been concealing: that we summon people to obey Ibn al-Zubayr and fight for that cause.

Al-Ḍaḥḥāk therefore turned back with those who were with him and returned to Damascus, where he remained with the contingents of Qays and everyone who had rallied to them. He sent word to the commanders of the provincial armies, secured the people’s oath of allegiance to Ibn al-Zubayr, and wrote to Ibn al-Zubayr to inform him of what he had done. Ibn al-Zubayr mentioned him appreciatively to the people of Mecca, thanked him for his action, and appointed him governor of Syria.

Some, however, say that al-Ḍaḥḥāk actually had the people swear allegiance to himself as caliph; Allah knows best which account is true.

Al-Madāʾinī reports that al-Ḍaḥḥāk at first called the people to pledge to Ibn al-Zubayr, but ʿUbayd Allah ibn Ziyād then urged him to seek the oath for himself. Ibn Ziyād did so only out of guile and spite, to ruin al-Ḍaḥḥāk’s undertaking. Al-Ḍaḥḥāk accordingly invited the people to pledge to him for three days.

The people resented this and said, “You summoned us to pledge allegiance to one man; we complied. Then, without any cause or excuse, you deposed him and now you call us to pledge to yourself?” Al-Ḍaḥḥāk therefore returned to the pledge for Ibn al-Zubayr, but by doing so he lost standing with the people—exactly as Ibn Ziyād had intended.

ʿUbayd Allah ibn Ziyād had met with al-Ḍaḥḥāk after first meeting Marwān and encouraging Marwān to claim the caliphate for himself. He then left Marwān in order to deceive al-Ḍaḥḥāk, lodged with him in Damascus, and visited him daily. Ibn Ziyād advised al-Ḍaḥḥāk to leave Damascus for the open country and there summon the armies to join him, saying that this would give him a firmer grip. Al-Ḍaḥḥāk therefore rode to Marj Rāhiṭ and encamped there with his troops.

At that very time the Umayyads and their followers converged in the Jordan district, and the clansmen of Ḥassān ibn Mālik of Banū Kalb who lived there joined them.

When Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam saw how the allegiance to Ibn al-Zubayr had solidified and power was moving into his hands, he resolved to travel to him, offer him his own allegiance, and secure safe-conduct for the Umayyads. He made his way as far as Adhriʿāt, where he met Ibn Ziyād coming from Iraq. Ibn Ziyād turned him from that purpose and belittled his judgment. ʿAmr ibn Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ, Ḥuṣayn ibn Numayr, Ibn Ziyād, the Yemenis, and many others gathered around him and said:

“You are the elder and chief of Quraysh; Khālid ibn Yazīd is but a youth, while ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Zubayr is already an old man. Iron is only met by iron—do not match yourself against that lad. Put your own throat against his, and we shall pledge allegiance to you. Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched out his hand and they pledged allegiance to him at al-Jābiya on Wednesday, the third of Dhu al-Qaʿda in the year 64 AH, as al-Wāqidī relates.

Once his position was secure, he marched with his forces toward al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Qays. They met at Marj Rāhiṭ, where Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam defeated and killed him and inflicted upon Qays a massacre the like of which had never been heard of, as will be detailed at the beginning of the year 65 AH. Al-Wāqidī and others say that this battle took place in Muḥarram of 65 AH.

In another report, transmitted by Muḥammad ibn Saʿd from al-Wāqidī and others, it is said that the battle occurred toward the end of that same year.

Al-Layth ibn Saʿd, al-Wāqidī, al-Madāʾinī, Abū Sulaymān ibn Yazīd, Abū ʿUbayd and several others maintain that the Battle of Marj Rāhiṭ took place on the fifteenth of Dhu al-Ḥijja in the year 64 AH. Allah—glorified and exalted—is most knowing.