Triple Assassination at Saqifah - An Islam alternate timeline

[adrizuz]

June 8th, year 11 after the Hijrah (AH).
The prophet Muhammad has died after spending his last days bedridden in Aisha’s home. It is there, in his wife's bedroom, where he is buried. The Muslims and especially the Sahabah are shocked and distressed by the loss of the prophet. However, moves are very swiftly made to resolve the question of his succession, given his lack of children.

News of a meeting at Saqifah by the Ansar reach Abu Bakr and Umar. Worried, given the Ansar’s intentions to choose a successor among themselves and intentionally exclude the Muhajirun, they grab Abu Ubaida and head for Saqifah. They storm into the meeting and try to convince the Ansar that only a member of the Quraysh would be accepted as successor to the Prophet. The Ansar are skeptical, especially as Abu Bakr suggests Umar and Abu Ubaida. Umar escalates the progressively heated argument and ends up violently attacking Sa’d ibn Ubadah, chief of the Banu Sa’ida. The rest of the Ansar respond by jumping onto Umar, and later Abu Bakr and Abu Ubaida as they try to aid Umar. Sa’d , furious, grabs a pair of swords, which he gives to two other Ansar, and which they end up using to kill Abu Bakr, Abu Ubaida and Umar, in that order.
The meeting continues and the Ansar elect Sa’d ibn Ubadah as the Khalifah, the successor to Muhammad.
Ali and Al-Zubayr, as well as the rest of the Sahabah, find out about the assassinations committed at Saqifah. And naturally, they are scandalised by the fact.
An army led by Zubayr, Ali and Khalid ibn al-Walid marches on Saqifah only a few days later, and the leaders, alongside other important Muhajirun, confront Sa’d and the Ansar.
Explanations turn into violence very quickly and the Battle of Saqifah erupts. Luckily, Khalid and his men easily deal with Sa’d’s own army. Defeated and cornered, the chief of the Banu Sa’ida meets the final consequences of his actions. Him, alongside every single Ansar who formed the council that elected Sa’d, are executed publicly as an example.
However, the images of Abu Bakr and Umar are tainted as pretenders themselves, given the reveal on the Ansar’s part that they were trying to elect themselves just as secretly as the Ansar themselves.
Exactly two months after the death of the prophet, a second council is assembled. It was formed mostly by Muhajirun, so the election of a close relative of Muhammad was secured. Ali, Muhammad’s cousin and husband to his daughter Fatimah, was the most popular candidate among the Muhajirun. However, due to his young age and Ali’s own support of either Al-Abbas or Al-Zubayr, the latter is elected as the first Khalifah, the first successor of Muhammad.​

Notes and disclaimers:
1. This is my first time formally posting a timeline in this website, so suggestions in terms of format are welcome.
2. This timeline, apart from an Alid one, is an Islam wank. I try to not be lazy about it and properly justify things, but I will always tend to benefit Islam.​

 

[adrizuz]

First Rashidun Caliph (632-644)

Az-Zubayr ibn Al-Awwam had been part of the Muslim community from the very beginning. Converting at 16, he was also the fourth or fifth adult male to accept Islam.
Zubayr had been known for his bravery and decisiveness. When the Muslims had to flee to Abyssinia, he swam down the river Nile to report on the battle Najashi, their king benefactor, fought against a rebellion. And once they returned to Mecca, he joined the Muhajirun when the Muslims had to migrate to Medina. He was also given the responsibilities of a Hafiz: to memorise every verse of the Quran alongside other Muslims.
Such bravery had been recognised in different occasions by the Prophet himself. Zubayr had fought in every battle under the Prophet from the very beginning. Proclaimed hawari (friend, companion) by Muhammad due to his determination to participate in even the most risky of military operations, he had been instrumental in the early victories of the Muslim community.
For all his achievements and because he was related to Muhammad, nobody really opposed his election as the first of the Rashidun within the Ummah. However, almost immediately after his accession, several revolts erupted all around Arabia from other tribes. The following wars are usually called the Ridda Wars (Wars of Apostasy).
Mostly, rebellions were led by other individuals who, like Muhammad, claimed Prophethood. Tulayha ibn Khuwaylid led the Banu Asad. Musaylimah led the Banu Hanifa, while the Prophetess Sajah led the Banu Taghlib and the Bani Tamim. Those of the Al-ansi were led by Al-Aswad Al-Ansi. Other Bedouin tribes rebelled simply because of taxes or other political issues with no religious background.
Az-Zubayr dispatched armies led by himself and Khalid, with which he crushed the rebellions of the false prophets and the Bedouin tribes. Marriages and concessions were also used to appease rebellion, like back in Muhammad’s time. Zubayr himself married the Prophetess Sajah as a way to appease her rebellion and avoid the important addition her own force would have been to Musaylimah’s own army. As condition, she converted to Islam, but went on to play an important part in the early Islamic community.
By the end of the Ridda Wars in 633, Zubayr had established the hegemony of the Caliphate all across the Arabian Peninsula.
The next step was clear for Zubayr, who immediately moved his sight to the Eastern Roman and Sassanid empires. Being well aware of the Hadith of Conquest, that the Prophet himself had predicted that it would be Islam to take down Constantinople, he knew that it would be the Caliphate to defeat both empires. So starting in 633 itself, Zubayr began sending small forces to Syria, Palestine and Iraq; capturing several towns successfully. It was then that the Caliph realised something that only made him and the caliphate grow more confident: both empires were militarily exhausted from a recent massive war against each other. And even better: both were completely absorbed in chaos and civil war.
Ever since Khosrau II’s failure and assassination, the Sassanids had struggled to regain stability, fighting among each other to decide who would sit on the throne. Currently, the Sassanid King was Yazdegerd III, a mere boy who didn’t have any real power over his empire.
As for Rome, the untimely death of Heraclius allowed a series of pretenders to rise in rebellion against his successors, who did not hold as much support and trust as the late Heraclius. With mainly Priscus’s revolt preventing Heraclius Constantine and later Heraclonas from consolidating their rule. Priscus did not have his revenge on Heraclius himself, but certainly did have it against Heraclonas, who was essentially surrounded at Constantinople. He also prevented a decisive Roman victory in the last Sassanid-Roman war, as Heraclius was forced to sign a light peace treaty with Khosrau to deal with Priscus and the other pretenders. While Priscus himself died in 627, his sons, Leontius and Phocas, continued the revolt.
But before the campaigns against both empires formally began, Zubayr had other responsibilities. As one of the Hafiz, he had to memorise all the verses of the Quran, which at the time had not been written doing completely. For such, Zubayr made great efforts to gather all the former scribes of the Prophet, as well as all the Hafiz, including himself, to formally compile the Quran in written format. It is such that the first edition of the Quran is created.
By 634, Zubayr launched more organised and formal campaigns against the Roman territories in the Levant. Defenses were severely weakened, and so Syria and Palestine had fallen by 635. Iraq was invaded around the same time and fell by 634. The scattered leaderships of both empires were panicked, but an alliance was impossible due to the great instability of both.
Attempts at a counterattack were made in 636 at Fahl and Ajnadayn, but the Eastern Romans were unable to represent any real obstacle for the Arab advance, which remained aggressive and steady. Later that same year, Khalid’s decisive victory at Yarmouk sentenced the Roman defense of their Middle Eastern territories to fail. Shortly after, Zubayr led his armies into a victory three months later in the battle of Qadisiyyah.
After Yarmouk, what remained of the Roman forces rallied the Christian Arab tribes of al-Jazira. With these forces, they tried to launch a counteroffensive. Unfortunately for them, Khalid overwhelmed them and massacred them at Emesa. This gave the Sayf Allah (Sword of Allah) free range to continue his rapid advance into Eastern Roman territory, conquering al-Jazira in 637. Later that year, the entirety of the Levant had fallen to Islamic hands.
Zubayr entered mock negotiations with Yazdegerd III in late 638 to prevent an alliance with the Eastern Romans. This came after the capture of Ctesiphon the year prior, which pushed the Sassanids further into desperation. Salman al-Farsi became the first governor of Ctesiphon by Ali’s recommendation, and he protected the city from further sacking and destruction. Meanwhile, Khalid continued pushing, and following a series of skirmishes north of Syria, he launched preemptive attacks to Anatolia and Armenia to eliminate Roman presence there.​

