Abdul Malik bin Marwan, the fifth caliph of Bani Umayyah, and the second founder of their state after Muawiyah bin Abi Sufyan, was born in the year 24 AH in Medina and his young and young jurisprudence is one of the prominent jurists of Medina.
He was shrewd and seasoned, and ruled for more than two decades during conflicts that almost ravaged the Umayyad house, so he stabilized the pillars of the state, eliminated rivals and revolutionaries, fought battles with the Kharijites until he displaced their followers, and overthrew Abdullah bin Zubayr after all Islamic cities except the Levant condemned him.
Origin and formation
Abdul Malik bin Marwan bin Al-Hakam bin Abi Al-Aas was born in Medina in 24 AH, the year in which Othman bin Affan assumed the caliphate, and began to bring some of his relatives and cousins closer, and summoned them to Medina to be his support and assistance in managing governance.
Othman was a lover of his family and continued to his mercy, and he saw in Marwan bin Al-Hakam, the father of Abdul Malik, a smart young man who made him his writer, and he continued to rise in his positions until he became his secretary and head of his Diwan of Letters, and this link also allowed Marwan to see the affairs of governance and understand politics during the expansion of the Islamic State and the spread of its idea and recruitment.
Marwan – and his son Abdul Malik was at the age of ten – witnessed the events of sedition that killed Othman late in the year 35 e, and Marwan and some of the Umayyads who were close to Othman had a connection to these events, as people retaliated against Othman for using his cousins on the people and governors and masters.
One of the consequences of this sedition was that Marwan and his family and many of the Umayyads left Medina for Mecca, and from there to Basra, where the camel site in which Marwan participated and was wounded, and then returned to Medina after reconciling Alia and retiring from the ongoing dispute between him and Muawiyah.
This event and what followed had a profound impact on the policy of the father and his son when they crowned the caliphate after about 3 decades, it was narrated that Abdul Malik said to one of his interlocutors, "Othman Omar bin Al-Khattab did not disagree with anything except softness, even if he was tough on his side as Ibn Al-Khattab was tough on them;
During Muawiyah's time, Abd al-Malik served as head of the city's Diwan, succeeding the great companion Zaid bin Thabit, and participated in one of the sea invasions that Muawiya was running from time to time, so he gained from this and that administrative and political knowledge and military and military experience.
He witnessed before the transfer of power to his father free signatory, which was at the hands of Yazid bin Muawiyah in 63 AH, and had a great impact on himself, as the people of the city besieged the Umayyads in the house of Marwan, and hurt them and then took them out to the Levant and did not return except with the army that sent him Yazid to the city, to restore calm after the turmoil caused by his policy.
Then they had to leave it after the death of Yazid and the turmoil of the matter in Medina, and Abdullah bin Zubayr announced the call for himself in the Hijaz, and asked his governor in Medina to get the Umayyads out of it.
The city provided the appropriate scientific upbringing for Abdul Malik bin Marwan, because of the presence of scholars of the Companions and senior followers in it, so he received knowledge at the hands of Zaid bin Thabit and Abu Hurayrah and heard from Abu Saeed Al-Khudri, Jabir bin Abdullah, um Salamah, Ibn Omar and other senior companions, and he also received knowledge from his father Marwan, who was one of the numbered jurisprudence and knowledge.
It was narrated from 'Abd al-Malik Raja ibn Haywa, al-Zuhri, Yunus ibn Maysara and Ismail ibn 'Ubayd Allah, and Nafi' said of him, "I have seen the city and what it has a young man who is more honorable, and I do not understand him, nor do I forget you, nor do I read the Book of Allah than 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan."
Proverbial with his eloquence, al-Asma'i said, "4 They did not tune in seriousness or humor: al-Shaabi, 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf and the son of the village."
The Caliphate in the Marwan family
As soon as Yazid bin Muawiyah died in 64 AH, the order of governance in the Islamic state was disturbed, on the one hand, Crown Prince Muawiya bin Yazid was small and unable to bear the burdens and costs of governance, and it was narrated that he was an ascetic in governance coming to the hereafter.
On the other hand, the resentment against Yazid and his policy had reached its peak, especially after the free incident in which Yazid's army stormed Medina, and shed the blood that was shed, in addition to the blood of Hussein that his worker shed on Iraq.
Ibn Yazid worked in his house and left the caliphate until he died after about 3 months of assuming power, so the Muslims were troubled and the tribes began to seek to install their notables, but the matter was confined after a short time between Abdullah bin Zubair and his rival Marwan bin Al-Hakam.
