The First Dynasty of Islam: The Umayyad Caliphate ad 661-750

Gesammelte
Schriften,
 v, 164–7; M.A.J.Beg, ‘Mu‘awiya: a critical survey’, 
IC,
 51
(1977).
 

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46
Chapter 4
 
The Second Civil War
 
The second civil war
1
 is sometimes called the 
fitna
 of Ibn al-Zubayr
because the struggle between the Umayyads and Ibn al-Zubayr is the
main theme which runs through it from its gradual beginnings
during the caliphate of Yazid b. Mu‘awiya until its conclusion with
the death of Ibn al-Zubayr probably in 692. It contains, however, a
number of other events or episodes which are only loosely
connected with each other and with the struggle between the
Umayyads and Ibn al-Zubayr. Put in a general way, tensions and
pressures which had been suppressed by Mu‘awiya came to the
surface during Yazid’s caliphate and erupted after his death, when
Umayyad authority was temporarily eclipsed. With the
reestablishment of the line of Umayyad caliphs, in the persons of
Marwan (684–5) and his son ‘Abd al-Malik (685–705), Umayyad
authority was gradually reimposed.
The two fundamental facts which provided the immediate
opportunity for the outbreak of the second civil war were, firstly, the
refusal of certain leading Muslims to accept Yazid as caliph and,
secondly, the failure of the Sufyanids to supply suitable candidates
for the caliphate after the death of Yazid.
Firstly, as we have seen, Mu‘awiya’s attempt to secure, during his
own lifetime, recognition of his son Yazid as his successor, although
not opposed by the Arab tribesmen, was rejected by a small group of
prominent Muslims. They were all members of Quraysh with some
claim to be considered as caliphal candidates themselves, and they
were all resident in Medina. For our purposes, the two most
important of them are ‘Abd Allah b. al-Zubayr, son of a leading
companion of Muhammad who had been killed after fighting against
‘Ali at the battle of the Camel in the first civil war, and Husayn b.
‘Ali, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and leader of the
descendants of ‘Ali after the death of his elder brother Hasan who
had not pursued his own claims to the imamate after Mu‘awiya’s
victory over ‘Ali. When Yazid succeeded Mu‘awiya in 680 he made

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The Second Civil War 
47
renewed attempts to secure recognition from these men, but Ibn al-
Zubayr and Husayn eluded the Umayyad governor of Medina and
fled to Mecca.
2
Secondly, the Sufyanid line petered out after the death of Yazid in
683. Yazid was succeeded by his son Mu‘awiya II, but the latter
never enjoyed much authority and may have been rejected outside
central and southern Syria. Some reports talk of his ill health, others
stress his comparative youthfulness, and in any case he survived his
father only by a few months. Although the chronology of the period
is quite obscure, it seems likely that many former supporters of the
Umayyads had already decided to seek a caliph elsewhere even
while Mu‘awiya II still lived. Other possibilities from among the
Sufyanid branch were deemed unsuitable, and eventually those who
still supported the Umayyads turned to Marwan of the Abu ‘l-‘As
branch of the family, although the choice may not have been as
obvious as his descendants tried to portray it. It was the doubts about
the continuation of Umayyad rule, associated with the failure of the
Sufyanid line, which enabled the various religious, political and
tribal tensions to develop into civil war.
3
The main theme of this civil war, then, was the attempt by ‘Abd
Allah b. al-Zubayr to establish himself as caliph or commander of
the faithful, and the subsequent struggle for supremacy between him
and the Umayyads. Although he refused to accept Yazid as caliph,
tradition has it that Ibn al-Zubayr did not in fact put himself forward
for the office until after Yazid’s death. Before that event he merely
remained in Mecca, calling himself ‘the fugitive at the sanctuary’