Kufa, the New Capital

Kufa, the new capital

From Basra, Ali did not proceed to Madina. He proceeded to Kufa instead. When Ali had sent a mission to Kufa to get volunteers for the fight against Basra, he had promised the people of Kufa that would make their city the capital of the caliphate. After his victory of Basra, Ali declared Kufa to be the capital of the Muslim Commonwealth. When Ali had left Madina for his campaign against Talha and Zubair little did he imagine that he was not destined to visit Madina again.

After winning the victory at Basra, Ali came to feel that as he had won a victory at Basra against Ayesha, Talha and Zubair, so would he be able to win a victory against Muawiyah. For a campaign against Syria, the response from the people of Madina had been poor. As the people of Madina were religiously more advanced they were averse to side with any party for an armed conflict among the Muslims. Some eminent companions in Madina had even abstained from taking the oath of allegiance to Ali, and had preferred to follow a policy of neutrality. As such Ali felt that for any confrontation with Muawiyah, Madina could not serve as a base.

When Othman had been assassinated, the rebels had violated the sanctity of the holy city of the holy Prophet. Ali was accordingly of the view that in order to preserve the sanctity of the holy city of Madina, it was expedient that the political capital should be shifted elsewhere so that the sacred city should be spared the ordeals of facing political storms.

In the campaign against Basra, Ali had succeeded in raising a large force from Kufa. Ali hoped that after the victory of Basra, the prospects of raising a still larger force from Kufa for the campaign against Syria would be brighter. Geographically Kufa was more centrally located, and a war against Syria could be carried more advantageously with the base at Kufa instead of Madina. Those considerations prompted Ali to establish his capital at Kufa.

Characteristics of Kufa and its people

Kufa was a new colony town founded in the late thirties of the seventh century during the caliphate of Umar. It was founded as a military cantonment consequent upon the Muslim conquest of Iraq. The town was populated by the Bedouins of Northern Arabia. These tribes originally belonged to Yemen. In the ancient period Yemen was known for its highly developed culture. The Yemenites boasted that they were the people who had taken their culture to ancient Egypt. They claimed to be the fathers of Arabian culture. Their culture was tribal in character, and though they had accepted Islam their culture at all retained many features of the pre-Islamic culture of the age of ignorance.

The city of Kufa was divided into a number of quarters, and each quarter was populated by one tribe. These people were late comers to Islam. Most of them apostatized after the death of the Holy Prophet as a result of the apostasy war. During the caliphate of Abu Bakr, they were reconverted to Islam. During the caliphate of Umar they played an important part in the conquest of Persia, Iran and Syria. Umar availed of the services of the men of Kufa in the ranks of his army, but he did not confer on them higher posts of trust and responsibility. Under Othman they came to hold high army posts. As long as the process of foreign conquests continued, all things remained quiet within the country. When the process of foreign conquests came to a grinding halt, disturbances broke out within the country in the revolt against Othman, the people of Kufa had taken the main part. When after the death of Othman, Ali became the Caliph, the cry for the vengeance for the blood of Othman was raised, and things became difficult for Ali, he had to seek the help of the people of Kufa. Indeed the victory of Basra was mainly due to the support of Ali by the people of Kufa. The rebels of Kufa who had participated in the murder of Othman had favored the election of Zubair as the Caliph, but later they chose to support Ali, and fight against Zubair at Basra. As the people of Kufa were late comers to the fold of Islam, they had not fully imbibed the Islamic values, and they became notorious for their perfidy and treachery. The purer Arabs of Hijaz regarded the Kufans as the "Bedouin element," the rabble of the Arabian stock.

Ali at Kufa

Ali reorganized the administration. He appointed Governors and administrators for various provinces and districts. He appointed Qazis for the various cities. He issued instructions requiring his officers to administer justice with a stern hand. He asked the tax collectors to be prompt in the collection of taxes. They were; however, warned not to adopt oppressive measures. He exhorted his officials to be scrupulously honest. He asked all concerned to do their duties diligently and conscientiously. He wanted that law and order should be maintained strictly. That all miscreants should be rounded up and suitably punished. He brought home to all concerned that he would not tolerate any dereliction of duty on the part of any official high or low. He emphasized the need of promoting Islamic values.

The plan of Ali was that soon after the victory of Basra when the morale of his forces was high, he should invade Syria and bring Muawiyah to his knees. Ali soon found that there were difficulties in the materialization of such plan. The Bedouins of Kufa were once again at their game of creating discontent against the established authority. In the Battle of the Camel, in spite of the victory of Ali, many persons of Kufa had been killed. There was hardly any family which had not lost someone in the battle. The people of Kufa mourned the death of such persons, and they were not inclined to risk another war. At Basra, Ali had prohibited his men to pillage Basra, enslave the Basrites or, plunder their property. The Battle of Basra had not brought any material gain to the people of Kufa, and they were reluctant to undertake another campaign, unless they were assured of some material advantage.

Ali appointed his relatives and friends as the Governors of some provinces. Ashtar, the Bedouin leader of Kufa, stirred trouble by criticizing Ali for such appointments. To the people of Kufa he said, "What benefit has accrued to us in shedding the blood of Othman for his favoritism when his successor is to indulge in the same practice?" Those who mourned for the deaths of their dear ones in the Battle of Basra posed the question, "What have we gained in fighting against the Mother of the Faithful?" Thus hardly had Ali begun his rule in Kufa when the embers of discontent began to smolder in the capital city. The irony of the situation was that Ali had hardly any military force at his disposal which he could put into the field by his order. He had to raise volunteers for any action and the people had their own moods. The initiative had thus came to rest with them, and they dictated terms subject to which they would fight. By shifting the capital from Madina, Ali could not expect much help from Madina or Makkah, and he had to depend heavily on the people of Kufa. The difficulty with the people of Kufa was that they would not fight for a cause; they could be induced to fight only for some material advantage.

The difficulties of Ali increased when trouble began in the province of Seestan. The trouble was created by the followers of Abdullah b Saba, the man who had led the revolt against Othman. The extremist section among these rebels considered that there was no fun in killing one Caliph when he was to be succeeded by another Caliph. The aim of these rebels was that they should capture power for themselves, and set up an independent state. When Ayesha had captured, she had executed all such Basrites who were involved in the assassination of Othman. Although Ali defeated the confederates yet he had taken no action to avenge the death of those Basrites. The followers of Ibn Sabah raised the cry for the vengeance for the execution of these parties. They gained ascendancy in Seestan, which province broke into open revolt, and refused to pay taxes. Ali sent a force from Kufa to put down the revolt. The force of Ali suffered defeat. Another force sent from Kufa met a similar fate. It appears that there was some treachery in the ranks of the force of Ali. Ali thereafter raised another force from Yemen, and other parts of the empire and sent it to Seestan under the command of Abdullah b Abbas, the Governor of Basra. This time the rebels were defeated, and the revolt was suppressed. The campaigns in Seestan affected the prestige of the caliphate, and proved to be a great strain on the already meager resources at the disposal of the caliphate. In the campaign against Seestan much time was lost, and this loss of time worked to the advantage of Muawiyah and the disadvantage of Ali. According to one account the trouble in Seestan was created by the agents of Muawiyah who had no scruples in making common cause with the murderers of Othman.