Siege of Mecca (683)

Siege of Mecca
Part of the Second Fitna
The Kaaba, which was severely damaged by fire during the siege
Date September–November 683 Location Mecca Result Umayyad withdrawal
Belligerents
Umayyad Caliphate	Meccans supporting Ibn al-Zubayr
Commanders and leaders
Husayn ibn Numayr al-Sakuni	Abdallah ibn al-Zubayr

The Siege of Mecca in September–November 683 was one of the early battles of the Second Islamic Civil War. The city of Mecca served as a sanctuary for Abdallah ibn al-Zubayr, who was among the most prominent challengers to the dynastic succession to the Caliphate by the Umayyad Yazid I. After nearby Medina, the other holy city of Islam, also rebelled against Yazid, the Umayyad ruler sent an army to subdue Arabia. The Umayyad army defeated the Medinans and took the city, but Mecca held out in a month-long siege, during which the Kaaba was damaged by fire. The siege ended when news came of Yazid's sudden death. The Umayyad commander, Husayn ibn Numayr, after vainly trying to induce Abdallah to return with him to Syria and be recognized as Caliph, departed with his forces. Ibn al-Zubayr remained in Mecca throughout the civil war, but he was nevertheless soon acknowledged as Caliph across most of the Muslim world. It was not until 692, that the Umayyads were able to send another army which again besieged and captured Mecca, ending the civil war.

At the death of the founder of the Umayyad Caliphate, Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680), in 680, the Muslim world was thrown into turmoil. Although Mu'awiya had named his son, Yazid I, as his heir, this choice was not universally recognized, especially by the old Medinan elites, who challenged the Umayyads' claim to the succession. Among them, the two chief candidates for the caliphate were the Alid Husayn ibn Ali (the grandson of Muhammad), and Abdallah ibn al-Zubayr. To avoid being forced to recant, on Yazid's accession the two men fled from Medina to Mecca. Husayn at first attempted an outright revolt against the Umayyads, but this resulted in his death at the Battle of Karbala in October 680, leaving Ibn al-Zubayr as the leading contender and rival for the Umayyads. As long as Yazid lived, Ibn al-Zubayr denounced his rule from the sanctuary of Mecca but did not openly claim the Caliphate, instead calling himself "the fugitive at the sanctuary" (al-‘a’idh bi’l-bayt) and insisting that the Caliph should be chosen in the traditional manner, by a tribal assembly (shura) from among all the Quraysh, not just the Umayyads.

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