Mukhtar Thaqafi

Mukhtar ibn Abi Ubayd al-Thaqafi (622 CE - 687 CE) was an early Islamic revolutionary who led an abortive rebellion against the Umayyad Caliphs who ruled the Muslim world after the murder of Husayn ibn Ali at the Battle of Karbala. Mukhtar was born in the year the Islamic prophet Muhammad began the Migration to Medina. He went to Medina along with his father during Umar's Caliphate. He was the son of a martyr in the Battle of Yamul Hajr, and grew up in Medina while it was under the rule of Muhammad. When Yazid I, the third Umayyad ####Caliph, took power in 683, an increasing number of Muslims were dissatisfied with their government, and the hereditary succession of men they saw as usurpers of rights and oppressive rulers. The rebellion which broke out in 686 CE was supported by the faction of Muslims. Al-Mukhtar led the rebellion, which was launched from Kufa, in present-day Iraq. It is rumored that he was rebelling on behalf of Ali's son Husayn ibn Ali, after he was martyred in Karbala by the army of Yazid. Al-Mukhtar was in prison whilst the tragedy of Karbala was taking place. After he was out of prison, he found out about what happened in Karbala and set out to avenge the death of the grand son of Muhammad. Mukhtar caught many of the men that killed Husayn ibn Ali and his companions in the tragedy of Karbala but was later killed by the forces under the command of Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr outside of Kufa in April 687, and many of his followers were killed in the subsequent repression as well. The majority of the belief according to the records was that Al-Mukhtar's struggle was not a revolution for power rather it was to avenge the oppression and killing of the Household of Muhammad. He found and killed the men that had killed or helped in the killing of the Household of Muhammad. At the moment he was about to be sentenced and killed by a governor of Yazid, he said that he had not finished a task which Ali had said he will be doing and so no one can kill him and in an interesting sequence he was saved. The grave of Mukhtar can be found within “Masjed Kuf” (Kufa Mosque) in Kūfa - Iraq.

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