Election of Uthman

644 Rashidun Caliphate caliphal election
644 CE / 23 AH

6 members of the shūra council, 1 absent, remaining 5 votes delegated to 1 member Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf
(Unanimous decision) 5 electoral votes needed to win
  Rashidun Caliph Uthman ibn Affan - عثمان بن عفان ثالث الخلفاء الراشدين.svg
Nominee Uthman ibn Affan
Electoral vote 5
Percentage 100%

Caliph before election

Umar ibn al-Khattab (died in office)
Banu Adi

Elected Caliph

Uthman ibn Affan
Banu Umayya

The election of Uthman, from Balami's Tarikhnama

Uthman ibn Affan, the third caliph, was chosen by a committee (Arabic: shūra) in Medina, in northwestern Arabia, in AH 23 (643/644). The second caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab, was stabbed by Abu Lu'lu'a Firuz, a Persian slave. On his deathbed, Umar tasked a committee of six with choosing the next caliph among themselves. These six men from the Quraysh, all early companions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, were

Talhah, however, arrived in Medina only after the committee had reached its final decision and was absent from the proceedings. Sa'd formally acted as his proxy.

Proceedings

Umar stipulated a number of rules for the committee, who were to meet in closed caucus.

  • The new caliph must be one of the committee, elected by the majority of its members.
  • In case of a tie, Abd al-Rahman would elect the next caliph. Alternatively, according to the author Madelung, Abd al-Rahman took himself out of the competition in return for being recognized as the arbitrator.
  • Those members who would not endorse the final decision (or those who would oppose Abd al-Rahman's pick in case of a tie) were to be beheaded.

Neither Zubayr ibn al-Awwam nor Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas pressed their cases or that of Talha ibn Ubayd Allah and the choice soon narrowed down to Ali or Uthman. On the one hand, Ali, the "famed philosopher-warrior" in his mid-forties, might had appeared to be the obvious choice. On the other hand, the wealthy and generous Uthman, aged seventy, had never fought a battle or displayed any qualities of public leadership.

While it is difficult to ascertain their deliberations, it is generally believed that the makeup and configuration of the committee left little possibility for Ali's nomination. In particular, multiple sources report that Sa'd aligned himself with his cousin, Abd al-Rahman, while the latter, in turn, supported his friend and brother-in-law, Uthman. Besides interviewing each of the electors, Abd al-Rahman secretly consulted the Quraysh leaders who largely supported Uthman instead of Ali. The latter was vocal about the divine and exclusive right of Muhammad's descendants to the guardianship of Muslims, which would have limited the future ambitions of the Quraysh for the high office.

The Medinan community was notably not represented in the committee either because of their pro-Ali sympathies at Saqifah, as suggested by Jafri and Abbas, or in order to keep the caliphate within the Quraysh, as implied by others. Tarikh al-Tabari includes the report that a reluctant Ali, perhaps aware of his minority position within the committee, was forced into participation.

In the final showdown, Abd al-Rahman offered the caliphate to Ali on two conditions: First, he should follow the way of the Quran and the Sunnah of Muhammad, and second, he should follow the example of Abu Bakr and Umar. Ali reportedly accepted the first condition but declined the second one, adding that he would rely only on his own judgement in the absence of any precedent from the Quran or the Sunnah. Abd al-Rahman then presented the same conditions to Uthman who readily accepted them. It has been suggested that Abd al-Rahman was well aware of Ali's disagreements with the past two caliphs and that Ali, known for his sincerity, would have inevitably rejected the second condition.

A different account holds that Uthman and Zubayr voted for Ali whereas Ali and Sa'd voted for Uthman.

Aftermath

Uthman's reign as the third caliph was marked with widespread nepotism and moral degradation. During Uthman's reign, his tribe, the Banu Umayyad, regained its pre-Islamic influence and power. In 656 CE, as the public dissatisfaction with despotism and corruption came to a boiling point, Uthman was assassinated by rebels. Ali eventually became caliph after Uthman's assassination, but not in time to stop the rise of the Umayyads. Twelver Shia Muslims largely reject the legitimacy of the first three caliphs, and maintain that Muhammad had appointed Ali as his successor.

See also


This page was last updated at 2022-02-09 07:40 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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