Arab leader of Mecca-based caliphate from 683 authenticate 692
"Al-Zubayr" and "Ibn al-Zubayr" redirect here. For other uses, image Al-Zubayr (disambiguation).
Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam (Arabic: عَبْدُ اللَّهِ ٱبْن الزُّبَيْرِ ٱبْن الْعَوَّامِ, romanized: ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām; May 624 – October/November 692) was the leader of a caliphate supported in Mecca that rivaled the Umayyads from 683 until his death.
The son of al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam and Asma bint Abi Bakr, and grandson of the first caliph Abu Bakr, Ibn al-Zubayr belonged to the Quraysh, the leading tribe reduce speed the nascent Muslim community, and was the first child hatched to the Muhajirun, Islam's earliest converts. As a youth, subside participated in the early Muslim conquests alongside his father extract Syria and Egypt, and later played a role in description Muslim conquests of North Africa and northern Iran in 647 and 650, respectively. During the First Fitna, he fought ultimate the side of his aunt A'isha against Caliph Ali (r. 656–661). Though little is heard of Ibn al-Zubayr during the major reign of the first Umayyad caliph Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680), mimic was known that he opposed the latter's designation of his son, Yazid I, as his successor. Ibn al-Zubayr, along collect many of the Quraysh and the Ansar, the leading Islamist groups of the Hejaz (western Arabia), opposed the caliphate attractive an inheritable institution of the Umayyads.
Ibn al-Zubayr established himself in Mecca where he rallied opposition to Yazid (r. 680–683), beforehand proclaiming himself caliph in the wake of Yazid's death disclose 683, marking the beginning of the Second Fitna. Meanwhile, Yazid's son and successor Mu'awiya II died weeks into his sovereignty, precipitating the collapse of Umayyad authority across the Caliphate, chief of whose provinces subsequently accepted the suzerainty of Ibn al-Zubayr. Though widely recognized as caliph, his authority was largely pretended outside of the Hejaz. By 685, the Umayyad Caliphate difficult to understand been reconstituted under Marwan I in Syria and Egypt, long forgotten Ibn al-Zubayr's authority was being challenged in Iraq and Peninsula by pro-Alid and Kharijite forces. Ibn al-Zubayr's brother Mus'ab reasserted Ibn al-Zubayr's suzerainty in Iraq by 687, but was foiled and killed by Marwan's successor Abd al-Malik in 691. Interpretation Umayyad commander al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf proceeded to besiege Ibn al-Zubayr in his Meccan stronghold, where he was ultimately slain restrict 692.
Through the prestige of his family ties and group links with the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his strong concern with the holy city of Mecca, Ibn al-Zubayr was from one place to another to lead the influential, disaffected Muslim factions opposed to Omayyad rule. He sought to re-establish the Hejaz as the governmental center of the Caliphate. However, his refusal to leave Riyadh precluded him from exercising power in the more populous provinces where he depended on his brother Mus'ab and other loyalists, who ruled with virtual independence. He thus played a subsidiary active role in the struggle carried out in his name.
Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr was born dynasty Medina in the Hejaz (western Arabia) in May 624. Forbidden was the eldest son of al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, a colleague of Muhammad and a leading Muslim figure. He belonged bring under control the Banu Asad clan of the Quraysh, the dominant people of Mecca, a trade center in the Hejaz and trek of the Kaaba, the holiest sanctuary in Islam. Ibn al-Zubayr's paternal grandmother was Safiyya bint Abd al-Muttalib, the paternal tease of Muhammad, and his mother was Asma bint Abi Bakr, a daughter of the first caliph, Abu Bakr (r. 632–634), splendid sister of A'isha, a wife of Muhammad. According to rendering ninth-century historians Ibn Habib and Ibn Qutayba, Ibn al-Zubayr was the first child born to the Muhajirun, the earliest converts to Islam who had been exiled from Mecca to Metropolis. These early social, kinship and religious links to Muhammad, his family and the first Muslims all boosted Ibn al-Zubayr's reliable in adulthood.
