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'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan
ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwan ibn al-Hakam (b. July/August 644 or June/July 647, Medina, Rashidun Caliphate [today in Saudi Arabia] – d. October 9, 705, Damascus, Umayyad Caliphate [today in Syria]) was the fifth Umayyad caliph, ruling from April 685 until his death. A member of the first generation of born Muslims, his early life in Medina was occupied with pious pursuits. He held administrative and military posts under Caliph Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680), founder of the Umayyad Caliphate, and his own father, Caliph Marwan I (r. 684–685). By the time of 'Abd al-Malik's accession, Umayyad authority had collapsed across the Caliphate as a result of the Second Muslim Civil War and had been reconstituted in Syria and Egypt during his father's reign.
Following a failed invasion of Iraq in 686, 'Abd al-Malik focused on securing Syria before making further attempts to conquer the greater part of the Caliphate from his principal rival, the Mecca-based caliph 'Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr. To that end, he concluded an unfavorable truce with the reinvigorated Byzantine Empire in 689, quashed a coup attempt in Damascus by his kinsman, al-Ashdaq, the following year, and reincorporated into the army the rebellious Qaysi tribes of the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) in 691. He then conquered Zubayrid Iraq and dispatched his general, al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, to Mecca where he killed Ibn al-Zubayr in late 692, thereby reuniting the Caliphate under 'Abd al-Malik's rule. The war with Byzantium resumed, resulting in Umayyad advances into Anatolia and Armenia, the destruction of Carthage and the recapture of Kairouan, the launchpad for the later conquests of western North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, in 698. In the east, 'Abd al-Malik's viceroy, al-Hajjaj, firmly established the caliph's authority in Iraq and Khurasan, stamping out opposition by the Kharijites and the Arab tribal nobility by 702. 'Abd al-Malik's final years were marked by a domestic tranquility and prosperous consolidation of power.
In a significant departure from his predecessors, rule over the Caliphate's provinces was centralized under 'Abd al-Malik, following the elimination of his rivals. Gradually, loyalist Arab troops from Syria were tasked with maintaining order in the provinces as dependence on less reliable, local Arab garrisons was reduced. Tax surpluses from the provinces were forwarded to Damascus and the traditional stipends to veterans of the early Muslim conquests and their descendants were abolished, salaries being restricted to those in active service. The most consequential of 'Abd al-Malik's reforms were the introduction of a single Islamic currency in place of Byzantine and Sasanian coinage and the establishment of Arabic as the language of the bureaucracy in place of Greek and Persian in Syria and Iraq, respectively. 'Abd al-Malik's Muslim upbringing, the conflicts with external and local Christian forces and rival claimants to Islamic leadership all influenced 'Abd al-Malik's efforts to prescribe a distinctly Islamic character to the Umayyad state. Another manifestation of this initiative was his founding of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, the earliest archaeologically attested religious monument built by a Muslim ruler and the possessor of the earliest epigraphic proclamations of Islam and the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The foundations established by 'Abd al-Malik enabled his son and successor, al-Walid I (r. 705–715), who largely maintained his father's policies, to oversee the Umayyad Caliphate's territorial and economic zenith. 'Abd al-Malik's centralized government became the prototype of later medieval Muslim states.
'Abd al-Malik was born in July/August 644 or June/July 647 in the house of his father Marwan ibn al-Hakam in Medina in the Hejaz (western Arabia). His mother was A'isha, a daughter of Mu'awiya ibn al-Mughira. His parents belonged to the Banu Umayya, one of the strongest and wealthiest clans of the Quraysh tribe.
The Prophet Muhammad was a member of the Quraysh, but was ardently opposed by the tribe before they embraced Islam in 630. Not long after, the Quraysh came to dominate Muslim politics. 'Abd al-Malik belonged to the first generation of born-Muslims and his upbringing in Medina, Islam's political center at the time, was generally described as pious and rigorous by the traditional Muslim sources. He took a deep interest in Islam and possibly memorized the Qur'an.
'Abd al-Malik's father was a senior aide of their Umayyad kinsman, Caliph Uthman (r. 644–656). In 656, 'Abd al-Malik witnessed Uthman's assassination in Medina, an event that had a lasting effect on 'Abd al-Malik and contributed to his distrust of the townspeople of Medina. Six years later, 'Abd al-Malik distinguished himself in a campaign against the Byzantines as commander of a Medinese naval unit. He was appointed to the role by his distant cousin, Caliph Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680), founder of the Umayyad Caliphate. Afterward, he returned to Medina, where he operated under his father, who had become governor of the city, as the katib (secretary) of Medina's diwan (bureaucracy). Medina's diAs with the rest of the Umayyads in the Hejaz, 'Abd al-Malik lacked close ties with Mu'awiya, who ruled from his power base in Damascus in Syria. Mu'awiya belonged to the Sufyanid line of the Umayyad clan, while 'Abd al-Malik belonged to the larger Abu al-As line. When a revolt broke out in Medina in 683 against Mu'awiya's son and successor, Caliph Yazid I (r. 680–683), the Umayyads, including 'Abd al-Malik, were expelled from the city. The revolt was part of the wider anti-Umayyad rebellion that became known as the Second Muslim Civil War. On the way to the Umayyad capital in Syria, 'Abd al-Malik encountered the army of Muslim ibn Uqba, who had been sent by Yazid to subdue the rebels in Medina. He provided Ibn Uqba with intelligence about Medina's defenses. The rebels were defeated at the Battle of al-Harra in August 683, but the army withdrew to Syria after Yazid's death later that year.
The deaths of Yazid and his successor, his son Mu'awiya II, in relatively quick succession in 683–684 precipitated a leadership vacuum in Damascus and the consequent collapse of Umayyad authority across the Caliphate. Most provinces declared their allegiance to the rival Mecca-based caliph 'Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr. In parts of Syria, older-established Arab tribes who had secured a privileged position in the Umayyad court and military, in particular the Banu Kalb, scrambled to preserve Umayyad rule. Marwan and his family, including 'Abd al-Malik, had since relocated to Syria, where Marwan met the pro-Umayyad stalwart Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad, who had just been expelled from his governorship in Iraq. Ibn Ziyad persuaded Marwan to forward his candidacy for the caliphate during a summit of pro-Umayyad tribes in Jabiya hosted by the Kalbite chieftain Ibn Bahdal. The tribal nobility elected Marwan as caliph and the latter became dependent on the Kalb and its allies, who collectively became known as the "Yaman" in reference to their ostensibly shared South Arabian (Yamani) roots. Their power came at the expense of the Qaysi tribes, relative newcomers who had come to dominate northern Syria and the Jazira under Mu'awiya I and had defected to Ibn al-Zubayr.
The Qays were routed by Marwan and his Yamani backers at the Battle of Marj Rahit in 684, leading to a long-standing blood feud and rivalry between the two tribal coalitions. 'Abd al-Malik did not participate in the battle on religious grounds.
'Abd al-Malik was a close adviser of his father. He was headquartered in Damascus and became its deputy governor during Marwan's expedition to conquer Zubayrid Egypt in late 684. Upon the caliph's return in 685, he held a council in Sinnabra where he appointed 'Abd al-Malik governor of Palestine and designated him as his chosen successor, to be followed by 'Abd al-Malik's brother, 'Abd al-Aziz. This designation abrogated the succession arrangements reached in Jabiya, which stipulated Yazid's son Khalid would succeed Marwan, followed by another Umayyad, the former governor of Medina, Amr ibn Sa'id al-Ashdaq. Nonetheless, Marwan secured the oaths of allegiance to 'Abd al-Malik from the Yamani nobility. 'Abd al-Malik was nominated despite his relative lack of political experience because of his political ability and his knowledge of statecraft and provincial administration, as indicated by his gradual advance in holding important posts from an early age. Marwan died in April 685 and 'Abd al-Malik's accession as caliph was peacefully managed by the Yamani nobles. He was proclaimed caliph in Jerusalem.
