Mukhtar al-Thaqafi (c. 622 – 687) was an early Islamic revolutionary
based in Kufa who led a rebellion against the Umayyads during the Second
Islamic Civil War and ruled over most of Iraq for eighteen months.
Mukhtar had allied with the Mecca-based rival caliph Abd Allah ibn al-
Zubayr following Husayn ibn Ali's death at the Battle of Karbala, but
returned to Kufa after caliph Yazid's death. He declared Muhammad ibn
al-Hanafiyyah, a son of Ali, to be the Mahdi, and took power in his name
in 685. Hostile relations with Ibn al-Zubayr ultimately led to Mukhtar's
death at the hands of the Zubayrid governor of Basra, Mus'ab ibn al-
Zubayr, following a four-month siege. Mukhtar's followers formed a
radical Shia sect; later called Kaysanites, they developed novel
doctrines and played a significant role in the Abbasid Revolution.
Mukhtar is a controversial figure among Muslims, revered by Shia but
condemned by many others as a false prophet.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukhtar_al-Thaqafi>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1786:
Ten days after it was created during an earthquake, a landslide
dam on the Dadu River in China was destroyed by an aftershock, causing a
flood that killed an estimated 100,000 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1786_Kangding-Luding_earthquake>
1886:
Mount Tarawera, a volcano on the North Island of New Zealand,
erupted (depicted), killing around 120 people and creating the Waimangu
Volcanic Rift Valley.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1886_eruption_of_Mount_Tarawera>
1925:
The United Church of Canada, the country's largest Protestant
church, held its inaugural service in Toronto's Mutual Street Arena.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Church_of_Canada>
1991:
Eleven-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard was kidnapped in South Lake
Tahoe, California; she remained a captive until 2009.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping_of_Jaycee_Dugard>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
disimprovement:
Reduction from a better to a worse state.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/disimprovement>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
In the greatest confusion there is still an open channel to the
soul. It may be difficult to find because by midlife it is overgrown,
and some of the wildest thickets that surround it grow out of what we
describe as our education. But the channel is always there, and it is
our business to keep it open, to have access to the deepest part of
ourselves.
--Saul Bellow
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Saul_Bellow>