Islamic History

ABD AL-MALIK IBN MARWAN

‘Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan was the Umayyad caliph who ruled from 65/685 until 86/705. He inherited a fractured polity from his father, who was apparently murdered in his sleep by one of his wives. The rebel Ibn al-Zubayr controlled the holy sites in the Hijaz, along with significant areas of Iraq, where both he and ‘Abd al-Malik confronted ‘Alid and Kharijite rebels. Only Syria remained firmly in Umayyad hands, and even there ‘Abd al-Malik faced a revolt led by ‘Amr b. Sa‘id al-Asdaq, a family rival, in 69/688–689. These internal threats forced ‘Abd alMalik to sign a treaty with the Byzantines, paying them tribute in 70/689–690. He was able to restore order and consolidate his power by 73/692. ‘Abd  al Malik continued to face occasional revolts in Iraq and farther east in Khurasan, but his viceroy Hajjaj ibn Yusuf contained these threats ably (and sometimes viciously).

‘Abd al-Malik devoted the remainder of his reign to centralizing power in the capital at Damascus. He depended on his own family for sensitive positions, which was in contrast with his predecessors’ reliance on local elites. He used his powerful Syrian army to crush any provincial resistance. ‘Abd al-Malik introduced the first distinctly Islamic coinage. In contrast with older Muslim coins, which were based on Byzantine models, ‘Abd al-Malik’s coins were devoid of pictorial images and included Qur’anic phrases instead. The remarkable uniformity of these coins demonstrates the degree to which ‘Abd al-Malik centralized the control of minting money. His coins remained the model for coins through out the Umayyad and ‘Abbasid periods. In addition, ‘Abd al-Malik began the long process of establishing Arabic as the standard administrative language of the realm and invested heavily in agricultural development, particularly in Iraq and the Hijaz. At his death in 86/705 at the age of 60, he was succeeded by al-Walid, the first of four of his sons to ascend to the caliphate.

Hazrat Aisha Siddiqa(614–678 C.E.)
Aisha bint Abi Bakr was the favorite wife of the prophet Muhammad and significant religious and political figure in early Islam. The daughter of Umm Ruman and one of the Prophet’s companions, Abu Bakr (the first caliph of Islam after the death of the Prophet), she married Muhammad at a young age. Her intelligence, beauty, and spirited personality are well recorded in historical sources. The hadith tradition records a unique level of intimacy shared by the Prophet and Aisha. They bathed in the same water, he prayed while she lay stretched out in front of him, he received revelation when they were under the same blanket, and he expressed a desire to be moved to Aisha’s chambers when he knew his death was approaching.

Affection and playfulness also characterized their relationship. They raced with each other and enjoyed listening to the singing of Ethiopian singers together. The Prophet related that when Aisha was pleased with him, she would swear “By the God of Muhammad” and when she was annoyed with him she would swear “By the God of Abraham.” She regularly engaged the Prophet on issues of revelation and religion. Recognizing her intelligence and perceptiveness, he told the Muslims “Take two-thirds of your religion from al-Humayra,” the term of affection referring to the rosy-cheeked Aisha.

A scandal once surrounded Aisha, who was mistakenly left behind during a caravan rest stop on an expedition with the Prophet. She returned to Medina escorted by a young man who had found her waiting alone. Amid the ensuing gossip and speculation about Aisha’s fidelity, one of the Prophet’s companions, Ali, advised Muhammad to divorce her. This caused her to bear deep resentment against Ali, which manifested itself in her later opposition to him as Muhammad’s successor. Finally a Quranic revelation exonerated her of all suspected wrongdoing, proclaiming her innocence. This same revelation established the punishment for false accusations of adultery.
In the lifetime of the Prophet she, together with Muhammad’s other wives, was referred to as “Mother of the Believers.” She is known to have transmitted approximately 1,210 traditions (hadiths), only 300 of which are included in the canonical hadith collections of Bukhari and Muslim. She is said to have transmitted hadith to at least eighty-five Muslims, as well as to have corrected inaccuracies in the hadiths reported by some of the Prophet’s male companions.

After the death of the Prophet, she was critical of the third caliph, Uthman, but also called his killers to accountability during the caliphate of Ali. Together with the Companions Zubair and Talha, she mobilized opposition to Ali, culminating in the Battle of the Camel (656 C.E.). The name of the battle reflects the centrality of Aisha’s role in the conflict, seated on her camel in the middle of the battlefield. This struggle over succession marked the development of a major civil war (called fitna) in Islam, which ultimately contributed to one of the most significant religious and political divisions in the Muslim world. The representations of Aisha in subsequent Shiite and Sunni polemics reflected some of the historical antagonisms between the two. Many Shiite Muslims reviled Aisha, whereas Sunni Muslims embraced her as a revered wife of the Prophet. Tradition holds that she was consulted on theological, legal, and other religious issues, and was also known for her poetic skills. She is buried at al-Baqi in Medina.