At the time of his accession, critical posts were held by members of 'Abd al-Malik's family. His brother, Muhammad, was charged with suppressing the Qaysi tribes, while 'Abd al-Aziz maintained peace and stability as governor of Egypt until his death in 705. During the early years of his reign, 'Abd al-Malik heavily relied on the Yamani nobles of Syria, including Ibn Bahdal al-Kalbi and Rawh ibn Zinba al-Judhami, who played key roles in his administration; the latter served as the equivalent to the chief minister or wazir of the later Abbasid caliphs. Furthermore, a Yamani always headed 'Abd al-Malik's shurta -- his elite security retinue. The first to hold the post was Yazid ibn Abi Kabsha al-Saksaki and he was followed by another Yamani, Ka'b ibn Hamid al-Ansi. The caliph's haras (personal guard) was typically led by a mawla -- a non-Arab Muslim freedman -- and staffed by mawali.
Though Umayyad rule had been restored in Syria and Egypt, 'Abd al-Malik faced several challenges to his authority. Most provinces of the Caliphate continued to recognize Ibn al-Zubayr, while the Qaysi tribes regrouped under Zufar ibn al-Harith al-Kilabi and resisted Umayyad rule in the Jazira from al-Qarqisiya, a Euphrates river fortress strategically located at the crossroads of Syria and Iraq.
Re-establishing Umayyad rule across the Caliphate was the major priority of 'Abd al-Malik. His initial focus was the reconquest of Iraq, the Caliphate's wealthiest province. Iraq was also home to a large population of Arab tribesmen, the group from which the Caliphate derived the bulk of its troops. In contrast, Egypt, which provided significant income to the treasury, possessed a small Arab community and was thus a meager source of troops. The demand for soldiers was pressing for the Umayyads as the backbone of their military, the Syrian army, remained fractured along Yamani and Qaysi lines. Though the roughly 6,000 Yamani soldiers of 'Abd al-Malik's predecessor were able to consolidate the Umayyad position in Syria, they were too few to reassert authority throughout the Caliphate. Ibn Ziyad, a key figure in the establishment of Marwanid power, set about enlarging the army by recruiting widely among the Arab tribes, including those which nominally belonged to the Qays faction.
Ibn Ziyad had been tasked by 'Abd al-Malik's father with the reconquest of Iraq. At the time, Iraq and its dependencies were split between the pro-Alid forces of al-Mukhtar al-Thaqafi in Kufa and the forces of Ibn al-Zubayr's brother Mus'ab in Basra. In August 686, Ibn Ziyad's 60,000-strong army was routed at the Battle of Khazir and Ibn Ziyad was slain, alongside most of his deputy commanders, at the hands of al-Mukhtar's much smaller pro-Alid force led by Ibrahim ibn al-Ashtar. The decisive defeat and the loss of Ibn Ziyad represented a major setback to 'Abd al-Malik's ambitions in Iraq. He refrained from further major campaigns in the province for the next five years, during which Mus'ab defeated and killed al-Mukhtar and his supporters and became Iraq's sole ruler.
'Abd al-Malik shifted his focus to consolidating control of Syria. His efforts in Iraq had been undermined by the Qaysi–Yamani schism when a Qaysi general in Ibn Ziyad's army, Umayr ibn al-Hubab al-Sulami, defected with his men mid-battle to join Zufar's rebellion. Umayr's subsequent campaign against the large Christian Banu Taghlib tribe in the Jazira sparked a series of tit-for-tat raids and further deepened Arab tribal divisions, the previously neutral Taghlib throwing in its lot with the Yaman and the Umayyads. The Taghlib killed Umayr in 689 and delivered his head to 'Abd al-Malik.
Along Syria's northern frontier, the Byzantines had been on the offensive since the failure of the First Arab Siege of Constantinople in 678. In 679, a thirty-year peace treaty was concluded, obliging the Umayyads to pay an annual tribute of 3,000 gold coins, 50 horses and 50 slaves, and withdraw their troops from the forward bases they had occupied on the Byzantine coast. The outbreak of the Muslim civil war allowed the Byzantine emperor Constantine IV (r. 668–685) to extort territorial concessions and enormous tribute from the Umayyads. In 685, the emperor led his army to Mopsuestia in Cilicia, and prepared to cross the border into Syria, where the Mardaites, an indigenous Christian group, were already causing considerable trouble. With his own position insecure, 'Abd al-Malik concluded a treaty whereby he would pay a tribute of 1,000 gold coins, a horse and a slave for every day of the year.
Under Justinian II (r. 685–695, 705–711), the Byzantines became more aggressive, though it is unclear whether they intervened directly as reported by the 9th-century Muslim historian al-Baladhuri or used the Mardaites to mount pressure on the Muslims. Mardaite depredations extended throughout Syria, as far south as Mount Lebanon and the Galilee uplands. These raids culminated with the short-lived Byzantine recapture of Antioch in 688. The setbacks in Iraq had weakened the Umayyads, and when a new treaty was concluded in 689, it greatly favored the Byzantines. The treaty repeated the tribute obligations of 685, but now Byzantium and the Umayyads established a condominium over Cyprus, Armenia and Caucasian Iberia (modern Georgia), the revenue from which was to be shared between the two states. In exchange, Byzantium undertook to resettle the Mardaites in its own territory. The 12th-century Syriac chronicler Michael the Syrian, however, mentions that Armenia and Adharbayjan (Azerbaijan) were to come under full Byzantine control. In reality, as the latter regions were not held by the Umayyads at this point, the agreement probably indicates a carte blanche -- a blank check -- by 'Abd al-Malik to the Byzantines to proceed against Zubayrid forces there. This arrangement suited both sides: 'Abd al-Malik weakened his opponent's forces and secured his northern frontier, and the Byzantines gained territory and reduced the power of the side that was apparently winning the Muslim civil war. About 12,000 Mardaites were indeed resettled in Byzantium, but many remained behind, only submitting to the Umayyads in the reign of al-Walid I (r. 705–715). Their presence disrupted Umayyad supply lines and obliged them to permanently keep troops on standby to guard against their raids.
The Byzantine counteroffensive represented the first challenge against a Muslim power by a people defeated in the early Muslim conquests. Moreover, the Mardaite raids demonstrated to 'Abd al-Malik and his successors that the state could no longer depend on the quiescence of Syria's Christian majority, which until then had largely refrained from rebellion. The treaty of 689 was an onerous and completely humiliating pact and 'Abd al-Malik's ability to pay the annual tribute in addition to financing his own wartime army relied on treasury funds accrued during the campaigns of his Sufyanid predecessors and revenues from Egypt.
In 689/90, 'Abd al-Malik used the respite from the truce to initiate a campaign against the Zubayrids of Iraq, but was forced to return to Damascus when al-Ashdaq and his loyalists abandoned the army's camp and seized control of the city. Al-Ashdaq viewed 'Abd al-Malik's accession as a violation of the caliphal succession agreement reached in Jabiya. 'Abd al-Malik besieged his kinsman for sixteen days and promised him safety and significant political concessions if he relinquished the city. Though al-Ashdaq agreed to the terms and surrendered, 'Abd al-Malik remained distrustful of the former's ambitions and executed him personally.
