b. Abi ’l-ʿAṣ , Abu ’l-Ḳāsim and then Abū ʿAbd al-Malik, first caliph of the Marwānid branch of the Umayyad dynasty [ q.v.], reigned for several months in 64-5/684-5. Marwān, born of al-Ḥakam’s wife Āmina bt. ʿAlḳama al-Kināniyya, stemmed from the same branch of the Umayyad clan of Ḳurays̲h̲, se. Abu ’l-ʿĀṣ, as the Rightly-guided caliph ʿUt̲h̲mān, and was in fact ʿUt̲h̲mān’s cousin. The sources generally place his birth in A.H. 2 or 4 ( ca. 623-6), but it may well have occurred before the Hid̲j̲ra in any case, he must have known the Prophet and was accounte…

b. Ḏj̲abala al-Asadī , satirical Arab poet of the 1st/7th century. Physically deformed, for he was hunch-backed and lame, he possessed some spitefulness, which shows in his diatribes, but he had a lively wit, prompt repartee, humour, and the subtlety of the G̲h̲āḍira clan to which he belonged [cf. al-g̲h̲āḍirī ]. He was born ¶ at Kūfa and lived there till ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Zubayr drove out the Umayyad authorities (64/684) whom he followed to Damascus where he was admitted to the intimacy of ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwān. He then went back to Kūfa and was closely connected with Bis̲h̲r b. Marwān [ q.v.] …

b. Muḥammad b. Marwān b. al-Ḥakam , the last of the Ūmayyad caliphs of Syria (reigned 127/744 to 132/749-50) was, on his father’s side, a grandson of the caliph Marwān I [ q.v.], but there are variant accounts concerning his mother and the year of his birth. It is frequently reported that his mother was a non-Arab woman (sometimes specified as a Kurd) who passed into the possession of Marwān’s father Muḥammad after ʿAbd al-Malik’s defeat of Muṣʿab b. al-Zubayr and his general Ibrāhīm b. al-Ashtar in 72/691. Some reports say th…

b. al-Ḥakam , Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, son of the first Marwānid caliph by a slave mother, hence half-brother to the caliph ʿAbd al-Malik [ q.v.], Umayyad commander and governor. In 65/684-5, he was sent by his father to al-D̲j̲azīra, probably with the aim of securing Armenia once more, and in the battle of Dayr al-D̲j̲āt̲h̲alīḳ in 72/691 in which ʿAbd al-Malik defeated Muṣʿab b. al-Zubayr, he commanded the advanced guard of the Syrian army. In the following year, ʿAbd al-Malik gave him the governorship of al-D̲j̲azīra and Armen…

b. al-ḥakam , Abū Marwān, an Umayyad prince, son of the Caliph, Marwān [ q.v.] and of Ḳuṭayya bint Bis̲h̲r (of the Banū D̲j̲aʿfar b. Kilāb, thus a Ḳaysite). He took part in the battle of Mard̲j̲ Rāhiṭ (65/684) and there killed a Kilāb chief. After his father’s accession to the Caliphate he followed him at the time of his expedition to Egypt, for the sources tell us that when in 65/684 Marwān had regained this province for the Umayyads, taking it from Ibn al-Zubayr [ q.v.] who had seized it in S̲h̲aʿbān 64/March-April 684, and had put his son, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz [ q.v.] in charge of the Prayer and the …

b. His̲h̲ām , Abu ’l-ʿAsī, third Umayyad amīr of Cordova. The second son of his father, who died prematurely, he succeeded on 3 Ṣafar 180/17 April 796 when 26 years old. At his ¶ proclamation the internal truce was broken and his uncles Sulaymān and ʿAbd Allāh, sons of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān I, disputed his authority and crossed from Barbary to Spain. ʿAbd Allāh made for the Upper Frontier, but he found conditions unfavourable there and went with his sons ʿUbayd Allāh and ʿAbd al-Malik to negotiate with Charlemagne at Aix-la-Chapelle a…

