Systems

The First Dynasty of Islam The period 661ndash750 AD was a crucial one for the history of Islamand the Middle East The territories conquered by the Muslims in theMiddle East north Africa and Spain were ruled from Syria by asuccession of caliphs belonging to the Umayyad family the firstcaliphal dynasty to emerge in the history of Islam Under their rulethe region began a process of transformation which eventually led tothe emergence of Islam both as a religion and as a culture in itsclassical form

The First Dynasty of Islam provides a succinct and accessibleintroduction to the Umayyad period An introductory chapterdiscusses the importance of the era as a whole with further chaptersexamining bull the Umayyad family and its rise to the Caliphatebull the Sufyanidsbull the second civil warbull bd al-Malik and al-Hajjajbull the development of factionalism and the problems of

Islamisationbull the third civil war and the caliphate of Marwan IIbull the overthrow of the Umayyad caliphate The first edition established itself as a balanced and approachabletext for undergraduates and others interested in the early history ofIslam This second edition with an expanded and up-to-datebibliography will prove even more useful to its intended readership

GRHawting is Senior Lecturer in the History of the Near andMiddle East at the School of Oriental and African StudiesUniversity of London

The First Dynastyof Islam

The Umayyad Caliphate AD 661ndash750

Second edition

GRHawting

London and New York

First published 1986by Croom Helm Ltd

Second edition published 2000

by Routledge11 New Fetter Lane London EC4P 4EE

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge29 West 35th Street New York NY 10001

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor amp Francis Group

This edition published in the Taylor amp Francis e-Library 2002

copy 1986 2000 GRHawting

All rights reserved No part of this book may be reprintedor reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic

mechanical or other means now known or hereafterinvented including photocopying and recording or in any

information storage or retrieval system without permissionin writing from the publishers

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from theBritish Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

A catalog record for this book has been requested

ISBN 0-415-24073-5 (Pbk)ISBN 0-415-24072-7 (Hbk)

ISBN 0-203-13700-0 Master e-book ISBNISBN 0-203-17692-8 (Glassbook Format)

Contents

Conventions viiAbbreviations ixGlossary xiFigures and Maps xiiiForeword to the Second Edition xixPreface and Acknowledgements xxi

Chapter 1 Introduction The Importance of the UmayyadPeriod and its Place in Islamic History 1

Islamisation 1Arabisation 9The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition 11

Chapter 2 The Umayyad Family and its Rise tothe Caliphate 21

The Background of the Umayyads 21Mulsquoawiyarsquos Acquisition of the Caliphate 24

Chapter 3 The Sufyanids 34

Organisation and Administration of the Caliphate 34Events and Personalities of the Sufyanid Period 40

Chapter 4 The Second Civil War 46

Chapter 5 lsquoAbd al-Malik and al-Hajjaj 58

Changes in Government and Administration 61Al-Hajjaj in Iraq 66

Chapter 6 The Development of Factionalism and theProblems of Islamisation 72

The Family of al-Muhallab and theDevelopment of Factionalism 73lsquoUmar II and the Mawali 76Hisham and Khalid al-Qasri 81

vi Contents

Chapter 7 The Third Civil War and the Caliphateof Marwan II 90Walid II 90Yazid III 94Marwan II 96

Chapter 8 The Overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate 104

The Muslims of Khurasan 105The Army 107The lsquoAbbasids and the Hashimiyya 109The Umayyad Collapse 115

Appendix 1 A Note on the Sources 120Appendix 2 Modern Developments in the Study of and

Attitudes to Umayyad History 123

Bibliographical Postscript to the Second Edition 129

Bibliography 139

Index 145

vii

Conventions

Dates Unless there is a particular reason for providing

the Islamic hijri date all dates are AD

References In the notes to the text given at the end of eachchapter references are usually to the name ofthe author or editor and a short form of the titleof the work Full titles together with date andplace of publication are provided in thebibliography See the list of abbreviations forthe titles of journals etc

Transliteration A full scholarly transliteration is not provided inthe text but the bibliography and index aretranslit-erated The bibliography reproduces thevarious methods of transliteration used by theauthors cited My transliteration follows thesystem of the Encyclopaedia of Islam with thefew modifications customary in works inEnglish On the whole readers without anyArabic will safely ignore the transliterationsymbols but may wish to note the following lsquo= the Arabic letter lsquoayn a guttural soundproduced by constricting the larynx rsquo = thehamza a glottal stop like the tt in the Cockneypronunciation of butter vowels are short unlessthey have a macron (macr) over them ibn(abbreviated to b in the middle of a name) =lsquoson ofrsquo B (abbreviation of Banu) =lsquodescendants ofrsquo lsquofamily ofrsquo lsquoclan ofrsquo lsquotribeofrsquo as appropriate

ix

Abbreviations

AIEOr Annales de lrsquoInstitut des Eacutetudes OrientalesAIUON Annali Istituto Universitario Orientate di NapoliAJSL American Journal for Semitic Languages and

Literatures

BSOAS Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African StudiesBZ Byzantinische Zeitschrift

CMedH Cambridge Mediaeval History

EI1 Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st editionEI2 Encyclopaedia of Islam 2nd edition

GS IGoldziher Gesammelte Schriften

IC Islamic CultureIJMES International Journal of Middle East StudiesIOS Israel Oriental StudiesIQ Islamic QuarterlyIsl Der Islam

JA Journal AsiatiqueJAOS Journal of the American Oriental SocietyJESHO Journal of the Economic and Social History of the

OrientJRAS Journal of the Royal Asiatic SocietyJSAI Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and IslamJSS Journal of Semitic Studies

MW Muslim World

PPHS Proceedings of the Pakistan Historical Society

x Abbreviations

Rend Linc Rendiconti dell Accademia Nazionale dei LinceiClasse di scienze morali storiche e filologiche

RH Revue HistoriqueRHR Revue de lrsquoHistoire des ReligionsRO Rocznik orientalistycznyRSO Rivista degli studi orientali

SI Studia Islamica

WI Die Welt des Islams

ZA Zeitschrift fuumlr AssyriologieZDMG Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlaumlndischen Gesellschaft

xi

Glossary

amir lsquocommanderrsquo an army leader andor governor ofa province

amir al-mursquominin lsquoCommander of the Believersrsquo a title of thecaliph

ashraf leading members of the leading families amongthe Arab tribesmen

barid the system of communications between the

provinces and the caliphal courtbaylsquoa the pledge of allegiance given to a caliph heir

apparent or contender for power dar al-islam the regions under Muslim government in contrast

to the dar al-harb (lsquohouse of warrsquo)dalsquowa lsquocallrsquo lsquopropagandarsquo the movement which

prepared the way for the lsquoAbbasid takeover of thecaliphate

dinar the gold coindirham the silver coindiwan the register of individuals entitled to pay or

pension from the government a governmentdepartment

fils the copper coinfiqh the theory of Islamic law (not the law itself the

sharilsquoa)fitna conflict within the Muslim community especially

that between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya hajj the pilgrimage to Mecca in the month of Dhursquol-

Hijja

xii Glossary

imam a) the supreme head of the Muslims particularlyused in this sense by the Shilsquoites b) a prayerleader in a mosque c) an honorific title applied toa religious scholar

jizya a tax in the classical system a poll tax (tax on

individual persons)jund lsquoarmyrsquo a military district khalifa lsquodeputyrsquo the caliphkharaj a tax in the classical system a land taxkhutba a speech in the early period any speech of

importance delivered by a figure of authorityespecially the caliph or governor eventuallydeveloping into the sermon delivered at the mid-day prayer service in the mosque on Fridays

majus lsquoMagianrsquo in the strict sense Zoroastrians but used

more widely for followers of religions other thanJudaism or Christianity to whom the Muslimswished to grant some toleration

mawla lsquoclientrsquo a non-Arab who has accepted Islam afollower of an important individual

salat the ritual five times daily prayer service of Islamshurta a small force used by the governor or other

authority to keep ordersunna lsquoaccepted usage or practicersquo eventually identified

with the Sunna of the Prophet the usage ofMuhammad which Sunni Islam accepted as beingtogether with the Koran the main source ofauthority for its law

lsquoulamarsquo the religious scholars of Islam walirsquol-lsquoahd the heir apparent The meanings given are those usually applicable in this book Inother contexts the words may have other meanings

Figu

re 1

Th

e lsquoN

orth

erne

rsrsquo

Figu

re 2

Th

e lsquoS

outh

erne

rsrsquo

Figu

re 3

Th

e U

may

yads

Figu

re 4

Th

e O

ther

Des

cend

ants

of lsquo

Abd

Man

af

xix

Foreword to the Second Edition

In spite of some significant developments in our understanding ofaspects of the history of the Umayyad caliphate in the fifteen yearsor so since this book was first published readily accessibleintroductions to the period for undergraduates and interested non-specialists remain few This book was generally well received byreviewers and has proved useful for its intended readership Since ithas been out of print for some time and in any case was availableonly as a (rather expensive) hardback it has now been decided toreissue it in paperback The opportunity has been taken to correct afew errors (for pointing out which I am grateful to reviewers) and toadd a postscript surveying some of the important work relevant tothe Umayyad caliphate which has appeared since the first edition in1986 The postscript also refers to a few works which should havebeen included in the original bibliography

For technical reasons it has not been possible to change theoriginal text in three places where some expansion is required

At p 83 with reference to the victory of Charles Martel over theArabs the date of 732 should probably be changed to 733 At thevery least the article of MBaudoit lsquoLocalisation et datation de lapremiegravere victoire remporteacutee par Charles Martel contre lesmusulmansrsquo in Meacutemoires et documents publieacutes par la Societeacute delrsquoEcole de Chartres 12 (1955) 93ndash105 needs to be consulted on thisquestion Secondly at p 52 it is wrong to give the impression thatthe term mahdi is not known in accounts of events before the risingof al-Mukhtar it occurs of course apparently for the first time inreports about the rising of the Tawwabun which took place justbefore that of al-Mukhtar I am especially grateful for MichaelMoronyrsquos review (IJMES 21 (1989)) for drawing attention to thesepoints I remain unconvinced however that the word mahdioriginally lacked any eschatological significance

Finally on p 91 reference is made to the theory that RusafatHisham was not at the Rusafa which was ancient Sergiopolis but wasrather to be identified with Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi near Palmyra I

xx Foreword to the Second Edition

ought to have known but did not that that theory proposed bySauvaget and others has been discredited by Oleg Grabar in hiswork on Qasr al-Hayr City in the Desert Qasr al-Hayr East(Cambridge Ma Harvard University Press 1978) There is now aconvenient discussion of Ruafat Hisham in the second edition ofthe Encyclopaedia of Islam sv lsquoRusafarsquo (by C-PHaase) whichexplains too the problematic tradition that Hisham was there whenhe received the caliphal regalia

GRH March 2000

xxi

Preface and Acknowledgements

Between the general surveys of Islamic Arab or Middle Easternhistory of which there are several of varying quality and detailedmonographs on particular aspects of Umayyad history many ofwhich are not in English there is little that can be recommendedconfidently as an introduction to the importance main events andpersonalities and problems of the Umayyad period The presentwork tries to provide such an introduction

The standard modern account of Umayyad history is JuliusWellhausenrsquos The Arab kingdom and its fall first published inGerman in 1902 and translated into English in 1927 In spite of theinevitable dating of Wellhausenrsquos own political and religiousoutlook and the criticisms of his method of source analysis maderecently by Albrecht Noth his book remains of fundamentalimportance for anyone wanting more than an introductoryknowledge of Umayyad history particularly its political andmilitary events The present work is certainly not intended tosupersede The Arab kingdom

As an introduction however experience has shown thatWellhausenrsquos work is not especially suitable Leaving aside therather idiosyncratic English of its translation it contains more detailthan is readily absorbed its presentation is not as clear as modernreaders expect and its concern with source criticism is notappreciated by those who do not have even a simplified traditionalnarrative against which to set it Attempts to get students to read anddigest Wellhausen usually result in puzzlement and the beginningsof a conviction that Umayyad history is too difficult forundergraduate study

But there is really little else especially in English which treatsthe period as a whole and which can serve as an introduction MAShabanrsquos first volume of his Islamic history A new interpretation itis true is readily available and does provide a lively narrativecoverage of the period Its interpretation however seems to me tobe frequently questionable and on occasion only loosely related to

xxii Preface

the sources and the title itself indicates that it was not conceived asan introduction Similarly Patricia Cronersquos Slaves on horses seemsto me a brilliant analysis of the development of the early Islamicstate and society but not a book for relative beginners since itpresumes rather than provides a fairly detailed acquaintance withthe events of the period There still seems a need therefore for thesort of introduction which I have attempted here

Given then that the present work is not attempting to provide awholly new version of the Umayyad period and that much of itdepends on the findings of the many scholars who have contributedto our understanding of Umayyad history it has seemed unnecessaryto provide references to the original Arabic or other sourcesReaders capable of studying the primary sources themselves willeasily be able to track them down in the secondary works to whichreferences are normally confined in my notes These notes areusually a guide to further reading with readers of English primarilyin mind and are not necessarily the sources of particular statementsbut in a general way they indicate the scholars and works to which Ihave been most indebted Neither the references in my notes nor thebibliography given at the end claim to be complete or extensive butI hope that I have mentioned most works of fundamentalimportance

My special thanks are due to my colleague Dr David Morganwho kindly read the whole typescript and whose feeling for bothhistory and style has undoubtedly saved me from a number ofblunders to my wife Joyce who has similarly read and commentedon the typescript to Sue Harrop the Cartographer at the School ofAfrican and Oriental Studies University of London for help withthe maps and to Peter Sowden who first suggested that I write thebook and then gently prodded until it was done For the remaininglimitations imperfections and errors I am responsible

1

Chapter 1

Introduction The Importance of theUmayyad Period and its Place in IslamicHistory

In the summer or autumn of AD 661 Mulsquoawiya b Abi Sufyangovernor of Syria since 639 and already acclaimed by his Syrianfollowers as caliph (khalifa) religious and political leader of theMuslim state entered the Iraqi garrison town of Kufa In historicaltradition this event is seen as bringing to an end a bitter period ofcivil war among the Arabs achieving the reunification under oneruler of all the territories conquered by them and initiating thecaliphate of the Umayyad dynasty of which Mulsquoawiya was thefounder The dynasty was to rule for 90 years or so until itsoverthrow and replacement by that of the lsquoAbbasids in 749ndash50

The Umayyad dynasty was the first to emerge in the Middle Eastfollowing the conquest of the region by the Arabs a conquest whichhad begun in the 630s and was still continuing for much of theUmayyad period Apart from this fact however what was theimportance of the period of Umayyad rule a period which in itsdetails is often complex and confusing and how has it traditionallybeen regarded by Muslims in relation to the history of Islam Theanswer to the first part of this question is provided by discussion ofthe two concepts of islamisation and arabisation referring to tworelated but essentially distinct historical processes

Islamisation

The term lsquoislamisationrsquo refers both to the extension of the area underMuslim rule and to the acceptance of Islam as their religion bypeoples of different faiths but in the Umayyad period the question isfurther complicated by the fact that Islam itself was developing fromits still to us not completely understood origins into somethingapproaching the religion with which we are familiar One should notimagine that Islam as we know it came fully formed out of Arabiawith the Arabs at the time of their conquest of the Middle East and

2 Introduction

was then accepted or rejected as the case might be by the non-Arabpeoples Although many of the details are obscure and oftencontroversial it seems clear that Islam as we know it is largely a resultof the interaction between the Arabs and the peoples they conqueredduring the first two centuries or so of the Islamic era which began inAD 6221 During the Umayyad period therefore the spread of Islamand the development of Islam were taking place at the same time anda discussion of islamisation has to begin with some consideration ofthe importance of the Umayyad period for the development of Islam

In the first place it was under the Umayyads that there began toemerge that class of religious scholars which eventually became theleading authority within Sunni Islam and which is chiefly responsiblefor shaping the historical and religious tradition which has comedown to us In effect it was this class which led the development ofIslam as we know it and it is important to remember that it emergedlargely in opposition to the Umayyad government The Umayyads hadtheir own conception of Islam itself developing with time anddifferent circumstances but on the whole we see the religion from theviewpoint of the religious scholars

In the emergence of this class the most important region was Iraqand in Iraq Kufa was the leading centre Other regions tended tofollow its lead Building on and reacting against the ideas andpractices available in Kufa and other centres from the second half ofthe Umayyad period onwards groups of Muslim scholars tried todevelop and put on a sound footing what they saw as a true form ofIslam In doing so they frequently accused the Umayyads of impiousor unislamic behaviour

The main concept which these scholars developed and worked withwas that of the Sunna This idea went through several stages butincreasingly came to be identified with the custom and practice of theProphet Muhammad which was to serve as the ideal norm ofbehaviour for his followers and was eventually accepted as the majorsource of Muslim law alongside the Koran Increasingly Muslimideas practices and institutions came to be justified by reference tothe Sunna the words and deeds of Muhammad as transmitted by hiscompanions to later generations The proponents of the Sunna as thusunderstood became increasingly influential and political andreligious developments after the Umayyads had been overthrownresulted in the final crystallisation of the Sunni form of Islam with thereligious scholars the guardians of the Sunna as its leadingauthority2

Introduction 3

Not all Muslims though accepted the primacy or even thelegitimacy of the Sunna and the Umayyad period also saw theemergence of the two other main forms of Islam Shilsquoism andKharijism Tradition dates the fragmentation of a previously unitedIslam into the three main forms which we know today (SunnisShilsquoites and Kharijites) to the time of the first civil war (656ndash61)which ended with the accession of Mulsquoawiya to the caliphateHowever just as the development of Sunni Islam was a slow processwhich only began under the Umayyads so too Shilsquoism andKharijism were not born in one instant They too developed inopposition to the Umayyads in a number of distinct movementswhich each had individual characteristics and again Iraq was ofprime importance

Kufa was the centre of the development of Shilsquoism in theUmayyad period As early as 670 but especially after the revolt ofMukhtar in 685ndash7 Kufa saw a number of movements aimed atoverthrowing the Umayyads and appointing a relative of theProphet usually a descendant of his cousin and son-in-law lsquoAli asimam which title the Shilsquoites tend to prefer to caliph Where theseShilsquoite movements differed from one another was in the particularmember of the Prophetrsquos family whom they favoured and in certainother doctrines they developed what they had in common wasdevotion to the Prophetrsquos family and insistence that membership ofit was a sine qua non for the imam Some of them developed moreextreme beliefs such as acceptance of the imam as an incarnation ofGod and a doctrine of the transmigration of souls It seems that froman early date the conquered non-Arab peoples were attracted to theShilsquoite movements and it may be that some of their doctrines wereinfluenced by the previous beliefs of these non-Arab supportersShilsquoism has a long and complex history which extends well beyondthe Umayyad period but it was then that its basic character wasestablished3

The basic principle of Kharijism was a demand for piety andreligious excellence as the only necessary qualification for the imamand a rejection of the view that he should belong to the family of theProphet as the Shilsquoites demanded or to the tribe of the Prophet(Quraysh) as the Sunnis required Like Shilsquoism Kharijism too wasmanifested in a number of movements some relatively moderate andothers more extreme The extremists tended to insist on the rejectionof all other Muslims regarding them as infidels and therefore liable tobe killed unless they lsquorepentedrsquo and lsquoaccepted Islamrsquo that is unless

4 Introduction

they recognised the Kharijite imam and accepted the Kharijite form ofIslam This fierce rejection of other Muslims however involving theduty of rebellion against what was regarded as an illegitimategovernment became increasingly difficult to maintain except in areasremote from the authority of the government or in times when theauthority of the government for some reason collapsed In Basra thesecond of the Iraqi garrison towns on the other hand a moremoderate form of Kharijism was elaborated and spread to easternArabia and North Africa It is this form of Kharijism which hassurvived into the modern world4

Each of these three main Muslim groups came to hold that Islamshould be open to all peoples and that all should enjoy the same statuswithin it regarding rights and duties The development of this idea tooof Islam as a universal religion can be traced to the Umayyad periodagain in circles opposed to the dynasty

Although it can be debated whether the Koran was addressed to allmen or to the Arabs only the Umayyads and the Arab tribesmen whofirst conquered the Middle East regarded their religion as largelyexclusive of the conquered peoples There was no sustained attempt toforce or even persuade the conquered peoples to accept Islam and itwas assumed that they would remain in their own communities payingtaxes to support the conquerors Although from the start there wassome movement of the conquered into the community of theconquerors the separation of Arabs from non-Arabs was a basicprinciple of the state established as a result of the conquests This isclear both from the procedure which a non-Arab had to adopt in orderto enter Islam and from the fact that there were from time to timeofficial measures designed to prevent such changes of status Islamwas in fact regarded as the property of the conquering aristocracy

In order to attach himself to the religion and society of the Arabs anon-Arab had to become the client (mawla pl mawali) of an Arabtribe In other words in order to become a Muslim something whichit is possible to see as a social or political as much as a religious movehe had to acquire an Arab patron and become a sort of honorarymember of his patronrsquos tribe adding the tribal name to his own newMuslim one even though he and his descendants were in some waystreated as second-class Muslims It is evident therefore thatmembership of Islam was equated with possession of an Arab ethnicidentity5

Nevertheless association with the elite in this way did haveadvantages for some and at various times in different places we hear

Introduction 5

of large numbers of non-Arabs attempting to enter Islam bybecoming mawali but being prevented from doing so or at leastfrom having their changed status recognised by local Umayyadgovernors Probably the best-known example was in Iraq around 700when large numbers of local non-Arab cultivators sought to abandontheir lands and flee into the Arab garrison towns to enter Islam asmawali only to be forced back by the Umayyad governor al-Hajjajwho refused to recognise their claims

In the long run it proved impossible to maintain the isolation ofconquerors and conquered from one another in this way andattempts to do so only served to alienate further those Muslimgroups which had come to see Islam as a religion open to all Theproblem for the Umayyads was that they had come to power asleaders of a conquering Arab elite and to have allowed theconquered peoples to enter Islam en masse would have abolished orat least weakened the distinction between the elite and the massesThe crucial privileges of Islam from this point of view were in thearea of taxation In principle the Arabs were to be the recipients ofthe taxes paid by the non-Arabs If the conquered peoples wereallowed to become Muslims and to change their position from thatof payers to that of recipients of taxes the whole system upon whichthe Umayyads depended would collapse But as the pressure fromthe non-Arabs built up and the universalist notion of Islam becamestronger this problem became increasingly urgent for the dynastyand played a major part in the generally negative attitude of Muslimstowards the Umayyad dynasty6

How far the development of Islam in the Umayyad periodinvolved radical changes in religious practices or beliefs is not easyto say Broadly speaking Muslim tradition assumes that thefundamental institutions of Islammdashsuch things as belief inMuhammad as a prophet acceptance of the Koran in the form inwhich we know it as the word of God and performance of the mainrituals such as the five times daily prayer (salat) and the annualpilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) mdashexisted at the beginning of theUmayyad period and were accepted equally by the Umayyads andtheir opponents The difficulty is to decide how far our Muslimsources which are relatively late in the form in which we have themare reading back later conditions into an earlier period

Sometimes certainly we have hints that the situation was not sostatic or so uniform as the tradition generally implies For examplewe are told that Muslim rebels supporting Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the

6 Introduction

Umayyads in the early years of the eighth century accused the caliphof lsquomurderingrsquo the ritual prayer (salat) and called for vengeance forit although what this meant and what exactly was involved ifanything specific is not spelled out7 Even such tantalisinglyobscure hints are relatively scarce and when we do sometimes havemore substantial information its significance seems often to belimited in one of two ways

First the information may centre on a point which seems to berelatively minor For instance much play is made with the chargethat the Umayyads insisted on delivering the khutba (in the earlyperiod a speech or sermon given usually in the mosque by the caliphor his representative and often dealing with secular as well as morepurely religious affairs) while sitting contrary to what is alleged tohave been the practice established by the Prophet and his immediatesuccessors This is supposed to be a sign of the haughtiness of theUmayyads refusing to stand before their subjects and preferringlike kings to remain seated Even though the detail may have lostsome of its significance because of the later decline in importance ofthe khutba and its associated institutions and ceremonies howeverit is difficult to see arguments about the correct posture for thekhutba as of fundamental importance for the development of IslamIn the way in which the practice is presented by Muslim tradition itdoes not provide grounds for arguing that the outward forms ofIslam underwent great and radical changes under the Umayyads8

Secondly even when the information is apparently more weightythe impression is usually given that the Umayyads were pervertingsome orthodox practice or belief which already existed and waswidely accepted by Muslims There is no suggestion that basicreligious ideas were still in a state of flux and that lsquoorthodoxyrsquo (anambiguous term in Islam since there is no central authority to saywhat is and what is not orthodox) was only slowly developing Weare told for instance that some of the Umayyads tried to makeJerusalem a centre of pilgrimage but the sources imply that this wasagainst the background of an already generally accepted practice ofannual pilgrimage to Mecca which had been established as the culticcentre of Islam from the time of the Prophet The reader should beaware of such preconceptions in the sources and consider thepossibility that there may not have been as yet any firmlyestablished cultic centre in Islam9

Any attempt to argue that there were during the Umayyad periodmore fundamental religious developments than the sources allow

Introduction 7

for therefore involves a certain amount of lsquoreading between thelinesrsquo of Muslim tradition and using whatever evidence is availableoutside the Muslim literary sources A recent discussion using suchmethods has questioned whether the name lsquoIslamrsquo as thedesignation for the religion of the Arabs existed much before theend of the seventh century10 Muslim tradition itself though hasproved remarkably impervious to analysis with such questions inmind and onersquos attitude to the question of the extent of the religiousdevelopment of Islam in the Umayyad period must depend greatlyon onersquos attitude to the value of Muslim sources for the history ofthe period and especially the earlier part

The spread of Islam during this period as already indicated hasto be viewed on two levels that of its territorial expansion and thatof its acceptance by the conquered non-Arab peoples from a varietyof religious backgrounds

Muslim tradition is generally more concerned with the formerprocess When an area is under Muslim rule and subject to Muslimlaw that area is regarded as a part of the Muslim world (dar al-Islam) even though the majority of its population may remain non-Muslim Strictly speaking only Christians Jews and Zoroastrians(these last known as majus) were to be allowed to refuse to acceptIslam and maintain their existence as separate religious communitiesunder Muslim rule but in practice toleration was frequentlyextended more widely

From this point of view then the extensive conquests made underthe Umayyads were an extension of Islam At the beginning of theUmayyad period Arab Muslim rule did not extend much further westthan modern Libya or further east than the eastern regions of Iranand even within these areas many regions must have been held onlyprecariously or merely nominally By the end of the dynasty all ofNorth Africa and southern and central Spain were included in theboundaries of the Muslim world and in the east the extension ofcontrol into central Asia and northern India prepared the way forlater advances in those areas

In the west the garrison town of Qayrawan was founded about 670 inIfriqiya (modern Tunisia) and this served as the base for furtherwestward expansion lsquoUqba b Nafilsquo is subsequently said to havemarched as far as the Atlantic before being killed by the still unsubduedBerbers but it was not until the end of the century that regions ofmodern Algeria and Morocco were substantially pacified and theBerbers brought into Islam but keeping their own language and tribal

8 Introduction

system This development is associated with the governorship ofHassan b Nulsquoman in Ifriqiya (683ndash707) It was Hassanrsquos successorMusa b Nusayr who initiated the invasion of Spain in 711 sending hisBerber client (mawla) Tariq to lead the expedition It is from this Tariqthat Gibraltar takes its name (Jabal Tariq lsquothe hill of Tariqrsquo)

In the east too the years around 700 saw major advances Al-Hajjajgovernor of the eastern part of the Umayyad territories from 694 to 714sent his generals Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the ruler of Kabul Qutayba bMuslim into the territories lying beyond the river Oxus (Jayhun or AmuDarya in Muslim works) and Muhammad b al-Qasim into northernIndia Qutayba is said to have reached the borders of China and sent anembassy demanding submission from the lsquoking of Chinarsquo The extentand effectiveness of these expeditions may sometimes be open toquestion but it is clear that Arab Muslim control was extended andconsolidated in the east under the Umayyads11

The spread of Islam among the non-Arab peoples of the conqueredregions is much less explicitly described in our sources At the outset ofthe Umayyad period it is clear that very few of the conquered peopleshad accepted Islam however we understand this last phrase (islamliterally means lsquosubmissionrsquo) But by the end of the period in spite ofthe initial attempt by the Arabs to keep themselves apart religiously andsocially from their subjects and in spite of the refusal by caliphs andgovernors to allow the non-Arabs to enjoy the advantages of acceptanceof Islam large numbers of the subject peoples had come to identifythemselves as Muslims

The spread of Islam vertically in this way is clearly a complexprocess depending on a variety of factors which were not the same inevery area or among every group of the non-Arab population andresulting in divergent rates of progress Because of the silence orambiguity of the sources we are often reduced to speculation aboutcauses and the spread of the process For example we know very littleabout the islamisation of Syria and there are only one or two referencesin non-Muslim sources which seem to indicate substantial islamisationof the local peoples during the Umayyad period On the other hand theMuslim sources have many references to the difficulties caused toUmayyad governors of Iraq and Khurasan when large numbers of non-Arab non-Muslims attempted to accept Islam by becoming mawali inthe early decades of the eighth century but they still leave manyquestions unanswered or answered at best ambiguously

So far as the evidence enables us to judge and leaving aside theBerbers whose society and way of life made them likely allies for

Introduction 9

the Arabs in the wars of conquest it seems to have been in lowerIraq Khurasan and Syria that Islam made the most significantadvances among the subjects peoples in the Umayyad period Inwestern Persia and Egypt on the other hand it seems thatislamisation in this sense was relatively slow and that it was not untilafter the dynasty had been overthrown that Islam became thereligion of the majority in these areas12

In spite of our uncertainties it seems clear that the Umayyadperiod was crucial for the process of Islamisation in all its forms

Arabisation

By lsquoarabisationrsquo I mean the spread of a culture characterised aboveall by its use of the Arabic language in the area which had becomesubject to Arab Muslim rule Although associated with the processof islamisation arabisation is a distinct movement as can be seenfrom the fact that important communities of Jews and Christianssurvived in the Islamic Middle East into modern times Thesecommunities maintained their religious traditions in spite of the factthat they had renounced the everyday languages which they hadused before the Arab conquest and had adopted Arabic ConverselyPersia presents a striking example of a region which largelyaccepted Islam as its religion but maintained its pre-Islamiclanguage at first in everyday and later in literary use although ofcourse the language underwent significant changes in the earlyIslamic period

Again one has to take into account that Arabic itself changed as itspread and was elaborated in the process of interaction betweenArabs and non-Arabs Put crudely as the non-Arab peoples adoptedArabic so their own linguistic habits and backgrounds affected thelanguage leading to significant changes and to the formation ofdifferent dialects The result of this evolution is usually described asMiddle Arabic as opposed to Classical Arabic which is identifiedwith the language of the Koran and of the poetry which it isclaimed originated in pre-Islamic Arabia The origin and nature ofClassical Arabic itself though is to some extent a topic ofcontroversy What led to the adoption or rejection of Arabic by non-Arabic speakers is obviously a very complex question involvingconsideration of political and social relationships as well as morepurely linguistic ones

10 Introduction

In attempting to chart the progress of arabisation the difficultiesagain arise from the lack of explicit information on the topic in ourliterary sources and from the paucity of written material survivingfrom the Umayyad period For instance although it has beensuggested that Jews of all sorts began to speak Arabic as early as theseventh century the process of change must have been gradual andour earliest texts written in Judaeo-Arabic (that is the form of MiddleArabic used by Jews and written in Hebrew rather than Arabic script)come from the ninth century Our earliest Christian Arabic texts(Arabic written in the Greek script) have been dated to the eighthcentury but there has been some argument about the dating On theother hand from later developments we know that Persian must havesurvived as the spoken language of the majority of Iranians during theUmayyad period but our sources only rarely and ambiguously let ussee that it was so and almost all of our source material on the historyof Persia under the Umayyads is in Arabic

More concrete evidence is provided by the administrative papyriwhich have survived from Egypt In spite of the limited range ofsubjects with which they are concerned they at least enable us to see agradual change from Greek to Arabic in the language of theadministration Furthermore our literary sources report that around700 it was ordered that henceforth the government administrationshould use Arabic rather than the languages which had been usedbefore the Arab conquest and which had continued in use thus farThis could indicate that there was at that time a significant number ofnon-Arabs with sufficient command of Arabic at least for the purposesof administration since the bureaucracy continued to relyoverwhelmingly on non-Arabs The change of language in thebureaucracy did not happen overnight and the sources are notunanimous about when it was ordered but in the development ofarabisation it seems to have been a significant step

Why and how Arabic and with it the other features which seem tomake Islamic culture in the Middle East significantly Arab anddistinguish it from others spread is therefore still debatableEventually as we know the adoption of Arabic for most purposesbecame general in Syria Iraq and Egypt while the Berbers andPersians in spite of their acceptance of Islam and therefore of Arabicas their sacred language continued to use their own languages foreveryday purposes We can assume that arabisation like islamisationprogressed a long way under the Umayyads but precise evidence ishard to come by13

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

The First Dynasty of Islam The period 661ndash750 AD was a crucial one for the history of Islamand the Middle East The territories conquered by the Muslims in theMiddle East north Africa and Spain were ruled from Syria by asuccession of caliphs belonging to the Umayyad family the firstcaliphal dynasty to emerge in the history of Islam Under their rulethe region began a process of transformation which eventually led tothe emergence of Islam both as a religion and as a culture in itsclassical form

The First Dynasty of Islam provides a succinct and accessibleintroduction to the Umayyad period An introductory chapterdiscusses the importance of the era as a whole with further chaptersexamining bull the Umayyad family and its rise to the Caliphatebull the Sufyanidsbull the second civil warbull bd al-Malik and al-Hajjajbull the development of factionalism and the problems of

Islamisationbull the third civil war and the caliphate of Marwan IIbull the overthrow of the Umayyad caliphate The first edition established itself as a balanced and approachabletext for undergraduates and others interested in the early history ofIslam This second edition with an expanded and up-to-datebibliography will prove even more useful to its intended readership

GRHawting is Senior Lecturer in the History of the Near andMiddle East at the School of Oriental and African StudiesUniversity of London

The First Dynastyof Islam

The Umayyad Caliphate AD 661ndash750

Second edition

GRHawting

London and New York

First published 1986by Croom Helm Ltd

Second edition published 2000

by Routledge11 New Fetter Lane London EC4P 4EE

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge29 West 35th Street New York NY 10001

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor amp Francis Group

This edition published in the Taylor amp Francis e-Library 2002

copy 1986 2000 GRHawting

All rights reserved No part of this book may be reprintedor reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic

mechanical or other means now known or hereafterinvented including photocopying and recording or in any

information storage or retrieval system without permissionin writing from the publishers

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from theBritish Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

A catalog record for this book has been requested

ISBN 0-415-24073-5 (Pbk)ISBN 0-415-24072-7 (Hbk)

ISBN 0-203-13700-0 Master e-book ISBNISBN 0-203-17692-8 (Glassbook Format)

