Battle of al-Harra

Date: August 26, 683 • Location: Al `Uqul, Saudi Arabia

Second Fitna: The Battle of al-Harra was fought between Umayyad forces and the rebel defenders of Medina at a lava field northeast of the city.

The Second Fitna was the second civil war in the Islamic community during the early Umayyad Caliphate. It followed the death of the first Umayyad caliph Mu'awiya I in 680 and lasted for about twelve years. The war involved three main challenges to the authority of the Umayyad dynasty: the first by Husayn ibn Ali and his supporters, including Sulayman ibn Surad and Mukhtar al-Thaqafi, who rallied to avenge Husayn's death in Iraq; the second by Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, who proclaimed himself caliph in Mecca and was nominally recognized throughout most of the Caliphate; and the third by the Kharijites, who took over central Arabia and southern Iraq and Persia.