Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik

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Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik
Adharbayjan
In office
709–721
Monarchs
Preceded by
Al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah al-Hakami
In office
725–729
Monarchs
  • Yazid II
  • Hisham (r. 724–743)
Preceded byAl-Jarrah ibn Abdallah al-Hakami
Succeeded byAl-Jarrah ibn Abdallah al-Hakami
In office
730–732
MonarchHisham
Preceded byAl-Jarrah ibn Abdallah al-Hakami
Succeeded by
Umar ibn Hubayra al-Fazari
Personal details
Died24 December 738
slave concubine (mother)
RelativesMuhammad (uncle)
Al-Walid I (brother)
Sulayman (brother)
Yazid II (brother)
Hisham (brother)
Al-Abbas ibn al-Walid (nephew)
Umar II (cousin)
Marwan ibn Muhammad (cousin)
Residence(s)Balis
Hisn Maslama
Military career
AllegianceUmayyad Caliphate
Years of service705–732
Battles/wars
  • Second Arab Siege of Constantinople
    )
  • Second Arab–Khazar War

Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik (

Khazar Khaganate. He achieved great fame especially for leading the second and last Arab siege of the Byzantine capital Constantinople
.

He launched his military career leading the annual summer raids against the Byzantines in

Umar II
, in 718.

After his brother

slave concubine, but he secured the accession of his other brother, Hisham (r. 724–743). Under Hisham, Maslama resumed the campaigns against the Byzantines and the Khazars, with mixed results. In 732, he was replaced by his cousin, the future caliph Marwan II
(r. 744–750).

Maslama was granted extensive estates by his brothers, investing considerable sums to reclaim and develop agricultural lands in Balis, the Balikh valley, and the marshlands of southern Iraq. The estates were inherited by his descendants, but were mostly confiscated by the Abbasid dynasty after they toppled the Umayyads in 750. Nonetheless, out of respect for Maslama's battlefield reputation, his descendants were largely spared from the Abbasids' wide-scale persecutions of the Umayyad family.

Family background

Maslama was a son of the

slave concubine.[5][6] Around 691, Abd al-Malik arranged Maslama's marriage to al-Rabab, the daughter of the Qaysi tribal chief Zufar ibn al-Harith al-Kilabi, as part of the settlement to end Zufar's revolt against the Umayyads.[7]

First command in the northwestern frontier

Campaigns against the Byzantines

Map of the Arab-Byzantine frontier zone

Maslama is first mentioned as leading, along with his nephew

Mardaite the year before. The siege lasted through winter and the Arab army faced great hardship, but after the Arabs defeated a Byzantine relief force in spring 708, the city surrendered.[4][6][8] A few months later, in the summer, Maslama led another expedition into Asia Minor and defeated a Byzantine army near Amorium, while in 709 he raided into the region of Isauria.[8]

In the same year, Maslama was appointed military governor of the

War with the Khazars

Maslama was also the first to establish the Caliphate's presence north of the

Adharbayjan and up to Derbent (known in Arabic as Bab al-Abwab, 'Gate of Gates'). Further attacks on Derbent are reported by different sources in 708 by Muhammad ibn Marwan and the following year again by Maslama.[13]

In 713/14, Maslama led an expedition which captured Derbent, reportedly after a resident showed him a secret underground passage.[5][14] The Armenian historian Łewond claims that the Arabs, realizing that they could not hold the fortress, razed its walls.[14] Maslama then drove deeper into Khazar territory. The Khazar khagan confronted the Arabs at the city of Tarku but, apart from a series of single combats by champions, the two armies did not engage for several days. The imminent arrival of Khazar reinforcements under the general Alp' forced Maslama to quickly abandon his campaign and retreat to Iberia, leaving his camp with all its equipment as a ruse.[15]

The early Muslim sources generally credit Maslama with leading the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in 713, though his nephew Abd al-Aziz ibn al-Walid is also cited as the leader that year.[16][17] Leadership of the sawa'if and the annual Hajj were both prestigious commands, which under the Umayyads were almost exclusively held by prominent members of the dynasty.[18]

Siege of Constantinople

Manasses Chronicle

From 715 Maslama was the leading general in the plans of his brother, Caliph Sulayman, to conquer the Byzantine capital,