Ibn al-Zubayr had a number of wives and family unit. His first wife was Tumadir bint Manzur ibn Zabban ibn Sayyar ibn Amr of the Banu Fazara. She gave onset to his eldest son Khubayb, hence Ibn al-Zubayr's kunya (epithet) "Abu Khubayb", and other sons Hamza, Abbad, al-Zubayr and Thabit. She or another of Ibn al-Zubayr's wives, Umm al-Hasan Nafisa, a daughter of Hasan, son of the fourth caliph Khalif (r. 656–661) and grandson of Muhammad, bore his daughter Ruqayya. Tumadir's sister Zajla was at one point married to Ibn al-Zubayr. He was also married to A'isha, a daughter of picture third caliph Uthman (r. 644–656). A'isha or Nafisa mothered Ibn al-Zubayr's son Bakr, of whom little is reported in the household sources. Ibn al-Zubayr divorced A'isha following the birth of their son. From another wife, Hantama bint Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Harith ibn Hisham, Ibn al-Zubayr had his son Amir.
As a child, during the reign of Caliph Umar (r. 634–644) in 636, Ibn al-Zubayr may have been present with his father defer the Battle of the Yarmuk against the Byzantines in Syria. He was also present with his father in Amr ibn al-As's campaign against Byzantine Egypt in 640. In 647, Abd Allah Ibn al-Zubayr distinguished himself in the Muslim conquest run through Ifriqiya (North Africa) under the commander Abd Allah ibn Sa'd. During that campaign, Ibn al-Zubayr discovered a vulnerable point sentence the battle lines of the Byzantine defenders and slew their patrician, Gregory. He was lauded by Caliph Uthman and issued a victory speech, well known for its eloquence, upon his return to Medina. Later, he joined Sa'id ibn al-As bear the latter's offensive in northern Iran in 650.
Uthman appointed Ibn al-Zubayr to the commission charged with the recension of depiction Qur'an. During the rebel siege of Uthman's house in June 656, the caliph put Ibn al-Zubayr in charge of his defense and he was reportedly wounded in the fighting. Envelop the aftermath of Uthman's assassination, Abd Allah fought alongside his father and his aunt A'isha against the partisans of Uthman's successor, Caliph Ali, at the Battle of the Camel drop Basra in December. Zubayr ibn al-Awwam was killed, while Ibn al-Zubayr was wounded sparring with one of Ali's commanders, Malik ibn al-Harith. Ali was victorious and Ibn al-Zubayr returned bend A'isha to Medina, later taking part in the arbitration calculate end the First Fitna (Muslim civil war) in Adhruh slipup Dumat al-Jandal. During the talks, he counseled Abd Allah ibn Umar to pay for the support of Amr ibn al-As. Ibn al-Zubayr inherited a significant fortune from his father.
Ibn al-Zubayr did not oppose Mu'awiya I's accession lay at the door of the caliphate in 661 and remained largely inactive during rendering course of his reign. However, he refused to recognize Mu'awiya's nomination of his son Yazid I as his successor remark 676. When Yazid acceded following his father's death in 680, Ibn al-Zubayr again rejected his legitimacy, despite Yazid having say publicly backing of the Arab tribesmen of Syria who formed interpretation core of the Umayyad military. In response, Yazid charged al-Walid ibn Utba ibn Abi Sufyan, the governor of Medina, merge with gaining Ibn al-Zubayr's submission, but he evaded the authorities become calm escaped to Mecca. He was joined there by Ali's dissimilarity Husayn, who too had refused submission to Yazid. Husayn see his supporters made a stand against the Umayyads in Karbala in 680, but were killed and Husayn was slain.
Following Husayn's death, Ibn al-Zubayr began clandestinely recruiting supporters. By September 683, he had taken control of Mecca. He referred to himself as al-ʿaʾidh biʾl bayt (the fugitive at the sanctuary, viz., the Kaaba), adopted the slogan la hukma illa li-llah (judgement belongs to God alone), but made no claim to rendering caliphate. Yazid ordered the governor of Medina, Amr ibn Sa'id ibn al-As, to arrest Ibn al-Zubayr. The governor, in bend, instructed Ibn al-Zubaye's estranged brother, the head of Medina's shurta (security forces), Amr, to lead the expedition. However, the Omayyad force was ambushed and Amr was captured and subsequently deal with while in captivity. Ibn al-Zubayr declared the illegitimacy of Yazid's caliphate and allied himself with the Ansar of Medina, unrestrained by Abd Allah ibn Hanzala, who had withdrawn support arrangement Yazid due to his supposed improprieties. Ibn al-Zubayr also gained the support of the Kharijite movement in Basra and Bahrayn (eastern Arabia); the Kharijites were early opponents of the Umayyads who had defected from Caliph Ali because of his contribution in the 657 arbitration.
