—on the day of ʿĀshūrāʾ.

At daybreak the al-Musawwida (the men in black) discovered that their commander, Qaḥṭabah, was missing. They drew his body from the river, buried him, and appointed his son al-Ḥasan ibn Qaḥṭabah in his place. He led them toward Kūfah, which they too entered on the day of ʿĀshūrāʾ, whereupon its governor Ziyād ibn Ṣāliḥ fled to Wāsiṭ.

The administration of Kūfah on behalf of the Musawwida was entrusted to Abū Salamah al-Khallāl.

Ibn Qaḥṭabah and Ḥāzim ibn Khuzaymah then advanced and encamped before Wāsiṭ, digging a defensive trench around their position. Ibn Hubayrah marshalled his armies and met them in battle, but his troops were broken and withdrew into Wāsiṭ.

Those killed in the engagement included Yazīd, the brother of al-Ḥasan ibn Qaḥṭabah, and Ḥakīm ibn al-Musayyab al-Jadalī.

During Muḥarram, Abū Muslim executed a number of people, among them Ibn al-Karmānī. He ascended the throne, received their pledges, delivered a sermon, and called for allegiance to al-Saffāḥ.

On the third day of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, al-Saffāḥ was proclaimed caliph in Kūfah, in the house of his client al-Walīd ibn Saʿd.

Caliph Marwān set out with one hundred thousand cavalry and halted at al-Zabayn (1), short of Mosul, intent on Iraq.

Al-Saffāḥ dispatched his uncle ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī against him. The battle was fought at Kushāf in Jumādā al-Ākhirah; Marwān was defeated, fell back, crossed the Euphrates, cut the bridge behind him, and made for Syria to regroup for a second encounter.

ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī pressed the pursuit, drove him from Damascus, besieged it, and after a few days captured the city. He put the sword to it, killing in three hours nearly fifty thousand men, most of them from the Umayyad army.

Thus their days came to an end. Marwān fled to Egypt with a small force. The pursuers overtook him at the village of Būṣīr, where he fought until he was slain. His head was carried around the provinces, and his two sons escaped to the land of Nubia.