Leo the Isaurian. Maslama hoped to use the divisions among the Byzantines for his own benefit and initiated contacts with Leo, but the latter used the negotiations to outwit the Arab general and occupied for himself the strategic city of Amorium, which Maslama had intended to use as his winter base. As a result, Maslama marched further west, to the coastlands of the Thracesian Theme. There he spent the winter, while Leo marched against Theodosius in Constantinople, which he entered in March 717.[22][23]

In early summer 717, Maslama with his army crossed from Asia into Europe over the

land defences, the siege continued into the winter, which was especially severe that year, with snow covering the ground for three months. Maslama had brought along many supplies, but they either soon ran out or were lost—Arab accounts make much of Leo tricking the Arab general yet again during negotiations into handing over or destroying a significant part of his hoarded supplies[24]—and the army began to suffer from hunger and disease.[25][26]

In spring, reinforcements arrived in the form of two large fleets from

Umar II (r. 717–720), ordered Maslama to retreat. On 15 August 718, after thirteen months of siege, the Arabs departed.[27][28]

Governorship in Iraq

After his failure at Constantinople, Maslama was dispatched to

Second command in the northwestern frontier

Raids against Byzantium and the sack of Caesarea

Maslama then disappears from the sources and re-emerges in 725, shortly after Yazid's death and the accession of Hisham, who sent Maslama to replace the veteran general

Gangra by Abdallah al-Battal in 727, this was one of the major successes of Arab arms against the Byzantines in the 720s. A few months later, he also led the otherwise unremarkable northern sa'ifa into Byzantine territory.[3][4][33]

Fighting the Khazars, 727–728

Map of the Caucasus region c. 740

Maslama's attention was then diverted to the Khazar front, where 726 had seen major Khazar invasions into Albania and Adharbayjan.[32][34] Both sides escalated their commitment in 727: Maslama for the first time confronted the khagan himself.[34] The Arabs took the offensive, probably reinforced with Syrian and Jaziran troops. Maslama recovered the Darial Pass and pushed into Khazar territory, campaigning there until the onset of winter forced him to return to Adharbayjan.[35][34]

A second invasion in the following year, ended in what the historian Khalid Yahya Blankinship calls a "near disaster". Arab sources report that the Umayyad troops fought for thirty or forty days in the mud, with continuous rain, before defeating the khagan on 17 September 728. The impact of their victory is questionable, however; Maslama was ambushed by the Khazars upon his return, and the Arabs abandoned their baggage train and fled through the Darial Pass to safety.[36][37]

After this campaign, Maslama was replaced as governor yet again by al-Jarrah. Despite his energy, Maslama's campaigns failed to produce the desired results; by 729, the Arabs had lost control of northeastern Transcaucasia and were again on the defensive, with al-Jarrah having to defend Adharbayjan against a Khazar invasion.[36][38][39] He is then recorded by the Byzantine chronicler Theophanes the Confessor as having been responsible for the sack of the fortress of Charsianon in late 730, but Arab sources credit Mu'awiya ibn Hisham for this act.[40]

Third command in the northwestern frontier

In the Caucasus, the situation quickly deteriorated after Maslama's departure. While al-Jarrah campaigned north of the Caucasus, the Khazars swung behind him and attacked his main base, Ardabil. Hastening to relieve the city, al-Jarrah was defeated and killed, and his army practically annihilated in a battle outside the city on 9 December 730.[41][42][43]

With Khazar detachments ranging unopposed as far as Mosul, Caliph Hisham again appointed Maslama as governor of Armenia and Adharbayjan to fight the Khazars. While Maslama was assembling his force, the veteran general Sa'id ibn Amr al-Harashi was sent to try and halt the Khazar advance. Sa'id was able to do more than that, defeating the dispersed Khazar forces, and recovering towns and prisoners.[44][45][46] Sa'id's unexpected success angered Maslama; Łewond writes that Sa'id had won the war and received what glory (and booty) there was to be had. Sa'id was relieved of his command in early 731 by Maslama and imprisoned at Qabala and Bardha'a, charged with endangering the army by disobeying orders, and was released only after the caliph intervened on his behalf.[47][48][49]

At the command of a large army, Maslama took the offensive. He restored the provinces of Albania to Muslim allegiance (after punishing the inhabitants of Khaydhan who resisted him) and reached Derbent, where he found a Khazar garrison of 1,000 men and their families.[49][50] Leaving al-Harith ibn Amr al-Ta'i to keep watch there, Maslama advanced north. Although details of this campaign may be conflated in the sources with his earlier 728 campaign, he apparently took Khamzin, Balanjar, and Samandar before being forced to retreat after a confrontation with the main Khazar army under the khagan. Leaving their campfires burning, the Arabs withdrew in the middle of the night and quickly reached Derbent in a series of forced marches. The Khazars shadowed Maslama's march south and attacked him near Derbent, but the Arab army (augmented by local levies) resisted until a small, elite force attacked the khagan's tent and wounded him. The Muslims, encouraged, then defeated the Khazars.[51][52][53]

