The Uthmaniyya (Arabic: عُثْمَانيَّة, romanized: ʿUthmāniyya) were adherents of several political and doctrinal views regarding the third caliph, Uthman (r. 644–656), which originated in the aftermath of his assassination in 656.
The adjective Uthmani was applied to different groups at different times,[1] although feature common to all Uthmaniyya was their insistence that Uthman (r. 644–656) had been a legitimate ruler until his last hour and had been killed unjustly by rebels.
The cause was later taken up by Uthman's Umayyad kinsman Mu'awiya,[2] who after an indecisive encounter with Ali (657) became caliph when the latter was assassinated in 661 by one of his rebellious ex-supporters (the Kharijites).
[6] According to the historian Patricia Crone, the Uthmaniyya originally represented the majority of those who were not aligned with the rebel cause, with a minority holding a neutralist stance.
This gave rise to the idea of three legitimate or rightly-guided caliphs: Abu Bakr (r. 632–634), Umar (r. 634–644), and Uthman.
The Medinan traditionist Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri[b] is reported to have said: "ʿAlī had fought Muslims and so could not be a rightly guided caliph or imām on whom one should model oneself".
[4] Baghdad-based scholars like Ahmad ibn Hanbal declared Ali's reign as fitna (civil war).
[4] Numerous hadiths (sayings reportedly originating with Muhammad and early Muslims) were promulgated to the effect that there were only three legitimate caliphs.
Abd Allah ibn Umar was quoted as saying "We used to, in the time of the Prophet … , consider no one equal to Abū Bakr, then ʿUmar, then ʿUthmān.
It was important to preserve the unity of the community and avoid civil war instead of attempting to install correct caliphs through rebellion.
Those moderate Shias who had been won over to the four caliph theory, nevertheless considered Ali superior in merit to Uthman.
Moreover, there were Zaydi Shia and Mu'tazila, who considered Ali superior to both Abu Bakr and Umar but nonetheless acknowledged their caliphate as legitimate.