Remembering rebellion: 'Uthman b. 'Affan in medieval Islamic historiography

In the past thirty-five years the study of medieval Islamic historiography has shifted away from believing that Muslim chroniclers wanted to convey the facts to the belief that chroniclers had a story to tell. Nevertheless, while genuine authorship has been widely accepted for al-T&dotbelow;abarī (d. 310/923) and a few of his contemporaries, the image of a sacrosanct past and a static historical narrative has characterized post-T&dotbelow;abarī historiography studies up to the present. My dissertation argues that through the isnād-khabar format historians could retain the authority of past sources while at the same time producing new narratives that reflect contemporary debates. I analyze this process of “unavowed authorship” by comparing how chroniclers selected, arranged, and edited their sources in order to produce unique narratives of the revolt against the third Caliph `Uthmān b. `Affan.;The revolt against `Uthmān was a cataclysmic event. It marked the end of the religio-political balance established by Muh&dotbelow;ammad and inaugurated the struggle for authentic Islamic government. It was the first revolt against a Muslim ruler, it opened the door to Muslims killing other Muslims, and it led to a series of events that brought about the end of the Rightly Guided Caliphs. The revolt also contributed to the permanent division between Sunnī and Shī`ite Islam. Finally, the two sides in the revolt came to represent in Islamic collective memory and political discourse one of the key tensions in Islamic government—justice vs. unity of the community. The tension between Sunnīs and Shī`ites, religious and political authority, unity and justice, have been debated ever since, and indeed have yet to be resolved.;My analysis of the historiography of the revolt against `Uthmān explores the ways in which medieval Muslim historians advocated various political visions through their portrayal of the revolt against `Uthmān. Moreover, by comparing narratives of `Uthmān within and between particular time periods, I restore to these chroniclers their status as individuals and authors while at the same time showing how they were responding to particular literary currents and historical events, from the third/ninth century to the eighth/fourteenth century, from Baghdad to Cairo to Cordoba.