Re-foundation of Derbent

The Friday Mosque of Derbent (Bab al-Abwab), dating to the city's re-foundation by Maslama

Taking advantage of his victory, Maslama poisoned the water supply of Derbent to drive the Khazar garrison out. He re-established the city as an Arab military colony (misr), restoring its fortifications and garrisoning it with 24,000 troops, mostly from Syria, divided into quarters by their district (jund) of origin.[54][55][56] Leaving his relative Marwan ibn Muhammad (later the last Umayyad caliph, from 744 to 750) in command at Derbent, Maslama returned with the rest of his army south of the Caucasus for the winter.[54][55][57]

Despite the capture of Derbent, Maslama's was apparently unsatisfactory to Hisham, who replaced his brother in March 732 with Marwan ibn Muhammad.[54]

Retirement

Maslama thereafter retired from public life, possibly to his extensive estates in northern Syria.[5] He backed Hisham's attempts to install his son, Abu Shakir Maslama, as his successor, in place of the heir apparent, Yazid II's son al-Walid.[58] Maslama died on 24 December 738.[5] With his death, Hisham lost a major supporter for his succession plans in the Umayyad family. Al-Walid acceded after Hisham's death in 743.[59]

Legacy

Maslama was among "the most celebrated generals of the Umayyad house", in the words of the historian

Douglas M. Dunlop.[32] His fame spread far and wide in the Muslim world, and his exploits and chivalry passed into legend.[32]

Legendary traditions

In later traditions, Maslama's fortification of Derbent was parallelized with the

Khosrow Anushirvan and even with Alexander the Great's legendary 'Wall of Alexander', meant to keep Gog and Magog (here equated with the Khazars) at bay.[60] His activity in the region ensured his continued presence in the traditions of North Caucasus Muslims. Thus, according to the 13th-century geographer Zakariya al-Qazwini, Muslims went on pilgrimage to a mosque near Derbent where a sword reputed to have belonged to Maslama was kept in its mihrab.[61]

Maslama's attempt to capture Constantinople in particular became celebrated in later Muslim literature, with several surviving accounts, mostly semi-fictional, in which the historical defeat was transformed into a sort of victory: Maslama was said to have departed only after symbolically entering the Byzantine capital on his horse accompanied by thirty riders; Leo received him with honour and led him to the Hagia Sophia, where the emperor paid homage to the Arab general.[62][63] The tales of the siege influenced similar episodes in Arabic epic literature, where Maslama appears associated with Abdallah al-Battal, another legendary Arab hero of the wars against Byzantium.[64][65] His campaign against Constantinople continued to provide inspiration to later Muslim authors, from the Muhadarat al-Abrar ascribed to the 13th-century Andalusian mystic Ibn Arabi, to the khamsa of the 17th-century Ottoman poet Nargisi.[32]

Furthermore, Byzantine tradition, as recorded in the 10th-century

first Arab siege in the 670s.[67]

Land development and reclamation projects

Several Umayyad princes were granted estates by the caliphs, usually land of little value, which the princes developed for profit.

Muslim conquest and it was re-settled by Syrian Arab tribal warriors who converted to Islam.[69] Upon his own initiative or per the inhabitants' request, Maslama revitalized the lands by digging a canal there, called Nahr Maslama after him, to irrigate its fields, and built a wall around Balis.[71] The estate was not subject to the land tax (kharaj) paid by non-Muslims; it paid the minimal tithe (ushr) to the state. Maslama collected one third of the remaining yield, the rest going to the inhabitants, who were effectively sharecroppers.[72][73]

An extensive former canal that was excavated near the site of

Maslama founded the dual site of Hisn Maslama and Bajadda on both sides of the Balikh River valley. There, he built a fortified compound and dug a canal, also known as Nahr Maslama, to transport water from the Balikh to a large cistern which supplied the new town, whose inhabitants were Muslim landed settlers. He granted Bajadda to one of his Qaysi lieutenants, Asid ibn Zafir al-Sulami, who further developed it.[76] Hisn Maslama, which Maslama probably used as one of his residences,[77] was probably abandoned after the mid-9th century.[76]

