located in
Derna, Libya. Zuhayr belonged to the
Bali tribe, itself part of the larger
Quda'a confederation that was present throughout Syria and the northern Hejaz. He is considered by some Muslim sources, namely
Ibn Hajar and
al-Suyuti, as a
sahabi (companion) of the Islamic prophet
Muhammad, while al-Suyuti also places him with the second-generation of Muslims, known as the ''
tabi'un''. As Uqba campaigned in the region of
Sous (in modern-day Morocco), he ordered Zuhayr to return with the majority of the Arab troops to Kairouan to defend the city from an impending
Byzantine attack. Panic ensued among the Arab troops of Kairouan; the majority sided with Hanash al-San'ani, who advocated for withdrawal to Barqa (
Cyrenaica), while Zuhayr favored resistance. The army ultimately withdrew. Meanwhile, a major political crisis gripped much of the
Umayyad Caliphate with the outbreak of the
Second Muslim Civil War. Zuhayr entered the service of the governor of Egypt,
Ibn Jahdam, who was allied with the Umayyads' rival, the
Mecca-based Caliph
Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr. He fought alongside Ibn Jahdam during an assault against the Umayyad prince and general
Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan at
Ayla on Syria's
Red Sea coast. The Umayyads ultimately seized Egypt and Abd al-Aziz became its governor, after which he and Zuhayr reconciled, though Abd al-Aziz remained wary of him.
Taking over the rule of Cyrenaica He installed Zuhayr as deputy governor of Barqa with instructions to combat the resurgent Byzantines. Tensions developed between the governor and Zuhayr when the former disparaged him; Zuhayr responded that because of his role in the rescension of the
Qur'an, he ought to be treated honorably. According to the historian
Mohamed Talbi, Abd al-Aziz's brother, the Caliph
Abd al-Malik, appointed Zuhayr to lead a campaign to defeat the Byzantine–Berber alliance and restore the Arab position in Ifriqiya. To that end, Zuhayr recaptured Kairouan and drove the Berbers west to Mams, where
he slew Kasila.
The death It is unclear when these events precisely occurred, but it was sometime prior to Zuhayr's death at the hands of Byzantine raiders in Barqa in 688. In that incident, the historian Reif Georges Khoury writes that Zuhayr "died valiantly with 70 of his companions before the rest of the troops could come to his aid". ==References==