Harun al-Rashid
ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Ṣāliḥ ibn ʿAlī (Arabic : عبد الملك بن صالح بن علي) (Ἀβιμελέχ, Abimelech, in Greek sources; 750–812 CE) was a member of the Banu Abbas who served as general and governor in Syria and Egypt. He distinguished himself in several raids against the Byzantine Empire, but his great influence and authority in Syria resulted in Caliph Harun al-Rashid imprisoning him in 803. Released in 809, he was dispatched in 812 by Caliph al-Amin to gather troops against his brother al-Ma'mun in the ongoing civil war between the two brothers, but died of an illness.
Abd al-Malik's family were among the most powerful clans during the early Abbasid era. They played an important role in the final overthrow of the Umayyads in Syria, which thereafter became their particular power base. He was the nephew of Abd Allah ibn Ali, the first Abbasid governor of Syria, and a son of Salih ibn Ali, the first Abbasid governor of Egypt and successor of Abdallah in Syria after the latter staged a failed uprising in 754. Abd al-Malik's elder brothers al-Fadl and Ibrahim also served as governors in Syria and Egypt. [1] From his father's side, he was a cousin of Caliphs al-Saffah (r. 750–754) and al-Mansur (r. 754–775). [2] His mother was one of the concubines of the last Umayyad Caliph, Marwan II (r. 744–750). After Marwan's death, she was bought by Salih. Some sources alleged that she was already pregnant at the time, which would mean that Abd al-Malik was a son of Marwan II. [3]
Under Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809), Abd al-Malik held his first major commands: from c. 789 to 793, he was governor of the strategically critical Jund Qinnasrin (a district in northern Syria) and of the newly created jund of al-Awasim, which comprised the Caliphate's borderlands with the Byzantine Empire. [4] From this position, he led expeditions into Byzantine Asia Minor in 790/791 and possibly also in 792/793, when his son Abd al-Rahman captured the fortress of Thebasa. [2] [5]
In 792, after the death of Ibrahim, Abd al-Malik became the head of his clan, and in 794 he was appointed as governor of the Jund Dimashq (a Syrian district which included Damascus), with his brother Abdallah succeeding him in governing the borderlands with the Byzantine Empire. [4] During the next couple of years, he also served brief stints as governor of Medina and Egypt, [2] but he was soon back on the Byzantine frontier: in late 797 he led raids into Cappadocia and Galatia, moving as far as Ancyra where he received an embassy from Empress Irene of Athens (r. 797–802) which asked for a peace agreement, but which he rebuffed. In 798, he led another campaign that reached and plundered the great Byzantine army base and imperial stables at Malagina in Bithynia. He carried off much booty, including the imperial parade horses and baggage-train. On his return, he was attacked by the forces of the themes of Opsikion and Optimatoi, but defeated them. At the same time, his son raided the city of Ephesus. [6]
In c. 800, Abd al-Malik was also placed as tutor for Harun's son al-Qasim. His prominence and influence with the army led Harun distrust him and in 803 he was arrested and thrown into prison. The actual reason remains unclear, although most sources agree that his own son, Abd ar-Rahman, informed the Caliph that he was allegedly planning to overthrow him. Abd al-Malik remained imprisoned until Harun's death six years later, when the Caliph al-Amin (r. 809–813) released him. [2] [7] Al-Amin's succession was contested by his elder half-brother al-Ma'mun, and there was unrest in Syria. Abd al-Malik still wielded considerable influence over the frontier troops, and therefore he was appointed governor of Syria and al-Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) and tasked with securing these regions for al-Amin and raising troops to confront al-Ma'mun. However, soon after reaching Raqqa, Abd al-Malik fell ill and died. [2] [7] His grave was demolished a few years later by the victorious al-Ma'mun, allegedly because Abd al-Malik had sworn never to accept al-Ma'mun's rule. [2]
Abū Mūsā Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Amīn, better known by his laqab of al-Amin, was the sixth Abbasid caliph from 809 to 813.
Bilad al-Sham, often referred to as Islamic Syria or simply Syria in English-language sources, was a province of the Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, and Fatimid caliphates. It roughly corresponded with the Byzantine Diocese of the East, conquered by the Muslims in 634–647. Under the Umayyads (661–750), Bilad al-Sham was the metropolitan province of the Caliphate and different localities throughout the province served as the seats of the Umayyad caliphs and princes.
Jund Filasṭīn was one of the military districts of the Umayyad and Abbasid province of Bilad al-Sham (Levant), organized soon after the Muslim conquest of the Levant in the 630s. Jund Filastin, which encompassed most of Palaestina Prima and Palaestina Tertia, included the newly established city of Ramla as its capital and eleven administrative districts (kura), each ruled from a central town.
Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik was an Umayyad prince and one of the most prominent Arab generals of the early decades of the 8th century, leading several campaigns against the Byzantine Empire and the Khazar Khaganate. He achieved great fame especially for leading the second and last Arab siege of the Byzantine capital Constantinople.
Jund Ḥimṣ was one of the military districts of the caliphal province of Syria.
Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Muḥammad ibn Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam was an Umayyad prince and one of the most important generals of the Umayyad Caliphate in the period 690–710, and the one who completed the Arab conquest of Armenia. He defeated the Byzantines and conquered their Armenian territories, crushed an Armenian rebellion in 704–705 and made the country into an Umayyad province. His son Marwan II was the last Umayyad caliph.
ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān was an Umayyad prince, the son of Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, a general and the governor of Egypt in 705–709.
Ṣāliḥ ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-ʿAbbās (711–769) was a member of the Banu Abbas who served as general and governor in Syria and Egypt.
Thabit ibn Nasr ibn Malik al-Khuza'i was an Abbasid general and governor of the Cilician frontier zone with the Byzantine Empire in 808–813.
Al-Qāsim ibn Hārūn ar-Rāshīd ibn Muḥammad al-Mahdī was an Abbasid prince, the third son of the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid, and for a time third-in-line to the Abbasid throne.
The Fourth Fitna or Great Abbasid Civil War resulted from the conflict between the brothers al-Amin and al-Ma'mun over the succession to the throne of the Abbasid Caliphate. Their father, Caliph Harun al-Rashid, had named al-Amin as the first successor, but had also named al-Ma'mun as the second, with Khurasan granted to him as an appanage. Later a third son, al-Qasim, had been designated as third successor. After Harun died in 809, al-Amin succeeded him in Baghdad. Encouraged by the Baghdad court, al-Amin began trying to subvert the autonomous status of Khurasan, and al-Qasim was quickly sidelined. In response, al-Ma'mun sought the support of the provincial élites of Khurasan and made moves to assert his own autonomy. As the rift between the two brothers and their respective camps widened, al-Amin declared his own son Musa as his heir and assembled a large army. In 811, al-Amin's troops marched against Khurasan, but al-Ma'mun's general Tahir ibn Husayn defeated them in the Battle of Ray, and then invaded Iraq and besieged Baghdad itself. The city fell after a year, al-Amin was executed, and al-Ma'mun became Caliph.
Harthama ibn A'yan was a Khurasan-born general and governor of the early Abbasid Caliphate, serving under the caliphs al-Hadi, Harun al-Rashid and al-Ma'mun. He played an important role in the victory of al-Ma'mun in the Abbasid civil war, but was executed at his orders when he protested against the power of the Sahlid family that dominated his court.
Abdallah ibn Malik al-Khuza'i was Arab senior military leader and provincial governor of the early Abbasid Caliphate.
Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī was a member of the Abbasid dynasty, and played a leading role in its rise to power during the Abbasid Revolution. As governor of Syria, he consolidated Abbasid control over the province, eliminating the remnants of the Umayyad dynasty and suppressing pro-Umayyad uprisings. After the death of his nephew and first Abbasid caliph, al-Saffah, in 754, he launched a bid for the caliphal title against al-Saffah's brother, al-Mansur, but was defeated and imprisoned. He was killed in 764.
Nasr ibn Shabath al-Uqayli was the leader of a rebellion of the Qays tribe in the Jazira against the central Abbasid government during the civil war of the Fourth Fitna.
Majzaʾa ibn al-Kawthar ibn Zufar ibn al-Ḥārith al-Kilābī, commonly known as Abū al-Ward, was a mid-8th century Umayyad governor of Jund Qinnasrin in Syria. He was a cavalry commander of Umayyad Caliph Marwan II and later the leader of a rebellion against the Abbasid Caliphate in Syria which aimed to reestablish the Umayyad Caliphate in 750.
Abd al-Malik ibn Umar ibn Marwan ibn al-Hakam, also known as al-Marwani, was an Umayyad prince, general and governor of Seville under the first Umayyad emir of al-Andalus, Abd al-Rahman I. He led two major campaigns in 758 and 774, the first against the previous ruler of al-Andalus Yusuf ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri and the second against the rebellious troops of Seville and Beja. His victories solidified the Umayyad emirate's control of western al-Andalus. His descendants continued to play important political and military roles in the Emirate well into the 10th century.
Sulaymān ibn al-Manṣūr, better known as Sulaymān ibn Abī Jaʿfar, was an Abbasid prince and served as governor of Basra, al-Jazira and Syria during the reign of his nephew, Caliph Harun al-Rashid. He also served in Syria under al-Rashid's son and successor, al-Amin.
Muhammad ibn Salih ibn Bayhas al-Kilabi, better known as Ibn Bayhas, was the Abbasid governor of Damascus in September 813–824/825 and a prominent chief of the Qays tribes in the environs of Damascus against their Yamani rivals. Under his leadership, a succession of Umayyad claimants to the caliphate, Abu al-Umaytir al-Sufyani, Maslama ibn Ya'qub al-Marwani and Sa'id ibn Khalid al-Uthmani, were defeated, marking an end to serious challenges of Abbasid authority in Syria by remnants of the Umayyad dynasty, which had been toppled by the Abbasids in 750. Although a loyalist of Caliph al-Ma'mun, he was viewed as a rival by al-Ma'mun's viceroy of Syria, Abd Allah ibn Tahir ibn al-Husayn, who deposed him around 824/825. Two years later, he was brought to Iraq, where he eventually died.