Alid in the context of "Battle of Fakhkh"

The Battle of Ayn al-Warda (Arabic: مَعْرَكَة‌ عَيْن ٱلْوَرْدَة) was fought in early January 685 between the Umayyad army and the Penitents (Tawwabin). The Penitents were a group of pro-Alid Kufans led by Sulayman ibn Surad, a companion of Muhammad, who wished to atone for their failure to assist Husayn ibn Ali in his abortive uprising against the Umayyads in 680. Pro-Alid Kufans had urged Husayn to revolt against the Umayyad caliph Yazid but then failed to assist him when he was killed in the Battle of Karbala in 680. Initially a small underground movement, the Penitents received widespread support in Iraq after the death of Yazid in 683. They were deserted by most of their supporters shortly before the departure to northern Syria where a large Umayyad army under the command of Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad was preparing to launch an assault on Iraq. In the three-day long battle that ensued at Ras al-Ayn, the small Penitent army was annihilated and its senior leaders, including Ibn Surad, were killed. Nevertheless, this battle proved to be a forerunner and source of motivation for the later more successful movement of Mukhtar al-Thaqafi.

The Battle of Khazir (Arabic: يوم الخازر, romanized: Yawm Khāzir) took place in August 686 near the Khazir River in Mosul's eastern environs, in modern-day Iraq. The battle occurred during the Second Muslim Civil War and was part of the larger struggle for control of Iraq between the Syria-based Umayyad Caliphate, the Kufa-based pro-Alid forces of Mukhtar al-Thaqafi, and the Mecca-based caliphate of Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr. It ended with the Umayyads being routed and the expansion of Mukhtar's rule into the region of Mosul.

The Muslim civil war left the Umayyad realm restricted to Damascus and its environs after most of their territories came under Ibn al-Zubayr's orbit. However, an Umayyad resurgence began with the accession of Caliph Marwan I, who dispatched an army led by Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad to reconquer Iraq. This army's advance into Mosul precipitated the Battle of Khazir and its commander, Ubayd Allah, was an enemy of Mukhtar's pro-Alid partisans. Thus, Mukhtar quickly moved to halt the Umayyad advance, sending his Persian mawālī-dominated forces led by Ibrahim ibn al-Ashtar to confront the predominantly Syrian Arab army of the Umayyads. During the initial combat, part of Ibn al-Ashtar's forces were put to flight, but then regrouped under his command and charged against the Umayyad center. This resulted in heavy casualties on both sides and Ubayd Allah and several of his lieutenants were slain. The Umayyad commander Umayr ibn al-Hubab and his Sulaymi tribesmen deserted while the pro-Alids pursued the remaining Umayyad troops, scores of whom drowned in the Khazir River.

Alid dynasties of northern Iran or Alavids (Persian: علویان طبرستان). In the 9th–10th centuries, the northern Iranian regions of Tabaristan, Daylam and Gilan, sandwiched between the Caspian Sea and the Alborz range, came under the rule of a number of Alid dynasties, espousing the Zaydi branch of Shia Islam.

The first and most powerful Zaydi emirate was established in Tabaristan in 864 and lasted until 928. It was interrupted by Samanid occupation in 900, but restored in 914 by another Alid branch.

The Fourth Fitna, Fourth Muslim Civil War, or Great Abbasid Civil War resulted from the conflict between the brothers al-Amin and al-Ma'mun over the succession to the throne of the Abbasid Caliphate. Their father, Caliph Harun al-Rashid, had named al-Amin as the first successor, but had also named al-Ma'mun as the second, with Khurasan granted to him as an appanage. Later a third son, al-Qasim, was designated as third successor. After Harun died in 809, al-Amin succeeded him in Baghdad. Encouraged by the Baghdad court, al-Amin began trying to subvert the autonomous status of Khurasan, and al-Qasim was quickly sidelined. In response, al-Ma'mun sought the support of the provincial élites of Khurasan and made moves to assert his own autonomy. As the rift between the two brothers and their respective camps widened, al-Amin declared his own son Musa as his heir and assembled a large army. In 811, al-Amin's troops marched against Khurasan, but al-Ma'mun's general Tahir ibn Husayn defeated them in the Battle of Ray, and then invaded Iraq and besieged Baghdad itself. The city fell after a year, al-Amin was executed, and al-Ma'mun became Caliph.

