Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan
Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan عبد العزيز بن مروان | |
---|---|
Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Malik | |
Personal details | |
Died | 12 May 705 Hulwan |
Spouses |
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Children |
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Parents |
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Relatives | Abd al-Malik (brother) Al-Walid I (nephew and son-in-law) |
Residence(s) | Fustat (685–690) Hulwan (690–705) |
Religion | Islam |
Military service | |
Allegiance | Umayyad Caliphate |
Years of service | 684–685 |
Battles/wars | |
Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan ibn al-Hakam (
Early life and career
Abd al-Aziz was the son of a prominent
Ibn al-Zubayr declared himself and gained wide recognition as caliph after the death of Yazid in 683. In the summer of 684, when Marwan was elected caliph by pro-Umayyad loyalist tribes in
Governor of Egypt
Abd al-Aziz is most notable for his twenty-year-long tenure as governor (amir) of
Foundation of Hulwan and building works in Fustat
During the early years of his reign, Abd al-Aziz resided chiefly at Fustat, leaving it only for two visits to the Caliph's court at Damascus and four visits to Alexandria.[8] Fustat was the capital of the province, established in the 640s by the Arab conqueror and first governor of Islamic Egypt, Amr ibn al-As. Abd al-Aziz was a major patron of architectural projects and his rule marked the heyday of Umayyad-era building works in the city.[9] Several houses, palaces, roofed markets and fountains were built under his direction.[9]
Abd al-Aziz completely rebuilt and expanded the Amr ibn al-As Mosque, Fustat's congregational mosque.[9] To its west, in 686/87[10] he erected the Dar al-Mudhahabba (the Gilded Palace).[2] The residential complex was also known in the contemporary Arabic sources as al-Madina (the City), giving an indication of its size, covering up to 4–5 hectares (9.9–12.4 acres) including gardens. The complex included some buildings of at least two storeys.[10] It overlooked the Nile and likely included the house and surrounding land of the high-ranking official Kharija ibn Hudhafa (d. 661), which Marwan purchased from Kharija's son for 10,000 gold dinars.[11]
According to the historian Wladyslaw Kubiak, the Dar al-Bayda (the White Palace) built by Marwan in Fustat may have been viewed by Abd al-Aziz as unsuitable for a person of his rank and the new palace became the official residence of Egypt's Marwanids (descendants of Caliph Marwan).[10] He built a bath in the city named after his son Zabban, upon whom it was bestowed. The bath became the subject of a celebrated verse:
Whoever has in his soul a place for white, let him have that white in the Bath of Zabban
It has no breath, no eyelashes, however, it is an idol in the creation of man.[12]
At least four roofed markets, each specialising in a type of merchandise, were built during Abd al-Aziz's reign.
When the plague struck Fustat in 689 or 690,[8][2] Abd al-Aziz moved his residence and seat of government about 20 kilometers (12 mi) south of the city and founded Hulwan.[2][17] According to the 15th-century Egyptian historian al-Maqrizi, Abd al-Aziz had relocated due to flooding in Fustat in 690 and chose the site of Hulwan for his new capital because its elevation, 35 metres (115 ft) above the banks of the Nile, was higher than the river's flood line.[17] The foundation of Hulwan began a custom of establishing "satellite residence town[s]", which was "repeated countless times by later rulers in various regions of the Islamic world", according to Kubiak.[18]
Abd al-Aziz constructed in Hulwan a mosque, a number of churches (see below) and palaces, and planted vineyards and palm trees.
Domestic affairs
Abd al-Aziz proved to be a capable governor,[20] and his rule was a period of peace and prosperity, marked by his conciliatory and co-operative attitude towards the leaders of the local Arab settlers (the jund). Throughout his tenure, Abd al-Aziz relied on them rather than the Syrians, who elsewhere were the main pillar of the Umayyad regime.[21]
Abd al-Aziz was known for his generosity. The 10th-century Egyptian historian al-Kindi quotes a report that he arranged for one thousand bowls of food to be set up around his palace and had another one hundred bowls supplied to the tribal settlers of Fustat, both on a daily basis.[22] These bowls are also mentioned in a well-known eulogy by Ibn Qays al-Ruqayyat:
That is Laylā's son, Abd al-'Azīz: at Bābilyūn [Babylon Fortress]
his food bowls are full to overflowing.[23]
According to al-Kindi, Abd al-Aziz introduced an Islamic ritual in Egypt consisting of a sitting held in the mosques during afternoon prayers on the ninth day of
The medieval Egyptian historian
Relations with Christians
According to the 10th-century
Apart from personal favours to the Christians in his circle, Abd al-Aziz pursued a restrictive policy towards Egypt's indigenous Christian population. In 693/94, on one of his visits to Alexandria, he arrested the Christian leaders of the city and dispersed them across the country's villages and rural districts. He then obliged each district to pay taxes according to the yield of its fields and gardens.
Death and legacy
Marwan had named Abd al-Aziz his second heir after Abd al-Malik. The latter, however, wanted his son al-Walid I (r. 705–715) to succeed him, and Abd al-Aziz was persuaded not to object to this change.[20] In the event, Abd al-Aziz died on 12 May 705 CE (13 Jumada I AH 86), four months before Abd al-Malik.[35] Abd al-Aziz was succeeded as governor by Abd al-Malik's son Abd Allah, whose aim was to restore the caliphate's control over the province and, in the words of the historian Hugh N. Kennedy, "remove all traces of Abd al-Aziz's administration".[37]
By dint of his major architectural works in Fustat and Hulwan, roughly coinciding with the period of monumental Islamic architecture's earliest stages under the caliphs Abd al-Malik and al-Walid I, Kubiak calls Abd al-Aziz perhaps "the true father of Islamic architecture".