Contents

Conventions viiAbbreviations ixGlossary xiFigures and Maps xiiiForeword to the Second Edition xixPreface and Acknowledgements xxi

Chapter 1 Introduction The Importance of the UmayyadPeriod and its Place in Islamic History 1

Islamisation 1Arabisation 9The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition 11

Chapter 2 The Umayyad Family and its Rise tothe Caliphate 21

The Background of the Umayyads 21Mulsquoawiyarsquos Acquisition of the Caliphate 24

Chapter 3 The Sufyanids 34

Organisation and Administration of the Caliphate 34Events and Personalities of the Sufyanid Period 40

Chapter 4 The Second Civil War 46

Chapter 5 lsquoAbd al-Malik and al-Hajjaj 58

Changes in Government and Administration 61Al-Hajjaj in Iraq 66

Chapter 6 The Development of Factionalism and theProblems of Islamisation 72

The Family of al-Muhallab and theDevelopment of Factionalism 73lsquoUmar II and the Mawali 76Hisham and Khalid al-Qasri 81

vi Contents

Chapter 7 The Third Civil War and the Caliphateof Marwan II 90Walid II 90Yazid III 94Marwan II 96

Chapter 8 The Overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate 104

The Muslims of Khurasan 105The Army 107The lsquoAbbasids and the Hashimiyya 109The Umayyad Collapse 115

Appendix 1 A Note on the Sources 120Appendix 2 Modern Developments in the Study of and

Attitudes to Umayyad History 123

Bibliographical Postscript to the Second Edition 129

Bibliography 139

Index 145

vii

Conventions

Dates Unless there is a particular reason for providing

the Islamic hijri date all dates are AD

References In the notes to the text given at the end of eachchapter references are usually to the name ofthe author or editor and a short form of the titleof the work Full titles together with date andplace of publication are provided in thebibliography See the list of abbreviations forthe titles of journals etc

Transliteration A full scholarly transliteration is not provided inthe text but the bibliography and index aretranslit-erated The bibliography reproduces thevarious methods of transliteration used by theauthors cited My transliteration follows thesystem of the Encyclopaedia of Islam with thefew modifications customary in works inEnglish On the whole readers without anyArabic will safely ignore the transliterationsymbols but may wish to note the following lsquo= the Arabic letter lsquoayn a guttural soundproduced by constricting the larynx rsquo = thehamza a glottal stop like the tt in the Cockneypronunciation of butter vowels are short unlessthey have a macron (macr) over them ibn(abbreviated to b in the middle of a name) =lsquoson ofrsquo B (abbreviation of Banu) =lsquodescendants ofrsquo lsquofamily ofrsquo lsquoclan ofrsquo lsquotribeofrsquo as appropriate

ix

Abbreviations

AIEOr Annales de lrsquoInstitut des Eacutetudes OrientalesAIUON Annali Istituto Universitario Orientate di NapoliAJSL American Journal for Semitic Languages and

Literatures

BSOAS Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African StudiesBZ Byzantinische Zeitschrift

CMedH Cambridge Mediaeval History

EI1 Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st editionEI2 Encyclopaedia of Islam 2nd edition

GS IGoldziher Gesammelte Schriften

IC Islamic CultureIJMES International Journal of Middle East StudiesIOS Israel Oriental StudiesIQ Islamic QuarterlyIsl Der Islam

JA Journal AsiatiqueJAOS Journal of the American Oriental SocietyJESHO Journal of the Economic and Social History of the

OrientJRAS Journal of the Royal Asiatic SocietyJSAI Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and IslamJSS Journal of Semitic Studies

MW Muslim World

PPHS Proceedings of the Pakistan Historical Society

x Abbreviations

Rend Linc Rendiconti dell Accademia Nazionale dei LinceiClasse di scienze morali storiche e filologiche

RH Revue HistoriqueRHR Revue de lrsquoHistoire des ReligionsRO Rocznik orientalistycznyRSO Rivista degli studi orientali

SI Studia Islamica

WI Die Welt des Islams

ZA Zeitschrift fuumlr AssyriologieZDMG Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlaumlndischen Gesellschaft

xi

Glossary

amir lsquocommanderrsquo an army leader andor governor ofa province

amir al-mursquominin lsquoCommander of the Believersrsquo a title of thecaliph

ashraf leading members of the leading families amongthe Arab tribesmen

barid the system of communications between the

provinces and the caliphal courtbaylsquoa the pledge of allegiance given to a caliph heir

apparent or contender for power dar al-islam the regions under Muslim government in contrast

to the dar al-harb (lsquohouse of warrsquo)dalsquowa lsquocallrsquo lsquopropagandarsquo the movement which

prepared the way for the lsquoAbbasid takeover of thecaliphate

dinar the gold coindirham the silver coindiwan the register of individuals entitled to pay or

pension from the government a governmentdepartment

fils the copper coinfiqh the theory of Islamic law (not the law itself the

sharilsquoa)fitna conflict within the Muslim community especially

that between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya hajj the pilgrimage to Mecca in the month of Dhursquol-

Hijja

xii Glossary

imam a) the supreme head of the Muslims particularlyused in this sense by the Shilsquoites b) a prayerleader in a mosque c) an honorific title applied toa religious scholar

jizya a tax in the classical system a poll tax (tax on

individual persons)jund lsquoarmyrsquo a military district khalifa lsquodeputyrsquo the caliphkharaj a tax in the classical system a land taxkhutba a speech in the early period any speech of

importance delivered by a figure of authorityespecially the caliph or governor eventuallydeveloping into the sermon delivered at the mid-day prayer service in the mosque on Fridays

majus lsquoMagianrsquo in the strict sense Zoroastrians but used

more widely for followers of religions other thanJudaism or Christianity to whom the Muslimswished to grant some toleration

mawla lsquoclientrsquo a non-Arab who has accepted Islam afollower of an important individual

salat the ritual five times daily prayer service of Islamshurta a small force used by the governor or other

authority to keep ordersunna lsquoaccepted usage or practicersquo eventually identified

with the Sunna of the Prophet the usage ofMuhammad which Sunni Islam accepted as beingtogether with the Koran the main source ofauthority for its law

lsquoulamarsquo the religious scholars of Islam walirsquol-lsquoahd the heir apparent The meanings given are those usually applicable in this book Inother contexts the words may have other meanings

Figu

re 1

Th

e lsquoN

orth

erne

rsrsquo

Figu

re 2

Th

e lsquoS

outh

erne

rsrsquo

Figu

re 3

Th

e U

may

yads

Figu

re 4

Th

e O

ther

Des

cend

ants

of lsquo

Abd

Man

af

xix

Foreword to the Second Edition

In spite of some significant developments in our understanding ofaspects of the history of the Umayyad caliphate in the fifteen yearsor so since this book was first published readily accessibleintroductions to the period for undergraduates and interested non-specialists remain few This book was generally well received byreviewers and has proved useful for its intended readership Since ithas been out of print for some time and in any case was availableonly as a (rather expensive) hardback it has now been decided toreissue it in paperback The opportunity has been taken to correct afew errors (for pointing out which I am grateful to reviewers) and toadd a postscript surveying some of the important work relevant tothe Umayyad caliphate which has appeared since the first edition in1986 The postscript also refers to a few works which should havebeen included in the original bibliography

For technical reasons it has not been possible to change theoriginal text in three places where some expansion is required

At p 83 with reference to the victory of Charles Martel over theArabs the date of 732 should probably be changed to 733 At thevery least the article of MBaudoit lsquoLocalisation et datation de lapremiegravere victoire remporteacutee par Charles Martel contre lesmusulmansrsquo in Meacutemoires et documents publieacutes par la Societeacute delrsquoEcole de Chartres 12 (1955) 93ndash105 needs to be consulted on thisquestion Secondly at p 52 it is wrong to give the impression thatthe term mahdi is not known in accounts of events before the risingof al-Mukhtar it occurs of course apparently for the first time inreports about the rising of the Tawwabun which took place justbefore that of al-Mukhtar I am especially grateful for MichaelMoronyrsquos review (IJMES 21 (1989)) for drawing attention to thesepoints I remain unconvinced however that the word mahdioriginally lacked any eschatological significance

Finally on p 91 reference is made to the theory that RusafatHisham was not at the Rusafa which was ancient Sergiopolis but wasrather to be identified with Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi near Palmyra I

xx Foreword to the Second Edition

ought to have known but did not that that theory proposed bySauvaget and others has been discredited by Oleg Grabar in hiswork on Qasr al-Hayr City in the Desert Qasr al-Hayr East(Cambridge Ma Harvard University Press 1978) There is now aconvenient discussion of Ruafat Hisham in the second edition ofthe Encyclopaedia of Islam sv lsquoRusafarsquo (by C-PHaase) whichexplains too the problematic tradition that Hisham was there whenhe received the caliphal regalia

GRH March 2000

xxi

Preface and Acknowledgements

Between the general surveys of Islamic Arab or Middle Easternhistory of which there are several of varying quality and detailedmonographs on particular aspects of Umayyad history many ofwhich are not in English there is little that can be recommendedconfidently as an introduction to the importance main events andpersonalities and problems of the Umayyad period The presentwork tries to provide such an introduction

The standard modern account of Umayyad history is JuliusWellhausenrsquos The Arab kingdom and its fall first published inGerman in 1902 and translated into English in 1927 In spite of theinevitable dating of Wellhausenrsquos own political and religiousoutlook and the criticisms of his method of source analysis maderecently by Albrecht Noth his book remains of fundamentalimportance for anyone wanting more than an introductoryknowledge of Umayyad history particularly its political andmilitary events The present work is certainly not intended tosupersede The Arab kingdom

As an introduction however experience has shown thatWellhausenrsquos work is not especially suitable Leaving aside therather idiosyncratic English of its translation it contains more detailthan is readily absorbed its presentation is not as clear as modernreaders expect and its concern with source criticism is notappreciated by those who do not have even a simplified traditionalnarrative against which to set it Attempts to get students to read anddigest Wellhausen usually result in puzzlement and the beginningsof a conviction that Umayyad history is too difficult forundergraduate study

But there is really little else especially in English which treatsthe period as a whole and which can serve as an introduction MAShabanrsquos first volume of his Islamic history A new interpretation itis true is readily available and does provide a lively narrativecoverage of the period Its interpretation however seems to me tobe frequently questionable and on occasion only loosely related to

xxii Preface

the sources and the title itself indicates that it was not conceived asan introduction Similarly Patricia Cronersquos Slaves on horses seemsto me a brilliant analysis of the development of the early Islamicstate and society but not a book for relative beginners since itpresumes rather than provides a fairly detailed acquaintance withthe events of the period There still seems a need therefore for thesort of introduction which I have attempted here

Given then that the present work is not attempting to provide awholly new version of the Umayyad period and that much of itdepends on the findings of the many scholars who have contributedto our understanding of Umayyad history it has seemed unnecessaryto provide references to the original Arabic or other sourcesReaders capable of studying the primary sources themselves willeasily be able to track them down in the secondary works to whichreferences are normally confined in my notes These notes areusually a guide to further reading with readers of English primarilyin mind and are not necessarily the sources of particular statementsbut in a general way they indicate the scholars and works to which Ihave been most indebted Neither the references in my notes nor thebibliography given at the end claim to be complete or extensive butI hope that I have mentioned most works of fundamentalimportance

My special thanks are due to my colleague Dr David Morganwho kindly read the whole typescript and whose feeling for bothhistory and style has undoubtedly saved me from a number ofblunders to my wife Joyce who has similarly read and commentedon the typescript to Sue Harrop the Cartographer at the School ofAfrican and Oriental Studies University of London for help withthe maps and to Peter Sowden who first suggested that I write thebook and then gently prodded until it was done For the remaininglimitations imperfections and errors I am responsible

1

Chapter 1

Introduction The Importance of theUmayyad Period and its Place in IslamicHistory

In the summer or autumn of AD 661 Mulsquoawiya b Abi Sufyangovernor of Syria since 639 and already acclaimed by his Syrianfollowers as caliph (khalifa) religious and political leader of theMuslim state entered the Iraqi garrison town of Kufa In historicaltradition this event is seen as bringing to an end a bitter period ofcivil war among the Arabs achieving the reunification under oneruler of all the territories conquered by them and initiating thecaliphate of the Umayyad dynasty of which Mulsquoawiya was thefounder The dynasty was to rule for 90 years or so until itsoverthrow and replacement by that of the lsquoAbbasids in 749ndash50

The Umayyad dynasty was the first to emerge in the Middle Eastfollowing the conquest of the region by the Arabs a conquest whichhad begun in the 630s and was still continuing for much of theUmayyad period Apart from this fact however what was theimportance of the period of Umayyad rule a period which in itsdetails is often complex and confusing and how has it traditionallybeen regarded by Muslims in relation to the history of Islam Theanswer to the first part of this question is provided by discussion ofthe two concepts of islamisation and arabisation referring to tworelated but essentially distinct historical processes

Islamisation

The term lsquoislamisationrsquo refers both to the extension of the area underMuslim rule and to the acceptance of Islam as their religion bypeoples of different faiths but in the Umayyad period the question isfurther complicated by the fact that Islam itself was developing fromits still to us not completely understood origins into somethingapproaching the religion with which we are familiar One should notimagine that Islam as we know it came fully formed out of Arabiawith the Arabs at the time of their conquest of the Middle East and

2 Introduction

was then accepted or rejected as the case might be by the non-Arabpeoples Although many of the details are obscure and oftencontroversial it seems clear that Islam as we know it is largely a resultof the interaction between the Arabs and the peoples they conqueredduring the first two centuries or so of the Islamic era which began inAD 6221 During the Umayyad period therefore the spread of Islamand the development of Islam were taking place at the same time anda discussion of islamisation has to begin with some consideration ofthe importance of the Umayyad period for the development of Islam

In the first place it was under the Umayyads that there began toemerge that class of religious scholars which eventually became theleading authority within Sunni Islam and which is chiefly responsiblefor shaping the historical and religious tradition which has comedown to us In effect it was this class which led the development ofIslam as we know it and it is important to remember that it emergedlargely in opposition to the Umayyad government The Umayyads hadtheir own conception of Islam itself developing with time anddifferent circumstances but on the whole we see the religion from theviewpoint of the religious scholars

In the emergence of this class the most important region was Iraqand in Iraq Kufa was the leading centre Other regions tended tofollow its lead Building on and reacting against the ideas andpractices available in Kufa and other centres from the second half ofthe Umayyad period onwards groups of Muslim scholars tried todevelop and put on a sound footing what they saw as a true form ofIslam In doing so they frequently accused the Umayyads of impiousor unislamic behaviour

The main concept which these scholars developed and worked withwas that of the Sunna This idea went through several stages butincreasingly came to be identified with the custom and practice of theProphet Muhammad which was to serve as the ideal norm ofbehaviour for his followers and was eventually accepted as the majorsource of Muslim law alongside the Koran Increasingly Muslimideas practices and institutions came to be justified by reference tothe Sunna the words and deeds of Muhammad as transmitted by hiscompanions to later generations The proponents of the Sunna as thusunderstood became increasingly influential and political andreligious developments after the Umayyads had been overthrownresulted in the final crystallisation of the Sunni form of Islam with thereligious scholars the guardians of the Sunna as its leadingauthority2

Introduction 3

Not all Muslims though accepted the primacy or even thelegitimacy of the Sunna and the Umayyad period also saw theemergence of the two other main forms of Islam Shilsquoism andKharijism Tradition dates the fragmentation of a previously unitedIslam into the three main forms which we know today (SunnisShilsquoites and Kharijites) to the time of the first civil war (656ndash61)which ended with the accession of Mulsquoawiya to the caliphateHowever just as the development of Sunni Islam was a slow processwhich only began under the Umayyads so too Shilsquoism andKharijism were not born in one instant They too developed inopposition to the Umayyads in a number of distinct movementswhich each had individual characteristics and again Iraq was ofprime importance

Kufa was the centre of the development of Shilsquoism in theUmayyad period As early as 670 but especially after the revolt ofMukhtar in 685ndash7 Kufa saw a number of movements aimed atoverthrowing the Umayyads and appointing a relative of theProphet usually a descendant of his cousin and son-in-law lsquoAli asimam which title the Shilsquoites tend to prefer to caliph Where theseShilsquoite movements differed from one another was in the particularmember of the Prophetrsquos family whom they favoured and in certainother doctrines they developed what they had in common wasdevotion to the Prophetrsquos family and insistence that membership ofit was a sine qua non for the imam Some of them developed moreextreme beliefs such as acceptance of the imam as an incarnation ofGod and a doctrine of the transmigration of souls It seems that froman early date the conquered non-Arab peoples were attracted to theShilsquoite movements and it may be that some of their doctrines wereinfluenced by the previous beliefs of these non-Arab supportersShilsquoism has a long and complex history which extends well beyondthe Umayyad period but it was then that its basic character wasestablished3

The basic principle of Kharijism was a demand for piety andreligious excellence as the only necessary qualification for the imamand a rejection of the view that he should belong to the family of theProphet as the Shilsquoites demanded or to the tribe of the Prophet(Quraysh) as the Sunnis required Like Shilsquoism Kharijism too wasmanifested in a number of movements some relatively moderate andothers more extreme The extremists tended to insist on the rejectionof all other Muslims regarding them as infidels and therefore liable tobe killed unless they lsquorepentedrsquo and lsquoaccepted Islamrsquo that is unless

4 Introduction

they recognised the Kharijite imam and accepted the Kharijite form ofIslam This fierce rejection of other Muslims however involving theduty of rebellion against what was regarded as an illegitimategovernment became increasingly difficult to maintain except in areasremote from the authority of the government or in times when theauthority of the government for some reason collapsed In Basra thesecond of the Iraqi garrison towns on the other hand a moremoderate form of Kharijism was elaborated and spread to easternArabia and North Africa It is this form of Kharijism which hassurvived into the modern world4

Each of these three main Muslim groups came to hold that Islamshould be open to all peoples and that all should enjoy the same statuswithin it regarding rights and duties The development of this idea tooof Islam as a universal religion can be traced to the Umayyad periodagain in circles opposed to the dynasty

Although it can be debated whether the Koran was addressed to allmen or to the Arabs only the Umayyads and the Arab tribesmen whofirst conquered the Middle East regarded their religion as largelyexclusive of the conquered peoples There was no sustained attempt toforce or even persuade the conquered peoples to accept Islam and itwas assumed that they would remain in their own communities payingtaxes to support the conquerors Although from the start there wassome movement of the conquered into the community of theconquerors the separation of Arabs from non-Arabs was a basicprinciple of the state established as a result of the conquests This isclear both from the procedure which a non-Arab had to adopt in orderto enter Islam and from the fact that there were from time to timeofficial measures designed to prevent such changes of status Islamwas in fact regarded as the property of the conquering aristocracy

In order to attach himself to the religion and society of the Arabs anon-Arab had to become the client (mawla pl mawali) of an Arabtribe In other words in order to become a Muslim something whichit is possible to see as a social or political as much as a religious movehe had to acquire an Arab patron and become a sort of honorarymember of his patronrsquos tribe adding the tribal name to his own newMuslim one even though he and his descendants were in some waystreated as second-class Muslims It is evident therefore thatmembership of Islam was equated with possession of an Arab ethnicidentity5

Nevertheless association with the elite in this way did haveadvantages for some and at various times in different places we hear

Introduction 5

of large numbers of non-Arabs attempting to enter Islam bybecoming mawali but being prevented from doing so or at leastfrom having their changed status recognised by local Umayyadgovernors Probably the best-known example was in Iraq around 700when large numbers of local non-Arab cultivators sought to abandontheir lands and flee into the Arab garrison towns to enter Islam asmawali only to be forced back by the Umayyad governor al-Hajjajwho refused to recognise their claims

In the long run it proved impossible to maintain the isolation ofconquerors and conquered from one another in this way andattempts to do so only served to alienate further those Muslimgroups which had come to see Islam as a religion open to all Theproblem for the Umayyads was that they had come to power asleaders of a conquering Arab elite and to have allowed theconquered peoples to enter Islam en masse would have abolished orat least weakened the distinction between the elite and the massesThe crucial privileges of Islam from this point of view were in thearea of taxation In principle the Arabs were to be the recipients ofthe taxes paid by the non-Arabs If the conquered peoples wereallowed to become Muslims and to change their position from thatof payers to that of recipients of taxes the whole system upon whichthe Umayyads depended would collapse But as the pressure fromthe non-Arabs built up and the universalist notion of Islam becamestronger this problem became increasingly urgent for the dynastyand played a major part in the generally negative attitude of Muslimstowards the Umayyad dynasty6

How far the development of Islam in the Umayyad periodinvolved radical changes in religious practices or beliefs is not easyto say Broadly speaking Muslim tradition assumes that thefundamental institutions of Islammdashsuch things as belief inMuhammad as a prophet acceptance of the Koran in the form inwhich we know it as the word of God and performance of the mainrituals such as the five times daily prayer (salat) and the annualpilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) mdashexisted at the beginning of theUmayyad period and were accepted equally by the Umayyads andtheir opponents The difficulty is to decide how far our Muslimsources which are relatively late in the form in which we have themare reading back later conditions into an earlier period

Sometimes certainly we have hints that the situation was not sostatic or so uniform as the tradition generally implies For examplewe are told that Muslim rebels supporting Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the

6 Introduction

Umayyads in the early years of the eighth century accused the caliphof lsquomurderingrsquo the ritual prayer (salat) and called for vengeance forit although what this meant and what exactly was involved ifanything specific is not spelled out7 Even such tantalisinglyobscure hints are relatively scarce and when we do sometimes havemore substantial information its significance seems often to belimited in one of two ways

First the information may centre on a point which seems to berelatively minor For instance much play is made with the chargethat the Umayyads insisted on delivering the khutba (in the earlyperiod a speech or sermon given usually in the mosque by the caliphor his representative and often dealing with secular as well as morepurely religious affairs) while sitting contrary to what is alleged tohave been the practice established by the Prophet and his immediatesuccessors This is supposed to be a sign of the haughtiness of theUmayyads refusing to stand before their subjects and preferringlike kings to remain seated Even though the detail may have lostsome of its significance because of the later decline in importance ofthe khutba and its associated institutions and ceremonies howeverit is difficult to see arguments about the correct posture for thekhutba as of fundamental importance for the development of IslamIn the way in which the practice is presented by Muslim tradition itdoes not provide grounds for arguing that the outward forms ofIslam underwent great and radical changes under the Umayyads8

Secondly even when the information is apparently more weightythe impression is usually given that the Umayyads were pervertingsome orthodox practice or belief which already existed and waswidely accepted by Muslims There is no suggestion that basicreligious ideas were still in a state of flux and that lsquoorthodoxyrsquo (anambiguous term in Islam since there is no central authority to saywhat is and what is not orthodox) was only slowly developing Weare told for instance that some of the Umayyads tried to makeJerusalem a centre of pilgrimage but the sources imply that this wasagainst the background of an already generally accepted practice ofannual pilgrimage to Mecca which had been established as the culticcentre of Islam from the time of the Prophet The reader should beaware of such preconceptions in the sources and consider thepossibility that there may not have been as yet any firmlyestablished cultic centre in Islam9

Any attempt to argue that there were during the Umayyad periodmore fundamental religious developments than the sources allow

Introduction 7

for therefore involves a certain amount of lsquoreading between thelinesrsquo of Muslim tradition and using whatever evidence is availableoutside the Muslim literary sources A recent discussion using suchmethods has questioned whether the name lsquoIslamrsquo as thedesignation for the religion of the Arabs existed much before theend of the seventh century10 Muslim tradition itself though hasproved remarkably impervious to analysis with such questions inmind and onersquos attitude to the question of the extent of the religiousdevelopment of Islam in the Umayyad period must depend greatlyon onersquos attitude to the value of Muslim sources for the history ofthe period and especially the earlier part

The spread of Islam during this period as already indicated hasto be viewed on two levels that of its territorial expansion and thatof its acceptance by the conquered non-Arab peoples from a varietyof religious backgrounds

Muslim tradition is generally more concerned with the formerprocess When an area is under Muslim rule and subject to Muslimlaw that area is regarded as a part of the Muslim world (dar al-Islam) even though the majority of its population may remain non-Muslim Strictly speaking only Christians Jews and Zoroastrians(these last known as majus) were to be allowed to refuse to acceptIslam and maintain their existence as separate religious communitiesunder Muslim rule but in practice toleration was frequentlyextended more widely

From this point of view then the extensive conquests made underthe Umayyads were an extension of Islam At the beginning of theUmayyad period Arab Muslim rule did not extend much further westthan modern Libya or further east than the eastern regions of Iranand even within these areas many regions must have been held onlyprecariously or merely nominally By the end of the dynasty all ofNorth Africa and southern and central Spain were included in theboundaries of the Muslim world and in the east the extension ofcontrol into central Asia and northern India prepared the way forlater advances in those areas

In the west the garrison town of Qayrawan was founded about 670 inIfriqiya (modern Tunisia) and this served as the base for furtherwestward expansion lsquoUqba b Nafilsquo is subsequently said to havemarched as far as the Atlantic before being killed by the still unsubduedBerbers but it was not until the end of the century that regions ofmodern Algeria and Morocco were substantially pacified and theBerbers brought into Islam but keeping their own language and tribal

8 Introduction

system This development is associated with the governorship ofHassan b Nulsquoman in Ifriqiya (683ndash707) It was Hassanrsquos successorMusa b Nusayr who initiated the invasion of Spain in 711 sending hisBerber client (mawla) Tariq to lead the expedition It is from this Tariqthat Gibraltar takes its name (Jabal Tariq lsquothe hill of Tariqrsquo)

In the east too the years around 700 saw major advances Al-Hajjajgovernor of the eastern part of the Umayyad territories from 694 to 714sent his generals Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the ruler of Kabul Qutayba bMuslim into the territories lying beyond the river Oxus (Jayhun or AmuDarya in Muslim works) and Muhammad b al-Qasim into northernIndia Qutayba is said to have reached the borders of China and sent anembassy demanding submission from the lsquoking of Chinarsquo The extentand effectiveness of these expeditions may sometimes be open toquestion but it is clear that Arab Muslim control was extended andconsolidated in the east under the Umayyads11

The spread of Islam among the non-Arab peoples of the conqueredregions is much less explicitly described in our sources At the outset ofthe Umayyad period it is clear that very few of the conquered peopleshad accepted Islam however we understand this last phrase (islamliterally means lsquosubmissionrsquo) But by the end of the period in spite ofthe initial attempt by the Arabs to keep themselves apart religiously andsocially from their subjects and in spite of the refusal by caliphs andgovernors to allow the non-Arabs to enjoy the advantages of acceptanceof Islam large numbers of the subject peoples had come to identifythemselves as Muslims

The spread of Islam vertically in this way is clearly a complexprocess depending on a variety of factors which were not the same inevery area or among every group of the non-Arab population andresulting in divergent rates of progress Because of the silence orambiguity of the sources we are often reduced to speculation aboutcauses and the spread of the process For example we know very littleabout the islamisation of Syria and there are only one or two referencesin non-Muslim sources which seem to indicate substantial islamisationof the local peoples during the Umayyad period On the other hand theMuslim sources have many references to the difficulties caused toUmayyad governors of Iraq and Khurasan when large numbers of non-Arab non-Muslims attempted to accept Islam by becoming mawali inthe early decades of the eighth century but they still leave manyquestions unanswered or answered at best ambiguously

So far as the evidence enables us to judge and leaving aside theBerbers whose society and way of life made them likely allies for

Introduction 9

the Arabs in the wars of conquest it seems to have been in lowerIraq Khurasan and Syria that Islam made the most significantadvances among the subjects peoples in the Umayyad period Inwestern Persia and Egypt on the other hand it seems thatislamisation in this sense was relatively slow and that it was not untilafter the dynasty had been overthrown that Islam became thereligion of the majority in these areas12

In spite of our uncertainties it seems clear that the Umayyadperiod was crucial for the process of Islamisation in all its forms

Arabisation

By lsquoarabisationrsquo I mean the spread of a culture characterised aboveall by its use of the Arabic language in the area which had becomesubject to Arab Muslim rule Although associated with the processof islamisation arabisation is a distinct movement as can be seenfrom the fact that important communities of Jews and Christianssurvived in the Islamic Middle East into modern times Thesecommunities maintained their religious traditions in spite of the factthat they had renounced the everyday languages which they hadused before the Arab conquest and had adopted Arabic ConverselyPersia presents a striking example of a region which largelyaccepted Islam as its religion but maintained its pre-Islamiclanguage at first in everyday and later in literary use although ofcourse the language underwent significant changes in the earlyIslamic period

Again one has to take into account that Arabic itself changed as itspread and was elaborated in the process of interaction betweenArabs and non-Arabs Put crudely as the non-Arab peoples adoptedArabic so their own linguistic habits and backgrounds affected thelanguage leading to significant changes and to the formation ofdifferent dialects The result of this evolution is usually described asMiddle Arabic as opposed to Classical Arabic which is identifiedwith the language of the Koran and of the poetry which it isclaimed originated in pre-Islamic Arabia The origin and nature ofClassical Arabic itself though is to some extent a topic ofcontroversy What led to the adoption or rejection of Arabic by non-Arabic speakers is obviously a very complex question involvingconsideration of political and social relationships as well as morepurely linguistic ones

10 Introduction

In attempting to chart the progress of arabisation the difficultiesagain arise from the lack of explicit information on the topic in ourliterary sources and from the paucity of written material survivingfrom the Umayyad period For instance although it has beensuggested that Jews of all sorts began to speak Arabic as early as theseventh century the process of change must have been gradual andour earliest texts written in Judaeo-Arabic (that is the form of MiddleArabic used by Jews and written in Hebrew rather than Arabic script)come from the ninth century Our earliest Christian Arabic texts(Arabic written in the Greek script) have been dated to the eighthcentury but there has been some argument about the dating On theother hand from later developments we know that Persian must havesurvived as the spoken language of the majority of Iranians during theUmayyad period but our sources only rarely and ambiguously let ussee that it was so and almost all of our source material on the historyof Persia under the Umayyads is in Arabic

More concrete evidence is provided by the administrative papyriwhich have survived from Egypt In spite of the limited range ofsubjects with which they are concerned they at least enable us to see agradual change from Greek to Arabic in the language of theadministration Furthermore our literary sources report that around700 it was ordered that henceforth the government administrationshould use Arabic rather than the languages which had been usedbefore the Arab conquest and which had continued in use thus farThis could indicate that there was at that time a significant number ofnon-Arabs with sufficient command of Arabic at least for the purposesof administration since the bureaucracy continued to relyoverwhelmingly on non-Arabs The change of language in thebureaucracy did not happen overnight and the sources are notunanimous about when it was ordered but in the development ofarabisation it seems to have been a significant step

Why and how Arabic and with it the other features which seem tomake Islamic culture in the Middle East significantly Arab anddistinguish it from others spread is therefore still debatableEventually as we know the adoption of Arabic for most purposesbecame general in Syria Iraq and Egypt while the Berbers andPersians in spite of their acceptance of Islam and therefore of Arabicas their sacred language continued to use their own languages foreveryday purposes We can assume that arabisation like islamisationprogressed a long way under the Umayyads but precise evidence ishard to come by13

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

The First Dynastyof Islam

The Umayyad Caliphate AD 661ndash750

Second edition

GRHawting

London and New York

First published 1986by Croom Helm Ltd

Second edition published 2000

by Routledge11 New Fetter Lane London EC4P 4EE

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge29 West 35th Street New York NY 10001

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor amp Francis Group

This edition published in the Taylor amp Francis e-Library 2002

copy 1986 2000 GRHawting

All rights reserved No part of this book may be reprintedor reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic

mechanical or other means now known or hereafterinvented including photocopying and recording or in any

information storage or retrieval system without permissionin writing from the publishers

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from theBritish Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

A catalog record for this book has been requested

ISBN 0-415-24073-5 (Pbk)ISBN 0-415-24072-7 (Hbk)

ISBN 0-203-13700-0 Master e-book ISBNISBN 0-203-17692-8 (Glassbook Format)

Contents

Conventions viiAbbreviations ixGlossary xiFigures and Maps xiiiForeword to the Second Edition xixPreface and Acknowledgements xxi

Chapter 1 Introduction The Importance of the UmayyadPeriod and its Place in Islamic History 1

Islamisation 1Arabisation 9The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition 11

Chapter 2 The Umayyad Family and its Rise tothe Caliphate 21

The Background of the Umayyads 21Mulsquoawiyarsquos Acquisition of the Caliphate 24

Chapter 3 The Sufyanids 34

Organisation and Administration of the Caliphate 34Events and Personalities of the Sufyanid Period 40

Chapter 4 The Second Civil War 46

Chapter 5 lsquoAbd al-Malik and al-Hajjaj 58

Changes in Government and Administration 61Al-Hajjaj in Iraq 66

Chapter 6 The Development of Factionalism and theProblems of Islamisation 72

The Family of al-Muhallab and theDevelopment of Factionalism 73lsquoUmar II and the Mawali 76Hisham and Khalid al-Qasri 81

vi Contents

Chapter 7 The Third Civil War and the Caliphateof Marwan II 90Walid II 90Yazid III 94Marwan II 96

Chapter 8 The Overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate 104

The Muslims of Khurasan 105The Army 107The lsquoAbbasids and the Hashimiyya 109The Umayyad Collapse 115

Appendix 1 A Note on the Sources 120Appendix 2 Modern Developments in the Study of and

Attitudes to Umayyad History 123

Bibliographical Postscript to the Second Edition 129

Bibliography 139

Index 145

vii

Conventions

Dates Unless there is a particular reason for providing

the Islamic hijri date all dates are AD

References In the notes to the text given at the end of eachchapter references are usually to the name ofthe author or editor and a short form of the titleof the work Full titles together with date andplace of publication are provided in thebibliography See the list of abbreviations forthe titles of journals etc

Transliteration A full scholarly transliteration is not provided inthe text but the bibliography and index aretranslit-erated The bibliography reproduces thevarious methods of transliteration used by theauthors cited My transliteration follows thesystem of the Encyclopaedia of Islam with thefew modifications customary in works inEnglish On the whole readers without anyArabic will safely ignore the transliterationsymbols but may wish to note the following lsquo= the Arabic letter lsquoayn a guttural soundproduced by constricting the larynx rsquo = thehamza a glottal stop like the tt in the Cockneypronunciation of butter vowels are short unlessthey have a macron (macr) over them ibn(abbreviated to b in the middle of a name) =lsquoson ofrsquo B (abbreviation of Banu) =lsquodescendants ofrsquo lsquofamily ofrsquo lsquoclan ofrsquo lsquotribeofrsquo as appropriate

ix

Abbreviations

AIEOr Annales de lrsquoInstitut des Eacutetudes OrientalesAIUON Annali Istituto Universitario Orientate di NapoliAJSL American Journal for Semitic Languages and

Literatures

BSOAS Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African StudiesBZ Byzantinische Zeitschrift

CMedH Cambridge Mediaeval History

EI1 Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st editionEI2 Encyclopaedia of Islam 2nd edition

GS IGoldziher Gesammelte Schriften

IC Islamic CultureIJMES International Journal of Middle East StudiesIOS Israel Oriental StudiesIQ Islamic QuarterlyIsl Der Islam

