Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz
Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz عمر بن عبد العزيز | |
---|---|
| |
Governor of Medina | |
In office[1] | 706 – 712 |
Predecessor | Hisham ibn Isma'il al-Makhzumi[2] |
Successor | Uthman ibn Hayyan al-Murri[3] |
Born | c. 680 Medina, Arabia, Umayyad Caliphate |
Died | c. 5 February 720 (aged 40) Dayr Sim'an, Syria, Umayyad Caliphate |
Wife |
|
Issue |
|
Layla bint Asim | |
Religion | Islam |
Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan (
He dispatched emissaries to
Umar was considered by many to be the first mujaddid and the sixth righteous caliph of Islam after Hasan ibn Ali according to some Sunni scholars. He was honorifically called Umar al-Thani (Umar II) after his maternal great-grandfather, Caliph Umar (r. 634–644).
Early life
Umar was likely born in
At the time of his birth, another branch of the Umayyads, the
In 685, Marwan ousted Ibn al-Zubayr's governor from
Governor of Medina
Shortly after his accession, Abd al-Malik's son and successor,
Information about his governorship is scant, but most traditional accounts note that he was a "just governor", according to historian
Courtier of al-Walid and Sulayman
Despite his dismissal, Umar remained in al-Walid's favor, being the brother of the caliph's first wife,
Caliphate
Accession
According to the traditional Muslim sources, when Sulayman was on his deathbed in Dabiq, he was persuaded by Raja to designate Umar as his successor.[5][13][14][15] Sulayman's son Ayyub had been his initial nominee, but predeceased him,[16] while his other sons were either too young or away fighting on the Byzantine front.[14] The nomination of Umar voided the wishes of Abd al-Malik, who sought to restrict the office to his direct descendants.[5] The elevation of Umar, a member of a cadet branch of the dynasty, in preference to the numerous descendants of Abd al-Malik surprised these princes.[15] According to Wellhausen, "nobody dreamed of this, himself [Umar] least of all".[15] Raja managed the affair, calling the Umayyad princes into Dabiq's mosque and demanding that they recognize Sulayman's will, which Raja had kept secret.[15] Only after the Umayyads accepted did Raja reveal that Umar was the caliph's nominee.[15] Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik voiced his opposition, but relented after being threatened with violence.[15] A potential intra-dynastic conflict was averted with the designation of a son of Abd al-Malik, Yazid II, as Umar's successor.[14]
According to the historian Reinhard Eisener, Raja's role in the affair was likely "exaggerated"; "more reasonable" was that Umar's succession was the result of "traditional patterns, like seniority and well-founded claims" stemming from Caliph Marwan I's original designation of Umar's father, Abd al-Aziz, as Abd al-Malik's successor,[17] which had not materialized due to Abd al-Aziz predeceasing Abd al-Malik.[18] Umar acceded without significant opposition on 22 September 717.[5]
Reforms
The most significant reform of Umar was effecting the equality of Arabs and mawali (non-Arab Muslims). This was mainly relevant to the non-Arab troops in the Muslim army, who had not been entitled to the same shares in spoils, lands and salaries given to Arab soldiers. The policy also applied to Muslim society at large.[19] Under previous Umayyad rulers, Arab Muslims had certain financial privileges over non-Arab Muslims. Non-Arab converts to Islam were still expected to pay the jizya (poll tax) that they paid before becoming Muslims. Umar put into practice a new system that exempted all Muslims, regardless of their heritage, from the jizya tax. He also added some safeguards to the system to make sure that mass conversion to Islam would not cause the collapse of the finances of the Umayyad government.[20] Under the new tax policy, converted mawali would not pay the jizya (or any other dhimmi tax), but upon conversion, their land would become the property of their villages and would thus remain liable to the full rate of the kharaj (land tax). This compensated for the loss of income due to the diminished jizya tax base.[21] He issued an edict on taxation stating:
Whosoever accepts Islam, whether Christian, Jew or Zoroastrian, of those now subject to taxes and who joins himself to the body of the Muslims in their abode, forsaking the abode in which he was before, he shall have the same rights and duties as they have, and they are obliged to associate with him and to treat him as one of themselves.[22]
Possibly to stave off potential blowback from opponents of the equalization measures, Umar expanded the Islamization drive that had been steadily strengthening under his Marwanid predecessors. The drive included measures to distinguish Muslims from non-Muslims and the inauguration of an Islamic iconoclasm.[23] According to Khalid Yahya Blankinship, He put a stop to the ritual cursing of Caliph Ali (r. 656–661), the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, in Friday prayer sermons.[23]
Umar is credited with having ordered the first official collection of hadith (sayings and actions attributed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad), fearing that some of it might be lost.
