“…I disown your so-called revelation, and I have made a solemn vow:
to lampoon you with satire until the day I die.
I make these eyes of mine behold what they have never seen;
we both know such tales are sheer delusion.”

The armies clashed. Ibn Ziyād was killed—ʿIbrāhīm ibn al-Ashʿar cut him clean in two. He was the champion of the Nakhaʿ and the foremost horseman of the Yemeni contingent; he entered Mosul and seized control of al-Jazīrah.

Al-Mukhtār then dispatched 4,000 cavalry in support of Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah. They spoke with Ibn al-Zubayr, escorted him out of the mountain pass, and remained in his service for several months, until word reached them that al-Mukhtār himself had been slain. Ibn al-Zubayr, having seen through his ruse, appointed his brother Muṣʿab to fight him.

Muḥammad ibn al-Ashʿath and Shabath (1) ibn Ribʿī arrived in Baṣrah, rallying the populace against “the liar.” Muṣʿab then engaged al-Mukhtār’s army. Ibn al-Ashʿath and ʿUbayd Allah ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib were killed, the Kufans broke ranks, and Muṣʿab shut them up inside the governor’s palace.

Al-Mukhtār would sally forth with his horsemen and fight, until he was slain by Ṭarīf al-Ḥanafī and his brother Ṭarrāf in Ramaḍān, 67 AH. They brought his head to Muṣʿab, who rewarded them with 30,000. Seven hundred men from both sides fell in the fighting. It was also said that al-Mukhtār had commanded 20,000 men.

Afterward Muṣʿab behaved treacherously: he guaranteed safety to a number of people in the governor’s palace, then had them killed in cold blood. ʿAmrah bint al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr was slaughtered with deliberate cruelty because she had testified that her husband al-Mukhtār was a righteous servant of Allah.

Al-Muḥallab ibn Abī Ṣufrah arrived to reinforce Muṣʿab with men and money.

When al-Mukhtār was deserted he said to his companion, “There is no escape from death, and how noble is the death of the valiant!” Provisions and water dwindled during the siege, and hunger gripped those in the palace. Al-Mukhtār charged out to meet death with nineteen fighters.

He called out, “Will you grant me security?”

They answered, “No—only if you submit to judgment.”

He replied, “I will never submit to …”