Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the Umayyad governor of Egypt, see Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan ibn Musa ibn Nusayr.

Abd al-Malik
عَبْد الْمَلِك
Bab al-Jabiya
, Damascus
Spouse
  • Wallada bint al-Abbas ibn al-Jaz
  • Atika bint Yazid ibn Mu'awiya
  • A'isha bint Hisham ibn Isma'il
  • Umm Ayyub bint Amr ibn Uthman
  • A'isha bint Musa ibn Talha
  • Umm al-Mughira bint al-Mughira
  • Umm Abiha bint Abd Allah ibn Ja'far
  • Shaqra bint Salama ibn Halbas
Issue
Names
Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan ibn al-Hakam
HouseMarwanid
DynastyUmayyad
FatherMarwan I
MotherA'isha bint Mu'awiya
ReligionIslam

Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan ibn al-Hakam (

caliph, ruling from April 685 until his death in October 705. A member of the first generation of born Muslims, his early life in Medina was occupied with pious pursuits. He held administrative and military posts under Caliph Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680), founder of the Umayyad Caliphate, and his own father, Caliph Marwan I (r. 684–685). By the time of Abd al-Malik's accession, Umayyad authority had collapsed across the Caliphate as a result of the Second Fitna and had been reconstituted in Syria and Egypt
during his father's reign.

Following a

Arab tribal nobility
by 702. Abd al-Malik's final years were marked by a domestically peaceful and prosperous consolidation of power.

In a significant departure from his predecessors, rule over the Caliphate's provinces was centralized under Abd al-Malik, following the elimination of his rivals. Gradually, loyalist Arab troops from Syria were tasked with maintaining order in the provinces as dependence on less reliable, local Arab garrisons was reduced. Tax surpluses from the provinces were forwarded to Damascus and the traditional stipends to veterans of the

epigraphic proclamations of Islam and the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The foundations established by Abd al-Malik enabled his son and successor, al-Walid I
(r. 705–715), who largely maintained his father's policies, to oversee the Umayyad Caliphate's territorial and economic zenith. Abd al-Malik's centralized government became the prototype of later medieval Muslim states.

Early life

Abd al-Malik was born in July/August 644 or June/July 647 in the house of his father

first generation of born-Muslims and his upbringing in Medina, Islam's political center at the time, was generally described as pious and rigorous by the traditional Muslim sources.[3][10] He took a deep interest in Islam and possibly memorized the Qur'an.[11]

Abd al-Malik's father was a senior aide of their Umayyad kinsman, Caliph

Second Muslim Civil War.[6] On the way to the Umayyad capital in Syria, Abd al-Malik encountered the army of Muslim ibn Uqba, who had been sent by Yazid to subdue the rebels in Medina.[6] He provided Ibn Uqba with intelligence about Medina's defenses.[6] The rebels were defeated at the Battle of al-Harra in August 683, but the army withdrew to Syria after Yazid's death later that year.[6]

The deaths of Yazid and his successor, his son

Jabiya hosted by the Kalbite chieftain Ibn Bahdal.[18] The tribal nobility elected Marwan as caliph and the latter became dependent on the Kalb and its allies, who collectively became known as the "Yaman" in reference to their ostensibly shared South Arabian (Yamani) roots.[18] Their power came at the expense of the Qaysi tribes, relative newcomers who had come to dominate northern Syria and the Jazira under Mu'awiya I and had defected to Ibn al-Zubayr.[18] The Qays were routed by Marwan and his Yamani backers at the Battle of Marj Rahit in 684, leading to a long-standing blood feud and rivalry between the two tribal coalitions.[18] Abd al-Malik did not participate in the battle on religious grounds, according to the contemporary poems compiled in the anthology of Abu Tammam (d. 845).[19]

Reign

Accession

Abd al-Malik was a close adviser of his father.

Khalifa ibn Khayyat, which the modern historian Amikam Elad considers to be seemingly "reliable".[23]

At the time of his accession, critical posts were held by members of Abd al-Malik's family.

Abbasid caliphs.[27] Furthermore, a Yamani always headed Abd al-Malik's shurṭa (elite security retinue).[28] The first to hold the post was Yazid ibn Abi Kabsha al-Saksaki and he was followed by another Yamani, Ka'b ibn Hamid al-Ansi.[28][29][30] The caliph's ḥaras (personal guard) was typically led by a mawlā (non-Arab Muslim freedman; plural: mawālī) and staffed by mawālī.[28]

Early challenges

Ibn al-Zubayr. The areas shaded in yellow represent territory controlled by the Kharijites

Though Umayyad rule had been restored in Syria and Egypt, Abd al-Malik faced several challenges to his authority.

