The Battle of Siffin Ends in Arbitration and Deepens the Split
Muawiya's soldiers raise pages of the Quran on their lances to force a truce
Quick facts
- Location
- Siffin, on the Euphrates
- Ali's representative
- Abu Musa al-Ash'ari
- Muawiya's representative
- Amr ibn al-As
- Splinter faction
- The Kharijites
What happened
Ali marched his forces toward Syria to confront Muawiya directly, and the two armies clashed at Siffin in 657 CE. As the fighting turned against Muawiya's side, his advisor Amr ibn al-As, who had switched allegiance after Uthman's murder, suggested that Muawiya's soldiers raise pages of the Quran on their spears, signaling a call for arbitration instead of continued combat. The arbitration talks at Dumat al-Jandal proved inconclusive and, by some accounts, were manipulated so that Amr tricked Ali's representative into denouncing Ali's claim to the caliphate while leaving Muawiya's position untouched. The settlement enraged a faction within Ali's own camp, who broke away as the Kharijites, declaring that no sinful ruler had a right to lead and that arbitration itself was illegitimate.
Why it matters
Siffin cost Ali the momentum of his campaign against Muawiya and split his support base, producing the Kharijites, a radical faction hostile to both sides that Ali had to crush militarily at Nahrawan in 659 CE. That same movement would go on to assassinate Ali two years later, ending the war on terms that favored Muawiya.
How we know
The episode of the Quran pages raised on lances and the subsequent arbitration are recorded in the early Islamic historical tradition; the details of what was said during arbitration are described as contested even by medieval Muslim historians.
Sources
- World History Encyclopedia. First Fitna · 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. First Fitna · 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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