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One of the most famous emperors of the medieval Western Sudanic kingdom of Mali, Mansa Musa reigned from about 1312 to 1337. He extended the kingdom of Mali by bringing under its suzerainty many non-Mandingo people of the Sahel. Many sources, including the Arabic author al-_Umari (1301–1394), described Mansa Musa as a pious Muslim, and as one of the medieval rulers whose contribution to the spread of Islam in the Western Sudan was the most significant. One of the most noted events of Mansa Musa’s reign was his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1312. On his way, Mansa Musa visited Egypt during the reign of the Mamluk sultan, Nasir b. Qala_un. Mansa Musa, it has been reported, was accompanied by thousands of peoples and camels laden with gold. He gave huge quantities of gold to the sultan of Egypt.

Mansa Musa’s stay in Egypt was one of the main events of the year 1312. He distributed so much gold that the price of this precious metal dropped. Perhaps because of the notoriety he gained by this pilgrimage, Mali started to appear in maps drawn by European cartographers.
Mansa Musa’s reign supported a flowering in Malian scholarship and architecture. He commissioned al-Sahili, the Andalusian poet and man of letters, to design mosques and other buildings in Mali. Mansa Musa attracted scholars and brought back books of Islamic jurisprudence to the libraries Mali. He also began sending students to Islamic universities in North Africa. He built Qur_anic schools, and established the Friday congregational prayer in Mali.

Hasan ibn _Ali ibn Abi Talib was the grandson of the prophet Muhammad and the second Shi_ite imam. Born in Medina in 624, three years after the hijra, he died at age forty-six in Medina in 670. In Shi_ite parables he and his brother Husayn, the third imam, are figured as two alternative political strategies against injustice in the world and in politics. Hasan embodies the path of patience, which allows the enemy slowly to demonstrate unworthiness and lose any claim to legitimacy.
Husayn embodies the path of armed revolt. After the death of his father, _Ali bin Talib, the first imam, Mu_awiya became caliph. According to the Shi_ite account, Hasan should have succeeded his father. Hasan was an important rawi (reciter) and interpreter of the hadith and sunna (sayings and practices) of the Prophet and his Companions, reflecting the role of the imams in having access also to the divine meanings of revelation. But Hasan was too weak politically to challenge Mu_awiya for the leadership of the community. After Mu_awiya attempted to have him assasinated, and many of his followers abandoned him, Hasan came to an understanding with Mu_awiya, wherein Hasan was sent to live in Medina, while Mu_awiya promised that leadership would revert to the family of the Prophet upon his death. But Mu_awiya broke his promise by appointing his son Yazid to succeed him, and convinced Ja_da, Hasan’s wife, to poison the imam. In addition to paying Ja_da, Mu_awiyya also promised to marry her to his son and heir, Yazid. The giving of poisoned water is the inverse of the denial of water to Husayn on the battlefield of Karbala, where the third imam was martyred by the forces of Yazid. Imam Husayn’s revolt subsequently disgraced Yazid, and created in him the archetypal figure of evil in Shi_ite stories of injustice.

This parable structure is also encoded in a hadith quoted by Mohammad Baqer Majlesi, the preeminent mujtahed of the seventeenth century. On Id al-Fitr, according to the hadith, Gabriel descended with a gift of new white clothes for each of the Prophet’s grandsons. The Prophet said that the grandsons were used to colored clothes. So Gabriel asked each boy what color he wanted. Hasan chose green, Husayn red. While the clothes were being dyed, Gabriel wept. He explained: Hasan’s choice of green meant that he would be martyred by poisoning, and his body would turn green, and Husayn’s choice of red meant he would be martyred and his blood would turn the ground red.
Hasan is buried in Medina with a green banner on his mausoleum. Husayn is buried in Karbala with a red banner, the sign of a martyr whose revenge is yet to come. Sunni accounts of early Islamic history deny that Hasan was poisoned, claiming he died of consumption. Sunni accounts also stress the temporary shift of power to Damascus under Mu_awiya and Yazid, but since revenues came mainly from Iraq, power eventually shifted to Baghdad. For Shi_a, Hasan’s story is a precursor to Husayn’s martyrdom,
which is the overarching cosmic and paradigmatic story of existential tragedy, of injustice in this world triumphing often by force over justice, and of the duty of a true Muslim to sacrifice himself, to witness for truth and justice.