al-Qarqisiya,[31] a Euphrates river fortress strategically located at the crossroads of Syria and Iraq.[32]

Failure in Iraq

Further information: Battle of Khazir

Re-establishing Umayyad rule across the Caliphate was the major priority of Abd al-Malik.[31] His initial focus was the reconquest of Iraq, the Caliphate's wealthiest province.[28] Iraq was also home to a large population of Arab tribesmen,[28] the group from which the Caliphate derived the bulk of its troops.[33] In contrast, Egypt, which provided significant income to the treasury, possessed a small Arab community and was thus a meager source of troops.[34] The demand for soldiers was pressing for the Umayyads as the backbone of their military, the Syrian army, remained fractured along Yamani and Qaysi lines. Though the roughly 6,000 Yamani soldiers of Abd al-Malik's predecessor were able to consolidate the Umayyad position in Syria, they were too few to reassert authority throughout the Caliphate.[33] Ibn Ziyad, a key figure in the establishment of Marwanid power, set about enlarging the army by recruiting widely among the Arab tribes, including those which nominally belonged to the Qays faction.[33]

Ibn Ziyad had been tasked by Abd al-Malik's father with the reconquest of Iraq.

defeated and killed al-Mukhtar and his supporters and became Iraq's sole ruler.[6][31]

Abd al-Malik shifted his focus to consolidating control of Syria.

Banu Taghlib tribe in the Jazira sparked a series of tit-for-tat raids and further deepened Arab tribal divisions, the previously neutral Taghlib throwing in its lot with the Yaman and the Umayyads.[36] The Taghlib killed Umayr in 689 and delivered his head to Abd al-Malik.[37]

Byzantine attacks and the treaty of 689

Along

First Arab Siege of Constantinople in 678.[38] In 679, a thirty-year peace treaty was concluded, obliging the Umayyads to pay an annual tribute of 3,000 gold coins, 50 horses and 50 slaves, and withdraw their troops from the forward bases they had occupied on the Byzantine coast.[39] The outbreak of the Muslim civil war allowed the Byzantine emperor Constantine IV (r. 668–685) to extort territorial concessions and enormous tribute from the Umayyads. In 685, the emperor led his army to Mopsuestia in Cilicia, and prepared to cross the border into Syria, where the Mardaites, an indigenous Christian group,[d] were already causing considerable trouble. With his own position insecure, Abd al-Malik concluded a treaty whereby he would pay a tribute of 1,000 gold coins, a horse and a slave for every day of the year.[41]

A topographic map of central Asia Minor and northern Syria and Upper Mesopotamia with administrative regions labeled and black fort-shaped markers indicating fortress locations
Map of the Arab–Byzantine frontier zone during the 7th–10th centuries, with major fortresses indicated

Under

Adharbayjan were to come under full Byzantine control. In reality, as the latter regions were not held by the Umayyads at this point, the agreement probably indicates a carte blanche by Abd al-Malik to the Byzantines to proceed against Zubayrid forces there. This arrangement suited both sides: Abd al-Malik weakened his opponent's forces and secured his northern frontier, and the Byzantines gained territory and reduced the power of the side that was apparently winning the Muslim civil war.[45] About 12,000 Mardaites were indeed resettled in Byzantium, but many remained behind, only submitting to the Umayyads in the reign of al-Walid I (r. 705–715). Their presence disrupted Umayyad supply lines and obliged them to permanently keep troops on standby to guard against their raids.[46]

The Byzantine counteroffensive represented the first challenge against a Muslim power by a people defeated in the early Muslim conquests.[38] Moreover, the Mardaite raids demonstrated to Abd al-Malik and his successors that the state could no longer depend on the quiescence of Syria's Christian majority, which until then had largely refrained from rebellion.[38] The modern historian Khalid Yahya Blankinship described the treaty of 689 as "an onerous and completely humiliating pact" and surmised that Abd al-Malik's ability to pay the annual tribute in addition to financing his own wartime army relied on treasury funds accrued during the campaigns of his Sufyanid predecessors and revenues from Egypt.[47]

Revolt of al-Ashdaq and end of the Qaysi rebellion

In 689/90, Abd al-Malik used the respite from the truce to initiate a campaign against the Zubayrids of Iraq, but was forced to return to Damascus when al-Ashdaq and his loyalists abandoned the army's camp and seized control of the city.[48] Al-Ashdaq viewed Abd al-Malik's accession as a violation of the caliphal succession agreement reached in Jabiya.[24] Abd al-Malik besieged his kinsman for sixteen days and promised him safety and significant political concessions if he relinquished the city.[6][48] Though al-Ashdaq agreed to the terms and surrendered, Abd al-Malik remained distrustful of the former's ambitions and executed him personally.[6]

