Al-Mukhtar was the leader of a Shiite rebellion in Kufa from 685-687, who claimed to be acting on behalf of Muhammad Ibn al-Hanafiyya, son of Ali b. Abi Talib and half brother of Hasan and Husayn. Al- Mukhtar's followers believed Ibn al-Hanafiyya to be the fourth Imam after Husayn and the awaited Mahdi, the one who would establish justice on earth. Al-Mukhtar was defeated and killed in 687 by the governor of Basra, the brother of the anti-caliph Ibn al-Zubayr. His followers continued as a distinct sect, the Kaysanites, for the next two hundred years.