Marwan/Marwan bin Hakam
Marwan b. al-Hakam b. Abi al-_As, Abu _Abd al-Malik, the eponym of the Marwanid branch of the Umayyads, reigned for several months in 684 and 685 C.E. He was one of the Companions of Muhammad and the cousin of _Uthman b. _Affan (r. 644–656), the third caliph of Islam. Marwan was appointed secretary to _Uthman during his caliphate because of his knowledge of the Qur_an and became the caliph’s closest advisor. He probably encouraged the caliph to compile the Qur_an. Much of Marwan’s wealth came from the rich plunder he obtained during an expedition to North Africa, which he invested in properties in Medina. Despite objection from many Medinans, Marwan influenced _Uthman to appoint his brother, Harith b. Hakam, to oversee the market of Medina.

Marwan was viewed as an ambitious man and his influence on the caliph was generally regarded as negative. When Egyptian malcontents negotiated a political settlement with _Uthman, Marwan is believed to have written a letter ordering the execution of the Egyptians concerned. It was the discovery of this letter by the Egyptians that led to _Uthman’s being besieged and murdered in his home in 656. This event is remembered as “the battle of the house,” or yawm al-dar.
Marwan was wounded while trying to protect _Uthman. He later fought in the Battle of the Camel with _A_isha against _Ali, for _Ali would neither investigate nor punish the murderers of _Uthman. Later, Marwan swore allegiance to _Ali, but joined the ranks of Mu_awiya when _Ali was murdered. He was appointed governor of Medina by the caliph Mu_awiyya b. Abi Sufyan (r. 661–680), and served in this capacity from 661 to 668 and again from 674 to 677. Mu_awiyya was succeeded by his son, Yazid, who died in 683, followed by Yazid’s son, Mu_awiya II, who died a few months later. Meanwhile, the hostility provoked by Yazid during his brief caliphate, which saw the death of Husayn b. _Ali, the battle of the Harra (a stronghold in Medina), and the onslaught against Mecca, had brought _Abdullah b. al-Zubayr great popularity. Al-Zubayr was acclaimed caliph of the region extending from the Hijaz (a region in western Saudi Arabia) to Iraq. The Umayyads were thus forced to look beyond the Sufyanid family for a leader. At this point, frustrated by inadequate leadership, tribal loyalties that had been submerged by the uniting forces of Islam emerged once again. The faction led by Ibn Bahdal, chief of the Kalbi clan, proclaimed Marwan caliph, while the faction led by al-Dahhaq b. Ways al-Fihri supported Ibn al- Zubayr. When the two factions met at the battle of Marj Rahat it was Marwan who won the day Marwan immediately consolidated his position: He married Fakhita bt. Abi Hashim, the widow of Yazid, vowing that the latter’s son, Khalid b. Yazid, would be his successor. Once appointed caliph, however, he first replaced Egypt’s Zubayrid governor with his son, _Abd al-_Aziz. Then, reneging on his promise to Fakhita, he named his eldest son, _Abd al-Malik, heir to the caliphate. Finally, having defeated Mus_ab b. al- Zubayr, the brother of his rival caliph in Mecca, he sent his general, _Ubayd Allah b. Ziyad, to capture Iraq.
Marwan died in 685, murdered by his wife, Fakhita, before Iraq was taken. His son, _Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705), successfully consolidated the Umayyad caliphate under the Marwanid banner.

IBN KHALDUN (1332–1406)
_Abd al-Rahman b. Muhammad b. Muhammad b. Abu Bakr Muhammad b. al-Hasan, better known as Ibn Khaldun, was born in the North African region of Ifriqiyah (Tunis) in 1332. Well known and controversial in his time, his Muqaddima (Introduction), has become one of the best-known and important works on medieval historiography for modern scholars. Ibn Khaldun was also actively involved in the politics of the period and traveled extensively across Spain, North Africa, and the Middle East. He died in Cairo on 16 March 1406.
Ibn Khaldun came from an influential family that had originally settled in Andalusia at the beginning of the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. Shortly before the beginning of the Reconquista his ancestors migrated to Tunis, where they became important administrators in local governments.

