In January 749, Ḥawthara was sent to bolster the forces of Ibn Hubayra during the Abbasid uprising. According to al-Ṭabarī, he brought with him 20,000 Syrian troops, including cavalry, to Fallūja. When Qaḥṭaba ibn Shabīb marched on Kūfa, Ḥawthara advised Ibn Hubayra to head to Khorasan so that Qaḥṭaba would either follow him or be defeated by Marwān at Kūfa. Ibn Hubayra rejected the advice and put Ḥawthara in charge of the vanguard ordering him to try to beat Qaḥṭaba to Kūfa. On 28 August 749, a major battle was fought near Kūfa in which Qaḥṭaba was killed but the Umayyad army was forced to retreat. Ḥawthara retreated as far as the place called Qaṣr ibn Hubayra. From there he planned to march on Kūfa, where the governor, Muḥammad ibn Khalīd al-Qasrī, had joined the rebellion. When his troops began abandoning him, however, he decided to join Ibn Hubayra at Wāsiṭ.