Family and descendants
According to the historian Ibn Sa'd (d. 845), Abd al-Aziz had children from three wives and two slave women.[40] He married Umm Asim bint Asim, a granddaughter of Caliph Umar (r. 634–644), while they were both residing in Damascus in c. 684–685.[41] Abd al-Aziz highly valued this marital link with the family of the former caliph and spent 400 gold dinars for the wedding.[41] While Ibn Sa'd counts four sons from Umm Asim—Asim, Umar, Abu Bakr and Muhammad[42]—al-Baladhuri and Ibn Abd al-Hakam count two: Abu Bakr Asim and Umar.[43] Twelve years after Abd al-Aziz's death, Umar was appointed caliph and ruled until 720.[35]
From another wife, Umm Abd Allah bint Abd Allah, a granddaughter of Amr ibn al-As, Abd al-Aziz had his sons Suhayl and Sahl and daughters Sahla and Umm al-Hakam.[40][42][44] From a third wife, Layla bint Suhayl, he had his daughter Umm al-Banin.[42] Abd al-Aziz was also married to Hafsa, a daughter of Asma bint Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Harith of the prominent Qurayshite clan of Banu Makhzum.[45]
Five of his children, including his eldest son al-Asbagh, were born to slave women.[40] According to the Egyptian historian al-Kindi (d. 961), Abd al-Aziz appointed al-Asbagh as a temporary governor of Alexandria and, during Abd al-Aziz's visit to Syria in 695, as his place-holder over the whole of Egypt.[22] Abd al-Aziz intended that al-Asbagh—for whom he nurtured hopes in the caliphal succession—would succeed him as governor of Egypt, making the province into a hereditary appendage for his household, but al-Asbagh died a few months before Abd al-Aziz.[37]
Other sons of Abd al-Aziz from his slave women included Zabban and Juzayy.
Abd al-Aziz's descendants remained influential in Egyptian affairs until the early
In the immediate aftermath of the Abbasid Revolution, Abd al-Aziz's grandson Umar ibn Suhayl and great-grandson Isa ibn al-Walid ibn Umar were deported to
References
- ^ Fishbein 1990, p. 162.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barthold 1971, p. 72.
- ^ Hawting 1989, p. 62.
- ^ Khoury 2002, p. 559.
- ^ Mayer 1952, p. 185.
- ^ Bosworth 1991, p. 622.
- ^ a b Kennedy 1998, pp. 65, 70–71.
- ^ a b c Kennedy 1998, p. 71.
- ^ a b c d Kubiak 1987, p. 123.
- ^ a b c Kubiak 1987, pp. 45, 128.
- ^ Kubiak 1987, pp. 44–45, 116.
- ^ Hilloowala 1998, p. 107.
- ^ Kubiak 1987, p. 127.
- ^ Kubiak 1987, pp. 111, 116.
- ^ Kubiak 1987, pp. 111–112, 116, 120.
- ^ Kubiak 1987, p. 116.
- ^ a b c d e Jones 1971, p. 572.
- ^ Kubiak 1987, p. 42.
- ^ Kubiak 1987, p. 128.
- ^ a b Zetterstéen 1960, p. 58.
- ^ Kennedy 1998, pp. 70–71.
- ^ a b Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Kindi 1912, p. 51.
- ^ Fishbein 1990, p. 162, notes 587–589.
- ^ Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Kindi 1912, p. 50.
- ^ Ibn Abd al-Hakam 1922, p. 156.
- ^ Dennett 1950, p. 76.
- ^ Kubiak 1987, p. 102.
- ^ Hilloowala 1998, p. 112.
- ^ The scholar biographies of Abū 'Ubaidallah al-Marzubānī: in the review of the Ḥāfiẓ al-Yaġmūrī. Edited by Rudolf Sellheim. F. Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden 1964, p. 3.
- ^ a b Eutychius of Alexandria 1909, p. 41.
- ^ Becker 1902, p. 98.
- ^ Dennett 1950, p. 75.
- ^ Becker 1902, p. 99.
- ^ Dennett 1950, p. 5, 73.
- ^ ISSN 1873-9830.
- ^ Robinson 2005, p. 80.
- ^ a b Kennedy 1998, pp. 71–72.
- ^ Kubiak 1987, p. 124.
- ^ Barthold 1971, p. 73.
- ^ a b c Muhammad ibn Sa'd 1904–1940, pp. 9–11.
- ^ a b Barthold 1971, p. 71.
- ^ a b c d Bewley 2000, p. 153.
- ^ Sijpesteijn 2014, p. 183, note 31.
- ^ Sijpesteijn 2014, p. 183.
- ^ Ahmed 2010, p. 124.
- ^ Uzquiza Bartolomé 1992, p. 423.
- ^ Sábada 1957, p. 83.
- ^ Kubiak 1987, pp. 96, 169.
- ^ Ibn Abd al-Hakam 1922, p. 112.
- ^ Kennedy 1998, pp. 77–78.
- ^ Sijpesteijn 2014, p. 184.
- ^ Sijpesteijn 2014, p. 184, note 34.
- ^ Caetani 1923, p. 23.
- ^ Caetani 1923, pp. 22–23.
- ^ McAuliffe 1995, p. 236.
- ^ Ahmed 2007, p. 440, note 151.
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- Fishbein, Michael, ed. (1990). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XXI: The Victory of the Marwānids, A.D. 685–693/A.H. 66–73. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-0221-4.
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{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Ibn Abd al-Hakam (1922). Torrey, Charles C. (ed.). Kitāb Futūḥ Miṣr wa-aḫbāruhā. New Haven.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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