- Abd-Allah ibn al-Zubayr
Abd Allah al-Zubayr or Ibn Zubayr or Abdullah ibn az-Zubayr' (624 - 692) ( _ar. عبد الله بن الزبير) was a
sahabi whose father wasZubayr ibn al-Awwam the nephew ofAisha , wife ofMuhammad , and whose mother wasAsma bint Abu Bakr , daughter of the firstCaliph Abu Bakr .Biography
He was of the
Banu Asad . As a young man, Abdullah was an active participant in numerous Muslim campaigns against both the Byzantine andSassanid empires.He marched toSbeitla ,Tunisia, the capital of exarchate of Carthage KingGregory . Gregory was defeated and killed in the Battle of Sufetula in 647 CE.He also accompanied his father and
Aysha into battle againstAli at theBattle of Bassorah .Ibn al-Zubayr's revolt
Ibn al-Zubayr was not active in politics during the reign of
Muawiyah I , but upon the ascension ofYazid I , he refused to swear allegiance to the newcaliph .One of his supporters,
Muslim ibn Shihab , was the father ofIbn Shihab al-Zuhri who would become a famous scholar.Yazid
After the death of
Husayn bin Ali at theBattle of Karbela , Ibn Zubayr returned to theHejaz where he declared himself the righteous caliph, and he began building support. Eventually he would consolidate his power by sending a governor toKufa . Soon, Ibn Zubayr established his power inIraq , southernArabia and in the greater part ofSyria , and parts ofEgypt . 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, but his sudden death would end the campaign and throw the Umayyads into disarray with civil war eventually breaking out.Marwan
This would essentially split the Islamic empire into two spheres with two different caliphs, but it would not last long. The Umayyad civil war would be settled, and Zubayr would lose Egypt and whatever he had left of Syria to
Marwan I . This coupled with theKharijite rebellions in Iraq dwindled his control down to only theHejaz .Abd al-Malik
Ibn Zubayr would finally be defeated by
Abd al-Malik who would sendAl-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf to reunite the Islamic empire. Hajjaj would defeat and kill Ibn Zubayr on the battlefield in 692, beheading him and crucifying his body, reestablishingUmayyad control over the Islamic Empire.ee also
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Islam
*Sahaba External links
* [http://www.themuslimhistory.info/INenglish/ImamNcal/Chap11.htm Reference from Islamic history website]
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