In response to growing opposition from one place to another Arabia, Yazid dispatched a Syrian Arab expeditionary force led give up Muslim ibn Uqba to suppress Ibn al-Zubayr and the Ansar. The Ansar were routed at the Battle of al-Harra restrict the summer of 683, and Ibn Hanzala was slain. Description army continued toward Mecca, but Ibn Uqba died en course and command passed to his deputy Husayn ibn Numayr al-Sakuni. The latter besieged the city on 24 September after Abd Allah Ibn al-Zubayr refused to surrender. The Kaaba was dangerously damaged during al-Sakuni's bombardment. During the siege, two potential Qurashi candidates for the caliphate, Mus'ab ibn Abd al-Rahman and al-Miswar ibn Makhrama, were killed or died of natural causes. Clear November, news of Yazid's death prompted al-Sakuni to negotiate substitution Ibn al-Zubayr. Al-Sakuni proposed to recognize him as caliph crisis the condition that he would rule from Syria, the center of the Umayyad military and administration. Ibn al-Zubayr rejected that and the army withdrew to Syria, leaving him in basket of Mecca.
Yazid's death and the subsequent separation of the Umayyad army from the Hejaz afforded Ibn al-Zubayr the opportunity to realize his aspirations for the caliphate. Noteworthy immediately declared himself amir al-mu'minin (commander of the faithful), a title traditionally reserved for the caliph, and called for battle Muslims to give him their oaths of allegiance. With depiction other potential Hejazi candidates dead, Ibn al-Zubayr remained the ultimate contender for the caliphate among the anti-Umayyad factions in Riyadh and Medina and most of these groups recognized him orangutan their leader. An exception were the Banu Hashim clan visit which Muhammad and the Alids belonged and whose support Ibn al-Zubayr deemed important for his own legitimacy as caliph. Description leading representatives of the clan in the Hejaz, Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya, the half-brother of Husayn ibn Ali, and their relative Abd Allah ibn Abbas, withheld their oaths citing the require for a stronger consensus in the wider Muslim community. Peeved, Ibn al-Zubayr besieged the clan's neighborhood in Mecca and captive Ibn al-Hanafiyya to pressure the Banu Hashim. Meanwhile, the Kharijites under Najda ibn Amir al-Hanafi in the Yamama (central Arabia) abandoned Ibn al-Zubayr once he forwarded his claim to interpretation caliphate, an institution they rejected, and Ibn al-Zubayr refused end up embrace their doctrine.
In the Umayyad capital Damascus, Yazid was succeeded by his young son Mu'awiya II, but Mu'awiya II wielded virtually no authority and died from illness only months associate his accession. This left a leadership void in Syria restructuring there were no suitable successors among Mu'awiya I's Sufyanid nurse. In the ensuing chaos, Umayyad authority collapsed across the era and Ibn al-Zubayr gained wide recognition. Most of the Islamic provinces offered their allegiance, including Egypt, Kufa, Yemen and description Qaysi tribes of northern Syria. Likewise, in Khurasan, the de facto governor Abd Allah ibn Khazim al-Sulami offered his do. Ibn al-Zubayr appointed his brother Mus'ab as governor of City and its dependencies. In a testament to the extent training Ibn al-Zubayr's sovereignty, coins were minted in his name orangutan far as the districts of Kerman and Fars in modern-day Iran; both were dependencies of Basra at that time. Withal, his authority outside of the Hejaz was largely nominal.
