Zubayrid Caliphate
The Zubayrid Caliphate (Arabic: ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْزبيريَّة, romanized: al-Khilāfah al-Zubayriyya) was a caliphate established by Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr (r. 683–692). The caliphate was ruled by the Zubayrid dynasty (Arabic: بنو زبير, romanized: Banū Zubayr) and founded in opposition towards the rival Umayyads, who initiated hereditary rule in the early Islamic period.
Zubayrid Caliphate الخلافة ٱلْزبيريَّة | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
683–692 | |||||||||
![]() The Zubayrid Caliphate at its greatest extent in 683 | |||||||||
Capital | Mecca | ||||||||
Common languages | Classical Arabic | ||||||||
Religion | Islam | ||||||||
Government | Caliphate | ||||||||
Caliph | |||||||||
• 683–692 | Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr | ||||||||
History | |||||||||
683 | |||||||||
691 | |||||||||
692 | |||||||||
• Disestablished | 692 | ||||||||
Currency | Dinar Dirham | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Following Mu'awiya's nomination of his son Yazid I as the caliph, he was opposed by several of the sons of the caliphs and generals, including Ibn al-Zubayr. During Yazid's caliphate, Ibn al-Zubayr revolted against the new caliph, and soon gained control of Mecca. After Yazid's death in 683, Ibn al-Zubayr proclaimed himself as the caliph, and the Zubayrid Caliphate was recognized in the Hejaz, Egypt, Iraq, Khurasan, al-Jazira, Yemen and parts of Syria. In 692, Ibn al-Zubayr was killed and the caliphate came to an end.
Background
Ibn al-Zubayr did not oppose Mu'awiya I's accession to the caliphate in 661 and remained largely inactive during the course of his reign.[1] However, he refused to recognize Mu'awiya's nomination of his son Yazid I as his successor in 676.[1] When Yazid acceded following his father's death in 680, Ibn al-Zubayr again rejected his legitimacy, despite Yazid having the backing of the Arab tribesmen of Syria who formed the core of the Umayyad military.[2] In response, Yazid charged al-Walid ibn Utba ibn Abi Sufyan, the governor of Medina, with gaining Ibn al-Zubayr's submission,[3] but he evaded the authorities and escaped to Mecca.[1] He was joined there by Ali's son Husayn, who too had refused submission to Yazid. Husayn and his supporters made a stand against the Umayyads in Karbala in 680, but were killed and Husayn was slain.[1]
Following Husayn's death, Ibn al-Zubayr began clandestinely recruiting supporters.[1] By September 683, he had taken control of Mecca.[4] He referred to himself as al-ʿaʾidh biʾl bayt (the fugitive at the sanctuary, viz., the Ka'aba), adopted the slogan lā ḥukma illā li-ʾllāh (judgement belongs to God alone), but made no claim to the caliphate.[5][6] Yazid ordered the governor of Medina, Amr ibn Sa'id ibn al-As, to arrest Ibn al-Zubayr.[7] The governor, in turn, instructed Ibn al-Zubayr's estranged brother, the head of Medina's shūrṭā (security forces), Amr, to lead the expedition.[7] However, the Umayyad force was ambushed and Amr was captured and subsequently killed while in captivity.[8] Ibn al-Zubayr declared the illegitimacy of Yazid's caliphate and allied himself with the Ansar of Medina, led by Abd Allah ibn Hanzala, who had withdrawn support for Yazid due to his alleged improprieties.[1] Ibn al-Zubayr also gained the support of the Kharijite movement in Basra and Bahrayn (eastern Arabia);[5] the Kharijites were early opponents of the Umayyads who had defected from Caliph Ali because of his participation in the 657 arbitration.
