Abū ʿAmra Kaysān was a prominent Persian '' mawlā'' (pl. ''mawālī''; non-Arab convert to Islam in early

caliphate A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...

history) during the

Second Muslim Civil War The Second Fitna was a period of general political and military disorder and civil war in the Islamic community during the early Umayyad Caliphate., meaning trial or temptation) occurs in the Qur'an in the sense of test of faith of the believer ...

. Kaysan converted to Islam after the

Muslim conquest of Persia The Muslim conquest of Persia, also known as the Arab conquest of Iran, was carried out by the Rashidun Caliphate from 633 to 654 AD and led to the fall of the Sasanian Empire as well as the eventual decline of the Zoroastrian religion. Th ...

and became a ''mawlā'' affiliated with the Urayna clan of the

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

tribe of

Bajila The Bajīla () was an Arab tribe that inhabited the mountains south of Mecca in the pre-Islamic era and later dispersed to different parts of Arabia and then Iraq under the Muslims. The tribe, under one of its chieftains Jarir ibn Abd Allah, play ...

. Early on, Kaysan allied himself with the Alid cause. He ultimately became a leader of the ''mawālī'' faction in the pro-Alid movement of

al-Mukhtar al-Thaqafi Al-Mukhtar ibn Abi Ubayd al-Thaqafi ( ar, المختار بن أبي عبيد الثقفي, '; – 3 April 687) was a pro-Alid revolutionary based in Kufa, who led a rebellion against the Umayyad Caliphate in 685 and ruled over most of Iraq f ...

(685–687 CE), serving as the head of the latter's personal guard. Kaysan was chosen for this role either due to the high level of trust al-Mukhtar placed in him or Kaysan's significant influence among the ''mawalī'' of Kufa. He was among the handful of al-Mukhtar's loyalists who secured the support of the prominent leader

Ibrahim ibn al-Ashtar Ibrahim ibn Malik al-Ashtar ibn al-Harith al-Nakha'i (; died October 691), better known as Ibrahim ibn al-Ashtar ( ar, إبراهيم بن الأشتر, Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ashtar) was an Arab commander who fought in the service of Caliph Ali (r. 65 ...

for the pro-Alid movement. Kaysan also oversaw the punishments of the Arab nobles of

Kufa Kufa ( ar, الْكُوفَة ), also spelled Kufah, is a city in Iraq, about south of Baghdad, and northeast of Najaf. It is located on the banks of the Euphrates River. The estimated population in 2003 was 110,000. Currently, Kufa and Najaf a ...

, where al-Mukhtar was based, including Umar ibn Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas and Shimr ibn Dhi al-Jawshan, for their participation in the events surrounding the killing of

Ali ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam ...

's son

al-Husayn Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, أبو عبد الله الحسين بن علي بن أبي طالب; 10 January 626 – 10 October 680) was a grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a son of Ali ibn Abi ...

in 680. His reputation was such that a common expression, "Abu Amra has visited him", was used by the Kufan nobles to refer to anyone who was stripped of their wealth. His fate is not precisely known but he may have died during the

Battle of Madhar The battles of Madhar and Harura (Arabic transliteration: ''Yawm Madhār'' and ''Yawm Ḥarūrāʾ'') successively took place in the latter half of 686 in the environs of Basra and Kufa, respectively, both in southern Iraq. The battles were foug ...

, in which he again commanded the ''mawalī'' of al-Mukhtar's army, in mid-686 since there is no post-battle mention of him in the sources. The extinct Shia sect, the

Kaysanites The Kaysanites () were a Shi'i sect of Islam that formed from the followers of Al-Mukhtar. They traced Imamate from Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah and his descendants. The name Kaysaniyya was most likely derived from the name of Mukhtar's chief gu ...

, is most likely named after Kaysan, although there are other opinions about the origin of the term as well. Kaysan is reported to have preached extreme views. He cursed all the three caliphs preceding

, declaring them infidels, and claimed that angel

Gabriel In Abrahamic religions ( Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Gabriel (); Greek: grc, Γαβριήλ, translit=Gabriḗl, label=none; Latin: ''Gabriel''; Coptic: cop, Ⲅⲁⲃⲣⲓⲏⲗ, translit=Gabriêl, label=none; Amharic: am, ገብ ...

visited Mukhtar although the latter could only hear Gabriel's voice and could not see him. He is alleged to have asserted that Ali had designated Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah as his successor as Imam, and that Hasan and

Husayn Hussein, Hussain, Hossein, Hossain, Huseyn, Husayn, Husein or Husain (; ar, حُسَيْن ), coming from the triconsonantal root Ḥ-S-i-N ( ar, ح س ی ن, link=no), is an Arabic name which is the diminutive of Hassan, meaning "good", " ...

were usurpers. According to

Wilferd Madelung Wilferd Ferdinand Madelung FBA (b. December 26, 1930 in Stuttgart) is a German-British author and scholar of Islamic history. Life After World War II, the adolescent Wilferd accompanied his parents to the USA where his father Georg Hans Made ...

, this claim is likely to be a later fabrication.

References

{{reflist, 30em People of the Second Fitna Iraq under the Umayyad Caliphate 7th-century Iranian people