Zufar's control of al-Qarqisiya, despite earlier attempts to dislodge him by Ibn Ziyad in 685/86 and the caliph's governor in Homs, Aban ibn al-Walid ibn Uqba, in 689/90, remained an obstacle to the caliph's ambitions in Iraq.[49] In revenge for Umayr's slaying, Zufar had intensified his raids and inflicted heavy casualties on the caliph's tribal allies in the Jazira.[50] Abd al-Malik resolved to command the siege of al-Qarqisiya in person in the summer of 691, and ultimately secured the defection of Zufar and the pro-Zubayrid Qays in return for privileged positions in the Umayyad court and army.[6][51][52] The integration of the Qaysi rebels strongly reinforced the Syrian army, and Umayyad authority was restored in the Jazira.[6] From then onward, Abd al-Malik and his immediate successors attempted to balance the interests of the Qays and Yaman in the Umayyad court and army.[53] This represented a break from the preceding seven years, during which the Yaman, and particularly the Kalb, were the dominant force of the army.[54]

Defeat of the Zubayrids

Further information: Battle of Maskin
Ka'aba in Mecca (pictured in 1917) was the headquarters of Ibn al-Zubayr where he was besieged and defeated by Abd al-Malik's forces led by al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf
in 692

With threats in Syria and the Jazira neutralized, Abd al-Malik was free to focus on the reconquest of Iraq.

Kharijite rebels and contending with disaffected Arab tribesmen in Basra and Kufa, Abd al-Malik was secretly contacting and winning over these same Arab nobles.[36] Thus, by the time Abd al-Malik led the Syrian army into Iraq in 691, the struggle to recapture the province was virtually complete.[36] Command of the army was held by members of his family, his brother Muhammad leading the vanguard and Yazid I's sons Khalid and Abd Allah leading the right and left wings, respectively.[36] Many Syrian nobles held reservations about the campaign and counseled Abd al-Malik not to participate in person.[36] Nonetheless, the caliph was at the head of the army when it camped opposite Mus'ab's forces at Maskin, along the Dujayl Canal.[51] In the ensuing Battle of Maskin, most of Mus'ab's forces, many of whom were resentful at the heavy toll he had exacted on al-Mukhtar's Kufan partisans, refused to fight and his leading commander, Ibn al-Ashtar, fell at the beginning of hostilities.[51][55][56] Abd al-Malik invited Mus'ab to surrender in return for the governorship of Iraq or any other province of his choice, but the latter refused and was killed in action.[57]

Following his victory, Abd al-Malik received the allegiance of Kufa's nobility and appointed governors to the Caliphate's eastern provinces.

al-Akhtal
eulogized him on the eve or aftermath of Ibn al-Zubayr's fall as follows:

To a man whose gifts do not elude us, whom God has made victorious, so let him in his victory long delight!

He who wades into the deep of battle, auspicious his augury, the Caliph of God through whom men pray for rain.

When his soul whispers its intention to him it sends him resolutely forth, his courage and his caution like two keen blades.

In him the common weal resides, and after his assurance no peril can seduce him from his pledge.

— Al-Akhtal (640–708), Khaffat al-qaṭīnu ("The tribe has departed")[67]

After his victory, Abd al-Malik aimed to reconcile with the Hejazi elite, including the Zubayrids and the Alids, the Umayyads' rivals within the Quraysh.[68] He relied on the Banu Makhzum, another Qurayshite clan, as his intermediaries in view of the Umayyad family's absence in the region due to their exile in 683.[68] Nevertheless, he remained wary of the Hejazi elite's ambitions and kept a vigilant eye on them through his various governors in Medina.[68] The first of these was al-Hajjaj, who was also appointed governor of Yemen and the Yamama (central Arabia) and led the Hajj pilgrim caravans of 693 and 694.[61] Though he maintained peace in the Hejaz, the harshness of his rule led to numerous complaints from its residents and may have played a role in his transfer from the post by Abd al-Malik.[61] A member of the Makhzum and Abd al-Malik's father-in-law, Hisham ibn Isma'il, was ultimately appointed. During his tenure in 701–706 he was also known for brutalizing Medina's townspeople.[11]

