Ibn al-Zubayr, along with many of the Quraysh and the Ansar, the leading Muslim groups of the Hejaz (western Arabia), opposed the caliphate becoming an inheritable institution of the Umayyads.

Meanwhile, Yazid's son and successor Mu'awiya II died weeks into his reign, precipitating the collapse of Umayyad authority across the Caliphate, most of whose provinces subsequently accepted the suzerainty of Ibn al-Zubayr.

By 685, the Umayyad Caliphate had been reconstituted under Marwan I in Syria and Egypt, while Ibn al-Zubayr's authority was being challenged in Iraq and Arabia by pro-Alid and Kharijite forces.

Through the prestige of his family ties and social links with the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his strong association with the holy city of Mecca, Ibn al-Zubayr was able to lead the influential, disaffected Muslim factions opposed to Umayyad rule.

However, his refusal to leave Mecca precluded him from exercising power in the more populous provinces where he depended on his brother Mus'ab and other loyalists, who ruled with virtual independence.

[1][2] He belonged to the Banu Asad clan of the Quraysh,[1][2] the dominant tribe of Mecca, a trade center in the Hejaz and location of the Kaaba, the holiest sanctuary in Islam.

[1] These early social, kinship and religious links to Muhammad, his family and the first Muslims all boosted Ibn al-Zubayr's reputation in adulthood.

[10] During the rebel siege of Uthman's house in June 656, the caliph put Ibn al-Zubayr in charge of his defense and he was reportedly wounded in the fighting.

[12] Ali was victorious and Ibn al-Zubayr returned with A'isha to Medina, later taking part in the arbitration to end the First Fitna (Muslim civil war) in Adhruh or Dumat al-Jandal.

[15] He referred to himself as al-ʿaʾidh biʾl bayt (the fugitive at the sanctuary, viz., the Kaaba), adopted the slogan la hukma illa li-llah (judgement belongs to God alone), but made no claim to the caliphate.

[18] The governor, in turn, instructed Ibn al-Zubaye's estranged brother, the head of Medina's shurta (security forces), Amr, to lead the expedition.

[10] Yazid's death and the subsequent withdrawal of the Umayyad army from the Hejaz afforded Ibn al-Zubayr the opportunity to realize his aspirations for the caliphate.

[10][16] He immediately declared himself amir al-mu'minin (commander of the faithful), a title traditionally reserved for the caliph, and called for all Muslims to give him their oaths of allegiance.

[10][17] With the other potential Hejazi candidates dead, Ibn al-Zubayr remained the last contender for the caliphate among the anti-Umayyad factions in Mecca and Medina and most of these groups recognized him as their leader.

[17] An exception were the Banu Hashim clan to which Muhammad and the Alids belonged and whose support Ibn al-Zubayr deemed important for his own legitimacy as caliph.

[10] Most of the Arab tribes in central and southern Syria remained loyal to the Umayyads and selected the non-Sufyanid Marwan ibn al-Hakam from Medina to succeed Mu'awiya II.

[29] The latter dispatched a force under Abd Allah ibn Umayr al-Laythi to drive out the Najdiyya Kharijites from Bahrayn after they overran the province, but the Zubayrids were repulsed.

[30] Hamza proved incompetent in his administration of Iraq and, following his failure to deliver the provincial revenues to the state treasury in Mecca, he was dismissed and allegedly imprisoned by his father.

[10] The defeat of al-Mukhtar, who had opposed the Zubayrids and the Umayyads, left Ibn al-Zubayr and Marwan's son and successor Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705) as the two main contenders for the caliphate.

[10] In 691, Abd al-Malik secured the support of Zufar and the Qays of Jazira, removing the principal obstacle between his Syrian army and Zubayrid Iraq.

[10] Al-Hajjaj besieged and bombarded Mecca for six months, by which point, most of Ibn al-Zubayr's partisans and his sons Khubayb and Hamza surrendered upon offers of pardons.

[10] Though Gibb describes Ibn al-Zubayr as "brave, but fundamentally self-seeking and self-indulgent", the hostility to the Umayyads in traditional Muslim sources led to a general description of him as a "model of piety".

[10] Nonetheless, a number of Muslim sources condemned him as jealous and harsh and particularly criticized the fatal abuse of his brother Amr and his imprisonment of Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya.

[10] Ibn al-Zubayr rallied opposition to the Umayyads in the Hejaz through his base in Mecca, Islam's holiest city, and his prestige as a first-generation Muslim with family ties to Muhammad.

[41] To that end, Ibn al-Zubayr developed a strong association with Mecca and its Ka'aba,[22] which, combined with his control of Islam's second holiest city of Medina, furthered his prestige and gave his caliphate a holy character.

[10][32] In Arabia, Ibn al-Zubayr's power had been largely confined to the Hejaz with the Kharijite leader Najda holding more influence in the greater part of the peninsula.

[40] Thus, Ibn al-Zubayr had virtually rendered himself a background figure in the movement that was launched in his name; in the words of historian Julius Wellhausen, "the struggle turned round him nominally, but he took no part in it and it was decided without him".