His father, however, worked primarily as a jurist and a scholar. Because of his father’s position as a legal scholar, Ibn  Khaldun was able to attain an education from some of the most famous North African scholars of the age. In the midfourteenth century the western Berber Marinid tribe invaded Tunis and established a short-lived dynasty. The Marinids imported a large number of legal scholars and theologians into Tunis and for a short period Ibn Khaldun, at this time in his mid-teens, was able to learn from a wide array of scholars in a variety of fields. The Marinid occupation of Tunis was, however, short and by the time Ibn Khaldun was seventeen most of the great scholars had already left Tunis for Fez, Morocco.
The Marinid occupation of Tunis left its mark on the young scholar. He came to see the period as a model for the historical development and decline of Islamic societies. He argued that Islamic societies followed a specific path of development and decline whereby desert tribes invade a given society and infuse it with a sense of vitality and what he called asabiyya (group solidarity). _Asabiyya becomes the foundation for all social relations and provides the fundamental motives for cultural, intellectual, and economic development. Over time, however, the sense of group solidarity breaks down, followed by a slow period of decline until a new group asserts itself into society and brings with it a new sense of _asabiyya. The withdrawal of the Marinids back into Morocco left an intellectual and political vacuum in Tunis, and by 1353 Ibn Khaldun decided to migrate west to Fez. In Fez, Ibn Khaldun rose quickly into the inner circle of the Marinid sultan Ibn Abi _Amr. By 1357 he fell out of favor with the sultan and was
thrown in prison until Ibn Abi _Amr’s death in 1358. Ibn Khaldun appears to have attempted to remain involved in the changing political situation, but by 1359 he decided to retire from politics and accepted a position as a judge. By 1362 his position became so untenable that he was forced to flee to Granada. Over the next twelve years Ibn Khaldun continued to involve himself in the politics of Spain and North Africa. By his late forties, however, he had tired of politics and decided to return to scholarship once again. He wrote a number of works during this period and appears to have begun developing many of his ideas on history and sociology. He wrote his Muqaddima to his world history (Kitab al-_Ibar) between 1375 and 1379, as well as a number of other important works. By 1378, Ibn Khaldun returned to Tunis to work as a scholar and teacher. His ideas, however, were considered threatening by several of his peers and he was forced to flee to Cairo in 1382. In Cairo, Ibn Khaldun continued to teach and write, and by 1399 was appointed judge. In 1400 he accompanied the Mamluk sultan al-Nasir to Syria during the invasion of Timur and was involved in negotiations with the Mongol leader for the surrender of Damascus. As had previously been the case, Ibn Khaldun frequently ran afoul of political powers and was dismissed from his judgeship upon his return. Over
the remaining six years of his life he was appointed and dismissed from the judiciary five more times.
Ibn Khaldun remained a controversial figure even after his death. His Muqaddima, and to a lesser extent his other writings, were both respected and reviled by later scholars. In the Muqaddima, Ibn Khaldun sets forth a clear exposition of his theory of social and historical development and decline. He describes the various Islamic sciences, their development, and the process of professionalization that scholars had to endure to become certified by their contemporaries as qualified academics. This process of professional certification, according to Ibn Khaldun, which had become so extensive by the medieval period that it prevented scholars of in-depth knowledge in any one field, was one of the factors that led Muslim societies to decline. His theories about the decline of Muslim society would influence late-nineteenth and twentiethcentury Muslim scholars who embraced Ibn Khaldun’s theories as evidence of the need for renewal of Islamic culture and thought.

Ibn Taymiyyah (1263–1328)

