Mu'awiya is one of the most controversial character in early Islamic history. While most of muslims look him as the lead responsible man for ciwil war and its longterm consquences, he is indeed the man who brings the stability to Islamic Empire and led it be one and the great.
Lets try to count one good and one bad characteristic of Mu'awiya for fun.
He is the son of Abi Sufyan but he is the first man who built Muslim Navy.
He is the father of Yezid but he is the conquerer of Cyprus.
His mother is Hind bint Utba who ate the liver of Hamza (uncle of the Muhammad) in the battle of Uhud but he is the first commander who siege the Constantinople.
He is not well-educated on Islam but he is great at politics.
We can add several goods and bad more.
Pre-Islamic Arabian world is tribal community. There were several families who bounds themselves with some tribes. Some of these tribes had privileges like managing trade courts, protecting the holy places. So these privileges led them have money and power. Quraysh tribe was the most powerful lineage in Mekke. It began with Fihr and then his son Quasayy follows him. Son of Quasayy, Abd Manaf has two sons. One of them is Abd Sham who is the father of Umayya. Umayya's will rule the Islamic world more than 100 years. On the other hand Muhammad and Ali is on the lineage of Hasim who is the brother of Abd Sham. Later, Abbasid would claim same lineage too.
It is known that there was a rivalry between Hasims and Shams (father of Umayya) before Islam. While Shams hold the main trade route and protection of holy place, Hasims had only few trade routes. So the sovereign family was Shams.
During Muhammad era most of Shams, so is Mu'awiye, joined the caravan battles and even mother of Mu'awiye ate Hamza's liver at Uhud battle .
The first controversy on Mu'awiye dates back to his acceptance of Islam. We know he was raised as pagan and fought against Islam at the begining. There are three theories,
1 - Just after the signing of treaty of Hudaybiyyah he impressed and felt great enthusiasm.
2 - After the fall of Mekke, Muhammad would like to strength his alliances and led children of Umayya find places next to him. So Mu'awiya chosen Islam.
3 - Mu'awiya accepted Islam between Hudaybiyyah and the fall of Mekke, but did not tell anyone anything about it.
I prefer the second one. Mu'awiye had never been great Muslim and the man who is model for Muslims. However the first four caliphates were both respectful by their Islamic intellectual and lifestyles.
Mu'awiye enters the history scene first as the governor of Syria. Umar appointed him. He was not the first choice but the first two options (one of them is the brother of him - Yezid) died because of plague.
At that point Mu'awiye and his politics began. First of all he knew all the families and tribes in Syria. There were two major tribes. First of all he married with one of them (Kalb) daughter as Osman did. By the way his wife was christian before the marriage. Mu'awiya offer them great autonomous and fair prizes from ghazas. So in very short time he could build an army and society loyal to him. I can say mini state in Islamic state.
In Osman era, he secured his place since Osman prefered to appoint Umayyas in every strategic positions. So Mu'awiya is still the best man for his job.
He built first Navy during Osman's era. Arabs men of desert had never saw sea before so he first use christians in navy. But in a very short time he built great navy with arabs and he first invaded Cyprus and then he sacked the Byzantium navy to Eagean shores. According to Tabari he first want order from Umer to build navy and since Umar did not understand asked the situation to governor of Epypt. The answer was, "There are longest and biggest creatures in sea, with one man on it". There is very short time between this perspective and Mu!awiya's navy which is strong as could sack Byzantium from Mediterranean.
Syria and Iraq was major regions in Islamic Empire. But there are differences between them. Iraq governorship fought against Sasanids and when they won, there were great big lands wait for conquer. However, Syria was the neighbour of Byzantium. Although Mu!awiya and his army advanced through the inner parts of Anatolia several times, there was still the powerful capital Constantinople. So, Mu'awiya always seek balance between attack and defence. He never settled in Anatolia since it was difficult to defence it and it could rise a domino effect which could stop by fall of Syria.
As a summary, when Osman died Mu'awiya had an autonomous state with loyal and powerful army, navy and society. But, he was not a candidate for caliphate. So he chosen to wait. Of course the most powerful candidate was Ali however he had a struggle with the wife of Muhammad, Ayşe. Ayşe and her allies did not accept Ali as caliphate. Ali defeat Ayşe and her allies in the battle of Camel.
This time Mu'awiye did not accept Ali as caliphate since he argued that Ali is keeping assasins of Osman. Ali walked through Mu'awiye and two armies met in Sıffın. It was bloody battle however there was not any winning side. So both parties accepted to negotiate. This was the first break point in Islam society. A group called as Haricis did not accept the decision since there could be only one decision and this could be decided by god. Also it could be counted as first tekfir incident. As a result Ali returned with empty hands, Mu'awiya did not recognize him as caliphate and saved his governorship. In later dates Ali struggled with minör dissidents as Haricis and Mu'awiya enjoyed his autonomous.
Mu'awiye and Hasan the son of Ali were only two person who could claim caliphate after the death of Ali. Though Ali's followers chosen Hasan, Mu'awiye made an aggreement with Hasan and Hasan recognized Mu'awiye as caliphate. He quickly appointed governors to critical regions. Mu'awiye's may be the best ability was evaluating people. He always chosen the most proper person for the job. The best example is Ziyad ibn Sumayya. Ziyad was not a member of powerful tribe. Even her mother was slave and forced to prostitution by her master. But Mu'awiye argued that mother of Ziyad accompanied to Abi Sufyan one night and Ziyad was the child of Abi Sufyan. Ziyad kept the region Basra with great success and discipline.
Mu'awiya was a man who loves pre-Islamic poets and traditions. Tribal bonds were very important for him as one of the pre-islamic dominant tradition. He praised even his father Abi Sufyan in many speeches and argued Umayyas are gods chosen lineage. He converted Islamic empire to earthly classic empire with choosen dynasty. His son Yezid came after him as heir and Umayyas ruled the Islamic World as a gift of Mu'awiya.
I think he was not a great Muslim as his contemporaries like Osman or Ali. Also he was not romantic and idealist. He was pragmatic and realistic. It is really interesting, religious idealism directed and unite all Arap peninsula but realism saved Arap peninsula from dissociation. May be we could claim “Idealism is needed to build nation, state or kingdom, but realism is needed to save and keep alive it.”
Chronology
595 - Born in Mekke
630 - Accepts Islam
634 - 638 - Serves in Islam Army in Syria
639 - Governor of Syria
644 - Assasination of Umar
648 - 649 - Building a first Muslin Navy
656 - Assasination of Osman
656 - Battle of Camel
657 - Battle of Siffin
661 - Assasination of Ali
674 - 678 - Naval Blockade of Constantinople
676 - Yezid is named as heir
680 - Death of Mu'awiya
