Muawiyah is alleged to have killed many of Muhammad's companions ( Sahaba ), either in battle or by poison, due to his lust for power.

Muawiyah was also responsible for instigating the Battle of Siffin, the bloodiest battle in Islam's history, in which over 70, 000 people ( among them many of the last surviving companions of the Prophet Muhammad ) were killed.

Muawiyah I is a reviled figure in Shia Islam for several reasons.

In a manner similar to Byzantine administrative practices, Muawiyah instituted several bureaucracies, called divans, to aid him in the governance and the centralization of the Caliphate and the empire.

Although, Ali exchanged several letters with Muawiyah, he was unable to dismiss the latter, nor persuade him to pledge allegiance.

Muawiyah I ordered for public curses of Ali and his major supporters including Hasan and Husayn.

Muawiyah ordered ' Amr ibn al -' As to invade Egypt and ' Amr did so successfully.

After a week of combat was followed by a violent battle known as laylat al-harir ( the night of clamor ), Muawiyah's army were on the point of being routed when Amr ibn al-Aas advised Muawiyah to have his soldiers hoist mus ' haf ( either parchments inscribed with verses of the Quran, or complete copies of it ) on their spearheads in order to cause disagreement and confusion in Ali's army.

In 658 CE ( 38 A. H .), Muawiyah I, the then Governor of Syria, sent his general Amr ibn al-As and six thousand soldiers against Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr.

Muawiyah bin Abi-Sufyan was born in Hejaz ( 602 CE ) into the Banu Umayya sub-clan of the Banu Abd-Shams clan of the Quraysh tribe.

id: Muawiyah bin Abu Sufyan

After Ali's assassination at the hands of the Kharajites, the Shi ' a hoped his son Hasan would become Caliph, but he was forced to defer to Muawiyah, who, in violation of the treaty signed with Hasan bin Ali, established the Umayyad line of Caliphs.

id: Muawiyah bin Yazid

ms: Muawiyah bin Yazid

Muawiyah is brother-in-law to Muhammad who married his sister Ramlah bint Abi-Sufyan in 1AH.

Muawiyah became a scribe for Muhammad, and during the first and second caliphates of Abu Bakr and Umar, fought with the Muslims against the Byzantines in Syria.

Muawiyah and the rest of his family were staunch opponents of the Muslims before the ascendancy of Muhammad.

Many Sunni Muslim historians view Muawiyah as a companion of Muhammad, and hence worthy of respect for this reason, and a few Sunni Muslims take great issue with the Shi ' a criticism and vilification of him.

The first four Caliphs were elected in this fashion as Sunni Muslims believed Muhammad had originally intended before Muawiyah, the fifth caliph, turned the Caliphate into what is known as the Umayyad Dynasty, a hereditary monarchy.

Another reason was that Muawiyah and his aides made use of every possible means to put aside past disputes and remove the Household of Muhammad and the followers of Ali and his sons, and thus obliterate the name of Ali and his family.

* al-Tabari, Muhammad ibn Jarir, History of the Prophets and Kings ; Volume XIX The Caliphate of Yazid b. Muawiyah, translated by I. K. A Howard, SUNY Press, 1991, ISBN 0-7914-0040-9.

Just a small minority of them believed that Ali was the best Muslim after Muhammad ( صلی الله علیھ وآلہ وسلم ) and the only one entitled to rule them, while the majority supported him due to their distrust and opposition to Muawiyah.

Muslim ibn Aqeel, with his two children Muhammad ibn Muslim and Ibraheem ibn Muslim, was murdered in the city of Kufa by the new governor, Ibn Ziyad, who was loyal to Yazid ibn Muawiyah.

Following at the Battle of Uhud in 625, it is said that after killing Hamzah ibn Abdu l-Muṭṭalib, his liver was consumed by Hind bint ‘ Utbah ( the wife of Abû Sufyan ibn Harb one of the commanders of the Qurayš army ) who later reportedly converted to Islam and became the mother of Muawiyah I founder of the Islamic Umayyad Caliphate.

After the peace treaty with Ali's son, Hassan ibn Ali, and the suppression of the revolt of the Kharijites, Muawiyah I proclaimed himself Caliph in 661 and began consolidating power.

In 664, Muawiyah and Ziyad ibn Abi Sufyan reached an agreement: the Caliph recognised Ziyad as a brother and appointed him governor at Basra.

* 657 – First Fitna: the Battle of Siffin see the troops led by Ali ibn Abi Talib and those led by Muawiyah I clashing.

He is succeeded by Hasan ibn Ali but abdicated the Caliph to Muawiyah I.

* Caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib is assassinated ; with his assassination the Rashidun Caliphate ends and Muawiyah I founds the Umayyad caliphate.

* Umayyad caliph Muawiyah I is succeeded by Yazid I ibn Muawiyah.

The Conquest of Mecca while overwhelming for the Umayyads for the time being, further fueled their hatred towards the Hashmites ; this would later result in battles between Muawiyah I and Ali and then killing of Husayn ibn Ali along with his family and a few friends on the orders of Yazid ibn Muawiyah at the Battle of Karbala.

However, after the turmoil occurred they would say, ‘ Name for us your narrators .’ So the people of the Sunnah would have their hadith accepted and the people of innovation would not .” The turmoil referred to is the conflicting ideologies of the Kharijites and extreme Shias that had emerged at the time of the third khalifas Uthman ibn Affan's assassination and the social unrest of the Kharijites in opposition to the succeeding rulers, Ali and Muawiyah.

When Uthman ibn Affan, a second cousin of Muawiyah, became the third caliph, he appointed Muawiyah Governor of Syria.

Caliph Umar ( Umar ibn al-Khattab ) had appointed Muawiyah Ibn Abu Sufyan as governor of Syria.

Aisha ( Aisha bint Abu Bakr ) ( Muhammad's widow ), Talhah ( Talha ibn Ubayd-Allah ) and Al-Zubayr ( Abu ‘ Abd Allah Zubayr ibn al-Awwam ) were all in agreement with Muawiyah that those who assassinated Uthman should be brought to justice.

In accordance with the ways of Empire, Muawiyah favoured his Arab subjects over non-Arab Muslims ( the Mawalis )-the discriminatory treatment of non-Arab Muslims by the victorious Umayyad forces are documented by both Sunni and Shia sources as in the example below concerning Muawiyah's commands to his governor Ziyad ibn Abih.

According to Shi ' a doctrine, this was a clear violation of the treaty he made with Hasan ibn Ali, in which Muawiyah said he would not make his son his successor.

* July 26 – Battle of Siffin: Ali Ben Abu Talib fights Muawiyah over the Caliphate of Islam and captures Anbar.

Abu Sufyan and his wife Hind embraced Islam on the eve of the conquest of Mecca, as did their son ( the future caliph Muawiyah I ).

Muawiyah, along with his father Abu Sufyan, became Muslims at the conquest of Mecca when further resistance to Muslims became an impossibility.

Some scholars hold the view that Muawiyah was the second of the two to convert, with Abu Sufyan convincing him to do it.

ms: Muawiyah ibn Abu Sufyan

Following the Muslim conquest, Syria was governed for twenty years by Muawiyah ibn Abu Sufyan of the Banu Umayya, who developed the province as his family's powerbase.