Provincial administrations
Shortly after his accession, Umar overhauled the administrations of the provinces.[5] He appointed competent men that he could control, indicating his intention "to keep a close eye on provincial administration".[13] Wellhausen noted that the caliph did not leave the governors to their own devices in return for their forwarding of the provincial revenues; rather, he actively oversaw his governors' administrations and his main interest was "not so much the increase of power as the establishment of right".[24]
He subdivided the vast governorship established over Iraq and the eastern Caliphate under Abd al-Malik's viceroy al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf.
Umar appointed al-Samh ibn Malik al-Khawlani to al-Andalus (Iberian Peninsula) and Isma'il ibn Abd Allah to Ifriqiya. He chose these governors because of their perceived neutrality in the tribal factionalism between the Qays and Yaman and justice toward the oppressed.[26]
Military policy
After his accession in late 717, Umar ordered the withdrawal of the Muslim army led by his cousin Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik from their abortive siege against Constantinople to the regions of Antioch and Malatya, closer to the Syrian frontier.[5] He commissioned an expedition in the summer of 718 to facilitate their withdrawal.[27] Umar kept up the annual summer raids against the Byzantine frontier,[5] out of the obligation to jihad.[11] He remained in northern Syria, often residing at his estate in Khunasira, where he built a fortified headquarters.[5][28]
At some point in 717, he dispatched a force under Ibn Hatim ibn al-Nu'man al-Bahili to
Umar is often deemed a pacifist by the sources and Cobb attributes the caliph's war-weariness to concerns over the diminishing funds of the caliphal treasury.[5] Wellhausen asserts that Umar was "disinclined to wars of conquest, well-knowing that they were waged, not for God, but for the sake of spoil".[11] Blankinship considers this reasoning to be "insufficient".[29] He proposed it was the massive losses faced by the Arabs in their abortive siege against Constantinople, including the destruction of their navy, that caused Umar to view his positions in al-Andalus, separated by the rest of the Caliphate by sea, and Cilicia as acutely vulnerable to Byzantine attack. Thus he favored withdrawing Muslim forces from these two regions. This same calculus led to him to consider withdrawing Muslim forces from Transoxiana so as to shore up the defenses of Syria.[30] Shaban views Umar's efforts to curb offensives as linked to the resentment of the Yamani elements of the army, who Shaban views to have been politically dominant under Umar, at excessive deployments in the field.[29]
Although he halted further eastward expansion, the establishment of Islam in a number of cities in Transoxiana, precluded Umar's withdrawal of Arab troops from there.[31][25] During his reign, the Muslim forces in al-Andalus conquered and fortified the Mediterranean coastal city of Narbonne in modern-day France.[32]
Death
On his way back from Damascus to
Assessment and legacy
The unanimous view in the Muslim traditional sources is that Umar was pious and ruled like a true Muslim in singular opposition to the other Umayyad caliphs, who were generally considered "godless usurpers, tyrants and playboys".
Ancestry
Ancestors of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
References
- ^ Yarshater 1985–2007, v. 23: pp. 131-33, 139, 145, 148, 156, 183, 201-03; McMillan 2011, pp. 95–96, 103–04; EI2, s.v. "Umar (II) b. Abd al-Aziz"); Khalifah ibn Khayyat 1985, p. 311; Al-Ya'qubi 1883, p. 339; Al-Baladhuri 1916, p. 20.
- ^ Yarshater 1985–2007, v. 23: pp. 33, 71, 76, 114, 131-33; McMillan 2011, pp. 79, 92–93, 95, 102–03; EI2, s.v. "Makhzum"); Khalifah ibn Khayyat 1985, pp. 293, 311; Al-Ya'qubi 1883, p. 335.
- ^ Yarshater 1985–2007, v. 23: pp. 202-03, 206 ff., 214, 217; v. 24: pp. 3-4; McMillan 2011, pp. 105, 110–11; EI2, s.v. "Murra"); Khalifah ibn Khayyat 1985, pp. 311, 317; Al-Ya'qubi 1883, p. 353.
- ^ a b c d e Wellhausen 1927, p. 267.
