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Battle Of Marj Rahit (684)
The Battle of Marj Rahit () was one of the early battles of the Second Fitna. It was fought on 18 August 684 between the Kalb-dominated armies of the Yaman tribal confederation, supporting the Umayyads under Caliph Marwan I, and the Qays under al-Dahhak ibn Qays al-Fihri, who supported the Mecca-based Abdallah ibn al-Zubayr; the latter had proclaimed himself Caliph. The Kalbi victory consolidated the position of the Umayyads over Bilad al-Sham (the Islamic Levant), paving the way for their eventual victory in the war against Ibn al-Zubayr. However, it also left a bitter legacy of division and rivalry between the Qays and the Yaman, which would be a constant source of strife and instability for the remainder of the Umayyad Caliphate. Background At the death of Mu'awiya I (), the founder of the Umayyad Caliphate, in 680, the Muslim world was thrown into turmoil. Although Mu'awiya had named his son, Yazid I, as his heir, this choice was not universally recognized, especially by ...
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Second Fitna
The Second Fitna was a period of general political and military disorder and civil war in the Islamic community during the early Umayyad Caliphate. It followed the death of the first Umayyad caliph Mu'awiya I in 680, and lasted for about twelve years. The war involved the suppression of two challenges to the Umayyad dynasty, the first by Husayn ibn Ali, as well as his supporters including Sulayman ibn Surad and Mukhtar al-Thaqafi who rallied for his revenge in History of Iraq, Iraq, and the second by Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr. The roots of the civil war go back to the First Fitna. After the Siege of Uthman, assassination of the third caliph, Uthman, the Islamic community experienced its first civil war over the question of leadership, with the main contenders being Ali and Mu'awiya. Following the assassination of Ali in 661 and the abdication of his successor Hasan ibn Ali, Hasan the same year, Mu'awiya became the sole ruler of the caliphate. Mu'awiya's unprecedented decision to nom ...
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Himyarites
Himyar was a polity in the southern highlands of Yemen, as well as the name of the region which it claimed. Until 110 BCE, it was integrated into the Qatabanian kingdom, afterwards being recognized as an independent kingdom. According to classical sources, their capital was the ancient city of Zafar, relatively near the modern-day city of Sana'a. Himyarite power eventually shifted to Sana'a as the population increased in the fifth century. After the establishment of their kingdom, it was ruled by kings from dhū-Raydān tribe. The kingdom was named Raydān.Jérémie Schiettecatte. Himyar. Roger S. Bagnall; Kai Brodersen; Craige B. Champion; Andrew Erskine; Sabine R. Huebner. ''The Encyclopedia of Ancient History'', John Wiley & Sons, 2017, 9781444338386.ff10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah30219ff. ffhalshs-01585072ff The kingdom conquered neighbouring Saba' in c. 25 BCE (for the first time), Qataban in c. 200 CE, and Haḍramaut c. 300 CE. Its political fortunes relative to Saba' c ...
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Bilad Al-Sham
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. Bilad al-Sham was first organized into the four '' ajnad'' (military districts; singular ''jund'') of Dimashq (Damascus), Hims (Homs), al-Urdunn (Jordan), and Filastin (Palestine), between 637 and 640 by Caliph Umar following the Muslim conquest. The ''jund'' of Qinnasrin was created out of the northern part of Hims by caliphs Mu'awiya I () or Yazid I (). The Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) was made an independent province from the Mesopotamian part of Qinnasrin by Caliph Abd al-Malik in 692. In 786, the ''j ...
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Abdallah Ibn Al-Zubayr
Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam (; May 624October/November 692) was the leader of a caliphate based in Mecca that rivaled the Umayyads from 683 until his death. The son of al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam and Asma bint Abi Bakr, and grandson of the first caliph Abu Bakr, Ibn al-Zubayr belonged to the Quraysh, the leading tribe of the nascent Muslim community, and was the first child born to the Muhajirun, Islam's earliest converts. As a youth, he participated in the early Muslim conquests alongside his father in Syria and Egypt, and later played a role in the Muslim conquests of North Africa and northern Iran in 647 and 650, respectively. During the First Fitna, he fought on the side of his aunt A'isha against Caliph Ali (). Though little is heard of Ibn al-Zubayr during the subsequent reign of the first Umayyad caliph Mu'awiya I (), it was known that he opposed the latter's designation of his son, Yazid I, as his successor. Ibn al-Zubayr, along with many of the Quraysh and the An ...
