Talḥah ibn ʿUbayd Allah over the land tax; both provincial garrison-towns (1) now stood solidly behind him. He then wrote to the people of Egypt, who in turn pledged allegiance to him, and he appointed ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Jahdar as his deputy there. Al-Jazīrah and the regions of Syria likewise obeyed him, all save Damascus and its Jordanian districts, whose inhabitants pledged their loyalty to Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam.

When Ḥuṣayn ibn Numayr returned from Mecca to Syria, a company of Khārijites had already gathered around ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Zubayr to defend him. Among them were Nāfiʿ ibn al-Azraq, ʿAbd Allah ibn Ibāḍ, and several other leading figures. Once Ibn al-Zubayr’s position as caliph grew firm, they said among themselves, “We were mistaken; we fought alongside this man without knowing his view of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān”—whom they detested. They therefore assembled before him and asked about ʿUthmān. His reply displeased them: he spoke of ʿUthmān’s faith, sincerity, justice, benevolence, sterling conduct, and readiness to return to the truth whenever it became clear to him. At that they recoiled, broke away, and headed toward Iraq and Khurāsān. There they scattered—physically and doctrinally—into diverse sects and paths too numerous and diffuse to catalogue, for they were rooted in ignorance, self-assertion, and unsound belief. Even so, they managed to seize control of many towns and districts, only to be stripped of them later on, as we shall recount in due course, God willing.

The Allegiance to Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam (2)

The chain of events was as follows: when Ḥuṣayn ibn Numayr returned from the Ḥijāz, when ʿUbayd Allah ibn Ziyād left Basra for Syria, and when the Umayyads moved from Medina to Syria, they all gathered around Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam after the death of Muʿāwiyah ibn Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiyah. Marwān had been intent on pledging allegiance to Ibn al-Zubayr in Damascus; indeed, the city’s inhabitants had already sworn to al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Qays on the understanding that he would maintain order among them until the people united behind a single imam, and al-Ḍaḥḥāk himself intended to pledge to Ibn al-Zubayr. Likewise, al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr had pledged to him in Ḥimṣ, Zufar ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Kilābī in Qinnasrīn (3), and Nātal (4) ibn Qays in Palestine after expelling Rūḥ ibn Zunbāʿ al-Judhāmī. ʿUbayd Allah ibn Ziyād and Ḥuṣayn ibn Numayr persisted with Marwān until they turned him from his resolve and warned him of Ibn al-Zubayr’s possible ascendancy in Syria. They said, “You are the senior and leader of Quraysh; you are the one most entitled to this authority.”

[Thus he withdrew from pledging to Ibn al-Zubayr. Ibn Ziyād, fearing destruction should power pass to any but the Umayyads, thereupon] (5) united with all these men, together with the Umayyads and the people of Yemen, around Marwān. He accepted their proposal, remarking, “Nothing has been lost.”