Busr ibn Abi Artat
Busr ibn Abi Artat | |
---|---|
Born | 620s Mecca |
Died | 700s Damascus |
Allegiance |
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Years of service | 634–700s |
Commands held |
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Battles/wars |
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Children | Abd al-Rahman Al-Walid |
Busr ibn Abi Artat al-Amiri
Following Ali's death and the abdication of his son Hasan in 661, Busr was appointed governor of Basra. There he was instrumental in securing the submission of Ziyad ibn Abihi, a loyalist holdover of Ali's administration, by holding his sons as hostages. He led a number of land and sea raids against the Byzantine Empire between 662 and 672. He remained in Mu'awiya's court until the caliph's death in 680. Busr died at an old age during the reign of Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705) or al-Walid I (r. 705–715).
Origins
Busr hailed from the Banu Amir ibn Lu'ayy, a clan of the Quraysh tribe's Zawahir subgroup which lived in the mountainous part of Mecca in the Hejaz (present-day Saudi Arabia).[1] His father's name in the sources is inconsistent with some calling him 'Abi Artat' and others 'Artat'; the more authoritative sources use the former.[1] According to the medieval historian Ibn Hazm (d. 1064), Abu Artat Umayr was Busr's grandfather, and Busr's father's name was Artat.[1] Abu Artat's father was Uwaymir ibn Imran.[1] Busr was born in Mecca during the last decade preceding the Hijrah (the emigration of the Islamic prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622 and beginning of the Islamic calendar)[2] or in c. 625.[1]
The Islamic traditional sources are divided about the status of Busr as one of the
Role in the conquests of Syria and North Africa
Busr participated in the
Busr most likely took part in the
In recognition of his bravery on the battlefield, Busr received a
Military service under Mu'awiya
During the
Subjugation of Arabia
Hostilities resumed between Mu'awiya and Ali following the collapse of the arbitration talks. While Amr ibn al-As was sent to wrest control of Egypt, Mu'awiya dispatched his lieutenant commanders on raids against Ali's territory in Iraq and Arabia.[12] In late 660, Mu'awiya appointed Busr to subjugate the Hejaz and Yemen (south Arabia).[13] A previous attempt by Mu'awiya to secure oaths of allegiance from the Quraysh of Mecca had failed under the command of Yazid ibn Shajara earlier in 660.[14] According to the orientalist Henri Lammens, Busr was "perhaps the most striking figure among the lieutenants" of Mu'awiya, "a typical Bedouin of the old school, utterly impervious to pity, if Shi'i [sic] tradition has not exaggerated the details of the portrait of this fiery opponent of Ali".[2] The historian Wilferd Madelung holds Busr was chosen to lead the campaign because he was not "plagued" by the "scruples" of Yazid ibn Shajara, who had been careful not to spill blood in the Islamic city of Mecca.[14] Lammens states that during the campaign Busr "displayed a loyalty to the Umayyads, which was only surpassed later" by Muslim ibn Uqba and al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf.[2] Although Sunni sources generally avoid the details of Busr's activities, traditional and modern Shia sources provide lengthy descriptions of what they deem "his atrocities, which were, they believe, ordered by Mu'awiya", according to the historian Isaac Hasson.[1]
Busr was provided 3,000 Syrian soldiers by Amr ibn al-As.
Capitulation of the Hejaz
On his way to his first major target, Medina, the former capital of the Caliphate before Ali's relocation of the capital to Kufa in Iraq, Busr halted at every watering place en route and requisitioned the camels of the local tribesmen, which he then had his soldiers ride to preserve the energy of their war horses.[14] When Busr appeared outside of Medina, the city's governor Abu Ayyub al-Ansari fled for Kufa.[14] Busr did not encounter resistance as he entered the city and issued a condemnatory speech against Medina's traditional elite, the Ansar (early converts and allies of Muhammad).[16] He had the homes of Ali's allies who fled the city, including Abu Ayyub, demolished, obtained pledges of allegiance to Mu'awiya's caliphate from the city's notables and pardoned its inhabitants.[16]
After a stay of a few days in Medina, Busr proceeded toward Mecca, where Ali's governor
From Mecca Busr entered
Campaigns in Yemen and withdrawal
While Mu'awiya had imposed restrictions on Busr's operational conduct in the cities of the Hejaz, he allowed him a free hand against the people of Yemen.
Ali's two governors in Yemen, Ubayd Allah ibn Abbas and Sa'id ibn Nimran, fled for Kufa following token resistance by Sa'id against Busr's advance.
