Uthman
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- For other uses of the name, see Uthman (name).
‘Uthmān ibn ‘Affān (عثمان بن عفان) (c. 574 - June 17, 656) is the third Caliph of Islam and is regarded by Sunni Muslims as the third of the Four Rightly Guided Caliphs of Islam. He reigned from 644 until 656. Shia Muslims believe Ali was the first legitimate Caliph, and discount the rule of his three predecessors.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Family
He was married to Umm Kulthum binte Muhammad, Muhammad daughter. When she died, Uthman married her sister, Ruqayyah bint Muhammad. Ruqayyah and Uthman had a son, Abd-Allah ibn Uthman, but he died early [citation needed].
[edit] Early life
Uthman was born into the wealthy Umayyad (Banu Umayya) clan of the Quraish tribe in Mecca, a few years after Muhammad.
David Samuel Margoliouth, a 20th century non-Muslim Islamic scholar
| Othman, son of Affan, six years the Prophet's junior, was a cloth merchant; he also did some business as a money-lender, advancing sums for enterprises of which he was to enjoy half the profits (Ibn Sa'd, iii, 111), and in money matters showed remarkable acuteness (Wakidi W. 231). His sister was a milliner, married to a barber (Isabah, i. 714). [1] |
E. A. Belyaev, a 20th century Sunni Islamic scholar
| In his youth, before the rise of Islam, Uthman had been very rich and gained much money from profitable usurious transactions.[2] |
[edit] Muhammad's era (610-632)
Uthman was an early convert to Islam, and is said to have spent a great deal of his wealth on charity. His conversion angered his clan, which strongly opposed Muhammad. During the life of Muhammad, he was also part of the first Muslim emigration to the city of Axum] in Ethiopia, and the later emigration from Mecca to Medina. He frequently served as Muhammad's secretary.
He could not participate in the battle of Badr because he stayed behind in Madinah to take care of his sick wife Ruqayyah (the daughter of Muhammad), although was also given his share of war trophies of the battle[3].
[edit] Abu Bakr's era (632 – 634)
Uthman held a prominent role in the succession of Abu Bakr.
[edit] Umar's era (634-644)
Uthman became caliph after caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab in 644. Prior to his death, Umar appointed a group of six men to choose his successor from among themselves. Included in this group were Uthman and Ali. The committee chose Uthman. Some accounts say that he was chosen because he promised to continue the policies of Abu Bakr and Umar, whereas Ali would make no such promise [4].
[edit] Uthman's era (644–656)
Uthman reigned for twelve years, and during his rule, all of Iran, most of North Africa, the Caucasus and Cyprus were conquered and incorporated into the Islamic empire. His rule was characterized by increasingly centralized control of revenues from the provinces, aided by governors drawn largely from his kinsmen in the Umayyad clan.
[edit] Umayyad governors
Uthman appointed many of his kinsmen as governors of the new domains. The kindest explanation for this reliance on his kin is that the Muslim empire had expanded so far, so fast, that it was becoming extremely difficult to govern, and that Uthman felt that he could trust his own kin not to revolt against him. However, many Muslims did not see this as prudence; they saw it as nepotism, and an attempt to rule like a king rather than as the first among equals.
Many of his governors were accused of corruption and misrule. Some of his kinsmen were also involved in the murder of a son of Abu Bakr, the first caliph, which further alienated many influential Muslims. Abu Bakr's daughter Aisha, Muhammad's widow, was particularly vehement in her denunciations of Uthman.
[edit] Wealth
Taha Husain, a 20th century Sunni Islamic scholar
| When Uthman became khalifa, he not only lifted the ban placed by Umar upon the companions to go to the other countries, but also gave them rich present from the public treasury. He gave Zubayr 600,000 dirhems in one day, and he gave Talha 100,000 dirhems in one day enabling them to buy lands, property and slaves in other countries [5] |
[edit] Qur'an
Uthman is perhaps best known for forming the committee which compiled the basic text of the Qur'an as it exists today. Various Muslim centers, like Kufa and Damascus, had begun to develop their own traditions for reciting and writing down the Qur'an. Uthman feared that the nascent Islamic empire would fall apart in religious controversy if everyone did not have access to the original text of Qur'an. Sometime during the end of his reign, the committee compiled the text. Uthman had it copied and sent copies to each of the Muslim cities and garrison towns, commanding that variant versions of the Qur'an be destroyed, and only the original version used.
