<\/p>\n
In the previous article, we tackled the rebellion which was led by Mohammed bin Abu Hudhayfah. It took place in Egypt, aiming at dethroning the caliph who had refused to abdicate. Yet, caliph Uthman was killed in 656. He was succeeded by Ali bin Abu Talib who ordered that all the proconsuls appointed by Uthman be deposed, which led to splitting the Arabs into factions. Moreover, war broke out between Ali and Mu\u2019awiyah bin Abu Sufyan. He was killed in 660 and succeeded by al-Hassan who gave up the caliphate to Mu\u2019awiyah.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Caliph Mu\u2019awiyah bin Abu Sufyan<\/span><\/strong><\/span> Abdullah bin Amr<\/span><\/strong><\/span> Utbah bin Abu Sufyan<\/span><\/strong><\/span> Muslima bin Mukhalad<\/span><\/strong><\/span> Caliph Yazid bin Mu\u2019awiyah<\/span><\/strong><\/span> General Bishop<\/span><\/strong><\/span> <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the previous article, we tackled the rebellion which was led by Mohammed bin Abu Hudhayfah. It took place in Egypt, aiming at dethroning the caliph who had refused to abdicate. Yet, caliph Uthman was killed in 656. He was succeeded by Ali bin Abu Talib who ordered that all the proconsuls appointed by Uthman […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":19638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26973"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26973"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39817,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26973\/revisions\/39817"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMu\u2019awiyah was born at al-Khayf, Mecca. Caliph Abu Bakr al-Siddiq assigned him the leadership of the army during the tenure of his brother Yazid, after which he became proconsul of Jordan. This took place during the tenure of Omar bin al-Khattab. Mu\u2019awiyah took over the entirety of the Levant during the tenure of Uthman bin Affan, but was deposed by Ali bin Abu Talib, which ignited war between them. After Ali\u2019s death, his son, al-Hassan gave up the caliphate to Mu\u2019awiyah to spare blood. Thus, it was passed to Umayyad dynasty after Mu\u2019awiyah had been proconsul of the Levant for twenty years.<\/span><\/strong>
\nAt the beginning of Mu\u2019awiyah\u2019s tenure, Farwa bin Nawfal al-Ashja\u2019y instigated the people of Kufa against him. So, he wrote them a message, asking them to kill Farwa, \u201cI shall not protect you, unless you rid me of him.\u201d So, the people of Kufa killed him, after which Mu\u2019en bin Abdullah rebelled against the caliph. So, al-Mughira arrested him, but took no action, preferring that Mu\u2019awiyah decide. So, Mu\u2019awiyah told al-Mughira to ask Mu\u2019en if he accepted Mu\u2019awiyah caliph; but Mu\u2019en answered in the negative. So, al-Mughira killed him. Also an Abu Mariam rebelled against the caliph. Al-Mughira sent over men who got killed him.<\/span><\/strong>
\nAfter Mu\u2019awiyah had become caliph, he started conquering more countries, especially the ones dominated by the Roman Empire. Thus, he sent crusades to them. Uqba bin Nafi\u2019 conquered Ghadamis which is one of the important centers in African Sahara. Likewise, Abdul Rahman bin Samra conquered Sistan, while Rashid bin Omar raided Sindh. Uqba conquered Sudan, then Kura. Ruwayfi\u2019 bin Thabet conquered Tunisia.<\/span><\/strong>
\nWars between the Arabs and Romans were fierce. So much so that Mu\u2019awiyah prepared a great army led by Sufyan bin Awf and sent it to Constantinople. The army besieged the city. At that time Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, who had witnessed the Battles of Badr, Uhud and Siffin, died. The Arabs attacked Constantinople, but were defeated by the Romans. During that siege, the Arab army suffered from hunger and disease. Yazid bin Mu\u2019awiyah penned a poem on that occasion, saying that he did not care for what the army was suffering from. When this information reached Mu\u2019awiyah, he sent him to the battlefield to help Sufyan. Yet, they could not conquer the city. The armies retracted to the Levant. Historians maintain that this was the first time the Arabs fail to conquer a country.<\/span><\/strong>