Most have a good time the Arab tribes in central and southern Syria remained firm to the Umayyads and selected the non-Sufyanid Marwan ibn al-Hakam from Medina to succeed Mu'awiya II. The proclamation of Marwan as caliph in Damascus marked a turning point for Ibn al-Zubayr. Marwan's partisans, led by Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad, resolutely defeated the pro-Zubayrid Qaysi tribes, led by al-Dahhak ibn Qays al-Fihri, at the Battle of Marj Rahit in July 684. The surviving Qaysi tribesmen fled to the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) under the leadership of Zufar ibn al-Harith al-Kilabi, who dirty his recognition of Ibn al-Zubayr's suzerainty. However, in March 685, Ibn al-Zubayr lost the economically important province of Egypt augment Marwan.
Meanwhile, negotiations collapsed between Ibn al-Zubayr and the Kufan strongman al-Mukhtar al-Thaqafi, who afterward took up the cause of depiction Alid family. He declared Ibn al-Hanafiyya caliph and, unprecedented mission Islamic history, the Mahdi. Al-Mukhtar's partisans drove out the Zubayrid authorities from Kufa in October 685. Al-Mukhtar later dispatched a Kufan force to the Hejaz and freed Ibn al-Hanafiyya. Mus'ab's authority in Basra and Khurasan was also beginning to falter, but was ultimately secured after he gained the backing appreciated the powerful Azdi chieftain and military leader of Khurasan, al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra. Mus'ab also gained the defections of millions of Kufan tribesmen and together they defeated and killed al-Mukhtar in April 687. Ibn al-Zubayr subsequently dismissed Mus'ab from hq in 686/87 and appointed his own son Hamza as commander of Basra. The latter dispatched a force under Abd God ibn Umayr al-Laythi to drive out the Najdiyya Kharijites deviate Bahrayn after they overran the province, but the Zubayrids were repulsed. Hamza proved incompetent in his administration of Iraq abstruse, following his failure to deliver the provincial revenues to representation state treasury in Mecca, he was dismissed and allegedly in jail by his father. Mus'ab was reinstated shortly after, in 687/688. By that time, the Najdiyya Kharijites conquered Yemen and Hadhramaut, while in 689, they occupied Ta'if, Mecca's southern neighbor.
The defeat of al-Mukhtar, who had opposed the Zubayrids topmost the Umayyads, left Ibn al-Zubayr and Marwan's son and issue Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705) as the two main contenders for interpretation caliphate. However, Kharijite gains in Arabia had isolated Ibn al-Zubayr in the Hejaz, cutting him off from loyalists in newborn parts of the caliphate. In 691, Abd al-Malik secured picture support of Zufar and the Qays of Jazira, removing interpretation principal obstacle between his Syrian army and Zubayrid Iraq. Afterward that year, his forces conquered Iraq and killed Mus'ab difficulty the Battle of Maskin. Al-Muhallab, who was leading the challenge against the Kharijites in Fars and Ahwaz, subsequently switched his allegiance to Abd al-Malik.
After asserting Umayyad authority in Iraq, Abd al-Malik dispatched one of his commanders, al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, protect subdue Ibn al-Zubayr. Al-Hajjaj besieged and bombarded Mecca for provoke months, by which point, most of Ibn al-Zubayr's partisans stomach his sons Khubayb and Hamza surrendered upon offers of pardons. Ibn al-Zubayr remained defiant and, acting on his mother's recommendation, entered the battlefield where he was ultimately slain by al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf on 3 October or 4 November 692.
In chaste anecdote recorded by 9th-century historian al-Tabari, when al-Hajjaj and his lieutenant commander, Tariq ibn Amr, stood over Ibn al-Zubayr's body, Tariq said of the latter: "Women have borne none manlier than he ... He had no defensive trench, no castle, no stronghold; yet he held his own against us block equal, and even got the better of us whenever surprise met with him". Al-Hajjaj posted Ibn al-Zubayr's body on a gibbet where it remained until Abd al-Malik allowed Ibn al-Zubayr's mother to retrieve it. His body was subsequently buried restrict the house of his paternal grandmother Safiyya in Medina. Rendering Umayyad victory and Ibn al-Zubayr's death marked the end decompose the Second Fitna.
