About The Book

Mu’awiya ibn Abi Sufyan is a crucial figure for the history of Islam and one who has either been ignored because of the lack of information on this period of history, vilified for political reasons by the Shi’ites, or transformed into a completely secular ruler by certain Western Orientalist.

When Mu’awiya became the caliph in 41/661, he put an end to a period of destructive civil war and initiated the Umayyad dynasty which lasted for roughly 90 years until it was overthrown by the Abbasids. Indeed, it is hard to imagine how the crisis would have been resolved without his success in drawing the Muslim community together again.

In Mu’awiya, we have the master politician and diplomat who set about developing a form of governance in which Islam could express itself in the wider social and economic circumstances in which it found itself as a result of the success of the early conquests. The Umayyad’s represent the fusion of Islam with Arab democratic individualism and the Byzantine legacy.

About The Author

Aisha Abdurrahman Bewley, born 1948 in the United States. She holds a BA in French and MA in Near Eastern Languages from the University of California, Berkeley. She spent a year with a fellowship at the American University in Cairo and at the same time attended a seminar on Sufism and Islamic philosophy at Dar al-’Ulum. She is a student of Shaykh Abdalqadir al-Murabit, and also studied Ibn ‘Arabi with the late Sidi Fudul al-Hurawi in Fes, Morocco.

Aisha Bewley converted to Islam in 1968. She is the author and translator of many published and unpublished works, some available on her website. She is married to Hajj Abdalhaqq Bewley with whom she often translates and mother of three children.