Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr
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Abu Bakr
Khalifat-ul-Rasūl - (Muhammad's viceregent)
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General Information
Family
Reign
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`Abd Allah al-Zubayr or ibn Zubayr (Arabic: عبد الله بن الزبير ‘Abdallāh ibn az-Zubayr; 624 - 692) was an Arab sahabi whose father was Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, and whose mother was Asma bint Abi Bakr, daughter of the first Caliph Abu Bakr. He was the nephew of Aisha, third wife of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad.
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[edit] Biography
He was a member of the Bani Assad tribe and was born one year and 8 months after the hijra of Muhammad to Madinah. As such, he was the first Muslim child born in Madinah.[1] As a young man, Abd Allah was an active participant in numerous Muslim campaigns against both the Byzantine and Sassanid empires. He marched to Sbeitla, Tunisia, the capital of self-proclaimed local emperor Gregory the Patrician. Gregory was defeated and killed in the Battle of Sufetula in 647 CE.
[edit] Ibn al-Zubayr's caliphate
Ibn al-Zubayr was not active in politics during the reign of Muawiyah I, but upon the ascension of Yazid I, he refused to swear allegiance to the new caliph. He advised Husayn bin Ali to make Makkah his base and fight against Yazid.[2]
When Husayn was killed in Karbala, Ibn al-Zubair collected the people of Makkah and made the following speech:
"O people! No other people are worse than Iraqis and among the Iraqis, the people of Kufa are the worst. They repeatedly wrote letters and called Imam Husayn to them and took bay'at (allegiance) for his caliphate. But when Ibn Zeyad arived in Kufa, they rallied around him and killed Imam Husayn who was pious, observed the fast, read the Quran and deserved the caliphate in all respects[1]
After his speech, the people of Makkah declared that no one deserved the caliphate more than Ibn al-Zubair and requested to take an oath of allegiance to his caliphate. When he heard about this, Yazid had a silver chain made and sent to Makkah with the intention of having Walid ibn Utbah arrest Ibn al-Zubair with it.[1]
One of his supporters, Muslim ibn Shihab, was the father of Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri who became a famous scholar.
Eventually he consolidated his power by sending a governor to Kufa. Soon, Ibn Zubayr established his power in Iraq, southern Arabia and in the greater part of Syria, and parts of Egypt. Ibn Zubayr benefitted greatly from widespread dissatisfaction among the populace with Umayyad rule. Yazid tried to end Ibn Zubayr's rebellion by invading the Hejaz, and took Medina after the bloody Battle of al-Harrah followed by the siege of Makkah but his sudden death ended the campaign and threw the Umayyads into disarray with civil war eventually breaking out.
[edit] Marwan
This essentially split the Islamic empire into two spheres with two different caliphs, but soon the Umayyad civil war was ended, and Ibn Zubayr lost Egypt and whatever he had of Syria to Marwan I. This coupled with the Kharijite rebellions in Iraq reduced his domain to only the Hejaz.
[edit] Abd al-Malik
Ibn Zubayr was finally defeated by Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, who sent Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf to reunite the Islamic empire. Hajjaj defeated and killed Ibn Zubayr on the battlefield in 692, beheading him and crucifying his body, reestablishing Umayyad control over the Islamic Empire.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
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Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr
Banu Asad
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| Sunni Islam titles | ||
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| Preceded by Muawiyah I |
Islam Caliph 684–692 |
Succeeded by Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan |
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