Consolidation in Iraq and the east

Despite his victory, the control and governance of Iraq, a politically turbulent province from the time of the Muslim conquest in the 630s, continued to pose a major challenge for Abd al-Malik.[53] He had withdrawn the Syrian army and entrusted to the Iraqis the defense of Basra from the Kharijite threat.[36][69] Most Iraqis had become "weary of the conflict" with the Kharijites, "which had brought them little but hardship and loss", according to Gibb.[6] Those from Kufa, in particular, had grown accustomed to the wealth and comfort of their lives at home and their reluctance to undertake lengthy campaigns far from their families was an issue that previous rulers of Iraq had consistently encountered.[70][71] Initially, the caliph appointed his brother Bishr governor of Kufa and another kinsman, Khalid ibn Abdallah, to Basra before the latter too was put under Bishr's jurisdiction.[26] Neither governor was up to the task, but the Iraqis eventually defeated the Najdiyya Kharijites in the Yamama in 692/93.[69][72] The Azariqa Kharijites in Persia were more difficult to rein in,[72] and following Bishr's death in 694, the Iraqi troops deserted the field against them at Ramhormoz.[73]

Abd al-Malik's attempt at family rule in Iraq had proven unsuccessful, and he installed al-Hajjaj in the post instead in 694. Kufa and Basra were combined into a single province under al-Hajjaj, who, from the start of his rule, displayed a strong commitment to governing Iraq effectively. Against the Azariqa, al-Hajjaj backed

al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra al-Azdi, a Zubayrid holdover with long experience combating the Kharijite rebels. Al-Muhallab finally defeated the Azariqa in 697.[53] Concurrently, a Kharijite revolt led by Shabib ibn Yazid al-Shaybani flared up in the heart of Iraq, resulting in the rebel takeover of al-Mada'in and siege of Kufa.[72] Al-Hajjaj responded to the unwillingness or inability of the war-weary Iraqis to face the Kharijites by obtaining from Abd al-Malik Syrian reinforcements led by Sufyan ibn al-Abrad al-Kalbi.[36][72] A more disciplined force, the Syrians repelled the rebel attack on Kufa and killed Shabib in early 697.[72][74] By 698, the Kharijite revolts had been stamped out.[75] Abd al-Malik attached to Iraq Sistan and Khurasan, thus making al-Hajjaj responsible for a super-province encompassing the eastern half of the Caliphate.[53] Al-Hajjaj made al-Muhallab deputy governor of Khurasan, a post he held until his death in 702, after which it was bequeathed to his son Yazid.[75][76] During his term, al-Muhallab recommenced the Muslim conquests in Central Asia, though the campaign reaped few territorial gains during Abd al-Malik's reign.[72]

Upon becoming governor, al-Hajjaj immediately threatened with death any Iraqi who refused to participate in the war efforts against the Kharijites.

Tustar in 701, and entered Kufa soon after.[77] Al-Hajjaj held out in Basra with his Banu Thaqif kinsmen and Syrian loyalists, who were numerically insufficient to counter the unified Iraqi front led by Ibn al-Ash'ath.[77] Alarmed at events, Abd al-Malik offered the Iraqis a pay raise equal to the Syrians and the replacement of al-Hajjaj with Ibn al-Ash'ath.[77] Due to his supporters' rejection of the terms, Ibn al-Ash'ath refused the offer, and al-Hajjaj took the initiative, routing Ibn al-Ash'ath's forces at the Battle of Dayr al-Jamajim in April.[77][78] Many of the Iraqis had defected after promises of amnesty if they disarmed, while Ibn al-Ash'ath and his core supporters fled to Zabulistan, where they were dispersed in 702.[77]

The suppression of the revolt marked the end of the Iraqi muqātila as a military force and the beginning of Syrian military domination of Iraq.[72][78] Iraqi internal divisions, and the utilization of disciplined Syrian forces by Abd al-Malik and al-Hajjaj, voided the Iraqis' attempt to reassert power in the province.[77] Determined to prevent further rebellions, al-Hajjaj founded a permanent Syrian garrison in Wasit, situated between the long-established Iraqi garrisons of Kufa and Basra, and instituted a more rigorous administration in the province.[77][78] Power thereafter derived from the Syrian troops, who became Iraq's ruling class, while Iraq's Arab nobility, religious scholars and mawālī were their virtual subjects.[77] Furthermore, the surplus taxes from the agriculturally rich Sawad lands were redirected from the muqātila to Abd al-Malik's treasury in Damascus to pay the Syrian troops in the province.[78][79] This reflected a wider campaign by the caliph to institute greater control over the Caliphate.[79]

Renewal of Byzantine wars in Anatolia, Armenia and North Africa

Despite the ten-year truce of 689, war with Byzantium resumed following Abd al-Malik's victory against Ibn al-Zubayr in 692.[72] The decision to resume hostilities was taken by Emperor Justinian II, ostensibly because of his refusal to accept payment of the tribute in the Muslim currency introduced that year rather than the Byzantine nomisma (see below).[72][80] This is reported solely by Theophanes and issues of chronology make this suspect; not all modern scholars accept its veracity.[81] The real casus belli, according to both Theophanes and the later Syriac sources, was Justinian's attempt to enforce his exclusive jurisdiction over Cyprus, and to move its population to Cyzicus in northwestern Anatolia, contrary to the treaty.[81][82] Given the enormous advantages secured by the treaty for Byzantium, Justinian's decision has been criticized by Byzantine and modern historians alike. However, the historian Ralph-Johannes Lilie points out that with Abd al-Malik emerging victorious from the civil war, Justinian may have felt it was only a matter of time until the caliph broke the treaty, and resolved to strike first, before Abd al-Malik could consolidate his position further.[83]