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Mecca
Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above sea level. Its metropolitan population in 2022 was 2.4million, making it the List of cities in Saudi Arabia by population, third-most populated city in Saudi Arabia after Riyadh and Jeddah. Around 44.5% of the population are Saudis, Saudi citizens and around 55.5% are Muslim world, Muslim foreigners from other countries. Pilgrims more than triple the population number every year during the Pilgrimage#Islam, pilgrimage, observed in the twelfth Islamic calendar, Hijri month of . With over 10.8 million international visitors in 2023, Mecca was one of the ten List of cities by international visitors, most visited cities in the world. Mecca is generally considered "the fountainhead and cradle of Islam". Mecca is revered in Islam as the birthp ...
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Yaman (tribal Group)
Yaman was an Arab tribal confederation, originating from South Arabia, known for their centuries-long rivalry with the Qays, another Arab tribal confederation. As late as the nineteenth century battles were fought in Palestine between Qays and Yaman groups. The Yamanis supported the Umayyads which was integral to them coming to power in the first Muslim civil war (''fitna'') from 656 to 661 and to them regaining power in the second Muslim civil war from 683 to 692. In Umayyad times, the Yaman tribes mostly settled in southern Syria, in the steppes around Homs, Palmyra, and Palestine, while the Qays settled in northern Syria, in Jund Qinnasrin, the Jazira, and the Byzantine frontier areas. Another difference between the confederations was that some of the Yamani tribes like the Kalb, Tanukh, Judham, and Tayy had been extant in the Levant before the Muslim conquest, while most of the Qaysi tribes arrived afterwards. Other Yamani tribes such as Madh'hij, Kinda and Himyar, settled ...
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Al-Dahhak Ibn Qays Al-Fihri
Al-Dahhak ibn Qays al-Fihri (; died August 684) was an Umayyad general, head of security forces and governor of Damascus during the reigns of caliphs Mu'awiya I, Yazid I and Mu'awiya II. Though long an Umayyad loyalist, after the latter's death, al-Dahhak defected to the anti-Umayyad claimant to the caliphate, Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr. Life Al-Dahhak ibn Qays al-Fihri was a chieftain of the Fihr clan of the Quraysh. He belonged to the Banu Muharib ibn Fihr line. Al-Dahhak was an early supporter of Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, the Muslim governor of Syria, and served as his (head of security forces or select troops). Mu'awiya later appointed him governor of Jund Dimashq (military district of Damascus). In 656, al-Dahhak defeated Malik al-Ashtar, a partisan of Caliph Ali in a plain between Harran and Raqqa, forcing al-Ashtar's retreat to Mosul. At the Battle of Siffin between Mu'awiya and Ali, al-Dahhak commanded the former's Syrian infantry. He was then dispatched against Ali's s ...
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Bishr Ibn Marwan
Abu Marwan Bishr ibn Marwan ibn al-Hakam (; –694) was an Umayyad Caliphate, Umayyad prince and List of Umayyad governors of Iraq, governor of Iraq during the reign of his brother, Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, Abd al-Malik. Bishr fought at Battle of Marj Rahit (684), Marj Rahit with his father, Caliph Marwan I (). Marwan posted Bishr to Egypt to keep his brother Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan, Abd al-Aziz company. In 690/91, Bishr was made governor of Kufa and about one year later, Basra was added to his governorship, giving him full control of Iraq. During his governorship of Iraq, Bishr was known to be highly accessible and relatively merciful. Fond of poetry, he had many Arab poets, including Jarir (poet), Jarir, al-Farazdaq and Al-Ra'i al-Numayri, al-Ra'i, in his entourage and was elegized in many panegyrics. He eliminated the remaining partisans of Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr in Basra and was officially in command of the war effort against Azariqa, Kharijite rebels in the province. Howev ...
