Thus Ibn al-Zubayr rebuilt it in precisely that fashion, just as his aunt ʿĀʾishah, Mother of the Believers, had transmitted to him from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ—may Allah reward him well. When al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf later overpowered him in the year 73 AH, as will be mentioned, he demolished the northern wall, removed the Ḥijr so that it returned to its original position, and inserted the stones he had taken down into the interior of the Kaʿbah, packing them tightly. In consequence the doorway was raised and the western (1) entrance was sealed, and the traces of that alteration remain to this day. He did so at the order of ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān, who had not yet heard the ḥadith; once it reached him he said, “We would have preferred to leave it as it was and not meddle with what he had done.”

The caliph al-Mahdī ibn al-Manṣūr then considered returning it to the form in which Ibn al-Zubayr had built it. He consulted Imām Mālik ibn Anas, who replied, “I dislike that the caliphs should turn it into a plaything”—meaning that they would tamper with its structure according to their own views: one approving Ibn al-Zubayr’s opinion, another siding with ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān, and yet another holding some different view. Allah knows best.

Ibn Jarīr says: During this same year ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Zubayr led the people in the ḥajj. His governor over Madinah was his brother ʿUbaydah (2); over Kufah, ʿAbd Allah ibn Yazīd al-Khatmī, with Saʿīd ibn Nimrād (3) as its judge—Shurayḥ having refused to adjudicate during the civil strife; over Basrah, ʿUmar [ibn ʿUbayd Allah] ibn Maʿmar al-Tamīmī (4), with Hishām ibn Hubayrah as its judge; and over Khurasan, ʿAbd Allah ibn Khāzim.

Late in that year the Battle of Marj Rāhiṭ took place, as noted above. The rule of Syria was then firmly secured for Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam after his defeat and killing of al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Qays in that engagement.

It is also said that in the same year Marwān entered Egypt and seized it from its deputy appointed by Ibn al-Zubayr, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Jahdam (5); thus Marwān’s authority was firmly established over Syria and Egypt and their provinces. Allah knows best.

[Al-Wāqidī relates: When Ibn al-Zubayr resolved to demolish the House, he consulted the people about it. Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allah and ʿUbayd Allah ibn ʿUmayr advised him to proceed, whereas Ibn ʿAbbās said, “I fear that someone will come after you and pull it down again, so it will keep being demolished until people take its sanctity lightly. In my view you should repair whatever has become unsound and leave the House upon which the people first accepted Islam and the stones upon which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was sent.” Ibn al-Zubayr replied, “If one of your own houses were burned down, you would not rest until you rebuilt it—so how about the House