Zubayr approved Khalid’s plan for an all out invasion of Anatolia, which began in 639. The Roman army had been severely weakened and dispersed with the preemptive attacks the caliphal army had sent throughout the months leading up to the invasion, so Khalid didn’t face as fierce of a resistance as in his previous conquests. This made it slightly easy to advance through an otherwise unfamiliar mountainous and colder terrain.
In 640, Zubayr saw it as no longer necessary to keep the Persians on hold as they had been completely cut off from the Romans, preventing any real collaboration. For such, he continued his campaign into Persia, betraying Yazdegerd III.
Khalid captured Ancyra in February 640, and Nicomedia had fallen by December. At Constantinople, a desperate Heraclonas desperately sent a letter to the Caliph, knowing that on the other side of the walls of Constantinople, Phocas and Leontius were waiting for him. The letter offered to open Constantinople for them in exchange of support against the rebels. This letter reached Khalid first, who was at Nicomedia at the time. He decided to take the offer before sending the latter to Ctesiphon for Zubayr to receive.
Mosul and Tikrit were swiftly captured by the Rashidun army, since holding Ctesiphon and the region around it was very important strategically. Many calls were made to stop the invasion at the Zagros mountains, but Zubayr and other generals wanted all of Persia.
Yazdegerd fled to Hulwan, where he raised an improvised army to meet the Rashidun army. The two clashed in the battle of Jalula, but Persian efforts were useless as they were once again crushed.
Shortly after capturing Basra, the Rashidun began suffering from Persian raids led by Hormuzan, coming from the city of Ahvaz. They dealt with this by sending a modest army of 3000 led by Arfajah to cut off supply to Ahvaz and then conquer the city. He captures Khuzestan and defeats Hormuzan, who flees to Shushtar. Al-‘Bara ibn Malik is then sent to siege Shushtar, and there Hormuzan is finally captured.
Arfajah continued pushing into Khuzestan until he met with Zubayr’s army. Once they reached Nahavand, he stopped to prepare for the decisive battle ahead. There, Az-Zubayr led the Rashidun army to victory against the Persians, for whom the battle was their last hope. After their defeat at Nahavand, the Persian army was unable to gather sufficient forces to resist the Arab invasion. Yazdegerd was forced to flee further and further east until he had no other option but to flee to China.
Zubayr returned to Ctesiphon as news of a letter from Nicomedia arrived. He left his armies in Persia to conquer the peripheral zones that were now in anarchy due to the collapse of the Sassanids. Once in Ctesiphon in 643, he finds out that Khalid was currently besieging Constantinople, after the city had been captured by the rebels Phocas and Leontius.
Zubayr sent reinforcements, including an improvise navy led by Uthman and Mu’awiya, who had offered to build up a navy.
As Constantinople began to give in and Bactria and other regions of the former Persian Empire were captured, Zubayr was assassinated in Ctesiphon by an Iranian slave in 644. This came as a very disgraceful surprise, though the caliphate was at its highest point yet and it was very clearly prepared to deal with the loss of the first caliph. In the exact place where Az-Zubayr ibn Al-Awwam was assassinated, the Mosque of Zubayr was built in his honor. Its construction began by order of Salman, governor of Ctesiphon at the time.​

The Muhajirun remaining assembled a new council to elect a new caliph. This time, the election of the next successor was almost unanimous. Despite not being elected before, Ali ibn Abi Talib had played a key role in the expansion and consolidation of the Caliphate, both militarily, politically and religiously. Ali was also one of the closest people to the Prophet Muhammad in life ever since childhood, and had married his daughter Fatimah. Not to mention that he was the first male to ever convert to Islam, apart from the Prophet himself. And so, after an almost unanimous election, Ali ibn Abi Talib was elected as the second Caliph in 23 AH (644 AD).​

 

[adrizuz]

Important notes about this last chapter:
-Zubayr is a noticeably more aggressive caliph, which contrasts greatly with Abu Bakr and Umar in OTL. A great example is the lack of restraining of Khalid’s military efforts, who pushes into Anatolia in the early 640s as he wanted to in OTL. And that’s not to mention his own approach, which is a lot more military expansion-focused and more aggressive, which is understandable given his character and long military career and participation in early Islamic expansion.
-Divergence in Eastern Roman History. Heraclius pushes Khosrow out, but Priscus leaves the monastery to start a rebellion against him. This forces Heraclius to push for a treaty to leave everything as it was before the war, which Khosrow takes as he is also in a complicated situation. By the time Khalid arrives, Leontius and Phocas (Priscus’s children with Emperor Phocas’s daughter) have entered Constantinople and killed Heraclonas, who is the emperor after his father’s death earlier in the civil war.
Just to give some context that may be necessary to understand what’s going on a bit better

 

[adrizuz]

