title: Vichy France

text: The first official admission that the French State had been complicit in the deportation of 76,000 Jews during WW II was made in 1995 by then President Jacques Chirac, at the site of the Vélodrome d'Hiver, where 13,000 Jews had been rounded up for deportation to death camps in July 1942. "France, on that day [16 July 1942], committed the irreparable. Breaking its word, it handed those who were under its protection over to their executioners," he said. Those responsible for the roundup were "450 policemen and gendarmes, French, under the authority of their leaders [who] obeyed the demands of the Nazis... the criminal folly of the occupiers was seconded by the French, by the French state".


title: Vichy France

text: On 16 July 2017, also at a ceremony at the Vel' d'Hiv site, President Emmanuel Macron denounced the country's role in the Holocaust in France and the historical revisionism that denied France's responsibility for the 1942 roundup and subsequent deportation of 13,000 Jews. "It was indeed France that organised this", Macron insisted, French police collaborating with the Nazis. "Not a single German" was directly involved," he added. Macron was even more specific than Chirac had been in stating that the Government during the War was certainly that of France. "It is convenient to see the Vichy regime as born of nothingness, returned to nothingness. Yes, it's convenient, but it is false. We cannot build pride upon a lie."


title: Vichy France

text: Macron made a subtle reference to Chirac's remark when he added, "I say it again here. It was indeed France that organized the roundup, the deportation, and thus, for almost all, death."


title: Vichy France

text: Stanley Hoffmann in 1974 and then other historians such as Robert Paxton and Jean-Pierre Azéma have used the term "collaborationnistes" to refer to fascists and Nazi sympathisers who, for ideological reasons, wished a reinforced collaboration with Hitler's Germany. Examples are the Parti Populaire Français (PPF) leader Jacques Doriot, the writer Robert Brasillach or Marcel Déat. A principal motivation and ideological foundation among "collaborationnistes" was anticommunism.


title: Vichy France

text: "Collaborationnisme" () should be distinguished from collaboration. "Collaborationism" refers to those, primarily from the fascist right, who embraced the goal of a German victory as their own, whereas "collaboration" refers to those of the French who for whatever reason collaborated with the Germans. Organizations such as "La Cagoule" opposed the Third Republic, particularly while the left-wing Popular Front was in power.


title: Vichy France

text: Collaborationists may have influenced the Vichy government's policies, but ultra-collaborationists never comprised the majority of the government before 1944.


title: Vichy France

text: To enforce the régime's will, some paramilitary organisations were created. One example was the "" (LFC) (French Legion of Fighters), including at first only former combatants but quickly adding "Amis de la Légion" and cadets of the Légion, who had never seen battle but supported Pétain's régime. The name was then quickly changed to "Légion Française des Combattants et des volontaires de la Révolution Nationale" (French Legion of Fighters and Volunteers of the National Revolution). Joseph Darnand created a "Service d'Ordre Légionnaire" (SOL), which consisted mostly of French supporters of the Nazis and was fully approved by Pétain.


title: Vichy France

text: Vichy authorities strongly opposed "modern" social trends and tried "national regeneration" to restore behaviour more in line with traditional Catholicism. Philip Manow argued that, "Vichy represents the authoritarian, antidemocratic solution that the French political right, in coalition with the national Church hierarchy, had sought repeatedly during the interwar period and almost put in place in 1934". Calling for "National Regeneration", Vichy reversed many liberal policies and began tight supervision of the economy, with central planning as a key feature.


title: Vichy France

text: Labour unions came under tight government control. There were no elections. The independence of women was reversed, with an emphasis put on motherhood. Government agencies had to fire married women employees. Conservative Catholics became prominent. Paris lost its avant-garde status in European art and culture. The media were tightly controlled and stressed virulent anti-Semitism and, after June 1941, anti-Bolshevism. Hans Petter Graver wrote that Vichy "is notorious for its enactment of anti-Semitic laws and decrees, and these were all loyally enforced by the judiciary".


title: Vichy France

text: Vichy rhetoric exalted the skilled labourer and small businessman. In practice, the needs of artisans for raw materials were neglected in favour of big businesses. The General Committee for the Organization of Commerce (CGOC) was a national program to modernise and professionalise small business.


title: Vichy France

text: In 1940, the government took direct control of all production, which was synchronised with German demands. It replaced free trade unions with compulsory state unions that dictated labour policy without regard to the voice or needs of the workers. The centralised bureaucratic control of the French economy was not a success, as German demands grew heavier and more unrealistic, passive resistance and inefficiencies multiplied and Allied bombers hit the rail yards. Vichy made the first comprehensive long-range plans for the French economy, but the government had never attempted a comprehensive overview. De Gaulle's provisional government in 1944–45 quietly used the Vichy plans as a base for its own reconstruction program. The Monnet Plan of 1946 reaped the heritage of previous efforts at planning in the 1930s, Vichy, the Resistance, and the Provisional Government. Monnet's plan to modernize the economy was designed to improve the country's competitive position so as to prepare it for participation in an open multilateral system and, thereby, to reduce the need for trade protection.


title: Vichy France

text: Nazi Germany kept French prisoners-of-war as forced labourers throughout the war. They added compulsory and volunteer workers from occupied nations, especially in metal factories. The shortage of volunteers led the Vichy government to pass a law in September 1942 that effectively deported workers to Germany, where they were 15% of the labour force by August 1944. The largest number worked in the giant Krupp steel works in Essen. Low pay, long hours, frequent bombings and crowded air raid shelters added to the unpleasant conditions of poor housing, inadequate heating, limited food, and poor medical care, all compounded by harsh Nazi discipline. The workers finally returned home in the summer of 1945. The forced labour draft encouraged the French Resistance and undermined the Vichy government.


title: Vichy France

text: Civilians suffered shortages of all varieties of consumer goods. The rationing system was stringent and badly mismanaged, leading to malnourishment, black markets and hostility to state management of the food supply. The Germans seized about 20% of the French food production, causing severe disruption to the French household economy. French farm production fell by half because of lack of fuel, fertiliser and workers. Even so, the Germans seized half the meat, 20% of the produce and 2% of the champagne. Supply problems quickly affected French stores, which lacked most items. The government answered by rationing, but German officials set the policies, and hunger prevailed, especially affecting youth in urban areas. The queues lengthened in front of shops.


title: Vichy France

text: Some people, including German soldiers, benefited from the black market, where food was sold without tickets at very high prices. Farmers especially diverted meat to the black market and so there was much less for the open market. Counterfeit food tickets were also in circulation. Direct buying from farmers in the countryside and barter against cigarettes became common although those activities were strictly forbidden and thus carried the risk of confiscation and fines.


title: Vichy France

text: Food shortages were most acute in the large cities. In the more remote country villages, clandestine slaughtering, vegetable gardens and the availability of milk products permitted better survival. The official ration provided starvation level diets of 1013 or fewer calories a day, supplemented by home gardens and especially black market purchases.


title: Vichy France

text: The two million French soldiers held as prisoners-of-war and forced labourers in Germany throughout the war were not at risk of death in combat, but the anxieties of separation for their 800,000 wives were high. The government provided a modest allowance, but one in ten became prostitutes to support their families.


title: Vichy France

text: Meanwhile, the Vichy regime promoted a highly-traditional model of female roles. The National Revolution's official ideology fostered the patriarchal family, headed by a man with a subservient wife, who was devoted to her many children. It gave women a key symbolic role to carry out the national regeneration and used propaganda, women's organisations and legislation to promote maternity; patriotic duty and female submission to marriage, home and children's education. The falling birth rate appeared to be a grave problem to Vichy, which introduced family allowances and opposed birth control and abortion. Conditions were very difficult for housewives, as food was short as well as most necessities. Mother's Day became a major date in the Vichy calendar, with festivities in the towns and schools featuring the award of medals to mothers of numerous children. Divorce laws were made much more stringent, and restrictions were placed on the employment of married women. Family allowances, which had begun in the 1930s, were continued and became a vital lifeline for many families as a monthly cash bonus for having more children. In 1942, the birth rate started to rise, and by 1945, it was higher than it had been for a century.


title: Vichy France

text: On the other side, women of the Resistance, many of whom were associated with combat groups linked to the French Communist Party, broke the gender barrier by fighting side by side with men. After the war, their services were ignored, but France did give women the vote in 1944.


title: Vichy France

text: Hitler ordered "Case Anton" to occupy Corsica and then the rest of the unoccupied southern zone in immediate reaction to the landing of the Allies in North Africa (Operation Torch) on 8 November 1942. Following the conclusion of the operation on 12 November, Vichy's remaining military forces were disbanded. Vichy continued to exercise its remaining jurisdiction over almost all of metropolitan France, with the residual power devolved into the hands of Laval, until the gradual collapse of the regime following the Allied invasion in June 1944. On 7 September 1944, following the Allied invasion of France, the remainders of the Vichy government cabinet fled to Germany and established a puppet government in exile in the so-called Sigmaringen enclave. That rump government finally fell when the city was taken by the Allied French army in April 1945.


title: Vichy France

text: Part of the residual legitimacy of the Vichy regime resulted from the continued ambivalence of U.S. and other leaders. President Roosevelt continued to cultivate Vichy, and promoted General Henri Giraud as a preferable alternative to , despite the poor performance of Vichy forces in North Africa—Admiral François Darlan had landed in Algiers the day before Operation Torch. Algiers was headquarters of the Vichy French 19th Army Corps, which controlled Vichy military units in North Africa. Darlan was neutralised within 15 hours by a 400-strong French resistance force. Roosevelt and Churchill accepted Darlan, rather than , as the French leader in North Africa. De Gaulle had not even been informed of the landing in North Africa. The United States also resented the Free French taking control of St Pierre and Miquelon on 24 December 1941, because, Secretary of State Cordell Hull believed, it interfered with a U.S.-Vichy agreement to maintain the status quo with respect to French territorial possessions in the western hemisphere.


title: Vichy France

text: Following the invasion of France via Normandy and Provence (Operation Overlord and Operation Dragoon) and the departure of the Vichy leaders, the U.S., Britain and the Soviet Union finally recognised the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF) headed by as the legitimate government of France on 23 October 1944. Before that, the first return of democracy to Metropolitan France since 1940 had occurred with the declaration of the Free Republic of Vercors on 3 July 1944, at the behest of the Free French government—but that act of resistance was quashed by an overwhelming German attack by the end of July.


