Ibn al-Zubayr rallied opposition to the Umayyads in the Hejaz from his base in Mecca, Islam's holiest city, and through his prestige as a first-generation Muslim with family ties to Muhammad. He aimed to restore the Hejaz to its former political prominence; after the assassination of Uthman, the region's position as the political center of the Caliphate had been lost first to Kufa under Ali and then to Damascus under Mu'awiya I. To that end, Ibn al-Zubayr developed a strong association with Mecca and its Ka'aba, which, combined with his control of Islam's second holiest city of Medina, furthered his prestige and gave his caliphate a holy character. Ibn al-Zubayr rejected the offer of support from the caliphate's Syria-based army partly because it would have obliged him to relocate to Damascus. Indeed, while other cities were available to him, Ibn al-Zubayr opted to remain in Mecca, from which he issued directives to his supporters elsewhere in the Caliphate. However, this restricted him from exercising direct influence in the larger, more populated provinces, particularly Iraq, where his more worldly brother ruled with virtual independence. In Arabia, Ibn al-Zubayr's power had been largely confined to the Hejaz with the Kharijite leader Najda holding more influence in the greater part of the peninsula. Thus, Ibn al-Zubayr had virtually rendered himself a background figure in the movement that was launched in his name; in the words of historian Julius Wellhausen, "the struggle turned round him al-Zubayr nominally, but he took no part in it and it was decided without him".