Extra entry because I forgot to tackle this topic in yesterday's post

After losing the Levant, it became a priority for the Romans to reinforce Egypt. Losing said provinces had been a major blow for the empire, as it was an economic lifeline and the main source of manpower for the empire. For such, Heraclonas desperately tried to reinforce the rich province.
In 637, shortly after the full conquest of the Levant, and while Khalid began launching preemptive attacks into Anatolia and Armenia, 'Amr ibn al-Aas met with the caliph at Jerusalem. Amr had participated in the conquest of Jerusalem and Syria, though he had not followed Khalid north as the general pushed further into the Eastern Roman Empire. Instead, he wanted to lead an army south, into Egypt. The general made his case to the caliph, explaining the strategic importance of Egypt and how it would both offer great supplies to the caliphate, while also leaving the Romans greatly weakened. Zubayr understood this and agreed with Amr that they should invade Egypt, but hesitated because the main efforts of the Rashidun army were focused in Persia and Anatolia at the time. He feared that further dividing their forces and eventually hindering the, so far, unstoppable advance against the two empires that had dominated the region for centuries. This was an uncharacteristically cautious instance from Zubayr, showing that even in spite of the many victories, some respect for their enemies remained. Ultimately, however, the caliph was persuaded to leave the decision to the Majlis-ash-Shura, the advisory council of the Caliphate, which was also the council that had elected Zubayr as Caliph.
The Majlis-ash-Shura came to the final decision of authorizing Amr's plans of an invasion of Egypt, which Zubayr did delay until mid 638.
'Amr began to prepare an army completely separate from that of Khalid, as to try and remove the worries of the Caliph. He managed to put 4000 men together, which included arabs from the 'Ak and Ghafik tribes, as well as Roman and Iranian converts to Islam. Zubayr was skeptical of 'Amr and his small army, and ordered for reinforcements to be prepared and stationed at Medina while he returned to Ctesiphon to deal with the Persians.
'Amr marched towards Egypt. As they penetrated the territories closer to the border, they captured towns quite easily as most of them lacked any garrison or Roman presence in general. Soon they reached Pelusium, which was considered at the time to be the eastern gateway to Egypt, and was the first city to really put up real resistance. The city fell after a siege that dragged on for over two months and caused 'Amr's army considerable losses. These losses were luckily relieved by the Sinai Bedouins who joined 'Amr after the capture of Pelusium.
From Pelusium, 'Amr and his men marched to Memphis and captured the city. And from there, they marched to Belbeis. Cyrus, the governor of Egypt and the monophysite Patriarch of Alexandria, had betrayed Rome and ordered to surrender and pay the Jizya to the Arabs. However, a general and two monks refused his orders. Cyrus fled to the Babylon Fortress, while the general fought the Arabs and lost. The army then besieged Belbeis and tried to persuade the native egyptians to open the city to them, but failed. The city fell normally after a few weeks, and 'Amr found himself in need of reinforcements.
He sent a letter to Medina, from where an army of 4000 men led by Miqdad ibn Aswad, Maslama ibn Mukhallad al-Ansari and Ubadah ibn al-Samit. Immediately after arriving, the reinforcements captured Faiyum and quickly joined 'Amr in his siege of Heliopolis.
The Rashidun army reached Heliopolis in early 640. After struggling with sieges, the Arab general decided to take the Romans into a battle in the open field. The Roman general Aretion tried to surprise attack the camp of the arab reinforcements, but Ubadah managed to defeat him without much trouble. Then, Ubadah met with 'Amr ahead of the siege of Heliopolis. Once the wall began to be climbed by the Arabs, Cyrus of Alexandria surrendered and gave the city and 50k gold coins to 'Amr and his men. The defeated Romans retreated back to the Babylon and Nikiu fortresses. And once Heliopolis fell, they headed for the Babylon Fortress.
There, Cyrus once again tried to negotiate with 'Amr, who asked the governor to accept Islam and surrender to them. The patriarch refused such terms and the battle continued. In only a few days, the fortress fell as well. Once in the fortress, and with their sights on Alexandria, the other generals advice 'Amr to give Ubadah full command, as he was an Ansari veteran with more experience.​

Ubadah gave a speech ahead of their march to Alexandria. The Rashidun Army began the siege in March 641, and in under a month, the city fell thanks to Ubadah's strategy. The defeated soldiers, generals and roman officials desperately fled to Constantinople after the city was captured by the Arabs. Following this, the generals split to capture the remaining regions of Egypt, like Damietta and al-Gharbia.
The Rashidun army then moved south to face the Roman forces in northern Sudan, as they were reinforcing the christian Beja forces. The African christians were led by a patrician named Batlus. They were defeated at Dashur, which prompted the Arabs to go on to siege the city of Bahnasa. Resistance was fierce and the siege dragged on for several months. More reinforcements were sent from Medina, but the city still held on for a few more weeks. In early 642, Bahnasa finally fell. It was renamed to al-Qays, "the town of Martyrs", in honor of one of the commanders that participated in the siege.
That same year, the Arabs began to penetrate further into North Africa. Morale was at an all time high, as Ctesiphon had been captured and Persia was almost completely conquered, while Khalid had recently conquered Armenia and Anatolia, and was soon to attack Constantinople itself. 'Amr led the armies and besieged Barqa (Cyrenaica). The siege lasted 3 years until around 645, and the city did not fall. 'Amr was advised by Khalid to improvise catapults, but ultimately decided to retreat until reinforcements arrived at Egypt and allowed him to reorganize the army. This could have also been influenced by the assassination of the caliph in 644, and the rise of Ali to power.
Further expeditions south and west of Egypt would not come until a couple of years later, by the orders of Ali.
​

 

[adrizuz]

Later or tomorrow I'll add the entry about Ali's rule, but it's delayed because of me forgetting about Egypt yesterday and because it'll be a bit longer. Might even split it in 2 parts.

 

[Nivek]

Later or tomorrow I'll add the entry about Ali's rule, but it's delayed because of me forgetting about Egypt yesterday and because it'll be a bit longer. Might even split it in 2 parts.

I see, interesting start so far

 

[Jonathan Edelstein]

Later or tomorrow I'll add the entry about Ali's rule, but it's delayed because of me forgetting about Egypt yesterday and because it'll be a bit longer. Might even split it in 2 parts.

So it seems like the Rashidun Caliphs will conquer not only Egypt but Nubia, and it might actually be easier to Islamize the Nubian kingdoms than Egypt given that their Christianization was still recent at this point.

What's going to happen in the Horn of Africa? IOTL, Islam began appearing in Somaliland very early (as is natural given how close it is to the Arabian peninsula) but the Islamization of the Somalis wasn't completed for centuries. Are the Rashidun ITTL going to incorporate the Somalis in a more organized way? Will there be an equivalent to the Swahili coast city-states?

Also, I'd assume that there will be some point at which the Rashidun will have to stop and consolidate their conquests in order to avoid getting overextended - I did read the part where you said you wanted to maximize Islam, but part of that integrating the subject peoples into both the administration and the faith. Is this one of the things that will happen under Ali or will it await his successors?

 

[adrizuz]

So it seems like the Rashidun Caliphs will conquer not only Egypt but Nubia, and it might actually be easier to Islamize the Nubian kingdoms than Egypt given that their Christianization was still recent at this point.

Nothing out of OTL in matters of expansion south of Egypt so far, in what I've posted here. Later on, the Caliphate will be more successful in a campaign into Nubia/Sudan than they were in OTL.

What's going to happen in the Horn of Africa? IOTL, Islam began appearing in Somaliland very early (as is natural given how close it is to the Arabian peninsula) but the Islamization of the Somalis wasn't completed for centuries. Are the Rashidun ITTL going to incorporate the Somalis in a more organized way? Will there be an equivalent to the Swahili coast city-states?

Won't say much about Somalia other than no, I don't think the Caliphate will incorporate them into the Caliphate itself as a province. It would be overextending far too much.

Also, I'd assume that there will be some point at which the Rashidun will have to stop and consolidate their conquests in order to avoid getting overextended - I did read the part where you said you wanted to maximize Islam, but part of that integrating the subject peoples into both the administration and the faith. Is this one of the things that will happen under Ali or will it await his successors?

Indeed. In OTL, Umar was a lot more conservative and immediately focused on consolidating territories, and so denied a bunch of expansion plans and even ended up taking Khalid out of the army. He was a lot more conservative as a ruler. As I explained in the second entry, Zubayr was a war general, and a very brave man, so he was bound to be a lot more aggressive and focused on military expansion, less restrictive of his generals. However, this will have its consequences that later Caliphs will have to deal with. Starting with Ali.
You'll see.

 

[Nivek]

Caliphs will have to deal with. Starting with Ali.

As Ali was also a general that would be interesting

 

[adrizuz]

Second Rashidun Caliph, Amir al-Mu'minin, Asad Allah. (644-684)
Part 1

Ali ibn Abi Talib had been taken in by Muhammad and his wife Khadija ever since he was around five, due to Abi Talib's severe situation of poverty. And at around age eleven, he became the first male to accept Islam other than the Prophet Muhammad himself. He grew to become one of the most beloved by the Prophet, who gave Ali the nickname of "Abu Tubar" after he caught the latter sleeping in sand. The son of Abi Talib also married Fatimah, one of Muhammad's daughters, and was declared by the prophet as the one in his family he loved the most, other than Fatima herself.
Ali also proved to become a very important part of the community, as he acted as Muhammad's secretary and deputy, as well as the flag bearer of the army. He also acted as a scribe for the Prophet. He became very beloved by the early muslims thanks to his humility and great dedication to Islam. He was also said to be the most eloquent and well spoken of the Sahaba. Ali was renowned for his bravery on the battlefield and his magnanimity towards his enemies. He participated in several battles like Badr, battle of the Trench, Khaybar and Uhud. After Uhud, the Prophet is said to have heard a divine voice that proclaimed:
​

"There is no sword but Zulfiqar [Ali's sword], there is no chivalrous youth (fata) but Ali."​

​

​

It is believed that multiple times did the Prophet Muhammad insinuated or indirectly proclaimed Ali as his successor. One such occasion was in the Hadith of Position of the Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, in which the prophet tells Ali: "You stand to me as Aaron stood to Moses, except that there will be no prophet after me..." Another well known occasion was in Ghadir Khumm during the last year of the Prophet's life. After returning from his Hajj pilgrimage that year, the Prophet stopped his caravan at Ghadir Khumm and addressed them after a prayer. Having warned muslims about his impending death earlier, he proclaimed:
​

"He whose mawla I am, Ali is his mawla."
​

"Mawla" is usually interpreted to mean "leader" or "master", given Ali's later accession and successful rule, but scholars from other branches of Islam have gone on to claim that "Mawla" was used to mean "friend", and therefore gave no valid claim to the Caliphate to Ali. Mainstream belief, however, remains that Muhammad was essentially declaring his cousin and son-in-law as his successor.
After the Prophet death, he became one of the most popular candidates to succeed him. However, he supported Az-Zubayr and al-Abbas for the position, and given his own young age, the council formed mostly by Muhajirun elected Zubayr. During the rule of the first Caliph, Ali continued to perform important roles for the Caliphate, either in the religious, political or military senses. He formed part of the government, this time as a member of the Majlis al-Shura (the advisory and electoral council, a sort of parliament for the Caliph). He continued to play important military roles, participating in the conquests of Jerusalem and Syria, as well as the capture of Ctesiphon. He maintained his religious importance as one of the scribes of the Prophet, and was an Imam (the person who leads the prayers) even above the Caliph himself. The first few years after Muhammad's death were not easy, however, as both Ali and his wife Fatimah struggled considerably in the process of grief. Fatimah even fell gravely ill, but managed to recover miraculously when it all seemed lost.
In 23 AH (644 CE), the first Rashidun Caliph, Az-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, was assassinated by an iranian slave. The entirety of the Majlis ash-Shura knew, and Ali himself knew. Fatimah knew that Ali's turn had come. It is said that al-Abbas congratulated the son of Abi Talib before the process of election had even begun. As expected, the voting was almost unanimous, and Ali became the Second Rashidun Caliph.
Shortly after his accession, the exhausted Rashidun army led by Khalid ibn al-Walid was forced to retreat from Constantinople after almost 3 years of siege and a surprise attack from the Bulgars of Kubrat, who aided the Romans. In the skirmish, the Bulgars managed to capture Husayn, Ali's son. Khalid intended to go back to Nicomedia, ask for reinforcement and gather as many converts to go back to the city as soon as possible. However, Ali urged him not to, and instead arranged a meeting with Kubrat himself, in which he used his great diplomatic skills and eloquent speak to peacefully get his son and other hostages back safely.
He also stopped other efforts like the expansion into North Africa, though maintained the conquest efforts of the peripheral territories of the now defunct Sassanid Empire. Ali was a firm believer and supporter of Jihad, but he knew the armies were exhausted after decades of constant fighting, and knew that they had to slow down if they wanted to avoid uprisings and rebellions. He also was concerned with converting the conquered territories to Islam.
One of his first actions as a Caliph was to properly compile the Quran. Prior to his rule, he had already been gathering a copy of his own, but it was more of a personal mission. As a scribe himself, he reunited a committee headed by ibn Mas'ud and that included many of the Prophet's personal scribes that were still alive (which included Ali). The objective of this committee was to create a standardized copy of the Quran using ibn Mas'ud's copy as well as gathering as many other copies to create the most complete and correct copy of the Quran, which would be standardized from then onwards. ibn Mas'ud had been regarded as the best interpreter of the Quran of his time, and was proclaimed to be one of the four foremost experts on the Quran by Muhammad himself, who personally loved to hear the Quran recited by Mas'ud. This also came as Ali and other scribes began to notice that slight differences in language started to become more pronounced as Islam spread across the newly conquered regions. Finally, at around 650, a complete Quran was compiled by the committee, which ibn Mas'ud remained in charge of for the rest of his life. This Quran became standardized, though some other scribes kept their own copies that differed (these copies, however, didn't survive for more than a century after the Quran was standardized by Ali).​

In terms of fiscal policies, Ali returned to the somewhat weakened practice of the Prophet of distributing excess taxes and booty among the Muslims. Zubayr had distributed booty more in base to the perceived contribution during the conquests, rather than equally among all Muslims. This what somewhat controversial among the closest to the Prophet. His strictly egalitarian policies allowed him to earn the respect of the now resting troops of the army, as well as more underprivileged groups within the expanding Caliphate. This equal distribution among Muslims also served as yet another incentive for the conquered populations to accept Islam, alongside the Jizya; and indeed conversions increased during this rule. Ali also prioritized land development over taxation, and urged his officials to not harass people when taxing them. Related to this, he began a series of construction projects and recovered declining or dead cities like Heliopolis and Memphis. He also continued the construction of the Mosque at Medina, where he also moved Zubayr's body to be alongside the Prophet's (and where he would later be buried himself as per his wishes). The Caliph made some steps towards a Welfare State, prioritizing the poor, needy and disabled, and ordering to assign deputies to oversee their needs.
Ali also cracked down on the corruption that was starting to rise within the Caliphate. He dismissed governors and other officials that had been denounced or accused of corruption and granting favors. Among these governors was Mu'awiya, who tried to plot against the Caliph before being discovered and jailed. As part of his policies against corruption, Ali strengthened the position of Caliph and the Majlis ash-Shura, so as to centralize the Caliphate and weaken the governors. These strict approach in legal matters began to earn him some enemies.
The Second Rashidun Caliph also began to urge his armies not to reject calls of peace, as he always preferred to take the diplomatic route if it was possible and if it was beneficial. He also barred his troops from disturbing civilians, killing the wounded and those who fled, mutilating the dead, entering homes without permission, looting and harming women. He also forbade the enslavement of women in victory, which a few protested.
Ali was certainly concerned with disseminating some early form of the Islamic sciences and knowledge in general. He gave sermons in which he promoted metaphysical thought among other things, and trained students that went on to become some of the first Islamic scholars in matters of law, theology, etc.
As for critics and minorities, Ali vowed to respect them as long as they respected him and his authority. "I shall defend myself with my words, as long as they attack me with words." However, religious minorities were never really considered equal to Muslims.

Once more administrative and religious issues had been dealt with, the Asad Allah found himself, his realm and his armies ready to restart their military efforts in 656. Khalid had stayed at Nicomedia in case that the Romans might attempt a counter-invasion. This never came, even in spite of the proclamation of Phocas II as the new emperor of Constantinople. 'Amr remained at Egypt, but was demoted in favor of Abd-Allah ibn Az-Zubayr (son of the First Caliph). A few attempts were made by the Romans and Christian Africans to regain Egypt, but their forces were repelled without major issues. As for Persia, Kerman and Makran had been subjugated by Suhail ibn Adi shortly after the conquest of Fars, while Rabi ibn Ziyad al-Harithi conquered Sakastan early into Ali's reign. Iranian Azerbaijan was more complicated, but thanks to Bukair ibn Abdullah, who was appointed after several failures, the region was also conquered. Khorasan was yet to be submitted, as resistance was stronger there. It was also presumed that Yazdegerd was hiding at Merv, and later Balkh. The conquest was initially assigned to Ahnaf ibn Qays, who was later joined by Arfajah.


Disclaimer:
More to come in a second (and maybe third?) part of Ali's rule. Possibly tomorrow but I don't want to make promises! lol​

 

[Nivek]

Disclaimer:
More to come in a second (and maybe third?) part of Ali's rule. Possibly tomorrow but I don't want to make promises! lol

Waiting for it buddy

 

[adrizuz]

Firstly, how is Zubayr supervising two massive campaign simultaneously, depsite being constantly on campaign? And if he dies on campaign the state could become incredibly fragile and break....
Is Ctesiphon the capital? Since this seems to be where Zubayr is spending most of his time and receiving letters.
If so, then won't Madinah be a small backwater due to it not being capital for 30 years as OTL. With most Arab elites migrating to Ctesiphon instead of Madinah.

He is not supervising two campaigns. I thought I was clear in that post where I mentioned in a more meta POV per se the differences between Zubayr and Umar as caliphs. Because there I said Zubayr gave his generals, like Khalid, a lot more freedom. Zubayr is leading the campaign on Persia, that's why he was at Ctesiphon so much. And no, Ctesiphon is not the capital. Officially, it's Medina, and the Majlis ash-Shura seats there as of now in what I've posted (tbf I didn't mention that). In OTL the Caliphs spent a lot of time out of Medina, though, and already Ali had moved it to Kufa, then the Umayyads to Damascus. (I'll tackle that change soon btw).
You're assuming a lot of things lol.

Also, wouldn't they opt to found their own Misr/garrison city like OTL. Instead of mingling with the non-muslims which would make the Muslims less distinct and lead to sooner non Arab cultural intrusion.

It's a matter of preference. That approach is more Umayyad, to be all Arab-centric. The Rashidun Caliphate and especially Ali was a lot more inclusive of non-Arabs as long as they were muslims. (Muslim already this early is not the same as Arab, and Muslims were better in every way, even Muslim slaves had extra rights and protections).

Instead they could found Baghdad - at the closest point between Tigris-Euphrates giving navigation links to Mosul and Raqqa. And even Diyarbakir and Birecek can navigate downstream to Baghdad.

