided Caliph 644-656	ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib