Abd al-Rahman ibn Utba al-Fihri was the governor of Egypt for the rival caliph Ibn al-Zubayr in 684, during the Second Fitna. Egypt's Kharijites proclaimed themselves for Ibn al-Zubayr when the latter proclaimed himself Caliph at Mecca, and Ibn al-Zubayr dispatched Abd al-Rahman ibn Utba al-Fihri to become the province's governor. Although the incumbent governor, Sa'id ibn Yazid, gave way, the resident Arab elites of the province barely tolerated his presence, and began contacts with the Umayyad caliph Marwan I in Damascus. These contacts encouraged Marwan to march against Egypt, where Abd al-Rahman vainly tried to muster a defence: although he fortified the capital, Fustat, an army he sent to stop the Umayyad advance at Ayla, it melted away, and his fleet was wrecked by storms. Marwan ent