1. You do not found a city right next a huge metropolis immediately after conquering it, Baghdad came later. And again, it's matter of approach.
2. Building a big city takes some time and a lot of money.
3. The whole argument of "a distinctly Muslim (which you use interchangeably with "arab") city" is a bit ridiculous when we have plenty of cases like Damascus, Barqa (Cyrenaica), Alexandria; that were preserved after the conquests. It's a matter of logistics. Tisfun (or Ctesiphon which is the anglicised name of the greek toponym) declined because the armies sacked it again and again and people just left it. In this TL Ali rises earlier and Ali prevented all these things from happening so Tisfun will likely not decline so drastically. It doesnt make sense to build Baghdad when Tisfun still exists. Hell, in OTL, Islamic governors of the early Caliphate sat at Ctesiphon.

As for Ali's administrative reforms, then the most important would be to begin the decades long shift of the Greek and Persian administrations to Arabic. Which AbdulMalik ibn Marwan implemented and was one of the most important moments in Islamic history, as it permanently changed the high culture language to Arabic and prevented assimilation as happened to most Barbarian empires from the Germanics in Rome or the Seljuks in Iran or the Mongols in China.

Okay calm down. Let's explain something first: Islamic governors were already mostly Arabs in OTL during the Rashidun Caliphate, except for like Salman al-Farsi who was one of the Sahaba anyway. Which btw most of the people appointed as generals and officials were the Sahaba and early arab muslims too. It is true Iranians and former Romans were used in some form for the administration, but the higher positions were always held by Arab Muslims. Now it is very likely that with Ali rising earlier and more successfully, which clearly will happen in this TL, Iranians, Romans and so on will become a lot more involved in the higher positions of the Caliphate, meaning there's never really a full on Arabs on the top of the pyramid type thing, which again, was an Umayyad thing. I think to even mention Marwan here is wrong because 1. it's way too early and 2. it's a completely different context even from so early on.
And no, personally I believe it's a lot more important for Ali's unique administration in OTL that he was so egalitarian and so advanced in matters of welfare for his time. I'm currently juggling with what to do with the matter of slaves but I'll probably leave that to his successors. Ali really did kind of build a welfare state with insurances and stuff.

Controlling the sawad of southern Iraq - the richest region in the Caliphate (and probably all western Eurasia) allowing it to have a massive population perhaps reaching half a million by the end of the century (OTL Baghdad reached 500,000 by around 800, only 33 years after being founded).
Such an enormous metropolis allows immense cultural flourishing in every aspect (Civilization literally comes from cities)
Which is completely different from the low population, small agricultural hinterland and and non-navigable capitals of Madinah and Damascus. - one of the major downfalls of the Umayyads

Won't mention this because it's related to the assumptions I mentioned early and is directly related to Umayyad administration which will not happen here.

Zubayr founding a navy is huge, as it would allow more effective campaigns against the Byzantines. Taking the Anatolian coast to improve the logistics of Khalid's land forces.

It's a very rudimentary navy, but it does the job, like OTL's navy for the Rashidun caliphate. (Remember the battle of the masts?). And here, like in OTL, Mu'awiya pushes for it.

Similarly in the conquest of North Africa, which would be greatly sped up with help from a navy. Since past Ifriqiyah into modern day Algeria and Morocco, the old Roman ports were in ruins with the berbers having no navies.
Allowing the Muslims to take the entire coast all the way to Agadir and Canaries with almost Zero resistance.....
Using the coastal bases they found/repair like Hippo (Annaba), Saldae (Bejaia), Icosium(Algiers), Unica Colonia(Oran), Tingis (still in Byzantine hands), Sala Colonia (Rabat) to gradually conquer the difficult Berber interior.

Maybe we're overblowing the navy the Caliphate would be able to build this early on and getting way too excited about the idea. I'm pretty sure whatever they manage to build would be almost entirely focused on the Aegean and later the siege of Constantinople under Khalid...

The much quicker conquest would allow an earlier invasion of Visigothic Spain. Which was particularly vulnerable in 653 when Recceswinth faced a rebellion in the Ebro on his ascension. Or in 672 on Wamba's ascension which also had rebellions or Erwig's 680 coup. Allowing expansion into incredibly fractured Merovingia (which I've covered in https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/continuing-after-sufetula-647-muslim-europe.544144/ )

And it would allow sooner raids on Sicily, Sardinia and Balerics, instead of starting in 704.

And if Crete is taken, as Muawiyah did, then Thessaloniki and Athens could probably be taken. Largely ending Byzantine rule in the Balkans which was overrun by the south Slavs. This would allow the Muslims to build up powerbases within the Balkans making a siege of Constantinople much more successful.

If Smyrna is taken too, with help from Khalid's land army, then the Aegean would almost become a Muslim lake....

Let me cook bro

As for Somalia, this wouldn't be too much over extension. Since a small navy based in Aden would easily be able to found and control ports all over the Somali coastline, and perhaps deep into east Africa.
OTL, the Umayyads used Dahlak, Eritrea, as their prison island. And seem to have a presence in Somalia itself since the reign of AbdulMalik, as mentioned in "The invention of Somalia".

1. The Caliphate has its hands more than full.
2. Is there really such an incentive to go for Somalia to drop the campaigns against Rome?
3. "A presence" and using one island as a prison is a long way from holding the territory as a province and all the administration and previous war management it requires.

Finally, would the Caliphate push into India earlier?
OTL Uthman ibn Abi alAs raided the Indian coasts in the 630s, until Umar stopped him.
Then in 644, the Battle of Rasil occurred in Sindh. But Umar stopped them due to overextension.

India is definitely for later. It makes no sense to go for India when you're going to finish off the Romans and continue expanding into North Africa.

(India had over 30% of world GDP, so ideally, it should've received 100k men instead of the siege of Constantinople, since even if all Europe fell, it wouldn't equal a third of the wealth of India)

Let's not use GDP for pre capitalism history, it's just... ugh.
And yes, that's exactly why nobody in pre industrial times managed to unite India. because it's an incredibly hard nut to crack. And the only non-Indians to almost achieve it were in post Mongol times. You're underestimating the military might of the Indian powers of the time.

