except that I make expiation for my oath and adopt what is better. As for presenting a thousand camels in sacrifice, that is a trifling matter; and as for freeing my slaves, I would gladly see this cause of mine firmly established even if I no longer owned a single slave. (1)

The Shīʿah then rallied to him, his followers increased, and they pledged allegiance to him in secret. The five men who collected that pledge and stirred the people for him were al-Sāʾib ibn Mālik al-Ashʿarī, Yazīd ibn Anas, Aḥmar (2) ibn Shumayṭ, Rifāʿah ibn Shaddād, and ʿAbd Allah ibn Shaddād al-Jushamī.

His movement kept growing stronger, firmer, and more formidable until Ibn al-Zubayr removed ʿAbd Allah ibn Yazīd and Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṭalḥah from Kūfah, appointing ʿAbd Allah ibn Muṭīʿ in their place and dispatching al-Ḥārith ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Abī Rabīʿah as deputy over Baṣrah.

When ʿAbd Allah ibn Muṭīʿ al-Makhzūmī entered Kūfah in Ramaḍān of the year 65 AH, he addressed the people, saying in his sermon:
‘The Commander of the Faithful, ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, has ordered me to govern you according to the conduct of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb and ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān.’

Al-Sāʾib ibn Mālik, a Shīʿī partisan, (4) rose and replied, ‘We will accept nothing but the conduct of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, the very rule he applied among us. We do not want the policy of ʿUthmān’—and he spoke against him—‘nor that of ʿUmar, even though he wished only good for the people.’ Some of the Shīʿah leaders endorsed what he had said.

The governor kept silent and responded, ‘I shall govern you in whichever of those ways you prefer.’

The chief of police—Iyās ibn Muḍārib al-ʿIjlī (6)—then came to Ibn Muṭīʿ and said, ‘The man who answered you is one of the leading followers of al-Mukhtār. I do not feel safe from al-Mukhtār. Send for him and return him to prison, for my informants tell me that his cause is now fully prepared, and it is as though he is about to rise up in the city.’

So Ibn Muṭīʿ sent Zāʾidah ibn Qudāmah together with another officer (7). They entered upon al-Mukhtār and said, ‘Respond to the governor.’ He called for his clothes, ordered his mount to be saddled, and made ready to go with them.

Zāʾidah ibn Qudāmah then recited: ‘And [remember] when those who disbelieved plotted against you, to detain you, kill you, or expel you’ (al-Anfāl 8:30). Whereupon al-Mukhtār threw himself down, ordered a cloak to be cast over him, and feigned illness, saying, ‘Inform the governor of my condition.’ They returned to Ibn Muṭīʿ and excused him; he believed them and let the matter drop.

When Muḥarram of that same year arrived, al-Mukhtār resolved—so he claimed—to rise and avenge al-Ḥusayn. Once he had firmly decided, the Shīʿah gathered round him and dissuaded him from rising at that moment, counseling him to wait for another time. They then sent a group of them to Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah to ask about al-Mukhtār’s affair and the mission to which he was calling them (8).

When they met him, the substance of what he said was, ‘We do not object to Allah aiding us through whomsoever He wills…’