The Battle of al-Harra (Arabic: يوم الحرة, romanized: Yawm al-Ḥarra, lit. 'Day of al-Harra') was fought between the Umayyad army of the caliph Yazid I (r. 680–683) led by Muslim ibn Uqba and the defenders of Medina from the Ansar and Muhajirun factions, who had rebelled against the caliph. The battle took place at the lava field of Harrat Waqim in the northeastern outskirts of Medina on 26 August 683 and lasted less than a day.
The elite factions of Medina disapproved of the hereditary succession of Yazid (unprecedented in Islamic history until that point), resented the caliph's impious lifestyle, and chafed under Umayyad economic acts and policies. After declaring their rebellion, they besieged the Umayyad clan resident in Medina and dug a defensive trench around the city. The expeditionary force sent by Yazid and local Umayyads, who had since been released from the siege, encamped at Harrat Waqim, where the rebels confronted them. Despite an initial advantage, the Medinans were routed due to the defection of one of their factions, the Banu Haritha, which enabled Umayyad horse riders led by Marwan ibn al-Hakam to attack them from the rear.
Afterward, the army pillaged Medina for three days, though accounts of the plunder vary considerably. The Syrian army proceeded to besiege the rebel leader Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr in Mecca, though Ibn Uqba died en route. In contrast to Ibn al-Zubayr's call for a shura to decide the caliphate and his success in resisting the Umayyads, the rebels in Medina lacked a political program and military experience. The traditional Islamic sources list the Battle of al-Harra and its aftermath as one of the Umayyads' 'major crimes' and malign Ibn Uqba for his role in the plunder of Medina.
The location of the battle was the lava field of Harrat Waqim, which straddles the eastern outskirts of Medina in the Hejaz (western Arabia). It was named after the Waqim fortress of the Banu Qurayza tribe that had been resident in the area during the pre-Islamic period and was alternatively known as Harrat Bani Qurayza or Harrat Zuhra. It formed part of the vast geological system of ḥarras (basaltic deserts) which spanned the region east of the Hauran in Syria southward to Medina's environs. As a result of the fame of the battle, Harrat Waqim was thenceforth referred to in Muslim sources as 'the Harra'.
Under the Islamic prophet Muhammad, beginning in 622, and the first three caliphs, Abu Bakr (r. 632–634), Umar (r. 634–644) and Uthman (r. 644–656), Medina served as the capital of the early Muslim state, which by Uthman's time came to rule over an empire spanning Arabia, most of the Persian Sasanian Empire and the Byzantine territories of Syria and Egypt. The capital was moved to Kufa in Iraq by the fourth Rashidun caliph, Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law Ali (r. 656–661), during the First Fitna. Ali's rival, Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, the long-serving governor of Syria, ultimately won the civil war and established the Umayyad Caliphate with its seat in Damascus in 661.
Political and pious opposition to Yazid
The hereditary succession of Mu'awiya's son, Yazid, in 680 was an unprecedented act in Islamic politics. It was a point of contention among the people of Medina, especially the eminent Muslim leaders of the Hejaz. One of them, Husayn, a son of Ali and grandson of Muhammad, left Medina to lead a revolt against Yazid in Iraq. He was slain alongside his band of about seventy followers at the Battle of Karbala by the forces of the Umayyad governor Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad; Yazid is alleged to have put the head of Husayn on display in Damascus.
In 680, Yazid dismissed his cousin al-Walid ibn Utba ibn Abi Sufyan from the governorship of Medina for having failed to prevent Husayn and the other major opponent to his rule, Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, a grandson of Abu Bakr, from leaving Medina. Al-Walid's replacement, the Umayyad Amr ibn Sa'id al-Ashdaq, failed to capture Ibn al-Zubayr, who took refuge in the Kaaba in Mecca, or extract from him the oath of allegiance to Yazid. Al-Ashdaq mobilized a troop of Medinans enrolled in the army, as well as mawali (sing. mawla; non-Arab, Muslim freedmen or clients) of the Umayyad clan, to subdue Ibn al-Zubayr, but many of the recruited Medinans were reticent to participate and paid others to fight in their place. Ibn al-Zubayr defeated this force, and partly as a consequence, Yazid dismissed al-Ashdaq and reappointed al-Walid ibn Utba in August 681. Feigning an attempted reconciliation with the caliph, Ibn al-Zubayr requested that Yazid replace al-Walid ibn Utba with a milder governor. Yazid acceded, installing his young and politically inexperienced cousin Uthman ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Sufyan in December 682.