, fifth Caliph of the Umayyad line, reigned 65-86/685-705. According to general report he was born in the year 26/646-7, the son of Marwān b. al-Ḥakam [ q.v.], his mother being ʿĀʾis̲h̲a bint Muʿāwiya b. al-Mug̲h̲īra. As a boy of ten he was an eye-witness of the storming of ʿUt̲h̲mān’s house, and, at the age of sixteen Muʿāwiya appointed him to command the Madinian troops against the Byzantines. He remained at Medina until the outbreak of the rebellion against Yazīd I (62-3/682-3). When the Umayyads were expelled by the rebels, he left the town with his ¶ father, but on meeting the Syrian …

Abū muḥammad , the most prominent representative of Imāmī kalām [ q.v.] in the time of the Imāms D̲j̲aʿfar al-Ṣāḍiḳ and Mūsā al-Kāẓim. A client of the tribe of Kinda, he was born and raised in Wāsiṭ, but later lived in Kūfa among the Banū S̲h̲aybān. He is said to have been a D̲j̲ahmī before his conversion to S̲h̲īʿism by the Imām D̲j̲aʿfar al-Ṣādiḳ. Other accounts, however, point to his early association with representatives of dualist religions, notably with Abū S̲h̲ākir al-Dayṣānī. It is certain that after his conversion to S̲h̲īʿīsm he held disputations with Abū S̲h̲ākir and ¶ other duali…

, vizier to the ʿAbbāsid al-Muʿtaṣim, and an ʿIrāḳi of Christian origin. He began his career modestly as a retainer of Hart̲h̲ama, the commander of Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd’s guard. Later, as a result of his particular talents, he became a secretary in the Land Tax office under the same caliph and subsequently he retired to ʿIrāḳ to the estates he had acquired during the civil war. It was there, in the region of al-Baradān, that he had an opportunity, during the reign of al-Maʾmūn, to gain the attentio…

, the most famous members of a family which included several poets; al-T̲h̲aʿālibī characterises it as the most poetic of families in Islam, with six poets amongst its members. The origins of the family’s ancestor Abū Ḥafṣa Yazīd are obscure. He was a mawlā of the Umayyad Marwān b. al-Ḥakam, whom he aided on various historical occasions during the caliphate of ʿUt̲h̲mān and under ʿAlī. It is impossible to decide exactly whether he was of Persian or Jewish origin. Freed by Marwān, he was entrusted with certain posts,…

refers to the son and the four grandsons of ʿAbd al-Ḥakam (said to have died in 171/787-88), a wealthy and influential family of legal scholars and historians in 3rd/9th century Egypt. The Banū ʿAbd al-Ḥakam were among those who introduced Mālikism into Egypt. They were also intimately connected with al-S̲h̲afiʿī [ q.v.], providing the initial financing of his stay in Egypt. Al-S̲h̲āfiʿī is said to have died in their house (Ibn Farḥūn, 134), and he was buried in their family plot. Later, they dissociated themselves from his teaching. Their promi…

, al-Mustanṣir bi’llāh , second Umayyad Caliph of Spain, son of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III. His reign was one of the most peaceful and fruitful of the Cordovan dynasty. In his time Cordova, as an intellectual capital, shone even more brilliantly than under ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III. Though nominated heir-apparent in his first youth he was 46 years old before assuming power (2 or 3 Ramaḍān 350/15 or 16 October 961). He had acquired a long and direct experience of public affairs and as a state…

al-Māzinī , a minor poet of Baṣra, of whose work there remain only some lines of g̲h̲azal [ q.v.] that are entirely proper and for the most part set to music, and also a small number of invectives against Muslim b. al-Walīd [ q.v.]. The date of his birth, which must have taken place in about 110/728-9, is not precisely known, and the only indications concerning him that we possess are two anecdotes: the first tells of the female slaves of Sulaymān b. ʿAlī (d. 142/759 [ q.v.]) maltreating Ibn Ḳanbar, even stripping him in the street, because they were astonished to find so ugly a m…

b. Yūnus , called ibn al-Ḏj̲illīḳī ("son of the Galician"), famous chief of insurgents in the West of al-Andalus in the second half of the 3rd/9th century. He belonged to a family of neo-Muslims ( muwalladūn ), originating from the North of Portugal and established in Merida. Although his father had been governor of this town on behalf of the sovereigns of Cordova, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān revolted against the Umayyad Amīr Muḥammad I in 254/868. The Amīr besieged him and forced him, after the capitulation of the city, …

