Although many Shi'i would oppose the idea of a shura to...

Although many Shi'i would oppose the idea of a shura to decide the next political leader instead of the office going automatically to the leading member of ahl al-bait, it was the sort of compromise that al-Hasan would have to have made. After all he himself was to pledge allegiance to Mu'awiya as the political ruler. The second important point is that Mu'awiya guaranteed the security of all 'Ali's supporters.

Some of these had been involved in the death of 'Uthman and as Mu'awiya's pretext for the war was to avenge the death of 'Uthman, the treaty reveals that Mu'awiya's real interest had been the acquisition of power. The sixth clause is an undertaking by Mu'awiya not to harm any member of the Prophet's family. The public cursing of 'Ali which continued after the treaty seems to violate the condition, particularly when the ancient Arab view of cursing is taken into consideration.

Al-Tabari does not include this treaty. However he does include a story from al-Zuhri of how Mu'awiya had sent al-Hasan a blank sheet with his own signature at the bottom, but at the same time al-Hasan had sent a sheet including his own terms, which were much less than Mu'awiya had expected. When al-Hasan received Mu'awiya's letter he doubled his demands but Mu'awiya, as he had the original terms of al-Hasan, refused to accept al-Hasan's second terms4 .

The only things mentioned by al-Tabari consist of funds in the Kufan treasury and security for al-Hasan and his family5 . The accounts seem to indicate at this point a strong Umaiyad bias, but at least they give evidence for the existence of a version of the treaty which was not adhered to by Mu'awiya, and probably was the actual treaty.

Al-lmama wa-l-siyasa attributed to Ibn Qutaiba includes only one condition that "The (terms) on which he, al-Hasan, made peace with him were that the Imamate should belong to Mu'awiya for as long as he was alive, but when he died, authority should belong to al-Hasan."6 This can hardly have been the full treaty and it looks like a gloss on the 2nd condition in Ibn A'tham's version.

It seems likely that al-Hasan believed that the Imamate would revert to his family if the items of that condition were adhered to. There seems to be fairly strong evidence that although al-Hasan gave the oath of allegiance to Mu'awiya, al-Husayn did not. According to Ibn A'tham al-Hasan dis­suaded Mu'awiya from attempting to force al-Husayn to pledge allegiance to him7 . Previous…