Most of the Medinans, and many in the wider Muslim community, sympathized with Ibn al-Zubayr amid general uncertainty about the stability of Umayyad rule and the prospect of Ibn al-Zubayr coming to power. Reports of impious behavior by Yazid, including entertainment by singing girls and a pet monkey, contributed to prevailing attitudes in Medina of his unsuitability as caliph. The Medinans mainly consisted of the Ansar (native Medinans who had hosted and allied with Muhammad after his emigration from Mecca in 622) and the Muhajirun (Muhammad's early supporters who had emigrated with him). The Muhajirun were predominantly from the Quraysh, the tribe to which Muhammad, Ali, and the Umayyads all belonged. At the time of the opposition to Yazid, the Medinans were mostly the children of these two factions, which collectively represented Islam's first military generation, and felt threatened at the potential loss of the inherited military pensions brought about by Umayyad fiscal reforms. The reforms called for pensions to be given only in exchange for active military service.
To reconcile with the Medinans, Yazid requested they send a delegation to his court in Damascus. Uthman ibn Muhammad organized the Medinan embassy. Yazid attempted to win over the delegates by lavishing them with gifts and money. This proved fruitless when the delegates returned and incited the people of Medina with accounts detailing Yazid's scandalous lifestyle. The most vociferous critic among the delegates was Abd Allah ibn Hanzala. He declared that he and his sons would fight against Yazid should others not join him, and though Yazid respected him, he would use the gifts the latter gave him against the caliph. Ibn al-Zubayr took control of Mecca in September 683 and allied with Ibn Hanzala in opposition to Yazid. The leaders of the Medinan opposition dismissed counsel from Yazid's messengers and friends in Damascus to avoid rebellion as attempts to undermine the unity of the Medinans. Prominent exceptions to this united bloc included the Alids (family of Ali), Abd Allah ibn Umar, son of the second caliph, and the companion of Muhammad, Abu Barza. They all considered the anti-Umayyad opposition in the Hejaz to be fighting for power and wealth rather than for a just and pious cause.
Economic and social grievances
Mu'awiya had acquired extensive properties and agricultural estates in Medina from its inhabitants. These lands were referred to as sawafi in the sources, a term usually reserved for conquered lands that became state property, but in the case of Medina meant acquired lands that became the personal domains of the caliph. According to reports cited by the 9th-century historian Ibn Qutayba, the people of Medina alleged that Mu'awiya purchased the lands at a hundredth of their value during hunger and desperation. The 9th-century historian al-Ya'qubi held that the properties were confiscated. The people of Medina considered the acquisitions illegitimate and damaging to their economic interests.
Mu'awiya launched cultivation and irrigation projects on the lands and derived considerable returns from dates and wheat. To meet the workforce needs for cultivation and maintenance, Mu'awiya employed numerous mawali, consisting of war captives from the conquered provinces, including many skilled laborers. The mawali were loyal to their patron, in this case, Mu'awiya and later Yazid. The mawali of the Umayyads in Medina were numerous, and the sources record several instances of tensions involving them and the people of Medina. Yazid inherited the estates and mawali of his father. The dispossessed landowners of Medina demanded the restitution of their ownership rights from Yazid. The historian Meir Jacob Kister asserts the Medinan rebellion emanated from "the conflict between the owners of estates and property in Medina and the unjust Umayyad rulers who robbed them of their property".