Camel fight
The Camel Battle ( Arabic معرکة الجمل), also called the Battle of Basra , took place on the 22nd of Jumada al-Ula 36 after the Hijra (656 AD) in the region near Basra in what is now Iraq . It is the first battle during the Caliphate of Ali ibn Abi Taleb , the fourth rightly guided caliph for Sunnis and first Imam for Shiites . The battle took place between Ali's army on one side and Talha , Zubair and Aisha (a wife of Muhammad ), who led the war, on the other. Talha and Zubair first swore allegiance to Ali as the fourth caliph, but after a while they broke the oath and claimed to want to avenge the death of the third caliph Uthman . The battle ended with a victory for Ali. After the battle, Ali issued a general amnesty.
The camel battle is assigned to the first Muslim civil war ( 1st Fitna ).
Prehistory: Succession of Mohammed and murder of Uthman
Ali was one of the closest confidants of the Prophet Mohammed and was related to him, so that he was considered by many to be his natural successor. According to the Shiites (the Sīat ʿAlī - Ali's party ), Mohammed had also designated him as his successor, but this is still denied by the other side, the Sunnis . After Mohammed died in 632, some of the Prophet's most important followers gathered and elected Abu Bakr as the first caliph (i.e., successor). Sunnis point out that Ali was too young to be caliph; in fact, despite his claims, he waived a protest against the succession decision. This also applies to the determination of the second and third caliphs: Umar ibn al-Chattab , who followed Abu Bakr in 634, and Uthman ibn Affan , who succeeded Umar in 644.
By 650, Arab rule extended from Tripolitania to eastern Persia and the Caucasus . The question of who was the rightful caliph had thus acquired global political weight within a few years. Uthman had become embroiled in tension with the governors of the newly conquered provinces and was considered unpopular because of his preference for his own family. On June 17, 656, he was assassinated in Medina by rebels who had initially besieged him at his home. The perpetrators of this act could not be clearly identified until today. The question of his successor arose again and this time Ali was elected as the new caliph, although he is reported to have accepted the office reluctantly; he also did not call himself Khalifat Allah (representative of God), but only Amir al-Mu'minin (leader of the believers). However, a group of Muslims, including Aisha bint Abi Bakr , the youngest of Muhammad's wives, turned against Ali, whom they accused, among other things, of not wanting to advance the investigation of the murder against Uthman and whom they therefore suspected of being involved in the murder himself to have been.
The opposition is forming
At the time of Uthman's assassination, 45-year-old Aisha was returning to Medina from a pilgrimage that had led her to Mecca , but after receiving news of Uthman's death, she decided to return to Mecca. Here she met with az-Zubair , the father of the later counter-caliph Abdallah ibn az-Zubair , and with Talha ibn Ubayd-Allah , whom she was able to win over to her cause, although both had sworn their loyalty to Ali beforehand. Aisha also managed to get the powerful Umayyad family , including Uthman, on their side. This group was also joined by several provincial governors whom Ali had dismissed from their service, including Yala, former governor of Yemen, who had considerable wealth.
Aischa was less successful in trying to win Umm Salama , another widow of Muhammad, who, on the contrary, tried to dissuade Aisha from her plan. Another widow of Muhammad, Hafsa bint Umar , agreed to take part in the rebellion, but was prevented from doing so by her brother. Nevertheless, the conspirators were able to gain several thousand followers within a few weeks and a month after Uthman's death they set out for Mesopotamia to win this rich province for themselves. This actually began the first internal Islamic civil war, the Fitna . Ali, who was in Medina, learned of these activities, but initially did not want to take any action until his opponents had taken military action themselves. Ali's companion ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAbbās (ancestral father of the Abbasids ) was able to convince him of the danger that threatened if Aisha got Basra in her hand, as the rebellion would then be much more difficult to control. Ali then rushed to Mecca with 900 men, but learned here that his opponents had already left. Immediately he called in reinforcements from all parts of the empire, and waited for them to arrive before setting off.
Basra before the battle
Meanwhile, in Basra, Ali's governor Uthman ibn Hanif awaited the arrival of the rebels. Its location was not particularly good, since there were followers of Aisha in Basra itself. He agreed to meet with Aisha, az-Zubair and Talha, who demanded vengeance for Uthman and declared that justice was on their side. Abdallah, however, refused to surrender Basra, citing Ali's lawful election as a caliph and that it was not up to a woman to take up arms against her Muslim brothers and cause disputes. The lively verbal argument developed into a skirmish that escalated until they agreed on a ceasefire that evening and agreed to let the question of the caliphate in Medina be decided.