The white stone remains of multiple buildings set in a grassy area surrounded by trees with the sea in the background
In 698 Abd al-Malik's forces led by Hassan ibn al-Nu'man destroyed Carthage (ruins pictured in 2013), which signaled "the final, irretrievable end" of Byzantine power in North Africa.
An old cityscape view seen through open Arabesque arches with the sea and a hill in the distant horizon
The nearby town of Tunis (pictured in 2017) was subsequently founded on the caliph's orders and equipped with a naval arsenal.

The Umayyads decisively defeated the Byzantines at the

Tiberios III (r. 698–705) secured a treaty with the caliph for the return of the Cypriots, both those moved by Justinian II, as well as those subsequently deported by the Arabs to Syria, to their island.[88][89] Beginning in 700, Abd al-Malik's brother Muhammad subdued Armenia in a series of campaigns. The Armenians rebelled in 703 and received Byzantine aid, but Muhammad defeated them and sealed the failure of the revolt by executing the rebel princes in 705. As a result, Armenia was annexed into the Caliphate along with the principalities of Caucasian Albania and Iberia as the province of Arminiya.[90][91][92]

Meanwhile, in North Africa, a Byzantine–

al-Kahina, between 698 and 703.[94] Afterward, Hassan was dismissed by Abd al-Aziz, and replaced by Musa ibn Nusayr,[95] who went on to lead the Umayyad conquests of western North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula during the reign of al-Walid.[97]

Final years

The last years of Abd al-Malik's reign were generally characterized by the sources as a domestically peaceful and prosperous consolidation of power.[72] The blood feuds between the Qays and Yaman, which persisted despite the former's reconciliation with the Umayyads in 691, had dissipated toward the end of his rule.[98] Dixon credits this to Abd al-Malik's success at "harnessing tribal feeling to the interests of the government, [while] at the same time suppressing its violent manifestations".[98][f]

The remaining principal issue faced by the caliph was ensuring the succession of his eldest son, al-Walid, in place of the designated successor, Abd al-Aziz.

Bab al-Jabiya gate of Damascus.[103]

Legacy

A map of northern Africa, southern Europe and western and central Asia with different color shades denoting the stages of expansion of the caliphate
A map depicting the expansion of the Caliphate. The areas highlighted in pink depict territorial expansion during Abd al-Malik's reign

Abd al-Malik is considered the most "celebrated" Umayyad caliph by the historian

Jarir and al-Farazdaq.[112][113]

A schematic diagram of the Umayyad ruling family during the caliphate of Abd al-Malik
Family tree of the Umayyad dynasty during the reign of Abd al-Malik, whose reliance on his family was unprecedented in the Caliphate's history.

Abd al-Malik's concentration of power into the hands of his family was unprecedented; at one point, his brothers or sons held nearly all governorships of the provinces and Syria's districts.

Atika, who became his favorite and most influential wife.[26]

A milestone, found at Khan al-Hathrura near Jericho, produced on Abd al-Malik's orders on the road between Damascus and Jerusalem

After his victory in the civil war, Abd al-Malik embarked on a far-reaching campaign to consolidate Umayyad rule over the Caliphate.

Islamization measures.[38][119] The centralized administration he established became the prototype of later medieval Muslim states.[79] In Kennedy's assessment, Abd al-Malik's "centralized, bureaucratic empire ... was in many ways an impressive achievement", but the political, economic and social divisions that developed within the Islamic community during his reign "was to prove something of a difficult inheritance for the later Umayyads".[120]

According to Wellhausen, government "evidently became more technical and hierarchical" under Abd al-Malik, though not nearly to the extent of the later Abbasid caliphs.[121] As opposed to the freewheeling governing style of the Sufyanids, Abd al-Malik ruled strictly over his officials and kept interactions with them largely formal.[122] He put an end to the provinces' retention of the lion's share of surplus tax revenues, as had been the case under the Sufyanids, and had them redirected to the caliphal treasury in Damascus.[123] He supported al-Hajjaj's policy of collecting the poll tax, traditionally imposed on the Caliphate's non-Muslim subjects, from the mawālī of Iraq and instructed Abd al-Aziz to implement this measure in Egypt, though the latter allegedly disregarded the order.[124] Abd al-Malik may have inaugurated several high-ranking offices, and Muslim tradition generally credits him with the organization of the barīd (postal service), whose principal purpose was to efficiently inform the caliph of developments outside of Damascus.[125] He built and repaired roads that connected Damascus with Palestine and linked Jerusalem to its eastern and western hinterlands, as evidenced by seven milestones found throughout the region,[126][127][128] the oldest of which dates to May 692 and the latest to September 704.[129][g] The road project formed part of Abd al-Malik's centralization drive, special attention being paid to Palestine due to its critical position as a transit zone between Syria and Egypt and Jerusalem's religious centrality to the caliph.[132][133]