Zufar's control of al-Qarqisiya, despite earlier attempts to dislodge him by Ibn Ziyad in 685/86 and the caliph's governor in Homs, Aban ibn al-Walid ibn Uqba, in 689/90, remained an obstacle to the caliph's ambitions in Iraq. In revenge for Umayr's slaying, Zufar had intensified his raids and inflicted heavy casualties on the caliph's tribal allies in the Jazira. 'Abd al-Malik resolved to command the siege of al-Qarqisiya in person in the summer of 691, and ultimately secured the defection of Zufar and the pro-Zubayrid Qays in return for privileged positions in the Umayyad court and army. The integration of the Qaysi rebels strongly reinforced the Syrian army, and Umayyad authority was restored in the Jazira. From then onward, 'Abd al-Malik and his immediate successors attempted to balance the interests of the Qays and Yaman in the Umayyad court and army. This represented a break from the preceding seven years, during which the Yaman, and particularly the Kalb, were the dominant force of the army.
With threats in Syria and the Jazira neutralized, 'Abd al-Malik was free to focus on the reconquest of Iraq. While Mus'ab had been bogged down fighting Kharijite rebels and contending with disaffected Arab tribesmen in Basra and Kufa, 'Abd al-Malik was secretly contacting and winning over these same Arab nobles. Thus, by the time 'Abd al-Malik led the Syrian army into Iraq in 691, the struggle to recapture the province was virtually complete. Command of the army was held by members of his family, his brother Muhammad leading the vanguard and Yazid I's sons Khalid and 'Abd Allah leading the right and left wings, respectively. Many Syrian nobles held reservations about the campaign and counseled 'Abd al-Malik not to participate in person. Nonetheless, the caliph was at the head of the army when it camped opposite Mus'ab's forces at Maskin, along the Dujayl Canal. In the ensuing Battle of Maskin, most of Mus'ab's forces, many of whom were resentful at the heavy toll he had exacted on al-Mukhtar's Kufan partisans, refused to fight and his leading commander, Ibn al-Ashtar, fell at the beginning of hostilities. 'Abd al-Malik invited Mus'ab to surrender in return for the governorship of Iraq or any other province of his choice, but Mus'ab refused and was subsequently killed in action.
Following his victory, 'Abd al-Malik received the allegiance of Kufa's nobility and appointed governors to the Caliphate's eastern provinces. Afterward, he dispatched a 2,000-strong Syrian contingent to subdue Ibn al-Zubayr in the Hejaz. The commander of the expedition, al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, had risen through the ranks and would become a highly competent and efficient supporter of the caliph.
Al-Hajjaj remained encamped for several months in Ta'if, east of Mecca, and fought numerous skirmishes with Zubayrid loyalists in the plain of Arafat. 'Abd al-Malik sent al-Hajjaj reinforcements led by his mawla, Tariq ibn Amr, who had earlier captured Medina from its Zubayrid governor. In March 692, al-Hajjaj besieged Ibn al-Zubayr in Mecca and bombarded the Ka'aba, the holiest sanctuary in Islam, with catapults. Though 10,000 of Ibn al-Zubayr's supporters, including his sons, eventually surrendered and received pardons, Ibn al-Zubayr and a core of his loyalists held out in the Ka'aba and were killed by al-Hajjaj's troops in September or October. Ibn al-Zubayr's death marked the end of the civil war and the reunification of the Caliphate under 'Abd al-Malik.
After his victory, 'Abd al-Malik aimed to reconcile with the Hejazi elite, including the Zubayrids and the Alids, the Umayyads' rivals within the Quraysh. 'Abd al-Malik relied on the Banu Makhzum, another Qurayshite clan, as his intermediaries in view of the Umayyad family's absence in the region due to their exile in 683. Nevertheless, 'Abd al-Malik remained wary of the Hejazi elite's ambitions and kept a vigilant eye on them through his various governors in Medina. The first of these was al-Hajjaj, who was also appointed governor of Yemen and the Yamama (central Arabia) and led the Hajj pilgrim caravans of 693 and 694. Though he maintained peace in the Hejaz, the harshness of his rule led to numerous complaints from its residents and may have played a role in his transfer from the post by Abd al-Malik. A member of the Makhzum and 'Abd al-Malik's father-in-law, Hisham ibn Isma'il, was ultimately appointed. During Hisham's tenure from 701 to 706, Hisham was known for brutalizing Medina's townspeople.
Despite his victory, the control and governance of Iraq, a politically turbulent province from the time of the Muslim conquest in the 630s, continued to pose a major challenge for 'Abd al-Malik. He had withdrawn the Syrian army and entrusted to the Iraqis the defense of Basra from the Kharijite threat. Most Iraqis had become weary of the conflict with the Kharijites, which had brought them little but hardship and loss. Those from Kufa, in particular, had grown accustomed to the wealth and comfort of their lives at home and their reluctance to undertake lengthy campaigns far from their families was an issue that previous rulers of Iraq had consistently encountered. Initially, the caliph appointed his brother, Bishr, governor of Kufa and another kinsman, Khalid ibn Abdallah, to Basra before the latter too was put under Bishr's jurisdiction. Neither governor was up to the task, but the Iraqis eventually defeated the Najdiyya Kharijites in the Yamama in 692/93. The Azariqa Kharijites in Persia were more difficult to rein in, and following Bishr's death in 694, the Iraqi troops deserted the field against them at Ramhormoz.
'Abd al-Malik's attempt at family rule in Iraq had proven unsuccessful, and he installed al-Hajjaj in the post instead in 694. Kufa and Basra were combined into a single province under al-Hajjaj, who, from the start of his rule, displayed a strong commitment to governing Iraq effectively. Against the Azariqa, al-Hajjaj backed al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra al-Azdi, a Zubayrid holdover with long experience combating the Kharijite rebels. Al-Muhallab finally defeated the Azariqa in 697. Concurrently, a Kharijite revolt led by Shabib ibn Yazid al-Shaybani flared up in the heart of Iraq, resulting in the rebel takeover of al-Mada'in and siege of Kufa. Al-Hajjaj responded to the unwillingness or inability of the war-weary Iraqis to face the Kharijites by obtaining from 'Abd al-Malik Syrian reinforcements led by Sufyan ibn al-Abrad al-Kalbi. A more disciplined force, the Syrians repelled the rebel attack on Kufa and killed Shabib in early 697. By 698, the Kharijite revolts had been stamped out. 'Abd al-Malik attached to Iraq Sistan and Khurasan, thus making al-Hajjaj responsible for a super-province encompassing the eastern half of the Caliphate. Al-Hajjaj made al-Muhallab deputy governor of Khurasan, a post he held until his death in 702, after which it was bequeathed to his son Yazid. During his term, al-Muhallab recommenced the Muslim conquests in Central Asia, though the campaign reaped few territorial gains during 'Abd al-Malik's reign.
Upon becoming governor, al-Hajjaj immediately threatened with death any Iraqi who refused to participate in the war efforts against the Kharijites. In an effort to reduce expenditure, he had lowered the Iraqis' pay to less than that of their Syrian counterparts in the province. By his measures, al-Hajjaj appeared almost to have goaded the Iraqis into rebellion, as if looking for an excuse to break them. Indeed, conflict with the muqatila (Arab tribal forces who formed Iraq's garrisons) came to a head beginning in 699 when al-Hajjaj ordered Ibn al-Ash'ath to lead an expedition against Zabulistan. Ibn al-Ash'ath and his commanders were wealthy and leading noblemen and bristled at al-Hajjaj's frequent rebukes and demands and the difficulties of the campaign. In response, Ibn al-Ash'ath and his army revolted in Sistan, marched back and defeated al-Hajjaj's loyalists in Tustar in 701, and entered Kufa soon after. Al-Hajjaj held out in Basra with his Banu Thaqif kinsmen and Syrian loyalists, who were numerically insufficient to counter the unified Iraqi front led by Ibn al-Ash'ath. Alarmed at events, 'Abd al-Malik offered the Iraqis a pay raise equal to the Syrians and the replacement of al-Hajjaj with Ibn al-Ash'ath. Due to his supporters' rejection of the terms, Ibn al-Ash'ath refused the offer, and al-Hajjaj took the initiative, routing Ibn al-Ash'ath's forces at the Battle of Dayr al-Jamajim in April. Many of the Iraqis had defected after promises of amnesty if they disarmed, while Ibn al-Ash'ath and his core supporters fled to Zabulistan, where they were dispersed in 702.