Taqi al-Din Ahmad Ibn Taymiyyah was born in Harran in northern Syria in 1263 C.E. and died at the age of sixty-five in Damascus in 1328. A prolific writer on all subjects related to the Qur_an, hadith, sunna, theology, law, and mysticism, he was a dynamic and controversial figure during his lifetime, and he remains to this day an influential figure in Islamic thought and practice. A loyal associate of the Hanbali theological and legal school of thought, he put his beliefs into practice as a religious, political, and social reformer. Responding to various crises of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries in the Middle East, such as the Mongol invasions, the destruction of the Abbasid caliphate, and the eventual rise of the Mamluk dynasty of Egypt and Syria, Ibn Taymiyya sought the revival of Islamic society based on a model of what he believed was the pristine community of Muslims at the time of the Prophet and his companions at Medina. But his efforts to revive Islamic society were not only aimed at political and social reform, he sought also to achieve the revival of the inner or spiritual components of Islam.
In fact, Ibn Taymiyyah believed the inner reform had to occur first before any outward reform would be possible. This perspective on his part brought Ibn Taymiyyah into conflict with many speculativetheologians (mutakallimun), philosophers, and Sufi mystics, whom Ibn Taymiyya accused of deviating from the pure Islam of Muhammad and the Qur_an by adopting non-Islamic systems of belief, in particular the logic and philosophy of the ancient Greeks. Ibn Taymiyya’s life can be divided into three distinct periods, each representing a significant phase in his development as a thinker and reformer. The first phase goes from his birth until 1304, during which time Ibn Taymiyyah received his training as a scholar and was involved in defending Damascus from incursions by the Mongol Ilkhans of Persia. The second period lasts from 1304 until 1312, during which time he was in Egypt. This period is marked by his growing controversywith Sufi mysticism as well as his involvement with the political turmoil related to Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad b. al- Qalawun’s consolidation of power. Ibn Taymiyya spent many years on trial and in prison during this time, stemming from his religious pronouncements and his support for al-Nasir Muhammad. The third phase begins with his return to Damascus in 1312 and lasts until his death in 1328. This is the period of the maturing of his ideas and the time of his most prolific and significant writings. Although these years were relatively free of controversy, toward the end of his life he came into conflict with religious and state authorities over doctrinal and legal issues. Ibn Taymiyya died in prison in Damascus shortly after being denied contact with all but his closest family members and being forbidden to write any more letters, essays, or legal rulings.
The core of Ibn Taymiyya’s thought revolves around a set of principles from which he develops an elaborate worldview. These principles can be summarized as follows: an absolutedistinction between the creator and the creation, revelation as a complete and self-sufficient system, and a necessity to constantly return to and understand the Qur_an and the sunna in light of the traditional teachings of the earliest generations of Muslims (al-salaf al-salih).
Ibn Taymiyya has been described as a “dogmatic historian,” for he developed a theology based on the concept of a necessarily preserved true religion. This religion as embodied in the Qur_an and the sunna of prophet Muhammad was transmitted intact by the salaf al-salih. The canonical collections of authenticated hadiths contain this transmitted wisdom, and thus, for Ibn Taymiyya, forms the basis for all interpretation and practice in Islam. His methodological approach is premised on the correct use of five sources for gaining knowledge of the beliefs and practices that are pleasing to Allah. These are (1) the Qur_an, (2) the sunna of the Prophet, (3) the statements and actions of the companions of the Prophet (al-sahaba), (4) the opinions of the followers (altabi _un) of the companions, and (5) the Arabic language, which for him is the only divinely ordained religious language.
These sources make up what Ibn Taymiyya believes is a comprehensive notion of revelation. Any methodology or belief system outside revelation is not deemed to be an acceptable means of attaining truth. In relation to jurisprudence and the schools of law (madhahib), Ibn Taymiyya maintains that theoretically the four imams of the recognized Sunni schools of law agreed on the principles (usul) of Islam, but pragmatically they differed concerning particular rulings (furu_). Thus he upholds the legitimacy of the four schools yet argues that scholars must continue exerting independent judgment (ijtihad) in an effort to come ever closer to the theoretically pure Islam. He argued that blind following (taqlid) of one scholar or school of thought was tolerated for the layperson, but scholars were under an obligation to seek out and follow the truth even if it is found to lie outside their particular affiliation to a school of thought. This stance brought him into conflicts with other jurists, even with his fellow Hanbalis.
But more than his political and legal opinions, Ibn Taymiyya’s theology remains the most salient feature of his religious thought. Devoted to a defense of a monotheism that does not compromise the nature and attributes of Allah as derived from the Qur_an and the sunna, he set himself against the great traditions of speculative theology (kalam), philosophy, and mysticism that had evolved in Islamic civilization.
Following closely the creeds established by Ahmad Ibn Hanbal and other hadith scholars of the ninth century, Ibn Taymiyya developed a very sophisticated and subtle theology that he promoted quite vigorously. His theology begins with the notion of God as the eternal, omniscient, and omnipotent creator who brought the universe into existence out of nothingness (ex nihilo) as a willful act. He rejects any form of pantheistic thought that compromises this belief. Thus he devotes much of his writings to refutations of mystical philosophies, such as that of Ibn al-_Arabi (d. 1242). However, he does not want to compromise the idea of a personal God with whom a believer can establish an intimate spiritual relation. Therefore, he also rejects the sterile descriptions of Allah put forth by philosophers and speculative theologians, who stripped him of many of his essential names and attributes. His main targets of refutation are the Mu_tazilites, the Ash_arites, andphilosophers such as Ibn Sina (d. 1043). These theological debates often brought the charge of anthropomorphism against Ibn Taymiyya because he insisted on affirming attributes to Allah such as that he has a hand and a face, that he loves and hates, and that he ascends and descends while remainingrisen above the throne over the heavens. Ibn Taymiyya’sdefense is that these descriptions appear in the Qur_an and authentic hadiths and have been maintained by the companions of the Prophet. He also argues that these attributes cannot be comprehended by human intellect but must be accepted as a matter of faith without questioning (bi la kayf) the manner in which these attributes exist in Allah.