Institution of Islamic currency and Arabization of the bureaucracy

The obverse and reverse of a gold-colored coin inscribed in Arabic
A gold dinar of Abd al-Malik minted in Damascus in 697/98. Abd al-Malik introduced an independent Islamic currency in 693, which initially bore depictions of the caliph before being abandoned for coins solely containing inscriptions

A major component of Abd al-Malik's centralization and Islamization measures was the institution of an Islamic currency.[38][79] The Byzantine gold solidus was discontinued in Syria and Egypt,[38][72] the likely impetus being the Byzantines' addition of an image of Christ on their coins in 691/92, which violated Muslim prohibitions on images of prophets.[134] To replace the Byzantine coins, he introduced an Islamic gold currency, the dinar, in 693.[72][135] Initially, the new coinage contained depictions of the caliph as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community and its supreme military commander.[38] Historian Peter Frankopan claims this was potentially an image of Muhammad himself, possibly designed to counteract Byzantine coins then in circulation featuring images of Jesus.[136] This image proved no more acceptable to Muslim officialdom and was replaced in 696 or 697 with image-less coinage inscribed with Qur'anic quotes and other Muslim religious formulas.[135] In 698/99, similar changes were made to the silver dirhams issued by the Muslims in the former Sasanian Persian lands in the eastern Caliphate.[134] Depictions of the Sasanian king were consequently removed from the coinage,[134] though Abd al-Malik's new dirham retained its characteristically Sasanian silver fabric and wide flan.[137]

The obverse of a bluish green-colored glass piece inscribed in Arabic
A glass coin weight bearing the name of "the Servant of God, Abd al-Malik, Commander of the Faithful", minted in Damascus

Shortly after the overhaul of the Caliphate's currency, in circa 700, Abd al-Malik is generally credited with the replacement of Greek with Arabic as the language of the dīwān in Syria.[135][138][139] The transition was carried out by his scribe Sulayman ibn Sa'd.[140] Al-Hajjaj had initiated the Arabization of the Persian dīwān in Iraq, three years before.[139] Though the official language was changed, Greek and Persian-speaking bureaucrats who were versed in Arabic kept their posts.[141] The Arabization of the bureaucracy and currency was the most consequential administrative reform undertaken by the caliph.[72] Arabic ultimately became the sole official language of the Umayyad state,[134] but the transition in faraway provinces, such as Khurasan, did not occur until the 740s.[142] According to Gibb, the decree was the "first step towards the reorganization and unification of the diverse tax-systems in the provinces, and also a step towards a more definitely Muslim administration".[72] Indeed, it formed an important part of the Islamization measures that lent the Umayyad Caliphate "a more ideological and programmatic coloring it had previously lacked", according to Blankinship.[143] In tandem, Abd al-Malik began the export of papyri containing the Muslim statement of belief in Greek to spread Islamic teachings in the Byzantine realm.[134] This was a further testament to the ideological expansion of the Byzantine–Muslim struggle.[134]

The increasingly Muslim character of the state under Abd al-Malik was partly a reflection of Islam's influence in the lives of the caliph and the chief enforcer of his policies, al-Hajjaj, both of whom belonged to the first generation of rulers born and raised as Muslims.

Zoroastrian officials of the dīwān.[144] They stood in stark contrast to the Sufyanid caliphs and their governors in Iraq, who had entered these regions as youths and whose children were as acquainted with the native majority as with the Arab Muslim newcomers.[144] According to Wellhausen, Abd al-Malik was careful not to offend his pious subjects "in the careless fashion of [Caliph] Yazid", but from the time of his accession "he subordinated everything to policy, and even exposed the Ka'ba to the danger of destruction", despite the piety of his upbringing and early career.[11] Dixon challenges this view, attributing the Abbasid-era Muslim sources' portrayal of Abd al-Malik's transformation in character after his accession and the consequent abandonment of his piety to their general hostility to Abd al-Malik, whom they variously "accused of being a mean, treacherous and blood-thirsty person".[19] Dixon nonetheless concedes that the caliph disregarded his early Muslim ideals when he felt political circumstances necessitated it.[19]