The suppression of the revolt marked the end of the Iraqi muqatila as a military force and the beginning of Syrian military domination of Iraq. Iraqi internal divisions, and the utilization of disciplined Syrian forces by 'Abd al-Malik and al-Hajjaj, voided the Iraqis' attempt to reassert power in the province. Determined to prevent further rebellions, al-Hajjaj founded a permanent Syrian garrison in Wasit, situated between the long-established Iraqi garrisons of Kufa and Basra, and instituted a more rigorous administration in the province. Power thereafter derived from the Syrian troops, who became Iraq's ruling class, while Iraq's Arab nobility, religious scholars and mawali were their virtual subjects. Furthermore, the surplus taxes from the agriculturally rich Sawad lands were redirected from the muqatila to 'Abd al-Malik's treasury in Damascus to pay the Syrian troops in the province. This reflected a wider campaign by the caliph to institute greater control over the Caliphate.
The Umayyads decisively defeated the Byzantines at the Battle of Sebastopolis in 692 and parried a Byzantine counter-attack in 693/94 in the direction of Antioch. Over the following years, the Umayyads launched constant raids against the Byzantine territories in Anatolia and Armenia, led by the caliph's brother Muhammad, and his sons al-Walid, 'Abd Allah, and Maslama, laying the foundation for further conquests in these areas under Abd al-Malik's successors, which would culminate in the Second Arab Siege of Constantinople in 717–718. The military defeats inflicted on Justinian II contributed to the downfall of the emperor and his Heraclian dynasty in 695, ushering in a 22-year period of instability, in which the Byzantine throne changed hands seven times in violent revolutions, further aiding the Arab advance.
In 698/99, Emperor Tiberios III (r. 698-705) secured a treaty with the caliph for the return of the Cypriots, both those moved by Justinian II, as well as those subsequently deported by the Arabs to Syria, to their island. Beginning in 700, 'Abd al-Malik's brother Muhammad subdued Armenia in a series of campaigns. The Armenians rebelled in 703 and received Byzantine aid, but Muhammad defeated them and sealed the failure of the revolt by executing the rebel princes in 705. As a result, Armenia was annexed into the Caliphate along with the principalities of Caucasian Albania and (Caucasian) Iberia as the province of Arminiya (Greater Armenia).
Meanwhile, in North Africa, a Byzantine–Berber alliance had reconquered Ifriqiya and slain its governor, Uqba ibn Nafi, in the Battle of Vescera in 682. 'Abd al-Malik charged Uqba's deputy, Zuhayr ibn Qays, to reassert the Arab position in 688, but after initial gains, including the slaying of the Berber ruler Kasila at the Battle of Mams, Zuhayr was driven back to Barqa (Cyrenaica) by Kasila's partisans and slain by Byzantine naval raiders. In 695, 'Abd al-Malik dispatched Hassan ibn al-Nu'man with a 40,000-strong army to retake Ifriqiya. Hassan captured Byzantine-held Kairouan, Carthage and Bizerte. With the aid of naval reinforcements sent by Emperor Leontios (r. 695-698), the Byzantines recaptured Carthage by 696/97. After the Byzantines were repelled, Carthage was captured and destroyed by Hassan in 698, signaling the final end of Roman power in Africa. Kairouan was firmly secured as a launchpad for later conquests, while the port town of Tunis was founded and equipped with an arsenal on the orders of 'Abd al-Malik, who was intent on establishing a strong Arab fleet. Hassan continued his campaign against the Berbers, defeating them and killing their leader, the warrior queen al-Kahina, between 698 and 703. Afterward, Hassan was dismissed by 'Abd al-Aziz, and replaced by Musa ibn Nusayr, who went on to lead the Umayyad conquests of western North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula during the reign of al-Walid.
The last years of 'Abd al-Malik's reign were generally domestically peaceful domestically enabling a consolidation of power. The blood feuds between the Qays and Yaman, which persisted despite the former's reconciliation with the Umayyads in 691, had dissipated toward the end of his rule. 'Abd al-Malik's success was achieved by harnessing tribal feeling to the interests of the government, while at the same time suppressing its violent manifestations.
The remaining principal issue faced by the caliph was ensuring the succession of his eldest son, al-Walid, in place of the designated successor, 'Abd al-Aziz. The latter consistently refused 'Abd al-Malik's entreaties to step down from the line of succession, but potential conflict was avoided when 'Abd al-Aziz died in May 705. He was promptly replaced as governor of Egypt by the caliph's son 'Abd Allah. 'Abd al-Malik died five months later on October 9, 705. The cause of his death was attributed by the historian al-Asma'i (d. 828) to the "Plague of the Maidens", so-called because it originated with the young women of Basra before spreading across Iraq and Syria. He was buried outside of the Bab al-Jabiya gate of Damascus.
After his victory in the civil war, 'Abd al-Malik embarked on a far-reaching campaign to consolidate Umayyad rule over the Caliphate. The collapse of Umayyad authority precipitated by Mu'awiya I's death made it apparent to 'Abd al-Malik that the decentralized Sufyanid system was unsustainable. Moreover, despite the defeat of his Muslim rivals, his dynasty remained domestically and externally insecure, prompting a need to legitimize its existence. 'Abd al-Malik's solution to the fractious tribalism which defined his predecessors' caliphate was to centralize power. At the same time, his response to the Byzantine–Christian resurgence and the criticism of Muslim religious circles, which dated from the beginning of Umayyad rule and culminated with the outbreak of the civil war, was to implement Islamization measures. The centralized administration he established became the prototype of later medieval Muslim states. Indeed, 'Abd al-Malik's centralized, bureaucratic empire was in many ways an impressive achievement, but the political, economic and social divisions that developed within the Islamic community during his reign would prove something of a difficult inheritance for the later Umayyads.
Government under 'Abd al-Malik became more technical and hierarchical, although not nearly to the extent of the later Abbasid caliphs. As opposed to the freewheeling governing style of the Sufyanids, 'Abd al-Malik ruled strictly over his officials and kept interactions with them largely formal. He put an end to the provinces' retention of the lion's share of surplus tax revenues, as had been the case under the Sufyanids, and had them redirected to the caliphal treasury in Damascus. He supported al-Hajjaj's policy of collecting the poll tax, traditionally imposed on the Caliphate's non-Muslim subjects, from the mawali of Iraq and instructed 'Abd al-Aziz to implement this measure in Egypt, though the latter allegedly disregarded the order. 'Abd al-Malik may have inaugurated several high-ranking offices, and Muslim tradition generally credits him with the organization of the barid (the postal service), whose principal purpose was to efficiently inform the caliph of developments outside of Damascus. He built and repaired roads that connected Damascus with Palestine and linked Jerusalem to its eastern and western hinterlands, as evidenced by seven milestones found throughout the region, the oldest of which dates to May 692 and the latest to September 704. The road project formed part of 'Abd al-Malik's centralization drive, special attention being paid to Palestine due to its critical position as a transit zone between Syria and Egypt and Jerusalem's religious centrality to the caliph.