 

[adrizuz]

To explain the whole Arabs and non-Arabs thing a bit better:
The Umayyads clearly were outright Arab supremacists and fucked over all of the conquered peoples, even if they accepted Islam. However, this was not the case neither in early Islam under the Prophet nor in the Rashidun Caliphate.
The Sahabah (companions of the Prophet) for example weren't exclusively Arabs. Salman al-Farsi was especially close with Ali and the Prophet and he was Iranian. You also have Bilal, an Abyssinian slave who accepted Islam and became the first Mu'azzin. And if like I mentioned, Arabs usually were the governors, that's not because they were Arabs, that's because they were Sahabah, or early converts of Islam, or just important officials/generals within the Caliphate. Salman was the first Islamic governor of Ctesiphon and he was Iranian.
To finalize, here a quote from Muhammad in regards to non-Arab Muslims:

"All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a White has no superiority over a Black nor a Black has any superiority over a White except by piety and good action. Learn that every Muslim is a brother to every Muslim and that the Muslims constitute one brotherhood. Nothing shall be legitimate to a Muslim which belongs to a fellow Muslim unless it was given freely and willingly."​

 

[Nivek]

I'm currently juggling with what to do with the matter of slaves

The protection of mother of a child and that under Sunna any child is a parent inheritors is a defacto free womb law, also it was expected converts slaves would be given freedom gradually (especially as a kind of zakat)

 

[adrizuz]

The protection of mother of a child and that under Sunna any child is a parent inheritors is a defacto free womb law, also it was expected converts slaves would be given freedom gradually (especially as a kind of zakat)

Indeed and the slave wife was free once the husband died. And the latter is exactly what I meant. My idea was for that progressive liberation of Muslim slaves to happen, until a later Caliph makes it law for all Muslims to be freed. But I still have to look into it and will be later on anyways.

 

[adrizuz]

By this point almost zero non Arabs have converted to Islam. That only begins properly in the 700s.

Incredibly wrong.

Of course. But Bilal, Salman, Suhaib Rumi, etc were Arabised. Speaking Arabic and being familiar with or integrated into Arabic culture

Speaking a language is not the same as absorbing or adopting a different culture. Ridiculous.
Bilal was born in Mecca but Salman was born and raised in Iran and even was about to become a Zoroastrian magus before he followed a group of Nestorians to the Middle East and met Muhammad.
And you clearly were not just taking about the language in your first message (which btw I hadn’t noticed that you shamelessly self promoted!).

I won’t answer to the rest because it’s filled with misconceptions, and misunderstandings of what I wrote yesterday in reply to you. Give them a reread later or something, but let the thread be. Let me write, let me cook like I told ya yesterday. Stop jumping two centuries ahead and going all over the place with weird rants 👍🏻


Note for everyone else:
Should post the next entry today

 

[Nivek]

who they despised more than the Byzantines

No they hated more the Romans and wanted to fully conquered then first,is just the Sassanid keep attacking and become the easiest target

 

[adrizuz]

Second Rashidun Caliph, Amir al-Mu'minin, Asad Allah. (644-684)
Part 2

Hadith of Conquest Fulfilled

“Verily, you shall conquer Constantinople. What a wonderful army will that army be, and what a wonderful commander will that conqueror be.”

​

In preparations for the siege, forces had been gathered in Crete, Rhodes and other islands of the Aegean that had been captured either recently or back during Khalid's campaigns. Even if Mu'awiya had been imprisoned, his aspirations for the Caliphate to build a powerful navy were slowly being fulfilled. On the other hand, Ali arrived at Nicomedia in February of 656 with a sizeable force of 10k men, which were to be added to Khalid's gathered force of 40k. Clearly, gathering such a force wouldn't be easy to hide from the Roman Emperor, who was sitting very close to them at Constantinople. Phocas II received the letter from one of his courtiers and was frightened at the prospect of already losing his empire. He sent a letter to Kubrat, in hopes that the Bulgars would once again come to the aid of the Romans. This letter, however, never reached Kubrat as he had already died.
For the past few years, things had been in turmoil at Constantinople. Even if the siege of Constantinople of 642 had been unsuccessful, the questions of how much longer would the walls resist, or how much longer will the empire itself survive, plagued the minds of the inhabitants of the city. Ever since his coronation after the assassination of Heraclonas, Phocas II had not made a single move to try and fight back against the Caliphate. It seemed as though he was uninterested with the fact that Rome had been reduced to almost half of its former territories and now they had the enemy knocking at their door. The letter in which the news of an incoming second siege was only the straw that broke the camel's back. Only a week after the letter was received, Phocas II was assassinated in his chambers while sleeping by an unknown assailant. It is speculated that it had been Leontius, his brother, who then became the regent of Constantine III, his nephew. Constantine III was merely a teenager, and Leontius wasn't really much different from his brother.
One thing in which he differed from Phocas II, however, was in that he at least looked for support in the incoming defense of Constantinople. He offered absurd amounts of gold to several slavic tribes and the Avars, who accepted the deal and began heading to the capital of the Romans. The catch in this deal was that Leontius didn't have such amounts of gold. In fact, the Eastern Roman Empire hadn't possessed such amounts of gold ever since the rule of Anastasius. Leontius was willing to do anything to defend the city and that included risking to get even more enemies other than the Arabs.
The invasion from Nicomedia was launched in March of that year, and an initial Roman force of 5k men met the Rashidun army in the outskirts of the capital. Normally, as per Khalid's usual modus operandi, a battle would have started and the small Roman force would have been wiped off the face of the earth by the Rashidun army, which was 10x its size. However, Ali was there, and so he ordered no violence to ensue and negotiated with them. His offer was simple: accept Islam and join the Caliphate, or be captured and killed in case of resistance. The size of the Rashidun army was intimidating, and so most of those 5k troops took Ali's offer and joined their side. Around 500 resisted and were captured after a short fight.
The army reached the asian side of the Bosporus in slightly over a week. Chrysopolis barely had a garrison that the Rashidun army easily overwhelmed. After that, they only had to wait for the navy to arrive at the Bosporus. Many began to flee from Constantinople as early as the fall of Chrysopolis, both to mainland Greece, the few remaining territories of the empire in Italy and to the city of Rome itself.
The Rashidun navy arrived at the strait after a few days, and most of it immediately engaged in battle with the Roman navy. A small group of three ships split from the main navy and intercepted a series of smaller, commercial ships that were reaching Constantinople. They were several refugees from places like Syria, Jerusalem and Egypt. Among them was a man named Kallinikos, who offered to share some secrets in exchange for his own safety and that of his fellow refugees. Initially, his request was to be ignored, but as his story reached Ali, it was fulfilled and he was taken to the Caliph himself. After a meeting, Kallinikos was taken to Medina. Ali stayed at Chrysopolis, though, as the Second Siege of Constantinople began. ​