Another of Maslama's major land reclamation projects was in the marshes of southern Iraq. There, frequent breaches of embankments caused mass flooding, which ruined the farmlands of the region. Al-Walid I would not fund the restoration of the farms due to the high cost, estimated to be 3,000,000 dirhams. Instead, Maslama volunteered to pay the sum in exchange for the Caliph granting him the land.[71] Maslama drained the marshes by digging a canal and brought farmers to cultivate the reclaimed lands, enabling his estates to prosper.[78] According to the historian Hugh N. Kennedy, Maslama "clearly recouped his investment, presumably from a share of the crops".[72][b]

Building works

The historian

Umayyad Mosque of Aleppo, whose original construction is otherwise attributed to al-Walid I or Sulayman. Most of the present structure dates to the 12th–13th centuries. Bacharach bases his view on Maslama's governorship of Qinnasrin and his possible use of Aleppo as a base for the sawa'if, for which a congregational mosque to serve the troops would have made sense.[11] The Umayyad-era qasr (castle) in Balis, a fortified residence with a canal and a wool production center, was possibly a construction by Maslama or Sa'id al-Khayr.[80] Maslama may have been responsible for some construction works in the town of Qinnasrin.[11] In Damascus, he had an iwan (enclosed hall) called after him alongside the residences of other Umayyad dynasts, including the caliphal Khadra Palace, situated behind the Umayyad Mosque.[81][82]

Descendants

Maslama's descendants inherited his estates and continued living in northern Syria after his death. In the aftermath of the Abbasid Revolution, which toppled the Umayyads in 750, an Abbasid officer harassed Maslama's family and seized his fortified residence at Na'ura. The incident provoked the Qaysi allies of Maslama's family, led by Zufar ibn al-Harith's grandson Abu al-Ward, to revolt against the Abbasids.[75] The revolt was soon after quashed and Maslama's estates were confiscated and transferred to the Abbasids.[83][c] Around the same time, a son of Maslama, Muhammad, raised a revolt in Harran, but it was also suppressed.[84]

The Abbasid caliphs were nonetheless sympathetic toward the memory of Maslama and toward his family.

Umayyad Spain.[89][d]

Notes

  1. ^ Iraq was subdivided under separate governors for Basra and Kufa in 717–720.[1] Before that period, it was governed as a single province under Yazid ibn al-Muhallab (military affairs) and Salih ibn Abd al-Rahman (fiscal affairs), in 715–717.[2]
  2. ^ Maslama's estates in Iraq's marshlands were confiscated by the Abbasids after they took power in 749–750. They were granted to the Abbasid prince Dawud ibn Ali and were inherited by his descendants, from whom one of the Abbasid caliphs purchased them.[79]
  3. Abbasid caliph, al-Saffah (r. 750–754), transferred Maslama's Balis estates to the Abbasid prince Sulayman ibn Ali. They were inherited by the latter's son, Muhammad, but were confiscated by Caliph Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809), who bequeathed them to his son, the later caliph, al-Ma'mun (r. 813–833). They remained with al-Ma'mun's descendants at least into the late 9th century.[72]
  4. Cordoba in 995. He contributed significantly to the spread of Egyptian culture in Spain.[89] His genealogy was traced to Maslama as follows: Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Hamid ibn Musa ibn al-Abbas ibn Muhammad ibn Yazid ibn Muhammad ibn Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik.[88]
  5. ^ Sharahil ibn Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik was imprisoned in Harran by Caliph Marwan II and was killed with other Umayyads while attempting to escape the prison in 750.[90]