title: Vichy France

text: In 1943 the "Service d'ordre légionnaire" (SOL) collaborationist militia, headed by Joseph Darnand, became independent and was transformed into the ""Milice française"" (French Militia). Officially directed by Pierre Laval himself, the SOL was led by Darnand, who held an SS rank and pledged an oath of loyalty to Adolf Hitler. Under Darnand and his sub-commanders, such as Paul Touvier and Jacques de Bernonville, the Milice was responsible for helping the German forces and police in the repression of the French Resistance and "Maquis".


title: Vichy France

text: Following the liberation of Paris on 25 August 1944, Pétain and his ministers were taken to Sigmaringen by the German forces. After both Pétain and Laval refused to cooperate, Fernand de Brinon was selected by the Germans to establish a pseudo-government in exile at Sigmaringen. Pétain refused to participate further and the Sigmaringen operation had little to no authority. The offices used the official title "French Government Commission for the Defense of National Interests" () and informally was known as the "French Delegation" (). The enclave had its own radio station (Radio-patrie, Ici la France) and official press (, "Le Petit Parisien"), and hosted the embassies of Axis powers Germany and Japan, as well as an Italian consulate. The population of the enclave was about 6,000, including known collaborationist journalists, the writers Louis-Ferdinand Céline and Lucien Rebatet, the actor Robert Le Vigan, and their families, as well as 500 soldiers, 700 French SS, prisoners of war and French civilian forced labourers.


title: Vichy France

text: The Commission lasted for seven months, surviving Allied bombing runs, poor nutrition and housing, and a bitterly cold winter where temperatures plunged to , while residents nervously watched the advancing Allied troops drawing closer and discussed rumors.


title: Vichy France

text: On 21 April 1945 General de Lattre ordered his forces to take Sigmaringen. The end came within days, and by the 26th, Pétain was in the hands of French authorities in Switzerland while Laval had fled to Spain. Brinon, Luchaire, and Darnand were captured, tried, and executed by 1947. Other members escaped to Italy or Spain.


title: Vichy France

text: The Free French, concerned that the Allies might decide to put France under administration of the Allied Military Government for Occupied Territories, strove to establish the Provisional Government of the French Republic quickly. The first action of the Provisional Government was to reestablish republican legality throughout Metropolitan France.


title: Vichy France

text: The provisional government considered the Vichy government to have been unconstitutional and all of its actions therefore without legitimate authority. All "constitutional acts, legislative or regulatory" taken by the Vichy government, as well as decrees taken to implement them, were declared null and void by the Ordinance of 9 August 1944. Inasmuch as blanket rescission of all acts taken by Vichy, including measures that might have been taken by a legitimate republican government, was deemed impractical, the order provided that acts not expressly noted as nullified in the order were to continue to receive "provisional application". Many acts were explicitly repealed, including all acts that Vichy had called "constitutional acts", all acts that discriminated against Jews, all acts related to so-called "secret societies" (such as Freemasons), and all acts that established special tribunals.


title: Vichy France

text: Collaborationist paramilitary and political organisations, such as the Milice and the "Service d'ordre légionnaire", were also dissolved.


title: Vichy France

text: The Provisional Government also took steps to replace local governments, including governments that had been suppressed by the Vichy regime through new elections or by extending the terms of those who had been elected not later than 1939.


title: Vichy France

text: After the liberation, France was swept for a short period with a wave of executions of collaborationists. Some were brought to the Vélodrome d'hiver, Fresnes prison or the Drancy internment camp. Women who were suspected of having romantic liaisons with Germans or more often of being prostitutes who had entertained German customers were publicly humiliated by having their heads shaved. Those who had engaged in the black market were also stigmatised as "war profiteers" (), and popularly called "BOF" (, or Butter Eggs Cheese, because of the products sold at outrageous prices during the Occupation). The Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF, 1944–46) quickly reestablished order, and brought collaborationists before the courts. Many convicted collaborationists were then given amnesty under the Fourth Republic (1946–54).


title: Vichy France

text: Other historians have distinguished the purges against intellectuals (Brasillach, Céline, etc.), industrialists, fighters (LVF etc.) and civil servants (Papon etc.).


title: Vichy France

text: Philippe Pétain was charged with treason in July 1945. He was convicted and sentenced to death by firing squad, but Charles commuted the sentence to life imprisonment. In the police, some collaborators soon resumed official responsibilities. This continuity of the administration was pointed out, in particular concerning the events of the Paris massacre of 1961, executed under the orders of Paris Police Chief Maurice Papon while Charles was head of state. Papon was tried and convicted for crimes against humanity in 1998.


title: Vichy France

text: The French members of the Waffen-SS "Charlemagne" Division who survived the war were regarded as traitors. Some of the more prominent officers were executed, while the rank-and-file were given prison terms. Some of them were given the option of doing time in Indochina (1946–54) with the Foreign Legion instead of prison.


title: Vichy France

text: Among artists, singer Tino Rossi was detained in Fresnes Prison; according to the newspaper "Combat", prison guards asked him for autographs. Pierre Benoit and Arletty were also detained.


title: Vichy France

text: Executions without trials and other forms of "popular justice" were harshly criticised immediately after the war, with circles close to Pétainists advancing the figures of 100,000 and denouncing the "Red Terror", "anarchy", or "blind vengeance". The writer and Jewish internee Robert Aron estimated the popular executions to a number of 40,000 in 1960. This surprised , who estimated the number to be around 10,000, which is also the figure accepted today by mainstream historians. Approximately 9,000 of these 10,000 refer to summary executions in the whole of the country, which occurred during battle.


title: Vichy France

text: Some imply that France did too little to deal with collaborators at this stage by selectively pointing out that in absolute value (numbers), there were fewer legal executions in France than in its smaller neighbour Belgium, and fewer internments than in Norway or the Netherlands, but the situation in Belgium was not comparable as it mixed collaboration with elements of a war of secession. The 1940 invasion prompted the Flemish population to generally side with the Germans in the hope of gaining national recognition, and relative to national population, a much higher proportion of Belgians than French thus ended up collaborating with the Germans or volunteering to fight alongside them. The Walloon population, in turn, led massive anti-Flemish retribution after the war, some of which, such as the execution of , were controversial.


title: Vichy France

text: The proportion of collaborators was also higher in Norway, and collaboration occurred on a larger scale in the Netherlands (as in Flanders), based partly on linguistic and cultural commonality with Germany. The internments in Norway and the Netherlands, meanwhile, were highly temporary and rather indiscriminate: there was a brief internment peak in these countries since internment was used partly for the purpose of separating collaborationists from others. Norway ended up executing only 37 collaborationists.


title: Vichy France

text: Some accused war criminals were judged, some for a second time, from the 1980s onwards: Paul Touvier, Klaus Barbie, Maurice Papon, René Bousquet (the head of the French police during the war) and his deputy Jean Leguay. Bousquet and Leguay were both convicted for their responsibilities in the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup of July 1942. Among others, Nazi hunters Serge and Beate Klarsfeld spent part of their postwar effort trying to bring them before the courts. Some collaborationists then joined the OAS terrorist movement during the Algerian War (1954–62). Jacques de Bernonville escaped to Quebec, then Brazil. Jacques Ploncard d'Assac became counsellor to the Portuguese dictator António de Oliveira Salazar.


title: Vichy France

text: In 1993, former Vichy official René Bousquet was assassinated while he awaited prosecution in Paris following a 1991 inculpation for crimes against humanity. He had been prosecuted but partially acquitted and immediately amnestied in 1949. In 1994, former Vichy official Paul Touvier (1915–1996) was convicted of crimes against humanity. Maurice Papon was likewise convicted in 1998 but was released three years later due to ill health and died in 2007.


title: Vichy France

text: Until Jacques Chirac's presidency, the official point of view of the French government was that the Vichy regime was an illegal government distinct from the French Republic, established by traitors under foreign influence. Indeed, Vichy France eschewed the formal name of France ("French Republic") and styled itself the "French State", replacing the Republican motto of "Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité" (liberty, equality, fraternity) inherited from the 1789 French Revolution, with the motto "Travail, Famille, Patrie" (work, family, homeland).


title: Vichy France

text: While the criminal behaviour of Vichy France was consistently acknowledged, this point of view denied any responsibility of the state of France by alleging that acts committed between 1940 and 1944 were unconstitutional acts devoid of legitimacy. The main proponent of this view was Charles de Gaulle himself, who insisted, as did other historians afterwards, on the unclear conditions of the June 1940 vote granting full powers to Pétain, which was refused by the minority of Vichy 80. In particular, coercive measures used by Pierre Laval have been denounced by those historians who hold that the vote did not, therefore, have constitutional legality (See subsection: "Conditions of armistice and 10 July 1940 vote of full powers"). In later years, 's position was reiterated by President Francois Mitterrand. "I will not apologize in the name of France. The Republic had nothing to do with this. I do not believe France is responsible", he said in September 1994.


title: Vichy France

text: The first president to accept responsibility for the arrest and deportation of Jews from France was Chirac. In a 16 July 1995 speech, he recognised the responsibility of "the French State" for seconding the "criminal folly of the occupying country", in particular the French police, headed by René Bousquet (charged in 1990 with crimes against humanity), which assisted the Nazis in the enactment of the so-called "Final Solution". The July 1942 Vel' d'Hiv Roundup is a tragic example of how the French police did the Germans' work and even went further than was demanded by military orders by sending children to Drancy internment camp, the last stop before the extermination camps.


title: Vichy France

text: President Emmanuel Macron's statement on 16 July 2017 was even more specific, stating clearly that the Vichy regime was certainly the French State during the war and played a role in the Holocaust. (Earlier that year, speeches made by Marine Le Pen had made headlines by claiming that the Vichy government was "not France".) Macron made this remark in discussing the Vel' d'Hiver roundup of Jews: "It is convenient to see the Vichy regime as born of nothingness, returned to nothingness. Yes, it is convenient, but it is false".


title: Vichy France

text: As the historian Henry Rousso has put it in "The Vichy Syndrome" (1987), Vichy and the state collaboration of France remains a "past that doesn't pass away".