JA Journal AsiatiqueJAOS Journal of the American Oriental SocietyJESHO Journal of the Economic and Social History of the

OrientJRAS Journal of the Royal Asiatic SocietyJSAI Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and IslamJSS Journal of Semitic Studies

MW Muslim World

PPHS Proceedings of the Pakistan Historical Society

x Abbreviations

Rend Linc Rendiconti dell Accademia Nazionale dei LinceiClasse di scienze morali storiche e filologiche

RH Revue HistoriqueRHR Revue de lrsquoHistoire des ReligionsRO Rocznik orientalistycznyRSO Rivista degli studi orientali

SI Studia Islamica

WI Die Welt des Islams

ZA Zeitschrift fuumlr AssyriologieZDMG Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlaumlndischen Gesellschaft

xi

Glossary

amir lsquocommanderrsquo an army leader andor governor ofa province

amir al-mursquominin lsquoCommander of the Believersrsquo a title of thecaliph

ashraf leading members of the leading families amongthe Arab tribesmen

barid the system of communications between the

provinces and the caliphal courtbaylsquoa the pledge of allegiance given to a caliph heir

apparent or contender for power dar al-islam the regions under Muslim government in contrast

to the dar al-harb (lsquohouse of warrsquo)dalsquowa lsquocallrsquo lsquopropagandarsquo the movement which

prepared the way for the lsquoAbbasid takeover of thecaliphate

dinar the gold coindirham the silver coindiwan the register of individuals entitled to pay or

pension from the government a governmentdepartment

fils the copper coinfiqh the theory of Islamic law (not the law itself the

sharilsquoa)fitna conflict within the Muslim community especially

that between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya hajj the pilgrimage to Mecca in the month of Dhursquol-

Hijja

xii Glossary

imam a) the supreme head of the Muslims particularlyused in this sense by the Shilsquoites b) a prayerleader in a mosque c) an honorific title applied toa religious scholar

jizya a tax in the classical system a poll tax (tax on

individual persons)jund lsquoarmyrsquo a military district khalifa lsquodeputyrsquo the caliphkharaj a tax in the classical system a land taxkhutba a speech in the early period any speech of

importance delivered by a figure of authorityespecially the caliph or governor eventuallydeveloping into the sermon delivered at the mid-day prayer service in the mosque on Fridays

majus lsquoMagianrsquo in the strict sense Zoroastrians but used

more widely for followers of religions other thanJudaism or Christianity to whom the Muslimswished to grant some toleration

mawla lsquoclientrsquo a non-Arab who has accepted Islam afollower of an important individual

salat the ritual five times daily prayer service of Islamshurta a small force used by the governor or other

authority to keep ordersunna lsquoaccepted usage or practicersquo eventually identified

with the Sunna of the Prophet the usage ofMuhammad which Sunni Islam accepted as beingtogether with the Koran the main source ofauthority for its law

lsquoulamarsquo the religious scholars of Islam walirsquol-lsquoahd the heir apparent The meanings given are those usually applicable in this book Inother contexts the words may have other meanings

Figu

re 1

Th

e lsquoN

orth

erne

rsrsquo

Figu

re 2

Th

e lsquoS

outh

erne

rsrsquo

Figu

re 3

Th

e U

may

yads

Figu

re 4

Th

e O

ther

Des

cend

ants

of lsquo

Abd

Man

af

xix

Foreword to the Second Edition

In spite of some significant developments in our understanding ofaspects of the history of the Umayyad caliphate in the fifteen yearsor so since this book was first published readily accessibleintroductions to the period for undergraduates and interested non-specialists remain few This book was generally well received byreviewers and has proved useful for its intended readership Since ithas been out of print for some time and in any case was availableonly as a (rather expensive) hardback it has now been decided toreissue it in paperback The opportunity has been taken to correct afew errors (for pointing out which I am grateful to reviewers) and toadd a postscript surveying some of the important work relevant tothe Umayyad caliphate which has appeared since the first edition in1986 The postscript also refers to a few works which should havebeen included in the original bibliography

For technical reasons it has not been possible to change theoriginal text in three places where some expansion is required

At p 83 with reference to the victory of Charles Martel over theArabs the date of 732 should probably be changed to 733 At thevery least the article of MBaudoit lsquoLocalisation et datation de lapremiegravere victoire remporteacutee par Charles Martel contre lesmusulmansrsquo in Meacutemoires et documents publieacutes par la Societeacute delrsquoEcole de Chartres 12 (1955) 93ndash105 needs to be consulted on thisquestion Secondly at p 52 it is wrong to give the impression thatthe term mahdi is not known in accounts of events before the risingof al-Mukhtar it occurs of course apparently for the first time inreports about the rising of the Tawwabun which took place justbefore that of al-Mukhtar I am especially grateful for MichaelMoronyrsquos review (IJMES 21 (1989)) for drawing attention to thesepoints I remain unconvinced however that the word mahdioriginally lacked any eschatological significance

Finally on p 91 reference is made to the theory that RusafatHisham was not at the Rusafa which was ancient Sergiopolis but wasrather to be identified with Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi near Palmyra I

xx Foreword to the Second Edition

ought to have known but did not that that theory proposed bySauvaget and others has been discredited by Oleg Grabar in hiswork on Qasr al-Hayr City in the Desert Qasr al-Hayr East(Cambridge Ma Harvard University Press 1978) There is now aconvenient discussion of Ruafat Hisham in the second edition ofthe Encyclopaedia of Islam sv lsquoRusafarsquo (by C-PHaase) whichexplains too the problematic tradition that Hisham was there whenhe received the caliphal regalia

GRH March 2000

xxi

Preface and Acknowledgements

Between the general surveys of Islamic Arab or Middle Easternhistory of which there are several of varying quality and detailedmonographs on particular aspects of Umayyad history many ofwhich are not in English there is little that can be recommendedconfidently as an introduction to the importance main events andpersonalities and problems of the Umayyad period The presentwork tries to provide such an introduction

The standard modern account of Umayyad history is JuliusWellhausenrsquos The Arab kingdom and its fall first published inGerman in 1902 and translated into English in 1927 In spite of theinevitable dating of Wellhausenrsquos own political and religiousoutlook and the criticisms of his method of source analysis maderecently by Albrecht Noth his book remains of fundamentalimportance for anyone wanting more than an introductoryknowledge of Umayyad history particularly its political andmilitary events The present work is certainly not intended tosupersede The Arab kingdom

As an introduction however experience has shown thatWellhausenrsquos work is not especially suitable Leaving aside therather idiosyncratic English of its translation it contains more detailthan is readily absorbed its presentation is not as clear as modernreaders expect and its concern with source criticism is notappreciated by those who do not have even a simplified traditionalnarrative against which to set it Attempts to get students to read anddigest Wellhausen usually result in puzzlement and the beginningsof a conviction that Umayyad history is too difficult forundergraduate study

But there is really little else especially in English which treatsthe period as a whole and which can serve as an introduction MAShabanrsquos first volume of his Islamic history A new interpretation itis true is readily available and does provide a lively narrativecoverage of the period Its interpretation however seems to me tobe frequently questionable and on occasion only loosely related to

xxii Preface

the sources and the title itself indicates that it was not conceived asan introduction Similarly Patricia Cronersquos Slaves on horses seemsto me a brilliant analysis of the development of the early Islamicstate and society but not a book for relative beginners since itpresumes rather than provides a fairly detailed acquaintance withthe events of the period There still seems a need therefore for thesort of introduction which I have attempted here

Given then that the present work is not attempting to provide awholly new version of the Umayyad period and that much of itdepends on the findings of the many scholars who have contributedto our understanding of Umayyad history it has seemed unnecessaryto provide references to the original Arabic or other sourcesReaders capable of studying the primary sources themselves willeasily be able to track them down in the secondary works to whichreferences are normally confined in my notes These notes areusually a guide to further reading with readers of English primarilyin mind and are not necessarily the sources of particular statementsbut in a general way they indicate the scholars and works to which Ihave been most indebted Neither the references in my notes nor thebibliography given at the end claim to be complete or extensive butI hope that I have mentioned most works of fundamentalimportance

My special thanks are due to my colleague Dr David Morganwho kindly read the whole typescript and whose feeling for bothhistory and style has undoubtedly saved me from a number ofblunders to my wife Joyce who has similarly read and commentedon the typescript to Sue Harrop the Cartographer at the School ofAfrican and Oriental Studies University of London for help withthe maps and to Peter Sowden who first suggested that I write thebook and then gently prodded until it was done For the remaininglimitations imperfections and errors I am responsible

1

Chapter 1

Introduction The Importance of theUmayyad Period and its Place in IslamicHistory

In the summer or autumn of AD 661 Mulsquoawiya b Abi Sufyangovernor of Syria since 639 and already acclaimed by his Syrianfollowers as caliph (khalifa) religious and political leader of theMuslim state entered the Iraqi garrison town of Kufa In historicaltradition this event is seen as bringing to an end a bitter period ofcivil war among the Arabs achieving the reunification under oneruler of all the territories conquered by them and initiating thecaliphate of the Umayyad dynasty of which Mulsquoawiya was thefounder The dynasty was to rule for 90 years or so until itsoverthrow and replacement by that of the lsquoAbbasids in 749ndash50

The Umayyad dynasty was the first to emerge in the Middle Eastfollowing the conquest of the region by the Arabs a conquest whichhad begun in the 630s and was still continuing for much of theUmayyad period Apart from this fact however what was theimportance of the period of Umayyad rule a period which in itsdetails is often complex and confusing and how has it traditionallybeen regarded by Muslims in relation to the history of Islam Theanswer to the first part of this question is provided by discussion ofthe two concepts of islamisation and arabisation referring to tworelated but essentially distinct historical processes

Islamisation

The term lsquoislamisationrsquo refers both to the extension of the area underMuslim rule and to the acceptance of Islam as their religion bypeoples of different faiths but in the Umayyad period the question isfurther complicated by the fact that Islam itself was developing fromits still to us not completely understood origins into somethingapproaching the religion with which we are familiar One should notimagine that Islam as we know it came fully formed out of Arabiawith the Arabs at the time of their conquest of the Middle East and

2 Introduction

was then accepted or rejected as the case might be by the non-Arabpeoples Although many of the details are obscure and oftencontroversial it seems clear that Islam as we know it is largely a resultof the interaction between the Arabs and the peoples they conqueredduring the first two centuries or so of the Islamic era which began inAD 6221 During the Umayyad period therefore the spread of Islamand the development of Islam were taking place at the same time anda discussion of islamisation has to begin with some consideration ofthe importance of the Umayyad period for the development of Islam

In the first place it was under the Umayyads that there began toemerge that class of religious scholars which eventually became theleading authority within Sunni Islam and which is chiefly responsiblefor shaping the historical and religious tradition which has comedown to us In effect it was this class which led the development ofIslam as we know it and it is important to remember that it emergedlargely in opposition to the Umayyad government The Umayyads hadtheir own conception of Islam itself developing with time anddifferent circumstances but on the whole we see the religion from theviewpoint of the religious scholars

In the emergence of this class the most important region was Iraqand in Iraq Kufa was the leading centre Other regions tended tofollow its lead Building on and reacting against the ideas andpractices available in Kufa and other centres from the second half ofthe Umayyad period onwards groups of Muslim scholars tried todevelop and put on a sound footing what they saw as a true form ofIslam In doing so they frequently accused the Umayyads of impiousor unislamic behaviour

The main concept which these scholars developed and worked withwas that of the Sunna This idea went through several stages butincreasingly came to be identified with the custom and practice of theProphet Muhammad which was to serve as the ideal norm ofbehaviour for his followers and was eventually accepted as the majorsource of Muslim law alongside the Koran Increasingly Muslimideas practices and institutions came to be justified by reference tothe Sunna the words and deeds of Muhammad as transmitted by hiscompanions to later generations The proponents of the Sunna as thusunderstood became increasingly influential and political andreligious developments after the Umayyads had been overthrownresulted in the final crystallisation of the Sunni form of Islam with thereligious scholars the guardians of the Sunna as its leadingauthority2

Introduction 3

Not all Muslims though accepted the primacy or even thelegitimacy of the Sunna and the Umayyad period also saw theemergence of the two other main forms of Islam Shilsquoism andKharijism Tradition dates the fragmentation of a previously unitedIslam into the three main forms which we know today (SunnisShilsquoites and Kharijites) to the time of the first civil war (656ndash61)which ended with the accession of Mulsquoawiya to the caliphateHowever just as the development of Sunni Islam was a slow processwhich only began under the Umayyads so too Shilsquoism andKharijism were not born in one instant They too developed inopposition to the Umayyads in a number of distinct movementswhich each had individual characteristics and again Iraq was ofprime importance

Kufa was the centre of the development of Shilsquoism in theUmayyad period As early as 670 but especially after the revolt ofMukhtar in 685ndash7 Kufa saw a number of movements aimed atoverthrowing the Umayyads and appointing a relative of theProphet usually a descendant of his cousin and son-in-law lsquoAli asimam which title the Shilsquoites tend to prefer to caliph Where theseShilsquoite movements differed from one another was in the particularmember of the Prophetrsquos family whom they favoured and in certainother doctrines they developed what they had in common wasdevotion to the Prophetrsquos family and insistence that membership ofit was a sine qua non for the imam Some of them developed moreextreme beliefs such as acceptance of the imam as an incarnation ofGod and a doctrine of the transmigration of souls It seems that froman early date the conquered non-Arab peoples were attracted to theShilsquoite movements and it may be that some of their doctrines wereinfluenced by the previous beliefs of these non-Arab supportersShilsquoism has a long and complex history which extends well beyondthe Umayyad period but it was then that its basic character wasestablished3

The basic principle of Kharijism was a demand for piety andreligious excellence as the only necessary qualification for the imamand a rejection of the view that he should belong to the family of theProphet as the Shilsquoites demanded or to the tribe of the Prophet(Quraysh) as the Sunnis required Like Shilsquoism Kharijism too wasmanifested in a number of movements some relatively moderate andothers more extreme The extremists tended to insist on the rejectionof all other Muslims regarding them as infidels and therefore liable tobe killed unless they lsquorepentedrsquo and lsquoaccepted Islamrsquo that is unless

4 Introduction

they recognised the Kharijite imam and accepted the Kharijite form ofIslam This fierce rejection of other Muslims however involving theduty of rebellion against what was regarded as an illegitimategovernment became increasingly difficult to maintain except in areasremote from the authority of the government or in times when theauthority of the government for some reason collapsed In Basra thesecond of the Iraqi garrison towns on the other hand a moremoderate form of Kharijism was elaborated and spread to easternArabia and North Africa It is this form of Kharijism which hassurvived into the modern world4

Each of these three main Muslim groups came to hold that Islamshould be open to all peoples and that all should enjoy the same statuswithin it regarding rights and duties The development of this idea tooof Islam as a universal religion can be traced to the Umayyad periodagain in circles opposed to the dynasty

Although it can be debated whether the Koran was addressed to allmen or to the Arabs only the Umayyads and the Arab tribesmen whofirst conquered the Middle East regarded their religion as largelyexclusive of the conquered peoples There was no sustained attempt toforce or even persuade the conquered peoples to accept Islam and itwas assumed that they would remain in their own communities payingtaxes to support the conquerors Although from the start there wassome movement of the conquered into the community of theconquerors the separation of Arabs from non-Arabs was a basicprinciple of the state established as a result of the conquests This isclear both from the procedure which a non-Arab had to adopt in orderto enter Islam and from the fact that there were from time to timeofficial measures designed to prevent such changes of status Islamwas in fact regarded as the property of the conquering aristocracy

In order to attach himself to the religion and society of the Arabs anon-Arab had to become the client (mawla pl mawali) of an Arabtribe In other words in order to become a Muslim something whichit is possible to see as a social or political as much as a religious movehe had to acquire an Arab patron and become a sort of honorarymember of his patronrsquos tribe adding the tribal name to his own newMuslim one even though he and his descendants were in some waystreated as second-class Muslims It is evident therefore thatmembership of Islam was equated with possession of an Arab ethnicidentity5

Nevertheless association with the elite in this way did haveadvantages for some and at various times in different places we hear

Introduction 5

of large numbers of non-Arabs attempting to enter Islam bybecoming mawali but being prevented from doing so or at leastfrom having their changed status recognised by local Umayyadgovernors Probably the best-known example was in Iraq around 700when large numbers of local non-Arab cultivators sought to abandontheir lands and flee into the Arab garrison towns to enter Islam asmawali only to be forced back by the Umayyad governor al-Hajjajwho refused to recognise their claims

In the long run it proved impossible to maintain the isolation ofconquerors and conquered from one another in this way andattempts to do so only served to alienate further those Muslimgroups which had come to see Islam as a religion open to all Theproblem for the Umayyads was that they had come to power asleaders of a conquering Arab elite and to have allowed theconquered peoples to enter Islam en masse would have abolished orat least weakened the distinction between the elite and the massesThe crucial privileges of Islam from this point of view were in thearea of taxation In principle the Arabs were to be the recipients ofthe taxes paid by the non-Arabs If the conquered peoples wereallowed to become Muslims and to change their position from thatof payers to that of recipients of taxes the whole system upon whichthe Umayyads depended would collapse But as the pressure fromthe non-Arabs built up and the universalist notion of Islam becamestronger this problem became increasingly urgent for the dynastyand played a major part in the generally negative attitude of Muslimstowards the Umayyad dynasty6

How far the development of Islam in the Umayyad periodinvolved radical changes in religious practices or beliefs is not easyto say Broadly speaking Muslim tradition assumes that thefundamental institutions of Islammdashsuch things as belief inMuhammad as a prophet acceptance of the Koran in the form inwhich we know it as the word of God and performance of the mainrituals such as the five times daily prayer (salat) and the annualpilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) mdashexisted at the beginning of theUmayyad period and were accepted equally by the Umayyads andtheir opponents The difficulty is to decide how far our Muslimsources which are relatively late in the form in which we have themare reading back later conditions into an earlier period

Sometimes certainly we have hints that the situation was not sostatic or so uniform as the tradition generally implies For examplewe are told that Muslim rebels supporting Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the

6 Introduction

Umayyads in the early years of the eighth century accused the caliphof lsquomurderingrsquo the ritual prayer (salat) and called for vengeance forit although what this meant and what exactly was involved ifanything specific is not spelled out7 Even such tantalisinglyobscure hints are relatively scarce and when we do sometimes havemore substantial information its significance seems often to belimited in one of two ways

First the information may centre on a point which seems to berelatively minor For instance much play is made with the chargethat the Umayyads insisted on delivering the khutba (in the earlyperiod a speech or sermon given usually in the mosque by the caliphor his representative and often dealing with secular as well as morepurely religious affairs) while sitting contrary to what is alleged tohave been the practice established by the Prophet and his immediatesuccessors This is supposed to be a sign of the haughtiness of theUmayyads refusing to stand before their subjects and preferringlike kings to remain seated Even though the detail may have lostsome of its significance because of the later decline in importance ofthe khutba and its associated institutions and ceremonies howeverit is difficult to see arguments about the correct posture for thekhutba as of fundamental importance for the development of IslamIn the way in which the practice is presented by Muslim tradition itdoes not provide grounds for arguing that the outward forms ofIslam underwent great and radical changes under the Umayyads8

Secondly even when the information is apparently more weightythe impression is usually given that the Umayyads were pervertingsome orthodox practice or belief which already existed and waswidely accepted by Muslims There is no suggestion that basicreligious ideas were still in a state of flux and that lsquoorthodoxyrsquo (anambiguous term in Islam since there is no central authority to saywhat is and what is not orthodox) was only slowly developing Weare told for instance that some of the Umayyads tried to makeJerusalem a centre of pilgrimage but the sources imply that this wasagainst the background of an already generally accepted practice ofannual pilgrimage to Mecca which had been established as the culticcentre of Islam from the time of the Prophet The reader should beaware of such preconceptions in the sources and consider thepossibility that there may not have been as yet any firmlyestablished cultic centre in Islam9

Any attempt to argue that there were during the Umayyad periodmore fundamental religious developments than the sources allow

Introduction 7

for therefore involves a certain amount of lsquoreading between thelinesrsquo of Muslim tradition and using whatever evidence is availableoutside the Muslim literary sources A recent discussion using suchmethods has questioned whether the name lsquoIslamrsquo as thedesignation for the religion of the Arabs existed much before theend of the seventh century10 Muslim tradition itself though hasproved remarkably impervious to analysis with such questions inmind and onersquos attitude to the question of the extent of the religiousdevelopment of Islam in the Umayyad period must depend greatlyon onersquos attitude to the value of Muslim sources for the history ofthe period and especially the earlier part

The spread of Islam during this period as already indicated hasto be viewed on two levels that of its territorial expansion and thatof its acceptance by the conquered non-Arab peoples from a varietyof religious backgrounds

Muslim tradition is generally more concerned with the formerprocess When an area is under Muslim rule and subject to Muslimlaw that area is regarded as a part of the Muslim world (dar al-Islam) even though the majority of its population may remain non-Muslim Strictly speaking only Christians Jews and Zoroastrians(these last known as majus) were to be allowed to refuse to acceptIslam and maintain their existence as separate religious communitiesunder Muslim rule but in practice toleration was frequentlyextended more widely

From this point of view then the extensive conquests made underthe Umayyads were an extension of Islam At the beginning of theUmayyad period Arab Muslim rule did not extend much further westthan modern Libya or further east than the eastern regions of Iranand even within these areas many regions must have been held onlyprecariously or merely nominally By the end of the dynasty all ofNorth Africa and southern and central Spain were included in theboundaries of the Muslim world and in the east the extension ofcontrol into central Asia and northern India prepared the way forlater advances in those areas

In the west the garrison town of Qayrawan was founded about 670 inIfriqiya (modern Tunisia) and this served as the base for furtherwestward expansion lsquoUqba b Nafilsquo is subsequently said to havemarched as far as the Atlantic before being killed by the still unsubduedBerbers but it was not until the end of the century that regions ofmodern Algeria and Morocco were substantially pacified and theBerbers brought into Islam but keeping their own language and tribal

8 Introduction

system This development is associated with the governorship ofHassan b Nulsquoman in Ifriqiya (683ndash707) It was Hassanrsquos successorMusa b Nusayr who initiated the invasion of Spain in 711 sending hisBerber client (mawla) Tariq to lead the expedition It is from this Tariqthat Gibraltar takes its name (Jabal Tariq lsquothe hill of Tariqrsquo)

In the east too the years around 700 saw major advances Al-Hajjajgovernor of the eastern part of the Umayyad territories from 694 to 714sent his generals Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the ruler of Kabul Qutayba bMuslim into the territories lying beyond the river Oxus (Jayhun or AmuDarya in Muslim works) and Muhammad b al-Qasim into northernIndia Qutayba is said to have reached the borders of China and sent anembassy demanding submission from the lsquoking of Chinarsquo The extentand effectiveness of these expeditions may sometimes be open toquestion but it is clear that Arab Muslim control was extended andconsolidated in the east under the Umayyads11

The spread of Islam among the non-Arab peoples of the conqueredregions is much less explicitly described in our sources At the outset ofthe Umayyad period it is clear that very few of the conquered peopleshad accepted Islam however we understand this last phrase (islamliterally means lsquosubmissionrsquo) But by the end of the period in spite ofthe initial attempt by the Arabs to keep themselves apart religiously andsocially from their subjects and in spite of the refusal by caliphs andgovernors to allow the non-Arabs to enjoy the advantages of acceptanceof Islam large numbers of the subject peoples had come to identifythemselves as Muslims

The spread of Islam vertically in this way is clearly a complexprocess depending on a variety of factors which were not the same inevery area or among every group of the non-Arab population andresulting in divergent rates of progress Because of the silence orambiguity of the sources we are often reduced to speculation aboutcauses and the spread of the process For example we know very littleabout the islamisation of Syria and there are only one or two referencesin non-Muslim sources which seem to indicate substantial islamisationof the local peoples during the Umayyad period On the other hand theMuslim sources have many references to the difficulties caused toUmayyad governors of Iraq and Khurasan when large numbers of non-Arab non-Muslims attempted to accept Islam by becoming mawali inthe early decades of the eighth century but they still leave manyquestions unanswered or answered at best ambiguously

So far as the evidence enables us to judge and leaving aside theBerbers whose society and way of life made them likely allies for

Introduction 9

the Arabs in the wars of conquest it seems to have been in lowerIraq Khurasan and Syria that Islam made the most significantadvances among the subjects peoples in the Umayyad period Inwestern Persia and Egypt on the other hand it seems thatislamisation in this sense was relatively slow and that it was not untilafter the dynasty had been overthrown that Islam became thereligion of the majority in these areas12

In spite of our uncertainties it seems clear that the Umayyadperiod was crucial for the process of Islamisation in all its forms

Arabisation

By lsquoarabisationrsquo I mean the spread of a culture characterised aboveall by its use of the Arabic language in the area which had becomesubject to Arab Muslim rule Although associated with the processof islamisation arabisation is a distinct movement as can be seenfrom the fact that important communities of Jews and Christianssurvived in the Islamic Middle East into modern times Thesecommunities maintained their religious traditions in spite of the factthat they had renounced the everyday languages which they hadused before the Arab conquest and had adopted Arabic ConverselyPersia presents a striking example of a region which largelyaccepted Islam as its religion but maintained its pre-Islamiclanguage at first in everyday and later in literary use although ofcourse the language underwent significant changes in the earlyIslamic period

Again one has to take into account that Arabic itself changed as itspread and was elaborated in the process of interaction betweenArabs and non-Arabs Put crudely as the non-Arab peoples adoptedArabic so their own linguistic habits and backgrounds affected thelanguage leading to significant changes and to the formation ofdifferent dialects The result of this evolution is usually described asMiddle Arabic as opposed to Classical Arabic which is identifiedwith the language of the Koran and of the poetry which it isclaimed originated in pre-Islamic Arabia The origin and nature ofClassical Arabic itself though is to some extent a topic ofcontroversy What led to the adoption or rejection of Arabic by non-Arabic speakers is obviously a very complex question involvingconsideration of political and social relationships as well as morepurely linguistic ones

10 Introduction

In attempting to chart the progress of arabisation the difficultiesagain arise from the lack of explicit information on the topic in ourliterary sources and from the paucity of written material survivingfrom the Umayyad period For instance although it has beensuggested that Jews of all sorts began to speak Arabic as early as theseventh century the process of change must have been gradual andour earliest texts written in Judaeo-Arabic (that is the form of MiddleArabic used by Jews and written in Hebrew rather than Arabic script)come from the ninth century Our earliest Christian Arabic texts(Arabic written in the Greek script) have been dated to the eighthcentury but there has been some argument about the dating On theother hand from later developments we know that Persian must havesurvived as the spoken language of the majority of Iranians during theUmayyad period but our sources only rarely and ambiguously let ussee that it was so and almost all of our source material on the historyof Persia under the Umayyads is in Arabic

More concrete evidence is provided by the administrative papyriwhich have survived from Egypt In spite of the limited range ofsubjects with which they are concerned they at least enable us to see agradual change from Greek to Arabic in the language of theadministration Furthermore our literary sources report that around700 it was ordered that henceforth the government administrationshould use Arabic rather than the languages which had been usedbefore the Arab conquest and which had continued in use thus farThis could indicate that there was at that time a significant number ofnon-Arabs with sufficient command of Arabic at least for the purposesof administration since the bureaucracy continued to relyoverwhelmingly on non-Arabs The change of language in thebureaucracy did not happen overnight and the sources are notunanimous about when it was ordered but in the development ofarabisation it seems to have been a significant step

Why and how Arabic and with it the other features which seem tomake Islamic culture in the Middle East significantly Arab anddistinguish it from others spread is therefore still debatableEventually as we know the adoption of Arabic for most purposesbecame general in Syria Iraq and Egypt while the Berbers andPersians in spite of their acceptance of Islam and therefore of Arabicas their sacred language continued to use their own languages foreveryday purposes We can assume that arabisation like islamisationprogressed a long way under the Umayyads but precise evidence ishard to come by13

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

First published 1986by Croom Helm Ltd

Second edition published 2000

by Routledge11 New Fetter Lane London EC4P 4EE

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge29 West 35th Street New York NY 10001

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor amp Francis Group

This edition published in the Taylor amp Francis e-Library 2002

copy 1986 2000 GRHawting

All rights reserved No part of this book may be reprintedor reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic

mechanical or other means now known or hereafterinvented including photocopying and recording or in any

information storage or retrieval system without permissionin writing from the publishers

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from theBritish Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

A catalog record for this book has been requested

ISBN 0-415-24073-5 (Pbk)ISBN 0-415-24072-7 (Hbk)

ISBN 0-203-13700-0 Master e-book ISBNISBN 0-203-17692-8 (Glassbook Format)

Contents

Conventions viiAbbreviations ixGlossary xiFigures and Maps xiiiForeword to the Second Edition xixPreface and Acknowledgements xxi

Chapter 1 Introduction The Importance of the UmayyadPeriod and its Place in Islamic History 1

Islamisation 1Arabisation 9The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition 11

Chapter 2 The Umayyad Family and its Rise tothe Caliphate 21

The Background of the Umayyads 21Mulsquoawiyarsquos Acquisition of the Caliphate 24

Chapter 3 The Sufyanids 34

Organisation and Administration of the Caliphate 34Events and Personalities of the Sufyanid Period 40

Chapter 4 The Second Civil War 46

Chapter 5 lsquoAbd al-Malik and al-Hajjaj 58

Changes in Government and Administration 61Al-Hajjaj in Iraq 66

Chapter 6 The Development of Factionalism and theProblems of Islamisation 72

The Family of al-Muhallab and theDevelopment of Factionalism 73lsquoUmar II and the Mawali 76Hisham and Khalid al-Qasri 81

vi Contents

Chapter 7 The Third Civil War and the Caliphateof Marwan II 90Walid II 90Yazid III 94Marwan II 96

Chapter 8 The Overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate 104

The Muslims of Khurasan 105The Army 107The lsquoAbbasids and the Hashimiyya 109The Umayyad Collapse 115

Appendix 1 A Note on the Sources 120Appendix 2 Modern Developments in the Study of and

Attitudes to Umayyad History 123

Bibliographical Postscript to the Second Edition 129

Bibliography 139

Index 145

vii

Conventions

Dates Unless there is a particular reason for providing

the Islamic hijri date all dates are AD

References In the notes to the text given at the end of eachchapter references are usually to the name ofthe author or editor and a short form of the titleof the work Full titles together with date andplace of publication are provided in thebibliography See the list of abbreviations forthe titles of journals etc

Transliteration A full scholarly transliteration is not provided inthe text but the bibliography and index aretranslit-erated The bibliography reproduces thevarious methods of transliteration used by theauthors cited My transliteration follows thesystem of the Encyclopaedia of Islam with thefew modifications customary in works inEnglish On the whole readers without anyArabic will safely ignore the transliterationsymbols but may wish to note the following lsquo= the Arabic letter lsquoayn a guttural soundproduced by constricting the larynx rsquo = thehamza a glottal stop like the tt in the Cockneypronunciation of butter vowels are short unlessthey have a macron (macr) over them ibn(abbreviated to b in the middle of a name) =lsquoson ofrsquo B (abbreviation of Banu) =lsquodescendants ofrsquo lsquofamily ofrsquo lsquoclan ofrsquo lsquotribeofrsquo as appropriate

ix

Abbreviations

AIEOr Annales de lrsquoInstitut des Eacutetudes OrientalesAIUON Annali Istituto Universitario Orientate di NapoliAJSL American Journal for Semitic Languages and

Literatures

BSOAS Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African StudiesBZ Byzantinische Zeitschrift

CMedH Cambridge Mediaeval History

EI1 Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st editionEI2 Encyclopaedia of Islam 2nd edition

GS IGoldziher Gesammelte Schriften

IC Islamic CultureIJMES International Journal of Middle East StudiesIOS Israel Oriental StudiesIQ Islamic QuarterlyIsl Der Islam

JA Journal AsiatiqueJAOS Journal of the American Oriental SocietyJESHO Journal of the Economic and Social History of the

OrientJRAS Journal of the Royal Asiatic SocietyJSAI Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and IslamJSS Journal of Semitic Studies

MW Muslim World

PPHS Proceedings of the Pakistan Historical Society

x Abbreviations

Rend Linc Rendiconti dell Accademia Nazionale dei LinceiClasse di scienze morali storiche e filologiche

RH Revue HistoriqueRHR Revue de lrsquoHistoire des ReligionsRO Rocznik orientalistycznyRSO Rivista degli studi orientali

SI Studia Islamica

WI Die Welt des Islams

ZA Zeitschrift fuumlr AssyriologieZDMG Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlaumlndischen Gesellschaft

xi

Glossary

amir lsquocommanderrsquo an army leader andor governor ofa province

amir al-mursquominin lsquoCommander of the Believersrsquo a title of thecaliph

ashraf leading members of the leading families amongthe Arab tribesmen

barid the system of communications between the

provinces and the caliphal courtbaylsquoa the pledge of allegiance given to a caliph heir

apparent or contender for power dar al-islam the regions under Muslim government in contrast

to the dar al-harb (lsquohouse of warrsquo)dalsquowa lsquocallrsquo lsquopropagandarsquo the movement which

prepared the way for the lsquoAbbasid takeover of thecaliphate

dinar the gold coindirham the silver coindiwan the register of individuals entitled to pay or

pension from the government a governmentdepartment

fils the copper coinfiqh the theory of Islamic law (not the law itself the

sharilsquoa)fitna conflict within the Muslim community especially

that between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya hajj the pilgrimage to Mecca in the month of Dhursquol-

Hijja

xii Glossary

imam a) the supreme head of the Muslims particularlyused in this sense by the Shilsquoites b) a prayerleader in a mosque c) an honorific title applied toa religious scholar

jizya a tax in the classical system a poll tax (tax on

individual persons)jund lsquoarmyrsquo a military district khalifa lsquodeputyrsquo the caliphkharaj a tax in the classical system a land taxkhutba a speech in the early period any speech of

importance delivered by a figure of authorityespecially the caliph or governor eventuallydeveloping into the sermon delivered at the mid-day prayer service in the mosque on Fridays

majus lsquoMagianrsquo in the strict sense Zoroastrians but used

more widely for followers of religions other thanJudaism or Christianity to whom the Muslimswished to grant some toleration

mawla lsquoclientrsquo a non-Arab who has accepted Islam afollower of an important individual

salat the ritual five times daily prayer service of Islamshurta a small force used by the governor or other

authority to keep ordersunna lsquoaccepted usage or practicersquo eventually identified

with the Sunna of the Prophet the usage ofMuhammad which Sunni Islam accepted as beingtogether with the Koran the main source ofauthority for its law

lsquoulamarsquo the religious scholars of Islam walirsquol-lsquoahd the heir apparent The meanings given are those usually applicable in this book Inother contexts the words may have other meanings