Shortly after the overhaul of the Caliphate's currency, in circa 700, 'Abd al-Malik is generally credited with the replacement of Greek with Arabic as the language of the diwan in Syria. The transition was carried out by his scribe Sulayman ibn Sa'd. Al-Hajjaj had initiated the Arabization of the Persian diwan in Iraq, three years before. Though the official language was changed, Greek and Persian-speaking bureaucrats who were versed in Arabic kept their posts. The Arabization of the bureaucracy and currency was the most consequential administrative reform undertaken by the caliph. Arabic ultimately became the sole official language of the Umayyad state, but the transition in faraway provinces, such as Khurasan, did not occur until the 740s. 'Abd al-Malik's decree was the first step towards the reorganization and unification of the diverse tax-systems in the provinces, and also a step towards a more definitively Muslim administration. Indeed, it formed an important part of the Islamization measures that lent the Umayyad Caliphate a more ideological and programmatic coloring it had previously lacked. In tandem, 'Abd al-Malik began the export of papyri containing the Muslim statement of belief in Greek to spread Islamic teachings in the Byzantine realm. This was a further testament to the ideological expansion of the Byzantine-Muslim struggle.
The increasingly Muslim character of the state under 'Abd al-Malik was partly a reflection of Islam's influence in the lives of the caliph and the chief enforcer of his policies, al-Hajjaj, both of whom belonged to the first generation of rulers born and raised as Muslims. Having spent most of their lives in the Hejaz, the theological and legal center of Islam where Arabic was spoken exclusively and administrative offices were held solely by Arab Muslims. 'Abd al-Malik and his viceroy only understood Arabic and were unfamiliar with the Syrian and Greek Christian and Persian Zoroastrian officials of the diwan. They stood in stark contrast to the Sufyanid caliphs and their governors in Iraq, who had entered these regions as youths and whose children were as acquainted with the native majority as with the Arab Muslim newcomers. 'Abd al-Malik was careful not to offend his pious subjects in the careless fashion of [Caliph] Yazid, but from the time of his accession he subordinated everything to policy, and even exposed the Ka'ba to the danger of destruction, despite the piety of his upbringing and early career.
'Abd al-Malik shifted away from his predecessors' use of Arab tribal masses in favor of an organized army. Likewise, Arab noblemen who had derived their power solely through their tribal standing and personal relations with a caliph were gradually replaced with military men who had risen through the ranks. These developments have been partially obscured by the medieval sources due to their continued usage of Arab tribal terminology when referencing the army, such as the names of the tribal confederations Mudar, Rabi'a, Qays and Yaman. However, these do not represent the tribes in arms utilized by earlier caliphs. Instead, they denote army factions whose membership was often (but not exclusively) determined by tribal origin. 'Abd al-Malik also established a Berber-dominated private militia called al-Waddahiya after their original commander, the caliph's mawla al-Waddah, which helped enforce the authority of Umayyad caliphs through the reign of Marwan II.
Under 'Abd al-Malik, loyalist Syrian troops began to be deployed throughout the Caliphate to keep order, which came largely at the expense of the tribal nobility of Iraq. The latter's revolt under Ibn al-Ash'ath demonstrated to 'Abd al-Malik the unreliability of the Iraqi muqatila in securing the central government's interests in the province and its eastern dependencies. It was following the revolt's suppression that the military became primarily composed of the Syrian army. Consecrating this transformation was a fundamental change to the system of military pay, whereby salaries were restricted to those in active service. This marked an end to the system established by Caliph Umar (r. 634–644), which paid stipends to veterans of the earlier Muslim conquests and their descendants. While the Iraqi tribal nobility viewed the stipends as their traditional right, al-Hajjaj viewed them as a handicap restricting his and 'Abd al-Malik's executive authority and financial ability to reward loyalists in the army. Stipends were similarly stopped to the inhabitants of the Hejaz, including the Quraysh. Thus, a professional army was established during 'Abd al-Malik's reign whose salaries were derived from tax proceeds. The dependence on the Syrian army of his successors, especially Hisham (r. 724–743), scattered the army among the Caliphate's multiple and isolated war fronts, most of them distant from Syria. The growing strain and heavy losses inflicted on the Syrians by the Caliphate's external enemies and increasing factional divisions within the army contributed to the weakening and downfall of Umayyad rule in 750.
In 685/86 or 688, 'Abd al-Malik began planning the construction of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. Its dedication inscription mentions the year 691/92, which most scholars agree is the completion date of the building. It is the earliest archaeologically attested religious structure to be built by a Muslim ruler and the building's inscriptions contain the earliest epigraphic proclamations of Islam and of Muhammad. The inscriptions proved to be a milestone, as afterward they became a common feature in Islamic structures and almost always mention Muhammad. The Dome of the Rock remains a unique monument of Islamic culture and is a work of art.
Narratives by the medieval sources about 'Abd al-Malik's motivations in building the Dome of the Rock vary. At the time of its construction, the caliph was engaged in war with Christian Byzantium and its Syrian Christian allies on the one hand and with the rival caliph Ibn al-Zubayr, who controlled Mecca, the annual destination of Muslim pilgrimage, on the other hand. Thus, one series of explanations was that 'Abd al-Malik intended for the Dome of the Rock to be a religious monument of victory over the Christians that would distinguish Islam's uniqueness within the common Abrahamic religious setting of Jerusalem, home of the two older Abrahamic faiths, Judaism and Christianity. The other main explanation holds that 'Abd al-Malik, in the heat of the war with Ibn al-Zubayr, sought to build the structure to divert the focus of the Muslims in his realm from the Ka'aba in Mecca, where Ibn al-Zubayr would publicly condemn the Umayyads during the annual pilgrimage to the sanctuary. Though most modern historians dismiss the latter account as a product of anti-Umayyad propaganda in the traditional Muslim sources and doubt that 'Abd al-Malik would attempt to alter the sacred Muslim requirement of fulfilling the pilgrimage to the Ka'aba, other historians concede this cannot be conclusively dismissed. A last explanation has been to interpret the creation of the Haram al-Sharif complex as a monumental profession of faith, intended to proclaim the role of intercessor that Muhammad was supposed to play on the day of the resurrection. The site was presented as the scene of the Last Judgment. The Dome of the Chain featured the divine courthouse, before which the deceased would appear before entering Heaven, represented by the Dome of the Rock.
While his sons commissioned numerous architectural works, 'Abd al-Malik's known building activities were limited to Jerusalem. As well as the Dome of the Rock, he is credited with constructing the adjacent Dome of the Chain, expanding the boundaries of the Temple Mount (Haram al-Sharif) to include the Foundation Stone around which the Dome of the Rock was built and building two gates of the Temple Mount (possibly the Mercy Gate and the Prophet's Gate). Theophanes, possibly conserving an original Syro-Palestinian Melkite source, reports that 'Abd al-Malik sought to remove some columns from a Christian shrine at Gethsemane to rebuild the Ka'aba, but he was dissuaded by his Christian treasurer, Sarjun ibn Mansur (the father of John of Damascus), and another leading Christian, called Patrikios, from Palestine, who successfully petitioned Emperor Justinian II to supply other columns instead.
'Abd al-Malik had children with several wives and ummahat awlad (slave concubines; singular: umm walad). He was married to Wallada bint al-Abbas ibn al-Jaz, a fourth-generation descendant Zuhayr ibn Jadhima. She bore 'Abd al-Malik the sons al-Walid I, Sulayman, Marwan al-Akbar and a daughter, A'isha. From Caliph Yazid I's daughter Atika, he had his sons Yazid II, Marwan al-Asghar, Mu'awiya and a daughter, Umm Kulthum. His wife A'isha bint Hisham ibn Isma'il, whom he divorced, belonged to the Makhzum clan and mothered 'Abd al-Malik's son Hisham. He had a second wife from the Makhzum, Umm al-Mughira bint al-Mughira ibn Khalid, a great-granddaughter of the pre-Islamic leader of the Quraysh, Hisham ibn al-Mughira. From this marriage, Abd al-Malik had his daughter Fatima, who was wed to Umar II.