title: Vichy France

text: Historiographical debates are still passionate and oppose different views on the nature and legitimacy of Vichy's collaborationism with Germany in the implementation of the Holocaust. Three main periods have been distinguished in the historiography of Vichy. Firstly, the Gaullist period aimed at national reconciliation and unity under the figure of Charles , who conceived himself above political parties and divisions. Then, the 1960s had Marcel Ophüls's film "The Sorrow and the Pity" (1971). Finally, in the 1990s, the trial of Maurice Papon, a civil servant in Bordeaux who had been in charge of the "Jewish Questions" during the war and was convicted after a very long trial (1981–1998) for crimes against humanity. Papon's trial concerned more than individual itinerary but also the French administration's collective responsibility in the deportation of the Jews. Furthermore, his career after the war led him to be the prefect of the Paris police during the Algerian War (1954–1962), the treasurer of the Gaullist Union des Démocrates pour la République from 1968 to 1971 and finally the budget minister under President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and Prime Minister Raymond Barre from 1978 to 1981, which was symptomatic of the quick rehabilitation of former collaborationists after the war. Critics contend that his itinerary was shared by others although few had such public roles and demonstrates France's collective amnesia, but others point out that the perception of the war and of the state collaboration has evolved during those years. Papon's career was considered more scandalous as he had been responsible, during his function as prefect of police of Paris, for the 1961 Paris massacre of Algerians during the war and was forced to resign from this position after the 1965 "disappearance" in Paris of the Moroccan anticolonialist leader Mehdi Ben Barka. Papon was convicted in 1998 for complicity with the Nazis in crimes against humanity.


title: Vichy France

text: It is certain that the Vichy government and many of its top administration collaborated in the implementation of the Holocaust, the exact level of such co-operation is still debated. Compared with the Jewish communities established in other countries invaded by Germany, French Jews suffered proportionately lighter losses (see Jewish death toll section above), but in 1942, repression and deportations started to strike French Jews, not just foreign Jews. Former Vichy officials later claimed that they did as much as they could to minimise the impact of the Nazi policies, but mainstream French historians contend that the Vichy regime went beyond the Nazis' expectations.


title: Vichy France

text: The regional newspaper "Nice Matin" revealed on 28 February 2007 that in more than 1,000 condominium properties on the Côte d'Azur, rules dating to Vichy were still "in force" or at least existed on paper. One of the rules, for example, stated:


title: Vichy France

text: The contractors shall make the following statements: they are of French nationality, are not Jewish, nor married to Jewish in the sense of the laws and ordinances in force [under Vichy, "ed. note"]


title: Vichy France

text: The president of the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France-Côte d'Azur, a Jewish association group, issued a strong condemnation labelling it "the utmost horror" when one of the inhabitants of such a condominium qualified that as an "anachronism" with "no consequences". Jewish inhabitants were able and willing to live in the buildings, and to explain that, the "Nice Matin" reporter surmised that some tenants may have not read the condominium contracts in detail, and others have deemed the rules obsolete. A reason for the latter is that any racially discriminatory condominium or other local rule that may have existed "on paper", Vichy-era or otherwise, was by the French Constitution of 27 October 1946, which established the French Fourth Republic and was upheld by French Fifth Republic (1958), and was inapplicable under French antidiscrimination law. Thus, even if the tenants or co-owners had signed or otherwise agreed to these rules after 1946, any such agreement would be null and void () under French law, as well as the rules. Rewriting or eliminating the obsolete rules would have had to be done at the occupants' expense, including notary fees of €900-7000 per building.


title: Vichy France

text: There was an illusory belief from the end of the war and through the 1960s that almost everybody was in the Resistance, or at least supported it, and collaborators were a minority. Two additional popular beliefs went along with this, that of the "sword and shield", as well as the idea that to whatever extent there were harsh measures implemented by Vichy, it was because it was under the boot of the Germans and not by choice.


title: Vichy France

text: During the war, the theory of the "sword and shield" () was raised as a defense of Vichy, whereby Pétain was seen as the "shield" protecting France and the French people within the country, while was seen as the "sword", engaging in combat from abroad. By this theory, Pétain was merely containing the German enemy to prevent an even worse outcome for France, while awaiting liberation through military action from without led by . This theory that Petain and de Gaulle were tacitly working together, first developed by Robert Aron in his 1954 "Histoire de Vichy", was later deconstructed by historian Henry Rousso in his 1987 "Syndrome de Vichy".


title: Vichy France

text: A lot of French people believed at the time of the occupation that this tacit agreement existed, according to Aron. Resistance member Gilbert Renault, alias Colonel Rémy, who founded the first resistance network in occupied France had great respect for Pétain, and felt that France could fight on two fronts, either with Pétain internally, or with from abroad, and he was not alone among resistance members who supported and sincerely admired Pétain.


title: Vichy France

text: Today, the few remaining Vichy supporters continue to maintain the official argument advanced by Pétain and Laval: state collaboration was supposed to protect the French civilian population from the Occupation's hardships. At his trial, Pétain proclaimed that Charles had represented the "sword" of France, and Pétain had been the "shield" protecting France.


title: Vichy France

text: Munholland reports a widespread consensus among historians regarding the authoritarian character of the Vichy regime and its


title: Vichy France

text: Although that claim is rejected by the rest of the French population and by the state itself, another myth remains more widespread, the alleged "protection" by Vichy of French Jews by "accepting" to collaborate in the deportation and ultimately in the extermination of foreign Jews.


title: Vichy France

text: That argument has been rejected by several historians who specialised in the subject, such as the widely recognised American historian Robert Paxton and the historian of the French police Maurice Rajsfus. Both were called on as experts during the Papon trial in the 1990s.


title: Vichy France

text: Paxton declared before the court on 31 October 1997, "Vichy took initiatives... The armistice allowed it a breathing space". Vichy then decided on its own within the homeland, to implement the "National Revolution" ("Révolution nationale"). After naming the alleged causes of the defeat ("democracy, parliamentarism, cosmopolitanism, the left wing, foreigners, Jews..."), Vichy had put in place by 3 October 1940 the first anti-Jewish legislation. From then on, Jewish people were considered "second-zone citizens."


title: Vichy France

text: Internationally, France "believed the war to be finished". Thus, by July 1940, Vichy eagerly negotiated with the German authorities in an attempt to gain a place for France in the Third Reich's "New Order", but "Hitler never forgot the 1918 defeat. He always said no." Vichy's ambition was doomed from the start.


title: Vichy France

text: "Antisemitism was a constant theme", recalled Paxton. At first, it even opposed German plans. "At this time the Nazis had not yet decided to exterminate the Jews, but to expel them. Their idea was not to make of France an antisemitic country. On the contrary, they wanted to send there the Jews that they expelled" from the Reich.


title: Vichy France

text: The historic change came in 1941–1942, with the pending German defeat on the Eastern Front. The war then became "total", and in August 1941, Hitler decided on the "global extermination of all European Jews". The new policy was officially formulated during the January 1942 Wannsee Conference and had been implemented in all occupied countries in Europe by spring 1942. France, praising itself for having remained an independent state, as opposed to other occupied countries, "decided to cooperate. This is the second Vichy". The first train of deportees left Drancy on 27 March 1942, for Poland, the first in a long series.


title: Vichy France

text: Paxton recalled "The Nazis needed the French administration... They always complained about the lack of staff", something which Maurice Rajsfus has also underlined. Although the Paxton recognised during the trial that the "civil behavior of certain individuals" had permitted many Jews to escape deportation, he stated:


title: Vichy France

text: The French state, itself, participated in the policy of extermination of the Jews... How can one claim the reverse when such technical and administrative resources were made available to them?


title: Vichy France

text: Pointing to the French police's registering of Jews and to Laval's decision, which had been taken completely autonomously in August 1942, to deport children along with their parents, Paxton added:


title: Vichy France

text: Contrary to preconceived ideas, Vichy did not sacrifice foreign Jews in the hope of protecting French Jews. At the hierarchy summit, it knew, from the start, that the deportation of French Jews was unavoidable.


title: Vichy France

text: Paxton then referred to the case of Italy, where deportation of Jewish people had started only after the German occupation. Italy surrendered to the Allies in mid-1943 but then was invaded by Germany. Fighting continued there until 1944. In particular, in Nice, "Italians had protected the Jews. And the French authorities complained about it to the Germans".


title: Vichy France

text: More recent work by the historian Susan Zuccotti finds that in general, the Vichy government facilitated the deportation of foreign Jews, rather than French Jews, until at least 1943:


title: Vichy France

text: Vichy officials [had] hoped to deport foreign Jews throughout France in order to ease pressure on native Jews. Pierre Laval himself expressed the official Vichy position... In the early months of 1943, the terror [Adam] Munz and [Alfred] Feldman described in German-occupied France was still experienced by foreign Jews like themselves. It is difficult to know exactly how many French Jews were arrested, usually for specific or alleged offences, but on 21 January 1943, Helmut Knochen informed Eichmann in Berlin that there were 2,159 French citizens among the 3,811 prisoners at Drancy. Many had been at Drancy for several months. They had not been deported because, until January 1943, there had usually been enough foreigners and their children to fill the forty-three trains that had carried about 41,591 people to the east... By January 1943, foreign Jews were increasingly aware of the danger and difficult to find. Nazi pressure for the arrest of French Jews and the deportation of those already at Drancy increased accordingly. Thus, when Knochen reported that there were 2,159 French citizens among the 3,811 prisoners at Drancy on 21 January 1943, he also asked Eichmann for permission to deport them. There had been no convoy from Drancy in December and January, and [SS Lieutenant Heinz] Röthke was pressuring Knochen to resume them. Röthke also wanted to empty Drancy in order to refill it. Despite Vichy officials' past disapproval and Eichmann's own prior discouragement of such a step, permission for the deportation of the French Jews at Drancy, except for those in mixed marriages, was granted from Berlin on 25 January.


title: Vichy France

text: Deportations from France did not start until summer 1942, several months after mass deportation from other countries had started.