Figu

re 1

Th

e lsquoN

orth

erne

rsrsquo

Figu

re 2

Th

e lsquoS

outh

erne

rsrsquo

Figu

re 3

Th

e U

may

yads

Figu

re 4

Th

e O

ther

Des

cend

ants

of lsquo

Abd

Man

af

xix

Foreword to the Second Edition

In spite of some significant developments in our understanding ofaspects of the history of the Umayyad caliphate in the fifteen yearsor so since this book was first published readily accessibleintroductions to the period for undergraduates and interested non-specialists remain few This book was generally well received byreviewers and has proved useful for its intended readership Since ithas been out of print for some time and in any case was availableonly as a (rather expensive) hardback it has now been decided toreissue it in paperback The opportunity has been taken to correct afew errors (for pointing out which I am grateful to reviewers) and toadd a postscript surveying some of the important work relevant tothe Umayyad caliphate which has appeared since the first edition in1986 The postscript also refers to a few works which should havebeen included in the original bibliography

For technical reasons it has not been possible to change theoriginal text in three places where some expansion is required

At p 83 with reference to the victory of Charles Martel over theArabs the date of 732 should probably be changed to 733 At thevery least the article of MBaudoit lsquoLocalisation et datation de lapremiegravere victoire remporteacutee par Charles Martel contre lesmusulmansrsquo in Meacutemoires et documents publieacutes par la Societeacute delrsquoEcole de Chartres 12 (1955) 93ndash105 needs to be consulted on thisquestion Secondly at p 52 it is wrong to give the impression thatthe term mahdi is not known in accounts of events before the risingof al-Mukhtar it occurs of course apparently for the first time inreports about the rising of the Tawwabun which took place justbefore that of al-Mukhtar I am especially grateful for MichaelMoronyrsquos review (IJMES 21 (1989)) for drawing attention to thesepoints I remain unconvinced however that the word mahdioriginally lacked any eschatological significance

Finally on p 91 reference is made to the theory that RusafatHisham was not at the Rusafa which was ancient Sergiopolis but wasrather to be identified with Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi near Palmyra I

xx Foreword to the Second Edition

ought to have known but did not that that theory proposed bySauvaget and others has been discredited by Oleg Grabar in hiswork on Qasr al-Hayr City in the Desert Qasr al-Hayr East(Cambridge Ma Harvard University Press 1978) There is now aconvenient discussion of Ruafat Hisham in the second edition ofthe Encyclopaedia of Islam sv lsquoRusafarsquo (by C-PHaase) whichexplains too the problematic tradition that Hisham was there whenhe received the caliphal regalia

GRH March 2000

xxi

Preface and Acknowledgements

Between the general surveys of Islamic Arab or Middle Easternhistory of which there are several of varying quality and detailedmonographs on particular aspects of Umayyad history many ofwhich are not in English there is little that can be recommendedconfidently as an introduction to the importance main events andpersonalities and problems of the Umayyad period The presentwork tries to provide such an introduction

The standard modern account of Umayyad history is JuliusWellhausenrsquos The Arab kingdom and its fall first published inGerman in 1902 and translated into English in 1927 In spite of theinevitable dating of Wellhausenrsquos own political and religiousoutlook and the criticisms of his method of source analysis maderecently by Albrecht Noth his book remains of fundamentalimportance for anyone wanting more than an introductoryknowledge of Umayyad history particularly its political andmilitary events The present work is certainly not intended tosupersede The Arab kingdom

As an introduction however experience has shown thatWellhausenrsquos work is not especially suitable Leaving aside therather idiosyncratic English of its translation it contains more detailthan is readily absorbed its presentation is not as clear as modernreaders expect and its concern with source criticism is notappreciated by those who do not have even a simplified traditionalnarrative against which to set it Attempts to get students to read anddigest Wellhausen usually result in puzzlement and the beginningsof a conviction that Umayyad history is too difficult forundergraduate study

But there is really little else especially in English which treatsthe period as a whole and which can serve as an introduction MAShabanrsquos first volume of his Islamic history A new interpretation itis true is readily available and does provide a lively narrativecoverage of the period Its interpretation however seems to me tobe frequently questionable and on occasion only loosely related to

xxii Preface

the sources and the title itself indicates that it was not conceived asan introduction Similarly Patricia Cronersquos Slaves on horses seemsto me a brilliant analysis of the development of the early Islamicstate and society but not a book for relative beginners since itpresumes rather than provides a fairly detailed acquaintance withthe events of the period There still seems a need therefore for thesort of introduction which I have attempted here

Given then that the present work is not attempting to provide awholly new version of the Umayyad period and that much of itdepends on the findings of the many scholars who have contributedto our understanding of Umayyad history it has seemed unnecessaryto provide references to the original Arabic or other sourcesReaders capable of studying the primary sources themselves willeasily be able to track them down in the secondary works to whichreferences are normally confined in my notes These notes areusually a guide to further reading with readers of English primarilyin mind and are not necessarily the sources of particular statementsbut in a general way they indicate the scholars and works to which Ihave been most indebted Neither the references in my notes nor thebibliography given at the end claim to be complete or extensive butI hope that I have mentioned most works of fundamentalimportance

My special thanks are due to my colleague Dr David Morganwho kindly read the whole typescript and whose feeling for bothhistory and style has undoubtedly saved me from a number ofblunders to my wife Joyce who has similarly read and commentedon the typescript to Sue Harrop the Cartographer at the School ofAfrican and Oriental Studies University of London for help withthe maps and to Peter Sowden who first suggested that I write thebook and then gently prodded until it was done For the remaininglimitations imperfections and errors I am responsible

1

Chapter 1

Introduction The Importance of theUmayyad Period and its Place in IslamicHistory

In the summer or autumn of AD 661 Mulsquoawiya b Abi Sufyangovernor of Syria since 639 and already acclaimed by his Syrianfollowers as caliph (khalifa) religious and political leader of theMuslim state entered the Iraqi garrison town of Kufa In historicaltradition this event is seen as bringing to an end a bitter period ofcivil war among the Arabs achieving the reunification under oneruler of all the territories conquered by them and initiating thecaliphate of the Umayyad dynasty of which Mulsquoawiya was thefounder The dynasty was to rule for 90 years or so until itsoverthrow and replacement by that of the lsquoAbbasids in 749ndash50

The Umayyad dynasty was the first to emerge in the Middle Eastfollowing the conquest of the region by the Arabs a conquest whichhad begun in the 630s and was still continuing for much of theUmayyad period Apart from this fact however what was theimportance of the period of Umayyad rule a period which in itsdetails is often complex and confusing and how has it traditionallybeen regarded by Muslims in relation to the history of Islam Theanswer to the first part of this question is provided by discussion ofthe two concepts of islamisation and arabisation referring to tworelated but essentially distinct historical processes

Islamisation

The term lsquoislamisationrsquo refers both to the extension of the area underMuslim rule and to the acceptance of Islam as their religion bypeoples of different faiths but in the Umayyad period the question isfurther complicated by the fact that Islam itself was developing fromits still to us not completely understood origins into somethingapproaching the religion with which we are familiar One should notimagine that Islam as we know it came fully formed out of Arabiawith the Arabs at the time of their conquest of the Middle East and

2 Introduction

was then accepted or rejected as the case might be by the non-Arabpeoples Although many of the details are obscure and oftencontroversial it seems clear that Islam as we know it is largely a resultof the interaction between the Arabs and the peoples they conqueredduring the first two centuries or so of the Islamic era which began inAD 6221 During the Umayyad period therefore the spread of Islamand the development of Islam were taking place at the same time anda discussion of islamisation has to begin with some consideration ofthe importance of the Umayyad period for the development of Islam

In the first place it was under the Umayyads that there began toemerge that class of religious scholars which eventually became theleading authority within Sunni Islam and which is chiefly responsiblefor shaping the historical and religious tradition which has comedown to us In effect it was this class which led the development ofIslam as we know it and it is important to remember that it emergedlargely in opposition to the Umayyad government The Umayyads hadtheir own conception of Islam itself developing with time anddifferent circumstances but on the whole we see the religion from theviewpoint of the religious scholars

In the emergence of this class the most important region was Iraqand in Iraq Kufa was the leading centre Other regions tended tofollow its lead Building on and reacting against the ideas andpractices available in Kufa and other centres from the second half ofthe Umayyad period onwards groups of Muslim scholars tried todevelop and put on a sound footing what they saw as a true form ofIslam In doing so they frequently accused the Umayyads of impiousor unislamic behaviour

The main concept which these scholars developed and worked withwas that of the Sunna This idea went through several stages butincreasingly came to be identified with the custom and practice of theProphet Muhammad which was to serve as the ideal norm ofbehaviour for his followers and was eventually accepted as the majorsource of Muslim law alongside the Koran Increasingly Muslimideas practices and institutions came to be justified by reference tothe Sunna the words and deeds of Muhammad as transmitted by hiscompanions to later generations The proponents of the Sunna as thusunderstood became increasingly influential and political andreligious developments after the Umayyads had been overthrownresulted in the final crystallisation of the Sunni form of Islam with thereligious scholars the guardians of the Sunna as its leadingauthority2

Introduction 3

Not all Muslims though accepted the primacy or even thelegitimacy of the Sunna and the Umayyad period also saw theemergence of the two other main forms of Islam Shilsquoism andKharijism Tradition dates the fragmentation of a previously unitedIslam into the three main forms which we know today (SunnisShilsquoites and Kharijites) to the time of the first civil war (656ndash61)which ended with the accession of Mulsquoawiya to the caliphateHowever just as the development of Sunni Islam was a slow processwhich only began under the Umayyads so too Shilsquoism andKharijism were not born in one instant They too developed inopposition to the Umayyads in a number of distinct movementswhich each had individual characteristics and again Iraq was ofprime importance

Kufa was the centre of the development of Shilsquoism in theUmayyad period As early as 670 but especially after the revolt ofMukhtar in 685ndash7 Kufa saw a number of movements aimed atoverthrowing the Umayyads and appointing a relative of theProphet usually a descendant of his cousin and son-in-law lsquoAli asimam which title the Shilsquoites tend to prefer to caliph Where theseShilsquoite movements differed from one another was in the particularmember of the Prophetrsquos family whom they favoured and in certainother doctrines they developed what they had in common wasdevotion to the Prophetrsquos family and insistence that membership ofit was a sine qua non for the imam Some of them developed moreextreme beliefs such as acceptance of the imam as an incarnation ofGod and a doctrine of the transmigration of souls It seems that froman early date the conquered non-Arab peoples were attracted to theShilsquoite movements and it may be that some of their doctrines wereinfluenced by the previous beliefs of these non-Arab supportersShilsquoism has a long and complex history which extends well beyondthe Umayyad period but it was then that its basic character wasestablished3

The basic principle of Kharijism was a demand for piety andreligious excellence as the only necessary qualification for the imamand a rejection of the view that he should belong to the family of theProphet as the Shilsquoites demanded or to the tribe of the Prophet(Quraysh) as the Sunnis required Like Shilsquoism Kharijism too wasmanifested in a number of movements some relatively moderate andothers more extreme The extremists tended to insist on the rejectionof all other Muslims regarding them as infidels and therefore liable tobe killed unless they lsquorepentedrsquo and lsquoaccepted Islamrsquo that is unless

4 Introduction

they recognised the Kharijite imam and accepted the Kharijite form ofIslam This fierce rejection of other Muslims however involving theduty of rebellion against what was regarded as an illegitimategovernment became increasingly difficult to maintain except in areasremote from the authority of the government or in times when theauthority of the government for some reason collapsed In Basra thesecond of the Iraqi garrison towns on the other hand a moremoderate form of Kharijism was elaborated and spread to easternArabia and North Africa It is this form of Kharijism which hassurvived into the modern world4

Each of these three main Muslim groups came to hold that Islamshould be open to all peoples and that all should enjoy the same statuswithin it regarding rights and duties The development of this idea tooof Islam as a universal religion can be traced to the Umayyad periodagain in circles opposed to the dynasty

Although it can be debated whether the Koran was addressed to allmen or to the Arabs only the Umayyads and the Arab tribesmen whofirst conquered the Middle East regarded their religion as largelyexclusive of the conquered peoples There was no sustained attempt toforce or even persuade the conquered peoples to accept Islam and itwas assumed that they would remain in their own communities payingtaxes to support the conquerors Although from the start there wassome movement of the conquered into the community of theconquerors the separation of Arabs from non-Arabs was a basicprinciple of the state established as a result of the conquests This isclear both from the procedure which a non-Arab had to adopt in orderto enter Islam and from the fact that there were from time to timeofficial measures designed to prevent such changes of status Islamwas in fact regarded as the property of the conquering aristocracy

In order to attach himself to the religion and society of the Arabs anon-Arab had to become the client (mawla pl mawali) of an Arabtribe In other words in order to become a Muslim something whichit is possible to see as a social or political as much as a religious movehe had to acquire an Arab patron and become a sort of honorarymember of his patronrsquos tribe adding the tribal name to his own newMuslim one even though he and his descendants were in some waystreated as second-class Muslims It is evident therefore thatmembership of Islam was equated with possession of an Arab ethnicidentity5

Nevertheless association with the elite in this way did haveadvantages for some and at various times in different places we hear

Introduction 5

of large numbers of non-Arabs attempting to enter Islam bybecoming mawali but being prevented from doing so or at leastfrom having their changed status recognised by local Umayyadgovernors Probably the best-known example was in Iraq around 700when large numbers of local non-Arab cultivators sought to abandontheir lands and flee into the Arab garrison towns to enter Islam asmawali only to be forced back by the Umayyad governor al-Hajjajwho refused to recognise their claims

In the long run it proved impossible to maintain the isolation ofconquerors and conquered from one another in this way andattempts to do so only served to alienate further those Muslimgroups which had come to see Islam as a religion open to all Theproblem for the Umayyads was that they had come to power asleaders of a conquering Arab elite and to have allowed theconquered peoples to enter Islam en masse would have abolished orat least weakened the distinction between the elite and the massesThe crucial privileges of Islam from this point of view were in thearea of taxation In principle the Arabs were to be the recipients ofthe taxes paid by the non-Arabs If the conquered peoples wereallowed to become Muslims and to change their position from thatof payers to that of recipients of taxes the whole system upon whichthe Umayyads depended would collapse But as the pressure fromthe non-Arabs built up and the universalist notion of Islam becamestronger this problem became increasingly urgent for the dynastyand played a major part in the generally negative attitude of Muslimstowards the Umayyad dynasty6

How far the development of Islam in the Umayyad periodinvolved radical changes in religious practices or beliefs is not easyto say Broadly speaking Muslim tradition assumes that thefundamental institutions of Islammdashsuch things as belief inMuhammad as a prophet acceptance of the Koran in the form inwhich we know it as the word of God and performance of the mainrituals such as the five times daily prayer (salat) and the annualpilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) mdashexisted at the beginning of theUmayyad period and were accepted equally by the Umayyads andtheir opponents The difficulty is to decide how far our Muslimsources which are relatively late in the form in which we have themare reading back later conditions into an earlier period

Sometimes certainly we have hints that the situation was not sostatic or so uniform as the tradition generally implies For examplewe are told that Muslim rebels supporting Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the

6 Introduction

Umayyads in the early years of the eighth century accused the caliphof lsquomurderingrsquo the ritual prayer (salat) and called for vengeance forit although what this meant and what exactly was involved ifanything specific is not spelled out7 Even such tantalisinglyobscure hints are relatively scarce and when we do sometimes havemore substantial information its significance seems often to belimited in one of two ways

First the information may centre on a point which seems to berelatively minor For instance much play is made with the chargethat the Umayyads insisted on delivering the khutba (in the earlyperiod a speech or sermon given usually in the mosque by the caliphor his representative and often dealing with secular as well as morepurely religious affairs) while sitting contrary to what is alleged tohave been the practice established by the Prophet and his immediatesuccessors This is supposed to be a sign of the haughtiness of theUmayyads refusing to stand before their subjects and preferringlike kings to remain seated Even though the detail may have lostsome of its significance because of the later decline in importance ofthe khutba and its associated institutions and ceremonies howeverit is difficult to see arguments about the correct posture for thekhutba as of fundamental importance for the development of IslamIn the way in which the practice is presented by Muslim tradition itdoes not provide grounds for arguing that the outward forms ofIslam underwent great and radical changes under the Umayyads8

Secondly even when the information is apparently more weightythe impression is usually given that the Umayyads were pervertingsome orthodox practice or belief which already existed and waswidely accepted by Muslims There is no suggestion that basicreligious ideas were still in a state of flux and that lsquoorthodoxyrsquo (anambiguous term in Islam since there is no central authority to saywhat is and what is not orthodox) was only slowly developing Weare told for instance that some of the Umayyads tried to makeJerusalem a centre of pilgrimage but the sources imply that this wasagainst the background of an already generally accepted practice ofannual pilgrimage to Mecca which had been established as the culticcentre of Islam from the time of the Prophet The reader should beaware of such preconceptions in the sources and consider thepossibility that there may not have been as yet any firmlyestablished cultic centre in Islam9

Any attempt to argue that there were during the Umayyad periodmore fundamental religious developments than the sources allow

Introduction 7

for therefore involves a certain amount of lsquoreading between thelinesrsquo of Muslim tradition and using whatever evidence is availableoutside the Muslim literary sources A recent discussion using suchmethods has questioned whether the name lsquoIslamrsquo as thedesignation for the religion of the Arabs existed much before theend of the seventh century10 Muslim tradition itself though hasproved remarkably impervious to analysis with such questions inmind and onersquos attitude to the question of the extent of the religiousdevelopment of Islam in the Umayyad period must depend greatlyon onersquos attitude to the value of Muslim sources for the history ofthe period and especially the earlier part

The spread of Islam during this period as already indicated hasto be viewed on two levels that of its territorial expansion and thatof its acceptance by the conquered non-Arab peoples from a varietyof religious backgrounds

Muslim tradition is generally more concerned with the formerprocess When an area is under Muslim rule and subject to Muslimlaw that area is regarded as a part of the Muslim world (dar al-Islam) even though the majority of its population may remain non-Muslim Strictly speaking only Christians Jews and Zoroastrians(these last known as majus) were to be allowed to refuse to acceptIslam and maintain their existence as separate religious communitiesunder Muslim rule but in practice toleration was frequentlyextended more widely

From this point of view then the extensive conquests made underthe Umayyads were an extension of Islam At the beginning of theUmayyad period Arab Muslim rule did not extend much further westthan modern Libya or further east than the eastern regions of Iranand even within these areas many regions must have been held onlyprecariously or merely nominally By the end of the dynasty all ofNorth Africa and southern and central Spain were included in theboundaries of the Muslim world and in the east the extension ofcontrol into central Asia and northern India prepared the way forlater advances in those areas

In the west the garrison town of Qayrawan was founded about 670 inIfriqiya (modern Tunisia) and this served as the base for furtherwestward expansion lsquoUqba b Nafilsquo is subsequently said to havemarched as far as the Atlantic before being killed by the still unsubduedBerbers but it was not until the end of the century that regions ofmodern Algeria and Morocco were substantially pacified and theBerbers brought into Islam but keeping their own language and tribal

8 Introduction

system This development is associated with the governorship ofHassan b Nulsquoman in Ifriqiya (683ndash707) It was Hassanrsquos successorMusa b Nusayr who initiated the invasion of Spain in 711 sending hisBerber client (mawla) Tariq to lead the expedition It is from this Tariqthat Gibraltar takes its name (Jabal Tariq lsquothe hill of Tariqrsquo)

In the east too the years around 700 saw major advances Al-Hajjajgovernor of the eastern part of the Umayyad territories from 694 to 714sent his generals Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the ruler of Kabul Qutayba bMuslim into the territories lying beyond the river Oxus (Jayhun or AmuDarya in Muslim works) and Muhammad b al-Qasim into northernIndia Qutayba is said to have reached the borders of China and sent anembassy demanding submission from the lsquoking of Chinarsquo The extentand effectiveness of these expeditions may sometimes be open toquestion but it is clear that Arab Muslim control was extended andconsolidated in the east under the Umayyads11

The spread of Islam among the non-Arab peoples of the conqueredregions is much less explicitly described in our sources At the outset ofthe Umayyad period it is clear that very few of the conquered peopleshad accepted Islam however we understand this last phrase (islamliterally means lsquosubmissionrsquo) But by the end of the period in spite ofthe initial attempt by the Arabs to keep themselves apart religiously andsocially from their subjects and in spite of the refusal by caliphs andgovernors to allow the non-Arabs to enjoy the advantages of acceptanceof Islam large numbers of the subject peoples had come to identifythemselves as Muslims

The spread of Islam vertically in this way is clearly a complexprocess depending on a variety of factors which were not the same inevery area or among every group of the non-Arab population andresulting in divergent rates of progress Because of the silence orambiguity of the sources we are often reduced to speculation aboutcauses and the spread of the process For example we know very littleabout the islamisation of Syria and there are only one or two referencesin non-Muslim sources which seem to indicate substantial islamisationof the local peoples during the Umayyad period On the other hand theMuslim sources have many references to the difficulties caused toUmayyad governors of Iraq and Khurasan when large numbers of non-Arab non-Muslims attempted to accept Islam by becoming mawali inthe early decades of the eighth century but they still leave manyquestions unanswered or answered at best ambiguously

So far as the evidence enables us to judge and leaving aside theBerbers whose society and way of life made them likely allies for

Introduction 9

the Arabs in the wars of conquest it seems to have been in lowerIraq Khurasan and Syria that Islam made the most significantadvances among the subjects peoples in the Umayyad period Inwestern Persia and Egypt on the other hand it seems thatislamisation in this sense was relatively slow and that it was not untilafter the dynasty had been overthrown that Islam became thereligion of the majority in these areas12

In spite of our uncertainties it seems clear that the Umayyadperiod was crucial for the process of Islamisation in all its forms

Arabisation

By lsquoarabisationrsquo I mean the spread of a culture characterised aboveall by its use of the Arabic language in the area which had becomesubject to Arab Muslim rule Although associated with the processof islamisation arabisation is a distinct movement as can be seenfrom the fact that important communities of Jews and Christianssurvived in the Islamic Middle East into modern times Thesecommunities maintained their religious traditions in spite of the factthat they had renounced the everyday languages which they hadused before the Arab conquest and had adopted Arabic ConverselyPersia presents a striking example of a region which largelyaccepted Islam as its religion but maintained its pre-Islamiclanguage at first in everyday and later in literary use although ofcourse the language underwent significant changes in the earlyIslamic period

Again one has to take into account that Arabic itself changed as itspread and was elaborated in the process of interaction betweenArabs and non-Arabs Put crudely as the non-Arab peoples adoptedArabic so their own linguistic habits and backgrounds affected thelanguage leading to significant changes and to the formation ofdifferent dialects The result of this evolution is usually described asMiddle Arabic as opposed to Classical Arabic which is identifiedwith the language of the Koran and of the poetry which it isclaimed originated in pre-Islamic Arabia The origin and nature ofClassical Arabic itself though is to some extent a topic ofcontroversy What led to the adoption or rejection of Arabic by non-Arabic speakers is obviously a very complex question involvingconsideration of political and social relationships as well as morepurely linguistic ones

10 Introduction

In attempting to chart the progress of arabisation the difficultiesagain arise from the lack of explicit information on the topic in ourliterary sources and from the paucity of written material survivingfrom the Umayyad period For instance although it has beensuggested that Jews of all sorts began to speak Arabic as early as theseventh century the process of change must have been gradual andour earliest texts written in Judaeo-Arabic (that is the form of MiddleArabic used by Jews and written in Hebrew rather than Arabic script)come from the ninth century Our earliest Christian Arabic texts(Arabic written in the Greek script) have been dated to the eighthcentury but there has been some argument about the dating On theother hand from later developments we know that Persian must havesurvived as the spoken language of the majority of Iranians during theUmayyad period but our sources only rarely and ambiguously let ussee that it was so and almost all of our source material on the historyof Persia under the Umayyads is in Arabic

More concrete evidence is provided by the administrative papyriwhich have survived from Egypt In spite of the limited range ofsubjects with which they are concerned they at least enable us to see agradual change from Greek to Arabic in the language of theadministration Furthermore our literary sources report that around700 it was ordered that henceforth the government administrationshould use Arabic rather than the languages which had been usedbefore the Arab conquest and which had continued in use thus farThis could indicate that there was at that time a significant number ofnon-Arabs with sufficient command of Arabic at least for the purposesof administration since the bureaucracy continued to relyoverwhelmingly on non-Arabs The change of language in thebureaucracy did not happen overnight and the sources are notunanimous about when it was ordered but in the development ofarabisation it seems to have been a significant step

Why and how Arabic and with it the other features which seem tomake Islamic culture in the Middle East significantly Arab anddistinguish it from others spread is therefore still debatableEventually as we know the adoption of Arabic for most purposesbecame general in Syria Iraq and Egypt while the Berbers andPersians in spite of their acceptance of Islam and therefore of Arabicas their sacred language continued to use their own languages foreveryday purposes We can assume that arabisation like islamisationprogressed a long way under the Umayyads but precise evidence ishard to come by13

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

Contents

Conventions viiAbbreviations ixGlossary xiFigures and Maps xiiiForeword to the Second Edition xixPreface and Acknowledgements xxi

Chapter 1 Introduction The Importance of the UmayyadPeriod and its Place in Islamic History 1

Islamisation 1Arabisation 9The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition 11

Chapter 2 The Umayyad Family and its Rise tothe Caliphate 21

The Background of the Umayyads 21Mulsquoawiyarsquos Acquisition of the Caliphate 24

Chapter 3 The Sufyanids 34

Organisation and Administration of the Caliphate 34Events and Personalities of the Sufyanid Period 40

Chapter 4 The Second Civil War 46

Chapter 5 lsquoAbd al-Malik and al-Hajjaj 58

Changes in Government and Administration 61Al-Hajjaj in Iraq 66

Chapter 6 The Development of Factionalism and theProblems of Islamisation 72

The Family of al-Muhallab and theDevelopment of Factionalism 73lsquoUmar II and the Mawali 76Hisham and Khalid al-Qasri 81

vi Contents

Chapter 7 The Third Civil War and the Caliphateof Marwan II 90Walid II 90Yazid III 94Marwan II 96

Chapter 8 The Overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate 104

The Muslims of Khurasan 105The Army 107The lsquoAbbasids and the Hashimiyya 109The Umayyad Collapse 115

Appendix 1 A Note on the Sources 120Appendix 2 Modern Developments in the Study of and

Attitudes to Umayyad History 123

Bibliographical Postscript to the Second Edition 129

Bibliography 139

Index 145

vii

Conventions

Dates Unless there is a particular reason for providing

the Islamic hijri date all dates are AD

References In the notes to the text given at the end of eachchapter references are usually to the name ofthe author or editor and a short form of the titleof the work Full titles together with date andplace of publication are provided in thebibliography See the list of abbreviations forthe titles of journals etc

Transliteration A full scholarly transliteration is not provided inthe text but the bibliography and index aretranslit-erated The bibliography reproduces thevarious methods of transliteration used by theauthors cited My transliteration follows thesystem of the Encyclopaedia of Islam with thefew modifications customary in works inEnglish On the whole readers without anyArabic will safely ignore the transliterationsymbols but may wish to note the following lsquo= the Arabic letter lsquoayn a guttural soundproduced by constricting the larynx rsquo = thehamza a glottal stop like the tt in the Cockneypronunciation of butter vowels are short unlessthey have a macron (macr) over them ibn(abbreviated to b in the middle of a name) =lsquoson ofrsquo B (abbreviation of Banu) =lsquodescendants ofrsquo lsquofamily ofrsquo lsquoclan ofrsquo lsquotribeofrsquo as appropriate

ix

Abbreviations

AIEOr Annales de lrsquoInstitut des Eacutetudes OrientalesAIUON Annali Istituto Universitario Orientate di NapoliAJSL American Journal for Semitic Languages and

Literatures

BSOAS Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African StudiesBZ Byzantinische Zeitschrift

CMedH Cambridge Mediaeval History

EI1 Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st editionEI2 Encyclopaedia of Islam 2nd edition

GS IGoldziher Gesammelte Schriften

IC Islamic CultureIJMES International Journal of Middle East StudiesIOS Israel Oriental StudiesIQ Islamic QuarterlyIsl Der Islam

JA Journal AsiatiqueJAOS Journal of the American Oriental SocietyJESHO Journal of the Economic and Social History of the

OrientJRAS Journal of the Royal Asiatic SocietyJSAI Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and IslamJSS Journal of Semitic Studies

MW Muslim World

PPHS Proceedings of the Pakistan Historical Society

x Abbreviations

Rend Linc Rendiconti dell Accademia Nazionale dei LinceiClasse di scienze morali storiche e filologiche

RH Revue HistoriqueRHR Revue de lrsquoHistoire des ReligionsRO Rocznik orientalistycznyRSO Rivista degli studi orientali

SI Studia Islamica

WI Die Welt des Islams

ZA Zeitschrift fuumlr AssyriologieZDMG Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlaumlndischen Gesellschaft

xi

Glossary

amir lsquocommanderrsquo an army leader andor governor ofa province

amir al-mursquominin lsquoCommander of the Believersrsquo a title of thecaliph

ashraf leading members of the leading families amongthe Arab tribesmen

barid the system of communications between the

provinces and the caliphal courtbaylsquoa the pledge of allegiance given to a caliph heir

apparent or contender for power dar al-islam the regions under Muslim government in contrast

to the dar al-harb (lsquohouse of warrsquo)dalsquowa lsquocallrsquo lsquopropagandarsquo the movement which

prepared the way for the lsquoAbbasid takeover of thecaliphate

dinar the gold coindirham the silver coindiwan the register of individuals entitled to pay or

pension from the government a governmentdepartment

fils the copper coinfiqh the theory of Islamic law (not the law itself the

sharilsquoa)fitna conflict within the Muslim community especially

that between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya hajj the pilgrimage to Mecca in the month of Dhursquol-

Hijja

xii Glossary

imam a) the supreme head of the Muslims particularlyused in this sense by the Shilsquoites b) a prayerleader in a mosque c) an honorific title applied toa religious scholar

jizya a tax in the classical system a poll tax (tax on

individual persons)jund lsquoarmyrsquo a military district khalifa lsquodeputyrsquo the caliphkharaj a tax in the classical system a land taxkhutba a speech in the early period any speech of

importance delivered by a figure of authorityespecially the caliph or governor eventuallydeveloping into the sermon delivered at the mid-day prayer service in the mosque on Fridays

majus lsquoMagianrsquo in the strict sense Zoroastrians but used

more widely for followers of religions other thanJudaism or Christianity to whom the Muslimswished to grant some toleration

mawla lsquoclientrsquo a non-Arab who has accepted Islam afollower of an important individual

salat the ritual five times daily prayer service of Islamshurta a small force used by the governor or other

authority to keep ordersunna lsquoaccepted usage or practicersquo eventually identified

with the Sunna of the Prophet the usage ofMuhammad which Sunni Islam accepted as beingtogether with the Koran the main source ofauthority for its law

lsquoulamarsquo the religious scholars of Islam walirsquol-lsquoahd the heir apparent The meanings given are those usually applicable in this book Inother contexts the words may have other meanings

Figu

re 1

Th

e lsquoN

orth

erne

rsrsquo

Figu

re 2

Th

e lsquoS

outh

erne

rsrsquo

Figu

re 3

Th

e U

may

yads

Figu

re 4

Th

e O

ther

Des

cend

ants

of lsquo

Abd

Man

af

xix

Foreword to the Second Edition

In spite of some significant developments in our understanding ofaspects of the history of the Umayyad caliphate in the fifteen yearsor so since this book was first published readily accessibleintroductions to the period for undergraduates and interested non-specialists remain few This book was generally well received byreviewers and has proved useful for its intended readership Since ithas been out of print for some time and in any case was availableonly as a (rather expensive) hardback it has now been decided toreissue it in paperback The opportunity has been taken to correct afew errors (for pointing out which I am grateful to reviewers) and toadd a postscript surveying some of the important work relevant tothe Umayyad caliphate which has appeared since the first edition in1986 The postscript also refers to a few works which should havebeen included in the original bibliography

For technical reasons it has not been possible to change theoriginal text in three places where some expansion is required

At p 83 with reference to the victory of Charles Martel over theArabs the date of 732 should probably be changed to 733 At thevery least the article of MBaudoit lsquoLocalisation et datation de lapremiegravere victoire remporteacutee par Charles Martel contre lesmusulmansrsquo in Meacutemoires et documents publieacutes par la Societeacute delrsquoEcole de Chartres 12 (1955) 93ndash105 needs to be consulted on thisquestion Secondly at p 52 it is wrong to give the impression thatthe term mahdi is not known in accounts of events before the risingof al-Mukhtar it occurs of course apparently for the first time inreports about the rising of the Tawwabun which took place justbefore that of al-Mukhtar I am especially grateful for MichaelMoronyrsquos review (IJMES 21 (1989)) for drawing attention to thesepoints I remain unconvinced however that the word mahdioriginally lacked any eschatological significance

Finally on p 91 reference is made to the theory that RusafatHisham was not at the Rusafa which was ancient Sergiopolis but wasrather to be identified with Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi near Palmyra I

xx Foreword to the Second Edition

ought to have known but did not that that theory proposed bySauvaget and others has been discredited by Oleg Grabar in hiswork on Qasr al-Hayr City in the Desert Qasr al-Hayr East(Cambridge Ma Harvard University Press 1978) There is now aconvenient discussion of Ruafat Hisham in the second edition ofthe Encyclopaedia of Islam sv lsquoRusafarsquo (by C-PHaase) whichexplains too the problematic tradition that Hisham was there whenhe received the caliphal regalia

GRH March 2000

xxi

Preface and Acknowledgements

Between the general surveys of Islamic Arab or Middle Easternhistory of which there are several of varying quality and detailedmonographs on particular aspects of Umayyad history many ofwhich are not in English there is little that can be recommendedconfidently as an introduction to the importance main events andpersonalities and problems of the Umayyad period The presentwork tries to provide such an introduction

The standard modern account of Umayyad history is JuliusWellhausenrsquos The Arab kingdom and its fall first published inGerman in 1902 and translated into English in 1927 In spite of theinevitable dating of Wellhausenrsquos own political and religiousoutlook and the criticisms of his method of source analysis maderecently by Albrecht Noth his book remains of fundamentalimportance for anyone wanting more than an introductoryknowledge of Umayyad history particularly its political andmilitary events The present work is certainly not intended tosupersede The Arab kingdom

As an introduction however experience has shown thatWellhausenrsquos work is not especially suitable Leaving aside therather idiosyncratic English of its translation it contains more detailthan is readily absorbed its presentation is not as clear as modernreaders expect and its concern with source criticism is notappreciated by those who do not have even a simplified traditionalnarrative against which to set it Attempts to get students to read anddigest Wellhausen usually result in puzzlement and the beginningsof a conviction that Umayyad history is too difficult forundergraduate study

But there is really little else especially in English which treatsthe period as a whole and which can serve as an introduction MAShabanrsquos first volume of his Islamic history A new interpretation itis true is readily available and does provide a lively narrativecoverage of the period Its interpretation however seems to me tobe frequently questionable and on occasion only loosely related to

xxii Preface

the sources and the title itself indicates that it was not conceived asan introduction Similarly Patricia Cronersquos Slaves on horses seemsto me a brilliant analysis of the development of the early Islamicstate and society but not a book for relative beginners since itpresumes rather than provides a fairly detailed acquaintance withthe events of the period There still seems a need therefore for thesort of introduction which I have attempted here

