You see of late, I’ve been fascinated with the history of the caliphs that came after Islam’s prophet passed away. The chosen ones. Or were they? Even before the prophet’s body had been lowered in the grave, there was dangerous infighting taking shape. Ali’s [the prophet’s cousin married to the prophet’s daughter Fatima] supporters were unequivocal in their stance that Ali should lead the growing numbers of Muslims, whilst Umar and his supporters were of the opinion that Abu Bakr should lead them. Aisha, the prophet’s wife with her own charm and sass supported Abu Bakr over Ali. And there are reports [although I have not been able to completely verify them] that Umar actually went to Fatima’s house, where Ali and his supporters had gathered, and told them he would burn her house down if they did not pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr.

Let’s for a moment assume that Umar did no such thing, and Ali himself happily pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr. What is undisputed is the fact that there were supporters of Ali who gathered to declare him the new caliph. What is also undisputed is that in the aftermath of Abu Bakr becoming caliph, Muslims were pitted against Muslims. The prophet’s wife Aisha was pitted against Ali, and Ali was pitted against Abu Bakr, Umar and Usman.

You see the thing that got me interested in the lives of the caliphs wasn’t that the prophet died, and I wanted to understand how succession took place. No. What got me was the fate of the caliphs. Specifically that of the third caliph, Usman. We all talk about Ali’s death; his gruesome, terrible death, at the hands of Muslims no less. But we don’t often talk about Usman’s death. Well let’s talk about that today.

Usman was killed after muderers climbed over the wall of his house, and repeatedly struck him with their swords, because they claimed that Usman was nepotistic and soft and was not willing to take strict action against, what they said were transgressions by his relatives, who he had appointed as governors across the Muslim empire. They then proceeded to mutilate his body — yes, these were Muslims who wanted to mutilate Usman’s body — and were only thwarted because Usman’s two wives threw a hysterical fit that alerted the people standing outside the front of the house. They didn’t even let the supporters of Usman bury him in a Muslim cemetery. No. They had to bury Usman in a Jewish cemetery, without a bath. This is what Muslims did to their Muslim ruler. No — that is what Muslims did to a beloved companion of the prophet, a man prophesied to enter heaven before he had even left this world.

And when Aisha, the wife of the prophet, the mother of all Muslims, heard what had been done to Usman, she took it upon herself to go into battle against Ali to avenge his death. She rode a camel into a battle — by the way, that’s some serious feminist badass shit right there — and watched as the other side butchered her forces and lay them on her feet. The mother of all Muslims went to war with one of the prophet’s beloved companions [Ali], a man who was his cousin, over a man [Usman] who was another beloved companion of the prophet.

Wrap your head around that.