—among them the deputy of Ibn al-Zubayr. He killed a number of those who had fought al-Ḥusayn, putting to death Shimr ibn Dhī al-Jawshan and ʿUmar ibn Saʿd, while asserting: “Gabriel comes down to me with revelation.”

He then forged a letter in the name of Ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah, addressed to himself, commanding him to aid the Shiʿah. Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ashtar rose up with his clan, killed the chief of police, and Mukhtār was delighted; his position grew stronger. They encamped at Dayr Hind, where the deputy of Ibn al-Zubayr fought them, but he soon lost heart and went into hiding, while Mukhtār turned to administering justice and governing well.

Mukhtār sent the deputy some money and told him, “Make your escape.”

He found in the public treasury seven million dirhams, which he spent on his army. He then wrote to Ibn al-Zubayr: “I saw that your governor was currying favor with the Umayyads, so I could not keep him in office.”

Ibn al-Zubayr was taken in and wrote appointing him governor of Kūfa. Mukhtār equipped Ibn al-Ashtar to march against ʿUbayd Allah ibn Ziyād toward the end of 66 AH, sending with him a chair mounted on a dapple-gray mule.

Mukhtār said, “This contains a secret; it is a sign for you, just as the Ark was for the Children of Israel.”

The troops clustered round it, invoking Allah, which pained Ibn al-Ashtar, and he said:
“O Allah, do not hold us to account for what the fools among us have done—just as the Children of Israel clung to the calf.”

Tufayl ibn Jaʿdah ibn Hubayrah relates:
“I had a neighbor who sold oil and possessed a chair. When I fell into hardship (1) I said to Mukhtār, ‘I have been hiding something from you, and now I shall reveal it.’

He asked, ‘What is it?’

I replied, ‘A chair on which my father used to sit; he believed it held a remnant of knowledge.’

He exclaimed, ‘Glory be to Allah! Why did you keep it from me?’

The chair was brought, covered with a cloth. Mukhtār ordered that I be given twelve thousand, and he summoned the people to a congregational prayer. When they had gathered, he proclaimed:
‘Nothing befell the nations of old without its like occurring among you. The Children of Israel had the Ark, and among us there is…’