he had seized ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr and skinned him alive. “Send me against him,” he added, “and I shall kill him.” So ʿAbd al-Malik dispatched him with a large contingent of Syrians and sent with him a letter guaranteeing safety to the people of Mecca, provided that they obeyed him.
They relate that al-Ḥajjāj set out in the month of Jumādā of that same year with two thousand Syrian horsemen. He followed the Iraqi route, made no attempt on Medina, and halted at al-Ṭāʾif. From there he kept sending detachments toward ʿArafah, and Ibn al-Zubayr would send out cavalry to meet them; whenever the two forces met, Ibn al-Zubayr’s horsemen were routed and those of al-Ḥajjāj prevailed.
Al-Ḥajjāj then wrote to ʿAbd al-Malik seeking permission to enter the sacred precinct and besiege Ibn al-Zubayr, for, he said, Ibn al-Zubayr’s power had been blunted, [his followers had grown weary], and the greater part of his companions had dispersed. He also asked to be reinforced with additional men. Accordingly, ʿAbd al-Malik wrote to Ṭāriq ibn ʿAmr, ordering him to join al-Ḥajjāj with the troops in his charge. Ṭāriq, who was governing Medina for the caliph, had already been told to remain stationed in Wādī al-Qurā with the forces of Medina and others—about five thousand Syrians. (1)
Al-Ḥajjāj marched out of al-Ṭāʾif and encamped at Biʾr Maymūn, hemming Ibn al-Zubayr inside the Mosque. When Dhū al-Ḥijjah arrived, al-Ḥajjāj led the people in the pilgrimage of that year, he and his men bearing arms while standing on ʿArafāt and throughout the other rites. Ibn al-Zubayr, being besieged, was unable to perform the ḥajj that year; instead he slaughtered a sacrificial camel on the Day of Sacrifice, and [many of those with him were likewise unable to perform the pilgrimage], as were many of al-Ḥajjāj’s own followers. Ṭāriq ibn ʿAmr prevented them from performing ṭawāf around the House, so they remained in the state of iḥrām and never attained the second release. Al-Ḥajjāj and his troops were camped between al-Ḥajūn and Biʾr Maymūn. To Allah we belong and to Him we return.
Ibn Jarīr (2) says: In this same year ʿAbd al-Malik wrote to ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khāzim, governor of Khurasan, inviting him to pledge allegiance and granting him Khurasan for seven years. When the letter reached him he said to the messenger (3), “Did Abū al-Dhibān send you? By Allah, were it not that emissaries may not be killed I would kill you—so eat his letter!” Thereupon the man swallowed it.
ʿAbd al-Malik also wrote to Bukayr ibn Wishāḥ, Ibn Khāzim’s deputy in Marw, promising him the governorship of Khurasan if he would depose ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khāzim. Bukayr duly deposed him, whereupon Ibn Khāzim returned and fought him. In the ensuing battle the governor of Khurasan, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khāzim, was killed by a man named Waqīʿ ibn ʿUmayrah, though others had assisted him. Waqīʿ sat astride his chest while he still had some life in him; Ibn Khāzim tried to rise but could not. Waqīʿ kept shouting, “Vengeance for Duwaylah!”—meaning his brother—[for Duwaylah had been killed by Ibn Khāzim]. (4) Ibn Khāzim spat in his face, and Waqīʿ later said, “I have never seen a man produce more spittle than he did in that condition.”
Whenever Ibn Hubayrah (5) retold this story he would say, “By Allah, that is real bravery.” Ibn Khāzim meanwhile said to Waqīʿ, “Woe to you! Will you kill me for your brother’s sake? May Allah curse you! Will you slaughter the Ram of Miṣr for the sake of that peasant of a brother? He was not worth a handful of earth—or, he said, a handful of date-stones.”