Khalid al-Qasri

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Khalid ibn Abdallah ibn Asad al-Qasri
Born
Damascus
Died743
Years active702/5/7–743
Known for
Qays–Yaman rivalry
Children
Parent
  • Abdallah ibn Asad al-Qasri (father)

Khālid ibn ʿAbdallāh al-Qasrī (

conflict with the Qays who dominated the administration of Iraq and the East under his predecessor and successor.[citation needed] Following his dismissal, he was twice imprisoned and in 734 tortured to death by his successor, Yusuf ibn Umar al-Thaqafi.[1]

Origin and early life

Khalid was born in

Ibn al-Zubayr in the Second Fitna, but was eventually pardoned by the Caliph Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705). Khalid's mother was a Christian.[3][4]

Khalid possibly served as governor of

tawaf. Khalid also constructed a fountain, at the behest of the Caliph, to serve the pilgrims, and boasted of its superiority to the bitter water of the sacred Zamzam Well. During this time he also reportedly proclaimed that he would be willing, as a measure of his loyalty to the dynasty, if the Caliph so ordered, to tear down the Kaaba and transport it to Jerusalem.[4][5]

Governorship of Iraq

After his dismissal from Mecca, he is next mentioned as one of the two envoys sent by Caliph

Khurasan, which was sometimes separated from Iraq's authority.[6] When Khurasan was under his jurisdiction, he appointed his brother, Asad, to its governorship (725–727 and 734–738).[3][4]

As his native Bajila tribe was relatively weak and unaligned in the pervasive

conflict between the Qays and Yaman tribal groups of the period, Khalid's appointment to Iraq may have been a move designed to calm the situation there, which had been exacerbated by the brutal suppression of the Muhallabid rebellion by the Qaysi Syro-Jaziran army and the subsequent solidly Qaysi regime of Ibn Hubayra.[4][7] In the event, however, this backfired: the Qaysis resented Khalid for his replacement of their champion, Ibn Hubayra, while the Yamanis themselves did not support him wholeheartedly, even though he staffed his administration with Yamanis; it was only his replacement in 738 with another Qaysi governor, Yusuf ibn Umar al-Thaqafi, that confirmed Khalid as a "Yamani" governor in the later tradition.[4][5][8]

Details of his long tenure are relatively unknown. With the exception of the suppression of a

zindiq) and favourably disposed towards the non-Muslim groups, especially the Christians. it states that he was derisively called "Ibn al-Nasraniyya" on the account of his alleged maternal ties to Christians, and is said to have commented on Christianity's superiority to Islam, derided the huffaz, and to have built a church for his mother near the mosque at Kufa.[4][11][12]

Dismissal and death

The reasons for Khalid's dismissal in 738 are obscure. Some sources suggest that Hisham became jealous of Khalid's wealth, but the real motive seems to have been Qaysi pressure to relieve him. Khalid certainly was taken by surprise by the arrival of his replacement, Yusuf ibn Umar. Yusuf immediately imprisoned Khalid and his sons, and tortured his predecessor to extract his wealth, a practice common during hand-overs of governorships at the time. After eighteen months, Khalid was released and went to Hisham's capital Rusafa and then to his native Damascus. However, after Hisham died in early 743, his successor al-Walid II (r. 743–744) sold Khalid back to Yusuf ibn Umar for 50 million dirhams. Yusuf again tortured him until Khalid died, an act which further exacerbated the Qays–Yaman feud and led to the downfall of al-Walid II.[3][4][13][14]

Of Khalid's sons,

Abbasid armies and served as governor of Mecca and Medina.[15]

References

  1. ^ Hawting (2000), p. 93.
  2. ^ Crone (1980), p. 44
  3. ^ a b c d Crone (1980), p. 102
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Hawting (1978), pp. 925–927
  5. ^ a b c Hawting (2000), p. 82
  6. ^ Hawting (2000), p. 81
  7. ^ Hawting (2000), pp. 75–76, 82
  8. ^ Crone (1980), pp. 44, 47, 102
  9. ^ Blankinship (1994), p. 190
  10. ^ Blankinship (1994), p. 90
  11. ^ Hawting (2000), pp. 81–82
  12. ^ Blankinship (1994), p. 95
  13. ^ Blankinship (1994), p. 223
  14. ^ Hawting (2000), pp. 82–83, 93.
  15. ^ Crone (1980), pp. 102–103

Sources

  • ISBN 978-0-7914-1827-7
    .
  • ISBN 0-521-52940-9
    .
  • OCLC 758278456
    .
  • Hawting, G. R (2000). The First Dynasty of Islam: The Umayyad Caliphate AD 661-750 (2nd ed.). Routledge.
    ISBN 978-1-134-55059-3
    .

External links

Preceded by Governor of Iraq
724–738 		Succeeded by
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