Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan

ʿ Abd al -Malik ibn Marwan (Arabic عبد الملك بن مروان; * 646, † October 705 in Damascus ), and Abd al-Malik, was one of the greatest of the Umayyad caliphs. He reigned from 685 to 705

First stage of life

ʿ Abd al-Malik experienced as a child with the murder of ʿ Uthmān and was Mu ʿ āwiya Secretary of Dīwān in Medina. After he had won militarily at sea against the Byzantines, he lived in Medina, where he received from his father Marwan ibn al - Hakam for his maintenance, half of the vast lands of Fadak. He married a woman from the tribe of qaisitischen ʿ Abs Ghatafan, who bore him five children, including the future Caliph al - Waleed (b. 668 ) and Sulaimān (b. 674 ). When the Umayyad 683 were sold by insurgents from Mecca, he left the city with his father, but returned with the Syrian army back there and informed their commanders Muslim ibn ʿ Uqba about the defenses of Medina.

When Caliph

Backup Syria

After the death of his father in the spring of 685 ʿ Abd al -Malik was raised to the caliph. First, he was concerned with developing the rule of the Umayyads in Syria, Palestine and Egypt. He had to contend with considerable difficulties, since in the first years of his reign to several devastating epidemics of plague ( 685-686 and 688-690 ) as well as famines ( 686/7 ) came and Byzantine attacks on Syria. Mecca, Medina and Iraq were in hand by Abdallah ibn az- Zubair, and in Qarqīsiyā ʾ at the mouth of the Khabur in the Euphrates, the qaisitische Arabs Zufar ibn al- Harith had entrenched. In the summer of 689 ʿ Abd al -Malik an attempt undertook to conquer Iraq, a cousin of him, ʿ Amr ibn Sa ʿ al - īd Aschdaq rose, in Damascus, so that he was forced to return to Syria.

Restoration of the kingdom

A peace treaty with Byzantium and the suppression of the revolt of al - Aschdaq made ​​it possible ʿ Abd al -Malik 690, to address the problems in the Jazirah and Iraq. In the summer / fall of 690 he conquered Qarqīsiyā ʾ; then he moved to Nisibis, where 2,000 devotees of al- Mukhtar ibn Abī ʿ Ubaid were who saw Muhammad ibn al - Hanafi as the rightful Imam, and besieged it, until they joined his Imamatsanspruch. From Nisibis drew the Caliph Mosul down the Tigris to achieve the following fall at Maskin decisive victory over Musab ibn az- Zubair, who ruled Iraq for his brother ʿ Abd ibn az- Zubayr. In the same year, Abd al -Malik began the construction of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. With the campaign in the Hijaz ( al - Hajjaj ibn Yūsuf below ), the storming of Mecca and the death of Abdallah ibn az- Zubairs 692 the unity of the caliphate was restored and secured the leadership of the Umayyad.

Great Power politics

Under Abd al -Malik, the absolute sovereign power of the Caliph began to enforce. So above all family members were employed as governor in the provinces that were greater controls simultaneously by the central government in Damascus. This strengthening of the central administration was the expansion of the postal system. In addition, Arabic was introduced as the chancellery and the previously outstanding Persian and Byzantine coins replaced by coins with Arab- Islamic legend. Al- Hajjaj ibn Yūsuf was 694 sent as governor in Iraq and ruled from there the entire eastern part of the empire.

The strengthening of the power of the Caliph allowed a re-recording of the Muslim expansion. So Hassan ibn an- Numan succeeded after 700 finally the subjugation of the Maghreb against the fierce resistance of the Berber tribes. With the administrative reforms of Abd al- Malik and the conditions for the further expansion of the Umayyadenstaats were created.

In the later Islamic literature, several letters are narrated by contemporaries such as al- Hasan al - Basri and Abdallah ibn Ibad to ʿ Abd al -Malik said to have directed. These letters are, however, all now classified in the research as pseudepigraphical.

Sons

ʿ Abd al -Malik had 16 sons: al- Waleed, Sulaimān, Marwan elders, Yazīd, Marwan younger, Mu ʿ āwiya, Hisham, Bakkar, al - Hakam, ʿ Abd, Maslamah, ʿ Anbasa, Muhammad Sa ʿ īd, al - Hajjaj and Qubaisa. Four of them, al - Waleed, Sulaimān, Yazīd and Hisham, later ruled himself as caliph.