| Battles of Madhar and Harura | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Second Fitna | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Zubayrid Caliphate | Pro-Alid forces of Mukhtar al-Thaqafi | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr Al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath † Umar ibn Ubaydallah al-Taymi Abbad ibn al-Husayn al-Habati Muqatil ibn Misma al-Bakri Shabat † |
Mukhtar al-Thaqafi Abu Amra Kaysan † Abdallah ibn Qurad al-Khath'ami Salim ibn Yazid al-Kindi † Sa'id ibn Munqidh al-Hamdani † Malik ibn Amr al-Nahdi † Umar ibn Abdallah al-Nahdi † Abdullah ibn Kamel † | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 69,000 | 30,000 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 49,000 | 23,000 | ||||||
| 6,000–7,000 sympathizers of Mukhtar executed in Kufa following Harura | |||||||
The battles of Madhar and Harura (Arabic transliteration: Yawm Madhār and Yawm Ḥarūrāʾ) successively took place in the latter half of 686 in the environs of Basra and Kufa, respectively, both in southern Iraq. The battles were fought between the forces of Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr, the governor of Basra on behalf of his brother Caliph Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr (r. 683–692), and Mukhtar al-Thaqafi, the pro-Alid ruler of Kufa. They ended with the latter's decisive defeat and the slaying of most of his commanders. In the immediate aftermath, Mus'ab besieged and killed Mukhtar in Kufa, sanctioned the killing of thousands of his sympathizers in the city, and annexed Kufa and its dependencies, i.e. the Sawad (Lower Mesopotamia) and Jibal (northwestern Iran). Ibrahim ibn al-Ashtar, Mukhtar's governor over Mosul and its dependencies, i.e. the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia), Adharbayjan, and Arminiya, afterward defected to Mus'ab. In effect, all of Iraq came under Zubayrid authority as a result of Mus'ab's victory.