MUSLIMS: DOCTRINESat 'Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad, and destitute people from Kufa went to
join him there.^77
When Yazid ibn Mu'awiya died in 683, the Sufyani regime collapsed
and 'Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad fled to Syria. In the following year, Su-
layman ibn Surad led a rising of the old partisans of 'Ali at Kufa to
revenge the death of al-I:Iusayn. Since they had encouraged him to
come to Kufa, they felt guilty for not supporting him and felt indirectly
responsible for his death. They called themselves Penitents (Ar. tawwii-
bun) and set out to atone for their sin by killing those who had
murdered al-I:Iusayn and by sacrificing themselves if necessary. But
members of the Kufan ashriifhad participated at Karbala, and in order
to avoid the consequences of social conflict in Kufa, Sulayman and
his followers headed for Syria. On the way they stopped and wept
over the grave of al-I:Iusayn at Karbala. In his prayers, Sulayman called
al-I:Iusayn the martyr (Ar. shahtd) son of the martyr, the mahdt (Ar.)
son of the mahdt, and the upright (Ar. ~iddtq) son of the upright. He
testified that they belonged to his religion (Ar. dtn) and way (Ar. sabtl),
and that they were the enemies of those who killed them, and the
friends (Ar. awliyii') of those who loved them. They were joined by
Sa'd ibn I:Iudhayfa ibn al-Yaman and a group of one hundred and
seventy partisans (Sht'a) from Kufa who had settled at Mada'in, and
by al-Muthanna ibn Mukharriba of the 'Abd al-Qays, who came with
three hundred Basrans. Most of Sulayman's force of three or four
thousand men was slaughtered by a Syrian army under 'Ubaydullah
ibn Ziyad at 'Ayn Warda in January of 685,78
The social tensions at Kufa broke into open conflict in the rebellion
of al-Mukhtar later that year. Al-Mukhtar himself was a member of
the new elite. His father (Abii 'Ubayd) had been killed during the
conquest of Iraq. He had grown up at Madina but owned property
at Khutarniyya, and was put in charge of the walls of Mada'in by his
uncle, Sa'd ibn Mas'iid, in the time of 'An. After 'Ali's death, he
had been with al-I:Iasan at Mada'in and had been involved in the
sedition of Muslim ibn 'Aqil in 680. After brief opposition, the Kufan
notables recognized his authority, hoping to preserve their own in-
terests and to restore Kufan leadership over the empire, or at least
over part of it. At first al-Mukhtar gave them important posts. But
dissident tribesmen, mawiilt, and slaves participated en masse in his
77 Dinawarl, Akhbiir at-tiwiil, pp. 265-72.
78 Jafri, Shta Islam, pp. 222-32; Tabarl, Ta'rlkh, Il, 498-99, 504, 546, 561-69;
Baiadhuri, Ansiib, V, 205-7.