It is about to take hold of Abdullah bin Zubair after being nominated by the Hijaz and pledged allegiance to Iraq and Khorasan, and Egypt sent him approval as well, while Sham nominated Marwan bin Al-Hakam and resolved its matter in his favor after long consultations and bloody battles, the most prominent and hottest site Marj Rahat, which removed Ibn al-Zubayr from the Levant, and installed Marwan as ruler in 64 AH.
The emergence of Marwan's order in the Levant had a great impact on Egypt's bias towards him, as its people wrote it secretly, so he sent his son Abdul Aziz to it, so he did not find much resistance and handed over the reins to him.
Marwan died 8 months after this incident, but two months before his death he had asked for allegiance to his two sons, Abdul Malik and Abdul Aziz, and received it with the approval of the notables of the Levant and Egypt.
Abdul Malik bin Marwan. The Overcoming Caliph
Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan took over the caliphate over the Levant and Egypt, and the state of the Islamic state was very turbulent: on the one hand, most of the Islamic provinces were in the hands of Abdullah bin Zubayr, and on the other hand, the Kharijites had taken control of two regions of the Islamic state: the first Ahwaz from Persia, and the second east of the Arabian Peninsula, which follows Bahrain and Yamamah.
The Arabs of the Caliph Abdul Malik bin Marwan currency during his reign and within two years the new currency spread to the Islamic world (Getty Images)
On the other hand, Iraq was boiling with what was known as the revolution of the repentants, who sensed their failure by Hussein bin Ali, may God be pleased with him, a few years ago and wanted to avenge him, in addition to other unrest that occurred between the Qaysiyya and Kalbi tribes, and rebellions and revolutions on the western side of the headquarters of Ibn Marwan's caliphate in Mount Lebanon and elsewhere.
Marwan had marched an army led by Ubayd Allah bin Ziyad to subdue the Shiites under the banner of the army of repentance, and those hidden by Muhammad bin Ali bin Abi Talib, known as "Ibn al-Hanafiya", and Marwan overcame them in the battle of Ain al-Warda (Ras al-Ain in northeastern Syria today) in 65 AH.
However, Mukhtar bin Abi Obaid Al-Thaqafi was able to mobilize them to meet the Umayyad army, so various battles took place between the two parties, and the ingenuity of Abdul Malik appeared, who saw the dispute escalate between the army of Ibn al-Zubayr and the armies of Mukhtar al-Thaqafi, and the conflict flared between them and Abdul Malik watching the result that led to the victory of Ibn al-Zubayr over the Mukhtar in Kufa.
The exit of Al-Thaqafi from the political field led to the restriction of competition for the succession between Abdul Malik bin Marwan and Abdullah bin Al-Zubayr, and Abdul Malik knew that the strength of Ibn Al-Zubayr lies in Iraq, so he marched a large army to Iraq led by himself, and made on the forefront his brother Muhammad bin Marwan, and on the starboard Abdullah bin Yazid and on the facilitator Khalid bin Yazid.
Abd al-Malik used his cunning before the confrontation, so he wrote to the leaders of Iraq before his march, and some of them sided with him, and sent to Musab bin Zubayr, the commander of his brother Abdullah's armies, inviting him to leave the fighting and align himself with him.
The incident occurred between the two parties, and the army of Musab Ibn al-Zubayr, unlike the army of Ibn Marwan, was weak and incoherent, so the people of Iraq abandoned him one by one until there was only a few left with him, but he was fixed in the face of his enemies until he was killed and carried his head to Abdul Malik bin Marwan, who said, "Waroh, the sanctity between us was old, but the king is sterile."
With this victory, Iraq joined Abdul Malik in 72 AH, leaving only the Hijaz in the hands of Abdullah bin Zubair.
Pilgrims.. Saif Ibn Marwan Al-Qater
Abdul Malik did not wait after his decisive victory in Iraq, so he took the initiative to send a large army of 20,<> fighters led by Al-Hajjaj bin Yusuf Al-Thaqafi to confront Ibn Al-Zubayr in his land, so the pilgrims besieged Mecca and set up catapults, and insisted on throwing Mecca and the Grand Mosque until the Kaaba collapsed and some of its stones fell, and cut off the supply routes to its people until the people were hungry, so they took sides with the army of pilgrims for safety.
Ibn al-Zubayr entered on his mother, Asma bint Abu Bakr, may God be pleased with her, complaining to her that people turned away from him, and she said to him: "You and God, my son, know yourself, if you know that you are right and to him you call, go ahead for him, your companions have killed him, and you cannot from your neck to be played by the boys of Bani Umayyah, and if you only wanted the world, then the misery of the slave you, you destroyed yourself, and you destroyed those who were killed with you...", so we redeemed her and kissed her head, and said, "This is by God my opinion, which I have done calling to this day."