title: Vichy France

text: Whatever the Vichy government's initial or subsequent intent, the death rate was 15% for French Jews, slightly over half of that of non-citizen Jews residing in France. More Jews lived in France at the end of the Vichy regime than approximately ten years earlier.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: Olivier Jonathan Giroud (born 30 September 1986) is a French professional footballer who plays as a striker for club AC Milan and the France national team. Regarded for his work-rate, strength, shot power and consistent goal-scoring ability, he is often considered one of the most underrated strikers in the world.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: Giroud began his senior club career playing for hometown club Grenoble, before he signed with Tours in 2008, aged 21. He was named Ligue 2 Player of the Year in 2010 after finishing as the league's top goalscorer. He was subsequently the subject of a then-club record association football transfer when he moved to Montpellier in a transfer worth €2 million, winning the club's first Ligue 1 title and finishing as league top goalscorer in 2012. He then joined Arsenal, where he won three FA Cups to help end Arsenal's nine-year trophy drought, and is the club's eighteenth-highest all-time goalscorer. Giroud signed for crosstown rivals Chelsea in 2018 in a transfer worth £18 million (€20.7 million), winning the FA Cup, the UEFA Champions League, and the UEFA Europa League, finishing as top goalscorer in the latter in 2019. Giroud then signed for AC Milan in 2021, helping them win the 2021–22 Serie A, which ended the club's 11-year league title drought.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: Giroud made his senior international debut for France in 2011 at age 25, and has since earned 120 caps, including appearing in six major tournaments. He is his country's all-time top goalscorer, receiving the Bronze Boot as joint second-highest goalscorer as France finished runner-up at UEFA Euro 2016. He later won the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and appeared at UEFA Euro 2020 as well as the 2022 FIFA World Cup, where France finished as runners-up and Giroud again received the Bronze Boot.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: Olivier Giroud was born in Chambéry, France in the Rhône-Alpes region, and was raised in the nearby village of Froges, close to Grenoble. Giroud is of Italian descent through both of his grandmothers.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: Independently of his professional career, Giroud, after obtaining his baccalaureate in economics and social sciences (ES), completed a second year of a degree in science and techniques of physical and sports activities (STAPS) at the Joseph Fourier University, in Grenoble.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: Giroud began organised football playing for his hometown club, Olympique Club de Froges. He spent six years training at the club before joining professional club Grenoble at the age of 13.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: Giroud spent five years developing in Grenoble's youth academy before signing his first professional contract at the age of 21. He later admitted that signing his first contract was an important part in his development as a player, stating "It took me signing my first professional contract to become aware of my abilities. If you [a club] trusted me, it was because I must have had some qualities." Ahead of the 2005–06 season, he was promoted to the club's reserve team, which was playing in the Championnat de France Amateur 2, the fifth level of French football. Giroud quickly became an important player in the team scoring 15 goals in 15 matches. His performances over seven months with the reserve team resulted in the player being called up to the senior team in March 2006 by manager Thierry Goudet. Giroud made his professional debut on 27 March appearing as a late-match substitute in a 1–1 draw with Gueugnon in Ligue 2. He remained a part of the senior team for the rest of the campaign making five more substitute appearances.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: Giroud was promoted to the senior team permanently for the 2006–07 season by new manager Payton Pouliquen and Nicola Malgeri and was assigned the number 22 shirt. After appearing as a substitute in the team's first league match of the campaign, he made his first professional start in a 2–1 defeat away to Niort playing the entire match. On 26 February 2007, Giroud scored his first professional goal netting the injury time winner against Le Havre. He described the goal as "a fantastic memory. I could not dream better for a first pro goal". A month later, Giroud made his third start of the campaign against Gueugnon. In the match, which ended 0–0, Giroud incurred his first professional red card. He finished the campaign with 18 total appearances and two goals as Grenoble finished in fifth place.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: In an attempt to earn some playing time, Giroud spent the 2007–08 season on loan at Istres in the Championnat National, the third level of football in France. Under the tutelage of manager Frédéric Arpinon, he continued his development as a striker and, in his second match with the club, scored his first goal in a 2–1 win over Laval. Two weeks later, Giroud scored goals in back-to-back matches against Vannes and Créteil. He scored his first double of the season in a 2–0 win against Arles-Avignon. A fortnight later, Giroud converted two goals again, this time in a 3–2 win over Pau. After going through the months of November and December without scoring a league goal, Giroud returned to form in January scoring goals in a 3–2 defeat to Vannes and a 2–0 win over Beauvais. He finished the campaign by scoring goals in April league fixtures against Paris and Martigues, which brought his total goal tally with Istres to 14. Of the 14 goals, Giroud only scored four at the Stade Parsemain, Istres' home stadium.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: After a successful loan stint, Giroud returned to Grenoble with hopes of receiving some significant playing time as the club was now playing in Ligue 1. However, club manager Mehmed Baždarević, who was hired while Giroud was on his loan stint at Istres, deemed the player surplus to requirements and, subsequently, listed him for transfer. According to reports, Baždarević had declared that Giroud "did not have the level to play among the elite". In 2011, Giroud reevaluated his departure from Grenoble stating "I am neither resentful nor vengeful. I am just disappointed with what happened to Grenoble when there was great potential".