Given then that the present work is not attempting to provide awholly new version of the Umayyad period and that much of itdepends on the findings of the many scholars who have contributedto our understanding of Umayyad history it has seemed unnecessaryto provide references to the original Arabic or other sourcesReaders capable of studying the primary sources themselves willeasily be able to track them down in the secondary works to whichreferences are normally confined in my notes These notes areusually a guide to further reading with readers of English primarilyin mind and are not necessarily the sources of particular statementsbut in a general way they indicate the scholars and works to which Ihave been most indebted Neither the references in my notes nor thebibliography given at the end claim to be complete or extensive butI hope that I have mentioned most works of fundamentalimportance

My special thanks are due to my colleague Dr David Morganwho kindly read the whole typescript and whose feeling for bothhistory and style has undoubtedly saved me from a number ofblunders to my wife Joyce who has similarly read and commentedon the typescript to Sue Harrop the Cartographer at the School ofAfrican and Oriental Studies University of London for help withthe maps and to Peter Sowden who first suggested that I write thebook and then gently prodded until it was done For the remaininglimitations imperfections and errors I am responsible

1

Chapter 1

Introduction The Importance of theUmayyad Period and its Place in IslamicHistory

In the summer or autumn of AD 661 Mulsquoawiya b Abi Sufyangovernor of Syria since 639 and already acclaimed by his Syrianfollowers as caliph (khalifa) religious and political leader of theMuslim state entered the Iraqi garrison town of Kufa In historicaltradition this event is seen as bringing to an end a bitter period ofcivil war among the Arabs achieving the reunification under oneruler of all the territories conquered by them and initiating thecaliphate of the Umayyad dynasty of which Mulsquoawiya was thefounder The dynasty was to rule for 90 years or so until itsoverthrow and replacement by that of the lsquoAbbasids in 749ndash50

The Umayyad dynasty was the first to emerge in the Middle Eastfollowing the conquest of the region by the Arabs a conquest whichhad begun in the 630s and was still continuing for much of theUmayyad period Apart from this fact however what was theimportance of the period of Umayyad rule a period which in itsdetails is often complex and confusing and how has it traditionallybeen regarded by Muslims in relation to the history of Islam Theanswer to the first part of this question is provided by discussion ofthe two concepts of islamisation and arabisation referring to tworelated but essentially distinct historical processes

Islamisation

The term lsquoislamisationrsquo refers both to the extension of the area underMuslim rule and to the acceptance of Islam as their religion bypeoples of different faiths but in the Umayyad period the question isfurther complicated by the fact that Islam itself was developing fromits still to us not completely understood origins into somethingapproaching the religion with which we are familiar One should notimagine that Islam as we know it came fully formed out of Arabiawith the Arabs at the time of their conquest of the Middle East and

2 Introduction

was then accepted or rejected as the case might be by the non-Arabpeoples Although many of the details are obscure and oftencontroversial it seems clear that Islam as we know it is largely a resultof the interaction between the Arabs and the peoples they conqueredduring the first two centuries or so of the Islamic era which began inAD 6221 During the Umayyad period therefore the spread of Islamand the development of Islam were taking place at the same time anda discussion of islamisation has to begin with some consideration ofthe importance of the Umayyad period for the development of Islam

In the first place it was under the Umayyads that there began toemerge that class of religious scholars which eventually became theleading authority within Sunni Islam and which is chiefly responsiblefor shaping the historical and religious tradition which has comedown to us In effect it was this class which led the development ofIslam as we know it and it is important to remember that it emergedlargely in opposition to the Umayyad government The Umayyads hadtheir own conception of Islam itself developing with time anddifferent circumstances but on the whole we see the religion from theviewpoint of the religious scholars

In the emergence of this class the most important region was Iraqand in Iraq Kufa was the leading centre Other regions tended tofollow its lead Building on and reacting against the ideas andpractices available in Kufa and other centres from the second half ofthe Umayyad period onwards groups of Muslim scholars tried todevelop and put on a sound footing what they saw as a true form ofIslam In doing so they frequently accused the Umayyads of impiousor unislamic behaviour

The main concept which these scholars developed and worked withwas that of the Sunna This idea went through several stages butincreasingly came to be identified with the custom and practice of theProphet Muhammad which was to serve as the ideal norm ofbehaviour for his followers and was eventually accepted as the majorsource of Muslim law alongside the Koran Increasingly Muslimideas practices and institutions came to be justified by reference tothe Sunna the words and deeds of Muhammad as transmitted by hiscompanions to later generations The proponents of the Sunna as thusunderstood became increasingly influential and political andreligious developments after the Umayyads had been overthrownresulted in the final crystallisation of the Sunni form of Islam with thereligious scholars the guardians of the Sunna as its leadingauthority2

Introduction 3

Not all Muslims though accepted the primacy or even thelegitimacy of the Sunna and the Umayyad period also saw theemergence of the two other main forms of Islam Shilsquoism andKharijism Tradition dates the fragmentation of a previously unitedIslam into the three main forms which we know today (SunnisShilsquoites and Kharijites) to the time of the first civil war (656ndash61)which ended with the accession of Mulsquoawiya to the caliphateHowever just as the development of Sunni Islam was a slow processwhich only began under the Umayyads so too Shilsquoism andKharijism were not born in one instant They too developed inopposition to the Umayyads in a number of distinct movementswhich each had individual characteristics and again Iraq was ofprime importance

Kufa was the centre of the development of Shilsquoism in theUmayyad period As early as 670 but especially after the revolt ofMukhtar in 685ndash7 Kufa saw a number of movements aimed atoverthrowing the Umayyads and appointing a relative of theProphet usually a descendant of his cousin and son-in-law lsquoAli asimam which title the Shilsquoites tend to prefer to caliph Where theseShilsquoite movements differed from one another was in the particularmember of the Prophetrsquos family whom they favoured and in certainother doctrines they developed what they had in common wasdevotion to the Prophetrsquos family and insistence that membership ofit was a sine qua non for the imam Some of them developed moreextreme beliefs such as acceptance of the imam as an incarnation ofGod and a doctrine of the transmigration of souls It seems that froman early date the conquered non-Arab peoples were attracted to theShilsquoite movements and it may be that some of their doctrines wereinfluenced by the previous beliefs of these non-Arab supportersShilsquoism has a long and complex history which extends well beyondthe Umayyad period but it was then that its basic character wasestablished3

The basic principle of Kharijism was a demand for piety andreligious excellence as the only necessary qualification for the imamand a rejection of the view that he should belong to the family of theProphet as the Shilsquoites demanded or to the tribe of the Prophet(Quraysh) as the Sunnis required Like Shilsquoism Kharijism too wasmanifested in a number of movements some relatively moderate andothers more extreme The extremists tended to insist on the rejectionof all other Muslims regarding them as infidels and therefore liable tobe killed unless they lsquorepentedrsquo and lsquoaccepted Islamrsquo that is unless

4 Introduction

they recognised the Kharijite imam and accepted the Kharijite form ofIslam This fierce rejection of other Muslims however involving theduty of rebellion against what was regarded as an illegitimategovernment became increasingly difficult to maintain except in areasremote from the authority of the government or in times when theauthority of the government for some reason collapsed In Basra thesecond of the Iraqi garrison towns on the other hand a moremoderate form of Kharijism was elaborated and spread to easternArabia and North Africa It is this form of Kharijism which hassurvived into the modern world4

Each of these three main Muslim groups came to hold that Islamshould be open to all peoples and that all should enjoy the same statuswithin it regarding rights and duties The development of this idea tooof Islam as a universal religion can be traced to the Umayyad periodagain in circles opposed to the dynasty

Although it can be debated whether the Koran was addressed to allmen or to the Arabs only the Umayyads and the Arab tribesmen whofirst conquered the Middle East regarded their religion as largelyexclusive of the conquered peoples There was no sustained attempt toforce or even persuade the conquered peoples to accept Islam and itwas assumed that they would remain in their own communities payingtaxes to support the conquerors Although from the start there wassome movement of the conquered into the community of theconquerors the separation of Arabs from non-Arabs was a basicprinciple of the state established as a result of the conquests This isclear both from the procedure which a non-Arab had to adopt in orderto enter Islam and from the fact that there were from time to timeofficial measures designed to prevent such changes of status Islamwas in fact regarded as the property of the conquering aristocracy

In order to attach himself to the religion and society of the Arabs anon-Arab had to become the client (mawla pl mawali) of an Arabtribe In other words in order to become a Muslim something whichit is possible to see as a social or political as much as a religious movehe had to acquire an Arab patron and become a sort of honorarymember of his patronrsquos tribe adding the tribal name to his own newMuslim one even though he and his descendants were in some waystreated as second-class Muslims It is evident therefore thatmembership of Islam was equated with possession of an Arab ethnicidentity5

Nevertheless association with the elite in this way did haveadvantages for some and at various times in different places we hear

Introduction 5

of large numbers of non-Arabs attempting to enter Islam bybecoming mawali but being prevented from doing so or at leastfrom having their changed status recognised by local Umayyadgovernors Probably the best-known example was in Iraq around 700when large numbers of local non-Arab cultivators sought to abandontheir lands and flee into the Arab garrison towns to enter Islam asmawali only to be forced back by the Umayyad governor al-Hajjajwho refused to recognise their claims

In the long run it proved impossible to maintain the isolation ofconquerors and conquered from one another in this way andattempts to do so only served to alienate further those Muslimgroups which had come to see Islam as a religion open to all Theproblem for the Umayyads was that they had come to power asleaders of a conquering Arab elite and to have allowed theconquered peoples to enter Islam en masse would have abolished orat least weakened the distinction between the elite and the massesThe crucial privileges of Islam from this point of view were in thearea of taxation In principle the Arabs were to be the recipients ofthe taxes paid by the non-Arabs If the conquered peoples wereallowed to become Muslims and to change their position from thatof payers to that of recipients of taxes the whole system upon whichthe Umayyads depended would collapse But as the pressure fromthe non-Arabs built up and the universalist notion of Islam becamestronger this problem became increasingly urgent for the dynastyand played a major part in the generally negative attitude of Muslimstowards the Umayyad dynasty6

How far the development of Islam in the Umayyad periodinvolved radical changes in religious practices or beliefs is not easyto say Broadly speaking Muslim tradition assumes that thefundamental institutions of Islammdashsuch things as belief inMuhammad as a prophet acceptance of the Koran in the form inwhich we know it as the word of God and performance of the mainrituals such as the five times daily prayer (salat) and the annualpilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) mdashexisted at the beginning of theUmayyad period and were accepted equally by the Umayyads andtheir opponents The difficulty is to decide how far our Muslimsources which are relatively late in the form in which we have themare reading back later conditions into an earlier period

Sometimes certainly we have hints that the situation was not sostatic or so uniform as the tradition generally implies For examplewe are told that Muslim rebels supporting Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the

6 Introduction

Umayyads in the early years of the eighth century accused the caliphof lsquomurderingrsquo the ritual prayer (salat) and called for vengeance forit although what this meant and what exactly was involved ifanything specific is not spelled out7 Even such tantalisinglyobscure hints are relatively scarce and when we do sometimes havemore substantial information its significance seems often to belimited in one of two ways

First the information may centre on a point which seems to berelatively minor For instance much play is made with the chargethat the Umayyads insisted on delivering the khutba (in the earlyperiod a speech or sermon given usually in the mosque by the caliphor his representative and often dealing with secular as well as morepurely religious affairs) while sitting contrary to what is alleged tohave been the practice established by the Prophet and his immediatesuccessors This is supposed to be a sign of the haughtiness of theUmayyads refusing to stand before their subjects and preferringlike kings to remain seated Even though the detail may have lostsome of its significance because of the later decline in importance ofthe khutba and its associated institutions and ceremonies howeverit is difficult to see arguments about the correct posture for thekhutba as of fundamental importance for the development of IslamIn the way in which the practice is presented by Muslim tradition itdoes not provide grounds for arguing that the outward forms ofIslam underwent great and radical changes under the Umayyads8

Secondly even when the information is apparently more weightythe impression is usually given that the Umayyads were pervertingsome orthodox practice or belief which already existed and waswidely accepted by Muslims There is no suggestion that basicreligious ideas were still in a state of flux and that lsquoorthodoxyrsquo (anambiguous term in Islam since there is no central authority to saywhat is and what is not orthodox) was only slowly developing Weare told for instance that some of the Umayyads tried to makeJerusalem a centre of pilgrimage but the sources imply that this wasagainst the background of an already generally accepted practice ofannual pilgrimage to Mecca which had been established as the culticcentre of Islam from the time of the Prophet The reader should beaware of such preconceptions in the sources and consider thepossibility that there may not have been as yet any firmlyestablished cultic centre in Islam9

Any attempt to argue that there were during the Umayyad periodmore fundamental religious developments than the sources allow

Introduction 7

for therefore involves a certain amount of lsquoreading between thelinesrsquo of Muslim tradition and using whatever evidence is availableoutside the Muslim literary sources A recent discussion using suchmethods has questioned whether the name lsquoIslamrsquo as thedesignation for the religion of the Arabs existed much before theend of the seventh century10 Muslim tradition itself though hasproved remarkably impervious to analysis with such questions inmind and onersquos attitude to the question of the extent of the religiousdevelopment of Islam in the Umayyad period must depend greatlyon onersquos attitude to the value of Muslim sources for the history ofthe period and especially the earlier part

The spread of Islam during this period as already indicated hasto be viewed on two levels that of its territorial expansion and thatof its acceptance by the conquered non-Arab peoples from a varietyof religious backgrounds

Muslim tradition is generally more concerned with the formerprocess When an area is under Muslim rule and subject to Muslimlaw that area is regarded as a part of the Muslim world (dar al-Islam) even though the majority of its population may remain non-Muslim Strictly speaking only Christians Jews and Zoroastrians(these last known as majus) were to be allowed to refuse to acceptIslam and maintain their existence as separate religious communitiesunder Muslim rule but in practice toleration was frequentlyextended more widely

From this point of view then the extensive conquests made underthe Umayyads were an extension of Islam At the beginning of theUmayyad period Arab Muslim rule did not extend much further westthan modern Libya or further east than the eastern regions of Iranand even within these areas many regions must have been held onlyprecariously or merely nominally By the end of the dynasty all ofNorth Africa and southern and central Spain were included in theboundaries of the Muslim world and in the east the extension ofcontrol into central Asia and northern India prepared the way forlater advances in those areas

In the west the garrison town of Qayrawan was founded about 670 inIfriqiya (modern Tunisia) and this served as the base for furtherwestward expansion lsquoUqba b Nafilsquo is subsequently said to havemarched as far as the Atlantic before being killed by the still unsubduedBerbers but it was not until the end of the century that regions ofmodern Algeria and Morocco were substantially pacified and theBerbers brought into Islam but keeping their own language and tribal

8 Introduction

system This development is associated with the governorship ofHassan b Nulsquoman in Ifriqiya (683ndash707) It was Hassanrsquos successorMusa b Nusayr who initiated the invasion of Spain in 711 sending hisBerber client (mawla) Tariq to lead the expedition It is from this Tariqthat Gibraltar takes its name (Jabal Tariq lsquothe hill of Tariqrsquo)

In the east too the years around 700 saw major advances Al-Hajjajgovernor of the eastern part of the Umayyad territories from 694 to 714sent his generals Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the ruler of Kabul Qutayba bMuslim into the territories lying beyond the river Oxus (Jayhun or AmuDarya in Muslim works) and Muhammad b al-Qasim into northernIndia Qutayba is said to have reached the borders of China and sent anembassy demanding submission from the lsquoking of Chinarsquo The extentand effectiveness of these expeditions may sometimes be open toquestion but it is clear that Arab Muslim control was extended andconsolidated in the east under the Umayyads11

The spread of Islam among the non-Arab peoples of the conqueredregions is much less explicitly described in our sources At the outset ofthe Umayyad period it is clear that very few of the conquered peopleshad accepted Islam however we understand this last phrase (islamliterally means lsquosubmissionrsquo) But by the end of the period in spite ofthe initial attempt by the Arabs to keep themselves apart religiously andsocially from their subjects and in spite of the refusal by caliphs andgovernors to allow the non-Arabs to enjoy the advantages of acceptanceof Islam large numbers of the subject peoples had come to identifythemselves as Muslims

The spread of Islam vertically in this way is clearly a complexprocess depending on a variety of factors which were not the same inevery area or among every group of the non-Arab population andresulting in divergent rates of progress Because of the silence orambiguity of the sources we are often reduced to speculation aboutcauses and the spread of the process For example we know very littleabout the islamisation of Syria and there are only one or two referencesin non-Muslim sources which seem to indicate substantial islamisationof the local peoples during the Umayyad period On the other hand theMuslim sources have many references to the difficulties caused toUmayyad governors of Iraq and Khurasan when large numbers of non-Arab non-Muslims attempted to accept Islam by becoming mawali inthe early decades of the eighth century but they still leave manyquestions unanswered or answered at best ambiguously

So far as the evidence enables us to judge and leaving aside theBerbers whose society and way of life made them likely allies for

Introduction 9

the Arabs in the wars of conquest it seems to have been in lowerIraq Khurasan and Syria that Islam made the most significantadvances among the subjects peoples in the Umayyad period Inwestern Persia and Egypt on the other hand it seems thatislamisation in this sense was relatively slow and that it was not untilafter the dynasty had been overthrown that Islam became thereligion of the majority in these areas12

In spite of our uncertainties it seems clear that the Umayyadperiod was crucial for the process of Islamisation in all its forms

Arabisation

By lsquoarabisationrsquo I mean the spread of a culture characterised aboveall by its use of the Arabic language in the area which had becomesubject to Arab Muslim rule Although associated with the processof islamisation arabisation is a distinct movement as can be seenfrom the fact that important communities of Jews and Christianssurvived in the Islamic Middle East into modern times Thesecommunities maintained their religious traditions in spite of the factthat they had renounced the everyday languages which they hadused before the Arab conquest and had adopted Arabic ConverselyPersia presents a striking example of a region which largelyaccepted Islam as its religion but maintained its pre-Islamiclanguage at first in everyday and later in literary use although ofcourse the language underwent significant changes in the earlyIslamic period

Again one has to take into account that Arabic itself changed as itspread and was elaborated in the process of interaction betweenArabs and non-Arabs Put crudely as the non-Arab peoples adoptedArabic so their own linguistic habits and backgrounds affected thelanguage leading to significant changes and to the formation ofdifferent dialects The result of this evolution is usually described asMiddle Arabic as opposed to Classical Arabic which is identifiedwith the language of the Koran and of the poetry which it isclaimed originated in pre-Islamic Arabia The origin and nature ofClassical Arabic itself though is to some extent a topic ofcontroversy What led to the adoption or rejection of Arabic by non-Arabic speakers is obviously a very complex question involvingconsideration of political and social relationships as well as morepurely linguistic ones

10 Introduction

In attempting to chart the progress of arabisation the difficultiesagain arise from the lack of explicit information on the topic in ourliterary sources and from the paucity of written material survivingfrom the Umayyad period For instance although it has beensuggested that Jews of all sorts began to speak Arabic as early as theseventh century the process of change must have been gradual andour earliest texts written in Judaeo-Arabic (that is the form of MiddleArabic used by Jews and written in Hebrew rather than Arabic script)come from the ninth century Our earliest Christian Arabic texts(Arabic written in the Greek script) have been dated to the eighthcentury but there has been some argument about the dating On theother hand from later developments we know that Persian must havesurvived as the spoken language of the majority of Iranians during theUmayyad period but our sources only rarely and ambiguously let ussee that it was so and almost all of our source material on the historyof Persia under the Umayyads is in Arabic

More concrete evidence is provided by the administrative papyriwhich have survived from Egypt In spite of the limited range ofsubjects with which they are concerned they at least enable us to see agradual change from Greek to Arabic in the language of theadministration Furthermore our literary sources report that around700 it was ordered that henceforth the government administrationshould use Arabic rather than the languages which had been usedbefore the Arab conquest and which had continued in use thus farThis could indicate that there was at that time a significant number ofnon-Arabs with sufficient command of Arabic at least for the purposesof administration since the bureaucracy continued to relyoverwhelmingly on non-Arabs The change of language in thebureaucracy did not happen overnight and the sources are notunanimous about when it was ordered but in the development ofarabisation it seems to have been a significant step

Why and how Arabic and with it the other features which seem tomake Islamic culture in the Middle East significantly Arab anddistinguish it from others spread is therefore still debatableEventually as we know the adoption of Arabic for most purposesbecame general in Syria Iraq and Egypt while the Berbers andPersians in spite of their acceptance of Islam and therefore of Arabicas their sacred language continued to use their own languages foreveryday purposes We can assume that arabisation like islamisationprogressed a long way under the Umayyads but precise evidence ishard to come by13

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

vi Contents

Chapter 7 The Third Civil War and the Caliphateof Marwan II 90Walid II 90Yazid III 94Marwan II 96

Chapter 8 The Overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate 104

The Muslims of Khurasan 105The Army 107The lsquoAbbasids and the Hashimiyya 109The Umayyad Collapse 115

Appendix 1 A Note on the Sources 120Appendix 2 Modern Developments in the Study of and

Attitudes to Umayyad History 123

Bibliographical Postscript to the Second Edition 129

Bibliography 139

Index 145

vii

Conventions

Dates Unless there is a particular reason for providing

the Islamic hijri date all dates are AD

References In the notes to the text given at the end of eachchapter references are usually to the name ofthe author or editor and a short form of the titleof the work Full titles together with date andplace of publication are provided in thebibliography See the list of abbreviations forthe titles of journals etc

Transliteration A full scholarly transliteration is not provided inthe text but the bibliography and index aretranslit-erated The bibliography reproduces thevarious methods of transliteration used by theauthors cited My transliteration follows thesystem of the Encyclopaedia of Islam with thefew modifications customary in works inEnglish On the whole readers without anyArabic will safely ignore the transliterationsymbols but may wish to note the following lsquo= the Arabic letter lsquoayn a guttural soundproduced by constricting the larynx rsquo = thehamza a glottal stop like the tt in the Cockneypronunciation of butter vowels are short unlessthey have a macron (macr) over them ibn(abbreviated to b in the middle of a name) =lsquoson ofrsquo B (abbreviation of Banu) =lsquodescendants ofrsquo lsquofamily ofrsquo lsquoclan ofrsquo lsquotribeofrsquo as appropriate

ix

Abbreviations

AIEOr Annales de lrsquoInstitut des Eacutetudes OrientalesAIUON Annali Istituto Universitario Orientate di NapoliAJSL American Journal for Semitic Languages and

Literatures

BSOAS Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African StudiesBZ Byzantinische Zeitschrift

CMedH Cambridge Mediaeval History

EI1 Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st editionEI2 Encyclopaedia of Islam 2nd edition

GS IGoldziher Gesammelte Schriften

IC Islamic CultureIJMES International Journal of Middle East StudiesIOS Israel Oriental StudiesIQ Islamic QuarterlyIsl Der Islam

JA Journal AsiatiqueJAOS Journal of the American Oriental SocietyJESHO Journal of the Economic and Social History of the

OrientJRAS Journal of the Royal Asiatic SocietyJSAI Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and IslamJSS Journal of Semitic Studies

MW Muslim World

PPHS Proceedings of the Pakistan Historical Society

x Abbreviations

Rend Linc Rendiconti dell Accademia Nazionale dei LinceiClasse di scienze morali storiche e filologiche

RH Revue HistoriqueRHR Revue de lrsquoHistoire des ReligionsRO Rocznik orientalistycznyRSO Rivista degli studi orientali

SI Studia Islamica

WI Die Welt des Islams

ZA Zeitschrift fuumlr AssyriologieZDMG Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlaumlndischen Gesellschaft

xi

Glossary

amir lsquocommanderrsquo an army leader andor governor ofa province

amir al-mursquominin lsquoCommander of the Believersrsquo a title of thecaliph

ashraf leading members of the leading families amongthe Arab tribesmen

barid the system of communications between the

provinces and the caliphal courtbaylsquoa the pledge of allegiance given to a caliph heir

apparent or contender for power dar al-islam the regions under Muslim government in contrast

to the dar al-harb (lsquohouse of warrsquo)dalsquowa lsquocallrsquo lsquopropagandarsquo the movement which

prepared the way for the lsquoAbbasid takeover of thecaliphate

dinar the gold coindirham the silver coindiwan the register of individuals entitled to pay or

pension from the government a governmentdepartment

fils the copper coinfiqh the theory of Islamic law (not the law itself the

sharilsquoa)fitna conflict within the Muslim community especially

that between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya hajj the pilgrimage to Mecca in the month of Dhursquol-

Hijja

xii Glossary

imam a) the supreme head of the Muslims particularlyused in this sense by the Shilsquoites b) a prayerleader in a mosque c) an honorific title applied toa religious scholar

jizya a tax in the classical system a poll tax (tax on

individual persons)jund lsquoarmyrsquo a military district khalifa lsquodeputyrsquo the caliphkharaj a tax in the classical system a land taxkhutba a speech in the early period any speech of

importance delivered by a figure of authorityespecially the caliph or governor eventuallydeveloping into the sermon delivered at the mid-day prayer service in the mosque on Fridays

majus lsquoMagianrsquo in the strict sense Zoroastrians but used

more widely for followers of religions other thanJudaism or Christianity to whom the Muslimswished to grant some toleration

mawla lsquoclientrsquo a non-Arab who has accepted Islam afollower of an important individual

salat the ritual five times daily prayer service of Islamshurta a small force used by the governor or other

authority to keep ordersunna lsquoaccepted usage or practicersquo eventually identified

with the Sunna of the Prophet the usage ofMuhammad which Sunni Islam accepted as beingtogether with the Koran the main source ofauthority for its law

lsquoulamarsquo the religious scholars of Islam walirsquol-lsquoahd the heir apparent The meanings given are those usually applicable in this book Inother contexts the words may have other meanings

Figu

re 1

Th

e lsquoN

orth

erne

rsrsquo

Figu

re 2

Th

e lsquoS

outh

erne

rsrsquo

Figu

re 3

Th

e U

may

yads

Figu

re 4

Th

e O

ther

Des

cend

ants

of lsquo

Abd

Man

af

xix

Foreword to the Second Edition

In spite of some significant developments in our understanding ofaspects of the history of the Umayyad caliphate in the fifteen yearsor so since this book was first published readily accessibleintroductions to the period for undergraduates and interested non-specialists remain few This book was generally well received byreviewers and has proved useful for its intended readership Since ithas been out of print for some time and in any case was availableonly as a (rather expensive) hardback it has now been decided toreissue it in paperback The opportunity has been taken to correct afew errors (for pointing out which I am grateful to reviewers) and toadd a postscript surveying some of the important work relevant tothe Umayyad caliphate which has appeared since the first edition in1986 The postscript also refers to a few works which should havebeen included in the original bibliography

For technical reasons it has not been possible to change theoriginal text in three places where some expansion is required

At p 83 with reference to the victory of Charles Martel over theArabs the date of 732 should probably be changed to 733 At thevery least the article of MBaudoit lsquoLocalisation et datation de lapremiegravere victoire remporteacutee par Charles Martel contre lesmusulmansrsquo in Meacutemoires et documents publieacutes par la Societeacute delrsquoEcole de Chartres 12 (1955) 93ndash105 needs to be consulted on thisquestion Secondly at p 52 it is wrong to give the impression thatthe term mahdi is not known in accounts of events before the risingof al-Mukhtar it occurs of course apparently for the first time inreports about the rising of the Tawwabun which took place justbefore that of al-Mukhtar I am especially grateful for MichaelMoronyrsquos review (IJMES 21 (1989)) for drawing attention to thesepoints I remain unconvinced however that the word mahdioriginally lacked any eschatological significance

Finally on p 91 reference is made to the theory that RusafatHisham was not at the Rusafa which was ancient Sergiopolis but wasrather to be identified with Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi near Palmyra I

xx Foreword to the Second Edition

ought to have known but did not that that theory proposed bySauvaget and others has been discredited by Oleg Grabar in hiswork on Qasr al-Hayr City in the Desert Qasr al-Hayr East(Cambridge Ma Harvard University Press 1978) There is now aconvenient discussion of Ruafat Hisham in the second edition ofthe Encyclopaedia of Islam sv lsquoRusafarsquo (by C-PHaase) whichexplains too the problematic tradition that Hisham was there whenhe received the caliphal regalia

GRH March 2000

xxi

Preface and Acknowledgements

Between the general surveys of Islamic Arab or Middle Easternhistory of which there are several of varying quality and detailedmonographs on particular aspects of Umayyad history many ofwhich are not in English there is little that can be recommendedconfidently as an introduction to the importance main events andpersonalities and problems of the Umayyad period The presentwork tries to provide such an introduction

The standard modern account of Umayyad history is JuliusWellhausenrsquos The Arab kingdom and its fall first published inGerman in 1902 and translated into English in 1927 In spite of theinevitable dating of Wellhausenrsquos own political and religiousoutlook and the criticisms of his method of source analysis maderecently by Albrecht Noth his book remains of fundamentalimportance for anyone wanting more than an introductoryknowledge of Umayyad history particularly its political andmilitary events The present work is certainly not intended tosupersede The Arab kingdom

As an introduction however experience has shown thatWellhausenrsquos work is not especially suitable Leaving aside therather idiosyncratic English of its translation it contains more detailthan is readily absorbed its presentation is not as clear as modernreaders expect and its concern with source criticism is notappreciated by those who do not have even a simplified traditionalnarrative against which to set it Attempts to get students to read anddigest Wellhausen usually result in puzzlement and the beginningsof a conviction that Umayyad history is too difficult forundergraduate study

But there is really little else especially in English which treatsthe period as a whole and which can serve as an introduction MAShabanrsquos first volume of his Islamic history A new interpretation itis true is readily available and does provide a lively narrativecoverage of the period Its interpretation however seems to me tobe frequently questionable and on occasion only loosely related to

xxii Preface

the sources and the title itself indicates that it was not conceived asan introduction Similarly Patricia Cronersquos Slaves on horses seemsto me a brilliant analysis of the development of the early Islamicstate and society but not a book for relative beginners since itpresumes rather than provides a fairly detailed acquaintance withthe events of the period There still seems a need therefore for thesort of introduction which I have attempted here

Given then that the present work is not attempting to provide awholly new version of the Umayyad period and that much of itdepends on the findings of the many scholars who have contributedto our understanding of Umayyad history it has seemed unnecessaryto provide references to the original Arabic or other sourcesReaders capable of studying the primary sources themselves willeasily be able to track them down in the secondary works to whichreferences are normally confined in my notes These notes areusually a guide to further reading with readers of English primarilyin mind and are not necessarily the sources of particular statementsbut in a general way they indicate the scholars and works to which Ihave been most indebted Neither the references in my notes nor thebibliography given at the end claim to be complete or extensive butI hope that I have mentioned most works of fundamentalimportance

My special thanks are due to my colleague Dr David Morganwho kindly read the whole typescript and whose feeling for bothhistory and style has undoubtedly saved me from a number ofblunders to my wife Joyce who has similarly read and commentedon the typescript to Sue Harrop the Cartographer at the School ofAfrican and Oriental Studies University of London for help withthe maps and to Peter Sowden who first suggested that I write thebook and then gently prodded until it was done For the remaininglimitations imperfections and errors I am responsible

1

Chapter 1

Introduction The Importance of theUmayyad Period and its Place in IslamicHistory

In the summer or autumn of AD 661 Mulsquoawiya b Abi Sufyangovernor of Syria since 639 and already acclaimed by his Syrianfollowers as caliph (khalifa) religious and political leader of theMuslim state entered the Iraqi garrison town of Kufa In historicaltradition this event is seen as bringing to an end a bitter period ofcivil war among the Arabs achieving the reunification under oneruler of all the territories conquered by them and initiating thecaliphate of the Umayyad dynasty of which Mulsquoawiya was thefounder The dynasty was to rule for 90 years or so until itsoverthrow and replacement by that of the lsquoAbbasids in 749ndash50

The Umayyad dynasty was the first to emerge in the Middle Eastfollowing the conquest of the region by the Arabs a conquest whichhad begun in the 630s and was still continuing for much of theUmayyad period Apart from this fact however what was theimportance of the period of Umayyad rule a period which in itsdetails is often complex and confusing and how has it traditionallybeen regarded by Muslims in relation to the history of Islam Theanswer to the first part of this question is provided by discussion ofthe two concepts of islamisation and arabisation referring to tworelated but essentially distinct historical processes

Islamisation

The term lsquoislamisationrsquo refers both to the extension of the area underMuslim rule and to the acceptance of Islam as their religion bypeoples of different faiths but in the Umayyad period the question isfurther complicated by the fact that Islam itself was developing fromits still to us not completely understood origins into somethingapproaching the religion with which we are familiar One should notimagine that Islam as we know it came fully formed out of Arabiawith the Arabs at the time of their conquest of the Middle East and

2 Introduction

was then accepted or rejected as the case might be by the non-Arabpeoples Although many of the details are obscure and oftencontroversial it seems clear that Islam as we know it is largely a resultof the interaction between the Arabs and the peoples they conqueredduring the first two centuries or so of the Islamic era which began inAD 6221 During the Umayyad period therefore the spread of Islamand the development of Islam were taking place at the same time anda discussion of islamisation has to begin with some consideration ofthe importance of the Umayyad period for the development of Islam

In the first place it was under the Umayyads that there began toemerge that class of religious scholars which eventually became theleading authority within Sunni Islam and which is chiefly responsiblefor shaping the historical and religious tradition which has comedown to us In effect it was this class which led the development ofIslam as we know it and it is important to remember that it emergedlargely in opposition to the Umayyad government The Umayyads hadtheir own conception of Islam itself developing with time anddifferent circumstances but on the whole we see the religion from theviewpoint of the religious scholars

In the emergence of this class the most important region was Iraqand in Iraq Kufa was the leading centre Other regions tended tofollow its lead Building on and reacting against the ideas andpractices available in Kufa and other centres from the second half ofthe Umayyad period onwards groups of Muslim scholars tried todevelop and put on a sound footing what they saw as a true form ofIslam In doing so they frequently accused the Umayyads of impiousor unislamic behaviour

The main concept which these scholars developed and worked withwas that of the Sunna This idea went through several stages butincreasingly came to be identified with the custom and practice of theProphet Muhammad which was to serve as the ideal norm ofbehaviour for his followers and was eventually accepted as the majorsource of Muslim law alongside the Koran Increasingly Muslimideas practices and institutions came to be justified by reference tothe Sunna the words and deeds of Muhammad as transmitted by hiscompanions to later generations The proponents of the Sunna as thusunderstood became increasingly influential and political andreligious developments after the Umayyads had been overthrownresulted in the final crystallisation of the Sunni form of Islam with thereligious scholars the guardians of the Sunna as its leadingauthority2

Introduction 3

Not all Muslims though accepted the primacy or even thelegitimacy of the Sunna and the Umayyad period also saw theemergence of the two other main forms of Islam Shilsquoism andKharijism Tradition dates the fragmentation of a previously unitedIslam into the three main forms which we know today (SunnisShilsquoites and Kharijites) to the time of the first civil war (656ndash61)which ended with the accession of Mulsquoawiya to the caliphateHowever just as the development of Sunni Islam was a slow processwhich only began under the Umayyads so too Shilsquoism andKharijism were not born in one instant They too developed inopposition to the Umayyads in a number of distinct movementswhich each had individual characteristics and again Iraq was ofprime importance