, son of the caliph Marwān I and father of ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz was appointed governor of Egypt by his father, and the appointment was confirmed by ʿAbd al-Malik, when he ascended the throne. During his twenty years’ sojourn in Egypt, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz proved himself a capable governor, who really had the welfare of his province at heart. When in the year 69/689, ʿAbd al-Malik, after the assasination of his rebellious lieutenant ʿAmr b. Saʿīd, intended to have the latter’s relatives…

, the second Umayyad caliph ( r. 60-4/680-3). He was named as his successor by his father [see muʿāwiya i ]. His mother was Maysūn, a sister of the Kalbī leader Ibn Baḥdal [see Ḥassān b. mālik ]. The Banū Kalb [see kalb b. wabara ] were strong in the southern regions of Syria, and Muʿāwiya appointed Yazīd as his successor in preference to an older half-brother, ʿAbd Allāh, born of a Ḳuras̲h̲ī mother. Yazīd’s kunya , Abū K̲h̲ālid, refers to one of his own younger sons [see k̲h̲ālid b. yazīd ]. During his father’s caliphate, Yazīd commanded expeditions ( ṣawāʾif see Ṣāʾifa . 1…

, Umayyad caliph of al-Andalus, proclaimed at Cordova in 400/1009, died in 407/1016. The two phases of his reign are located in the period of the Andalusī fitna following the “Revolution of Cordova”, at the time of the serious political crisis which was to lead to the demise of the Umayyad caliphate in 422/1031. When the Cordovans put an end to the ʿĀmirid régime in D̲j̲umādā II-Rad̲j̲ab 399/February-March 1009, and replaced the incompetent caliph His̲h̲ām II with one of his cousins, Muḥammad al-Mahdī, the latter, on account of his political blunde…

b. Ḵh̲anzal al-Kindī, Abu ’l-Miḳdām or Abū Naṣr (full nasab in Gottschalk, 331, from Ibn ʿAsākir), a rather mysterious mawlā or client who seems to have been influential as a religious and political adviser at the courts of the early Marwānid caliphs, from ʿAbd al-Malik to ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. His birth date is unknown, but he died in 112/730, probably around the age of seventy. According to one account, Rad̲j̲ahʾ’s family stemmed from Maysān in Lower ʿIrāḳ, hence from the local Nabaṭ or Aramaeans, where the bond of walā with the Arab tribe of Kinda [ q.v.] must have been made, the Kinda…

b. Abī Sufyān , the founder of the Umayyad dynasty of caliphs based in Syria (although not, as is often asserted, the first Umayyad caliph: that was ʿUt̲h̲mān b. ʿAffān [ q.v.], his second ¶ cousin), ruled as generally acknowledged caliph from 41/661 to 60/680. His father was Abū Sufyān (Ṣak̲h̲r) b. Ḥarb b. Umayya al-Akbar b. ʿAbd S̲h̲ams [ q.v.] and his mother was Hint bint ʿUtba b. Rabīʿa [ q.v.], on account of whom Muʿāwiya is sometimes referred to as Ibn Hind and Ibn ākilat al-akbād , “the son of the liver-eater” (cf. below). The sources provide conflicting reports of the date of Muʿāw…

b. ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwān I, Umayyad caliph for approximately six months in 126/744. He is known in tradition as al-Nāḳiṣ (the Depriver, or the Deficient; various explanations are given). He is said to have boasted that through his mother, one of Yazdagird Ill’s granddaughters captured in Transoxania, he had inherited both Sāsānid and Byzantine blood. He has a reputation for asceticism and piety, and was accepted as a righteous Imām not only by his immediate supporters but by some later theorists too (al-Ḳāḍī ʿAbd al-D̲j̲abbār, Mug̲h̲nī , Cairo n.d., xx/2, 150). Yazīd obtained the cal…