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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Abu Hamza al-Mukhtar ibn Awf al-Azdi al-Salimi[1] was an Ibadi Kharijite rebel leader who seized control of Mecca and Medina during the Ibadi revolt.
Al-Mukhtar hailed from Basra, and according to the history of al-Tabari was an opponent of the Umayyad Caliphate: "He would go each year to Mecca calling on people to oppose [Caliph Marwan II] and the Marwanids".[1] He was a prominent member of the Ibadi Kharijite movement in Basra, headed by Abu Ubayda Muslim ibn Abi Karima, who sent him to Hadramawt, where the qadi Abdallah ibn Yahya al-Kindi was gaining prominence. Al-Mukhtar and other agents were sent to Abdallah to encourage him to revolt against the Umayyads.[2][3]
Abdallah rose in revolt in 746, rapidly seizing control of the Hadramawt and Yemen.[2][4] In mid-747, at the time of the Hajj pilgrimage, Abdallah entrusted al-Mukhtar with some 900–1,000 strong, and sent him to occupy the two Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina.[2][4] Al-Mukhtar seized Mecca in August 747 without a fight,[5] but before Medina was opposed by a local force, which he defeated with great loss of life in October 747.[6]
The expansion of the Ibadi uprising worried the Umayyad caliph Marwan II, who in January 748 Marwan sent his general, Abd al-Malik ibn Atiyya, to suppress it with 4,000 troops. The Umayyad general defeated and killed Abu Hamza before Medina and retook control of the Hejaz.[2][7][8]
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