Reorganization of the army

Abd al-Malik shifted away from his predecessors' use of Arab tribal masses in favor of an organized army.[118][145] Likewise, Arab noblemen who had derived their power solely through their tribal standing and personal relations with a caliph were gradually replaced with military men who had risen through the ranks.[118][145] These developments have been partially obscured by the medieval sources due to their continued usage of Arab tribal terminology when referencing the army, such as the names of the tribal confederations Mudar, Rabi'a, Qays and Yaman.[118] According to Hawting, these do not represent the "tribes in arms" utilized by earlier caliphs; rather, they denote army factions whose membership was often (but not exclusively) determined by tribal origin.[118] Abd al-Malik also established a Berber-dominated private militia called al-Waḍḍāḥiya after their original commander, the caliph's mawlā al-Waddah, which helped enforce the authority of Umayyad caliphs through the reign of Marwan II.[146]

Under Abd al-Malik, loyalist Syrian troops began to be deployed throughout the Caliphate to keep order, which came largely at the expense of the tribal nobility of Iraq.[118] The latter's revolt under Ibn al-Ash'ath demonstrated to Abd al-Malik the unreliability of the Iraqi muqātila in securing the central government's interests in the province and its eastern dependencies.[118] It was following the revolt's suppression that the military became primarily composed of the Syrian army.[76] Consecrating this transformation was a fundamental change to the system of military pay, whereby salaries were restricted to those in active service. This marked an end to the system established by Caliph Umar (r. 634–644), which paid stipends to veterans of the earlier Muslim conquests and their descendants.[76] While the Iraqi tribal nobility viewed the stipends as their traditional right, al-Hajjaj viewed them as a handicap restricting his and Abd al-Malik's executive authority and financial ability to reward loyalists in the army.[76] Stipends were similarly stopped to the inhabitants of the Hejaz, including the Quraysh.[147] Thus, a professional army was established during Abd al-Malik's reign whose salaries derived from tax proceeds.[76] The dependence on the Syrian army of his successors, especially Hisham (r. 724–743), scattered the army among the Caliphate's multiple and isolated war fronts, most of them distant from Syria.[148] The growing strain and heavy losses inflicted on the Syrians by the Caliphate's external enemies and increasing factional divisions within the army contributed to the weakening and downfall of Umayyad rule in 750.[148][149]

Foundation of the Dome of the Rock

An octagonal, multi-colored building, the upper trim of which is inscribed in Arabic, topped by a golden-plated dome
The Dome of the Rock (pictured in 2015) in Jerusalem was founded by Abd al-Malik in 691/92

In 685/86 or 688, Abd al-Malik began planning the construction of the

epigraphic proclamations of Islam and of Muhammad.[153] The inscriptions proved to be a milestone, as afterward they became a common feature in Islamic structures and almost always mention Muhammad.[153] The Dome of the Rock remains a "unique monument of Islamic culture in almost all respects", including as a "work of art and as a cultural and pious document", according to historian Oleg Grabar.[154]

A gray metal-domed octagonal structure decorated with tiles of different colors and geometric designs, supported by dark stone columns with beige-colored capitals
Abd al-Malik also erected the Dome of the Chain (pictured in 2013), which is adjacent to the Dome of the Rock

Narratives by the medieval sources about Abd al-Malik's motivations in building the Dome of the Rock vary.

Abrahamic religious setting of Jerusalem, home of the two older Abrahamic faiths, Judaism and Christianity.[154][156] The other main explanation holds that Abd al-Malik, in the heat of the war with Ibn al-Zubayr, sought to build the structure to divert the focus of the Muslims in his realm from the Ka'aba in Mecca, where Ibn al-Zubayr would publicly condemn the Umayyads during the annual pilgrimage to the sanctuary.[154][155][156] Though most modern historians dismiss the latter account as a product of anti-Umayyad propaganda in the traditional Muslim sources and doubt that Abd al-Malik would attempt to alter the sacred Muslim requirement of fulfilling the pilgrimage to the Ka'aba, other historians concede this cannot be conclusively dismissed.[154][155][156]

While his sons commissioned numerous architectural works, Abd al-Malik's known building activities were limited to Jerusalem.[157] As well as the Dome of the Rock, he is credited with constructing the adjacent Dome of the Chain,[158] expanding the boundaries of the Temple Mount (Haram al-Sharif) to include the Foundation Stone around which the Dome of the Rock was built and building two gates of the Temple Mount (possibly the Mercy Gate and the Prophet's Gate).[157][159] Theophanes, possibly conserving an original Syro-Palestinian Melkite source, reports that Abd al-Malik sought to remove some columns from a Christian shrine at Gethsemane to rebuild the Ka'aba, but he was dissuaded by his Christian treasurer, Sarjun ibn Mansur (the father of John of Damascus), and another leading Christian, called Patrikios, from Palestine, who successfully petitioned Emperor Justinian II to supply other columns instead.[88][160]

