Ali appeals to the Kharajites before resuming his dispute with Muawiyah; when they reject the appeal, he massacres many of them.

Most of Ali's forces, furious at his treatment of pious Muslims, desert him.

He is forced to return to Al Kufah—about one hundred and fifty kilometers south of Baghdad—and to await developments within the Islamic community.

A number of Islamic leaders meet at Adruh in present-day Jordan, and the same two arbitrators from Siffin devise a solution to the succession problem.

At last it is announced that neither Ali nor Muawiyah should be caliph; Abd Allah, a son of Umar, is proposed.

The meeting terminates in confusion, however, and no final decision is reached.

Both Ali and Muawiyah bide their time in their separate governorships: Muawiyah, who had been declared caliph by some of his supporters, in newly conquered Egypt, and Ali, in Iraq.

Muawiyah foments discontent among those only partially committed to Ali.

Ali is murdered by a Kharajite in 661 while praying in a mosque at Al Kufah.

The ambitious Muawiyah induces Ali's eldest son, Hasan, to renounce his claim to the caliphate.

Hasan dies shortly thereafter, probably of consumption, but the Shias later claim that he had been poisoned and dub him "Lord of All Martyrs."