A Critical Analysis of the Narrative and Historical Evidences Confirming the "Appointment of the Caliph" in Arbitration

One of the important events in the history of early Islam was the issue of arbitration in the battle of Siffin, when Mu'awiya puts copies of the Qur'an on spears and the army of Imam Ali the Commander of the Faithful (PBUH) surrendered to the enemies and imposed arbitration on Imam. Historians have not given a definitive answer to the details of the negotiations. In the meantime, there is a narration in narrative and historical books that confirms the "appointment of the caliph" in arbitration, but Imam Ali the Commander of the Faithful (PBUH) did not accept the result of the arbitration. Using an analytical-descriptive and deskresearch method and examining narrative and historical evidences, this article concluded that the narration is "mursal" in terms of the chain of narrators and "muḍṭarib" in terms of transcriptions and thus is considered as a weak narration. Also, historical evidences are invalid due to the limited resources and conflict with the text of the arbitration agreement, which does not mention the appointment of the caliph. Therefore, the focus of arbitration negotiations is limited to the issues between Imam Ali the Commander of the Faithful (PBUH) and Mu'awiya, not the determination of the caliph.