The background to the events in Syria in the second civil war was twofold. Firstly, in terms of religious developments the transfer of the capital to Syria had placed the Umayyad high priest in exile from his temple; the Umayyads may have done something to make the temple come to Syria, but for the politically redundant Quraysh of Arabia it was a more appealing idea to have the capital come back to the Ḥijāz. Accordingly, on the death of Muʻāwiya in 680 [60], Ibn al-Zubayr refused to pay allegiance to Yazīd I, sought refuge in the temple, and awaited an opportunity to make his bid for the caliphate.

Secondly, in terms of tribal politics the rise of Quḍāʻa had led to the emergence of three rival confederacies in Syria. The Quḍāʻa, who were then considered descendants of Maʻadd, were represented in the three districts of Jordan, Damascus and Ḥimṣ where they had the support of neighbouring tribes such as Ghassān and Kinda. In the north, however, the immigration of members of the confederacy of Qays in the reign of Muʻāwiya led to the detachment from Ḥimṣ of the new district of Qinnasrīn by Yazīd I, and here the Quḍāʻa had no foothold. They similarly lacked representatives in the southernmost district of Palestine, and their efforts to win over the Palestinian Judhām by intervening in a quarrel over the tribal leadership proved unsuccessful. The rivals were Nātil b. Qays al-Judhāmī who held the leadership, and Rawḥ b. Zanbāʻal-Judhāmī, a younger man who hoped to get it.