Mezzeh was a stronghold of the Banu Kalb tribe, old allies of the Sufyanids who were known as the family's akhwal (maternal uncles) due to their marital ties to caliphs Mu'awiya and Yazid.
[4] A learned man of reputable character and prestigious lineage, Abu al-Umaytir transmitted hadiths (traditions attributed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his companions) and historical events to pupils in the Great Umayyad Mosque of Damascus.
[5] Under the Abbasids, political and military power shifted to Iraq and the eastern Caliphate, with Syria becoming a neglected province whose inhabitants were viewed with suspicion by the authorities.
[5][2] In 750, an Umayyad prince, Abu Muhammad al-Sufyani, grandson of Khalid ibn Yazid's brother Abd Allah al-Uswar, led a revolt against the Abbasids with the support of the two main tribo-political factions of Syria, the Yaman and the Qays.
[7] Until that point, the Yaman and the Qays had been locked in a decades-old rivalry for power in the Umayyad court and military, but both stood to lose their privileged position under the Iraq-based Abbasids.
[9] Two years after the death of the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid in 809, the conflict over his succession between his sons al-Amin and al-Ma'mun culminated in a widescale civil war known as the Fourth Fitna.
[2] The pro-Umayyad faction in Damascus, which consisted of Umayyad clan members, affiliated mawali (non-Arab clients or freedmen), Kalbi and other Yamani tribesmen, as well as Qaysi tribal chiefs and scholars, secretly spread prophecies about the imminent coming of the Sufyani, a messianic figure from the Sufyanid family, who would deliver Syria from the Iraqi Abbasids.
To neutralize his potential opposition, they helped convince the Damascus-based governor-general of Syria, the Abbasid prince Sulayman ibn Abi Ja'far, to imprison him.
Abu al-Umaytir and the Sufyanids' popularity among the Kalb and the Yamani tribes helped them quickly gain the allegiance of the Syrian cities and regions dominated by these tribal groups, such as Homs, whose leaders had expelled the Abbasids in the previous year.
[18] The Qays reached out to Ibn Bayhas for support, who responded by mobilizing his Dibab and Numayr tribesmen and mawali in the Hauran to assault Abu al-Umaytir in Damascus.
[19] Abu al-Umaytir called on his supporters to relieve the city, spurring a huge number of friendly troops from Sidon, Baalbek and the Beqaa Valley to reinforce him.
Although they gained an early advantage, Qaysi reinforcements saved Ibn Bayhas and in the ensuing fight, al-Mu'tamir was slain and the pro-Umayyad troops were put to flight.
With Maslama's sanction, the Qays overturned the Yaman's dominance of the area, taking over the Marj, a belt of pasture grounds surrounding the Ghouta, and restoring and seizing residences throughout the city.
The pro-Umayyad troops retreated to the Green Palace, where Maslama released Abu al-Umaytir before both escaped dressed as women through the Bab al-Jabiya gate to the Kalb stronghold of Mezzeh.
[22] Backed by the Kalb in the Ghouta villages of Mezzeh, Beit Lihya and Darayya, Abu al-Umaytir and Maslama held out against Ibn Bayhas, who was recognized governor of Damascus by the Abbasids.