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 28 May 2008, it was reported that Giroud had agreed to a three-year deal with Ligue 2 club Tours. The striker was lured to the club by sporting director Max Marty who had previously served as the chief executive officer of Grenoble, Giroud's former club. Giroud was also fond of Tours' manager Daniel Sanchez stating "It's always a plus to have a former striker as a coach. His advice to me really helped a lot. With him, I progressed in my positioning and also in front of goal". Giroud was given the number 12 shirt and, due to injury, made his club debut on 3 September 2008 in a 2–1 defeat to Boulogne in the Coupe de la Ligue. He made his league debut a week later playing the entire match in a 1–0 win over Nîmes. A month later, Giroud scored his first goal for the club converting the opener in a league match against Lens. In the second half, he scored another goal to cap a 3–1 win. Two weeks later, Giroud scored his third goal for the club in a victory over Ajaccio.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: In the Coupe de France, Giroud scored five goals in two matches. In the eighth round of the competition, he scored the team's only goal in a 1–0 win over semi-professional club Pacy Vallée-d'Eure. In the ensuing round against Réunionais club Jeanne d'Arc, Giroud scored four goals in a 7–1 win. Tours would later be eliminated in the next round by Lorient. After his four-goal display against Jeanne d'Arc, Giroud followed up the performance by scoring goals in back-to-back league matches against Montpellier and Metz. After a double against Nîmes on 20 February 2009, the striker suffered an injury, which forced him to miss three league matches. After making two substitute appearances on his return, in his first start since the injury on 3 April against Angers, Giroud scored the team's opening goal in a 3–1 win. Giroud later re-aggravated the previous injury in training, which led to him missing the entire month of April as Tours were contesting a promotion battle with several clubs. Despite losing Giroud, the club went unbeaten in the four league matches he missed. On his return against Boulogne on 8 May, Giroud scored his final goal of the season in a victory. In Tours' final three league matches of the campaign, the club failed to achieve a win, which resulted in the club failing to earn promotion to Ligue 1. Giroud finished the season with 27 total appearances and 14 goals.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: In the 2009–10 season, Giroud was promoted to the lead striker role following the departure of Tenema N'Diaye to Nantes. The promotion immediately paid off as Giroud scored two goals in the team's opening match of the season; a 2–1 win over Le Havre in the Coupe de la Ligue. On 18 August 2009, he scored his first league goal against the same opposition in another win. Following another league goal in a win over Guingamp, on 18 September, Giroud scored all four of Tours' goals in a 4–2 win over Arles-Avignon. It was his second career four-goal match at the professional level and his third overall having had one at amateur level while playing with the Grenoble reserve team. In the team's next 15 matches in all competitions, Giroud remained on form scoring ten goals. During that span, the striker scored in consecutive matches on three occasions. Giroud finished the fall campaign with 16 goals, 13 of which came in league play.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 26 January 2010, it was reported that Ligue 1 club Montpellier had signed Giroud from Tours on a three and a half-year deal. The transfer fee was priced at €2 million and it was also announced that Montpellier would loan Giroud back to Tours until the end of the 2009–10 season. The striker admitted the move to Montpellier would benefit him the most stating "I feel that here (Montpellier), the coach and staff will be able to help me make real progress. The environment is ideal, the training center is good, the group is healthy, and there's a beautiful stadium with an audience that responds to this". Following the transfer, Giroud went three weeks without scoring a goal before converting one on 19 February 2010 in a win over Arles-Avignon. Two weeks later, he scored the team's only goal in a 2–1 defeat to Nantes. On 19 March, Giroud scored two goals in a shutout win against Châteauroux. A week later, he scored in another shutout victory over Strasbourg. After the goal against Strasbourg, Giroud went seven matches without scoring before netting on the final matchday of the season against Nîmes. He finished the season with 42 appearances and 24 goals. Giroud scored 21 in the league and was named the league's top goalscorer. After the season, he was named the National Union of Professional Footballers (UNFP) Ligue 2 Player of the Year. Giroud was also named to the league's Team of the Year.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: Giroud officially joined Montpellier on 1 July 2010. He simultaneously made his club and European debut on 29 July in the first leg of Montpellier's UEFA Europa League third qualifying round with Hungarian club Győri ETO. In the match, Giroud scored his first goal for the club in the first half. Montpellier won the match courtesy of Giroud's goal, but were defeated on aggregate after losing on penalties in the second leg. Giroud made his league debut in the team's first match of the campaign; a 1–0 win over Bordeaux. On 28 August, he scored his first league goal in a 1–0 away win against Valenciennes. On 25 September, Giroud scored two goals in a home victory over Arles-Avignon. The double brought his career goal tally to nine against the Bouches-du-Rhône-based club. A week later, he scored Montpellier's lone goal in a 3–1 loss to Lille. In November 2010, Giroud scored game-winning goals in consecutive weeks against Toulouse and Nice.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: In the Coupe de la Ligue, Montpellier surprisingly reached the final of the competition. In the semi-finals against Paris Saint-Germain, Giroud played the entire match, which went into extra time. In the 117th minute, he scored the match-winning goal to send Montpellier to its first major final since the 1993–94 season when the club reached the final of the Coupe de France. In the 2011 Coupe de la Ligue Final, Montpellier faced Marseille and were defeated 1–0 courtesy of a goal by Taye Taiwo. Giroud played the entire match. Following his goal against Paris Saint-Germain, Giroud went scoreless for nearly two months before converting both club goals against the same opposition in a 2–2 draw at the Parc des Princes. Towards the end of the league season, Giroud scored goals against title contenders Marseille and Lyon. However, Montpellier lost both matches. After finishing the season as the club's top scorer, on 31 May 2011, Giroud signed a contract extension with Montpellier until 2014.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: Giroud began the 2011–12 campaign on form scoring in the team's first two league matches of the season against Auxerre and the defending champions Lille. Montpellier won both matches. After scoring a double in a 2–2 draw with Brest, French newspaper "Le Parisien" affectionately dubbed him "le buteur de charme" ("the charm striker"). The nickname paid tribute to his goalscoring ability, as well as personality and looks and was, subsequently, used by several other media outlets in France to describe the player. In the team's next 18 matches in all competitions, Giroud lived up to the nickname by scoring 13 goals. The impressive output consisted of hat-tricks against Dijon and Sochaux, match-winning goals against Nancy, Lyon, and Nice, and a goal each in the Coupe de la Ligue and Coupe de France.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: As a result of Giroud's performance and the team as a whole, Montpellier topped the league table in November 2011. In January 2012, Giroud was linked with a transfer to several clubs. Montpellier's owner Louis Nicollin responded to the rumours on French radio station "RTL" and surprised many by deeming one club "not big enough" for Giroud, while also declaring that the striker would cost "at least €50 or €60 million". At the start of the second half of the campaign, Giroud scored in back-to-back league matches against Lyon and Nice. Two weeks later against Ajaccio, he assisted on Montpellier's second goal and scored the team's final goal in a 3–0 win. On 24 March 2012, Giroud scored in the 1–0 win over Saint-Étienne. The victory placed Montpellier at the top of the table and the club remained there for the rest of the campaign capturing its first league title in club history after beating Auxerre 2–1 on the final day of the season. Giroud finished the season with a league-leading 21 goals and 9 assists. Despite being tied on goals with Paris Saint-Germain attacker Nenê, he was named the league's top scorer by the Ligue de Football Professionnel due to finishing with more goals in open play.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 26 June 2012, Arsenal won the race to sign Giroud on a long-term contract for a fee believed to be around £9.6 million (€12.4 million). He was given the number 12 shirt. He made his debut on 18 August as a substitute for fellow debutant Lukas Podolski in a goalless home draw against Sunderland in the Premier League and scored his first goal for Arsenal on 26 September, in a 6–1 win against Coventry City in the League Cup. His first Premier League goal came on 6 October, with the equaliser in a 3–1 win against West Ham United, in which he also assisted a Theo Walcott goal. On 30 October, he helped Arsenal to a historic comeback in a League Cup tie against Reading, as Arsenal were 4–0 down before coming back to win the game 7–5 after extra-time, with Giroud scoring Arsenal's second goal. Giroud scored his first UEFA Champions League goal for Arsenal in a 2–2 draw at Schalke 04 on 6 November and four days later he scored twice in a 3–3 draw at home to Fulham. Giroud's form earned him a place in the Premier League team of the week.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 17 November, Giroud scored the third goal in Arsenal's 5–2 derby win over Tottenham. Four days later, Giroud assisted both Jack Wilshere's and Lukas Podolski's goals in Arsenal's 2–0 victory over former club Montpellier, which allowed Arsenal to qualify for the knockout stages of the tournament.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: The Arsenal fans have warmed to Giroud as he has started to pick up form after a shaky start; a run of goals in consecutive games has led to a chant mimicking The Beatles' "Hey Jude" of 'Na na na, Na na naaaa, Na na naaaa, Giroud' echoing around the Emirates Stadium. On 29 December 2012, Giroud scored a brace and hit the crossbar after coming on as a substitute for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the 80th minute, as Arsenal beat Newcastle United 7–3 at the Emirates Stadium.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 23 January, Giroud scored a brace as Arsenal beat West Ham 5–1, and did the same in a Man of the Match performance against Brighton & Hove Albion in the fourth round of the FA Cup three days later. On 30 January, Giroud scored as Arsenal fought back to earn a 2–2 draw, from 2–0 down at home to Liverpool. Giroud scored a header from a Wilshere free kick, and provided an assist for Theo Walcott. For January, Giroud was awarded with the Arsenal Fan's Player of the Month Award. On 13 April 2013, Giroud played a big part of Arsenal's 3–1 win against Norwich City at home, winning a penalty that led to the equalizer in the 85th minute. He then sent Arsenal ahead himself two minutes later and set up for Lukas Podolski. This victory sent Arsenal to third in the table, climbing past London-rivals Chelsea and Tottenham. He received his first red card for Arsenal against Fulham, which meant he would miss three of Arsenal's last four games of the season. His appeal was rejected by the Football Association. Giroud finished the season with 17 goals and 11 assists in 47 appearances.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: Giroud scored in the opening game of the Premier League season against Aston Villa, a 3–1 loss for Arsenal. His scored the only goal in the North London derby against Tottenham Hotspur on 1 September. On 26 October, Giroud scored the second goal in a 2–0 win at Crystal Palace, keeping Arsenal at the top of the Premier League, and almost a month later scored a double against Southampton, following a mistake from the Saints' goalkeeper Artur Boruc, and then he converted a penalty in a 2–0 win. Giroud's last goal of 2013, and Arsenal's last of the year, came against Newcastle United. His flicked header from Theo Walcott's free kick gave Arsenal a narrow 1–0 win and placed them at the top of the table going into 2014. He then scored on his return to the first team against Aston Villa after an ankle injury, a match that ended 2–1 in Arsenal's favour.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 8 March 2014, Giroud scored twice against Everton in the FA Cup quarter-final, helping Arsenal to a 4–1 win. On 12 April, Giroud scored one of the penalties in the shootout against Wigan Athletic to send Arsenal to the final of the FA Cup at Wembley Stadium. On 17 May, Giroud started in the 2014 FA Cup Final as Arsenal beat Hull City 3–2 at Wembley Stadium and assisted Aaron Ramsey's cup-winning goal.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: Giroud started the season by scoring the third goal in Arsenal 3–0 win against Manchester City in the 2014 FA Community Shield, a 25-yard shot which dipped over goalkeeper Willy Caballero, thus winning Giroud's second title for Arsenal. Despite only coming on as a half-time substitute, he was named Man of the match. Shortly after scoring the equaliser in a 2–2 draw against Everton on 22 August, he broke his left tibia and was ruled out for four months.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 30 September 2014, his 28th birthday, Giroud signed a new contract at Arsenal, keeping him at the club until 2018 and increasing his weekly wage to £80,000. Giroud returned to action quicker than expected, replacing Aaron Ramsey for the last 13 minutes of a 1–2 home defeat against Manchester United on 22 November and scoring Arsenal's consolation goal in added time. Later, he scored twice in a 4–1 home victory against Newcastle United on 13 December. Thirteen days later, he was sent off in Arsenal's 2–1 win over Queens Park Rangers for a headbutt on Nedum Onuoha after being pushed by the QPR defender. He later returned from his three-game suspension to feature in a 3–0 victory at home against Stoke City on 11 January. On 18 January, he scored the second goal in a 2–0 victory against Manchester City, giving the gunners their first victory at the City of Manchester Stadium since 2010. Giroud carried on his Premier League form by opening the scoring and by setting up Mesut Özil for the second goal of the match as Arsenal beat Aston Villa 5–0.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 15 February, he netted two goals in the space of three minutes as Arsenal defeated Middlesbrough 2–0 to reach the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. His first goal concluded a move in which every Arsenal player touched the ball without Middlesbrough taking possession.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 25 February, Giroud was substituted 60 minutes into Arsenal's 3–1 Champions League round of 16 loss to AS Monaco after missing several good chances for his club. Four days later, on 1 March, he scored Arsenal's opening goal in a 2–0 Premier League defeat of Everton. Giroud kept up his fine form by netting one goals each against Queens Park Rangers, West Ham United and two against Newcastle United in the Premier League while also scoring against Monaco in the Champions League. Giroud was announced as the Premier League Player of the Month for March. On 4 April, Giroud scored the fourth goal for his team in a 4–1 win over Liverpool.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 30 May, Giroud scored Arsenal's fourth goal after appearing as a substitute in the team's 4–0 2015 FA Cup Final victory over Aston Villa at Wembley Stadium.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: Giroud scored Arsenal's first goal of the season, a sideways scissor kick from an Özil assist at Crystal Palace in a 2–1 loss. On 20 October 2015, he came off the bench to score the first goal in a 2–0 win against Bayern Munich in the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League group stage. On 9 December, he scored his first competitive Arsenal hat-trick in a 3–0 away victory at Olympiacos helping the Gunners, who needed a two-goal win, make the last-16 of the Champions League. Giroud scored the first goal in a 2–0 victory over Aston Villa four days later, becoming only the seventh Arsenal player to reach 50 Premier League goals for the club. On 8 March, Giroud ended a 12-match scoreless run, with a brace in a 4–0 away victory over Hull City in a FA Cup replay.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 8 May 2016, Giroud scored in a 2–2 against Manchester City at the City of Manchester Stadium to end a run of 15 Premier League matches without a goal. He also assisted the team's second goal, scored by Alexis Sánchez. A week later, in the team's final match of the season, Giroud scored a hat-trick against Aston Villa to end 2015–16 with 16 goals in the Premier League and 24 in all competitions.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: Giroud made only three appearances in Arsenal's first nine matches of the 2016–17 Premier League, all of them coming on as a substitute. On 29 October 2016, after coming onto the pitch as a substitute in the 69th minute on matchday 10 of the Premier League, Giroud scored two goals with his first two touches in Arsenal's 4–1 away win against Sunderland. On 19 November, Giroud scored an 89th-minute equalising goal after appearing as a substitute in a 1–1 draw with Manchester United at Old Trafford. On 26 December, he scored in a 1–0 home defeat of West Bromwich Albion on his first Premier League start of the season. On 1 January 2017, Giroud scored with a backheeled "scorpion kick" volley in a 2–0 win against Crystal Palace, a goal described by Arsène Wenger as the greatest he had seen at the Emirates Stadium. The goal later earned him the FIFA Puskás Award for the goal of the year.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 12 January 2017, Giroud, alongside teammates Francis Coquelin and Laurent Koscielny signed a new long-term contract with Arsenal. During the 2017 FA Cup Final against Chelsea at Wembley, Giroud came on in the 78th minute with the score 1–1, and a minute later he delivered an assist for Aaron Ramsey to score the winning goal which saw Arsenal lift the Cup for a record-breaking thirteenth time. On 28 September 2017, during Arsenal's Europa League group game away to BATE Borisov, Giroud scored his 100th goal for the club in a 4–2 victory.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: He made his debut five days later in a Premier League away game at Watford, where he came on in the 64th minute replacing Pedro. However, the result was a 4–1 loss. On 12 February, Giroud started his first game for the club in which he provided an assist for Eden Hazard in a 3–0 home win against West Bromwich Albion. He scored his first goal in the FA Cup fifth round against Hull City in the 4–0 home win. On 14 April, Giroud came off the bench to score twice as Chelsea recovered from a 2–0 deficit to beat Southampton 3–2 at St Mary's Stadium. It was his first time scoring in the Premier League with his new club.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 8 November, Giroud registered his first goal of the season away to BATE Borisov in matchday four of the Europa League group stage. It was the only goal of the match, sending Chelsea through to the knockout stages of the tournament. In his next outing, he scored his first Premier League goal of the season in a 3–1 away loss to Tottenham Hotspur on 24 November. Giroud then made it four goals in three games, bagging a brace at home to PAOK in matchday five of the Europa League. Chelsea won the match 4–0. On his 500th career appearance, Giroud scored a free kick to equalise and preserve Chelsea's unbeaten Europa League group stage campaign. The match against Vidi at MOL Aréna Sóstó finished 2–2. Giroud scored his first Chelsea hat trick on 14 March in a 5–0 (8–0 aggregate) win over Dynamo Kyiv in the second leg of the Europa League round of 16 tie at NSC Olimpiyskiy. The following month, he became the first Chelsea player to score 10 goals in a single European campaign when he scored in a 4–3 semi-final second-leg win over Slavia Prague. In May 2019, he signed a new contract with Chelsea through the 2019–20 season. On 29 May, he scored in Chelsea's 4–1 win over his former club Arsenal in the Europa League final; during the match, he also set-up Hazard's second goal. With 11 goals in the competition, he set a new record for most goals by a French player in a single European season, breaking the previous record held jointly by Nestor Combin (achieved during the 1963–64 European Cup Winners' Cup) and Just Fontaine (achieved during the 1958–59 European Cup).


