Fatima.Mernessi_The-Forgotten-Queens-of-Islam-EN

208 Notes
Amin, Duha al-Islam, pp. 209, 120.
When did 'Ali Ibn Abi Talib become the symbol of the oppressed,
the leader capable of bringing about the reign of justice? Historians
point to the very troubled reign of the third caliph, 'Uthman, as the
beginning of the downhill slide of Muslim justice and with it the
identification of 'Ali, the relative of the prophet, as an alternative.
They especially emphasize two points: 'Uthman's nepotism and the
huge fortunes accumulated by him and his family. See: Mas'udi,
Muruj, vol. 2, pp. 341ff; and Les Prairies d'or (see ch. 2 n.20 above),
vol. 3, pp. 617ff; Tabari, Tarikh, vol. 5, pp. 43ff.
27 Ibn al-Athir, Kamil, vol. 6, p. 450.
28 Ibid.
29 Ibid., vol. 6, p. 452.
30 Ibid., p. 455.
31 Ibid., p. 447.
32 It is pertinent to remind those who listen to the radio that during the
Iran-Iraq war the front-line reports from the national radio stations
took on the tone of veritable Sunni/Shi'ite religious 'crusades', in
which each side denigrated the legitimacy of the other. It was virtually
a 'rerun' of the eleventh-century battle between Baghdad and Cairo,
but with one significant difference - nine centuries ago the two sides
were both Arab, and in the twentieth century one side was Arab and
the other Iranian.
33 Ibn al-Athir, Kamil, vol. 8, p. 114.
34 What can one read to find a quick, concise exposition of this subject?
I can suggest the summary by Ahmad Amin about the origin of Shi'ite
ideas in Fajr al-Islam, pp. 276, 278, 279. In the same book, this author
has an important chapter in which he analyses the Persian contribution
to Muslim civilization, especially in the domain of religious ideas (pp.
98ff). See also Bernard Lewis's chapter, 'La signification de 1'he'resie
dans 1'histoire de 1'Islam', in Le retour de VIslam (Paris: Gallimard,
1985), pp. 14ff.
35 On this first group of terrorists, the Kharijites, who were upset by the
turn taken by the civil war between the caliph 'Ali (whom they had
supported in the beginning) and Mu'awiya, his opponent, who would
become the first caliph of the Umayyad dynasty, one should reread
Mas'udi: 'In year 40 of the Hejira, a band of Kharijites gathered at
Mecca were discussing the dissensions and wars that were overwhelming
them when three of them agreed to kill 'Ali, Mu'awiya, and 'Amr
Ibn al-As .... They made a compact among themselves that each
would pursue his chosen victim until he had killed him or perished in
the attempt .... The night of the seventeenth or, according to others,
the twenty-first of Ramadan [28 January AD 661] was chosen for
carrying out the crime'; Mas'udi, Muruj al-dahab (Beirut: Dar al-
Ma'rifa, 1982), vol. 3, p. 683). See also Tabari, Tarikh, vol. 7, p. 83.
36 Metz, Al-hadara al-Islamiyya; Ibn al-Athir, Kamil, vol. 6, p. 449; Ibn
al-Nadim, Al-fihrist (Beirut: Dar al-Ma'rifa, 1978), p. 264.