Then came the year 72 AH.

During that year a fierce engagement took place between al-Muhallab ibn Abī Ṣufrah and the Arāriqa faction of the Khārijites at a place called Sulāf ⦗1⦘. The two sides then remained in a standoff for about eight months, fighting a series of battles whose full details would be lengthy to relate; al-Ṭabarī has recorded them in full ⦗2⦘. In the course of that period Muṣʿab ibn al-Zubayr was killed, after which the people pledged their allegiance to ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān. ʿAbd al-Malik confirmed al-Muhallab ibn Abī Ṣufrah in command over al-Ahwāz and its surrounding districts, thanked him for his efforts, and praised him profusely.

Subsequently, still in ʿAbd al-Malik’s reign, fighting broke out in al-Ahwāz, and the people inflicted a crushing defeat upon the Khārijites. The rebels fled across the land without looking back, while Khālid ibn ʿAbd Allāh, the commander of the army, together with Dāwūd ibn Qaḥdham ⦗3⦘, pursued them. ʿAbd al-Malik wrote to his brother Bishr ibn Marwān, asking him to reinforce the army with four thousand men; Bishr accordingly dispatched four thousand under the command of ʿAtāb ibn Waraqāʾ. They drove the Khārijites into full retreat, but the army suffered grievously: their horses perished, and most of the men returned to their families on foot. Allah’s help is sought.

Ibn Jarīr ⦗4⦘ relates: In this same year Abū Fudayk al-Ḥārithī—of the clan of Qays ibn Thaʿlabah—rose in revolt, seized Bahrain, and killed Najdah ibn ʿĀmir al-Ḥārithī ⦗5⦘. Khālid ibn ʿAbd Allāh, governor of Basra, sent his brother Umayya ibn ʿAbd Allāh at the head of a large force against him, but Abū Fudayk routed them, captured one of Umayya’s slave-girls, and kept her for himself. Khālid then wrote to ʿAbd al-Malik informing him of what had occurred. Thus Khālid found himself having to wage war on Abū Fudayk while still engaged against the Azāriqa, the followers of Qaṭarī ibn al-Fujāʾa, in al-Ahwāz.

Ibn Jarīr ⦗6⦘ also says: In that year ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān dispatched al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf al-Thaqafī to besiege ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr in Mecca. He explains that the reason the caliph chose al-Ḥajjāj over others was that, when ʿAbd al-Malik was about to return to Syria after killing Muṣʿab and securing Iraq, he called upon the people to fight ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr in Mecca, but none came forward. Al-Ḥajjāj then rose and said, “Commander of the Faithful, I am the man for the task,” and he related to ʿAbd al-Malik a dream in which he claimed that he had seen