Marwan I
Marwan I مروان | |||||
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Arabia | |||||
Died | April/May 685 (aged 59–63) Damascus or al-Sinnabra, Umayyad Caliphate | ||||
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House | Marwanid | ||||
Dynasty | Umayyad | ||||
Father | Al-Ḥakam ibn Abī al-ʿAs | ||||
Mother | Āmina bint ʿAlqama al-Kinānīyya | ||||
Religion | Islam |
Marwan ibn al-Hakam ibn Abi al-As ibn Umayya (
During the reign of his cousin
In the months that followed, Marwan reasserted Umayyad rule over Egypt, Palestine, and northern Syria, whose governors had defected to Ibn al-Zubayr's cause, while keeping the Qays in check in the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia). He dispatched an expedition led by Ibn Ziyad to reconquer Zubayrid Iraq, but died while it was underway in the spring of 685. Before his death, Marwan firmly established his sons in positions of power: Abd al-Malik was designated his successor, Abd al-Aziz was made governor of Egypt, and Muhammad oversaw military command in Upper Mesopotamia. Although Marwan was stigmatized as an outlaw and a father of tyrants in later anti-Umayyad tradition, the historian Clifford E. Bosworth asserts that the caliph was a shrewd, capable, and decisive military leader and statesman who laid the foundations of continued Umayyad rule for a further sixty-five years.
Early life and family
Marwan was born in 2 or 4
Marwan had at least sixteen children, among them at least twelve sons from five wives and an
Secretary of Uthman
During the reign of Caliph Uthman (r. 644–656), Marwan took part in a
The historian Hugh N. Kennedy asserts that Marwan was the caliph's "right-hand man".[14] According to the traditional Muslim reports, many of Uthman's erstwhile backers among the Quraysh gradually withdrew their support as a result of Marwan's pervasive influence, which they blamed for the caliph's controversial decisions.[13][15][16] The historian Fred Donner questions the veracity of these reports, citing the unlikelihood that Uthman would be highly influenced by a younger relative such as Marwan and the rarity of specific charges against the latter, and describes them as a possible "attempt by later Islamic tradition to salvage Uthman's reputation as one of the so-called 'rightly-guided' (rāshidūn) caliphs by making Marwan ... the fall guy for the unhappy events at the end of Uthman's twelve-year reign."[13]
Discontent over Uthman's
Role in the First Fitna
In the ensuing hostilities between Ali and the largely Qurayshite partisans of A'isha, Marwan sided with the latter.[2] He fought alongside A'isha's forces at the Battle of the Camel near Basra in December 656.[2] The historian Leone Caetani presumed that Marwan was the organizer of A'isha's strategy there.[27] The modern historian Laura Veccia Vaglieri notes that while Caetani's "theory is attractive", there is no information in the traditional sources to confirm it and should Marwan have been A'isha's war adviser "he operated so discreetly that the sources hardly speak of his actions."[27]
According to one version in the Islamic tradition, Marwan used the occasion of the battle to kill a partisan of A'isha, Talha, whom he held especially responsible for instigating Uthman's death.[2] Marwan had fired an arrow at Talha, which struck the sciatic vein below his knee, as their troops fell back in a hand-to-hand fight with Ali's soldiers.[28] The historian Wilferd Madelung notes that Marwan "evidently" waited to kill Talha when A'isha appeared close to defeat and thus in a weak position to call Marwan to account for his action.[28] Another version in the tradition attributes Talha's death to Ali's supporters during Talha's retreat from the field,[29] and Caetani dismisses Marwan's culpability as a fabrication by the generally anti-Umayyad sources.[30] Madelung holds that Marwan's slaying of Talha is corroborated by Umayyad propaganda in the 680s heralding him as the first person to take revenge for Uthman's death by killing Talha.[30]
After the battle ended with Ali's victory, Marwan pledged his allegiance to him.
