Battle of Siffin
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Units of Ali and Muawiyas fight against each other (from the Tarichnama of Balami)
| date | 26. - 28. July 657 |
|---|---|
| place | near Siffin, today Abu Huraiyra, Syria |
| output | draw |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| unknown | unknown |
| losses | |
|
unknown |
unknown |
As the Battle of Siffin ( Arabic وَقْعَة صِفّين, DMG waqaʿat ṣiffīn ) denotes a series of skirmishes and skirmishes that occurred in the summer of 657 on the banks of the Euphrates , near the ruins of Siffin. Opponents were the troops of Caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib and Muawiya , the Umayyad governor of Syria .
Siffin was an earlier Byzantine settlement on the banks of the Euphrates, near ar-Raqqa in Syria . At the time of the battle, Siffin was already in ruins. Today the settlement is called Abu Huraiyra.
prehistory
In June 656 the caliph Uthman ibn Affan was murdered and Ali was elected his successor. Ali was only recognized as a caliph by parts of the Ummah , as he was accused of being jointly responsible for the murder of Uthman, especially since he did not sponsor the investigation into the murder. Furthermore, parts of the Umayyads , especially Muawiya, the powerful governor of Syria, were against Ali. The first civil war broke out in the Islamic nation ( fitna ).
On December 9, 656, Ali won the camel battle near Basra over an army of rebels set up against him by the widow of Muhammad , Aisha bint Abi Bakr . Ali then moved his capital from Medina to Kufa , from where he hoped to be able to better contain Muawiya's advances into Iraq. Nevertheless, Ali sent messengers to Syria to mediate a peaceful settlement of the civil war. Muawiya did not enter into any negotiations with Ali, whereupon both of them prepared their army to attack.
Ali moved with his main army to ar-Raqqa, where he was spotted by the vanguard of Muawiyas, but in the following days he crossed the Euphrates unhindered. He then advanced upstream along the Euphrates. Muawiya's vanguard repeatedly launched quick surprise attacks on him, but could not hinder his progress. In May 657 Ali met the main army of Muawiyas, which camped in a plain near Siffin on the Euphrates.
Only very imprecise and uncertain estimates of the troop strength of the two armies have come down to us. Usually 50,000 to 150,000 men are given on Ali's side and 80,000 to 150,000 men on Muawiya's side. From today's perspective, however, all of these figures appear grossly exaggerated.
Course of the battle
Muawiya sent some of his troops under Amr ibn al-As to the river bank to block Ali access to the water. Ali's troops, led by Malik al-Ashtar , fought violently with Amr ibn al-As, who eventually had to withdraw. But instead of pursuing the fleeing immediately and attacking Muawiya's main army in his camp, Ali stopped the fight and set up his own camp on the river. Both sides saw it as an injustice that is when a Muslim kills another Muslim. The two warring armies faced each other for the next 110 days without a major attack by either side. Ali and Muawiya kept exchanging messengers who tried in vain to find a peaceful solution to the conflict. Alternating with the negotiations, there were always minor raids and skirmishes between departments of the two armies.
On July 26th, there were large-scale battles that lasted over three days, with Ali's troops initially gaining the upper hand. To avoid defeat, the followers of Muawiya stuck leaves from the Koran on the tips of their lances. In doing so, they made it clear to the other side that they were also Muslims. Ali's troops then broke off the battle. Ali agreed to agree to an arbitration award based on the Koran over rule in the caliphate . Muawiya and Ali then moved to Damascus and Kufa, respectively.
consequences
Part of Ali's army and supporters saw the negotiations with Muawiya about rule in the caliphate as a betrayal of Islam and split off from Ali as Kharijites . The arbitration decision therefore had no effect. In the period that followed, Ali had to concentrate on fighting the Kharijites in Iraq. Muawiyas renounced the title of caliphate, but continued to rule in Syria, and later also in Egypt, while Ali controlled the rest of the caliphate. The clashes only came to an end with the murder of Ali Ibn Abi Talib in 661, until they escalated again in 683 after Muawiya died in 680.
literature
- Gudrun Krämer : History of Islam . Dtv, Munich 2005, ISBN 978-3-423-34467-8 , pp. 39-41.
- Gernot Rotter : The Umayyads and the Second Civil War (680–692) . Steiner, Wiesbaden 1982, ISBN 3-515-02913-3 (partly habilitation thesis, Tübingen 1977).