Kufa was the centre of the development of Shilsquoism in theUmayyad period As early as 670 but especially after the revolt ofMukhtar in 685ndash7 Kufa saw a number of movements aimed atoverthrowing the Umayyads and appointing a relative of theProphet usually a descendant of his cousin and son-in-law lsquoAli asimam which title the Shilsquoites tend to prefer to caliph Where theseShilsquoite movements differed from one another was in the particularmember of the Prophetrsquos family whom they favoured and in certainother doctrines they developed what they had in common wasdevotion to the Prophetrsquos family and insistence that membership ofit was a sine qua non for the imam Some of them developed moreextreme beliefs such as acceptance of the imam as an incarnation ofGod and a doctrine of the transmigration of souls It seems that froman early date the conquered non-Arab peoples were attracted to theShilsquoite movements and it may be that some of their doctrines wereinfluenced by the previous beliefs of these non-Arab supportersShilsquoism has a long and complex history which extends well beyondthe Umayyad period but it was then that its basic character wasestablished3

The basic principle of Kharijism was a demand for piety andreligious excellence as the only necessary qualification for the imamand a rejection of the view that he should belong to the family of theProphet as the Shilsquoites demanded or to the tribe of the Prophet(Quraysh) as the Sunnis required Like Shilsquoism Kharijism too wasmanifested in a number of movements some relatively moderate andothers more extreme The extremists tended to insist on the rejectionof all other Muslims regarding them as infidels and therefore liable tobe killed unless they lsquorepentedrsquo and lsquoaccepted Islamrsquo that is unless

4 Introduction

they recognised the Kharijite imam and accepted the Kharijite form ofIslam This fierce rejection of other Muslims however involving theduty of rebellion against what was regarded as an illegitimategovernment became increasingly difficult to maintain except in areasremote from the authority of the government or in times when theauthority of the government for some reason collapsed In Basra thesecond of the Iraqi garrison towns on the other hand a moremoderate form of Kharijism was elaborated and spread to easternArabia and North Africa It is this form of Kharijism which hassurvived into the modern world4

Each of these three main Muslim groups came to hold that Islamshould be open to all peoples and that all should enjoy the same statuswithin it regarding rights and duties The development of this idea tooof Islam as a universal religion can be traced to the Umayyad periodagain in circles opposed to the dynasty

Although it can be debated whether the Koran was addressed to allmen or to the Arabs only the Umayyads and the Arab tribesmen whofirst conquered the Middle East regarded their religion as largelyexclusive of the conquered peoples There was no sustained attempt toforce or even persuade the conquered peoples to accept Islam and itwas assumed that they would remain in their own communities payingtaxes to support the conquerors Although from the start there wassome movement of the conquered into the community of theconquerors the separation of Arabs from non-Arabs was a basicprinciple of the state established as a result of the conquests This isclear both from the procedure which a non-Arab had to adopt in orderto enter Islam and from the fact that there were from time to timeofficial measures designed to prevent such changes of status Islamwas in fact regarded as the property of the conquering aristocracy

In order to attach himself to the religion and society of the Arabs anon-Arab had to become the client (mawla pl mawali) of an Arabtribe In other words in order to become a Muslim something whichit is possible to see as a social or political as much as a religious movehe had to acquire an Arab patron and become a sort of honorarymember of his patronrsquos tribe adding the tribal name to his own newMuslim one even though he and his descendants were in some waystreated as second-class Muslims It is evident therefore thatmembership of Islam was equated with possession of an Arab ethnicidentity5

Nevertheless association with the elite in this way did haveadvantages for some and at various times in different places we hear

Introduction 5

of large numbers of non-Arabs attempting to enter Islam bybecoming mawali but being prevented from doing so or at leastfrom having their changed status recognised by local Umayyadgovernors Probably the best-known example was in Iraq around 700when large numbers of local non-Arab cultivators sought to abandontheir lands and flee into the Arab garrison towns to enter Islam asmawali only to be forced back by the Umayyad governor al-Hajjajwho refused to recognise their claims

In the long run it proved impossible to maintain the isolation ofconquerors and conquered from one another in this way andattempts to do so only served to alienate further those Muslimgroups which had come to see Islam as a religion open to all Theproblem for the Umayyads was that they had come to power asleaders of a conquering Arab elite and to have allowed theconquered peoples to enter Islam en masse would have abolished orat least weakened the distinction between the elite and the massesThe crucial privileges of Islam from this point of view were in thearea of taxation In principle the Arabs were to be the recipients ofthe taxes paid by the non-Arabs If the conquered peoples wereallowed to become Muslims and to change their position from thatof payers to that of recipients of taxes the whole system upon whichthe Umayyads depended would collapse But as the pressure fromthe non-Arabs built up and the universalist notion of Islam becamestronger this problem became increasingly urgent for the dynastyand played a major part in the generally negative attitude of Muslimstowards the Umayyad dynasty6

How far the development of Islam in the Umayyad periodinvolved radical changes in religious practices or beliefs is not easyto say Broadly speaking Muslim tradition assumes that thefundamental institutions of Islammdashsuch things as belief inMuhammad as a prophet acceptance of the Koran in the form inwhich we know it as the word of God and performance of the mainrituals such as the five times daily prayer (salat) and the annualpilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) mdashexisted at the beginning of theUmayyad period and were accepted equally by the Umayyads andtheir opponents The difficulty is to decide how far our Muslimsources which are relatively late in the form in which we have themare reading back later conditions into an earlier period

Sometimes certainly we have hints that the situation was not sostatic or so uniform as the tradition generally implies For examplewe are told that Muslim rebels supporting Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the

6 Introduction

Umayyads in the early years of the eighth century accused the caliphof lsquomurderingrsquo the ritual prayer (salat) and called for vengeance forit although what this meant and what exactly was involved ifanything specific is not spelled out7 Even such tantalisinglyobscure hints are relatively scarce and when we do sometimes havemore substantial information its significance seems often to belimited in one of two ways

First the information may centre on a point which seems to berelatively minor For instance much play is made with the chargethat the Umayyads insisted on delivering the khutba (in the earlyperiod a speech or sermon given usually in the mosque by the caliphor his representative and often dealing with secular as well as morepurely religious affairs) while sitting contrary to what is alleged tohave been the practice established by the Prophet and his immediatesuccessors This is supposed to be a sign of the haughtiness of theUmayyads refusing to stand before their subjects and preferringlike kings to remain seated Even though the detail may have lostsome of its significance because of the later decline in importance ofthe khutba and its associated institutions and ceremonies howeverit is difficult to see arguments about the correct posture for thekhutba as of fundamental importance for the development of IslamIn the way in which the practice is presented by Muslim tradition itdoes not provide grounds for arguing that the outward forms ofIslam underwent great and radical changes under the Umayyads8

Secondly even when the information is apparently more weightythe impression is usually given that the Umayyads were pervertingsome orthodox practice or belief which already existed and waswidely accepted by Muslims There is no suggestion that basicreligious ideas were still in a state of flux and that lsquoorthodoxyrsquo (anambiguous term in Islam since there is no central authority to saywhat is and what is not orthodox) was only slowly developing Weare told for instance that some of the Umayyads tried to makeJerusalem a centre of pilgrimage but the sources imply that this wasagainst the background of an already generally accepted practice ofannual pilgrimage to Mecca which had been established as the culticcentre of Islam from the time of the Prophet The reader should beaware of such preconceptions in the sources and consider thepossibility that there may not have been as yet any firmlyestablished cultic centre in Islam9

Any attempt to argue that there were during the Umayyad periodmore fundamental religious developments than the sources allow

Introduction 7

for therefore involves a certain amount of lsquoreading between thelinesrsquo of Muslim tradition and using whatever evidence is availableoutside the Muslim literary sources A recent discussion using suchmethods has questioned whether the name lsquoIslamrsquo as thedesignation for the religion of the Arabs existed much before theend of the seventh century10 Muslim tradition itself though hasproved remarkably impervious to analysis with such questions inmind and onersquos attitude to the question of the extent of the religiousdevelopment of Islam in the Umayyad period must depend greatlyon onersquos attitude to the value of Muslim sources for the history ofthe period and especially the earlier part

The spread of Islam during this period as already indicated hasto be viewed on two levels that of its territorial expansion and thatof its acceptance by the conquered non-Arab peoples from a varietyof religious backgrounds

Muslim tradition is generally more concerned with the formerprocess When an area is under Muslim rule and subject to Muslimlaw that area is regarded as a part of the Muslim world (dar al-Islam) even though the majority of its population may remain non-Muslim Strictly speaking only Christians Jews and Zoroastrians(these last known as majus) were to be allowed to refuse to acceptIslam and maintain their existence as separate religious communitiesunder Muslim rule but in practice toleration was frequentlyextended more widely

From this point of view then the extensive conquests made underthe Umayyads were an extension of Islam At the beginning of theUmayyad period Arab Muslim rule did not extend much further westthan modern Libya or further east than the eastern regions of Iranand even within these areas many regions must have been held onlyprecariously or merely nominally By the end of the dynasty all ofNorth Africa and southern and central Spain were included in theboundaries of the Muslim world and in the east the extension ofcontrol into central Asia and northern India prepared the way forlater advances in those areas

In the west the garrison town of Qayrawan was founded about 670 inIfriqiya (modern Tunisia) and this served as the base for furtherwestward expansion lsquoUqba b Nafilsquo is subsequently said to havemarched as far as the Atlantic before being killed by the still unsubduedBerbers but it was not until the end of the century that regions ofmodern Algeria and Morocco were substantially pacified and theBerbers brought into Islam but keeping their own language and tribal

8 Introduction

system This development is associated with the governorship ofHassan b Nulsquoman in Ifriqiya (683ndash707) It was Hassanrsquos successorMusa b Nusayr who initiated the invasion of Spain in 711 sending hisBerber client (mawla) Tariq to lead the expedition It is from this Tariqthat Gibraltar takes its name (Jabal Tariq lsquothe hill of Tariqrsquo)

In the east too the years around 700 saw major advances Al-Hajjajgovernor of the eastern part of the Umayyad territories from 694 to 714sent his generals Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the ruler of Kabul Qutayba bMuslim into the territories lying beyond the river Oxus (Jayhun or AmuDarya in Muslim works) and Muhammad b al-Qasim into northernIndia Qutayba is said to have reached the borders of China and sent anembassy demanding submission from the lsquoking of Chinarsquo The extentand effectiveness of these expeditions may sometimes be open toquestion but it is clear that Arab Muslim control was extended andconsolidated in the east under the Umayyads11

The spread of Islam among the non-Arab peoples of the conqueredregions is much less explicitly described in our sources At the outset ofthe Umayyad period it is clear that very few of the conquered peopleshad accepted Islam however we understand this last phrase (islamliterally means lsquosubmissionrsquo) But by the end of the period in spite ofthe initial attempt by the Arabs to keep themselves apart religiously andsocially from their subjects and in spite of the refusal by caliphs andgovernors to allow the non-Arabs to enjoy the advantages of acceptanceof Islam large numbers of the subject peoples had come to identifythemselves as Muslims

The spread of Islam vertically in this way is clearly a complexprocess depending on a variety of factors which were not the same inevery area or among every group of the non-Arab population andresulting in divergent rates of progress Because of the silence orambiguity of the sources we are often reduced to speculation aboutcauses and the spread of the process For example we know very littleabout the islamisation of Syria and there are only one or two referencesin non-Muslim sources which seem to indicate substantial islamisationof the local peoples during the Umayyad period On the other hand theMuslim sources have many references to the difficulties caused toUmayyad governors of Iraq and Khurasan when large numbers of non-Arab non-Muslims attempted to accept Islam by becoming mawali inthe early decades of the eighth century but they still leave manyquestions unanswered or answered at best ambiguously

So far as the evidence enables us to judge and leaving aside theBerbers whose society and way of life made them likely allies for

Introduction 9

the Arabs in the wars of conquest it seems to have been in lowerIraq Khurasan and Syria that Islam made the most significantadvances among the subjects peoples in the Umayyad period Inwestern Persia and Egypt on the other hand it seems thatislamisation in this sense was relatively slow and that it was not untilafter the dynasty had been overthrown that Islam became thereligion of the majority in these areas12

In spite of our uncertainties it seems clear that the Umayyadperiod was crucial for the process of Islamisation in all its forms

Arabisation

By lsquoarabisationrsquo I mean the spread of a culture characterised aboveall by its use of the Arabic language in the area which had becomesubject to Arab Muslim rule Although associated with the processof islamisation arabisation is a distinct movement as can be seenfrom the fact that important communities of Jews and Christianssurvived in the Islamic Middle East into modern times Thesecommunities maintained their religious traditions in spite of the factthat they had renounced the everyday languages which they hadused before the Arab conquest and had adopted Arabic ConverselyPersia presents a striking example of a region which largelyaccepted Islam as its religion but maintained its pre-Islamiclanguage at first in everyday and later in literary use although ofcourse the language underwent significant changes in the earlyIslamic period

Again one has to take into account that Arabic itself changed as itspread and was elaborated in the process of interaction betweenArabs and non-Arabs Put crudely as the non-Arab peoples adoptedArabic so their own linguistic habits and backgrounds affected thelanguage leading to significant changes and to the formation ofdifferent dialects The result of this evolution is usually described asMiddle Arabic as opposed to Classical Arabic which is identifiedwith the language of the Koran and of the poetry which it isclaimed originated in pre-Islamic Arabia The origin and nature ofClassical Arabic itself though is to some extent a topic ofcontroversy What led to the adoption or rejection of Arabic by non-Arabic speakers is obviously a very complex question involvingconsideration of political and social relationships as well as morepurely linguistic ones

10 Introduction

In attempting to chart the progress of arabisation the difficultiesagain arise from the lack of explicit information on the topic in ourliterary sources and from the paucity of written material survivingfrom the Umayyad period For instance although it has beensuggested that Jews of all sorts began to speak Arabic as early as theseventh century the process of change must have been gradual andour earliest texts written in Judaeo-Arabic (that is the form of MiddleArabic used by Jews and written in Hebrew rather than Arabic script)come from the ninth century Our earliest Christian Arabic texts(Arabic written in the Greek script) have been dated to the eighthcentury but there has been some argument about the dating On theother hand from later developments we know that Persian must havesurvived as the spoken language of the majority of Iranians during theUmayyad period but our sources only rarely and ambiguously let ussee that it was so and almost all of our source material on the historyof Persia under the Umayyads is in Arabic

More concrete evidence is provided by the administrative papyriwhich have survived from Egypt In spite of the limited range ofsubjects with which they are concerned they at least enable us to see agradual change from Greek to Arabic in the language of theadministration Furthermore our literary sources report that around700 it was ordered that henceforth the government administrationshould use Arabic rather than the languages which had been usedbefore the Arab conquest and which had continued in use thus farThis could indicate that there was at that time a significant number ofnon-Arabs with sufficient command of Arabic at least for the purposesof administration since the bureaucracy continued to relyoverwhelmingly on non-Arabs The change of language in thebureaucracy did not happen overnight and the sources are notunanimous about when it was ordered but in the development ofarabisation it seems to have been a significant step

Why and how Arabic and with it the other features which seem tomake Islamic culture in the Middle East significantly Arab anddistinguish it from others spread is therefore still debatableEventually as we know the adoption of Arabic for most purposesbecame general in Syria Iraq and Egypt while the Berbers andPersians in spite of their acceptance of Islam and therefore of Arabicas their sacred language continued to use their own languages foreveryday purposes We can assume that arabisation like islamisationprogressed a long way under the Umayyads but precise evidence ishard to come by13

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

vii

Conventions

Dates Unless there is a particular reason for providing

the Islamic hijri date all dates are AD

References In the notes to the text given at the end of eachchapter references are usually to the name ofthe author or editor and a short form of the titleof the work Full titles together with date andplace of publication are provided in thebibliography See the list of abbreviations forthe titles of journals etc

Transliteration A full scholarly transliteration is not provided inthe text but the bibliography and index aretranslit-erated The bibliography reproduces thevarious methods of transliteration used by theauthors cited My transliteration follows thesystem of the Encyclopaedia of Islam with thefew modifications customary in works inEnglish On the whole readers without anyArabic will safely ignore the transliterationsymbols but may wish to note the following lsquo= the Arabic letter lsquoayn a guttural soundproduced by constricting the larynx rsquo = thehamza a glottal stop like the tt in the Cockneypronunciation of butter vowels are short unlessthey have a macron (macr) over them ibn(abbreviated to b in the middle of a name) =lsquoson ofrsquo B (abbreviation of Banu) =lsquodescendants ofrsquo lsquofamily ofrsquo lsquoclan ofrsquo lsquotribeofrsquo as appropriate

ix

Abbreviations

AIEOr Annales de lrsquoInstitut des Eacutetudes OrientalesAIUON Annali Istituto Universitario Orientate di NapoliAJSL American Journal for Semitic Languages and

Literatures

BSOAS Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African StudiesBZ Byzantinische Zeitschrift

CMedH Cambridge Mediaeval History

EI1 Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st editionEI2 Encyclopaedia of Islam 2nd edition

GS IGoldziher Gesammelte Schriften

IC Islamic CultureIJMES International Journal of Middle East StudiesIOS Israel Oriental StudiesIQ Islamic QuarterlyIsl Der Islam

JA Journal AsiatiqueJAOS Journal of the American Oriental SocietyJESHO Journal of the Economic and Social History of the

OrientJRAS Journal of the Royal Asiatic SocietyJSAI Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and IslamJSS Journal of Semitic Studies

MW Muslim World

PPHS Proceedings of the Pakistan Historical Society

x Abbreviations

Rend Linc Rendiconti dell Accademia Nazionale dei LinceiClasse di scienze morali storiche e filologiche

RH Revue HistoriqueRHR Revue de lrsquoHistoire des ReligionsRO Rocznik orientalistycznyRSO Rivista degli studi orientali

SI Studia Islamica

WI Die Welt des Islams

ZA Zeitschrift fuumlr AssyriologieZDMG Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlaumlndischen Gesellschaft

xi

Glossary

amir lsquocommanderrsquo an army leader andor governor ofa province

amir al-mursquominin lsquoCommander of the Believersrsquo a title of thecaliph

ashraf leading members of the leading families amongthe Arab tribesmen

barid the system of communications between the

provinces and the caliphal courtbaylsquoa the pledge of allegiance given to a caliph heir

apparent or contender for power dar al-islam the regions under Muslim government in contrast

to the dar al-harb (lsquohouse of warrsquo)dalsquowa lsquocallrsquo lsquopropagandarsquo the movement which

prepared the way for the lsquoAbbasid takeover of thecaliphate

dinar the gold coindirham the silver coindiwan the register of individuals entitled to pay or

pension from the government a governmentdepartment

fils the copper coinfiqh the theory of Islamic law (not the law itself the

sharilsquoa)fitna conflict within the Muslim community especially

that between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya hajj the pilgrimage to Mecca in the month of Dhursquol-

Hijja

xii Glossary

imam a) the supreme head of the Muslims particularlyused in this sense by the Shilsquoites b) a prayerleader in a mosque c) an honorific title applied toa religious scholar

jizya a tax in the classical system a poll tax (tax on

individual persons)jund lsquoarmyrsquo a military district khalifa lsquodeputyrsquo the caliphkharaj a tax in the classical system a land taxkhutba a speech in the early period any speech of

importance delivered by a figure of authorityespecially the caliph or governor eventuallydeveloping into the sermon delivered at the mid-day prayer service in the mosque on Fridays

majus lsquoMagianrsquo in the strict sense Zoroastrians but used

more widely for followers of religions other thanJudaism or Christianity to whom the Muslimswished to grant some toleration

mawla lsquoclientrsquo a non-Arab who has accepted Islam afollower of an important individual

salat the ritual five times daily prayer service of Islamshurta a small force used by the governor or other

authority to keep ordersunna lsquoaccepted usage or practicersquo eventually identified

with the Sunna of the Prophet the usage ofMuhammad which Sunni Islam accepted as beingtogether with the Koran the main source ofauthority for its law

lsquoulamarsquo the religious scholars of Islam walirsquol-lsquoahd the heir apparent The meanings given are those usually applicable in this book Inother contexts the words may have other meanings

Figu

re 1

Th

e lsquoN

orth

erne

rsrsquo

Figu

re 2

Th

e lsquoS

outh

erne

rsrsquo

Figu

re 3

Th

e U

may

yads

Figu

re 4

Th

e O

ther

Des

cend

ants

of lsquo

Abd

Man

af

xix

Foreword to the Second Edition

In spite of some significant developments in our understanding ofaspects of the history of the Umayyad caliphate in the fifteen yearsor so since this book was first published readily accessibleintroductions to the period for undergraduates and interested non-specialists remain few This book was generally well received byreviewers and has proved useful for its intended readership Since ithas been out of print for some time and in any case was availableonly as a (rather expensive) hardback it has now been decided toreissue it in paperback The opportunity has been taken to correct afew errors (for pointing out which I am grateful to reviewers) and toadd a postscript surveying some of the important work relevant tothe Umayyad caliphate which has appeared since the first edition in1986 The postscript also refers to a few works which should havebeen included in the original bibliography

For technical reasons it has not been possible to change theoriginal text in three places where some expansion is required

At p 83 with reference to the victory of Charles Martel over theArabs the date of 732 should probably be changed to 733 At thevery least the article of MBaudoit lsquoLocalisation et datation de lapremiegravere victoire remporteacutee par Charles Martel contre lesmusulmansrsquo in Meacutemoires et documents publieacutes par la Societeacute delrsquoEcole de Chartres 12 (1955) 93ndash105 needs to be consulted on thisquestion Secondly at p 52 it is wrong to give the impression thatthe term mahdi is not known in accounts of events before the risingof al-Mukhtar it occurs of course apparently for the first time inreports about the rising of the Tawwabun which took place justbefore that of al-Mukhtar I am especially grateful for MichaelMoronyrsquos review (IJMES 21 (1989)) for drawing attention to thesepoints I remain unconvinced however that the word mahdioriginally lacked any eschatological significance

Finally on p 91 reference is made to the theory that RusafatHisham was not at the Rusafa which was ancient Sergiopolis but wasrather to be identified with Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi near Palmyra I

xx Foreword to the Second Edition

ought to have known but did not that that theory proposed bySauvaget and others has been discredited by Oleg Grabar in hiswork on Qasr al-Hayr City in the Desert Qasr al-Hayr East(Cambridge Ma Harvard University Press 1978) There is now aconvenient discussion of Ruafat Hisham in the second edition ofthe Encyclopaedia of Islam sv lsquoRusafarsquo (by C-PHaase) whichexplains too the problematic tradition that Hisham was there whenhe received the caliphal regalia

GRH March 2000

xxi

Preface and Acknowledgements

Between the general surveys of Islamic Arab or Middle Easternhistory of which there are several of varying quality and detailedmonographs on particular aspects of Umayyad history many ofwhich are not in English there is little that can be recommendedconfidently as an introduction to the importance main events andpersonalities and problems of the Umayyad period The presentwork tries to provide such an introduction

The standard modern account of Umayyad history is JuliusWellhausenrsquos The Arab kingdom and its fall first published inGerman in 1902 and translated into English in 1927 In spite of theinevitable dating of Wellhausenrsquos own political and religiousoutlook and the criticisms of his method of source analysis maderecently by Albrecht Noth his book remains of fundamentalimportance for anyone wanting more than an introductoryknowledge of Umayyad history particularly its political andmilitary events The present work is certainly not intended tosupersede The Arab kingdom

As an introduction however experience has shown thatWellhausenrsquos work is not especially suitable Leaving aside therather idiosyncratic English of its translation it contains more detailthan is readily absorbed its presentation is not as clear as modernreaders expect and its concern with source criticism is notappreciated by those who do not have even a simplified traditionalnarrative against which to set it Attempts to get students to read anddigest Wellhausen usually result in puzzlement and the beginningsof a conviction that Umayyad history is too difficult forundergraduate study

But there is really little else especially in English which treatsthe period as a whole and which can serve as an introduction MAShabanrsquos first volume of his Islamic history A new interpretation itis true is readily available and does provide a lively narrativecoverage of the period Its interpretation however seems to me tobe frequently questionable and on occasion only loosely related to

xxii Preface

the sources and the title itself indicates that it was not conceived asan introduction Similarly Patricia Cronersquos Slaves on horses seemsto me a brilliant analysis of the development of the early Islamicstate and society but not a book for relative beginners since itpresumes rather than provides a fairly detailed acquaintance withthe events of the period There still seems a need therefore for thesort of introduction which I have attempted here

Given then that the present work is not attempting to provide awholly new version of the Umayyad period and that much of itdepends on the findings of the many scholars who have contributedto our understanding of Umayyad history it has seemed unnecessaryto provide references to the original Arabic or other sourcesReaders capable of studying the primary sources themselves willeasily be able to track them down in the secondary works to whichreferences are normally confined in my notes These notes areusually a guide to further reading with readers of English primarilyin mind and are not necessarily the sources of particular statementsbut in a general way they indicate the scholars and works to which Ihave been most indebted Neither the references in my notes nor thebibliography given at the end claim to be complete or extensive butI hope that I have mentioned most works of fundamentalimportance

My special thanks are due to my colleague Dr David Morganwho kindly read the whole typescript and whose feeling for bothhistory and style has undoubtedly saved me from a number ofblunders to my wife Joyce who has similarly read and commentedon the typescript to Sue Harrop the Cartographer at the School ofAfrican and Oriental Studies University of London for help withthe maps and to Peter Sowden who first suggested that I write thebook and then gently prodded until it was done For the remaininglimitations imperfections and errors I am responsible

1

Chapter 1

Introduction The Importance of theUmayyad Period and its Place in IslamicHistory

In the summer or autumn of AD 661 Mulsquoawiya b Abi Sufyangovernor of Syria since 639 and already acclaimed by his Syrianfollowers as caliph (khalifa) religious and political leader of theMuslim state entered the Iraqi garrison town of Kufa In historicaltradition this event is seen as bringing to an end a bitter period ofcivil war among the Arabs achieving the reunification under oneruler of all the territories conquered by them and initiating thecaliphate of the Umayyad dynasty of which Mulsquoawiya was thefounder The dynasty was to rule for 90 years or so until itsoverthrow and replacement by that of the lsquoAbbasids in 749ndash50

The Umayyad dynasty was the first to emerge in the Middle Eastfollowing the conquest of the region by the Arabs a conquest whichhad begun in the 630s and was still continuing for much of theUmayyad period Apart from this fact however what was theimportance of the period of Umayyad rule a period which in itsdetails is often complex and confusing and how has it traditionallybeen regarded by Muslims in relation to the history of Islam Theanswer to the first part of this question is provided by discussion ofthe two concepts of islamisation and arabisation referring to tworelated but essentially distinct historical processes

Islamisation

The term lsquoislamisationrsquo refers both to the extension of the area underMuslim rule and to the acceptance of Islam as their religion bypeoples of different faiths but in the Umayyad period the question isfurther complicated by the fact that Islam itself was developing fromits still to us not completely understood origins into somethingapproaching the religion with which we are familiar One should notimagine that Islam as we know it came fully formed out of Arabiawith the Arabs at the time of their conquest of the Middle East and

2 Introduction

was then accepted or rejected as the case might be by the non-Arabpeoples Although many of the details are obscure and oftencontroversial it seems clear that Islam as we know it is largely a resultof the interaction between the Arabs and the peoples they conqueredduring the first two centuries or so of the Islamic era which began inAD 6221 During the Umayyad period therefore the spread of Islamand the development of Islam were taking place at the same time anda discussion of islamisation has to begin with some consideration ofthe importance of the Umayyad period for the development of Islam

In the first place it was under the Umayyads that there began toemerge that class of religious scholars which eventually became theleading authority within Sunni Islam and which is chiefly responsiblefor shaping the historical and religious tradition which has comedown to us In effect it was this class which led the development ofIslam as we know it and it is important to remember that it emergedlargely in opposition to the Umayyad government The Umayyads hadtheir own conception of Islam itself developing with time anddifferent circumstances but on the whole we see the religion from theviewpoint of the religious scholars

In the emergence of this class the most important region was Iraqand in Iraq Kufa was the leading centre Other regions tended tofollow its lead Building on and reacting against the ideas andpractices available in Kufa and other centres from the second half ofthe Umayyad period onwards groups of Muslim scholars tried todevelop and put on a sound footing what they saw as a true form ofIslam In doing so they frequently accused the Umayyads of impiousor unislamic behaviour

The main concept which these scholars developed and worked withwas that of the Sunna This idea went through several stages butincreasingly came to be identified with the custom and practice of theProphet Muhammad which was to serve as the ideal norm ofbehaviour for his followers and was eventually accepted as the majorsource of Muslim law alongside the Koran Increasingly Muslimideas practices and institutions came to be justified by reference tothe Sunna the words and deeds of Muhammad as transmitted by hiscompanions to later generations The proponents of the Sunna as thusunderstood became increasingly influential and political andreligious developments after the Umayyads had been overthrownresulted in the final crystallisation of the Sunni form of Islam with thereligious scholars the guardians of the Sunna as its leadingauthority2

Introduction 3

Not all Muslims though accepted the primacy or even thelegitimacy of the Sunna and the Umayyad period also saw theemergence of the two other main forms of Islam Shilsquoism andKharijism Tradition dates the fragmentation of a previously unitedIslam into the three main forms which we know today (SunnisShilsquoites and Kharijites) to the time of the first civil war (656ndash61)which ended with the accession of Mulsquoawiya to the caliphateHowever just as the development of Sunni Islam was a slow processwhich only began under the Umayyads so too Shilsquoism andKharijism were not born in one instant They too developed inopposition to the Umayyads in a number of distinct movementswhich each had individual characteristics and again Iraq was ofprime importance

Kufa was the centre of the development of Shilsquoism in theUmayyad period As early as 670 but especially after the revolt ofMukhtar in 685ndash7 Kufa saw a number of movements aimed atoverthrowing the Umayyads and appointing a relative of theProphet usually a descendant of his cousin and son-in-law lsquoAli asimam which title the Shilsquoites tend to prefer to caliph Where theseShilsquoite movements differed from one another was in the particularmember of the Prophetrsquos family whom they favoured and in certainother doctrines they developed what they had in common wasdevotion to the Prophetrsquos family and insistence that membership ofit was a sine qua non for the imam Some of them developed moreextreme beliefs such as acceptance of the imam as an incarnation ofGod and a doctrine of the transmigration of souls It seems that froman early date the conquered non-Arab peoples were attracted to theShilsquoite movements and it may be that some of their doctrines wereinfluenced by the previous beliefs of these non-Arab supportersShilsquoism has a long and complex history which extends well beyondthe Umayyad period but it was then that its basic character wasestablished3

The basic principle of Kharijism was a demand for piety andreligious excellence as the only necessary qualification for the imamand a rejection of the view that he should belong to the family of theProphet as the Shilsquoites demanded or to the tribe of the Prophet(Quraysh) as the Sunnis required Like Shilsquoism Kharijism too wasmanifested in a number of movements some relatively moderate andothers more extreme The extremists tended to insist on the rejectionof all other Muslims regarding them as infidels and therefore liable tobe killed unless they lsquorepentedrsquo and lsquoaccepted Islamrsquo that is unless

4 Introduction

they recognised the Kharijite imam and accepted the Kharijite form ofIslam This fierce rejection of other Muslims however involving theduty of rebellion against what was regarded as an illegitimategovernment became increasingly difficult to maintain except in areasremote from the authority of the government or in times when theauthority of the government for some reason collapsed In Basra thesecond of the Iraqi garrison towns on the other hand a moremoderate form of Kharijism was elaborated and spread to easternArabia and North Africa It is this form of Kharijism which hassurvived into the modern world4

Each of these three main Muslim groups came to hold that Islamshould be open to all peoples and that all should enjoy the same statuswithin it regarding rights and duties The development of this idea tooof Islam as a universal religion can be traced to the Umayyad periodagain in circles opposed to the dynasty

Although it can be debated whether the Koran was addressed to allmen or to the Arabs only the Umayyads and the Arab tribesmen whofirst conquered the Middle East regarded their religion as largelyexclusive of the conquered peoples There was no sustained attempt toforce or even persuade the conquered peoples to accept Islam and itwas assumed that they would remain in their own communities payingtaxes to support the conquerors Although from the start there wassome movement of the conquered into the community of theconquerors the separation of Arabs from non-Arabs was a basicprinciple of the state established as a result of the conquests This isclear both from the procedure which a non-Arab had to adopt in orderto enter Islam and from the fact that there were from time to timeofficial measures designed to prevent such changes of status Islamwas in fact regarded as the property of the conquering aristocracy

In order to attach himself to the religion and society of the Arabs anon-Arab had to become the client (mawla pl mawali) of an Arabtribe In other words in order to become a Muslim something whichit is possible to see as a social or political as much as a religious movehe had to acquire an Arab patron and become a sort of honorarymember of his patronrsquos tribe adding the tribal name to his own newMuslim one even though he and his descendants were in some waystreated as second-class Muslims It is evident therefore thatmembership of Islam was equated with possession of an Arab ethnicidentity5

Nevertheless association with the elite in this way did haveadvantages for some and at various times in different places we hear

Introduction 5

of large numbers of non-Arabs attempting to enter Islam bybecoming mawali but being prevented from doing so or at leastfrom having their changed status recognised by local Umayyadgovernors Probably the best-known example was in Iraq around 700when large numbers of local non-Arab cultivators sought to abandontheir lands and flee into the Arab garrison towns to enter Islam asmawali only to be forced back by the Umayyad governor al-Hajjajwho refused to recognise their claims

In the long run it proved impossible to maintain the isolation ofconquerors and conquered from one another in this way andattempts to do so only served to alienate further those Muslimgroups which had come to see Islam as a religion open to all Theproblem for the Umayyads was that they had come to power asleaders of a conquering Arab elite and to have allowed theconquered peoples to enter Islam en masse would have abolished orat least weakened the distinction between the elite and the massesThe crucial privileges of Islam from this point of view were in thearea of taxation In principle the Arabs were to be the recipients ofthe taxes paid by the non-Arabs If the conquered peoples wereallowed to become Muslims and to change their position from thatof payers to that of recipients of taxes the whole system upon whichthe Umayyads depended would collapse But as the pressure fromthe non-Arabs built up and the universalist notion of Islam becamestronger this problem became increasingly urgent for the dynastyand played a major part in the generally negative attitude of Muslimstowards the Umayyad dynasty6

How far the development of Islam in the Umayyad periodinvolved radical changes in religious practices or beliefs is not easyto say Broadly speaking Muslim tradition assumes that thefundamental institutions of Islammdashsuch things as belief inMuhammad as a prophet acceptance of the Koran in the form inwhich we know it as the word of God and performance of the mainrituals such as the five times daily prayer (salat) and the annualpilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) mdashexisted at the beginning of theUmayyad period and were accepted equally by the Umayyads andtheir opponents The difficulty is to decide how far our Muslimsources which are relatively late in the form in which we have themare reading back later conditions into an earlier period

