This work is an attempt to understand and correctly
interpret the commentaries of the early Muslim
historians on the Umayyad caliph Mu wiya ibn Ab
Sufy n. Mu wiya's depiction in the early Muslim
narratives is very much dependent on the period in
which these accounts take place and reflects the
attitudes of narrators to the events of those
periods. Thus one finds that pre-civil war Mu wiya
is quite different from civil war Mu wiya and the
same goes for post-civil war Mu wiya. There is no
evolution or devolution of the character it is
simply the period in which this particular character
finds himself in that colors the depiction.
This work has uncovered the paradigms
utilized by the early historians in their depictions
of Mu wiya. It also shows that although the
personality of Mu wiya has been manipulated by the
early Islamic sources, the essential building blocks
of his history remains uniform throughout even
within the most hostile of these sources towards
Mu wiya.
interpret the commentaries of the early Muslim
historians on the Umayyad caliph Mu wiya ibn Ab
Sufy n. Mu wiya's depiction in the early Muslim
narratives is very much dependent on the period in
which these accounts take place and reflects the
attitudes of narrators to the events of those
periods. Thus one finds that pre-civil war Mu wiya
is quite different from civil war Mu wiya and the
same goes for post-civil war Mu wiya. There is no
evolution or devolution of the character it is
simply the period in which this particular character
finds himself in that colors the depiction.
This work has uncovered the paradigms
utilized by the early historians in their depictions
of Mu wiya. It also shows that although the
personality of Mu wiya has been manipulated by the
early Islamic sources, the essential building blocks
of his history remains uniform throughout even
within the most hostile of these sources towards
Mu wiya.