ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books History of Shi'ism: From the Advent of Islam up to the End of Minor Occultation Lesson 11: The Period of Imam as-Sajjad (‘a) The period of Imam as-Sajjad ( ‘a ) can be divided into two stages: The first stage covers the events after the martyrdom of Imam al-Husayn ( ‘a ), the destabilization of the Umayyad rule and finally the end of rule of the Sufyanis (descendants of Abu Sufyan) and the succession to power of the Marwanis (descendants of Marwan ibn al-Hakam), the internal struggle among the Umayyads and their entanglement with the uprisings and revolts up to the stabilization of the rule of the Marwanis.

The second stage covers the time of governorship of Hajjaj ibn Yusuf and the defeat of ‘Abd Allah ibn Zubayr[^1] in Mecca up to the commencement of the ‘Abbasid movement, which is also related to the initial period of the Imamate { imamah } of Imam al-Baqir ( ‘a ). After the martyrdom of Imam al-Husayn ( ‘a ), the Umayyads were, on the one hand, entangled with the uprisings of the people of Iraq and Hijaz, and experiencing internal struggle on the other. The government of Yazid did not last long.

Yazid died in 64 AH after three years of rule.[^2] After Yazid, his son Mu‘awiyah II came to power. He ruled for not more than 40 years when he stepped down from the office of the caliphate and died soon after.[^3] With his death the internal squabble among the Umayyads began. Mas‘udi describes the event after the death of Mu‘awiyah II which indicates the intense greed and rivalry among the Umayyads over the leadership, as thus: Mu‘awiyah {II} died at the age of 22 and was buried in Damascus.

With the burning ambition of becoming the next caliph, Walid ibn ‘Utbah ibn Abi Sufyan came to the front to lead the prayer for the corpse of Mu‘awiyah {II}, but even before finishing the prayer he received a fatal blow and was killed. Then, ‘Uthman ibn ‘Utbah ibn Abi Sufyan led the prayer for him, but he was also not approved by them to assume the office of the caliphate.

So, he was forced to go to Mecca and join Ibn Zubayr.[^4] Three years had not yet passed when the rule of the Sufyanis came to an end. Many of the people throughout the Muslim lands including a number of the Umayyad chiefs and governors such as Ḍahaq ibn Qays and Nu‘man ibn Bashir had inclined toward Ibn Zubayr. It was at this time when Ibn Zubayr drove the resident Umayyads out from Medina including Marwan.