Governor of Medina
Ali was assassinated by a member of the
During his first term, Marwan acquired from Mu'awiya a large estate in the
According to Bosworth, Mu'awiya may have been suspicious of the ambitions of Marwan and the Abu al-As line of the Banu Umayya in general, which was significantly more numerous than the Abu Sufyan (Sufyanid) line to which Mu'awiya belonged.[11] Marwan was among the eldest and most prestigious Umayyads at a time when there were few experienced Sufyanids of mature age.[11] Bosworth speculates that it "may have been fears of the family of Abu'l-ʿĀs that impelled Muʿāwiya to his adoption of his putative half-brother Ziyād b. Sumayya [Ziyad ibn Abihi] and to the unusual step of naming his own son Yazīd as heir to the caliphate during his own lifetime".[11][b] Marwan had earlier pressed Uthman's son Amr to claim the caliphate based on the legitimacy of his father, a member of the Abu al-As branch, but Amr was uninterested.[44] Marwan reluctantly accepted Mu'awiya's nomination of Yazid in 676, but quietly encouraged another son of Uthman, Sa'id, to contest the succession.[45] Sa'id's ambitions were neutralized when the caliph gave him military command in Khurasan, the easternmost region of the Caliphate.[46]
Leader of the Umayyads in Medina
After Mu'awiya died in 680, Husayn ibn Ali, Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr and Abd Allah ibn Umar, all sons of prominent Qurayshite companions of Muhammad with their own claims to the caliphate,[47] continued to refuse allegiance to Mu'awiya's chosen successor Yazid.[48] Marwan, the leader of the Umayyad clan in the Hejaz,[49] advised al-Walid ibn Utba, then governor of Medina, to coerce Husayn and Ibn al-Zubayr, both of whom he considered especially dangerous to Umayyad rule, to accept the caliph's sovereignty.[50] Husayn answered al-Walid's summons, but withheld his recognition of Yazid, offering instead to make the pledge in public.[51] Al-Walid accepted, prompting Marwan, who attended the meeting, to castigate the governor and demand Husayn's detention until he proffered the oath of allegiance to Yazid or his execution should he refuse.[52] Husayn then cursed Marwan and left the meeting,[52] eventually making his way toward Kufa to lead a rebellion against the Umayyads.[53] He was slain by Yazid's forces at the Battle of Karbala in October 680.[54]
Meanwhile, Ibn al-Zubayr avoided al-Walid's summons and escaped to Mecca, where he rallied opposition to Yazid from his headquarters in the
Caliphate
Accession
By early 684, Marwan was in Syria, either at
The organizer of the Jabiya summit,
Campaigns to reassert Umayyad rule
In opposition to the Kalb, the pro-Zubayrid
When I saw that the affair would be one of plunder, I made ready Ghassan and Kalb against them [the Qays],
And the Saksakīs [Kindites], men who would triumph, andTanūkh a difficult and lofty peak.
[The enemy] will not seize the kingship unless by force, and if Qays approach, say, Keep away![73]
Although he was already recognized by the loyalist tribes at Jabiya, Marwan received ceremonial oaths of allegiance as caliph in Damascus in July or August.[66] He wed Yazid's widow and mother of Khalid, Umm Hashim Fakhita, thereby establishing a political link with the Sufyanids.[11] Wellhausen viewed the marriage as an attempt by Marwan to seize the inheritance of Yazid by becoming stepfather to his sons.[74] Marwan appointed the Ghassanid Yahya ibn Qays as the head of his shurta (security forces) and his own mawla Abu Sahl al-Aswad as his hajib (chamberlain).[75]
Despite his victory at Marj Rahit and the consolidation of Umayyad power in central Syria, Marwan's authority was not recognized in the rest of the Umayyads' former domains; with the help of Ibn Ziyad and Ibn Bahdal, Marwan undertook to restore Umayyad rule across the Caliphate with "energy and determination", according to Kennedy.
Death and succession
After a reign of between six and ten months, depending on the source, Marwan died in the spring of 65 AH/685.