From his marriage to Umm Ayyub bint Amr, a granddaughter of Caliph Uthman, 'Abd al-Malik had his son al-Hakam. 'Abd al-Malik also married A'isha bint Musa, a granddaughter of one of Muhammad's leading companions, Talha ibn Ubayd Allah, and together they had a son, Bakkar, who was also known as Abu Bakr. 'Abd al-Malik married and divorced during his caliphate Umm Abiha, a granddaughter of Ja'far ibn Abi Talib, and Shaqra bint Salama ibn Halbas, a woman of the Banu Tayy. 'Abd al-Malik's sons from his ummahat awlad were 'Abd Allah, Maslama, Sa'id al-Khayr, al-Mundhir, Anbasa, Muhammad and al-Hajjaj, the last named after the caliph's viceroy. At the time of his death, fourteen of 'Abd al-Malik's sons had survived him, according to al-Yaqubi.
'Abd al-Malik divided his time between Damascus and seasonal residences in its general vicinity. He spent the winter mostly in Damascus and Sinnabra near Lake Tiberias, then to Jabiya in the Golan Heights and Dayr Murran, a monastery village on the slopes of Mount Qasyoun overlooking the Ghouta orchards of Damascus. He would typically return to the city in March and leave again in the heat of summer to Baalbek in the Beqaa Valley before heading back to Damascus in early autumn. His Damascus residence was the Khadra Palace commissioned by Mu'awiya I and purchased by 'Abd al-Malik from Khalid ibn Yazid at the beginning of his reign.
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ʿAbd al-Malik, in full ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān, (b. 646/647, Medina, Arabia — d. October 705, Damascus), was the fifth caliph (r. 685–705 CE) of the Umayyad Arab dynasty which was centered in Damascus during his reign. He reorganized and strengthened governmental administration and, throughout the empire, adopted Arabic as the language of administration.
ʿAbd al-Malik spent the first half of his life with his father, Marwan ibn al-Ḥakam, fourth Umayyad caliph (r. 684–685), in Medina, where he received religious instruction and developed friendly relations with the pious circles of that city that were to stand him in good stead in his later life. At the age of 16, he was entrusted by his kinsman, the caliph Mu'awiyah (r. 661–680), with administrative responsibilities. He remained at Medina until 683, when he and his father were driven out of the city by Medinese rebels in revolt against the central government in Damascus. He then met the Syrian Umayyad army that was marching on Medina and gave its commander advice about the best means of attacking the city, advice that was followed and proved successful. When the Umayyad caliph Yazid (r. 680–683) died in November 683, Marwan was proclaimed caliph in 684 and was able to effect a partial rally of Umayyad rule but at the cost of a bitter feud that arose between northern and southern Arab tribes. When Marwan died in 685 and ʿAbd al-Malik succeeded to the caliphate, the forces opposing the Umayyads were still formidable.
There were, first, the northern Arab tribes who, under their leader Zufar, were holding out in northern Syria and Iraq. They were finally pacified only in 691. The second focus of resistance was in Iraq, where three main groups, opposed to each other but united in their resistance to the Umayyads, held sway: the Kharijites, the Shiʿah, and the forces of the anti-caliph ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, who was proclaimed caliph in Mecca in 685 and had received at least nominal allegiance from many provinces. The initial attempts by the former Umayyad governor of Iraq, ʿUbayd Allah ibn Ziyad, to regain the province failed, and he was killed by the Shiʿah in 686. For three years, ʿAbd al-Malik made no further attempt to interfere in Iraq but bided his time as the various groups in Iraq exhausted themselves in internecine warfare. Musʿab, the brother of the anti-caliph Ibn al-Zubayr, defeated the Shiʿah in 687 but then had to deal with the Kharijites, committing a large part of his forces.
ʿAbd al-Malik first took the field against Musʿab in 689 but had to turn back to quell a rebellion in Damascus. In the following year, the campaign again proved fruitless. Only after the defeat of the northern Arab tribes in 691 was ʿAbd al-Malik finally able to face Musʿab. The decisive battle took place at Dayr al-Jathaliq. The forces of Musʿab were weakened by their wars against the Kharijites, and ʿAbd al-Malik bribed many of them to desert Musʿab, who was then killed in battle. The whole of Iraq now fell into the hands of 'Abd al-Malik, and the only remaining center of opposition was the now aging anti-caliph, Ibn al-Zubayr. ʿAbd al-Malik publicly chided him for his temerity and then sent his famous governor al-Hajjaj to Arabia. Al-Ḥajjaj besieged Ibn al-Zubayr in Mecca and killed Ibn al-Zubayr in September 692. The Muslim community was finally unified.
At first, the re-establishment of Umayyad rule was more apparent than real. The Kharijites were still either restless or in open revolt. The Kharijites in Persia were especially dangerous. It was only after ʿAbd al-Malik had appointed al-Ḥajjaj to govern Basra that campaigns against them began to prove successful (the Persian Kharijites were finally wiped out in 697). But north of Kufah, another Kharijite trouble center developed. In 695, these Kharijites captured Mosul and occupied large areas of central Iraq. Al-Ḥajjaj, leading his Syrian troops, defeated them too in 697. The Kharijite movement, however, remained strong, especially among the Bakr tribes between Mosul and Kufah.
Al-Ḥajjaj had now become governor of all the eastern provinces. He was a ruthless and efficient administrator, intent upon pacifying all the provinces entrusted to him by ʿAbd al-Malik. A great Muslim army, led by an Arab aristocrat, Ibn al-Ash'ath, and operating in the Afghanistan region, mutinied, swore allegiance to its commander, and turned back to Iraq. Al-Ḥajjaj, with the aid of Syrian reinforcements, was able to defeat the rebels, and their leader was murdered in 704 in Afghanistan. Al-Ḥajjaj, realizing that he could no longer trust the Iraqis, built a new city, Wasit, which he planned as a garrison city for Syrian troops and as his private residence. Thereafter, he ruled Iraq as enemy territory.
Under ʿAbd al-Malik, the conquest of North Africa was resumed in 688 or 689. There the Arabs were opposed by both the Berbers and the Byzantines. The governor appointed by ʿAbd al-Malik succeeded in winning the Berbers over to his side and then captured Carthage, seat of the Byzantine province, in 697. Other coastal cities fell, and the work of pacification and Islamization continued apace. ʿAbd al-Malik also resumed campaigns against the Byzantines in Anatolia in 692, but no permanent conquest ensued. These campaigns were partly designed to keep the Syrian troops fit.
In general, Umayyad rule was greatly strengthened by ʿAbd al-Malik, who enjoyed good relations with the Medinese religious circles, an element with considerable influence in the Islamic world. ʿAbd al-Malik was more pious than any of his Umayyad predecessors. His long sojourn in Medina had enabled him to know the sentiments of Medinese religious scholars. As caliph, he treated them respectfully, and his private life was close to their ideals. As a result, many Medinese were to abandon their earlier opposition to Umayyad rule because of 'Abd al-Malik.
ʿAbd al-Malik adopted Arabic instead of the local languages as the language of administration. Government officials had been mostly non-Muslim, but the measures of ʿAbd al-Malik enabled Arab Muslims to more easily control affairs of government. A new Muslim currency was also struck, modeled on Greek and Persian coinage but with Muslim inscriptions. A wave of Islamization set in, but the privileged position of the Arabs was maintained. In fact, the problem of non-Arab Muslims -- the mawali -- grew more acute and was to become one of the main threats to Umayyad rule in later years.
The Umayyads lived in Damascus and surrounded the caliph. Many of them were appointed as governors, but many were also recalled for inefficiency. ʿAbd al-Malik enjoyed the support of his clan, but he was more autocratic than Muʿawiyah, the first Umayyad caliph, with whom he is often compared. He abandoned the policy of consulting with a council of advisers and reserved all major decisions for himself. Despite his religious interests and ideals as evidenced by his construction of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, 'Abd al-Malik was also a master politician. In Syria, he succeeded in placating the northern Arab tribes, to the chagrin of the southern Arabs.
