Hasan ibn Ali
Elder grandson of the Prophet through Fatima and Ali; briefly caliph in 661 CE before abdicating in favor of Muawiya, an act understood differently across the traditions. The Encyclopaedia of Islam reports that after Ali was killed he received allegiance in Kufa, that his army weakened through defections near al-Mada'in, and that he renounced the office on terms the sources report differently. It also records that Shi'is count him their second imam, and that he died in Medina around 49 AH, by illness or by poisoning according to the sources.
Reign · Rashidun Caliphate · no. 5 in the chain · 0661-01–0661-08~ CE
Ruled the caliphate
The positions on his accession
How is Hasan ibn Ali's abdication of the caliphate understood?
- sunni — Sunni tradition reveres Hasan as the Prophet's beloved grandson and counts his abdication an act of reconciliation that ended the first civil war — 'the year of unity'.
- academic — Historians describe a caliphate that lacked the military and political base to continue, so that the abdication was as much a consequence of weakness as of peacemaking.
- shia-twelver — Twelver Shia tradition venerates Hasan as the second Imam, who abdicated under duress to spare his followers, and holds that he was later poisoned at Muawiya's instigation.