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 14 August 2019, Giroud scored his first goal of the season against Liverpool in the UEFA Super Cup. Liverpool went on to win the match on penalties (5–4) after a 2–2 scoreline. His first Premier League goal came on 22 February 2020 against Tottenham in a 2–1 home win. On 20 May 2020, Giroud signed a new one-year contract with Chelsea. On 19 July 2020, he scored a goal and helped Chelsea to reach their 14th FA Cup final after beating Manchester United 3–1 in the semi-final. Giroud finished the league season with a goal in Chelsea's 2–0 win over Wolves on 26 July, a result which secured Chelsea a place in the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League. The goal was also his fifth goal in six matches and sixth overall since the restart of football following the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 23 September 2020, Giroud made his first appearance in 2020–21 season from the bench and scored his first goal of the season against Barnsley in the third round of the EFL Cup, which ended in a 6–0 win at home. He scored the winning goal for Chelsea in stoppage time against Rennes in the Champions League on 24 November; the victory secured Chelsea's progression to the knockout phase of the competition. On 2 December, Giroud became the oldest player in Champions League history to score a hat-trick when he scored all four goals in a 4–0 win at Sevilla. He also became the oldest player to achieve the feat in the European Cup since Real Madrid's Ferenc Puskás in September 1965 (38y 173d vs. Feyenoord). On 5 December, Giroud marked his first league start of the season with his fifth goal against Leeds United and landed himself in the Premier League's record books after continuing his remarkable goalscoring form. He became the oldest player to ever score in six successive Premier League starts at the age of 34 years and 63 days. He also became the first Chelsea player to score in six consecutive Premier League starts for the club since Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink in October 2001. On 8 December, Giroud marked his 100th appearance for Chelsea in a 1–1 home draw against Krasnodar in the Champions League final group stage match.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 15 February 2021, Giroud became the 17th player in Premier League history to make 100 substitute appearances when he replaced an injured Tammy Abraham in the first half of Chelsea's match against Newcastle; Giroud would go on to open the scoring in an eventual 2–0 win. On 23 February, he executed a bicycle kick that scored the only goal in a 1–0 win over Atlético Madrid in the Champions League round of 16.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: Giroud was an unused substitute as Chelsea defeated Manchester City 1–0 in the 2021 UEFA Champions League Final on 29 May. Although Giroud's contract was due to expire at the end of season, with him having numerous offers to join as a free agent, on 4 June 2021, however, Chelsea announced that a one-year contract extension clause was unilaterally triggered earlier in April, thus keeping the player at the club for the upcoming season.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 17 July 2021, AC Milan announced the transfer of Giroud from Chelsea permanently on a two-year contract. On 29 August, Giroud scored his first goals for Milan, a brace, in a 4–1 win against Cagliari.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 16 October, when his side was trailing by 2–0, he scored the opener for Milan to help his team achieve a comeback 3–2 win against Hellas Verona. On 26 October, he scored the only goal in Milan's 1–0 win against Torino.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 6 January 2022, he scored the opener against Roma, and helped his teammate Messias scoring the second after Giroud snatched the ball from Roma defense and hit the post, in an eventual 3–1 win.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 5 February, Giroud scored a brace to help his team win 1–2 against Inter in Derby della Madonnina, becoming the first French player ever to score a brace or more in Serie A against Inter.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: Four days later, Giroud scored another brace aganist Lazio in Coppa Italia as Milan thrashed the former 4–0, progressing to the semi-final of the competition.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 6 March in Stadio Diego Maradona, although suffering from a deep cut in his left shin, Giroud scored the only goal in an away win against Napoli, helping his team to climb to the top of Serie A table.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: It was Giroud 11th goal this season in all competitions (in 27 appearances), equalling his total tally from the whole of last season for Chelsea (31 matches).


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 19 March, he provided his 4th assist this season, setting up Bennacer goal against Cagliari in a 1–0 win.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 24 April, in Stadio Olimpico, he scored the equalizer against Lazio, helping his team to achieve a 2–1 comeback. On 22 May, he scored a brace in a 3–0 away win over Sassuolo, to secure the 2021–22 Serie A title for AC Milan.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 14 September he scored against Dinamo Zagreb in the second group stage match of the Champions League.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: Prior to representing the senior national team, Giroud did not earn any caps with the national youth teams. In 2001, he was called up to the under-16 team alongside the likes of Yoann Gourcuff, Yohan Cabaye, and Sylvain Marveaux by coach Pierre Mankowski to participate in a training camp held at the Clairefontaine academy. After the camp, Giroud was not called up for the duration of the 2001–02 under-16 campaign.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 3 November 2011, in an effort to reward Giroud for his performances domestically with Montpellier, national team coach Laurent Blanc named the striker in the squad to play in friendly matches against the United States and Belgium on 11 and 15 November 2011, respectively. Giroud described the call up as "a childhood dream come true", while also stating it is "immensely satisfying and a privilege" to represent the national team. He made his international debut in the match against the United States appearing as a substitute. France won the match 1–0. Against Belgium, Giroud earned another cap appearing as a substitute as the match ended 0–0. On 29 February 2012, Giroud scored his first career international goal in a 2–1 friendly victory over Germany. Three months later, he was named to the squad to participate in UEFA Euro 2012. Two days prior to the announcement of the final squad, Giroud assisted on two goals in France's 3–2 friendly comeback win over Iceland.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 16 October 2012, Giroud equalised for France in its 1–1 draw against Spain in a 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifier. Coming on as a substitute in the 88th minute, he scored a headed goal from a Franck Ribéry cross in the fourth minute of injury time. Due to his goal against Spain and good form with Arsenal, Giroud, along with Arsenal teammate Laurent Koscielny, received a call for France's tie against Italy on 14 November. In the match, Giroud had a few chances, but then was substituted with five other players in the second half as France came back from behind to win the match 2–1. Giroud scored twice and was named man of the match in a 6–0 win over Australia on 11 October 2013 in an international friendly.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 13 May 2014, Giroud was named in Didier Deschamps' squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. After appearing as a second-half substitute in France's opening match against Honduras, Giroud was named in the starting line-up for the team's second group fixture against Switzerland. He scored the opening goal of the match in the 17th minute to record his first FIFA World Cup goal and the 100th at the tournament in the French national team's history, as "Les Bleus" ran out 5–2 winners to qualify for the knockout stage.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: In the opening match of Euro 2016 on 10 June 2016, France defeated Romania 2–1. Giroud earned his 50th France cap by being in the starting line-up of that match and played every minute of it; he scored the opening goal by heading Dimitri Payet's cross into the goal in the 57th minute. He scored a brace in a 5–2 win against Iceland in the Quarter-finals. Following France's defeat to Portugal in the final of the tournament, Giroud finished the competition as the joint second-highest scorer, with 3 goals and 2 assists, and was awarded the Bronze Boot.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: In a 2018 World Cup qualifier against Luxembourg in March 2017, which France won 3–1, Giroud scored twice, taking his total to 23 and moving him into his country's top ten goalscorers of all time.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 2 June 2017, Giroud scored a hat-trick at Roazhon Park for France in a friendly against Paraguay which finished 5–0 to the hosts. In that game, he also become the first player to score a hat-trick for Les Bleus in 17 years.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 17 May 2018, he was called up to the 23-man French squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. On 28 May 2018, Giroud scored his 31st international goal for France during a home game against Ireland, equalling Zinedine Zidane's record, and becoming the fourth highest goal scorer of all time for the country. Giroud's inclusion in the team as a big man towering over opposing defenders was designed to create more freedom for Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappé to generate offensive chances. Giroud played in all seven matches, and though he failed to register a shot on net on 13 shots, his physical presence and link-up play was credited with Griezmann and Mbappé each scoring four goals. On 30 June 2018, Giroud set up Mbappé's second goal in a 4–3 win over Argentina. In the final of the tournament on 15 July, France defeated Croatia 4–2 to win their second FIFA World Cup title.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: In March 2019, Giroud scored goals in two UEFA Euro 2020 qualifiers against Moldova and Iceland, taking his tally to 35 for France. In doing so, he surpassed David Trezeguet to become the nation's third-highest goalscorer of all-time, behind only Thierry Henry and Michel Platini. On 8 September 2020, Giroud scored his 40th goal for the French national team, in a 4–2 UEFA Nations League victory against Croatia.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 7 October 2020, Giroud played his 100th match for France, where he also scored twice in a 7–1 win against Ukraine, giving him 42 goals in his international career to surpass Platini's total and rank second for France.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 8 June 2021, he scored twice in a warm-up friendly for the Euro 2020 against Bulgaria, reaching his tally up to 46 goals, thus being only 5 down to French national team top goalscorer Thierry Henry.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: Giroud was called up to the French squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar; he started as the team's lone striker in their opening match against Australia on 22 November, scoring two goals and equalling Thierry Henry's 51-goal record for France. He broke the record and became the national team top scorer after scoring a goal against Poland at the round of 16 on 4 December.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: Giroud is capable of playing in several offensive positions, but usually plays as a striker or as a centre-forward; he has also occasionally been used as a second striker, or even as a false 9. A hard-working striker, he is known in particular for his reliable goal scoring rate, size, physical strength, heading accuracy, powerful shot, ability to hold up the ball with his back to goal, and link-up play, or create space for his teammates with his movement off the ball. He is also associated with making runs to the front post that outwit defenders. Due to his playing style and penchant for scoring goals after coming off the bench, he has been described as a "target man", and as a "super sub" in the media. He has also been described by pundits as one of the most underrated strikers in the world.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: Giroud has an older brother, Romain, who was also a footballer, having played at the Auxerre academy and having represented France at under-15 and under-17 level, however he dropped a potential professional career to study and become a nutritionist.