​

While the naval battle raged on, the Slavic and Avar reinforcements arrived on the european side of the City. They were initially mistaken as enemies, but eventually they were told by Leontius that they were the reinforcements and the gates of the walls were opened for them. The Avar Khan, Bayan IV, was among them. He marched through the city and met Leontius and Constantine III at the palace. The Khan was not happy with the preemptive attack launched at them in the walls for mistaking them for enemies, but the regent made sure to calm tensions down by reminding them of the rewards for their collaboration.
Days and weeks passed and the Rashidun navy failed to break the Roman defense. Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr and Khalid ibn al-Walid were then put at the head of an army of 30k that was to go back and cross the Hellespont. Once at Abydos, Abd al-Rahman and Khalid marched into Thrace, and finally reached Constantinople by 657. Their arrival finally allowed for the total isolation of the city, as they were surrounded on all flanks. And to increase the psychological effect, Khalid reused an old trick of his. He divided the armies and gave each commander different banners. They marched and arrived at the camp established just outside the walls at different times. This strategy had previously tricked the Romans in the Battle of Mu'tah into thinking that the Muslim armies were receiving reinforcements, and it did here. This way, whenever Khalid's men tried to attack the walls, the Romans would be a lot more chaotic in their defense due to their fear.
This was complemented by the building of a double siege wall of stone, which solidified the isolation of the city. This was the situation that was maintained for a year until mid 658. Thrace and the entirety of Asia Minor had been captured by the Caliphate, while Constantinople itself was entirely isolated except for the fleet that still somehow protected its ports. Its inhabitants were starving, and the Avars and Slavs grew more unsatisfied. In July of that year, Bayan IV overheard a conversation between Leontius and one of his commanders, in which he revealed that he did not have the gold to pay the mercenaries. This provoked the Slavs and Avars to take over the city. Bayan captured the palace and killed all the guards and Leontius. He held Constantine III hostage, so as to use the kid as a puppet.
Priscus, son of Leontius, escaped the massacre and reached the Theodosian Walls. There, he requested for the gates to be opened. He was told it was insanity since Khalid was currently carrying out an attack just outside. Priscus then bribed some of them and killed those who opposed him. They opened the gates, thinking they'd be spared by the Arabs and that they would wipe the Avars. However, the first to be wiped out were the guards of the walls, and among them was Priscus.
Khalid led a swift and violent charge into Constantinople. The surprised Roman, Slavic and Avar troops were unable to properly organize and so were progressively divided into smaller groups as they were massacred.
On the opposite side of the city, news of the opening of the Theodosian Walls spread very quickly. Most of the navy got a few refugees from the ports and then left for Cherson and Theodosia at Crimea. The Rashidun navy crushed those who were too slow and then helped Ali and his army to cross the Bosporus. From the ports, the other half of the Rashidun army began charging into Constantinople. Very swiftly, Ali captured the Palace, the Hippodrome and the Church of Hagia Sophia. He clashed against the Avar Khan right in front of the Palace, who lost his life during the battle. The desperate Slavic and Avar troops dispersed and tried to escape. Eventually, though, all were captured.
A group of Greek aristocrats grabbed the young Constantine III during the chaotic battle outside the Palace and escaped the city on a ship to Greece. It is said they bribed one of the Arab ships, given that there would be a naval blockade ongoing. Ali was disappointed to not meet the Roman Emperor once he entered the Palace, oblivious to the fact that Constantine III was a mere teenager.
Khalid and his troops met with Ali's at the Capitol. Hasan ibn Ali was not happy when he noticed that Khalid and his men were capturing civilians and looting their houses, but nothing was made of the issue. When the Sayf Allah met the Caliph, it was proclaimed that the Hagia Sophia would become the Church of Khalid ibn al-Walid, in honor of his important part in the victory. It is also theorized, however, that Ali made this to keep Khalid happy, as his popularity was starting to get out of hand.
With Constantinople captured, the Roman Empire had been reduced to a bunch of scattered provinces with very few military forces. The Exarchate of Africa almost immediately declared independence again, even though 'Amr and his troops were already raiding towns on the border. As for Greece, the several provinces began to split as the succession became controversial. Constantine III was initially taken to Athens, backed by the patricians that saved him. However, they were not successful as people either did not believe them or did not have a good opinion of Constantine. For such, they were forced to leave to the italian territories of the empire, as anyways the invasion of Greece seemed imminent. Initially, the Patricians and Constantine arrived at Syracuse, and from there they sailed for Rome. There, he would meet Pope Vitalian, who would support him as the legitimate Roman Emperor.
As for the Caliphate, their plans of continuing their campaign into Greece were delayed due to a massive uprising at Persia. In almost all the Iranian provinces, separate rebellions rose against the Caliphate. This forced Ali to go back, and he took Khalid, as well as Hasan and Husayn, with him. Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr was left in charge of the garrison of Constantinople. There, he ransomed the new Avar Khan, who had fought alongside his father, and some of his troops. Abd al-Rahman also oversaw the conversion of many of the captured Slavs, who joined the garrison of the city alongside a few Greek converts (who were a lot less).

By the time Ali had arrived at Ctesiphon, several rebel armies had connect at Khorasan, and they were said to be led by Yazdegerd III. This prompted a very strong and heavy response from the Rashidun army, that clashed in Merv with the rebel armies. They crushed the rebels and found out that, in fact, Yazdegerd had died years prior on his way to China. The rebel leaders were captured, which allowed Ali and his sons, Hasan and Husayn, to return to Medina, where he met the rest of his family and the Majlis ash-Shura. Khalid, on the other hand, returned to Constantinople, where he married the daughter of an aristocrat.

Conquest of North Africa
During Ali's return to Medina, he sent a letter to Abd-Allah ibn al-Zubayr, in which the further invasion of North Africa was greenlit. Abd-Allah and Amr left Fustat and marched to Barqa, which they besieged and captured in 660. The next stop was Tripoli, which the Rashidun army reached and besieged from 660 to 661, when the city gave in to starvation. From Tripoli, the march continued to Sufetula. There they met a bigger resistance, which was crushed nonetheless and the city was captured. By 662 almost all of the Exarchate of Africa had fallen to Muslim hands thanks to the unwillingness of the local people to continue fighting.
Gennadius, the exarch, held on to power at Carthage with the few supporters he still had. The city was completely surrounded in 663 by Abd-Allah and 'Amr, who gave him the option to give up and pay tribute to them. The exarch refused and chose to continue fighting. This resulted in a catastrophic defeat and the total razing and looting of Carthage. Gennadius was executed as were his generals.
And with Carthage, most of the Roman Empire had now been annexed by the Rashidun Caliphate. With Khalid capturing the remnants of Roman presence in Greece, there's only one place left to go: further into the Maghreb. ​

 

[Nivek]

Church of Khalid ibn al-Walid

Mosque unless they left the chruch and build a brand new mosque instead?

Vitalian, who would support him as the legitimate Roman Emperor

A weak emperor with strong Lombards north... that will be fun

 

[adrizuz]

Mosque unless they left the chruch and build a brand new mosque instead?

You're right, apologies. Didn't notice the mistake.