Zayd ibn Thabit was put in charge of the operation [6]
(Note that John Wansbrough and some Western historians believe that the Qur'an was completed later than Uthman's time; theirs is a minority opinion. See the article on the Qur'an.)
[edit] Death
Uthman died after a twenty day long siege headed by Muhammad ibn Abu Bakr [7] Uthman was eventually buried in Medina.
[edit] Legacy
He was succeeded by Ali, who was himself assassinated when Muawiyah I took power, Uthman's kinsman and the Umayyad governor of Syria. Some scholars therefore count Uthman as the first of the Umayyad dynasty, though the scholarly consensus is that Muawiyah is the first. All in all he sounds like a good guy.
David Samuel Margoliouth, a 20th century non-Muslim Islamic scholar
| Ibn Sa'd says in his Tabqaat about Othman: "When he died, he left 35 million dirhems, 150,000 dinars, 3000 camels, and many horses. He built himself a palace in Medina with marble and teakwood. He had 1000 slaves." [1] |
E. A. Belyaev, a 20th century Sunni Islamic scholar
| The day Uthman died his personal treasury was found to contain 150,000 dinars and one million dirhems.[2] |
[edit] Sunni view of Uthman
According to the Sunni account of Uthman, he was married to two of Muhammads daughters at separate times, earning him the name Zun-Nurayn or the "Possesor of Two Lights.". In this he was supposed to outrank Ali ibn Abu Talib, who had married only one of Muhammad's daughters.
Sunni Muslims also consider Uthman as one of the ten Sahaba (companions) for whom Prophet Muhammad had testified that they were destined for Paradise, and one of the six with whom Prophet Muhammad was pleased upon when he died.
[edit] Shi'a view of Uthman
As the Shi'a believe that Ali, Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, should have been the first caliph, they regard Uthman as a usurper and an enemy of Ali (see Succession to Muhammad). They believe that he is guilty of nepotism, corruption, double-dealing, and turning the empire over to Muhammad's old enemies, the Umayyads. Shi'as believe that Uthman, like many of the other early Muslims, was seduced by the pleasures of power and wealth, and strayed from the strict path of Islam as followed by Ali. There is dispute among the Shi'a as to whether Uthman married two of the Prophet's daughters, with the vast majority maintaining that Ruqayyah and Umm Kulthum bint Muhammad were Muhammad's step-daughters. It is said Fatima was the only daughter of Muhammad.
Ali Asgher Razwy, a 20th century Shi'a Twelver Islamic scholar states:
| Umar, on his deathbed, had appointed six Muhajireen as members of a panel which was to choose one out of themselves as the future khalifa of the Muslims. They were Ali ibn Abi Talib, Uthman, Talha, Zubayr, Abdur Rahman bin Auf and Saad bin Abi Waqqas. Except Ali, all other members of the panel were capitalists, or rather, neo-capitalists. When they came from Makkah, they were penniless and homeless but within twelve years, i.e., from the death of Muhammad Mustafa in 632 to the death of Umar in 644, each of them, except Ali, had become rich like Croesus. Between these two dates, they had accumulated immense wealth, and had become the richest men of their times.
Ali did not qualify as a member of this exclusive "club" but Umar admitted him anyway. Apart from the fact that Ali made his living as a gardener whereas his other five co-members lived on the revenues of their lands and estates, there was another gulf, even more unbridgeable, that separated him from them. In character, personality, temperament, attitudes, philosophy and outlook on life, Ali and the rest of them were the antithesis of each other. ... Zayd bin Thabit was fanatically devoted to Uthman, and for this reason, he received many gifts and rewards from the treasury. He was the son of poor parents but during the caliphate of Uthman, became one of the richest men in Medina. Two officers of the public treasury in Medina and in Kufa who had been appointed by Abu Bakr, had thrown the keys of the treasuries in their charge, before Uthman, in protest against the plunder of the public funds by himself and by one of his governors. Uthman gave both keys to Zayd bin Thabit.[6] |
[edit] Non-Muslims
Bernard Lewis, a 20th century non-Muslim Islamic scholar says of Uthman:
| Uthman, like Mu'awiya, was a member of the leading Meccan family of Ummaya and was indeed the sole representative of the Meccan patricians among the early companions of the Prophet with sufficient prestige to rank as a candidate. His election was at once their victory and their opportunity. That opportunity was not neglected. Uthman soon fell under the influence of the dominant Meccan families and one after another of the high posts of the Empire went to members of those families.