Sometimes certainly we have hints that the situation was not sostatic or so uniform as the tradition generally implies For examplewe are told that Muslim rebels supporting Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the

6 Introduction

Umayyads in the early years of the eighth century accused the caliphof lsquomurderingrsquo the ritual prayer (salat) and called for vengeance forit although what this meant and what exactly was involved ifanything specific is not spelled out7 Even such tantalisinglyobscure hints are relatively scarce and when we do sometimes havemore substantial information its significance seems often to belimited in one of two ways

First the information may centre on a point which seems to berelatively minor For instance much play is made with the chargethat the Umayyads insisted on delivering the khutba (in the earlyperiod a speech or sermon given usually in the mosque by the caliphor his representative and often dealing with secular as well as morepurely religious affairs) while sitting contrary to what is alleged tohave been the practice established by the Prophet and his immediatesuccessors This is supposed to be a sign of the haughtiness of theUmayyads refusing to stand before their subjects and preferringlike kings to remain seated Even though the detail may have lostsome of its significance because of the later decline in importance ofthe khutba and its associated institutions and ceremonies howeverit is difficult to see arguments about the correct posture for thekhutba as of fundamental importance for the development of IslamIn the way in which the practice is presented by Muslim tradition itdoes not provide grounds for arguing that the outward forms ofIslam underwent great and radical changes under the Umayyads8

Secondly even when the information is apparently more weightythe impression is usually given that the Umayyads were pervertingsome orthodox practice or belief which already existed and waswidely accepted by Muslims There is no suggestion that basicreligious ideas were still in a state of flux and that lsquoorthodoxyrsquo (anambiguous term in Islam since there is no central authority to saywhat is and what is not orthodox) was only slowly developing Weare told for instance that some of the Umayyads tried to makeJerusalem a centre of pilgrimage but the sources imply that this wasagainst the background of an already generally accepted practice ofannual pilgrimage to Mecca which had been established as the culticcentre of Islam from the time of the Prophet The reader should beaware of such preconceptions in the sources and consider thepossibility that there may not have been as yet any firmlyestablished cultic centre in Islam9

Any attempt to argue that there were during the Umayyad periodmore fundamental religious developments than the sources allow

Introduction 7

for therefore involves a certain amount of lsquoreading between thelinesrsquo of Muslim tradition and using whatever evidence is availableoutside the Muslim literary sources A recent discussion using suchmethods has questioned whether the name lsquoIslamrsquo as thedesignation for the religion of the Arabs existed much before theend of the seventh century10 Muslim tradition itself though hasproved remarkably impervious to analysis with such questions inmind and onersquos attitude to the question of the extent of the religiousdevelopment of Islam in the Umayyad period must depend greatlyon onersquos attitude to the value of Muslim sources for the history ofthe period and especially the earlier part

The spread of Islam during this period as already indicated hasto be viewed on two levels that of its territorial expansion and thatof its acceptance by the conquered non-Arab peoples from a varietyof religious backgrounds

Muslim tradition is generally more concerned with the formerprocess When an area is under Muslim rule and subject to Muslimlaw that area is regarded as a part of the Muslim world (dar al-Islam) even though the majority of its population may remain non-Muslim Strictly speaking only Christians Jews and Zoroastrians(these last known as majus) were to be allowed to refuse to acceptIslam and maintain their existence as separate religious communitiesunder Muslim rule but in practice toleration was frequentlyextended more widely

From this point of view then the extensive conquests made underthe Umayyads were an extension of Islam At the beginning of theUmayyad period Arab Muslim rule did not extend much further westthan modern Libya or further east than the eastern regions of Iranand even within these areas many regions must have been held onlyprecariously or merely nominally By the end of the dynasty all ofNorth Africa and southern and central Spain were included in theboundaries of the Muslim world and in the east the extension ofcontrol into central Asia and northern India prepared the way forlater advances in those areas

In the west the garrison town of Qayrawan was founded about 670 inIfriqiya (modern Tunisia) and this served as the base for furtherwestward expansion lsquoUqba b Nafilsquo is subsequently said to havemarched as far as the Atlantic before being killed by the still unsubduedBerbers but it was not until the end of the century that regions ofmodern Algeria and Morocco were substantially pacified and theBerbers brought into Islam but keeping their own language and tribal

8 Introduction

system This development is associated with the governorship ofHassan b Nulsquoman in Ifriqiya (683ndash707) It was Hassanrsquos successorMusa b Nusayr who initiated the invasion of Spain in 711 sending hisBerber client (mawla) Tariq to lead the expedition It is from this Tariqthat Gibraltar takes its name (Jabal Tariq lsquothe hill of Tariqrsquo)

In the east too the years around 700 saw major advances Al-Hajjajgovernor of the eastern part of the Umayyad territories from 694 to 714sent his generals Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the ruler of Kabul Qutayba bMuslim into the territories lying beyond the river Oxus (Jayhun or AmuDarya in Muslim works) and Muhammad b al-Qasim into northernIndia Qutayba is said to have reached the borders of China and sent anembassy demanding submission from the lsquoking of Chinarsquo The extentand effectiveness of these expeditions may sometimes be open toquestion but it is clear that Arab Muslim control was extended andconsolidated in the east under the Umayyads11

The spread of Islam among the non-Arab peoples of the conqueredregions is much less explicitly described in our sources At the outset ofthe Umayyad period it is clear that very few of the conquered peopleshad accepted Islam however we understand this last phrase (islamliterally means lsquosubmissionrsquo) But by the end of the period in spite ofthe initial attempt by the Arabs to keep themselves apart religiously andsocially from their subjects and in spite of the refusal by caliphs andgovernors to allow the non-Arabs to enjoy the advantages of acceptanceof Islam large numbers of the subject peoples had come to identifythemselves as Muslims

The spread of Islam vertically in this way is clearly a complexprocess depending on a variety of factors which were not the same inevery area or among every group of the non-Arab population andresulting in divergent rates of progress Because of the silence orambiguity of the sources we are often reduced to speculation aboutcauses and the spread of the process For example we know very littleabout the islamisation of Syria and there are only one or two referencesin non-Muslim sources which seem to indicate substantial islamisationof the local peoples during the Umayyad period On the other hand theMuslim sources have many references to the difficulties caused toUmayyad governors of Iraq and Khurasan when large numbers of non-Arab non-Muslims attempted to accept Islam by becoming mawali inthe early decades of the eighth century but they still leave manyquestions unanswered or answered at best ambiguously

So far as the evidence enables us to judge and leaving aside theBerbers whose society and way of life made them likely allies for

Introduction 9

the Arabs in the wars of conquest it seems to have been in lowerIraq Khurasan and Syria that Islam made the most significantadvances among the subjects peoples in the Umayyad period Inwestern Persia and Egypt on the other hand it seems thatislamisation in this sense was relatively slow and that it was not untilafter the dynasty had been overthrown that Islam became thereligion of the majority in these areas12

In spite of our uncertainties it seems clear that the Umayyadperiod was crucial for the process of Islamisation in all its forms

Arabisation

By lsquoarabisationrsquo I mean the spread of a culture characterised aboveall by its use of the Arabic language in the area which had becomesubject to Arab Muslim rule Although associated with the processof islamisation arabisation is a distinct movement as can be seenfrom the fact that important communities of Jews and Christianssurvived in the Islamic Middle East into modern times Thesecommunities maintained their religious traditions in spite of the factthat they had renounced the everyday languages which they hadused before the Arab conquest and had adopted Arabic ConverselyPersia presents a striking example of a region which largelyaccepted Islam as its religion but maintained its pre-Islamiclanguage at first in everyday and later in literary use although ofcourse the language underwent significant changes in the earlyIslamic period

Again one has to take into account that Arabic itself changed as itspread and was elaborated in the process of interaction betweenArabs and non-Arabs Put crudely as the non-Arab peoples adoptedArabic so their own linguistic habits and backgrounds affected thelanguage leading to significant changes and to the formation ofdifferent dialects The result of this evolution is usually described asMiddle Arabic as opposed to Classical Arabic which is identifiedwith the language of the Koran and of the poetry which it isclaimed originated in pre-Islamic Arabia The origin and nature ofClassical Arabic itself though is to some extent a topic ofcontroversy What led to the adoption or rejection of Arabic by non-Arabic speakers is obviously a very complex question involvingconsideration of political and social relationships as well as morepurely linguistic ones

10 Introduction

In attempting to chart the progress of arabisation the difficultiesagain arise from the lack of explicit information on the topic in ourliterary sources and from the paucity of written material survivingfrom the Umayyad period For instance although it has beensuggested that Jews of all sorts began to speak Arabic as early as theseventh century the process of change must have been gradual andour earliest texts written in Judaeo-Arabic (that is the form of MiddleArabic used by Jews and written in Hebrew rather than Arabic script)come from the ninth century Our earliest Christian Arabic texts(Arabic written in the Greek script) have been dated to the eighthcentury but there has been some argument about the dating On theother hand from later developments we know that Persian must havesurvived as the spoken language of the majority of Iranians during theUmayyad period but our sources only rarely and ambiguously let ussee that it was so and almost all of our source material on the historyof Persia under the Umayyads is in Arabic

More concrete evidence is provided by the administrative papyriwhich have survived from Egypt In spite of the limited range ofsubjects with which they are concerned they at least enable us to see agradual change from Greek to Arabic in the language of theadministration Furthermore our literary sources report that around700 it was ordered that henceforth the government administrationshould use Arabic rather than the languages which had been usedbefore the Arab conquest and which had continued in use thus farThis could indicate that there was at that time a significant number ofnon-Arabs with sufficient command of Arabic at least for the purposesof administration since the bureaucracy continued to relyoverwhelmingly on non-Arabs The change of language in thebureaucracy did not happen overnight and the sources are notunanimous about when it was ordered but in the development ofarabisation it seems to have been a significant step

Why and how Arabic and with it the other features which seem tomake Islamic culture in the Middle East significantly Arab anddistinguish it from others spread is therefore still debatableEventually as we know the adoption of Arabic for most purposesbecame general in Syria Iraq and Egypt while the Berbers andPersians in spite of their acceptance of Islam and therefore of Arabicas their sacred language continued to use their own languages foreveryday purposes We can assume that arabisation like islamisationprogressed a long way under the Umayyads but precise evidence ishard to come by13

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

ix

Abbreviations

AIEOr Annales de lrsquoInstitut des Eacutetudes OrientalesAIUON Annali Istituto Universitario Orientate di NapoliAJSL American Journal for Semitic Languages and

Literatures

BSOAS Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African StudiesBZ Byzantinische Zeitschrift

CMedH Cambridge Mediaeval History

EI1 Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st editionEI2 Encyclopaedia of Islam 2nd edition

GS IGoldziher Gesammelte Schriften

IC Islamic CultureIJMES International Journal of Middle East StudiesIOS Israel Oriental StudiesIQ Islamic QuarterlyIsl Der Islam

JA Journal AsiatiqueJAOS Journal of the American Oriental SocietyJESHO Journal of the Economic and Social History of the

OrientJRAS Journal of the Royal Asiatic SocietyJSAI Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and IslamJSS Journal of Semitic Studies

MW Muslim World

PPHS Proceedings of the Pakistan Historical Society

x Abbreviations

Rend Linc Rendiconti dell Accademia Nazionale dei LinceiClasse di scienze morali storiche e filologiche

RH Revue HistoriqueRHR Revue de lrsquoHistoire des ReligionsRO Rocznik orientalistycznyRSO Rivista degli studi orientali

SI Studia Islamica

WI Die Welt des Islams

ZA Zeitschrift fuumlr AssyriologieZDMG Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlaumlndischen Gesellschaft

xi

Glossary

amir lsquocommanderrsquo an army leader andor governor ofa province

amir al-mursquominin lsquoCommander of the Believersrsquo a title of thecaliph

ashraf leading members of the leading families amongthe Arab tribesmen

barid the system of communications between the

provinces and the caliphal courtbaylsquoa the pledge of allegiance given to a caliph heir

apparent or contender for power dar al-islam the regions under Muslim government in contrast

to the dar al-harb (lsquohouse of warrsquo)dalsquowa lsquocallrsquo lsquopropagandarsquo the movement which

prepared the way for the lsquoAbbasid takeover of thecaliphate

dinar the gold coindirham the silver coindiwan the register of individuals entitled to pay or

pension from the government a governmentdepartment

fils the copper coinfiqh the theory of Islamic law (not the law itself the

sharilsquoa)fitna conflict within the Muslim community especially

that between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya hajj the pilgrimage to Mecca in the month of Dhursquol-

Hijja

xii Glossary

imam a) the supreme head of the Muslims particularlyused in this sense by the Shilsquoites b) a prayerleader in a mosque c) an honorific title applied toa religious scholar

jizya a tax in the classical system a poll tax (tax on

individual persons)jund lsquoarmyrsquo a military district khalifa lsquodeputyrsquo the caliphkharaj a tax in the classical system a land taxkhutba a speech in the early period any speech of

importance delivered by a figure of authorityespecially the caliph or governor eventuallydeveloping into the sermon delivered at the mid-day prayer service in the mosque on Fridays

majus lsquoMagianrsquo in the strict sense Zoroastrians but used

more widely for followers of religions other thanJudaism or Christianity to whom the Muslimswished to grant some toleration

mawla lsquoclientrsquo a non-Arab who has accepted Islam afollower of an important individual

salat the ritual five times daily prayer service of Islamshurta a small force used by the governor or other

authority to keep ordersunna lsquoaccepted usage or practicersquo eventually identified

with the Sunna of the Prophet the usage ofMuhammad which Sunni Islam accepted as beingtogether with the Koran the main source ofauthority for its law

lsquoulamarsquo the religious scholars of Islam walirsquol-lsquoahd the heir apparent The meanings given are those usually applicable in this book Inother contexts the words may have other meanings

Figu

re 1

Th

e lsquoN

orth

erne

rsrsquo

Figu

re 2

Th

e lsquoS

outh

erne

rsrsquo

Figu

re 3

Th

e U

may

yads

Figu

re 4

Th

e O

ther

Des

cend

ants

of lsquo

Abd

Man

af

xix

Foreword to the Second Edition

In spite of some significant developments in our understanding ofaspects of the history of the Umayyad caliphate in the fifteen yearsor so since this book was first published readily accessibleintroductions to the period for undergraduates and interested non-specialists remain few This book was generally well received byreviewers and has proved useful for its intended readership Since ithas been out of print for some time and in any case was availableonly as a (rather expensive) hardback it has now been decided toreissue it in paperback The opportunity has been taken to correct afew errors (for pointing out which I am grateful to reviewers) and toadd a postscript surveying some of the important work relevant tothe Umayyad caliphate which has appeared since the first edition in1986 The postscript also refers to a few works which should havebeen included in the original bibliography

For technical reasons it has not been possible to change theoriginal text in three places where some expansion is required

At p 83 with reference to the victory of Charles Martel over theArabs the date of 732 should probably be changed to 733 At thevery least the article of MBaudoit lsquoLocalisation et datation de lapremiegravere victoire remporteacutee par Charles Martel contre lesmusulmansrsquo in Meacutemoires et documents publieacutes par la Societeacute delrsquoEcole de Chartres 12 (1955) 93ndash105 needs to be consulted on thisquestion Secondly at p 52 it is wrong to give the impression thatthe term mahdi is not known in accounts of events before the risingof al-Mukhtar it occurs of course apparently for the first time inreports about the rising of the Tawwabun which took place justbefore that of al-Mukhtar I am especially grateful for MichaelMoronyrsquos review (IJMES 21 (1989)) for drawing attention to thesepoints I remain unconvinced however that the word mahdioriginally lacked any eschatological significance

Finally on p 91 reference is made to the theory that RusafatHisham was not at the Rusafa which was ancient Sergiopolis but wasrather to be identified with Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi near Palmyra I

xx Foreword to the Second Edition

ought to have known but did not that that theory proposed bySauvaget and others has been discredited by Oleg Grabar in hiswork on Qasr al-Hayr City in the Desert Qasr al-Hayr East(Cambridge Ma Harvard University Press 1978) There is now aconvenient discussion of Ruafat Hisham in the second edition ofthe Encyclopaedia of Islam sv lsquoRusafarsquo (by C-PHaase) whichexplains too the problematic tradition that Hisham was there whenhe received the caliphal regalia

GRH March 2000

xxi

Preface and Acknowledgements

Between the general surveys of Islamic Arab or Middle Easternhistory of which there are several of varying quality and detailedmonographs on particular aspects of Umayyad history many ofwhich are not in English there is little that can be recommendedconfidently as an introduction to the importance main events andpersonalities and problems of the Umayyad period The presentwork tries to provide such an introduction

The standard modern account of Umayyad history is JuliusWellhausenrsquos The Arab kingdom and its fall first published inGerman in 1902 and translated into English in 1927 In spite of theinevitable dating of Wellhausenrsquos own political and religiousoutlook and the criticisms of his method of source analysis maderecently by Albrecht Noth his book remains of fundamentalimportance for anyone wanting more than an introductoryknowledge of Umayyad history particularly its political andmilitary events The present work is certainly not intended tosupersede The Arab kingdom

As an introduction however experience has shown thatWellhausenrsquos work is not especially suitable Leaving aside therather idiosyncratic English of its translation it contains more detailthan is readily absorbed its presentation is not as clear as modernreaders expect and its concern with source criticism is notappreciated by those who do not have even a simplified traditionalnarrative against which to set it Attempts to get students to read anddigest Wellhausen usually result in puzzlement and the beginningsof a conviction that Umayyad history is too difficult forundergraduate study

But there is really little else especially in English which treatsthe period as a whole and which can serve as an introduction MAShabanrsquos first volume of his Islamic history A new interpretation itis true is readily available and does provide a lively narrativecoverage of the period Its interpretation however seems to me tobe frequently questionable and on occasion only loosely related to

xxii Preface

the sources and the title itself indicates that it was not conceived asan introduction Similarly Patricia Cronersquos Slaves on horses seemsto me a brilliant analysis of the development of the early Islamicstate and society but not a book for relative beginners since itpresumes rather than provides a fairly detailed acquaintance withthe events of the period There still seems a need therefore for thesort of introduction which I have attempted here

Given then that the present work is not attempting to provide awholly new version of the Umayyad period and that much of itdepends on the findings of the many scholars who have contributedto our understanding of Umayyad history it has seemed unnecessaryto provide references to the original Arabic or other sourcesReaders capable of studying the primary sources themselves willeasily be able to track them down in the secondary works to whichreferences are normally confined in my notes These notes areusually a guide to further reading with readers of English primarilyin mind and are not necessarily the sources of particular statementsbut in a general way they indicate the scholars and works to which Ihave been most indebted Neither the references in my notes nor thebibliography given at the end claim to be complete or extensive butI hope that I have mentioned most works of fundamentalimportance

My special thanks are due to my colleague Dr David Morganwho kindly read the whole typescript and whose feeling for bothhistory and style has undoubtedly saved me from a number ofblunders to my wife Joyce who has similarly read and commentedon the typescript to Sue Harrop the Cartographer at the School ofAfrican and Oriental Studies University of London for help withthe maps and to Peter Sowden who first suggested that I write thebook and then gently prodded until it was done For the remaininglimitations imperfections and errors I am responsible

1

Chapter 1

Introduction The Importance of theUmayyad Period and its Place in IslamicHistory

In the summer or autumn of AD 661 Mulsquoawiya b Abi Sufyangovernor of Syria since 639 and already acclaimed by his Syrianfollowers as caliph (khalifa) religious and political leader of theMuslim state entered the Iraqi garrison town of Kufa In historicaltradition this event is seen as bringing to an end a bitter period ofcivil war among the Arabs achieving the reunification under oneruler of all the territories conquered by them and initiating thecaliphate of the Umayyad dynasty of which Mulsquoawiya was thefounder The dynasty was to rule for 90 years or so until itsoverthrow and replacement by that of the lsquoAbbasids in 749ndash50

The Umayyad dynasty was the first to emerge in the Middle Eastfollowing the conquest of the region by the Arabs a conquest whichhad begun in the 630s and was still continuing for much of theUmayyad period Apart from this fact however what was theimportance of the period of Umayyad rule a period which in itsdetails is often complex and confusing and how has it traditionallybeen regarded by Muslims in relation to the history of Islam Theanswer to the first part of this question is provided by discussion ofthe two concepts of islamisation and arabisation referring to tworelated but essentially distinct historical processes

Islamisation

The term lsquoislamisationrsquo refers both to the extension of the area underMuslim rule and to the acceptance of Islam as their religion bypeoples of different faiths but in the Umayyad period the question isfurther complicated by the fact that Islam itself was developing fromits still to us not completely understood origins into somethingapproaching the religion with which we are familiar One should notimagine that Islam as we know it came fully formed out of Arabiawith the Arabs at the time of their conquest of the Middle East and

2 Introduction

was then accepted or rejected as the case might be by the non-Arabpeoples Although many of the details are obscure and oftencontroversial it seems clear that Islam as we know it is largely a resultof the interaction between the Arabs and the peoples they conqueredduring the first two centuries or so of the Islamic era which began inAD 6221 During the Umayyad period therefore the spread of Islamand the development of Islam were taking place at the same time anda discussion of islamisation has to begin with some consideration ofthe importance of the Umayyad period for the development of Islam

In the first place it was under the Umayyads that there began toemerge that class of religious scholars which eventually became theleading authority within Sunni Islam and which is chiefly responsiblefor shaping the historical and religious tradition which has comedown to us In effect it was this class which led the development ofIslam as we know it and it is important to remember that it emergedlargely in opposition to the Umayyad government The Umayyads hadtheir own conception of Islam itself developing with time anddifferent circumstances but on the whole we see the religion from theviewpoint of the religious scholars

In the emergence of this class the most important region was Iraqand in Iraq Kufa was the leading centre Other regions tended tofollow its lead Building on and reacting against the ideas andpractices available in Kufa and other centres from the second half ofthe Umayyad period onwards groups of Muslim scholars tried todevelop and put on a sound footing what they saw as a true form ofIslam In doing so they frequently accused the Umayyads of impiousor unislamic behaviour

The main concept which these scholars developed and worked withwas that of the Sunna This idea went through several stages butincreasingly came to be identified with the custom and practice of theProphet Muhammad which was to serve as the ideal norm ofbehaviour for his followers and was eventually accepted as the majorsource of Muslim law alongside the Koran Increasingly Muslimideas practices and institutions came to be justified by reference tothe Sunna the words and deeds of Muhammad as transmitted by hiscompanions to later generations The proponents of the Sunna as thusunderstood became increasingly influential and political andreligious developments after the Umayyads had been overthrownresulted in the final crystallisation of the Sunni form of Islam with thereligious scholars the guardians of the Sunna as its leadingauthority2

Introduction 3

Not all Muslims though accepted the primacy or even thelegitimacy of the Sunna and the Umayyad period also saw theemergence of the two other main forms of Islam Shilsquoism andKharijism Tradition dates the fragmentation of a previously unitedIslam into the three main forms which we know today (SunnisShilsquoites and Kharijites) to the time of the first civil war (656ndash61)which ended with the accession of Mulsquoawiya to the caliphateHowever just as the development of Sunni Islam was a slow processwhich only began under the Umayyads so too Shilsquoism andKharijism were not born in one instant They too developed inopposition to the Umayyads in a number of distinct movementswhich each had individual characteristics and again Iraq was ofprime importance

Kufa was the centre of the development of Shilsquoism in theUmayyad period As early as 670 but especially after the revolt ofMukhtar in 685ndash7 Kufa saw a number of movements aimed atoverthrowing the Umayyads and appointing a relative of theProphet usually a descendant of his cousin and son-in-law lsquoAli asimam which title the Shilsquoites tend to prefer to caliph Where theseShilsquoite movements differed from one another was in the particularmember of the Prophetrsquos family whom they favoured and in certainother doctrines they developed what they had in common wasdevotion to the Prophetrsquos family and insistence that membership ofit was a sine qua non for the imam Some of them developed moreextreme beliefs such as acceptance of the imam as an incarnation ofGod and a doctrine of the transmigration of souls It seems that froman early date the conquered non-Arab peoples were attracted to theShilsquoite movements and it may be that some of their doctrines wereinfluenced by the previous beliefs of these non-Arab supportersShilsquoism has a long and complex history which extends well beyondthe Umayyad period but it was then that its basic character wasestablished3

The basic principle of Kharijism was a demand for piety andreligious excellence as the only necessary qualification for the imamand a rejection of the view that he should belong to the family of theProphet as the Shilsquoites demanded or to the tribe of the Prophet(Quraysh) as the Sunnis required Like Shilsquoism Kharijism too wasmanifested in a number of movements some relatively moderate andothers more extreme The extremists tended to insist on the rejectionof all other Muslims regarding them as infidels and therefore liable tobe killed unless they lsquorepentedrsquo and lsquoaccepted Islamrsquo that is unless

4 Introduction

they recognised the Kharijite imam and accepted the Kharijite form ofIslam This fierce rejection of other Muslims however involving theduty of rebellion against what was regarded as an illegitimategovernment became increasingly difficult to maintain except in areasremote from the authority of the government or in times when theauthority of the government for some reason collapsed In Basra thesecond of the Iraqi garrison towns on the other hand a moremoderate form of Kharijism was elaborated and spread to easternArabia and North Africa It is this form of Kharijism which hassurvived into the modern world4

Each of these three main Muslim groups came to hold that Islamshould be open to all peoples and that all should enjoy the same statuswithin it regarding rights and duties The development of this idea tooof Islam as a universal religion can be traced to the Umayyad periodagain in circles opposed to the dynasty

Although it can be debated whether the Koran was addressed to allmen or to the Arabs only the Umayyads and the Arab tribesmen whofirst conquered the Middle East regarded their religion as largelyexclusive of the conquered peoples There was no sustained attempt toforce or even persuade the conquered peoples to accept Islam and itwas assumed that they would remain in their own communities payingtaxes to support the conquerors Although from the start there wassome movement of the conquered into the community of theconquerors the separation of Arabs from non-Arabs was a basicprinciple of the state established as a result of the conquests This isclear both from the procedure which a non-Arab had to adopt in orderto enter Islam and from the fact that there were from time to timeofficial measures designed to prevent such changes of status Islamwas in fact regarded as the property of the conquering aristocracy

In order to attach himself to the religion and society of the Arabs anon-Arab had to become the client (mawla pl mawali) of an Arabtribe In other words in order to become a Muslim something whichit is possible to see as a social or political as much as a religious movehe had to acquire an Arab patron and become a sort of honorarymember of his patronrsquos tribe adding the tribal name to his own newMuslim one even though he and his descendants were in some waystreated as second-class Muslims It is evident therefore thatmembership of Islam was equated with possession of an Arab ethnicidentity5

Nevertheless association with the elite in this way did haveadvantages for some and at various times in different places we hear

Introduction 5

of large numbers of non-Arabs attempting to enter Islam bybecoming mawali but being prevented from doing so or at leastfrom having their changed status recognised by local Umayyadgovernors Probably the best-known example was in Iraq around 700when large numbers of local non-Arab cultivators sought to abandontheir lands and flee into the Arab garrison towns to enter Islam asmawali only to be forced back by the Umayyad governor al-Hajjajwho refused to recognise their claims

In the long run it proved impossible to maintain the isolation ofconquerors and conquered from one another in this way andattempts to do so only served to alienate further those Muslimgroups which had come to see Islam as a religion open to all Theproblem for the Umayyads was that they had come to power asleaders of a conquering Arab elite and to have allowed theconquered peoples to enter Islam en masse would have abolished orat least weakened the distinction between the elite and the massesThe crucial privileges of Islam from this point of view were in thearea of taxation In principle the Arabs were to be the recipients ofthe taxes paid by the non-Arabs If the conquered peoples wereallowed to become Muslims and to change their position from thatof payers to that of recipients of taxes the whole system upon whichthe Umayyads depended would collapse But as the pressure fromthe non-Arabs built up and the universalist notion of Islam becamestronger this problem became increasingly urgent for the dynastyand played a major part in the generally negative attitude of Muslimstowards the Umayyad dynasty6

How far the development of Islam in the Umayyad periodinvolved radical changes in religious practices or beliefs is not easyto say Broadly speaking Muslim tradition assumes that thefundamental institutions of Islammdashsuch things as belief inMuhammad as a prophet acceptance of the Koran in the form inwhich we know it as the word of God and performance of the mainrituals such as the five times daily prayer (salat) and the annualpilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) mdashexisted at the beginning of theUmayyad period and were accepted equally by the Umayyads andtheir opponents The difficulty is to decide how far our Muslimsources which are relatively late in the form in which we have themare reading back later conditions into an earlier period

Sometimes certainly we have hints that the situation was not sostatic or so uniform as the tradition generally implies For examplewe are told that Muslim rebels supporting Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the

6 Introduction

Umayyads in the early years of the eighth century accused the caliphof lsquomurderingrsquo the ritual prayer (salat) and called for vengeance forit although what this meant and what exactly was involved ifanything specific is not spelled out7 Even such tantalisinglyobscure hints are relatively scarce and when we do sometimes havemore substantial information its significance seems often to belimited in one of two ways

First the information may centre on a point which seems to berelatively minor For instance much play is made with the chargethat the Umayyads insisted on delivering the khutba (in the earlyperiod a speech or sermon given usually in the mosque by the caliphor his representative and often dealing with secular as well as morepurely religious affairs) while sitting contrary to what is alleged tohave been the practice established by the Prophet and his immediatesuccessors This is supposed to be a sign of the haughtiness of theUmayyads refusing to stand before their subjects and preferringlike kings to remain seated Even though the detail may have lostsome of its significance because of the later decline in importance ofthe khutba and its associated institutions and ceremonies howeverit is difficult to see arguments about the correct posture for thekhutba as of fundamental importance for the development of IslamIn the way in which the practice is presented by Muslim tradition itdoes not provide grounds for arguing that the outward forms ofIslam underwent great and radical changes under the Umayyads8

Secondly even when the information is apparently more weightythe impression is usually given that the Umayyads were pervertingsome orthodox practice or belief which already existed and waswidely accepted by Muslims There is no suggestion that basicreligious ideas were still in a state of flux and that lsquoorthodoxyrsquo (anambiguous term in Islam since there is no central authority to saywhat is and what is not orthodox) was only slowly developing Weare told for instance that some of the Umayyads tried to makeJerusalem a centre of pilgrimage but the sources imply that this wasagainst the background of an already generally accepted practice ofannual pilgrimage to Mecca which had been established as the culticcentre of Islam from the time of the Prophet The reader should beaware of such preconceptions in the sources and consider thepossibility that there may not have been as yet any firmlyestablished cultic centre in Islam9

Any attempt to argue that there were during the Umayyad periodmore fundamental religious developments than the sources allow

Introduction 7

for therefore involves a certain amount of lsquoreading between thelinesrsquo of Muslim tradition and using whatever evidence is availableoutside the Muslim literary sources A recent discussion using suchmethods has questioned whether the name lsquoIslamrsquo as thedesignation for the religion of the Arabs existed much before theend of the seventh century10 Muslim tradition itself though hasproved remarkably impervious to analysis with such questions inmind and onersquos attitude to the question of the extent of the religiousdevelopment of Islam in the Umayyad period must depend greatlyon onersquos attitude to the value of Muslim sources for the history ofthe period and especially the earlier part

The spread of Islam during this period as already indicated hasto be viewed on two levels that of its territorial expansion and thatof its acceptance by the conquered non-Arab peoples from a varietyof religious backgrounds

Muslim tradition is generally more concerned with the formerprocess When an area is under Muslim rule and subject to Muslimlaw that area is regarded as a part of the Muslim world (dar al-Islam) even though the majority of its population may remain non-Muslim Strictly speaking only Christians Jews and Zoroastrians(these last known as majus) were to be allowed to refuse to acceptIslam and maintain their existence as separate religious communitiesunder Muslim rule but in practice toleration was frequentlyextended more widely

From this point of view then the extensive conquests made underthe Umayyads were an extension of Islam At the beginning of theUmayyad period Arab Muslim rule did not extend much further westthan modern Libya or further east than the eastern regions of Iranand even within these areas many regions must have been held onlyprecariously or merely nominally By the end of the dynasty all ofNorth Africa and southern and central Spain were included in theboundaries of the Muslim world and in the east the extension ofcontrol into central Asia and northern India prepared the way forlater advances in those areas

In the west the garrison town of Qayrawan was founded about 670 inIfriqiya (modern Tunisia) and this served as the base for furtherwestward expansion lsquoUqba b Nafilsquo is subsequently said to havemarched as far as the Atlantic before being killed by the still unsubduedBerbers but it was not until the end of the century that regions ofmodern Algeria and Morocco were substantially pacified and theBerbers brought into Islam but keeping their own language and tribal

8 Introduction

system This development is associated with the governorship ofHassan b Nulsquoman in Ifriqiya (683ndash707) It was Hassanrsquos successorMusa b Nusayr who initiated the invasion of Spain in 711 sending hisBerber client (mawla) Tariq to lead the expedition It is from this Tariqthat Gibraltar takes its name (Jabal Tariq lsquothe hill of Tariqrsquo)

In the east too the years around 700 saw major advances Al-Hajjajgovernor of the eastern part of the Umayyad territories from 694 to 714sent his generals Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the ruler of Kabul Qutayba bMuslim into the territories lying beyond the river Oxus (Jayhun or AmuDarya in Muslim works) and Muhammad b al-Qasim into northernIndia Qutayba is said to have reached the borders of China and sent anembassy demanding submission from the lsquoking of Chinarsquo The extentand effectiveness of these expeditions may sometimes be open toquestion but it is clear that Arab Muslim control was extended andconsolidated in the east under the Umayyads11

The spread of Islam among the non-Arab peoples of the conqueredregions is much less explicitly described in our sources At the outset ofthe Umayyad period it is clear that very few of the conquered peopleshad accepted Islam however we understand this last phrase (islamliterally means lsquosubmissionrsquo) But by the end of the period in spite ofthe initial attempt by the Arabs to keep themselves apart religiously andsocially from their subjects and in spite of the refusal by caliphs andgovernors to allow the non-Arabs to enjoy the advantages of acceptanceof Islam large numbers of the subject peoples had come to identifythemselves as Muslims

The spread of Islam vertically in this way is clearly a complexprocess depending on a variety of factors which were not the same inevery area or among every group of the non-Arab population andresulting in divergent rates of progress Because of the silence orambiguity of the sources we are often reduced to speculation aboutcauses and the spread of the process For example we know very littleabout the islamisation of Syria and there are only one or two referencesin non-Muslim sources which seem to indicate substantial islamisationof the local peoples during the Umayyad period On the other hand theMuslim sources have many references to the difficulties caused toUmayyad governors of Iraq and Khurasan when large numbers of non-Arab non-Muslims attempted to accept Islam by becoming mawali inthe early decades of the eighth century but they still leave manyquestions unanswered or answered at best ambiguously

So far as the evidence enables us to judge and leaving aside theBerbers whose society and way of life made them likely allies for

Introduction 9

the Arabs in the wars of conquest it seems to have been in lowerIraq Khurasan and Syria that Islam made the most significantadvances among the subjects peoples in the Umayyad period Inwestern Persia and Egypt on the other hand it seems thatislamisation in this sense was relatively slow and that it was not untilafter the dynasty had been overthrown that Islam became thereligion of the majority in these areas12

