Battle of Marj Rahit (684) in the context of "Qays–Yaman rivalry"

The Second Fitna was the second civil war in the Islamic community during the early Umayyad Caliphate. It followed the death of the first Umayyad caliph Mu'awiya I in 680, and lasted for about twelve years. The war involved the defeat of three main challenges to the authority of the Umayyad dynasty, the first by Husayn ibn Ali, as well as his supporters including Sulayman ibn Surad and Mukhtar al-Thaqafi who rallied to avenge his death in Iraq, the second by Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr who proclaimed himself caliph in Mecca and Medina and would be nominally recognized throughout most of the Caliphate, and the Kharijites who took over central Arabia and southern Iraq and Persia.

The roots of the civil war go back to the First Fitna. After the assassination of the third Rashidun caliph Uthman, the Islamic community experienced its first civil war over the immediate question of retribution for his murder. Following the assassination of the fourth Rashidun caliph Ali in 661 and the abdication of his successor Hasan the same year, Mu'awiya became the sole ruler of the caliphate. Mu'awiya's unprecedented decision to nominate his son Yazid as his heir sparked opposition, and tensions soared after Mu'awiya's death. Husayn ibn Ali was invited by the pro-Alids of Kufa to overthrow the Umayyads but was killed with his small company en route to Kufa at the Battle of Karbala in October 680. Yazid's army suppressed anti-government rebels in Medina in August 683 and subsequently besieged Mecca, where Ibn al-Zubayr had established himself in opposition to Yazid. After Yazid died in November the siege was abandoned, and Umayyad authority would soon collapse throughout the caliphate following the death of his son except in parts of Syria where Marwan I was proclaimed caliph; most provinces recognized Ibn al-Zubayr as caliph. A series of pro-Alid movements demanding to avenge Husayn's death emerged in Kufa, beginning with Ibn Surad's Penitents movement, which was crushed by the Umayyads at the Battle of Ayn al-Warda in January 685. Kufa was then taken over by Mukhtar, who rallied Husayn's supporters and the disenfranchised mawali to his cause. Though his forces routed a large Umayyad army at the Battle of Khazir in August 686, Mukhtar and his supporters were slain by the Zubayrids in April 687 following a series of battles. Under the leadership of Marwan, the Umayyads would consolidate their power over Syria and retake Egypt from the Zubayrids, and under his successor Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, the Umayyads would reconquer Iraq after defeating the Zubayrids at the Battle of Maskin in 691 and would reassert their control over the Caliphate after killing Ibn al-Zubayr in the second siege of Mecca in 692, while their general Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf would suppress the Kharijites in the years afterwards.

Marwan ibn al-Hakam ibn Abi al-As ibn Umayya (Arabic: مروان بن الحكم بن أبي العاص بن أمية, romanized: Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ ibn Umayya; 623 or 626 – April/May 685), commonly known as Marwan I, was the fourth Umayyad caliph, ruling for less than a year in 684–685. He founded the Marwanid ruling house of the Umayyad dynasty, which replaced the Sufyanid house after its collapse in the Second Fitna and remained in power until 750.

During the reign of his cousin, the third Rashidun caliph Uthman (r. 644–656), Marwan took part in a military campaign against the Byzantine Exarchate of Africa (in central North Africa), where he acquired significant war spoils. He also served as Uthman's governor in Fars (southwestern Iran) before becoming the caliph's katib (secretary or scribe). He was wounded fighting the rebel siege of Uthman's house, in which the caliph was slain. In the ensuing civil war between the fourth Rashidun caliph Ali (r. 656–661) and the largely Qurayshite partisans of Aisha, Marwan sided with the latter at the Battle of the Camel. Marwan later served as governor of Medina under his distant kinsman Caliph Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680), founder of the Umayyad Caliphate. During the reign of Mu'awiya's son and successor Yazid I (r. 680–683), Marwan organized the defense of the Umayyad realm in the Hejaz (western Arabia) against the local opposition which included prominent companions as well as Muhammad’s own clan, the Bani Hashim, who revolted under the banner of Muhammad’s grandson, Husayn ibn Ali. After Yazid died in November 683, the Mecca-based rebel and sahabi Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr declared himself caliph and expelled Marwan, who took refuge in Syria, the center of Umayyad rule. With the death of the last Sufyanid caliph Mu'awiya II in 684, Marwan, encouraged by the ex-governor of Iraq Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad, volunteered his candidacy for the caliphate during a summit of pro-Umayyad tribes in Jabiya. The tribal nobility, led by Ibn Bahdal of the Banu Kalb, elected Marwan and together they defeated the pro-Zubayrid Qays tribes at the Battle of Marj Rahit in August of that year.