Upon Marwan's return to Syria from Egypt in 685, he had designated his sons Abd al-Malik and Abd al-Aziz as his successors, in that order. He made the change after he reached al-Sinnabra and was informed that Ibn Bahdal recognized Amr ibn Sa'id as Marwan's successor-in-waiting.[80] He summoned and questioned Ibn Bahdal and ultimately demanded that he give allegiance to Abd al-Malik as his heir apparent.[80] By this, Marwan abrogated the arrangement reached at the Jabiya summit in 684,[11] re-instituting the principle of direct hereditary succession.[81] Abd al-Malik acceded to the caliphate without opposition from the previous designates, Khalid ibn Yazid and Amr ibn Sa'id.[11] Thereafter, hereditary succession became the standard practice of the Umayyad caliphs.[81]
Assessment
By making his family the foundation of his power, Marwan modeled his administration on that of Caliph Uthman, who extensively relied on his kinsmen, as opposed to Mu'awiya I, who largely kept them at arm's length.[82] To that end, Marwan ensured Abd al-Malik's succession as caliph and gave his sons Muhammad and Abd al-Aziz key military commands.[82] Despite the tumultuous beginnings, the "Marwanids" (descendants of Marwan) were established as the ruling house of the Umayyad realm.[70][82]
In the view of Bosworth, Marwan "was obviously a military leader and statesman of great skill and decisiveness amply endowed with the qualities of ḥilm [levelheadedness] and shrewdness, which characterised other outstanding members of the Umayyad clan".[11] His rise as caliph in Syria, a largely unfamiliar territory where he lacked a power-base, laid the foundations for Abd al-Malik's reign, which consolidated Umayyad rule for a further sixty-five years.[11] In the view of Madelung, Marwan's path to the caliphate was "truly high politics", the culmination of intrigues dating from his early career.[83] These included encouraging Uthman's empowerment of the Umayyads, becoming the "first avenger" of Uthman's assassination by murdering Talha, and privately undermining while publicly enforcing the authority of the Sufyanid caliphs of Damascus.[83]
Marwan was known to be gruff and lacking in social graces.
A number of reports cited by the medieval Islamic historians al-Baladhuri (d. 892) and Ibn Asakir (d. 1176) are indicative of Marwan's piety, such as the 9th-century historian al-Mada'ini's assertion that Marwan was among the best readers of the Qur'an and Marwan's own claim to have recited the Qur'an for over forty years before the Battle of Marj Rahit.[85] On the basis that many of his sons bore clearly Islamic names (as opposed to traditional Arabian names), Donner speculates Marwan may have indeed been "deeply religious" and "profoundly impressed" by the Qur'anic message to honor God and the prophets of Islam, including Muhammad.[86] Donner notes the difficulty of "achieving a sound assessment of Marwan", as with most Islamic leaders of his generation, due to an absence of archaeological and epigraphic documentation and the restriction of his biographical information to often polemical literary sources.[87]
Notes
- Zoroastrian clergy during the Arab conquest of Sasanian Mesopotamia in the 630s. The lands were then designated as common property for the benefit of the Muslims in Kufa and Basra, the chief Arab garrison towns established in Iraq after the conquest. Their confiscation by Caliph Uthman as property of the central treasury in Medina provoked widespread consternation among the early Muslim settlers in Kufa, who derived significant revenue from the lands.[17]
- ^ Caliph Mu'awiya I's nomination of his own son Yazid I as his successor had been an unprecedented act in Islamic politics, marking a shift to hereditary rule from the earlier caliphs' elective or consultative form of succession. The move elicited charges in later Islamic tradition that the Umayyads transformed the office of the caliphate into a monarchy.[42][43]
References
- ^ Kennedy 2004, p. 397.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Bosworth 1991, p. 621.
- ^ Della Vida & Bosworth 2000, p. 838.
- ^ Donner 1981, p. 77.
- ^ Watt 1986, p. 116.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Donner 2014, p. 110.
- ^ a b c Ahmed 2010, p. 111.
- ^ Ahmed 2010, pp. 119–120.
- ^ Ahmed 2010, p. 114.
- ^ Ahmed 2010, p. 90.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag Bosworth 1991, p. 622.
- ^ Madelung 1997, p. 81.
