Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf

Justinian, emboldened by the increase of his forces in Asia Minor, now renews the war against the Arabs, provoking them into attacking the eastern frontier over a disagreement concerning Cypriot policy.

The Umayyad army is led by Muhammad ibn Marwan, brother of the Caliph, and included the minister of defense, the famously known Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf.

The imperial forcers are led by Leontios and include a "special army" of thirty thousand resettled Slavs under their leader Neboulos.

Justinian’s new troops help him to win a battle against the Caliphate in Armenia in 691, but they are soon bribed to revolt by the Arabs.

The Umayyads, incensed at the breaking of the treaty, use copies of its texts in the place of a flag.

Although the battle seems to be tilting to the imperial advantage, the defection of upwards of twenty thousand Slavs ensures a Roman defeat.

Arabia, having lost its political primacy with the ruling Umayyads' transfer of the caliphate to the more centrally located Damascus, suffers growing disunity by 692.

The only remaining center of opposition to Umayyad rule is the now aging anticaliph, Ibn az-Zubayr, who Caliph Abd al-Malik publicly chides for his temerity.

The Caliph had charged his famous general al-Ḥajjaj first to negotiate with ibn al-Zubayr and to assure him of freedom from punishment if he capitulated but, if the opposition continued, to starve him out by siege, but on no account to let the affair result in bloodshed in Mecca.

Since the negotiations failed and al-Ḥajjāj lost patience, he had sent a courier to ask Abd al-Malik for reinforcements and also for permission to take the city by force.

Al-Ḥajjaj had received both.

Angered at being prevented by Ibn al-Zubayr from performing Hajj, al-Ḥajjaj bombards Mecca, going so far as to target the Ka’bah and its pilgrims during the Hajj.

After the siege had lasted seven months and ten thousand men (among them two of ibn az-Zubayr's sons) had gone over to al-Ḥajjaj, Ibn al-Zubayr and loyal followers, including his youngest son, are killed in the fighting around the Ka’bah in October 692.

Al-Ḥajjaj's siege of the Hijaz has resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent inhabitants.

While subsequently governing the Hijaz, al-Ḥajjaj will be known for his severe rule.

The Muslim community is finally unified.

Campaigns against the Kharajites begin to prove successful  only after 'Abd al-Malik appoints al-Hajjaj to govern Basra, but …

Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, governor of the Muslim caliphate’s eastern provinces, sends his celebrated Peacock Army (so named for its colorful uniforms) into the region of present southeastern Afghanistan to regain the Muslim position after the Afghans had checked the advance of a smaller force.

Al-Hajjaj, leading his Syrian troops, defeats the Kharajites also in 697.

The movement, however, remains strong, especially among the Bakr tribes between Mosul and Kufah.

Now governor of all the eastern province, Al-Hajjaj is a ruthless and efficient administrator, intent upon pacifying all the provinces entrusted to him by 'Abd al-Malik.

A great Muslim army, led by an Arab aristocrat, Ibn al-Ash'ath, and operating in the Afghanistan region, mutinies, swears allegiance to its commander, and turns back to Iraq.

With the aid of Syrian reinforcements, al-Hajjaj is able to defeat the rebels; their leader will be murdered in 704 in Afghanistan.

Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn al-Ash‘ath, commonly simply Ibn al-Ash‘ath, the scion of a distinguished family of the Kindaite tribal nobility, had played a minor role in the Second Islamic Civil War (680–692) and subsequently served as governor of Rayy.

After the appointment of al-Hajjaj as governor of Iraq and the entire eastern Caliphate in 694, relations between the haughty and overbearing al-Hajjaj and the Iraqi nobility had quickly become strained.

Nevertheless, in 699 or 700, al-Hajjaj had appointed Ibn al-Ash'ath as commander of a huge Iraqi army, the so-called "Peacock Army", to subdue the troublesome principality of Zabulistan, whose ruler, the Zunbil, has vigorously resisted Arab expansion.

After suppressing the Afghans, Ibn al-Ash‘ath receives orders from al-Hajjaj to stay in the area indefinitely.

Defying the order, as well as al-Hajjaj’s insistence on individual tribal homage, al-Ash'ath marches back to Mesopotamia, collecting supporters of his rebellion as he travels.

His army engages troops of al-Hajjaj at Tustar in January 701, defeats them, and moves southward.

The Peacock Army, under Ibn al-Ash'ath's leadership, returns to Iraq, where it defeats al-Hajjaj, who flees to Basra, and seizes Kufa.

Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath takes Basra in March, 701.

Abdallah is sent, along with his uncle, Muhammad ibn Marwan, to Iraq to aid al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf in subduing the rebellion of Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath in 701.

The revolt gains widespread support among religious scholars known as kurra ("Quran readers"), and develops from a mutiny to a widespread anti-Umayyad rebellion.

Caliph Abd al-Malik tries to negotiate terms, including the dismissal of al-Hajjaj, but hardliners among the rebel leadership pressure Ibn al-Ash'ath into rejecting the Caliph's terms.

Al-Hajjaj and Ibn al-Ash'ath's troops skirmish with each other for several months.

In the subsequent Battle of Dayr al-Jamajim, the rebel army is decisively defeated by al-Hajjaj's Syrian troops in April 701.

Al-Hajjaj pursues the survivors, who under Ibn al-Ash'ath flee to the East.

Most of the rebels are captured by the governor of Khurasan, while Ibn al-Ash'ath himself flees to Zabulistan.

His fate is unclear, as some accounts hold that, after long pressure from al-Hajjaj to surrender him, the Zunbil executed him, while others claim that he committed suicide to avoid being handed over to his enemies.

The defeat marks the end of not only the rebellion but also of the power and influence of the Iraqi Arabs: Iraq is garrisoned by Syrian troops and comes under tight control by the Syrian-dominated Umayyad government.

It will not be until the Abbasid period and the foundation of Baghdad that Iraq will regain its prominence.