Ali Ibn Abi Talib - Volume 1 of 2

588 Governors at the time of Xli ibn Abi Trilib
land tax revenues, so he detained him in Kufah, but he subsequently
fled to Mu'zwiyah in ria.^^^
In al-Mad%in, the governor was Sa'd ibn Mas'ood ath-
Thaqafi, who played a principal role in confronting the Kharijites; a
number of letters were exchanged among him and 'Ali(4)
and his
commanders when the Kharijites tried to reach al-~ad2'in."~ Sa'd is
regarded as one of the famous commanders of 'Ali (&). Perhaps the
proximity of his city to Kufah was the main reason for his joining
'Ali(4)
in many battles. It is well known that Sa'd appointed his
nephew al-Mukht2r ibn Abi 'Ubayd ath-'l"naqafiZz3 in charge of al-
Mad2in in his absence. 'Ali (&) got angry with al-Mukhtk ath-
Thaqafi as the result of his unlawful handling of the funds fiom land
taxes.224 The historian Abu Haneefah ad-Deenoori mentioned more
names of 'Ali's governors in different regions.2z5
It is obvious that 'Ali ibn Abi TZlib (4) expended a great
deal of effort to organize the provinces, and that he suffered a great
deal of difficulty and many problems in his position as caliph. A
number of provinces were lost to him, such as Yemen, the Hijaz and
Egypt. He never even gained control of some other provinces, such
as Syria, Palestine and neighbouring regions. In the provinces that
did remain under his control, such as Iraq and Persia, he suffered
many problems, chief among which was the trouble with the
Kharijites who emerged in these regions, especially in the final years
of his rule. Hence stability in those regions was never complete
because the original inhabitants of eastern lands such as Persia,
Khorasan and Sijistan launched a number of rebellions, in which
some of 'Ali's governors were killed. Some of the most prominent
problems faced by 'Ali (&) were the disputes with some governors,
as a result of which they gave up their positions; these included Jareer
ibn Abdullah in Hamadhin, Mafdalah ibn Hubayrah in al-Ahwzz and
others. He was faced with a number of obstacles that took up all his