Al-Marwani (Arabic: ُٱلْمَرْوَنِي, romanized: al-Marwānī) or Banu Marwan (Arabic: بَنِوُ مَرْوَانَ, lit. 'Sons of Marwan'), also referred to as the Marwanids (Arabic: ٱلْمَرْوَنِيُون, romanized: al-Marwāniyūn), is a prominent Arab clan belonging to the Banu Umayya branch of the Quraysh tribe. They are the descendants of Marwan ibn al-Hakam, fourth Umayyad caliph and paternal first cousin of the Rashidun caliph Uthman ibn Affan. Their roots lie in the holy city of Mecca in the Hejaz, the ancestral homeland of the Quraysh tribe, while their historical establishment was in Damascus, Syria. They are considered first cousins of the Banu Hashim, the clan of the Prophet Muhammad, since Umayya ibn Abd Shams ibn Abd Manaf was the paternal nephew of Hashim ibn Abd Manaf. They are also cousins of the Banu Shayba clan of Quraysh, the hereditary custodians of the Kaaba, through Marwan's maternal grandmother al-Sa'ba bint Abi Talha Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Uzza al-Abdariyya, the paternal aunt of Uthman ibn Talha ibn Abd Allah al-Abdari upon whom the Prophet Muhammad entrusted the guardianship of the keys of the Kaaba after the Conquest of Mecca.

The clan arrived in Damascus in the second half of the 7th century CE when Marwan I, the family's progenitor, moved from the Hejaz to Syria. His accession at the tribal conclave of Marj Rahit (684) marked the transfer of the caliphate within the Banu Umayya clan from the family of Abu Sufyan to his family. The family constitutes one of the two principal cadet branches of the Umayyad dynasty, the other being the Sufyanids, descended from Muʿawiya I ibn Abi Sufyan. At their height, the Marwanis represented the dominant branch of the Umayyad family, producing most of its ruling members and remaining the most numerous line of Umayyad descendants in later generations. The family supplied caliphs, princes, governors and commanders in the 7th–11th centuries and continued as a recognizable lineage in the central Islamic lands and in al-Andalus after 750.

Hassan ibn Malik ibn Bahdal al-Kalbi (Arabic: حسان بن مالك بن بحدل الكلبي, romanized: Ḥassān ibn Mālik ibn Baḥdal al-Kalbī, commonly known as Ibn Bahdal (Arabic: ابن بحدل, romanized: Ibn Baḥdal; d. 688 or 689), was the Umayyad governor of Palestine and Jordan during the reigns of Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680) and Yazid I (r. 680–683), a senior figure in the caliph's court, and a chieftain of the Banu Kalb tribe. He owed his position both to his leadership of the powerful Kalb, a major source of troops, and his kinship with the Umayyads through his aunt Maysun bint Bahdal, the wife of Mu'awiya and mother of Yazid. Following Yazid's death, Ibn Bahdal served as the guardian of his son and successor, Mu'awiya II, until the latter's premature death in 684. Amid the political instability and rebellions that ensued in the caliphate, Ibn Bahdal attempted to secure the succession Mu'awiya II's brother Khalid, but ultimately threw his support behind Marwan I, who hailed from a different branch of the Umayyads. Ibn Bahdal and his tribal allies defeated Marwan's opponents at the Battle of Marj Rahit and secured for themselves the most prominent roles in the Umayyad administration and military.