\nThe Umayyad era in Egypt started with Amr bin al-\u2018As\u2019 tenure. He handled the country\u2019s affairs until his death in 664, on the Eve of Lesser Bairam. He was buried in Muqattam.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
\nAfter Amr\u2019s death, Mu\u2019awiyah assigned his son the affairs of Egypt. Historians have different opinions regarding this issue. Some of them maintain that Mu\u2019awiyah assigned Abdullah the country\u2019s affairs, while others say that Amr named him his successor. Likewise, historians have different opinions regarding the length of Abdullah\u2019s tenure: for some assert it was two years, while others say it was only a few months.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
\nAfter deposing Abdullah bin Amr, Mu\u2019waiyah assigned his brother Utbah the affairs of Egypt, making Uqba bin Amer al-Juhani his successor. Utbah\u2019s tenure endured for a year. After his death, Uqba bin Amer took over. At that time, the caliph wanted to dominate the sea in order to combat the Romans and get ready for conquering Constantinople. So, he asked Uqba to lead an Egyptian fleet and conquer Rhodes that he might dominate the sea. Later, Mu\u2019awiyah deposed Uqba, and appointed Mu\u2019awiyah bin Hudayj in his stead. Some references assert that he assigned Muslima bin Mukhalad. Mu\u2019waiyah bin Hudayj ruled Egypt for about three years. Then, Muslima bin Mukhalad took over.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
\nMuslima was the first proconsul to handle Egypt and Africa together. He had participated in the conquest of Egypt. Muslima was an adept politician. He was fair. He took care of agriculture, industry, and architecture in Egypt. Moreover, he was kind to Copts. He allowed them to build a church in Fustat, behind al-Qantara. Likewise, he built a Nilometer, a workshop for constructing ships, built and restored mosques.<\/span><\/strong>
\nDuring Muslima\u2019s tenure, Abdul Rahman bin Uthman bin Rabi\u2019a al-Thaqafi (aka. bin Um Hakim who is Mu\u2019awiyah\u2019s sister) was assigned the affairs of Kufa. He was cruel to its people. So, they rebelled and ousted him. Subsequently, he returned to his uncle, Mu\u2019awiyah bin Abu Sufyan, who wanted to assign him the affairs of Egypt. On his way, he met Mu\u2019awiyah bin Hudayj who told him to return to uncle, refusing that he rule Egypt. He told him, \u201cGo back to your uncle. You shall not do to them what you did to the people of Kufa.\u201d<\/span><\/strong>
\nAbdul Rahman could not go to Egypt. He returned to the caliph. Bin Hudayj followed him and spoke to Mu\u2019awiyah, telling him that he refused Abdul Rahman\u2019s ruling Egypt. On the other hand, Um Hakim did not welcome him. He told her, \u201cCalm down, Um Hakim. You were not successful in your marriage. Neither did you beget good children. You wanted your corrupt son to rule Egypt that he might do to us what he did to the people of Kufa. But God did not want this to happen, for should this happen, he would treat us as badly as slaves.\u201d<\/span><\/strong>
\nMuslima remained in office until his death during the tenure of caliph Yazid bin Mu\u2019awiyah.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
\nThe caliph had already assigned al-Mughira bin Shu\u2019ba the affairs of Kufa. Yet, no sooner had al-Mughira arrived than he heard that Mu\u2019awiyah wanted to depose him and appoint Sa\u2019id bin al-\u2018As in his stead. So, he decided to meet the caliph and apologize for not accepting this assignment. When al-Mughira saw Yazid, he told him, \u201cYou are one of the best, most sensible and knowledgeable of Muslim tradition (sunnah) and politics of the caliph\u2019s sons. I wonder why he hesitates from naming you his successor.\u201d Yazid told his father of what al-Mughira had said. So, Mu\u2019awiyah met al-Mughira and discussed the matter with him. Al-Mughira answered that he wanted to spare the state from fighting and bloodshed for the sake of sovereignty, as was the case after Uthman\u2019s death. Here another story starts. Stories never end in Beautiful Egypt.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
\nHead of the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n