Second Fitna

The Second Fitna, or Second Islamic Civil War, was a period of general political and military disorder that afflicted the Islamic empire during the early Umayyad dynasty, following the death of the first Umayyad caliph Muawiyah I. There seems to be a lack of solid consensus on the exact range of years that define the conflict, with several different historians dating the Second Fitna differently. Some see the end of Muawiya's reign in 680 AD as marking the beginning of the period, while the year 683 (following the death of Muawiya's son the Caliph Yazid I) is cited by others. Similarly, the end is variously dated from 685 (after the ascension of Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan) to 692 (following the death of Ibn al-Zubair and the termination of  his revolt). The dates 683-685 seem to be the most commonly used.

The Second Fitna was a time of complexity in the Islamic world, involving a number of different occurrences that were seemingly not directly connected with one another. A brief sketch of the major events of the period may however be given as follows.

The first Umayyad Caliph Muawiya I was succeeded upon his death in 680 by his son, Yazid I. Yazid's first opposition came from supporters of Husayn ibn Ali, who was the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and the son of the former Caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib, who had been assassinated. Husayn and many of his closest supporters were killed by Yazid's troops at the Battle of Karbala. This battle is often cited as the definitive break between the Shi'a and  Sunni sects of Islam, and until this day it has been commemorated each year by Shi'a Muslims on the Day of Ashura.

Following these occurrences, Yazid faced a second revolt from Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, who was the son of a Sahabi, al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam and the son of Asma bint Abu Bakr. Ibn al-Zubayr's rebellion was seen by many as an attempt to return to the pristine values of the early Islamic community, and his revolt was welcomed by a number of parties that were unhappy with the Umayyad rule for various reasons. Following the sudden death of Yazid and his son Mu'awiya II in 683, Ibn al-Zubayr gained widespread recognition as caliph. In Syria Marwan ibn Hakim, a cousin of Mu'awiya I, was declared caliph. Marwan had a short reign dying in 685 but he was succeeded by his able son Abd al-Malik. Ibn al-Zubayr was isolated in the Tihamah and the Hejaz regions when Kharijite rebels established an independent state in central Arabia in 684.

Other Kharijite uprisings followed in Iraq and Iran, while Shias revolted in Kufa to avenge the death of Husayn and to promote another of Ali's sons as a candidate for caliph. Eventually, order was restored by Syrian forces supporting Abd al-Malik. He was able to defeat all of his various rivals, and his army killed Ibn al-Zubayr in 692, bringing this period of exceptional turbulence to an end.