al-Hajjaj's siege of Mecca, 72

Al-Mas'udi relates that al-Hajjaj besieged Ibn al-Zubayr in Mecca for fifty nights, from the new moon of Dhu al-Qa'da 72 AH. ¹

Al-Hajjaj remained at al-Ta'if for months and then advanced on Mecca. When he took Abu Qubays, he wrote to Abd al-Malik, who exulted with his household and those in the mosque of Damascus, and the cry of "Allahu akbar" spread to the markets. ¹

Al-Mas'udi says that Ibn al-Zubayr prevented the pilgrims from circling the House. Al-Hajjaj stood with the people at Arafat in the state of ihram, wearing a coat of mail and a helmet, at the age of thirty-one. Ibn al-Zubayr sacrificed at Mecca and did not go out to Arafat. ¹

The date of the siege is not recorded in an organised form in the data, and it needs an additional source.