- ^ a b c d Donner 2014, p. 106.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Kennedy 2004, p. 91.
- ^ Madelung 1997, p. 92.
- ^ Della Vida & Khoury 2000, p. 947.
- ^ Kennedy 2004, pp. 68, 73.
- ^ Madelung 1997, pp. 86–89.
- ^ Hinds 1972, pp. 457–459.
- ^ Madelung 1997, pp. 127, 135.
- ^ a b c d e Hinds 1972, p. 457.
- ^ Madelung 1997, p. 136.
- ^ a b Madelung 1997, p. 137.
- ^ Wellhausen 1927, pp. 50–51.
- ^ Anthony 2011, p. 112.
- ^ Wellhausen 1927, pp. 52–53, 55–56.
- ^ a b Vaglieri 1965, p. 416.
- ^ a b Madelung 1997, p. 171.
- ^ Landau-Tasseron 1998, pp. 27–28, note 126.
- ^ a b Madelung 2000, p. 162.
- ^ Madelung 1997, pp. 181, 190, 192 note 232, 196.
- ^ Madelung 1997, pp. 235–236.
- ^ Kennedy 2004, pp. 77–80.
- ^ a b Hinds 1993, p. 265.
- ^ Wellhausen 1927, pp. 104, 111.
- ^ Wellhausen 1927, pp. 59–60, 161.
- ^ Wellhausen 1927, pp. 136, 161.
- ^ Wellhausen 1927, p. 136.
- ^ Madelung 1997, pp. 343–345.
- ^ Madelung 1997, p. 332.
- ^ Madelung 1997, p. 333.
- ^ Kennedy 2004, p. 88.
- ^ Hawting 2000, pp. 13–14, 43.
- ^ Madelung 1997, pp. 341–342.
- ^ Madelung 1997, pp. 342–343.
- ^ Madelung 1997, p. 343.
- ^ Howard 1990, p. 2, note 11.
- ^ Wellhausen 1927, pp. 142, 144–145.
- ^ a b c Kennedy 2004, p. 90.
- ^ Wellhausen 1927, pp. 145–146.
- ^ Howard 1990, pp. 4–5.
- ^ a b Howard 1990, p. 5.
- ^ Wellhausen 1927, p. 146.
- ^ a b Wellhausen 1927, p. 147.
- ^ Wellhausen 1927, pp. 147–148.
- ^ Wellhausen 1927, p. 148.
- ^ a b Wellhausen 1927, p. 154.
- ^ Vaglieri 1971, p. 226.
- ^ Vaglieri 1971, p. 227.
- ^ Gibb 1960, p. 55.
- ^ Duri 2011, p. 23.
- ^ a b Duri 2011, pp. 23–24.
- ^ Duri 2011, pp. 23–25.
- ^ Duri 2011, pp. 24–25.
- ^ Biesterfeldt & Günther 2018, p. 952.
- ^ a b Wellhausen 1927, p. 182.
- ^ Rihan 2014, p. 103.
- ^ Rihan 2014, pp. 103–104.
- ^ a b Rihan 2014, p. 104.
- ^ a b Cobb 2001, p. 69.
- ^ Cobb 2001, pp. 69–70.
- ^ a b c d e Kennedy 2004, p. 92.
- ^ Hawting 1989, pp. 60–61.
- ^ Madelung 1997, p. 349.
- ^ Biesterfeldt & Günther 2018, p. 954.
- ^ a b Biesterfeldt & Günther 2018, p. 953.
- ^ Wellhausen 1927, p. 185.
- ^ Madelung 1997, p. 351.
- ^ Madelung 1997, p. 352.
- ^ a b Mayer 1952, p. 185.
- ^ a b Duri 2011, p. 25.
- ^ a b c Kennedy 2004, p. 93.
- ^ a b Madelung 1997, pp. 348–349.
- ^ Donner 2014, pp. 106–107.
- ^ Donner 2014, pp. 108, 114 notes 23–26.
- ^ Donner 2014, pp. 110–111.
- ^ Donner 2014, p. 105.
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