Al-Ma'mun chose to remain in Khurasan, however, rather than coming to the capital. This allowed the power vacuum which the civil war had fostered in the Caliphate's provinces to grow, and several local rulers sprang up in Jazira, Syria and Egypt. In addition, a series of Alid uprisings occurred, beginning with Abu'l-Saraya at Kufa and spreading to southern Iraq, the Hejaz, and Yemen. The pro-Khurasani policies followed by al-Ma'mun's powerful chief minister, al-Fadl ibn Sahl, and al-Ma'mun's eventual espousal of an Alid succession in the person of Ali al-Ridha, alienated the traditional Baghdad élites, who saw themselves increasingly marginalized. Consequently, al-Ma'mun's uncle Ibrahim was proclaimed rival caliph at Baghdad in 817, forcing al-Ma'mun to intervene in person. Fadl ibn Sahl was assassinated and al-Ma'mun left Khurasan for Baghdad, which he entered in 819. The next years saw the consolidation of al-Ma'mun's authority and the re-incorporation of the western provinces against local rebels, a process not completed until the pacification of Egypt in 827. Some local rebellions, notably that of the Khurramites, dragged on for far longer, into the 830s.

Al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī al-ʿĀbid ibn Hasan al-Mu'thallath ibn Hasan al-Mu'thannā ibn Hasan ibn Ali (Arabic: الحسين بن علي العابد) was an Alid who rebelled at Medina against the Abbasid caliph al-Hadi. His grandfather Hasan al-Mu'thallath is the grandson of Hasan ibn Ali. He was killed with many of his followers at the Battle of Fakhkh outside Mecca on 11 June 786, whence he is known to history as the Man of Fakhkh (Arabic: صاحب فخ, romanized: Ṣāḥib Fakhkh).

Ali ibn al-Husayn al-Sajjad (Arabic: عَلِيٌّ بْنُ ٱلْحُسَيْنِ ٱلسَّجَّادُ, romanized: ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Sajjād, c. 658 – 712), also known as Zayn al-Abidin (Arabic: زَيْنُ ٱلْعَابِدِينَ, romanized: Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn, lit. 'ornament of worshippers') was the great-grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and the fourth Imam in Shia Islam, succeeding his father, Husayn ibn Ali, his uncle, Hasan ibn Ali, and his grandfather, Ali ibn Abi Talib.

Ali al-Sajjad was born around 658. He survived the Battle of Karbala in 680, in which Husayn and his small caravan were massacred en route to Kufa by the forces of the Umayyad caliph Yazid I (r. 680–683). After the battle, al-Sajjad and other survivors were treated poorly and taken to the Umayyad capital Damascus. Al-Sajjad was eventually allowed to return to his hometown of Medina, where he led a secluded life, without participating in the numerous pro-Alid uprisings against the Umayyads during the civil war of the Second Fitna. Instead, he devoted his life to worship and learning, and was highly esteemed, even among proto-Sunnis, as a leading authority on Islamic tradition (hadith) and law (fiqh). He was also known for his piety and virtuous character. Being politically quiescent, al-Sajjad had few followers until late in his life, for many Shia Muslims were initially drawn to the anti-Umayyad movement of Mukhtar al-Thaqafi.

Abū Muḥammad Maʿdīkarib ibn Qays ibn Maʿdīkarib (599–661), better known as al-Ashʿath (Arabic: الأشعث), was a chief of the Kinda tribe of Hadhramawt and founder of a leading noble Arab household in Kufa, one of the two main garrison towns and administrative centers of Iraq under the Rashidun (632–661) and Umayyad (661–750) caliphs.

Al-Ash'ath embraced Islam in the presence of the Islamic prophet Muhammad only to leave the faith following the latter's death in 632. He led his tribesmen against the Muslims during the Ridda wars but surrendered during a siege of his fortress, after which many Kindites were executed. He was imprisoned, but pardoned by Caliph Abu Bakr (r. 632–634) upon his repentance. Al-Ash'ath joined the Muslim conquests of Mesopotamia and Persia, fighting in several battles between 636 and 642. He settled in the newly-founded garrison city of Kufa and became the leader of his tribesmen there. Under Caliph Uthman (r. 644–656), al-Ash'ath governed Adharbayjan. In 657, he fought as a commander in the Battle of Siffin for Caliph Ali (r. 656–661) against Mu'awiya, but supported an end to the battle by arbitration, for which generally pro-Alid sources consider him a traitor. When Mu'awiya became caliph after Ali was assassinated in 661, the position of al-Ash'ath and his family was strengthened in Kufa, where he soon after died.