Musʿab ibn az-Zubair

Musʿab ibn az-Zubair ibn al-ʿAuwām ( Arabic مصعب بن الزبير بن العوام, DMG Muṣʿab b. az-Zubair b. al-ʿAuwām ; † 691 near Maskin ) was the most important military leader of the counter-caliph Abdallah ibn az-Zubair (684-691).

After the proclamation of Abdallah az-Zubair as the new caliph in Mecca and the outbreak of the civil war with the Umayyads , his brother Musab ibn az-Zubair quickly rose to become the most important military leader. An attack on Palestine failed in 685 , but with the support of Iraqi troops he was able to fend off an Umayyad campaign in the Hejaz .

Already 686 Musab became governor in Iraq appointed to the uprising of Mukhtar fight. With the help of the Arab tribal aristocracy, he was also able to achieve success quickly and, after the death of Muchtar in 687, bring all of Iraq under his rule. However, the fighting with the Kharijites / Azraqites in southern Iran continued. Really decisive victories could not be achieved. Rather, the Kharijites also spread to Eastern Arabia, Oman and Yemen.

Distracted by these fights, Musab was unable to fight the Umayyads, his real main opponents. As the Umayyads under Abd al-Malik in 691 , Musab ibn az-Zubair fell at the Battle of Maskin after part of his troops had withdrawn from the battlefield.

This also sealed the end of his brother Abdallah, who now died without support from other parts of the caliphate in 692 in the battle for Mecca.

literature

• Gernot Rotter: The Umayyads and the Second Civil War , Kommissionsverlag Franz Steiner GmbH, Wiesbaden 1982.