ʿAbd al-Malik was a shrewd judge of character. His choice of al-Hajjaj as viceroy of the East was a wise one, and he supported his lieutenant loyally. In appearance he was dark and thickset and had a long beard. He was nicknamed “Dew of the Stone” for his miserliness. The sources describe him as eloquent in his speech and a lover of poetry. He maintained his calm during periods of crisis and was decisive in his opinions but was capable of great cruelty if necessary. He pursued his enemies relentlessly and closely supervised all affairs of state.
Shortly before his death the question of succession became acute. His brother, ʿAbd al-ʿAziz, governor of Egypt, had been designated by their father to succeed ʿAbd al-Malik. Against the advice of his courtiers, ʿAbd al-Malik had begun to take steps to exclude his brother from succession in favor of his own children. He had tried to pressure ʿAbd al-ʿAziz to renounce his claims but without success. Luckily for ʿAbd al-Malik, ʿAbd al-ʿAziz died in May 705. ʿAbd al-Malik now felt free to name three of his own children to succeed him, al-Walid, Sulayman, and Yazid. ʿAbd al-Malik died in Damascus shortly thereafter and was succeeded without difficulty by his eldest son, al-Walid.
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The Dome of the Rock (Arabic: Qubbat as-Sakhra) is an Islamic shrine located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, a site also known to Muslims as the al-Haram al-Sharif or the Al-Aqsa Compound. Its initial construction was undertaken by the Umayyad Caliphate on the orders of 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan during the Second Fitna in 691–692 CC, and it has since been situated on top of the site of the Second Jewish Temple (built in c. 516 BCT to replace the destroyed Solomon's Temple), which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CC. The original dome collapsed in 1015 and was rebuilt in 1022–23. The Dome of the Rock is the world's oldest surviving work of Islamic architecture.
The architecture and mosaics of the Dome of the Rock were patterned after nearby Byzantine churches and palaces, although its outside appearance was significantly changed during the Ottoman period and again in the modern period, notably with the addition of the gold-plated roof, in 1959–61 and again in 1993. The octagonal plan of the structure may have been influenced by the Byzantine-era Church of the Seat of Mary (also known as Kathisma in Greek and al-Qadismu in Arabic), which was built between 451 and 458 on the road between Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
The Foundation Stone (or Noble Rock) that the temple was built over bears great significance in the Abrahamic religions as the place where God created the world as well as the first human, Adam. It is also believed to be the site where Abraham attempted to sacrifice his son, and as the place where God's divine presence is manifested more than in any other place, towards which Jews turn during prayer. The site's great significance for Muslims derives from traditions connecting it to the creation of the world and the belief that the Night Journey of Muhammad began from the rock at the center of the structure.
Designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, the Dome of the Rock has been called "Jerusalem's most recognizable landmark" along with two nearby Old City structures: the Western Wall and the "Resurrection Rotunda" in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It is the earliest archaeologically attested religious structure to be built by a Muslim ruler and the building's inscriptions contain the earliest epigraphic proclamations of Islam and of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The inscriptions proved to be a milestone, as afterward they became a common feature in Islamic structures and almost always mention Muhammad. The Dome of the Rock remains a unique monument of Islamic culture, including as a work of art and as a cultural and pious document.
The structure is basically octagonal. It is capped at its center by a dome, approximately 20 m (66 ft) in diameter, mounted on an elevated circular drum standing on 16 supports (4 tiers and 12 columns).
Surrounding this circle is an octagonal arcade of 24 piers and columns. The octagonal arcade and the inner circular drum create an inner ambulatorium that encircles the holy rock.
The outer walls are also octagonal. They each measure approximately 18 m (60 ft) wide and 11 m (36 ft) high. The outer and inner octagon create a second, outer ambulatorium surrounding the inner one.
Both the circular drum and the exterior walls contain many windows.
The interior of the dome is lavishly decorated with mosaic, faience and marble, much of which was added several centuries after its completion. It also contains Qur'anic inscriptions. They vary from today's standard text (mainly changes from the first to the third person) and are mixed with pious inscriptions not in the Qur'an.
The dedicatory inscription in Kufic script placed around the dome contains the date believed to be the year the Dome was first completed, AH 72 (691/2 CC), while the name of the corresponding caliph and builder of the Dome, 'Abd al-Malik, was deleted and replaced by the name of Abbasid caliph Al-Ma'mun (r. 813–833) during whose reign renovations took place.
The decoration of the outer walls went through two major phases: the initial Umayyad scheme comprised marble and mosaics, much like the interior walls. Sixteenth-century Ottoman sultan Suleyman the Magnificent replaced it with Turkish faience tiles. The Ottoman tile decoration was replaced in the 1960s with faithful copies produced in Italy.
Surah Ya Sin (the 'Heart of the Qur'an') is inscribed across the top of the tile work and was commissioned in the 16th century by Suleiman the Magnificent. Al-Isra, the Surah 17 which tells the story of the Isra or Night Journey, is inscribed above this.
The Dome of the Rock is situated in the center of the Temple Mount, the site of Solomon's Temple and the Second Jewish Temple, which had been greatly expanded under Herod the Great in the 1st century BCT. Herod's Temple was destroyed in 70 CC by the Romans and, after the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CC, a Roman temple to Jupiter Capitolinus was built at the site by Emperor Hadrian.
Jerusalem was ruled by the Byzantine Empire throughout the 4th to 6th centuries of the Christian calendar. During this time, Christian pilgrimage to Jerusalem began to develop. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built under Constantine in the 320s, but the Temple Mount was left undeveloped after a failed project of restoration of the Jewish Temple under Julian the Apostate.
In 638 CC, Byzantine Jerusalem was conquered by the Arab armies of Umar ibn al-Khattab, second Caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate. Umar was advised by Ka'b al-Ahbar, a Jewish rabbi who converted to Islam, that the site is identical with the site of the former Jewish Temples in Jerusalem. Among the first Muslims, Jerusalem was referred to as Madinat bayt al-Maqdis ("City of the Temple").
The initial octagonal structure of the Dome of the Rock and its round wooden dome had basically the same shape as it does today. It was built pursuant to the order of the Umayyad caliph 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (r. 685–705). According to Sibt ibn al-Jawzi (1185–1256), construction started in 685/686, while al-Suyuti (1445–1505) holds that its commencement year was 688. A dedicatory inscription in Kufic script is preserved inside the dome. The date is recorded as AH 72 (691/2 CC), the year most historians believe the construction of the original Dome was completed. An alternative interpretation of the inscription claims that it indicates the year when construction started. In this inscription, the name of "al-Malik" was deleted and replaced by the name of the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun (r. 813–833). This alteration of the original inscription was first noted by Melchior de Vogue in 1864. Some scholars have suggested that the dome was added to an existing building, built either by Muawiyah I (r. 661–680), or indeed a Byzantine building dating to before the Muslim conquest, built under Heraclius (r. 610–641).
The Dome of the Rock's architecture and mosaics were patterned after nearby Byzantine churches and palaces. The supervisor and engineer in charge of the project were Raja ibn Haywa, Yazid ibn Salam, and the latter's son Baha. Raja was a Muslim theologian and native of Beisan, and Yazid and Baha were mawali (non-Arab, Muslim converts) of 'Abd al-Malik from Jerusalem. 'Abd al-Malik was represented in the supervision of the construction by his son Sa'id al-Khayr. The Caliph employed expert works from across his domain, at the time restricted to Syria and Egypt, who were presumably Christians. Construction cost was reportedly seven times the yearly tax income of Egypt. Those who built the shrine used the measurements of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The diameter of the dome of the shrine is 20.20 m (66.3 ft) and its height 20.48 m (67.2 ft), while the diameter of the dome of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is 20.90 m (68.6 ft) and its height 21.05 m (69.1 ft).