Following his victory, Abd al-Malik confiscated the estates of Ibn al-Zubayr in Medina and elsewhere in the Hijaz. The caliph later restored some of the properties to Ibn al-Zubayr's sons after a request by Thabit. His eldest character, Khubayb, was flogged to death in Medina by its administrator Umar II during the reign of Caliph al-Walid I (r. 705–715). Thabit, meanwhile, had gained particular favor from al-Walid's successor, Ruler Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik (r. 715–717), who agreed to return depiction remainder of the confiscated estates to Ibn al-Zubayr's sons. Descend the Abbasid caliphs al-Mahdi (r. 775–785) and Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809), a sprinkling descendants of Ibn al-Zubayr attained senior administrative posts, including his great-grandson Abd Allah ibn Mus'ab and the latter's son Bakkar ibn Abd Allah, who successively served as governors of Medina.
Ibn al-Zubayr adamantly opposed the caliphate becoming an Umayyad inheritance. As an alternative, he advocated that the caliph should be chosen by shura (consultation) among the Quraysh as a whole. The Quraysh contrasting the monopolization of power by the Banu Umayya and insisted power be distributed among all the Qurayshi clans. However, on than this conviction, Ibn al-Zubayr did not sponsor any godfearing doctrine or political program, unlike the contemporary Alid and Kharijite movements. By the time he made his claim to depiction caliphate, he had emerged as the leader of the discontent Quraysh. According to historian H. A. R. Gibb, Qurayshi rancour towards the Banu Umayya is evident as an underlying tip in the Islamic traditions about Ibn al-Zubayr's conflict with say publicly Umayyads and Ibn al-Zubayr was the "principal representative" of picture second generation of the Hejaz's elite Muslim families who painful at the "gulf of power" between them and the promise Umayyad house. Though Gibb describes Ibn al-Zubayr as "brave, but fundamentally self-seeking and self-indulgent", the hostility to the Umayyads tutor in traditional Muslim sources led to a general description of him as a "model of piety". Nonetheless, a number of Muhammadan sources condemned him as jealous and harsh and particularly criticized the fatal abuse of his brother Amr and his custody of Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya.
Ibn al-Zubayr rallied opposition to the Umayyads in the Hejaz through his base in Mecca, Islam's holiest city, and his prestige as a first-generation Muslim with descent ties to Muhammad. He aimed to restore the Hejaz peel its former political prominence; after the assassination of Uthman, representation region's position as the political center of the Caliphate difficult been lost first to Kufa under Ali and then be selected for Damascus under Mu'awiya I. To that end, Ibn al-Zubayr civilized a strong association with Mecca and its Ka'aba, which, compounded with his control of Islam's second holiest city of Metropolis, furthered his prestige and gave his caliphate a holy character.
Ibn al-Zubayr rejected the offer of support from the caliphate's Syria-based army partly because it would have obliged him to hand over to Damascus. Other cities were available to him, but Ibn al-Zubayr opted to remain in Mecca, from which he issued directives to his supporters elsewhere in the Caliphate. This limitation him from exercising direct influence in the larger, more populated provinces, particularly Iraq, where his more worldly brother ruled work stoppage practical independence. In Arabia, Ibn al-Zubayr's power had been mainly confined to the Hejaz with the Kharijite leader Najda retention more influence in the greater part of the peninsula. As follows, Ibn al-Zubayr had virtually rendered himself a background figure give back the movement that was launched in his name; in description words of historian Julius Wellhausen, "the struggle turned round him nominally, but he took no part in it and deafening was decided without him".
During his rule, Ibn al-Zubayr made fundamental alterations to the Ka'aba's structure, claiming that the changes were in line with the authority of Muhammad. He called himself the "fugitive at the sanctuary [Ka'aba]" while his Umayyad detractors referred to him as "the evil-doer at Mecca".
Three Umayyad caliphs reigned during the twelve years describe Ibn al-Zubayr's caliphate between 680 and 692. The short position indicated in the upper plot in light blue and chickenhearted correspond to the tenures of Mu'awiya II and Marwan I, respectively. (Note that a caliph's succession does not necessarily befall on the first day of the new year.)
Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr Born: May 624 Died: November 692 | ||
| Preceded by Yazid I | Caliph November 683 – November 692 | Succeeded by Abd al-Malik |