The weakness and nepotism of Uthman brought to a head the resentment which had for some time been stirring obscurely among the Arab warriors. The Muslim tradition attribute the breakdown which occurred during his reign to the personal defects of Uthman. But the causes lie far deeper and the guilt of Uthman lay in his failure to recognize, control or remedy them. [8] |
David Samuel Margoliouth, a 20th century non-Muslim Islamic scholar
| He was no fighting man, as his subsequent history proved, for he shirked one battlefield, ran away from another, and was killed, priest-like, ostentatiously reading the Koran. [1] |
E. A. Belyaev, a 20th century Sunni Islamic scholar
| Uthman's acquisitiveness and business talents gained full scope when he became caliph. He built himself a stone house in Medina with doors of precious wood and acquired much real estate in that city, including gardens and water sources. He had a large income from his fruit plantations in Wadi-ul-Qura, Hunain and other places, valued at 100,000 dinars, besides large herds of horses and camels on these estates.
Multiplying his riches at the expense of the Moslem treasury, Uthman also gave free use of the latter to some of the closest companions of Muhammad, attempting to justify his illegal actions by associating these most authoritative veteran Moslems with his own depredations. The "companions" applauded the caliph Uthman for his generosity and magnanimity, no doubt for solid reasons of self-interest. Zubair ibn al-Awwam, for example, one of the better known amongst them, built tenement houses in Kufa, Basra, Fustat and Alexandria. His property was estimated at 50,000 dinars, in addition to which he possessed 1000 horses and 1000 slaves. Another "companion," Talha ibn Ubaidullah, built a large tenement house in Kufa and acquired estates in Irak which brought in a daily 1000 dinars; he also built a luxurious house of brick and precious wood in Medina. Abd-ar-Rahman ibn Auf, also an outstanding "companion," also built himself a rich and spacious dwelling; his stables contained 100 horses and his pastures 1000 camels and 10,000 sheep, and one quarter of the inheritance he left after his death was valued at 84,000 dinars. Such acquisitiveness was widespread among the companions of the Prophet and Uthman's entourage.[2] |
[edit] See also
- The first four Sunni Caliphs and the Sunnah
- Historiography of early Islam
- Uthman Qur'an
- Sahaba
- Succession to Muhammad
[edit] References
- ^ a b c A Restatement of the History of Islam and Muslims on Al-Islam.org [1] referencing Mohammed and the Rise of Islam, London, 1931)
- ^ a b c A Restatement of the History of Islam and Muslims on Al-Islam.org [2] referencing Arabs, Islam and the Arab Caliphate in the Early Middle Ages, New York, 1969)
- ^ http://www.islam4theworld.com/Sahabah/talhah_bn_ubaydullah_R.htm
- ^ Aslan, No God But God, 2005
- ^ A Restatement of the History of Islam and Muslims on Al-Islam.org [3] referencing Al-Fitna Al-Kubra (The Great Upheaval), published by Dar-ul-Ma'arif, Cairo, 1959, p. 47:)
- ^ a b A Restatement of the History of Islam and Muslims on Al-Islam.org [4]
- ^ Balyuzi, Hasan (1976). Muhammad and the Course of Islam. Oxford, UK: George Ronald, pp. 175-177. ISBN 0853984786.
- ^ The Arabs in History, p 59, Oxford University Press, 2002
Also:
- Levi Della Vida, G. and R.G. Khoury. "‘Uthmān b. ‘Affān." Encyclopaedia of Islam Online. Eds. P.J. Bearman et. al. 12 Vols. Brill, 2004. 30 October 2005 <http://www.encislam.brill.nl/>.
- http://www.anwary-islam.com/companion/usman_bin_affan.htm
[edit] External links
Views of various Islamic historians on Uthman:
Shi'a view of Uthman:
| Preceded by Umar |
Caliph 644–656 |
Succeeded by Ali |
| Preceded by Yazdegerd III |
Ruler of Persia 651–656 |
