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Shards: The Red, The White, and the Icons Unbroken

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The collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate during the Second Fitna is one of the most important events in the history of Islam. As a result of the conflict the once (at least nominally) unified Islamic world was riven by religious schism and left with multiple Caliphs and states under the control of various sects of Islam. After the death of the first Umayyad Caliph, Muawiya I, and the ascension to the throne of his son Yazid the first opposition to Umayyad rule came in the form of the grandson of the Prophet Mohammad, Husayn ibn Ali, and his supporters. Husayn declared the rule of the Umayyad family to be a religiously misguided and repressive regime that was attempting to install a hereditary monarchy. Husayn would refuse to recognize the authority of Yazid. After the slaying of Husayn at Karbalā by Umayyad forces the stage was set for a civil war that would fracture fundamentally the Islamic community. After the death of Husayn , Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr rose in rebellion against the caliph in what seemed to be a doomed rebellion against Umayyad authority after the fall of Medina and the siege of Mecca. Yet a series as the Umayyad forces seemed to be poised to crush al-Zubayr’s revolt the Umayyad caliph died and the army withdrew. Sometimes attributed to divine intervention, the death of Yazid allowed for the survival of al-Zubyr and his revolution against the Umayyad caliphate. Yazid’s successor would rule for mere months and his own successor before abdicating and dying shortly afterwards. Al-Zubayr would consolidate his rule over Iraq, Arabia, and Egypt during this period of Umayyad disarray which divided the Islamic world into two spheres of influence. The determining battle of the war that would ensure that the empire was fractured was the battle of Marj Rahit. Though originally greatly outnumbered by the forces loyal to al-Zubayr, access to the treasury in Damascus allowed for the Umayyad forces to bribe several of the tribes over the course of the twenty days’ worth of skirmishing that led up to the battle. What should have been an outright success against the Umayyad forces, paving the way to the road to Damascus, became a pyrrhic victory as the al-Zubayr forces were crippled by the enlarged Umayyad force [1]. Though a strategic defeat for the Umayyad Syrian forces it was a tactical victory that made it impossible for the Zubayrid forces to take total control of the caliphate. In the aftermath of the battle, al-Zubayr lost control of Central Arabia to the Kharijites who established a state of their own as well as rising up in Iraq and Persia alongside the Alid forces of al-Mukhtār. With the central authority of the caliphate disintegrating the stage was set for the fragmentation of Islam and the Middle East.

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[1]: This one of the two major points of divergence ITTL. IOTL the Umayyad forces achieved a total victory. As a result Egypt and the Levant would fall to the Umayyads and al-Zubayr would be forced back to Mecca. Here the defeat isn’t as total and the neither the Umayyad forces nor the Zubayrid forces have the momentum to press the attack. This PoD is actually the second major Pod ITTL and takes place four years after the first major PoD which ITTL doesn't seem like a big deal because the negative consequences of the OTL events aren't felt. The next update will cover the first PoD.

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