Hasan–Mu'awiya treaty

Terms of the treaty

Veccia Vaglieri (d. 1989) finds certain variants of the treaty impossible to reconcile. She lists several conditions in the early sources and questions their veracity, including an annual payment of one or two million dirhams to Hasan, a single payment of five million dirhams from the treasury of Kufa, annual revenues from variously-named districts in Persia, succession of Hasan or a council (shura) after Mu'awiya, and preference for the Hashimites over the Umayyads in pensions. Another condition might have been that Mu'awiya should end the cursing of Ali, writes Mavani.

Husain Jafri (d. 2019) similarly notes that the terms are recorded differently and ambiguously by al-Tabari (d. 923), Dinawari (d. 895), Ibn Abd al-Barr, and Ibn al-Athir, while al-Ya'qubi (d. 897-8) and al-Mas'udi (d. 956) are silent about them. In particular, Jafri finds the timing of Mu'awiya's carte blanche problematic in al-Tabari's account. Al-Tabari also mentions a single payment of five million dirhams to Hasan from the treasury of Kufa, which Jafri rejects because the treasury of Kufa was already in Hasan's possession at the time. He adds that Ali is said to have regularly emptied the treasury and distributed the funds among the public. Jafri then argues that the most comprehensive account is the one given by Ibn A'tham, probably taken from al-Mada'ini (d. 843), who recorded the terms in two parts. The first part is the conditions proposed by Abd Allah ibn Nawfal, who negotiated on Hasan's behalf with Mu'awiya at Maskin. The second part is what Hasan stipulated in carte blanche. These two sets of conditions together encompass all the conditions scattered in the early sources.

Jafri thus concludes that Hasan's final conditions in carte blanche were that Mu'awiya should act according to the Quran, sunnah, that the people should remain safe, and that the successor to Mu'awiya should be appointed by a council. These conditions are echoed by Madelung, who adds that Hasan made no financial stipulations in his peace proposal and Mu'awiya consequently made no payments to him, contrary to the "Umayyad propaganda" reflected in the account of al-Zuhri (d. 741-2), quoted by al-Tabari. Jafri suggests that the account of al-Zuhri depicting Hasan eager to renounce his caliphate for money was likely distributed by the Umayyads to legitimize Mu'awiya's rule. Since Ali and his house rejected the example of Abu Bakr (r. 632–634) and Umar (r. 634–644) in the shura after Umar in 23/644, Jafri believes that the clause about following the Rashidun was inserted by later Sunni authors. That Mu'awiya agreed to an amnesty for the supporters of Ali indicates that revenge for Uthman was a pretext for him to seize the caliphate, according to Jafri.

Narrations

The following is a compilation of various early historical reports about the content of the peace treaty between Hasan and Muawiya:

1. Mu'awiya should act according to the Book of God, the Sunna of Muhammad, and the behavior of the righteous caliphs.
2. The caliphate should return to Hasan after Mu'awiya, or it should go to Husayn. Mu'awiya has no right to entrust his authority to anyone else.
3. Mu'awiya should abandon the practice of cursing Ali, including in the qunut of prayers. Mu'awiya should not mention Ali unless in a good manner.
4. Mu'awiya should exclude what is in the treasury of Kufa, that is five million dirhams. Mu'awiya should send Husayn one million dirhams a year, he should prefer the Banu Hashim in giving and gifts to the Banu Abd Shams, and should divide one million dirhams among the sons of those who were killed with Ali, and should spend that from the taxes of Darabjird.
5. The people should be safe wherever they are. The companions of Ali should be given security wherever they are. Mu'awiya should not seek to wrong Hasan, Husayn, or anyone from Muhammad's household, secretly or openly.

Fate of the treaty

In the surrender ceremony, Mu'awiya publicly rescinded his earlier promises to Hasan, stating that they were made to avoid bloodshed. Hasan left Kufa for Medina but soon received a request from Mu'awiya to subdue a Kharijite revolt near Kufa. He wrote back to Mu'awiya that he had given up his claim to the caliphate for the sake of peace and compromise, not to fight on his side. Madelung suggests that the relations between the two men deteriorated when Mu'awiya realized that Hasan would not actively support his regime.

After his abdication, Hasan retired from politics in Medina. In compliance with the peace treaty, he also declined requests from Shia groups to lead them against Mu'awiya. The Sunni al-Baladhuri (d. 892) in his Ansab writes that Hasan sent tax collectors to the Fasa and Darabjird provinces of Iran in accordance with the peace treaty but the governor of Basra, instructed by Mu'awiya, incited the people against Hasan and his tax collectors were driven out of the two provinces. Madelung regards this account as fictitious, adding that Hasan had just refused to join Mu'awiya in fighting the Kharijites. He holds that Hasan had made no financial stipulations in his peace proposal and Mu'awiya consequently made no payments to him.

Hasan died in 50/670, and the early sources are nearly unanimous that he was poisoned. Mu'awiya is commonly viewed as the instigator in the murder of Hasan, which removed an obstacle to the succession of his son Yazid (r. 680–683). Throughout his reign, Mu'awiya also prosecuted notable partisans of Ali, including Hujr ibn Adi, a companion of Muhammad, who was executed in 670. Mu'awiya also formalised the cursing of Ali in the congregational mosques.