History
Claim to the caliphate (683)
Yazid's death and the subsequent withdrawal of the Umayyad army from the Hejaz afforded Ibn al-Zubayr the opportunity to realize his aspirations for the caliphate.[1][5] He immediately declared himself amīr al-muʾminīn (commander of the faithful), a title traditionally reserved for the caliph, and called for all Muslims to give him their oaths of allegiance.[1][6] With the other potential Hejazi candidates dead, Ibn al-Zubayr remained the last contender for the caliphate among the anti-Umayyad factions in Mecca and Medina and most of these groups recognized him as their leader.[6] An exception to were the Banu Hashim clan to which Muhammad and the Alids belonged and whose support Ibn al-Zubayr deemed important for his own legitimacy as caliph.[9] The leading representatives of the clan in the Hejaz, Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya, the half-brother of Husayn ibn Ali, and their cousin Abd Allah ibn Abbas, withheld their oaths citing the need for a stronger consensus in the wider Muslim community.[9] Irritated, Ibn al-Zubayr besieged the clan's neighborhood in Mecca and imprisoned Ibn al-Hanafiyya to pressure the Banu Hashim.[9] Meanwhile, the Kharijites under Najda ibn Amir al-Hanafi in the Yamama (central Arabia) abandoned Ibn al-Zubayr once he forwarded his claim to the caliphate, an institution they rejected, and Ibn al-Zubayr refused to embrace their doctrine.[1][6][10]
Siege of Mecca (683)
After taking Medina, Muslim set out for Mecca, but on the way he fell ill and died at Mushallal, and command passed to his lieutenant Husayn ibn Numayr al-Sakuni. According to the account reported by al-Tabari, this was much against Uqba's will, but in accordance with the wishes of Yazid.[11][12]
Many of the Medinans had fled to Mecca, including the commander of the Qurayshites at the battle of al-Harra, Abd Allah ibn Muti, who played a leading role in Mecca's defense along with al-Mukhtar al-Thaqafi.[13] Ibn al-Zubayr was also joined by Kharijites from Yamama (central Arabia), under the leadership of Najda ibn Amir al-Hanafi.[14][15] Husayn's army arrived before Mecca in September. In a first battle, Ibn al-Zubayr proved victorious,[14][15] but the Umayyads persisted, and on 24 September placed the city under siege, employing catapults to bombard it with stones.[16][17]
Ibn al-Zubayr established his command post on the grounds of the Grand Mosque. On Sunday, 31 October, the Kaaba, over which a wooden structure covered with mattresses had been erected to protect it, caught fire and burned down, while the sacred Black Stone burst asunder. Many later sources ascribe the fault to the besiegers, with the result that "this siege and bombardment too figure prominently in the lists of Umayyad crimes" (G.R. Hawting), but more reliable accounts attribute the event to a torch borne by one of Ibn al-Zubayr's followers, which the wind wafted onto the building.[18][16][19]
Assassination of Ibn al-Zubayr
After asserting Umayyad authority in Iraq, Abd al-Malik dispatched one of his commanders, al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, to subdue Ibn al-Zubayr.[1] Al-Hajjaj besieged and bombarded Mecca for six months, by which point, most of Ibn al-Zubayr's partisans and his sons Khubayb and Hamza surrendered upon offers of pardons.[1][20] Ibn al-Zubayr remained defiant and, acting on his mother's counsel, entered the battlefield where he was ultimately slain on 3 October or 4 November 692.[21][1]
References
- Gibb 1960, p. 55.
- Hawting 1986, p. 46.
- Wellhausen 1927, pp. 145–146.
- Anthony 2016, p. 12.
- Hawting 1986, p. 47.
- Ahmed 2010, pp. 65–66.
- Ahmed 2010, p. 95, n. 469.
- Wellhausen 1927, p. 151.
- Anthony 2016, pp. 12–13, 21.
- Hawting 1986, p. 49.
- Wellhausen 1927, p. 157.
- Howard 1990, p. 222.
- Hawting 1989, pp. 114–115.
- Howard 1990, p. 223.
- Wellhausen 1927, p. 165.
- Hawting 2000, p. 48.
- Gibb 1960, p. 55.
- Lammens 1987, p. 1162 .
- Wellhausen 1927, pp. 165–166.
- Fishbein 1990, p. 226.
- Gibb 1960, p. 54.
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- Anthony, Sean W. (2016). "The Meccan Prison of ʿAbdallāh b. al-Zubayr and the Imprisonment of Muḥammad b. al-Ḥanafiyya". In Pomerantz, Maurice A.; Shahin, Aram A. (eds.). The Heritage of Arabo-Islamic Learning: Studies Presented to Wadad Kadi. Leiden and Boston: Brill. pp. 3–27. ISBN 978-90-04-30590-8.
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