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Rawh Ibn Zinba Al-Judhami
Abū Zurʿa Rawḥ ibn Zinbāʿ al-Judhāmī () (died 703) was the Umayyad governor of Palestine, one of the main advisers of Caliph Abd al-Malik and the chieftain of the Judham tribe. Life Origins Rawh was the son of Zinba ibn Rawh ibn Salama, a noble of the Judham, an Arab tribe that had been concentrated in Palestine before the Muslim conquest in the 630s.Hawting 1995, p. 466. During this period, Zinba supervised a trading post for merchants crossing Palestine for the Byzantine Empire or its Ghassanid clients. Before the advent of Islam in the 620s–630s, a caravan of Qurayshi merchants from Mecca, including Umar ibn al-Khattab, attempted to cross through Zinba's post hiding gold in the stomach of one of their camels. Zinba suspected this, slaughtered the camel, confiscated part of the gold and insulted Umar, to which the latter threatened retaliation. According to this anecdote, traced back to Muhammad ibn al-Sa'ib al-Kalbi (d. 763), Zinba was operating under the authorit ...
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Abbad Ibn Ziyad
ʿAbbād ibn Ziyād ibn Abīhi () (died 718/19) was an Arab commander and statesman of the Umayyad Caliphate. A son of the governor of Iraq, Ziyad ibn Abihi, Abbad served as a governor of Sijistan between 673 and 681 under caliphs Mu'awiya I () and Yazid I (). He led a contingent in the army of Caliph Marwan I () at the Battle of Marj Rahit and afterward fought against loyalists of al-Mukhtar al-Thaqafi during the reign of Caliph Abd al-Malik (). He later served at the court of the latter's son and successor, Caliph al-Walid I (), and played a role in the succession intrigues between al-Walid's son Abd al-Aziz and the caliph's brother, Sulayman. Governor of Sijistan Abbad was the son of Ziyad ibn Abihi, the Umayyad governor of Iraq, and a brother of Ziyad's successor Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad, with whom he had a close relationship. The Umayyad caliph Mu'awiya I () appointed Abbad governor of the eastern province of Sijistan (Sistan) in 673, and he was reconfirmed in the post by ...
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Al-Ashdaq
Abu Umayya Amr ibn Sa'id ibn al-As al-Umawi (; died 689/90), commonly known as al-Ashdaq (), was a member of the Umayyad dynasty, general and a contender for the caliphal throne. He served as the governor of Medina in 680, during the reign of Caliph Yazid I () and fought off attempts by the Zubayrids to conquer Syria in 684 and 685 during the reign of Caliph Marwan I (). The latter removed Yazid I's son Khalid and al-Ashdaq from the line of succession in favor of his own sons Abd al-Malik () and Abd al-Aziz. Al-Ashdaq's attempted coup against Abd al-Malik in 689 ended with his surrender and his execution by Abd al-Malik. Life Amr was the son of the Umayyad statesman Sa'id ibn al-As and Umm al-Banin bint al-Hakam, the sister of another Umayyad statesman, Marwan ibn al-Hakam. He was nicknamed "al-Ashdaq" (the Widemouthed). When Sa'id died in 679, al-Ashdaq became the leader of this branch of the Umayyad clan. At the end of the reign of Caliph Mu'awiya I (), he was governor of M ...
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Abd Al-Aziz Ibn Marwan
Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan ibn al-Hakam (; died 12 May 705) was the Umayyad governor and ''de facto'' viceroy of Egypt between 685 and his death. He was appointed by his father, Caliph Marwan I (). Abd al-Aziz's reign was marked by stability and prosperity, partly due to his close relations and reliance on the Arab military settlers of Fustat. Under his direction and supervision, an army led by Musa ibn Nusayr completed the Muslim conquest of North Africa. He was removed from the line of succession to the caliphal throne and, in any case, died before his brother, Caliph Abd al-Malik (). However, one of Abd al-Aziz's sons, Umar, would become caliph in 717. Early life and career Abd al-Aziz was the son of a prominent Umayyad statesman, Marwan ibn al-Hakam, and one of his wives, Layla bint Zabban ibn al-Asbagh of the Banu Kalb tribe. Abd al-Aziz may have visited Egypt when the province was governed by Maslama ibn Mukhallad (667–682), the appointee of Mu'awiya I, founder of the Umayyad ...
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