Siege of Mecca (692) 692
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate. Wikidata lists more than one location for this battle; the first is shown.
Key facts
| Year | 692 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | Medieval (500–1499) | derived from year |
| Location | Saudi Arabia | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Asia | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Second Fitna | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 21.4167, 39.8167 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The siege of Mecca in March–October/November 692 was the final battle of the of the Second Fitna, in which the forces of the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan besieged and defeated his rival, the caliph Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr in his center of power, the Islamic holy city of Mecca. Following the death of Caliph Yazid I in 683, Ibn al-Zubayr had been recognized as caliph in most of the provinces of the Caliphate, while the Umayyads, who had ruled the Caliphate since the end of the First Fitna, were confined to their stronghold of Syria.
There, the pro-Umayyad tribes elected Marwan ibn al-Hakam as caliph in 684; after his death in 685, his son and successor Abd al-Malik undertook the task of reasserting Umayyad authority across the Caliphate. After defeating his enemies in Syria and Iraq, he sent his general Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf to Mecca to defeat Ibn al-Zubayr. To avoid bloodshed in the sanctuary, al-Hajjaj was ordered to besiege the city and starve out Ibn al-Zubayr. The siege started in March 692 and lasted for six to seven months. The city was bombarded with catapults and supplies were cut off, resulting in large scale desertions by the followers of Ibn al-Zubayr. He was killed along with his few remaining supporters in October 692.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Siege of Mecca (692) (revision 1378688983), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Siege of Mecca (683) 683 · 0 km
- Capture of Mecca (1813) 1813 · 1 km
- Capture of Mecca (1924) 1924 · 1 km
- Aksumite siege of Mecca 570 · 1 km
- Battle of Fakhkh 786 · 4 km
- Battle of Hunayn 630 · 26 km
Other battles of the Second Fitna
- Battle of Karbala 680
- Battle of al-Harra 683
- Siege of Mecca (683) 683
- Battle of Marj Rahit (684) 684
- Battle of Ayn al-Warda 685
- Battle of Khazir 686
- Battle of Maskin 691
All 8 battles of the Second Fitna →
Browse more: battles in Saudi Arabia · Asia · Medieval battles