title: Olivier Giroud

text: Giroud has been married to Jennifer since 2011 and have four children together. Giroud is a Evangelical Protestant and has a tattoo on his right arm from Psalm 23 in Latin: "Dominus regit me et nihil mihi deerit" ("The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want). He describes himself as a "very believing person [...] I don't cross myself before my games but I do a little prayer". In February 2014, Giroud reportedly cheated on his wife with model Celia Kay. After the incident, he issued an apology to his wife but later insisted that he had not committed adultery. Arsène Wenger, Giroud's manager at Arsenal at the time, did not comment on the matter, saying he wanted to "respect his privacy".


title: Olivier Giroud

text: In 2014, he became the face of Hugo Boss's "Boss Bottled" men's fragrance. In February 2015 Giroud was voted the 'Hottest Premier League Player'. In an interview with "GQ", he cited David Beckham as an inspiration for the way he looks, saying that Beckham's "style is iconic".


title: Olivier Giroud

text: Giroud has been sponsored by Puma since 2009. He together with Antoine Griezmann starred in an advert for the brand of which was released in August 2016. Often using elaborate moves in his goal celebrations, Giroud's ‘Glamour slide’ goal celebration is included in EA Sports' "FIFA 16".


title: Olivier Giroud

text: On 13 November 2018, confirmed on Twitter that Giroud had landed a role in the French-dubbed version of "" (known as "Spiderman: New Generation" in France) as the voice of the Green Goblin. He was joined by Presnel Kimpembe, who took on the role of Scorpion.


title: Umayyad Caliphate

text: The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty (, "al-ʾUmawīyūn", or , "Banū ʾUmayyah", "Sons of Umayyah"). Uthman ibn Affan (r. 644–656), the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a member of the clan. The family established dynastic, hereditary rule with Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan, long-time governor of Greater Syria, who became the sixth caliph after the end of the First Fitna in 661. After Mu'awiyah's death in 680, conflicts over the succession resulted in the Second Fitna, and power eventually fell into the hands of Marwan I from another branch of the clan. Greater Syria remained the Umayyads' main power base thereafter, with Damascus serving as their capital.


title: Umayyad Caliphate

text: The Umayyads continued the Muslim conquests, incorporating the Transoxiana, Sindh, the Maghreb and Hispania (Al-Andalus) under Islamic rule. At its greatest extent, the Umayyad Caliphate covered , making it one of the largest empires in history in terms of area. The dynasty in most of the Islamic world was eventually overthrown by a rebellion led by the Abbasids in 750. Survivors of the dynasty established themselves in Cordoba which, in the form of an emirate and then a caliphate, became a world centre of science, medicine, philosophy and invention during the Islamic Golden Age.


title: Umayyad Caliphate

text: The Umayyad Caliphate ruled over a vast multiethnic and multicultural population. Christians, who still constituted a majority of the caliphate's population, and Jews were allowed to practice their own religion but had to pay a head tax (the jizya) from which Muslims were exempt. Muslims were required to pay the zakat tax, which was earmarked explicitly for various welfare programmes for the benefit of Muslims or Muslim converts. Under the early Umayyad caliphs, prominent positions were held by Christians, some of whom belonged to families that had served in Byzantine governments. The employment of Christians was part of a broader policy of religious accommodation that was necessitated by the presence of large Christian populations in the conquered provinces, as in Syria. This policy also boosted Mu'awiya's popularity and solidified Syria as his power base. The Umayyad era is often considered the formative period in Islamic art.


title: Umayyad Caliphate

text: During the pre-Islamic period, the Umayyads or "Banu Umayya" were a leading clan of the Quraysh tribe of Mecca. By the end of the 6th century, the Umayyads dominated the Quraysh's increasingly prosperous trade networks with Syria and developed economic and military alliances with the nomadic Arab tribes that controlled the northern and central Arabian desert expanses, affording the clan a degree of political power in the region. The Umayyads under the leadership of Abu Sufyan ibn Harb were the principal leaders of Meccan opposition to the Islamic prophet Muhammad, but after the latter captured Mecca in 630, Abu Sufyan and the Quraysh embraced Islam. To reconcile his influential Qurayshite tribesmen, Muhammad gave his former opponents, including Abu Sufyan, a stake in the new order. Abu Sufyan and the Umayyads relocated to Medina, Islam's political centre, to maintain their new-found political influence in the nascent Muslim community.


title: Umayyad Caliphate

text: Muhammad's death in 632 left open the succession of leadership of the Muslim community. Leaders of the Ansar, the natives of Medina who had provided Muhammad safe haven after his emigration from Mecca in 622, discussed forwarding their own candidate out of concern that the Muhajirun, Muhammad's early followers and fellow emigrants from Mecca, would ally with their fellow tribesmen from the former Qurayshite elite and take control of the Muslim state. The Muhajirun gave allegiance to one of their own, the early, elderly companion of Muhammad, Abu Bakr, and put an end to Ansarite deliberations. Abu Bakr was viewed as acceptable by the Ansar and the Qurayshite elite and was acknowledged as caliph (leader of the Muslim community). He showed favor to the Umayyads by awarding them command roles in the Muslim conquest of Syria. One of the appointees was Yazid, the son of Abu Sufyan, who owned property and maintained trade networks in Syria.


title: Umayyad Caliphate

text: Abu Bakr's successor Umar () curtailed the influence of the Qurayshite elite in favor of Muhammad's earlier supporters in the administration and military, but nonetheless allowed the growing foothold of Abu Sufyan's sons in Syria, which was all but conquered by 638. When Umar's overall commander of the province Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah died in 639, he appointed Yazid governor of Syria's Damascus, Palestine and Jordan districts. Yazid died shortly after and Umar appointed his brother Mu'awiya in his place. Umar's exceptional treatment of Abu Sufyan's sons may have stemmed from his respect for the family, their burgeoning alliance with the powerful Banu Kalb tribe as a counterbalance to the influential Himyarite settlers in Homs who viewed themselves as equals to the Quraysh in nobility or the lack of a suitable candidate at the time, particularly amid the plague of Amwas which had already killed Abu Ubayda and Yazid. Under Mu'awiya's stewardship, Syria remained domestically peaceful, organized and well-defended from its former Byzantine rulers.


title: Umayyad Caliphate

text: Umar's successor, Uthman ibn Affan, was a wealthy Umayyad and early Muslim convert with marital ties to Muhammad. He was elected by the "shura" council, composed of Muhammad's cousin Ali, al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, Talha ibn Ubayd Allah, Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas and Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf, all of whom were close, early companions of Muhammad and belonged to the Quraysh. He was chosen over Ali because he would ensure the concentration of state power into the hands of the Quraysh, as opposed to Ali's determination to diffuse power among all of the Muslim factions. From early in his reign, Uthman displayed explicit favouritism to his kinsmen, in stark contrast to his predecessors. He appointed his family members as governors over the regions successively conquered under Umar and himself, namely much of the Sasanian Empire, i.e. Iraq and Iran, and the former Byzantine territories of Syria and Egypt. In Medina, he relied extensively on the counsel of his Umayyad cousins, the brothers al-Harith and Marwan ibn al-Hakam. According to the historian Wilferd Madelung, this policy stemmed from Uthman's "conviction that the house of Umayya, as the core clan of Quraysh, was uniquely qualified to rule in the name of Islam".


title: Umayyad Caliphate

text: Uthman's nepotism provoked the ire of the Ansar and the members of the "shura". In 645/46, he added the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) to Mu'awiya's Syrian governorship and granted the latter's request to take possession of all Byzantine crown lands in Syria to help pay his troops. He had the surplus taxes from the wealthy provinces of Kufa and Egypt forwarded to the treasury in Medina, which he used at his personal disposal, frequently disbursing its funds and war booty to his Umayyad relatives. Moreover, the lucrative Sasanian crown lands of Iraq, which Umar had designated as communal property for the benefit of the Arab garrison towns of Kufa and Basra, were turned into caliphal crown lands to be used at Uthman's discretion. Mounting resentment against Uthman's rule in Iraq and Egypt and among the Ansar and Quraysh of Medina culminated in the siege and killing of the caliph in 656. In the assessment of the historian Hugh N. Kennedy, Uthman was killed because of his determination to centralize control over the Caliphate's government by the traditional elite of the Quraysh, particularly his Umayyad clan, which he believed possessed the "experience and ability" to govern, at the expense of the interests, rights and privileges of many early Muslims.