Family and residences

Sinnabra
class=notpageimage|
The seasonal residences of Abd al-Malik during his caliphate, as shown in present-day Syria, Lebanon and Israel

Abd al-Malik had children with several wives and

ummahāt awlād (slave concubines; singular: umm walad). He was married to Wallada bint al-Abbas ibn al-Jaz, a fourth-generation descendant of the prominent Banu Abs chieftain Zuhayr ibn Jadhima.[161] She bore Abd al-Malik the sons al-Walid I, Sulayman, Marwan al-Akbar and a daughter, A'isha.[161] From Caliph Yazid I's daughter Atika, he had his sons Yazid II, Marwan al-Asghar, Mu'awiya and a daughter, Umm Kulthum.[117][161] His wife A'isha bint Hisham ibn Isma'il, whom he divorced,[162] belonged to the Makhzum clan and mothered Abd al-Malik's son Hisham.[161] He had a second wife from the Makhzum, Umm al-Mughira bint al-Mughira ibn Khalid, a great-granddaughter of the pre-Islamic leader of the Quraysh, Hisham ibn al-Mughira. From this marriage, Abd al-Malik had his daughter Fatima, who was wed to Umar II.[161][163]

From his marriage to Umm Ayyub bint Amr, a granddaughter of Caliph Uthman, Abd al-Malik had his son al-Hakam,

Sa'id al-Khayr, al-Mundhir, Anbasa, Muhammad and al-Hajjaj,[161] the last named after the caliph's viceroy.[169] At the time of his death, fourteen of Abd al-Malik's sons had survived him, according to al-Yaqubi.[29]

Abd al-Malik divided his time between Damascus and seasonal residences in its general vicinity.

Ghouta orchards of Damascus.[170][171] He would typically return to the city in March and leave again in the heat of summer to Baalbek in the Beqaa Valley before heading back to Damascus in early autumn.[170][171] His Damascus residence was the Khadra Palace commissioned by Mu'awiya I and purchased by Abd al-Malik from Khalid ibn Yazid at the beginning of his reign.[172]

Notes

  1. Robert Hoyland, however, argues that this may be a near-contemporary depiction of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.[2]
  2. Khalifa ibn Khayyat (d. 854), al-Tabari (d. 923) citing al-Mada'ini (d. 843), al-Baladhuri (d. 892) and Ibn Asakir (d. 1175), hold Abd al-Malik was born in the year 23 AH, while another set of accounts, including Ibn Sa'd (d. 845), al-Tabari citing al-Waqidi (d. 823), Ibn Asakir, Ibn al-Athir (d. 1233) and al-Suyuti (d. 1505) hold he was born in 26 AH.[5]
  3. Abd al-Rahman ibn Khalid ibn al-Walid.[14] According to the historian Marek Jankowiak, Abd al-Malik's military role against the Byzantines during the reign of Caliph Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680) was "expunged" from the generally anti-Umayyad, Abbasid-era Islamic tradition, but preserved in other Islamic traditions transmitted by the 10th-century Arabic Christian chronicler Agapius of Hierapolis.[15]
  4. Arab–Byzantine front.[40]
  5. ^ The semi-independent, pro-Zubayrid governor of Khurasan, Abd Allah ibn Khazim, rejected Abd al-Malik's entreaties in early 692 to recognize his caliphate in return for a confirmation of Ibn Khazim's governorship.[59] Ibn Khazim was soon after slain in a mutiny led by one his commanders, Bahir ibn Warqa, and his head was sent to the caliph by the lieutenant governor of Merv, Bukayr ibn Wishah, to whom Abd al-Malik subsequently conferred the governorship of Khurasan.[60]
  6. Banu Taghlib persisted until 692.[100] Abd al-Malik intervened in both cases and put a definitive end to the tit-for-tat raids by means of financial compensation, threat of force and executions of tribal chieftains.[101]
  7. Bab al-Wad and Abu Ghosh. The milestone found in Samakh dates to 692, the two milestones at Fiq both date to 704 and the remaining milestones are undated.[130] The fragment of an eighth milestone, likely produced soon after Abd al-Malik's death, was found at Ein Hemed, immediately west of Abu Ghosh.[131]

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Bibliography

Further reading
Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan
Born: 646/47 Died: 9 October 705
Preceded by
Caliph of Islam
Umayyad Caliph

12 April 685 – 9 October 705 		Succeeded by