Mu’awiya’s thorough preparations before his death left little doubt as to who would succeed him. His mastery over the umma’s various social forces must have made his job look easy when it was anything but, and Yazid made it his first priority to snuff out all resistance in order ...Show more
Episode 22: The second fitna
The umma spiraled further into disorder and civil war after the sudden death of the caliph and the subsequent collapse of Umayyad authority. Ibn il Zubayr’s candidacy was transformed from an unlikely proposition to a victory by default as he became the last man standing. Despite ...Show more
Muawiyyah and his administration have subdued the Muslim Empire. Most of Iraq has settled down and his detractors have fell silent. But Muawiyyah is concerned about the future. What's going to happen when he's gone? The Caliph conspires with his governors to turn the Caliphate to ...Show more
Muawiyyah dies and as planned, his son Yazid succeeds him as Caliph. But there are many people in the Muslim Empire who do not agree with this. Two of them are Husayn ibn Ali and Abdullah ibn Zubayr. They refuse to give Yazid the pledge and flee to Mecca. Ibn Zubayr begins to bui ...Show more
While Offa was an effective leader in Mercia during his life, his dynastic purge was a disaster. Looking at what followed, it appears that he heavily targeted extended members of his own family. Now this placed his immediate family in a very good position to pursue power… and we ...Show more