According to a legendary Shiite tradition, Aisha and her followers traveled a little later through the valley of Haw'ab with their camels. There they were received by a pack of dogs that Aisha yelped at on her camel. Aisha was then desperate because this was the fulfillment of a prophecy of the Umm Salama, according to which the dogs of Haw'ab would attack her because she had deviated from the right path.
Meanwhile, a messenger had been sent from Basra to Medina to examine the legality of the caliphate. The population there was obviously divided and so the messenger returned without having achieved anything. Ali, on the other hand, who had set out for Basra and was now in Najd , declared that the oath of allegiance that the rebels had sworn him had by no means been enforced, as they had claimed, and that they were therefore obliged to obey. Before Ali arrived on site, Basra had already fallen into the hands of the insurgents who imprisoned the governor Uthman ibn Hanif. The insurgents spared them, but they also took 70 of Ali's followers who administered his funds in Basra prisoner and imposed the death penalty on them. In addition, a number of other residents of the city who were accused of complicity in the murder of Caliph Uthman and who were executed by the insurgents, a total of 400 people. Uthman ibn Hanif was meanwhile shaved bald, his beard and eyelids were cut off, and so humiliated he was sent to Ali. Since one had to reckon with the imminent arrival of Ali among the conspirators, messages were hastily sent to the governors in Syria, Egypt and Persia in order to induce them to apostate Ali. The most important ally was Muawiya , who had built up a significant power base in Syria and who did not recognize the Ali's caliphate.
Soon afterwards Ali arrived, who realized that Aisha and her followers had gained control of the city and that it was not advisable to strike them immediately. Instead, he turned up the Euphrates to Kufa , which was inhabited by tried and tested veterans. Ali turned to them in order to win them over, but here too there was already a split in the population. The city's governor, Abu Musa al-Ashari , who feared involvement in the civil war, then appealed to neutrality and declared that his city should not choose either party. However, Ammar ibn Yasir , Abu Musa's predecessor as governor, admonished the inhabitants to follow the cause of God and not that of a woman, and as Hasan, a grandson of the Prophet, agreed, the inhabitants of Kufa decided against Aisha and dropped the hesitant Abu Musa. Ali soon had 10,000 fighters and thus gathered a force that was about as strong as the rebels.
negotiations
Ali marched on Basra, but tried to avoid open war if possible. He therefore sent al-Ka'ka 'as an envoy to the rebels and let it be known that he did not intend to atone for the murder of several hundred Basra residents by the conspirators and that his only concern was to maintain peace among the Muslims. In his entourage there were also some of those who had participated in the assassination of the caliph Uthman, but on whose support he was now dependent, so that he did not want to comply with the conspirators' request to punish these people. In order not to provoke his opponents unnecessarily, however, he ordered that this group, which was suspected of the murder of Uthman (including Malik al-Ashtar ), should stay behind and not take part in any possible fighting. These, however, heated up the differences between Ali and the group around Aisha, since they saw their only chance in a military victory for Ali. Ali, meanwhile, stepped in front of Talha and Zubair and held a meeting with them in which both sides repeated their points of view, but at the same time expressed their hope that the worst would not have to come.
The battle
In view of the prospect of a conciliatory solution to the crisis, the group around al-Ashtar pressed for action. On the night of December 9th, they approached the Aisha camp and launched a surprise attack. Panic broke out on both sides immediately, and Ali tried in vain to hold back his men, while Aisha's supporters were dominated by bitterness over this betrayal, which now turned against Ali himself. Its right wing commanded Malik al-Ashtar, while the left wing was commanded by Ammar ibn Yasir. Zubair fled the battle and lost his life in a battle in a nearby valley. Talha was seriously injured by a wound on his leg and died a little later in Basra. The supporters of the conspirators then rallied around Aisha on her camel, since the other leaders were eliminated, but Ali's fighters managed to get to her and put her camel out of action. Ali had Aisha, who had survived the battle unharmed in her litter, taken to her brother Mohammed ibn Abi Bakr , who was on his side. The battlefield was littered with 10,000 bodies in the end, which were buried in a mass grave.
Ali granted his opponent Aisha forgiveness and had her brought to Medina, accompanied by Abdallah ibn az-Zubair , son of the rebellious Zubair and Aisha’s nephew; he later rose up as a counter-caliph against the Umayyads after Aisha's death. Ali had won an important victory, but Muawiya still sat in Syria and remained in opposition. The Fitna continued and culminated in 657 in the Battle of Siffin between the armies of Ali and Muawiya. This dispute then finally caused the division in the Islamic world, which continues to this day.