- ^ 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 Cobb 2000, p. 821.
- ^ a b Cobb 2000, pp. 821–822.
- ^ Kennedy 2004, pp. 90–91.
- ^ Kennedy 2004, pp. 92–93.
- ^ Kennedy 2004, p. 98.
- ^ Marsham 2022, p. 41.
- ^ a b c d Wellhausen 1927, p. 268.
- ^ Biesterfeldt & Günther 2018, p. 1001.
- ^ a b c d e f Kennedy 2004, p. 106.
- ^ a b c d Hawting 2000, p. 72.
- ^ a b c d e f Wellhausen 1927, p. 265.
- ^ Wellhausen 1927, p. 264.
- ^ Eisener 1997, p. 822.
- ^ Hawting 2000, p. 59.
- ^ Blankinship 1994, p. 31.
- ^ a b c d Hawting 2000, p. 77.
- ^ a b Kennedy 2004, p. 107.
- ^ Gibb 1955, p. 3.
- ^ a b Blankinship 1994, p. 32.
- ^ Wellhausen 1927, p. 270.
- ^ a b c Wellhausen 1927, p. 269.
- ^ Wellhausen 1927, pp. 269–270.
- ^ Blankinship 1994, p. 34.
- ^ Powers 1989, p. 75, note 263.
- ^ a b Blankinship 1994, p. 33.
- ^ Blankinship 1994, pp. 33–34.
- ^ Wellhausen 1927, pp. 268–269.
- ^ Wellhausen 1927, p. 269, note 1.
- ^ a b c d Cobb 2000, p. 822.
- ^ Wellhausen 1927, p. 311.
- ^ Gibb 1955, p. 2.
- ^ a b c ibn Sa'd 1997, p. 153.
- ^ a b Fishbein 1990, p. 162.
- ^ a b ibn Sa'd 1997, p. 20.
- ^ ibn Sa'd 1997, p. 6.
Bibliography
- 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.
- ISBN 978-0-7914-1827-7.
- ISBN 978-90-04-11211-7.
- S2CID 154370527.
- Eisener, R. (1997). "Sulaymān b. ʿAbd al-Malik". In ISBN 978-90-04-10422-8.
- Fishbein, Michael, ed. (1990). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XXI: The Victory of the Marwānids, A.D. 685–693/A.H. 66–73. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-0221-4.
- JSTOR 4055283.
- ISBN 0-415-24072-7.
- Hoyland, Robert G. (2015). In God's Path: the Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire. Oxford University Press.
- ISBN 978-0-582-40525-7.
- Marsham, Andrew (2022). "Kinship, Dynasty, and the Umayyads". The Historian of Islam at Work: Essays in Honor of Hugh N. Kennedy. Leiden: Brill. pp. 12–45. ISBN 978-90-04-52523-8.
- Mourad, Suleiman Ali (2006). Early Islam Between Myth and History: Al-Ḥaṣan Al-Baṣrī (d. 110H/728CE) and the Formation of His Legacy in Classical Islamic Scholarship. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 90-04-14829-9.
- Powers, David S., ed. (1989). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XXIV: The Empire in Transition: The Caliphates of Sulaymān, ʿUmar, and Yazīd, A.D. 715–724/A.H. 96–105. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-0072-2.
- ISBN 978-1-897940-90-7.
- Tillier, Mathieu. (2014). Califes, émirs et cadis : le droit califal et l'articulation de l'autorité judiciaire à l'époque umayyade, Bulletin d’Études Orientales, 63 (2014), p. 147–190.
- OCLC 752790641.
- ISBN 978-0-7914-7249-1.
- Al-Ya'qubi, Ahmad ibn Abu Ya'qub (1883). Houtsma, M. Th. (ed.). Historiae, Vol. 2. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
- Khalifah ibn Khayyat(1985). al-Umari, Akram Diya' (ed.). Tarikh Khalifah ibn Khayyat, 3rd ed (in Arabic). Al-Riyadh: Dar Taybah.
- McMillan, M.E. (2011). The Meaning of Mecca: The Politics of Pilgrimage in Early Islam. London: Saqi. ISBN 978-0-86356-437-6.
- Al-Baladhuri, Ahmad ibn Jabir (1916). The Origins of the Islamic State, Part I. Trans. Philip Khuri Hitti. New York: Columbia University.
- The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition (12 vols.). Leiden: E. J. Brill. 1960–2005.