Narratives by the medieval sources about 'Abd al-Malik's motivations in building the Dome of the Rock vary. At the time of its construction, the Caliph was engaged in war with Christian Byzantium and its Syrian Christian allies on the one hand and with the rival caliph 'Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, who controlled Mecca, the annual destination of Muslim pilgrimage, on the other hand. Thus, one series of explanations was that 'Abd al-Malik intended for the Dome of the Rock to be a religious monument of victory over the Christians that would distinguish Islam's uniqueness within the common Abrahamic religious setting of Jerusalem, home of the two older Abrahamic faiths, Judaism and Christianity. Some have argued that the Dome of the Rock was intended to compete with the many fine buildings of worship of other religions and that the very form of a rotunda, given to the Qubbat as-Sakhra -- to the Dome of the Rock, although it was foreign to Islam, was destined to rival the many Christian domes.
The other main explanation holds that 'Abd al-Malik, in the heat of the war with Ibn al-Zubayr, sought to build the structure to divert the focus of the Muslims in his realm from the Ka'aba in Mecca, where Ibn al-Zubayr would publicly condemn the Umayyads during the annual pilgrimage to the sanctuary. Though most modern historians dismiss the latter account as a product of anti-Umayyad propaganda in the traditional Muslim sources and doubt that 'Abd al-Malik would attempt to alter the sacred Muslim requirement of fulfilling the pilgrimage to the Ka'aba, other historians concede that this cannot be conclusively dismissed.
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The Dome of the Rock (Arabic: Qubbat al-Ṣakhrah) is a shrine in Jerusalem built by the Umayyad caliph 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan in the late 7th century CC. It is the oldest extant Islamic monument.
The structure is situated on a flat elevated plaza known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharīf (“The Noble Sanctuary”) and to Jews as the Temple Mount (the site where the Temple of Jerusalem once stood). According to Muslims, the rock above which the dome is constructed is the spot from which the Prophet Muhammad was taken up into heaven for an encounter with God (an event known as the Mi'raj). Nearby, on the southern extreme of the plaza, is Al-Aqsa Mosque. Muslims believe the Prophet was miraculously transported there from Mecca on the night of his encounter with God. The term “Al-Aqsa Mosque” is commonly extended to denote the entire plaza and, consequently, to the Dome of the Rock itself.
The construction of the Dome of the Rock was a relatively late addition to Jerusalem’s solemnity, which had deep and long-standing religious significance prior to the advent of Islam. After David captured the city about 1000 BCT and made it his capital, his son and successor Solomon built a Temple that became the most sacred center of religious practice for the ancient Israelites. The Herodian reconstruction of that Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CC and a Roman city (Aelia Capitolina) was erected in Jerusalem’s stead in 135 CC.
After the conversion to Christianity of the Roman emperor Constantine I (the Great), the city experienced a renaissance. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built over the area traditionally held by Christians to be the site of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection from the dead. With imperial patronage, the city grew prosperous into the 7th century. By the time Jerusalem was captured in 638 CC by ʿUmar I, the second Muslim caliph, the city was adorned with splendid churches, monasteries, and hospices.
In the decades that followed Jerusalem’s capture, the nascent Islamic empire struggled with civil war and instability, especially with the rise of Umayyad dynastic rule. Emerging victorious from the second fitnah, which saw rebellion in Mecca, the resistance of non-Muslims to Muslim rule, and renewed conflict with the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire, the fifth Umayyad caliph, ʿAbd al-Malik, set out to centralize and reinforce his rule throughout the empire. The monumental construction of the Dome of the Rock, which stood prominently amid the city’s churches, was among his achievements. An inscription in the Dome of the Rock establishes the date of construction as AH 72 according to the Islamic calendar (691–692 CE), generally considered to indicate the date the structure was completed.
The original structural components of the Dome of the Rock have been preserved into modern times, but it has undergone modifications in decoration several times. The successive Islamic dynasties that ruled Jerusalem, including the Abbasids, the Fatimids, and the Ayyubids, each commissioned renovations of the structure and added their own inscriptions and ornamentations. During the Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem, kthe rock was surrounded with a wrought-iron screen to prevent Christian pilgrims from extracting relics from it. The Ayyubids replaced it with the wooden screen that surrounds the rock today. One significant restoration, ordered by the Ottoman Sultan Suleyman I (the Magnificent) in the 16th century, replaced the exterior mosaics with colored ceramic tiles. In the 20th century, damaged interior and exterior ornaments were repaired or replaced on the initiative of the Hashemite royals, and the dome was given a new gold covering.
Although the Dome of the Rock’s primary significance today lies in its connection to the Prophet Muhammad’s ascent to heaven, its inscriptions lack any reference to the episode. The earliest Islamic descriptions of al-Haram al-Sharif, recorded in the 9th century, mention some relevance between the compound and the Miʿrāj, but the association of the event with the Dome of the Rock did not start appearing as a preeminent theme until the 11th century.
The original function and significance of the Dome of the Rock are uncertain, partly because of the paucity of contemporary commentary about its construction. The architectural design differs from that of a mosque, and the ambulatory configuration is not suited for Muslim congregational prayer. It also does not fit easily into other categories of Islamic religious structures.
Several aspects of the Dome of the Rock suggest an attempt to situate Islam as the proper heir to the Abrahamic tradition. Its composition relates it to a class of Byzantine religious buildings known as martyria—typically circular or polygonal shrines erected to mark the graves of saints or to commemorate events of special religious significance. Of particular influence may have been the Kathisma of the Mother of God, a nearby octagonal martyrium whose remains were discovered in 1992. The Dome of the Rock’s grand scale and lavish decoration may have been intended to rival that of the Christian holy buildings of Jerusalem, especially the domed Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Its Arabic inscriptions, which present a selection of Qur'anic passages and paraphrases, emphasize the unity of God (tawhid) and reject the Christian doctrines of the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus.
After the advent of the Abbasid dynasty in the 8th century, some commentators began to report that ʿAbd al-Malik built the Dome of the Rock as a substitute for the Ka'ba in an attempt to relocate the site of the Muslim hajj from Mecca, then under the control of rebels led by Ibn al-Zubayr, to Jerusalem. Modern scholars have questioned this interpretation, citing the strong anti-Umayyad bias of Abbasid historiography as well as evidence that Mecca remained the destination of the hajj throughout Ibn al-Zubayr’s revolt.
Other scholars have posited an eschatological motive for the builders of the Dome of the Rock, arguing that its placement, architecture, and decorative motifs correspond to images associated with Islamic and Byzantine beliefs about Judgment Day and heaven.
The site has held religious significance outside of Islam as well. Located on the Temple Mount, where the Temple of Jerusalem had previously stood, the site has particular significance for Judaism. The Foundation Stone, on which Jews believe the world was created, is thought to be located within the compound and is usually identified with the rock beneath the dome. In the Middle Ages, Christians and Jews identified the Dome of the Rock with the Temple of Solomon (Templum Domini); its image was iconographically employed in both artwork and ritual objects to represent the Temple. The Knights Templar were quartered there following the conquest of Jerusalem by a Crusader army in 1099, and Templar churches in Europe imitated its design. The Dome of the Rock was used as a church by the Crusaders until the Muslim Ayyubids, led by Saladin, captured Jerusalem in 1187.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abd_al-Malik_ibn_Marwan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dome_of_the_Rock
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Abd-al-Malik-Umayyad-caliph
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Dome-of-the-Rock
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