Al-Qarqisiyah was fortified by Zufar and from there he assumed preeminent leadership of the battered, but still powerful, Qaysi tribes, while maintaining his recognition of Ibn al-Zubayr as caliph.[2][8][9] According to historian Patricia Crone, Zufar and his family "were considered to be the very incarnation of Qaysiyya".[2] The Battle of Marj Rahit opened a bloody phase in the previously benign Qays–Yaman rivalry as the Qays sought vengeance for their heavy losses.[10] This phase in the conflict was characterized by tit-for-tat raids known as ayyam (days) because each raid was typically a day long. The dates of these raids were not recorded, but Zufar led the first raid in an attack that killed twenty Kalb tribesmen at a place called Musaiyakh in the Syrian Desert soon after setting himself up in al-Qarqisiyah.[11] The Banu Kalb retaliated by killing sixty men from the Banu Numayr sub-tribe of the Banu 'Amir in Palmyra.[11] This prompted an attack by Zufar at a place called Iklil that ended with the deaths of 500–1,000 Kalbi tribesmen and Zufar's escape to al-Qarqisiyah unscathed.[11]