Before the Syrian army could push farther into rebellious Arabia, it was called back to Damascus. Yazid had suddenly died. His son was a young man who died soon after him. (Shi’ite history records that he criticized his family for persecution of the Prophet’s family—and may have been helped to an early death?) Ironically, after Mu’awiya had worked so hard to make the Caliphate into a hereditary kingdom for his family, his line had died out. The only Umayyad strong enough to take over was Marwan, Mu’awiya’s cousin. We know he had the same street smarts and had been part of Mu’awiya’s ruling structure. Just looking at administrative continuity, Marwan was a good choice.
…But the Caliph was not a king! He was supposed to be the successor to the Prophet, who could lead the faithful and preach in the mosque. Marwan wasn’t that guy. Muhammad had envisioned a sort of egalitarian regime ruled by God-fearing judges, though he had never spelled it out. His Companions knew this, and their sons, now the leaders of the rebellion, were determined not to let the Caliph become just another king handing on power to his spoiled sons.
Abdallah ibn Zubayr acted quickly. He and the Quraysh in Mecca proclaimed him to be the new Caliph ruling in the Holy City, the Prophet’s birthplace, and on the Prophet’s principles. As Umayyad power in Damascus collapsed in chaos (it took a while for Marwan to seize power), Ibn Zubayr was recognized as Caliph by governors in many provinces, including Egypt and Iraq. He appointed his brother to govern Basra.
At least for a time, Ibn Zubayr became the first and only Caliph ruling from Mecca. While he controlled Medina too, he was hostile to the Prophet’s clan. He may have sought alliance with Hassan and Husayn previously, but now as Caliph in Mecca, he declared that he had never liked any of them. The surviving son of Husayn lived in Medina and did his best to shun all rebellions and conspiracies, staying strictly apolitical and focused on scholarship.
In 684, Marwan was declared Caliph in Damascus. The armies in Syria were loyal to the Umayyads and began fighting battles against tribes who had not submitted to Marwan. By 685, Marwan had taken back control of Egypt. And then—he died. His son Abd al-Malik now inherited the Caliphate as a king, exactly as the Umayyads wanted, so the rebellion against them continued.
It’s worth noting that the oldest biographical notes about Muhammad came from a series of letters exchanged between Abd al-Malik and Ibn Zubayr’s brother Urwa, who stayed neutral. Abd al-Malik wrote letters to Urwa asking him to clarify some of the events in the Prophet’s life. Urwa lived in Medina, where he and a handful of other scholars established fiqh, the methods by which Quranic principles could be applied to legal decisions.
In Kufa, some men were filled with regret that they had not fought for Husayn at Karbala. Their conspiracy was called the Tawwabin Rebellion, and at one point it numbered as many as 4000 men. But then a competing movement began when an old man named al-Mukhtar rejected both Marwan and Ibn Zubayr, in favor of Husayn’s half-brother, Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiya. Mukhtar proclaimed him the new Caliph and Imam, adding the title “Mahdi,” and he executed men who had been involved in killing Husayn. The Kharijites (Rejectionists) who had survived in the countryside joined Mukhtar’s cause.
On the 6th anniversary of Karbala, they won a battle against Umayyad forces, killing the Umayyad governor who had kicked Husayn’s head. Shi’ite historians say that after this, the women of Husayn’s family finally stopped wearing black.
However, al-Muhktar did not live long, himself; he was defeated by Ibn Zubayr’s brother, and eventually Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiya swore allegiance to Abd al-Malik. The whole episode would just be a blip, except that the first insular sect within Islam, the Kaysanites, came from this movement. They believed that al-Hanafiya, who had been proclaimed the “Mahdi,” really was the fourth Imam after his father Ali and half-brothers Hassan and Husayn. They promoted a legend that he did not die but rather was in supernatural hiding on a mountain near Medina. He was cared for by animals and he would return someday. Their Islamic beliefs mixed in some other religious beliefs prevailing in Iraq and Iran at the time. In one form or another, they stayed on in Iran and became an important force in early Shi’a Islam.
There were still more Kharijite Rejectionists in central Arabia, and they now fought against Ibn Zubayr’s rule in Mecca. They succeeded in conquering Yemen and even occupied Ta’if, the nearest town to Mecca. Caliph Abdallah ibn Zubayr in Mecca still had control of Iraq through his brother Musab, who had defeated Mukhtar. But Iraq was unruly; one of Musab’s allies had turned into an independent warlord ruling from of all places Tikrit, later famous as Saddam’s birthplace. This warlord took more and more territory and then became loyal to the Caliph in Damascus. Now it was really down to just Caliph Abd al-Malik v. Caliph Ibn Zubayr—-Damascus v. Mecca.
- Caliphate: The History of an Idea, by Hugh Kennedy
- A Historical Research on the Lives of the Twelve Shi’a Imams. Mahdi Mahgrebi