The siege – which lasted 6 and a half months – ended with the death of Ibn al-Zubayr and the entry of the pilgrims' army into Mecca, thus uniting the Islamic world under the banner of Abdul Malik bin Marwan in 73 AH.
Second Year of the Community
The Islamic world united under the banner of Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, and the Hijaz pledged allegiance to him and delegations and leaders came to him, extending their hands by pledging allegiance and accepting him as a caliph over all Muslims.
Among those who pledged allegiance to him after his control of the Hijaz: Urwa bin Zubayr, brother of Abdullah, Abdullah bin Omar and his master Nafi', Muhammad bin Ali, known as Ibn al-Hanafiyya, and Muhallab bin Abi Safra, the leader in the Kharijites war, and the secret of Abdul Malik for his pledge of allegiance to what he knows of the abundance of his mind and military skill.
Abdul Malik crowned this unit under his banner by going to Hajj in 75 AH, and stayed for a period in Mecca and Medina.
The Kharijites began to be eliminated in the two provinces under their control in Persia and eastern Arabia.
It was the policy of Al-Muhallab bin Abi Safra, who led the war on the Kharijites to force them to retreat away from their habitats and resources, to weaken them and provoke disagreement between them, so they fought between them and weakened and dispersed, so he took the opportunity and eliminated the Kharijites in the battle of Al-Bustan in 77 AH.
By the end of this year, the state of Abdul Malik bin Marwan had expanded and expanded, starting from the borders of the Balkh River, the Sijistan Mountains and the outskirts of India in the east, to the central Maghreb in the west, and from the Caspian and Black Seas in the north to the borders of Nubia and Sudan in the south.
Conquests east and west
Abd al-Malik had nothing to do with the conquests comparable to that of his predecessors, and he was busy for more than half of his reign in unifying the country under his banner, yet he directed the Islamic army to conquer the Far Maghreb, from Cyrenaica and Tripolitania to Ifriqiya (Tunisia), and to the Far Maghreb.
On the other hand, the Romans took advantage of Abd al-Malik's preoccupation with eliminating rivals and putting down the rebellion, so they began to move elements loyal to them in Mount Lebanon and stir up unrest on the northern border, and they also raided sites that became under the control of Muslims in North Africa, so Abdul Malik resorted to politics after he entered into a confrontation with the Christian Jarajmeh in Lebanon, and began negotiations with the King of the Romans.
He reached a treaty with him in which he agreed to pay a thousand dinars every Friday, hoping to end his conflict with competitors within the Islamic State, to turn to his Christian enemies, and in exchange for this amount he stipulated to the Romans that they transfer the Jarajma from Lebanon to the Balkans, putting down the raging revolution on the west from the capital of his state.
This treaty remained in force for 3 years until he was able to eliminate his rivals and devote himself to the Romans after that.
The incursion into the nearby Byzantine lands began, so Al-Sawaf and Al-Shawati were regularly going out to raid enemy territory led by Muhammad bin Marwan, my brother Abdul Malik, and then his son Abdullah bin Abdul Malik, and continued until it reached its peak in 99 AH, in an attempt to siege Constantinople.
Reforms during the reign of Abdul Malik
Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan had an interest in the administrative affairs of the country, and one of his most prominent administrative effects was the Arabization of currency and the Arabization of diwans.
The Islamic State since its inception until the era of Abdul Malik dealing in foreign currency, in continuation of what the Arabs were in the pre-Islamic era days of their trade with their neighboring countries, and foreign currencies were available until the end of the Persian state, so their currency entered fraud and counterfeiting, forcing Abdul Malik to order to take a house to strike the currency in Damascus and Kufa in 74 AH, and within two years the Islamic currency was pervasive in all Islamic countries.
He then ordered the Arabization of diwans that used foreign languages, and people had to learn these languages to facilitate their administrative and daily lives.
At the level of architecture and construction, Abd al-Malik rebuilt the Kaaba after the pilgrims demolished it during the siege of Mecca on the bases it was on before Ibn al-Zubayr built it, which he worked hard to be according to what the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) wanted, where Aisha (may Allaah be pleased with her) says: The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: "Your people have shortened the construction of the house, and if it were not for the newness of their covenant of polytheism, you would have prepared what they left of it. They left him, and he saw her close to seven cubits.)
Among them is also the construction of the Dome of the Rock between the years 66-72 AH, which "had no counterpart on earth joy and view, and it had lobes, jewels, mosaics and many other things, and brilliant types," as Ibn Kathir said.
Death
In Ramadan of the year 86 AH, Abdul Malik became ill and was afraid of death in it, and it was narrated that he said, "I fear death in Ramadan;
When Ramadan had elapsed and his illness had subsided, he was reassured of life again, but fate hurried him in the middle of Shawwal, and he died at the age of 62 years, and remained in power for 21 years.