Caliph Uthman Is Assassinated, Igniting the First Fitna
Rebel soldiers kill the third caliph and plunge the empire into civil war
Quick facts
- Caliph killed
- Uthman ibn Affan, 656 CE
- Successor
- Ali ibn Abi Talib, fourth caliph
- Chief rival
- Muawiya, governor of Syria
- Conflict
- First Fitna, 656-661 CE
What happened
Discontent grew during Uthman's reign over his appointment of relatives from the Umayyad clan to powerful governorships, and in 656 CE rebel soldiers, many from the Egyptian garrison, murdered him in his own home in Medina. Ali ibn Abi Talib, Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, was chosen as the fourth caliph in the chaos that followed, but Muawiya, the governor of Syria and a cousin of the slain Uthman, refused to recognize Ali's authority unless Uthman's killers were punished first. The dispute escalated into the First Fitna, the first civil war within the Islamic community, which would consume the rest of Ali's reign.
Why it matters
Uthman's murder ended the era in which the caliphate could claim unbroken continuity from Muhammad's own community and opened a period of internal war that produced the lasting political and religious split between what became Sunni and Shia Islam. Every caliphate that followed had to grapple with the precedent that a caliph could be killed by his own subjects and the succession contested by force.
How we know
The assassination and its immediate political fallout, including Muawiya's refusal to accept Ali, are recorded consistently in the early Islamic historical tradition summarized by the World History Encyclopedia.
Sources
- World History Encyclopedia. Early Muslim Conquests (622-656 CE) · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- World History Encyclopedia. Battle of Karbala · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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