Battle of Marj Rahit ( 684 ) The Battle of Marj Rahit ( ) was one of the early battles of the Second Islamic Civil War . It was fought on 18 August 684 between the armies of the Banu Kalb tribal group , supporting the Umayyads under Caliph Marwan I , and the Banu Qays under al - Dahhak ibn Qays al - Fihri , who supported Abdallah ibn al - Zubayr , who had proclaimed himself Caliph at Mecca . The Kalbi victory consolidated the position of the Umayyads , under Marwan I , over Syria , paving the way for their eventual victory in the civil war against Ibn al - Zubayr . However , it also left a bitter legacy of division and rivalry between the Qaysis and the Kalbis , which would contribute to much strife and instability for the remainder of the Umayyad Caliphate . Background . At the death of Mu ' awiya I ( r . 661 – 680 ) , the founder of the Umayyad Caliphate , 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 , and Abdallah ibn al - Zubayr . 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 . As long as Yazid lived , Ibn al - Zubayr denounced his rule from the sanctuary of Mecca but did not openly claim the Caliphate , instead insisting that the Caliph should be chosen in the traditional manner , by a tribal assembly ( " shura " ) from among all the Quraysh . After the open revolt of Medina against Umayyad rule , in 683 Yazid sent an army to Arabia that defeated the Medinans and even laid siege to Mecca , but Yazid ' s death in November forced the expeditionary force to return home . Yazid was succeeded by his son , Mu ' awiya II , but he died a few weeks later and never enjoyed any real authority outside the family ' s traditional stronghold of Syria . His death provoked a crisis , since his other brothers were too young to succeed . As a result , Umayyad authority collapsed across the Caliphate and Ibn al - Zubayr was accepted by most of the Muslims as their new leader : the Umayyad governor of Iraq , Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad , was evicted from the province , coins in Ibn al - Zubayr ' s name were minted in Persia , and the Banu Qays of northern Syria and the Jazira went over to his cause . Even some members of the Umayyad family considered going to Mecca and declaring their allegiance to him . In central and southern Syria , however , the Umayyad cause was upheld by the local tribes , led by the Banu Kalb under Ibn Bahdal and Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad . At their initiative , a " shura " of the loyal tribes was held at Jabiya , where Marwan ibn al - Hakam , a cousin of Mu ' awiya I who had served under the Caliph Uthman ibn Affan ( r . 644 – 656 ) but played no role in Mu ' awiya ' s Umayyad regime , was elected as the Umayyads ' caliphal candidate . Opening skirmishes and the battle of Marj Rahit . Marwan ' s election provoked the reaction of the Qays , who rallied around the governor of Damascus , al - Dahhak ibn Qays al - Fihri . After vacillating between the two candidates , al - Dahhak was persuaded to recognize Ibn al - Zubayr , and began assembling his forces on the field of Marj al - Suffar near Damascus . In response , the Umayyad coalition marched on Damascus , which was surrendered to the Umayyads by a member of the Ghassanid tribe . The two armies first clashed in mid - July 684 at the plain of Marj al - Suffar , and the Qays were pushed towards Marj Rahit . Twenty days of skirmishing between the two camps followed , until the final battle took place on 18 August . The numbers of the two opponents are uncertain : al - Tabari puts Marwan ' s forces at 6 , 000 , another tradition at 13 , 000 and 30 , 000 for Marwan and al - Dahhak respectively , while Ibn Khayyat inflates the numbers to 30 , 000 and 60 , 000 respectively . The traditions agree , however , that the Umayyad forces were considerably outnumbered . Marwan ' s commanders were Abbas ibn Ziyad , Amr ibn Sa ' id al - As and Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad ( another tradition has Ubayd Allah commanding the cavalry and Malik ibn Hubayra al - Skauni the infantry ) , while only one of al - Dahhak ' s commanders , Ziyad ibn Amr ibn Mu ' awiya al - Uqayli , is known . A plethora of anecdotes , individual accounts and poems on the battle survives , but the details of the battle itself are not clear , except that the day resulted in a crushing Umayyad victory : the main leaders of the Qays , including al - Dahhak , fell in the field . N . Elisséeff explains the Umayyad success by the possible defection of Qays - aligned tribes during the preceding weeks , eager to uphold the Syrian hegemony over the Caliphate . In addition , Elisséeff points out that the Umayyads still controlled the state treasury in Damascus , allowing them to bribe tribes to join them . The remnants of the Qays army fled to Qarqisiya under Zufar ibn Harith al - Kilabi , and Marwan was officially proclaimed as Caliph at Damascus . Aftermath . The victory at Marj Rahit secured the Umayyads ' position in Syria , and allowed them to go into the offensive against Ibn al - Zubayr ' s supporters . Egypt was recovered later in the year , but an attempt to recover Iraq under Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad was defeated by pro - Alid forces under al - Mukhtar near Mosul in August 686 . Abd al - Malik , who had succeeded his father Marwan I after the latter ' s death in April 685 , thereafter restricted himself to securing his own position , while Mus ' ab ibn al - Zubayr defeated al - Mukhtar and gained control of all of Iraq in 687 . In 691 , Abd al - Malik managed to bring Zufar al - Kilabi ' s Qays back into the Umayyad fold , and advanced into Iraq . Mus ' ab ibn al - Zubayr was defeated and killed , and Umayyad authority re - established across the East . In October 692 , after another siege of Mecca , Abdallah ibn al - Zubayr was killed , and the civil war ended . Impact . The most enduring legacy of Marj Rahit was the consolidation of the Qays – Kalb split in Syria , which was paralleled in the division and rivalry between the Mudar , led by the Banu Tamim , and the Rabi ' a and Azd alliance in Iraq . Together , these rivalries caused a realignment of tribal loyalties into two tribal confederations or " super - groups " across the Caliphate : the " North Arab " or Qays / Mudar block , opposed by the " South Arabs " or Yemenis , although these terms were political rather than strictly geographical , since the properly " northern " Rabi ' a adhered to the " southern " Yemenis . The Umayyad caliphs tried to maintain a balance between the two groups , but this division and the implacable rivalry between the two groups became a fixture of the Arab world over the next decades , as even originally unaligned tribes were drawn to affiliate themselves with one of the two super - groups . Their constant contest for power and influence dominated the Umayyad Caliphate , creating instability in the provinces , helping to foment the disastrous Third Islamic Civil War and contributing to the Umayyads ' final fall at the hands of the Abbasids . The division continued long after : as Hugh N . Kennedy writes , " As late as the nineteenth century , battles were still being fought in Palestine between groups calling themselves Qays and Yaman " .