References

  1. ^ Powers 1989, pp. 75, 88, 126.
  2. ^ Powers 1989, pp. 29–30.
  3. ^ a b c d ODB, p. 1311, "Maslama" (P. A. Hollingsworth).
  4. ^ a b c d e Lilie et al. 2000, pp. 190–191.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rotter 1991, p. 740.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Lammens 1987, p. 394.
  7. ^ Dixon 1971, pp. 92–94.
  8. ^ a b Treadgold 1997, p. 341.
  9. ^ Haase 2006, p. 54.
  10. ^ a b Crone 1980, p. 125.
  11. ^ a b c Bacharach 1996, p. 34.
  12. ^ Blankinship 1994, p. 108.
  13. ^ Dunlop 1954, p. 60.
  14. ^ a b Artamonov 1962, p. 203.
  15. ^ Artamonov 1962, pp. 203–205.
  16. ^ Gordon et al. 2018, p. 1002.
  17. ^ Hinds 1990, pp. 213–214.
  18. ^ Marsham 2009, pp. 124–125.
  19. ^ Guilland 1959, pp. 110–111.
  20. ^ Guilland 1959, p. 110.
  21. ^ Treadgold 1997, p. 346.
  22. ^ Guilland 1959, pp. 111–114, 124–126.
  23. ^ Treadgold 1997, pp. 344–345.
  24. ^ Brooks 1899, pp. 24–28.
  25. ^ Guilland 1959, pp. 119–123.
  26. ^ Treadgold 1997, pp. 346–347.
  27. ^ Guilland 1959, pp. 121–123.
  28. ^ Treadgold 1997, pp. 347–349.
  29. ^ Shaban 1971, pp. 135–137.
  30. ^ Blankinship 1994, pp. 87–88.
  31. ^ Blankinship 1994, p. 123.
  32. ^ a b c d e Dunlop 1954, p. 67.
  33. ^ Blankinship 1994, pp. 120–121.
  34. ^ a b c Blankinship 1994, p. 124.
  35. ^ Dunlop 1954, pp. 67–68.
  36. ^ a b Dunlop 1954, p. 68.
  37. ^ Blankinship 1994, pp. 124–125.
  38. ^ Blankinship 1994, pp. 125, 149.
  39. ^ Artamonov 1962, p. 211.
  40. ^ Blankinship 1994, p. 162.
  41. ^ Blankinship 1994, pp. 149–150.
  42. ^ Dunlop 1954, pp. 69–70.
  43. ^ Artamonov 1962, pp. 212–213.
  44. ^ Blankinship 1994, pp. 150–151.
  45. ^ Dunlop 1954, pp. 70–74.
  46. ^ Artamonov 1962, pp. 213–215.
  47. ^ Artamonov 1962, p. 215.
  48. ^ Dunlop 1954, pp. 74–76.
  49. ^ a b Blankinship 1994, p. 151.
  50. ^ Dunlop 1954, pp. 76–77.
  51. ^ Dunlop 1954, pp. 77–79.
  52. ^ Blankinship 1994, pp. 151–152.
  53. ^ Artamonov 1962, pp. 216–217.
  54. ^ a b c Blankinship 1994, p. 152.
  55. ^ a b Dunlop 1954, pp. 79–80.
  56. ^ Artamonov 1962, p. 217.
  57. ^ Artamonov 1962, p. 218.
  58. ^ Marsham 2009.
  59. ^ Marsham 2009, pp. 118–121.
  60. ^ Vacca 2017, pp. 96–98.
  61. ^ Vacca 2017, p. 26.
  62. ^ Canard 1926, pp. 99–102.
  63. ^ Guilland 1959, pp. 130–131.
  64. ^ Canard 1926, pp. 112–121.
  65. ^ Guilland 1959, pp. 131–132.
  66. ^ Hasluck 1929, p. 720.
  67. ^ Hasluck 1929, pp. 718–720.
  68. ^ Blankinship 1994, p. 82.
  69. ^ a b Eger 2017, p. 211.
  70. ^ a b Leisten 2009, p. 377.
  71. ^ a b Kennedy 2016, p. 20.
  72. ^ a b c Kennedy 2016, p. 21.
  73. ^ Eger 2017, p. 214.
  74. ^ Eger 2017, p. 82.
  75. ^ a b Eger 2017, p. 89.
  76. ^ a b Eger 2017, p. 142.
  77. ^ Heidemann 2009, p. 501.
  78. ^ Kennedy 2016, pp. 20–21.
  79. ^ Kennedy 2016, p. 22.
  80. ^ Eger 2017, p. 97.
  81. ^ Haase 2006, p. 55.
  82. ^ Flood 2001, pp. 148–149, note 47.
  83. ^ Robinson 2010, pp. 235–236.
  84. ^ a b Robinson 2010, pp. 234–235.
  85. ^ a b Eger 2017, p. 143.
  86. ^ Haase 2006, pp. 55–56.
  87. ^ Cobb 2001, pp. 61–63, 172.
  88. ^ a b Uzquiza Bartolomé 1994, pp. 420, 456.
  89. ^ a b Makki 1968, p. 21.
  90. ^ Williams 1985, pp. 167–168.

Sources

Further reading