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Battle of Khazir

The Battle of Khazir (Arabic: يوم الخازر, romanizedYawm Khāzir) took place in August 686 near the Khazir River in Mosul's eastern environs, in modern-day Iraq. The battle occurred during the Second Muslim Civil War and was part of the larger struggle for control of Iraq between the Syria-based Umayyad Caliphate, the Kufa-based pro-Alid forces of Mukhtar al-Thaqafi, and the Mecca-based caliphate of Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr. It ended in a rout for the Umayyads and the expansion of Mukhtar's rule into the region of Mosul.

The Muslim civil war left the Umayyad realm restricted to Damascus and its environs after most of their territories came under Ibn al-Zubayr's orbit. However, an Umayyad resurgence began with the accession of Caliph Marwan I, who dispatched an army led by Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad to reconquer Iraq. This army's advance into Mosul precipitated the Battle of Khazir and its commander, Ubayd Allah, was an enemy of Mukhtar's pro-Alid partisans. Thus, Mukhtar quickly moved to halt the Umayyad advance, sending his Persian mawālī-dominated forces led by Ibrahim ibn al-Ashtar to confront the predominantly Syrian Arab army of the Umayyads. During the initial combat, part of Ibn al-Ashtar's forces were put to flight, but then regrouped under his command and charged against the Umayyad center. This resulted in heavy casualties on both sides and Ubayd Allah and several of his lieutenants were slain. The Umayyad commander Umayr ibn al-Hubab and his Sulaymi tribesmen deserted while the pro-Alids pursued the remaining Umayyad troops, scores of whom drowned in the Khazir River.


Khazir was a major setback for the Umayyads, who did not launch another invasion of Iraq until 691. However, Mukhtar's victory was short-lived as he was killed a year later when the Zubayrids took over Kufa. Meanwhile, the blood feud between the Qaysi and Yamani tribal elements of the Umayyad Caliphate intensified due to Umayr's mid-battle defection and subsequent spearheading of attacks against the tribes of Taghlib and Kalb. In these later battles, the Kalb were led by Humayd ibn Hurayth al-Kalbi, an Umayyad commander who survived Khazir.

Background[edit]

The Umayyad Caliphate was shaken by the deaths of Caliph Yazid I and his successor Mu'awiya II in 683 and 684, respectively, amid the Second Muslim Civil War.[1] In the aftermath, they lost authority over Iraq (the part of Mesopotamia south of Tikrit[2]) while the governors of northern Syria and Palestine switched their allegiance to Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, the anti-Umayyad claimant to the caliphate.[3] These and other defections restricted Umayyad rule to the region of Damascus.[3] After the Umayyad governor of Iraq, Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad, was forced out of his province, he left for Damascus to prop up Umayyad rule.[4] As a result of his efforts and the consensus of loyalist Arab tribes, later collectively known as the "Yaman", the Umayyad elder, Marwan ibn al-Hakam, became caliph in June 684.[3]


In August 684, the Umayyads and their tribal allies routed the pro-Zubayrid Qaysi tribes at the Battle of Marj Rahit.[3] The Umayyad victory brought all of Syria under Marwan's authority,[3] but also led to the long-running feud between Qays and Yaman.[5] Later, Marwan dispatched an army led by Ubayd Allah to wrest back Iraq.[3][6] Control of that region was split by a number of anti-Umayyad factions, including the partisans of Mukhtar al-Thaqafi, other pro-Alids (supporters of Caliph Ali and his family) and Ibn al-Zubayr.[6] Marwan promised Ubayd Allah the governorship of all the territories that he conquered.[6] In early January 685, Ubayd Allah was mobilizing his troops at the Euphrates River town of Jisr Manbij. Around that time, his second-in-command, Husayn ibn Numayr al-Sakuni, destroyed the Penitents, a pro-Alid band led by Sulayman ibn Surad, at the Battle of Ayn al-Warda in modern-day Ras al-Ayn.[6][7] Marwan died in the spring of 685, while Ubayd Allah's army was camped at Raqqa, and Marwan's son Abd al-Malik succeeded him as caliph.[3]


In the eighteen months following the Umayyad victory at Ayn al-Warda, Ubayd Allah's troops were bogged down by struggles with the Qaysi tribes of the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) led by the pro-Zubayrid Zufar ibn al-Harith al-Kilabi.[6][7] In the summer of 686, Ubayd Allah's troops advanced toward Mosul,[8] long controlled by a Kufan military elite,[9] with the ultimate aim of conquering Iraq.[8] Mukhtar, who in the weeks prior had seized Kufa from Ibn al-Zubayr's governor, rapidly organized and dispatched a force under his commander, Ibrahim ibn al-Ashtar, to confront the Umayyad army.[8] Ubayd Allah defeated this force on 9–10 July 686.[8] Meanwhile, Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr and the ashraf (Arab tribal nobility) of Kufa used the absence of Mukhtar's forces as an opportunity to recapture Kufa.[7] The attempt failed as Mukhtar was able to recall his troops and defeat the pro-Zubayrid forces by the end of July.[7] With Kufa secured, Mukhtar again dispatched Ibn al-Ashtar to confront Ubayd Allah's army.[10]

Combatants[edit]

Umayyads[edit]

The ranks of Ubayd Allah's 60,000-strong army consisted of Arab tribesmen from Syria and as such was referred to in medieval sources as jumū' ahl al-Shām (host of the Syrians).[11] At the time, according to one report cited by 9th-century historian al-Tabari, "[Caliph] Marwan's army was from Kalb and their commander was Ibn Bahdal", while "the whole of Qays was in al-Jazira and were opponents of Marwan and the family of Marwan".[11] Historian Hugh N. Kennedy asserts that this "report is exaggerated" because Ubayd Allah recruited commanders from both Qays and Yaman (the latter were dominated by the Kalb), "but it does point to a general problem" regarding the effect of the Qaysi–Yamani rivalry on the Umayyad army.[12]

Alids[edit]

Mukhtar's forces were smaller than Ubayd Allah's army,[13] but the morale of his men was high due to their victory in Kufa and their desire to avenge Husayn ibn Ali and Ibn Surad's Penitents, whose deaths were attributed to Ubayd Allah.[10] The report of the Arabic historian Abu Mikhnaf (d. 774) has Ibn al-Ashtar's army as a well-organized, 20,000-strong cavalry force, while the account of the contemporary Syriac historian John bar Penkaye describes this force as a rag-tag army of 13,000 foot soldiers.[14] The foot soldiers were referred to as Mukhtar's shurṭa (select troops).[15]


The army Mukhtar sent under Ibn al-Ashtar's command consisted largely of mawālī (sing. mawlā; non-Arab clients of Arab tribes).[16] The ranks of the mawālī were dominated by the Persians of Kufa led by Abu Amra Kaysan;[16] the latter, a mawlā of a Bajila tribesman, either commanded the shurṭa or the ḥaras (personal guard) of Mukhtar.[17] The predominance of Persians in Mukhtar's army was noted by Umayyad defectors to Ibn al-Ashtar; they complained to have rarely heard a word of Arabic spoken by Mukhtar's soldiers, whom they viewed as unfit to confront the elite troops of the Umayyad army.[16] According to the 9th-century historian al-Dinawari, Ibn al-Ashtar responded that his troops were "the sons of noble warriors and chiefs of the Persians".[16] Arab cavalry also formed a significant part of Ibn al-Ashtar's forces and his lieutenant commanders were also Arabs.[16][18]

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