Siege of Mecca ( 683 ) The Siege of Mecca in September – November 683 was one of the early battles of the Second Islamic Civil War . The city of Mecca served as a sanctuary for Abdallah ibn al - Zubayr , who was among the most prominent challengers to the dynastic succession to the Caliphate by the Umayyad Yazid I . After nearby Medina , the other holy city of Islam , also rebelled against Yazid , the Umayyad ruler sent an army to subdue Arabia . The Umayyad army defeated the Medinans and took the city , but Mecca held out in a month - long siege , during which the Kaaba was damaged by fire . The siege ended when news came of Yazid ' s sudden death . The Umayyad commander , Husayn ibn Numayr , after vainly trying to induce Abdallah to return with him to Syria and be recognized as Caliph , departed with his forces . Ibn al - Zubayr remained in Mecca throughout the civil war , but he was nevertheless soon acknowledged as Caliph across most of the Muslim world . It was not until 692 , that the Umayyads were able to send another army which again besieged and captured Mecca , ending the civil war . 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 ( the grandson of Muhammad ) , and Abdallah ibn al - Zubayr . To avoid being forced to recant , on Yazid ' s accession the two men fled from Medina to Mecca 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 and rival for the Umayyads . As long as Yazid lived , Ibn al - Zubayr denounced his rule from the sanctuary of Mecca but did not openly claim the Caliphate , instead calling himself " the fugitive at the sanctuary " ( " al - ‘ a ’ idh bi ’ l - bayt " ) and insisting that the Caliph should be chosen in the traditional manner , by a tribal assembly ( " shura " ) from among all the Quraysh , not just the Umayyads . At first Yazid and his governors in Medina tried to negotiate with Ibn al - Zubayr , as well as the other dissatisfied " Ansar " families . The Medinan aristocracy , however , who felt their position threatened by Mu ' awiya ' s large - scale agricultural projects around their city , and regarded Yazid as unfit for the office of Caliph due to his reputed dissolute lifestyle , led a public denunciation of their allegiance to Yazid , and expelled the Umayyad family members , some 1 , 000 in number ( including the future Caliph Marwan ibn al - Hakam ) , from their city . As a result , Yazid sent an army to subdue the province , and chose Muslim ibn ' Uqba al - Murri to lead it . Muslim ' s army of 12 , 000 Syrians indeed overcame the Medinans ' resistance at the Battle of al - Harrah on 26 August 683 and proceeded to sack Medina — one of the impious acts for which the Umayyads are denounced in later Muslim tradition . Siege . After taking Medina , Muslim set out for Mecca , but on the way he fell ill and died at Mushallal , and command passed to his lieutenant Husayn ibn Numayr al - Sakuni . For his sack of Medina , subsequent tradition remembers Muslim ibn ' Uqba as the " heathen incarnate " ( J . Wellhausen ) . Husayn ' s army arrived before Mecca in September . Ibn al - Zubayr and his supporters refused to surrender , and after they were defeated in a first engagement , a siege of the city began , in which the Umayyad army employed catapults to bombard it with stones . Ibn al - Zubayr established his command post on the grounds of the Grand Mosque . On Sunday , 31 October , the Kaaba , over which a wooden structure covered with mattresses had been erected to protect it , caught fire and burned down , while the sacred Black Stone burst asunder . Many later sources ascribe the fault to the besiegers , with the result that ' " this siege and bombardment too figure prominently in the lists of Umayyad crimes " ( G . R . Hawting ) , but more reliable accounts attribute the event to a torch borne by one of Ibn al - Zubayr ' s followers , which the wind wafted onto the building . The siege continued until 26 November , when news of Yazid ' s death on the 11th reached the besiegers . Husayn now entered into negotiations with Ibn al - Zubayr . Although the Umayyad court at Damascus promptly declared Yazid ' s sickly young son , Mu ' awiya II , as Caliph , Umayyad authority practically collapsed in the provinces and proved shaky even in the Umayyads ' home province of Syria . Husayn was therefore willing to acknowledge Ibn al - Zubayr as Caliph , provided that he would issue a pardon and follow him to Syria . Ibn al - Zubayr refused the last demand , since this would place him under the control of the Syrian elites , and Husayn with his army departed for Syria . Aftermath . The retreat of the Umayyad army left Ibn al - Zubayr in undisputed control of Mecca . With the collapse of Umayyad authority , he was soon acknowledged as the rightful Caliph across most of the Muslim world , including northern Syria . The Umayyads , however , under the leadership of Marwan ibn al - Hakam , managed to consolidate their position in Syria in the Battle of Marj Rahit , and even reclaimed Egypt . An attempt to recover control of Iraq 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 Ibn al - Zubayr ' s brother Mus ' ab 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 the Iraq . Mus ' ab ibn al - Zubayr was defeated and killed , and Umayyad authority re - established across the East . In October 682 , after another siege of Mecca , Abdallah ibn al - Zubayr was killed , and the civil war ended . Rebuilding of the Kaaba . After the Umayyads ' departure , Ibn al - Zubayr initiated the rebuilding of the Kaaba , but most of the people , led by Ibn Abbas , had abandoned the city fearing divine retribution ; it was only when Ibn al - Zubayr himself began to demolish the remains of the old building , that they were encouraged to return and aid him . Ibn al - Zubayr ' s reconstruction changed the original plan , incorporating modifications that Muhammad himself is reported to have intended , but which had not been not carried out during Muhammad ' s lifetime for fear of alienating the recently converted Meccans . The new Kaaba was built entirely of stone — the old one was of alternating layers of stone and wood — and had two doors , an entrance in the east and an exit in the west . In addition , he included the semi - circular " hatīm " wall into the building proper . The three fragments of the Black Stone were bound in a silver frame , and placed by Ibn al - Zubayr inside the new Kaaba . After the Umayyad reconquest of the city , the " hatīm " was separated again from the main building , and the western gate was walled up , reverting to the general outlines of the pre - Islamic plan . This is the form in which the Kaaba has survived to this day .