An Introduction To the Political Upheaval At Medina

Supplement 2

The coup at Saqifah marks the beginning of that series of calumnies, cruelties, insults, indignities, inhuman brutalities, injustices, ill-treatments, whole-sale massacres, un-justifiable and jealous surveillance,

false accusations as excuses for killings, and long periods of incarcerations to which these innocent children of the Prophet were subjected throughout the history of the Caliphate; their only sin was that they were born in his house.

Having ascertained that there were two parties, one of which won the throne and the other was considered as a dangerous rival, we proceed to find who wrote the history and how it was written.

The Government party has come to be called "Sunnis" in common parlance. We have the testimony of a great Sunni historian of India Shibli, that all the great works on Islamic His- tory known to the world have been written by the Sunnis.

Let us see how it was written and who controlled the writing of it. Mu'awiyah, the Umayyad king who was at war with `Ali throughout the period of the latter's Caliphate and who eventually wrested the Caliphate from Imam Hasan, the son of `Ali, was the first to turn his attention to History.

He got a history of the ancients written by `Ubayd whom he called from Yemen. Marwan who had been exiled by the Prophet for his anti-Islamic activi- ties and who had a great influence with `Uthman was the implacable foe of `Ali. His son `Abd al- Malik ascended the throne in 65 A.H.

He was the first Islamic king who ordered the compila- tion of Islamic History, hadith (tradition) and tafsir (Interpretation of the Qur'an).

He asked the learned people to write works on these subjects, az-Zuhri, the first celebrated historian of Islam, wrote his history under the orders of `Abd al-Malik. He also wrote works on hadith; he is one of the preceptors of al-Bukharf.

He was attached to the royal court of `Abd al-Malik, and was the tutor of his sons. Of the pupils of az-Zuhri, two persons, viz. Musa son of `Ugbah and Muhammad ibn Ishaq obtained great renown as historians. The former was a slave of the house of Zubayr.

His history, though now not available, had for a long time been the most popular work on history; its references are found in many books on this subject.

Muhammad ibn Ishaq is the most celebrated historian. His bio- graphy of the Prophet is still the accredited authority on the subject in the shape that was given to it by Ibn Hisham, and is known as the as-Sirah of Ibn Hisham. az-Zuhri is the first to compile hadith also.

Their works on history and hadith are the authorities on the basis of which works on these two subjects were written afterwards. This evidence proves the following facts:-

1. hadith and History were first compiled under the orders of the Umayyad kings;

2. The first authors were az-Zuhri and his twc pupils, Musa and Muhammad;

3. These authors were attached to the royal court of the Umayyad kings.

The inveterate enmity and un-dying hatred of the house of Umayyad against Banu Hashim, chiefly the Prophet and `Ali, is much too well known to need any comment on our part.

The wars of Abu Sufyan and his son Mu'awiyah against the Prophet and `Ali respectively, the machinations of Marwan against the Prophet and Islam, his avowed enmity against `Ali, the horrible massacres at Karbala' perpetrated by the armies of Yazid in compliance with his orders are only some of the top items of a long list of such crimes.

Mu'awiyah instituted the custom of anathematising from the pulpits the memory of `Ali and his descendants which continued for full forty years until discontinued by `Umar ibn `Abd al-`Aziz who proved himself too good to live under Umayyad atmosphere, and was, therefore, poisoned by the descendants of Umayyad. 29 These were the persons under whose orders and influence the history of Islam was written.

What justice they would do to `Ali and his rights and title can be left to the best imagination to picture.