Salm ibn Ziyad
Salm ibn Ziyad ibn Abihi | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Umayyad governor of Khurasan and Sijistan | |
| In office 681–684 | |
| Monarch | Yazid I |
| Preceded by | Abd al-Rahman ibn Ziyad (Khurasan) Abbad ibn Ziyad (Sijistan) |
| Succeeded by | Abd Allah ibn Khazim al-Sulami |
| Personal details | |
| Died | Late 692 Basra |
| Spouse | Umm Muhammad bint Abd Allah ibn Uthman ibn Abi'l-As al-Thaqafi |
| Children | Sughdi Muharib |
| Parent | Ziyad ibn Abihi |
Abū Ḥarb Salm ibn Ziyād ibn Abīhi (
Life
Salm was the third eldest son of
One of Salm's first actions upon arriving at Merv was the arrest and public condemnation of the powerful Arab chieftain Qays ibn al-Haytham al-Sulami, who had been empowered by Salm's brother Abd al-Rahman.[3] According to historian Muhammad Abdulhayy Shaban, his arrest was an effort by Salm to gain the support of the influential chieftain Aslam ibn Zur'a al-Kilabi, who had been imprisoned and extorted by Qays, and to signal a departure of Abd al-Rahman's policy of redirecting the revenues of Khurasan to Damascus instead of among the province's troops for expeditions.[3] Depending on the source, Salm either sent Caliph Yazid one-fifth of the war booty his forces acquired with the rest distributed among the troops or he distributed all of the booty between himself and the troops.[3] As a result of this policy and successes on the battlefield, Salm gained wide popularity among the troops.[1][3] Indeed, the 9th-century historian al-Tabari recorded:
"The people of Khurasan never loved a governor as they loved Salm [ibn] Ziyad. In those two years when Salm was there, more than 20,000 children were named Salm because of their love for Salm." — Ali ibn Muhammad, a certain Arab shaykh (tribal chieftain) from Khurasan cited by al-Tabari.[4]
Salm scored victories and gains during his raids across the
Salm also led raids into the
Following Caliph Yazid's death and the chaos that ensued due to the uncertainty of leadership in the Umayyad capital in Syria, Salm initially maintained the allegiance of Khurasan's Arab troops to the Umayyads.[1] However, they soon after defected and Salm was forced to abandon the province for his brother Ubayd Allah's headquarters in Basra.[1] His chosen successor, Abd Allah ibn Khazim al-Sulami, meanwhile emerged to dominate the eastern caliphate and paid allegiance to the anti-Umayyad, Mecca-based claimant to the caliphate, Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr.[1] Unlike Ubayd Allah, Salm decided to join Ibn al-Zubayr's cause, but Zubayrid loyalists nonetheless arrested him in Basra and brought him to Mecca where he was held captive.[1] Ibn al-Zubayr had extorted Salm, who ultimately paid the former four million dirhams, which he acquired in the course of his governorship over Khurasan, to secure his freedom.[1] He remained in Mecca until the Umayyad general al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf besieged Ibn al-Zubayr.[1] Salm was pardoned by the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik, who restored him as governor of Khurasan.[1] However, before he could reach the province, Salm died in Basra in 692.[1] A grandson of Salm, Maslama ibn Muharib ibn Salm (died between 765–785), was a Basra-based historian whose reports were used in the histories of 9th-century historians al-Mada'ini and al-Tabari.[9]
References
Bibliography
- Bosworth, C. E. (1968). Sīstān under the Arabs : from the Islamic conquest to the rise of the Ṣaffārids (30-250, 651-864). Rome: Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente.
- Bosworth, C. E. (1995). "Salm b. Ziyād b. Abīhi". In ISBN 978-90-04-09834-3.
- Howard, I. K. A., ed. (1990). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XIX: The Caliphate of Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiyah, A.D. 680–683/A.H. 60–64. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-0040-1.
- ISBN 978-0-88706-855-3.
- Levy, Reuben (2000). Orientalism: Early Sources, Volume 12: The Social Structure of Islam (2nd ed.). Routledge. ISBN 0-415-20910-2.
- ISBN 978-0-7914-1895-6.
- Shaban, M. A. (1970). The Abbasid Revolution. Cambridge University Press. pp. 160–161. ISBN 0-521-29534-3.