Mukhtar al-Thaqafi (622-March 687) was a Shia Muslim who led a rebellion against the Sunni Umayyad Caliphate in the aftermath of the Battle of Karbala in 680 during the Second Fitna.
Biography[]
Mukhtar al-Thaqafi was born in 622 in Ta'if, and his father Abu Ubaid al-Thaqafi was slain at the Battle of the Bridge by the Sassanids in November 634. Mukhtar was raised by his mother and uncle, and he had Shi'ite sympathies after the Battle of Karbala in 680. In 682, Governor Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad of Kufa had Mukhtar arrested, but Yazid I had him released and exiled to Mecca. In Mecca, he paid homage to Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr and defended the Ka'aba from the Syrian invaders of the Umayyad Caliphate. In 686, he announced his revolution against the Umayyads in revenge for Karbala, executing Husayn ibn Ali's killer Umar ibn Sa'ad after the Battle of Ain al-Warda. Mukhtar won repeated victories, but he was eventually besieged at his palace in Kufa by Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr, Abd Allah's brother. He was among 7,000 people that were massacred on Kufa's fall.