title: Umayyad Caliphate

text: After Uthman's assassination, Ali was recognized as caliph in Medina, though his support stemmed from the Ansar and the Iraqis, while the bulk of the Quraysh was wary of his rule. The first challenge to his authority came from the Qurayshite leaders al-Zubayr and Talha, who had opposed Uthman's empowerment of the Umayyad clan but feared that their own influence and the power of the Quraysh, in general, would dissipate under Ali. Backed by one of Muhammad's wives, A'isha, they attempted to rally support against Ali among the troops of Basra, prompting the caliph to leave for Iraq's other garrison town, Kufa, where he could better confront his challengers. Ali defeated them at the Battle of the Camel, in which al-Zubayr and Talha were slain and A'isha consequently entered self-imposed seclusion. Ali's sovereignty was thereafter recognized in Basra and Egypt and he established Kufa as the Caliphate's new capital.


title: Umayyad Caliphate

text: Although Ali was able to replace Uthman's governors in Egypt and Iraq with relative ease, Mu'awiya had developed a solid power-base and an effective military against the Byzantines from the Arab tribes of Syria. Mu'awiya did not claim the caliphate but was determined to retain control of Syria and opposed Ali in the name of avenging his kinsman Uthman, accusing the caliph of culpability in his death. Ali and Mu'awiya fought to a stalemate at the Battle of Siffin in early 657. Ali agreed to settle the matter with Mu'awiya by arbitration, though the talks failed to achieve a resolution. The decision to arbitrate fundamentally weakened Ali's political position as he was forced to negotiate with Mu'awiya on equal terms, while it drove a significant number of his supporters, who became known as the Kharijites, to revolt. Ali's coalition steadily disintegrated and many Iraqi tribal nobles secretly defected to Mu'awiya, while the latter's ally Amr ibn al-As ousted Ali's governor from Egypt in July 658. In July 660 Mu'awiya was formally recognized as caliph in Jerusalem by his Syrian tribal allies. Ali was assassinated by a Kharijite in January 661. His son Hasan succeeded him but abdicated in return for compensation upon Mu'awiya's arrival to Iraq with his Syrian army in the summer. At that point, Mu'awiya entered Kufa and received the allegiance of the Iraqis.


title: Umayyad Caliphate

text: The recognition of Mu'awiya in Kufa, referred to as the "year of unification of the community" in the Muslim traditional sources, is generally considered the start of his caliphate. With his accession, the political capital and the caliphal treasury were transferred to Damascus, the seat of Mu'awiya's power. Syria's emergence as the metropolis of the Umayyad Caliphate was the result of Mu'awiya's twenty-year entrenchment in the province, the geographic distribution of its relatively large Arab population throughout the province in contrast to their seclusion in garrison cities in other provinces, and the domination of a single tribal confederation, the Kalb-led Quda'a, as opposed to the wide array of competing tribal groups in Iraq. The long-established, formerly Christian Arab tribes in Syria, having been integrated into the military of the Byzantine Empire and their Ghassanid client kings, were "more accustomed to order and obedience" than their Iraqi counterparts, according to the historian Julius Wellhausen. Mu'awiya relied on the powerful Kalbite chief Ibn Bahdal and the Kindite nobleman Shurahbil ibn Simt alongside the Qurayshite commanders al-Dahhak ibn Qays al-Fihri and Abd al-Rahman, the son of the prominent general Khalid ibn al-Walid, to guarantee the loyalty of the key military components of Syria. Mu'awiya preoccupied his core Syrian troops in nearly annual or bi-annual land and sea raids against Byzantium, which provided them with battlefield experience and war spoils, but secured no permanent territorial gains. Toward the end of his reign the caliph entered a thirty-year truce with Byzantine emperor Constantine IV (), obliging the Umayyads to pay the Empire an annual tribute of gold, horses and slaves.


title: Umayyad Caliphate

text: Mu'awiya's main challenge was reestablishing the unity of the Muslim community and asserting his authority and that of the caliphate in the provinces amid the political and social disintegration of the First Fitna. There remained significant opposition to his assumption of the caliphate and to a strong central government. The garrison towns of Kufa and Basra, populated by the Arab immigrants and troops who arrived during the conquest of Iraq in the 630s–640s, resented the transition of power to Syria. They remained divided, nonetheless, as both cities competed for power and influence in Iraq and its eastern dependencies and remained divided between the Arab tribal nobility and the early Muslim converts, the latter of whom were divided between the pro-Alids (loyalists of Ali) and the Kharijites, who followed their own strict interpretation of Islam. The caliph applied a decentralized approach to governing Iraq by forging alliances with its tribal nobility, such as the Kufan leader al-Ash'ath ibn Qays, and entrusting the administration of Kufa and Basra to highly experienced members of the Thaqif tribe, al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba and the latter's protege Ziyad ibn Abihi (whom Mu'awiya adopted as his half-brother), respectively. In return for recognizing his suzerainty, maintaining order, and forwarding a token portion of the provincial tax revenues to Damascus, the caliph let his governors rule with practical independence. After al-Mughira's death in 670, Mu'awiya attached Kufa and its dependencies to the governorship of Basra, making Ziyad the practical viceroy over the eastern half of the Caliphate. Afterward, Ziyad launched a concerted campaign to firmly establish Arab rule in the vast Khurasan region east of Iran and restart the Muslim conquests in the surrounding areas. Not long after Ziyad's death, he was succeeded by his son Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad. Meanwhile, Amr ibn al-As ruled Egypt from the provincial capital of Fustat as a virtual partner of Mu'awiya until his death in 663, after which loyalist governors were appointed and the province became a practical appendage of Syria. Under Mu'awiya's direction, the Muslim conquest of Ifriqiya (central North Africa) was launched by the commander Uqba ibn Nafi in 670, which extended Umayyad control as far as Byzacena (modern southern Tunisia), where Uqba founded the permanent Arab garrison city of Kairouan.


title: Umayyad Caliphate

text: In contrast to Uthman, Mu'awiya restricted the influence of his Umayyad kinsmen to the governorship of Medina, where the dispossessed Islamic elite, including the Umayyads, was suspicious or hostile toward his rule. However, in an unprecedented move in Islamic politics, Mu'awiya nominated his own son, Yazid I, as his successor in 676, introducing hereditary rule to caliphal succession and, in practice, turning the office of the caliph into a kingship. The act was met with disapproval or opposition by the Iraqis and the Hejaz-based Quraysh, including the Umayyads, but most were bribed or coerced into acceptance. Yazid acceded after Mu'awiya's death in 680 and almost immediately faced a challenge to his rule by the Kufan partisans of Ali who had invited Ali's son and Muhammad's grandson Husayn to stage a revolt against Umayyad rule from Iraq. An army mobilized by Iraq's governor Ibn Ziyad intercepted and killed Husayn outside Kufa at the Battle of Karbala. Although it stymied active opposition to Yazid in Iraq, the killing of Muhammad's grandson left many Muslims outraged and significantly increased Kufan hostility toward the Umayyads and sympathy for the family of Ali.


title: Umayyad Caliphate

text: The next major challenge to Yazid's rule emanated from the Hejaz where Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, the son of al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam and grandson of Abu Bakr, advocated for a "shura" among the Quraysh to elect the caliph and rallied opposition to the Umayyads from his headquarters in Islam's holiest sanctuary, the Ka'aba in Mecca. The Ansar and Quraysh of Medina also took up the anti-Umayyad cause and in 683 expelled the Umayyads from the city. Yazid's Syrian troops routed the Medinese at the Battle of al-Harra and subsequently plundered Medina before besieging Ibn al-Zubayr in Mecca. The Syrians withdrew upon news of Yazid's death in 683, after which Ibn al-Zubayr declared himself caliph and soon after gained recognition in most provinces of the Caliphate, including Iraq and Egypt. In Syria Ibn Bahdal secured the succession of Yazid's son and appointed successor Mu'awiya II, whose authority was likely restricted to Damascus and Syria's southern districts. Mu'awiya II had been ill from the beginning of his accession, with al-Dahhak assuming the practical duties of his office, and he died in early 684 without naming a successor. His death marked the end of the Umayyads' Sufyanid ruling house, called after Mu'awiya I's father Abu Sufyan. The eldest surviving Sufyanid, al-Walid ibn Utba, the son of Mu'awiya I's full brother, died shortly after Mu'awiya II's death, while another paternal uncle of the deceased caliph, Uthman ibn Anbasa ibn Abi Sufyan, who had support from the Kalb of the Jordan district, recognized the caliphate of his maternal uncle Ibn al-Zubayr. Ibn Bahdal favored Mu'awiya II's brothers Khalid and Abd Allah for the succession, but they were viewed as too young and inexperienced by most of the pro-Umayyad tribal nobility in Syria.


title: Umayyad Caliphate

text: Umayyad authority nearly collapsed in their Syrian stronghold after the death of Mu'awiya II. Al-Dahhak in Damascus, the Qays tribes in Qinnasrin (northern Syria) and the Jazira, the Judham in Palestine, and the Ansar and South Arabians of Homs all opted to recognize Ibn al-Zubayr. Marwan ibn al-Hakam, the leader of the Umayyads expelled to Syria from Medina, was prepared to submit to Ibn al-Zubayr as well but was persuaded to forward his candidacy for the caliphate by Ibn Ziyad. The latter had been driven out of Iraq and strove to uphold Umayyad rule. During a summit of pro-Umayyad Syrian tribes, namely the Quda'a and their Kindite allies, organized by Ibn Bahdal in the old Ghassanid capital of Jabiya, Marwan was elected caliph in exchange for economic privileges to the loyalist tribes. At the subsequent Battle of Marj Rahit in August 684, Marwan led his tribal allies to a decisive victory against a much larger Qaysite army led by al-Dahhak, who was slain. Not long after, the South Arabians of Homs and the Judham joined the Quda'a to form the tribal confederation of Yaman. Marj Rahit led to the long-running conflict between the Qays and Yaman coalitions. The Qays regrouped in the Euphrates river fortress of Circesium under Zufar ibn al-Harith al-Kilabi and moved to avenge their losses. Although Marwan regained full control of Syria in the months following the battle, the inter-tribal strife undermined the foundation of Umayyad power: the Syrian army.