Mu'awiyah b. Abi Sufyan who was demanding vengeance for the death of Uthman. At the beginning it seemed clear to the supporters of Ali that the claim of Mu'awiyah was nothing but an excuse for opposing the new Caliph, and therefore Ali should fight Mu'awiyah and his supporters until they accepted his authority. When Ali accepted arbitration, a large number of his supporters abandoned him and elected as their new Amir, Abdullah b. Wahb al-Rasibi, and renounced Ali as Caliph. Nevertheless, these people, most of whom were killed by Ali in al-Nahrawan and were known by the name Ahl al-Nahr or al-Muhakkimah, were the first party to try to establish a leading role in the new Islamic community outside Quraish, who were respected by the rest of the Arab tribes before Islam as guardians of the Holy House in Mecca, and who kept the means of power after Islam within their own hands. After the death of Ali, his son al-Hasan was ready to compromise for a settlement with the Umayyads after receiving an assurance that he would be the Caliph on the death of Mu'awiyah. The Umayyads established their strong rule over the Muslim world and were able to suppress their Qurashite opposition led by the Shiites, i.e. the party of Ali, or by Ibn al-Zubair. The struggle for the power among the Quraish was confined to the two houses of Bin Umayyah and Bin Hashim. When the power of the Umayyads declined in the vastly expanding empire, the Abbasids took over, and so the struggle for power continued with scant respect for the principles of Islam and by using all means for obtaining power.

The Muhakkimah set the first practical example for non-Qurashites to take their share in the struggle for the new values of Islam and in implementing them in political life. But when Mu'awiyah proved his firm control over the Islam territories through powerful leaders, it was impossible to launch a successful attack, which could change the whole situation. Some military moves were made as a reaction to contemporary events; these manifested themselves in the wars fought mainly by Kharijites. Meanwhile, the Ibadhi movement was founded in Basrah, and underwent careful and conscious planning - to imitate the policy of the Prophet in Mecca surrounded by powerful enemies - with the aim of restoring the just Islamic Imamate and the true Muslim community on a religious basis. This movement was founded by Jabir b. Zaid, an outstanding tabi'i who studied under a large number of celebrated Companions of the Prophet, and as a result, the Ibadhi community was the product of an educational intellectual movement which had to deepen its roots and gain support in the contemporary Muslim world, through a training based on strict adaptation of the Islamic teachings as preserved by the leaders of the movement in theory and practice. This position of the Ibadhis enabled them not only to form a clear view of politico-religious situation of early Islam, but also to oppose what they regarded as erroneous views of the