Busr ended his campaign in
Operations in Iraq
Busr was appointed to the vanguard of Mu'awiya's army, which the caliph led in person, during the campaign to wrest control of Kufa from Ali's son and successor al-Hasan.[2] The latter abdicated and left Kufa for Medina,[27] after which Busr was appointed governor of Basra,[2] one of the main garrison cities and administrative centers of Iraq, in November 661.[28] His stay in office, during which "he established a dictatorial regime" according to Lammens,[2] was about six months according to the historian al-Mada'ini (d. 843).[27] During his governorship, he arrested Abd al-Rahman, Ubayd Allah, and Abbad,[29] three sons of Ziyad ibn Abihi, Ali's governor in Fars (southwestern Iran), who had refused to recognize Mu'awiya's caliphate and held out in the fortress of Istakhr.[2] Busr intended to kill them if Ziyad did not to submit to Mu'awiya's rule, but the boys were released following the intervention of Ziyad's step-brother Abu Bakra Nufay who petitioned Mu'awiya.[1] Ziyad then recognized Mu'awiya's authority—as a result of Busr's "drastic action" against Ziyad's sons according to Lammens.[30]
Raids against the Byzantines
Busr led a number of campaigns against the Byzantine Empire after his stint in Basra.[31] In the chronicle of Agapius of Hierapolis (d. 942), Busr defeated a large Byzantine army, killed several patricians and took numerous captives in 662/663.[32] The same source holds Busr or Abd al-Rahman (son of Khalid ibn al-Walid) commanded a naval campaign against the Byzantines that year alongside Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, the future Umayyad caliph.[32] According to Agapius and the traditional Islamic sources, Busr led a winter raid which reached Constantinople in 662/63 or 663/64, forcing the Byzantine troops to withdraw into the city.[33] Agapius and Theophanes the Confessor (d. 818; who calls him "Bousour") report Busr led raids into the Empire in 666/67 and 667/68, the latter of which targeted the Hexapolis coast according to Theophanes and which resulted in many captives according to Agapius.[32] He led a winter raid into the Empire in 671 or 672.[34]
Later life and death
At some point after 670 Busr disappears from the political scene but may have lived at Mu'awiya's Damascus court until the caliph's death in 680.
See also
Notes
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Hasson, Isaac (2019) [2011]. "Busr b. Abī Arṭāt". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol. 3.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lammens 1960, p. 1343.
- ^ Hitti 1916, p. 172.
- ^ a b c Thiry 1995, p. 56.
- ^ Biesterfeldt & Günther 2018, p. 789.
- ^ Murgotten 1924, p. 249.
- ^ Al-Mubarak 1997, p. 54.
- ^ Hitti 1916, p. 356.
- ^ Madelung 1997, p. 240.
- ^ Madelung 1997, p. 153, note 48.
- ^ Brockett 1997, p. 184.
- ^ Madelung 1997, p. 287.
- ^ Madelung 1997, p. 297.
- ^ a b c d e f Madelung 1997, p. 300.
- ^ Lévi-Provençal 1960, p. 109.
- ^ a b c d Madelung 1997, p. 301.
- ^ a b Madelung 1997, p. 302.
- ^ Madelung 1997, p. 307, note 592.
- ^ Madelung 1997, pp. 302–303.
- ^ Madelung 1997, p. 303, note 573.
- ^ a b c Madelung 1997, p. 303.
- ^ Hawting 1996, p. 207.
- ^ a b c d e Madelung 1997, p. 304.
- ^ a b c d e Madelung 1997, p. 305.
- ^ a b c d Madelung 1997, p. 306.
- ^ a b Madelung 1997, p. 307.
- ^ a b Morony 1987, p. 15.
- ^ Madelung 1997, p. 325.
- ^ Morony 1987, p. 16.
- ^ Lammens 1960, pp. 1343–1344.
- ^ a b c d e f Lammens 1960, p. 1344.
- ^ a b c Jankowiak 2013, p. 264.
- ^ Jankowiak 2013, pp. 264, 296.
- ^ Jankowiak 2013, pp. 259, 266–267.
- ^ Al-Mubarak 1997, p. 60, note 20.
- ^ Elad 2003, pp. 97–98.
- ^ Elad 2003, p. 98, note 221.
Bibliography
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- Biesterfeldt, Hinrich; Günther, Sebastian (2018). The Works of Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-Yaʿqūbī (Volume 3): An English Translation. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-35621-4.
- Elad, Amikam (2003). "The Beginnings of Historical Writing by the Arabs: The Earliest Syrian Writers on the Arab Conquests". Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam. 28: 65–102.
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- Thiry, Jacques (1995). Le Sahara Libyen dans l'Afrique du Nord Médiévale. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters Publishers. ISBN 90-6831-739-3.