[3] Al-Dahhak was an early supporter of Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, the Muslim governor of Syria, and served as his ṣāḥib al-shurṭa (head of security forces or select troops).
[4] Mu'awiya appointed al-Dahhak governor of Kufa, one of the two main Arab garrison towns of Iraq, in 673/74 or 674/75, but removed him from office three or four years later.
[4] In the ensuing chaos following the death of Mu'awiya II, who had no suitable successor, al-Dahhak secretly defected to Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr.
This change of heart proved temporary as al-Dahhak's partisans were adamant in their support for Ibn al-Zubayr's bid for the caliphate, particularly in the absence of a suitable Umayyad candidate.
One of his sons, Abd al-Rahman, later returned to the good graces of the Umayyads and served as the governor of Medina under Caliph Yazid II (r. 720–724).