In spite of our uncertainties it seems clear that the Umayyadperiod was crucial for the process of Islamisation in all its forms

Arabisation

By lsquoarabisationrsquo I mean the spread of a culture characterised aboveall by its use of the Arabic language in the area which had becomesubject to Arab Muslim rule Although associated with the processof islamisation arabisation is a distinct movement as can be seenfrom the fact that important communities of Jews and Christianssurvived in the Islamic Middle East into modern times Thesecommunities maintained their religious traditions in spite of the factthat they had renounced the everyday languages which they hadused before the Arab conquest and had adopted Arabic ConverselyPersia presents a striking example of a region which largelyaccepted Islam as its religion but maintained its pre-Islamiclanguage at first in everyday and later in literary use although ofcourse the language underwent significant changes in the earlyIslamic period

Again one has to take into account that Arabic itself changed as itspread and was elaborated in the process of interaction betweenArabs and non-Arabs Put crudely as the non-Arab peoples adoptedArabic so their own linguistic habits and backgrounds affected thelanguage leading to significant changes and to the formation ofdifferent dialects The result of this evolution is usually described asMiddle Arabic as opposed to Classical Arabic which is identifiedwith the language of the Koran and of the poetry which it isclaimed originated in pre-Islamic Arabia The origin and nature ofClassical Arabic itself though is to some extent a topic ofcontroversy What led to the adoption or rejection of Arabic by non-Arabic speakers is obviously a very complex question involvingconsideration of political and social relationships as well as morepurely linguistic ones

10 Introduction

In attempting to chart the progress of arabisation the difficultiesagain arise from the lack of explicit information on the topic in ourliterary sources and from the paucity of written material survivingfrom the Umayyad period For instance although it has beensuggested that Jews of all sorts began to speak Arabic as early as theseventh century the process of change must have been gradual andour earliest texts written in Judaeo-Arabic (that is the form of MiddleArabic used by Jews and written in Hebrew rather than Arabic script)come from the ninth century Our earliest Christian Arabic texts(Arabic written in the Greek script) have been dated to the eighthcentury but there has been some argument about the dating On theother hand from later developments we know that Persian must havesurvived as the spoken language of the majority of Iranians during theUmayyad period but our sources only rarely and ambiguously let ussee that it was so and almost all of our source material on the historyof Persia under the Umayyads is in Arabic

More concrete evidence is provided by the administrative papyriwhich have survived from Egypt In spite of the limited range ofsubjects with which they are concerned they at least enable us to see agradual change from Greek to Arabic in the language of theadministration Furthermore our literary sources report that around700 it was ordered that henceforth the government administrationshould use Arabic rather than the languages which had been usedbefore the Arab conquest and which had continued in use thus farThis could indicate that there was at that time a significant number ofnon-Arabs with sufficient command of Arabic at least for the purposesof administration since the bureaucracy continued to relyoverwhelmingly on non-Arabs The change of language in thebureaucracy did not happen overnight and the sources are notunanimous about when it was ordered but in the development ofarabisation it seems to have been a significant step

Why and how Arabic and with it the other features which seem tomake Islamic culture in the Middle East significantly Arab anddistinguish it from others spread is therefore still debatableEventually as we know the adoption of Arabic for most purposesbecame general in Syria Iraq and Egypt while the Berbers andPersians in spite of their acceptance of Islam and therefore of Arabicas their sacred language continued to use their own languages foreveryday purposes We can assume that arabisation like islamisationprogressed a long way under the Umayyads but precise evidence ishard to come by13

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

x Abbreviations

Rend Linc Rendiconti dell Accademia Nazionale dei LinceiClasse di scienze morali storiche e filologiche

RH Revue HistoriqueRHR Revue de lrsquoHistoire des ReligionsRO Rocznik orientalistycznyRSO Rivista degli studi orientali

SI Studia Islamica

WI Die Welt des Islams

ZA Zeitschrift fuumlr AssyriologieZDMG Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlaumlndischen Gesellschaft

xi

Glossary

amir lsquocommanderrsquo an army leader andor governor ofa province

amir al-mursquominin lsquoCommander of the Believersrsquo a title of thecaliph

ashraf leading members of the leading families amongthe Arab tribesmen

barid the system of communications between the

provinces and the caliphal courtbaylsquoa the pledge of allegiance given to a caliph heir

apparent or contender for power dar al-islam the regions under Muslim government in contrast

to the dar al-harb (lsquohouse of warrsquo)dalsquowa lsquocallrsquo lsquopropagandarsquo the movement which

prepared the way for the lsquoAbbasid takeover of thecaliphate

dinar the gold coindirham the silver coindiwan the register of individuals entitled to pay or

pension from the government a governmentdepartment

fils the copper coinfiqh the theory of Islamic law (not the law itself the

sharilsquoa)fitna conflict within the Muslim community especially

that between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya hajj the pilgrimage to Mecca in the month of Dhursquol-

Hijja

xii Glossary

imam a) the supreme head of the Muslims particularlyused in this sense by the Shilsquoites b) a prayerleader in a mosque c) an honorific title applied toa religious scholar

jizya a tax in the classical system a poll tax (tax on

individual persons)jund lsquoarmyrsquo a military district khalifa lsquodeputyrsquo the caliphkharaj a tax in the classical system a land taxkhutba a speech in the early period any speech of

importance delivered by a figure of authorityespecially the caliph or governor eventuallydeveloping into the sermon delivered at the mid-day prayer service in the mosque on Fridays

majus lsquoMagianrsquo in the strict sense Zoroastrians but used

more widely for followers of religions other thanJudaism or Christianity to whom the Muslimswished to grant some toleration

mawla lsquoclientrsquo a non-Arab who has accepted Islam afollower of an important individual

salat the ritual five times daily prayer service of Islamshurta a small force used by the governor or other

authority to keep ordersunna lsquoaccepted usage or practicersquo eventually identified

with the Sunna of the Prophet the usage ofMuhammad which Sunni Islam accepted as beingtogether with the Koran the main source ofauthority for its law

lsquoulamarsquo the religious scholars of Islam walirsquol-lsquoahd the heir apparent The meanings given are those usually applicable in this book Inother contexts the words may have other meanings

Figu

re 1

Th

e lsquoN

orth

erne

rsrsquo

Figu

re 2

Th

e lsquoS

outh

erne

rsrsquo

Figu

re 3

Th

e U

may

yads

Figu

re 4

Th

e O

ther

Des

cend

ants

of lsquo

Abd

Man

af

xix

Foreword to the Second Edition

In spite of some significant developments in our understanding ofaspects of the history of the Umayyad caliphate in the fifteen yearsor so since this book was first published readily accessibleintroductions to the period for undergraduates and interested non-specialists remain few This book was generally well received byreviewers and has proved useful for its intended readership Since ithas been out of print for some time and in any case was availableonly as a (rather expensive) hardback it has now been decided toreissue it in paperback The opportunity has been taken to correct afew errors (for pointing out which I am grateful to reviewers) and toadd a postscript surveying some of the important work relevant tothe Umayyad caliphate which has appeared since the first edition in1986 The postscript also refers to a few works which should havebeen included in the original bibliography

For technical reasons it has not been possible to change theoriginal text in three places where some expansion is required

At p 83 with reference to the victory of Charles Martel over theArabs the date of 732 should probably be changed to 733 At thevery least the article of MBaudoit lsquoLocalisation et datation de lapremiegravere victoire remporteacutee par Charles Martel contre lesmusulmansrsquo in Meacutemoires et documents publieacutes par la Societeacute delrsquoEcole de Chartres 12 (1955) 93ndash105 needs to be consulted on thisquestion Secondly at p 52 it is wrong to give the impression thatthe term mahdi is not known in accounts of events before the risingof al-Mukhtar it occurs of course apparently for the first time inreports about the rising of the Tawwabun which took place justbefore that of al-Mukhtar I am especially grateful for MichaelMoronyrsquos review (IJMES 21 (1989)) for drawing attention to thesepoints I remain unconvinced however that the word mahdioriginally lacked any eschatological significance

Finally on p 91 reference is made to the theory that RusafatHisham was not at the Rusafa which was ancient Sergiopolis but wasrather to be identified with Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi near Palmyra I

xx Foreword to the Second Edition

ought to have known but did not that that theory proposed bySauvaget and others has been discredited by Oleg Grabar in hiswork on Qasr al-Hayr City in the Desert Qasr al-Hayr East(Cambridge Ma Harvard University Press 1978) There is now aconvenient discussion of Ruafat Hisham in the second edition ofthe Encyclopaedia of Islam sv lsquoRusafarsquo (by C-PHaase) whichexplains too the problematic tradition that Hisham was there whenhe received the caliphal regalia

GRH March 2000

xxi

Preface and Acknowledgements

Between the general surveys of Islamic Arab or Middle Easternhistory of which there are several of varying quality and detailedmonographs on particular aspects of Umayyad history many ofwhich are not in English there is little that can be recommendedconfidently as an introduction to the importance main events andpersonalities and problems of the Umayyad period The presentwork tries to provide such an introduction

The standard modern account of Umayyad history is JuliusWellhausenrsquos The Arab kingdom and its fall first published inGerman in 1902 and translated into English in 1927 In spite of theinevitable dating of Wellhausenrsquos own political and religiousoutlook and the criticisms of his method of source analysis maderecently by Albrecht Noth his book remains of fundamentalimportance for anyone wanting more than an introductoryknowledge of Umayyad history particularly its political andmilitary events The present work is certainly not intended tosupersede The Arab kingdom

As an introduction however experience has shown thatWellhausenrsquos work is not especially suitable Leaving aside therather idiosyncratic English of its translation it contains more detailthan is readily absorbed its presentation is not as clear as modernreaders expect and its concern with source criticism is notappreciated by those who do not have even a simplified traditionalnarrative against which to set it Attempts to get students to read anddigest Wellhausen usually result in puzzlement and the beginningsof a conviction that Umayyad history is too difficult forundergraduate study

But there is really little else especially in English which treatsthe period as a whole and which can serve as an introduction MAShabanrsquos first volume of his Islamic history A new interpretation itis true is readily available and does provide a lively narrativecoverage of the period Its interpretation however seems to me tobe frequently questionable and on occasion only loosely related to

xxii Preface

the sources and the title itself indicates that it was not conceived asan introduction Similarly Patricia Cronersquos Slaves on horses seemsto me a brilliant analysis of the development of the early Islamicstate and society but not a book for relative beginners since itpresumes rather than provides a fairly detailed acquaintance withthe events of the period There still seems a need therefore for thesort of introduction which I have attempted here

Given then that the present work is not attempting to provide awholly new version of the Umayyad period and that much of itdepends on the findings of the many scholars who have contributedto our understanding of Umayyad history it has seemed unnecessaryto provide references to the original Arabic or other sourcesReaders capable of studying the primary sources themselves willeasily be able to track them down in the secondary works to whichreferences are normally confined in my notes These notes areusually a guide to further reading with readers of English primarilyin mind and are not necessarily the sources of particular statementsbut in a general way they indicate the scholars and works to which Ihave been most indebted Neither the references in my notes nor thebibliography given at the end claim to be complete or extensive butI hope that I have mentioned most works of fundamentalimportance

My special thanks are due to my colleague Dr David Morganwho kindly read the whole typescript and whose feeling for bothhistory and style has undoubtedly saved me from a number ofblunders to my wife Joyce who has similarly read and commentedon the typescript to Sue Harrop the Cartographer at the School ofAfrican and Oriental Studies University of London for help withthe maps and to Peter Sowden who first suggested that I write thebook and then gently prodded until it was done For the remaininglimitations imperfections and errors I am responsible

1

Chapter 1

Introduction The Importance of theUmayyad Period and its Place in IslamicHistory

In the summer or autumn of AD 661 Mulsquoawiya b Abi Sufyangovernor of Syria since 639 and already acclaimed by his Syrianfollowers as caliph (khalifa) religious and political leader of theMuslim state entered the Iraqi garrison town of Kufa In historicaltradition this event is seen as bringing to an end a bitter period ofcivil war among the Arabs achieving the reunification under oneruler of all the territories conquered by them and initiating thecaliphate of the Umayyad dynasty of which Mulsquoawiya was thefounder The dynasty was to rule for 90 years or so until itsoverthrow and replacement by that of the lsquoAbbasids in 749ndash50

The Umayyad dynasty was the first to emerge in the Middle Eastfollowing the conquest of the region by the Arabs a conquest whichhad begun in the 630s and was still continuing for much of theUmayyad period Apart from this fact however what was theimportance of the period of Umayyad rule a period which in itsdetails is often complex and confusing and how has it traditionallybeen regarded by Muslims in relation to the history of Islam Theanswer to the first part of this question is provided by discussion ofthe two concepts of islamisation and arabisation referring to tworelated but essentially distinct historical processes

Islamisation

The term lsquoislamisationrsquo refers both to the extension of the area underMuslim rule and to the acceptance of Islam as their religion bypeoples of different faiths but in the Umayyad period the question isfurther complicated by the fact that Islam itself was developing fromits still to us not completely understood origins into somethingapproaching the religion with which we are familiar One should notimagine that Islam as we know it came fully formed out of Arabiawith the Arabs at the time of their conquest of the Middle East and

2 Introduction

was then accepted or rejected as the case might be by the non-Arabpeoples Although many of the details are obscure and oftencontroversial it seems clear that Islam as we know it is largely a resultof the interaction between the Arabs and the peoples they conqueredduring the first two centuries or so of the Islamic era which began inAD 6221 During the Umayyad period therefore the spread of Islamand the development of Islam were taking place at the same time anda discussion of islamisation has to begin with some consideration ofthe importance of the Umayyad period for the development of Islam

In the first place it was under the Umayyads that there began toemerge that class of religious scholars which eventually became theleading authority within Sunni Islam and which is chiefly responsiblefor shaping the historical and religious tradition which has comedown to us In effect it was this class which led the development ofIslam as we know it and it is important to remember that it emergedlargely in opposition to the Umayyad government The Umayyads hadtheir own conception of Islam itself developing with time anddifferent circumstances but on the whole we see the religion from theviewpoint of the religious scholars

In the emergence of this class the most important region was Iraqand in Iraq Kufa was the leading centre Other regions tended tofollow its lead Building on and reacting against the ideas andpractices available in Kufa and other centres from the second half ofthe Umayyad period onwards groups of Muslim scholars tried todevelop and put on a sound footing what they saw as a true form ofIslam In doing so they frequently accused the Umayyads of impiousor unislamic behaviour

The main concept which these scholars developed and worked withwas that of the Sunna This idea went through several stages butincreasingly came to be identified with the custom and practice of theProphet Muhammad which was to serve as the ideal norm ofbehaviour for his followers and was eventually accepted as the majorsource of Muslim law alongside the Koran Increasingly Muslimideas practices and institutions came to be justified by reference tothe Sunna the words and deeds of Muhammad as transmitted by hiscompanions to later generations The proponents of the Sunna as thusunderstood became increasingly influential and political andreligious developments after the Umayyads had been overthrownresulted in the final crystallisation of the Sunni form of Islam with thereligious scholars the guardians of the Sunna as its leadingauthority2

Introduction 3

Not all Muslims though accepted the primacy or even thelegitimacy of the Sunna and the Umayyad period also saw theemergence of the two other main forms of Islam Shilsquoism andKharijism Tradition dates the fragmentation of a previously unitedIslam into the three main forms which we know today (SunnisShilsquoites and Kharijites) to the time of the first civil war (656ndash61)which ended with the accession of Mulsquoawiya to the caliphateHowever just as the development of Sunni Islam was a slow processwhich only began under the Umayyads so too Shilsquoism andKharijism were not born in one instant They too developed inopposition to the Umayyads in a number of distinct movementswhich each had individual characteristics and again Iraq was ofprime importance

Kufa was the centre of the development of Shilsquoism in theUmayyad period As early as 670 but especially after the revolt ofMukhtar in 685ndash7 Kufa saw a number of movements aimed atoverthrowing the Umayyads and appointing a relative of theProphet usually a descendant of his cousin and son-in-law lsquoAli asimam which title the Shilsquoites tend to prefer to caliph Where theseShilsquoite movements differed from one another was in the particularmember of the Prophetrsquos family whom they favoured and in certainother doctrines they developed what they had in common wasdevotion to the Prophetrsquos family and insistence that membership ofit was a sine qua non for the imam Some of them developed moreextreme beliefs such as acceptance of the imam as an incarnation ofGod and a doctrine of the transmigration of souls It seems that froman early date the conquered non-Arab peoples were attracted to theShilsquoite movements and it may be that some of their doctrines wereinfluenced by the previous beliefs of these non-Arab supportersShilsquoism has a long and complex history which extends well beyondthe Umayyad period but it was then that its basic character wasestablished3

The basic principle of Kharijism was a demand for piety andreligious excellence as the only necessary qualification for the imamand a rejection of the view that he should belong to the family of theProphet as the Shilsquoites demanded or to the tribe of the Prophet(Quraysh) as the Sunnis required Like Shilsquoism Kharijism too wasmanifested in a number of movements some relatively moderate andothers more extreme The extremists tended to insist on the rejectionof all other Muslims regarding them as infidels and therefore liable tobe killed unless they lsquorepentedrsquo and lsquoaccepted Islamrsquo that is unless

4 Introduction

they recognised the Kharijite imam and accepted the Kharijite form ofIslam This fierce rejection of other Muslims however involving theduty of rebellion against what was regarded as an illegitimategovernment became increasingly difficult to maintain except in areasremote from the authority of the government or in times when theauthority of the government for some reason collapsed In Basra thesecond of the Iraqi garrison towns on the other hand a moremoderate form of Kharijism was elaborated and spread to easternArabia and North Africa It is this form of Kharijism which hassurvived into the modern world4

Each of these three main Muslim groups came to hold that Islamshould be open to all peoples and that all should enjoy the same statuswithin it regarding rights and duties The development of this idea tooof Islam as a universal religion can be traced to the Umayyad periodagain in circles opposed to the dynasty

Although it can be debated whether the Koran was addressed to allmen or to the Arabs only the Umayyads and the Arab tribesmen whofirst conquered the Middle East regarded their religion as largelyexclusive of the conquered peoples There was no sustained attempt toforce or even persuade the conquered peoples to accept Islam and itwas assumed that they would remain in their own communities payingtaxes to support the conquerors Although from the start there wassome movement of the conquered into the community of theconquerors the separation of Arabs from non-Arabs was a basicprinciple of the state established as a result of the conquests This isclear both from the procedure which a non-Arab had to adopt in orderto enter Islam and from the fact that there were from time to timeofficial measures designed to prevent such changes of status Islamwas in fact regarded as the property of the conquering aristocracy

In order to attach himself to the religion and society of the Arabs anon-Arab had to become the client (mawla pl mawali) of an Arabtribe In other words in order to become a Muslim something whichit is possible to see as a social or political as much as a religious movehe had to acquire an Arab patron and become a sort of honorarymember of his patronrsquos tribe adding the tribal name to his own newMuslim one even though he and his descendants were in some waystreated as second-class Muslims It is evident therefore thatmembership of Islam was equated with possession of an Arab ethnicidentity5

Nevertheless association with the elite in this way did haveadvantages for some and at various times in different places we hear

Introduction 5

of large numbers of non-Arabs attempting to enter Islam bybecoming mawali but being prevented from doing so or at leastfrom having their changed status recognised by local Umayyadgovernors Probably the best-known example was in Iraq around 700when large numbers of local non-Arab cultivators sought to abandontheir lands and flee into the Arab garrison towns to enter Islam asmawali only to be forced back by the Umayyad governor al-Hajjajwho refused to recognise their claims

In the long run it proved impossible to maintain the isolation ofconquerors and conquered from one another in this way andattempts to do so only served to alienate further those Muslimgroups which had come to see Islam as a religion open to all Theproblem for the Umayyads was that they had come to power asleaders of a conquering Arab elite and to have allowed theconquered peoples to enter Islam en masse would have abolished orat least weakened the distinction between the elite and the massesThe crucial privileges of Islam from this point of view were in thearea of taxation In principle the Arabs were to be the recipients ofthe taxes paid by the non-Arabs If the conquered peoples wereallowed to become Muslims and to change their position from thatof payers to that of recipients of taxes the whole system upon whichthe Umayyads depended would collapse But as the pressure fromthe non-Arabs built up and the universalist notion of Islam becamestronger this problem became increasingly urgent for the dynastyand played a major part in the generally negative attitude of Muslimstowards the Umayyad dynasty6

How far the development of Islam in the Umayyad periodinvolved radical changes in religious practices or beliefs is not easyto say Broadly speaking Muslim tradition assumes that thefundamental institutions of Islammdashsuch things as belief inMuhammad as a prophet acceptance of the Koran in the form inwhich we know it as the word of God and performance of the mainrituals such as the five times daily prayer (salat) and the annualpilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) mdashexisted at the beginning of theUmayyad period and were accepted equally by the Umayyads andtheir opponents The difficulty is to decide how far our Muslimsources which are relatively late in the form in which we have themare reading back later conditions into an earlier period

Sometimes certainly we have hints that the situation was not sostatic or so uniform as the tradition generally implies For examplewe are told that Muslim rebels supporting Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the

6 Introduction

Umayyads in the early years of the eighth century accused the caliphof lsquomurderingrsquo the ritual prayer (salat) and called for vengeance forit although what this meant and what exactly was involved ifanything specific is not spelled out7 Even such tantalisinglyobscure hints are relatively scarce and when we do sometimes havemore substantial information its significance seems often to belimited in one of two ways

First the information may centre on a point which seems to berelatively minor For instance much play is made with the chargethat the Umayyads insisted on delivering the khutba (in the earlyperiod a speech or sermon given usually in the mosque by the caliphor his representative and often dealing with secular as well as morepurely religious affairs) while sitting contrary to what is alleged tohave been the practice established by the Prophet and his immediatesuccessors This is supposed to be a sign of the haughtiness of theUmayyads refusing to stand before their subjects and preferringlike kings to remain seated Even though the detail may have lostsome of its significance because of the later decline in importance ofthe khutba and its associated institutions and ceremonies howeverit is difficult to see arguments about the correct posture for thekhutba as of fundamental importance for the development of IslamIn the way in which the practice is presented by Muslim tradition itdoes not provide grounds for arguing that the outward forms ofIslam underwent great and radical changes under the Umayyads8

Secondly even when the information is apparently more weightythe impression is usually given that the Umayyads were pervertingsome orthodox practice or belief which already existed and waswidely accepted by Muslims There is no suggestion that basicreligious ideas were still in a state of flux and that lsquoorthodoxyrsquo (anambiguous term in Islam since there is no central authority to saywhat is and what is not orthodox) was only slowly developing Weare told for instance that some of the Umayyads tried to makeJerusalem a centre of pilgrimage but the sources imply that this wasagainst the background of an already generally accepted practice ofannual pilgrimage to Mecca which had been established as the culticcentre of Islam from the time of the Prophet The reader should beaware of such preconceptions in the sources and consider thepossibility that there may not have been as yet any firmlyestablished cultic centre in Islam9

Any attempt to argue that there were during the Umayyad periodmore fundamental religious developments than the sources allow

Introduction 7

for therefore involves a certain amount of lsquoreading between thelinesrsquo of Muslim tradition and using whatever evidence is availableoutside the Muslim literary sources A recent discussion using suchmethods has questioned whether the name lsquoIslamrsquo as thedesignation for the religion of the Arabs existed much before theend of the seventh century10 Muslim tradition itself though hasproved remarkably impervious to analysis with such questions inmind and onersquos attitude to the question of the extent of the religiousdevelopment of Islam in the Umayyad period must depend greatlyon onersquos attitude to the value of Muslim sources for the history ofthe period and especially the earlier part

The spread of Islam during this period as already indicated hasto be viewed on two levels that of its territorial expansion and thatof its acceptance by the conquered non-Arab peoples from a varietyof religious backgrounds

Muslim tradition is generally more concerned with the formerprocess When an area is under Muslim rule and subject to Muslimlaw that area is regarded as a part of the Muslim world (dar al-Islam) even though the majority of its population may remain non-Muslim Strictly speaking only Christians Jews and Zoroastrians(these last known as majus) were to be allowed to refuse to acceptIslam and maintain their existence as separate religious communitiesunder Muslim rule but in practice toleration was frequentlyextended more widely

From this point of view then the extensive conquests made underthe Umayyads were an extension of Islam At the beginning of theUmayyad period Arab Muslim rule did not extend much further westthan modern Libya or further east than the eastern regions of Iranand even within these areas many regions must have been held onlyprecariously or merely nominally By the end of the dynasty all ofNorth Africa and southern and central Spain were included in theboundaries of the Muslim world and in the east the extension ofcontrol into central Asia and northern India prepared the way forlater advances in those areas

In the west the garrison town of Qayrawan was founded about 670 inIfriqiya (modern Tunisia) and this served as the base for furtherwestward expansion lsquoUqba b Nafilsquo is subsequently said to havemarched as far as the Atlantic before being killed by the still unsubduedBerbers but it was not until the end of the century that regions ofmodern Algeria and Morocco were substantially pacified and theBerbers brought into Islam but keeping their own language and tribal

8 Introduction

system This development is associated with the governorship ofHassan b Nulsquoman in Ifriqiya (683ndash707) It was Hassanrsquos successorMusa b Nusayr who initiated the invasion of Spain in 711 sending hisBerber client (mawla) Tariq to lead the expedition It is from this Tariqthat Gibraltar takes its name (Jabal Tariq lsquothe hill of Tariqrsquo)

In the east too the years around 700 saw major advances Al-Hajjajgovernor of the eastern part of the Umayyad territories from 694 to 714sent his generals Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the ruler of Kabul Qutayba bMuslim into the territories lying beyond the river Oxus (Jayhun or AmuDarya in Muslim works) and Muhammad b al-Qasim into northernIndia Qutayba is said to have reached the borders of China and sent anembassy demanding submission from the lsquoking of Chinarsquo The extentand effectiveness of these expeditions may sometimes be open toquestion but it is clear that Arab Muslim control was extended andconsolidated in the east under the Umayyads11

The spread of Islam among the non-Arab peoples of the conqueredregions is much less explicitly described in our sources At the outset ofthe Umayyad period it is clear that very few of the conquered peopleshad accepted Islam however we understand this last phrase (islamliterally means lsquosubmissionrsquo) But by the end of the period in spite ofthe initial attempt by the Arabs to keep themselves apart religiously andsocially from their subjects and in spite of the refusal by caliphs andgovernors to allow the non-Arabs to enjoy the advantages of acceptanceof Islam large numbers of the subject peoples had come to identifythemselves as Muslims

The spread of Islam vertically in this way is clearly a complexprocess depending on a variety of factors which were not the same inevery area or among every group of the non-Arab population andresulting in divergent rates of progress Because of the silence orambiguity of the sources we are often reduced to speculation aboutcauses and the spread of the process For example we know very littleabout the islamisation of Syria and there are only one or two referencesin non-Muslim sources which seem to indicate substantial islamisationof the local peoples during the Umayyad period On the other hand theMuslim sources have many references to the difficulties caused toUmayyad governors of Iraq and Khurasan when large numbers of non-Arab non-Muslims attempted to accept Islam by becoming mawali inthe early decades of the eighth century but they still leave manyquestions unanswered or answered at best ambiguously

So far as the evidence enables us to judge and leaving aside theBerbers whose society and way of life made them likely allies for

Introduction 9

the Arabs in the wars of conquest it seems to have been in lowerIraq Khurasan and Syria that Islam made the most significantadvances among the subjects peoples in the Umayyad period Inwestern Persia and Egypt on the other hand it seems thatislamisation in this sense was relatively slow and that it was not untilafter the dynasty had been overthrown that Islam became thereligion of the majority in these areas12

In spite of our uncertainties it seems clear that the Umayyadperiod was crucial for the process of Islamisation in all its forms

Arabisation

By lsquoarabisationrsquo I mean the spread of a culture characterised aboveall by its use of the Arabic language in the area which had becomesubject to Arab Muslim rule Although associated with the processof islamisation arabisation is a distinct movement as can be seenfrom the fact that important communities of Jews and Christianssurvived in the Islamic Middle East into modern times Thesecommunities maintained their religious traditions in spite of the factthat they had renounced the everyday languages which they hadused before the Arab conquest and had adopted Arabic ConverselyPersia presents a striking example of a region which largelyaccepted Islam as its religion but maintained its pre-Islamiclanguage at first in everyday and later in literary use although ofcourse the language underwent significant changes in the earlyIslamic period

Again one has to take into account that Arabic itself changed as itspread and was elaborated in the process of interaction betweenArabs and non-Arabs Put crudely as the non-Arab peoples adoptedArabic so their own linguistic habits and backgrounds affected thelanguage leading to significant changes and to the formation ofdifferent dialects The result of this evolution is usually described asMiddle Arabic as opposed to Classical Arabic which is identifiedwith the language of the Koran and of the poetry which it isclaimed originated in pre-Islamic Arabia The origin and nature ofClassical Arabic itself though is to some extent a topic ofcontroversy What led to the adoption or rejection of Arabic by non-Arabic speakers is obviously a very complex question involvingconsideration of political and social relationships as well as morepurely linguistic ones

10 Introduction

In attempting to chart the progress of arabisation the difficultiesagain arise from the lack of explicit information on the topic in ourliterary sources and from the paucity of written material survivingfrom the Umayyad period For instance although it has beensuggested that Jews of all sorts began to speak Arabic as early as theseventh century the process of change must have been gradual andour earliest texts written in Judaeo-Arabic (that is the form of MiddleArabic used by Jews and written in Hebrew rather than Arabic script)come from the ninth century Our earliest Christian Arabic texts(Arabic written in the Greek script) have been dated to the eighthcentury but there has been some argument about the dating On theother hand from later developments we know that Persian must havesurvived as the spoken language of the majority of Iranians during theUmayyad period but our sources only rarely and ambiguously let ussee that it was so and almost all of our source material on the historyof Persia under the Umayyads is in Arabic

More concrete evidence is provided by the administrative papyriwhich have survived from Egypt In spite of the limited range ofsubjects with which they are concerned they at least enable us to see agradual change from Greek to Arabic in the language of theadministration Furthermore our literary sources report that around700 it was ordered that henceforth the government administrationshould use Arabic rather than the languages which had been usedbefore the Arab conquest and which had continued in use thus farThis could indicate that there was at that time a significant number ofnon-Arabs with sufficient command of Arabic at least for the purposesof administration since the bureaucracy continued to relyoverwhelmingly on non-Arabs The change of language in thebureaucracy did not happen overnight and the sources are notunanimous about when it was ordered but in the development ofarabisation it seems to have been a significant step

Why and how Arabic and with it the other features which seem tomake Islamic culture in the Middle East significantly Arab anddistinguish it from others spread is therefore still debatableEventually as we know the adoption of Arabic for most purposesbecame general in Syria Iraq and Egypt while the Berbers andPersians in spite of their acceptance of Islam and therefore of Arabicas their sacred language continued to use their own languages foreveryday purposes We can assume that arabisation like islamisationprogressed a long way under the Umayyads but precise evidence ishard to come by13

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

xi

Glossary

amir lsquocommanderrsquo an army leader andor governor ofa province

amir al-mursquominin lsquoCommander of the Believersrsquo a title of thecaliph

ashraf leading members of the leading families amongthe Arab tribesmen

barid the system of communications between the

provinces and the caliphal courtbaylsquoa the pledge of allegiance given to a caliph heir

apparent or contender for power dar al-islam the regions under Muslim government in contrast

to the dar al-harb (lsquohouse of warrsquo)dalsquowa lsquocallrsquo lsquopropagandarsquo the movement which

prepared the way for the lsquoAbbasid takeover of thecaliphate

dinar the gold coindirham the silver coindiwan the register of individuals entitled to pay or

pension from the government a governmentdepartment

fils the copper coinfiqh the theory of Islamic law (not the law itself the

sharilsquoa)fitna conflict within the Muslim community especially

that between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya hajj the pilgrimage to Mecca in the month of Dhursquol-

Hijja

xii Glossary

imam a) the supreme head of the Muslims particularlyused in this sense by the Shilsquoites b) a prayerleader in a mosque c) an honorific title applied toa religious scholar

jizya a tax in the classical system a poll tax (tax on

individual persons)jund lsquoarmyrsquo a military district khalifa lsquodeputyrsquo the caliphkharaj a tax in the classical system a land taxkhutba a speech in the early period any speech of

importance delivered by a figure of authorityespecially the caliph or governor eventuallydeveloping into the sermon delivered at the mid-day prayer service in the mosque on Fridays

majus lsquoMagianrsquo in the strict sense Zoroastrians but used

more widely for followers of religions other thanJudaism or Christianity to whom the Muslimswished to grant some toleration

mawla lsquoclientrsquo a non-Arab who has accepted Islam afollower of an important individual

salat the ritual five times daily prayer service of Islamshurta a small force used by the governor or other

authority to keep ordersunna lsquoaccepted usage or practicersquo eventually identified

with the Sunna of the Prophet the usage ofMuhammad which Sunni Islam accepted as beingtogether with the Koran the main source ofauthority for its law

lsquoulamarsquo the religious scholars of Islam walirsquol-lsquoahd the heir apparent The meanings given are those usually applicable in this book Inother contexts the words may have other meanings

Figu

re 1

Th

e lsquoN

orth

erne

rsrsquo

Figu

re 2

Th

e lsquoS

outh

erne

rsrsquo

Figu

re 3

Th

e U

may

yads

Figu

re 4

Th

e O

ther

Des

cend

ants

of lsquo

Abd

Man

af

xix

Foreword to the Second Edition

In spite of some significant developments in our understanding ofaspects of the history of the Umayyad caliphate in the fifteen yearsor so since this book was first published readily accessibleintroductions to the period for undergraduates and interested non-specialists remain few This book was generally well received byreviewers and has proved useful for its intended readership Since ithas been out of print for some time and in any case was availableonly as a (rather expensive) hardback it has now been decided toreissue it in paperback The opportunity has been taken to correct afew errors (for pointing out which I am grateful to reviewers) and toadd a postscript surveying some of the important work relevant tothe Umayyad caliphate which has appeared since the first edition in1986 The postscript also refers to a few works which should havebeen included in the original bibliography

For technical reasons it has not been possible to change theoriginal text in three places where some expansion is required

At p 83 with reference to the victory of Charles Martel over theArabs the date of 732 should probably be changed to 733 At thevery least the article of MBaudoit lsquoLocalisation et datation de lapremiegravere victoire remporteacutee par Charles Martel contre lesmusulmansrsquo in Meacutemoires et documents publieacutes par la Societeacute delrsquoEcole de Chartres 12 (1955) 93ndash105 needs to be consulted on thisquestion Secondly at p 52 it is wrong to give the impression thatthe term mahdi is not known in accounts of events before the risingof al-Mukhtar it occurs of course apparently for the first time inreports about the rising of the Tawwabun which took place justbefore that of al-Mukhtar I am especially grateful for MichaelMoronyrsquos review (IJMES 21 (1989)) for drawing attention to thesepoints I remain unconvinced however that the word mahdioriginally lacked any eschatological significance

Finally on p 91 reference is made to the theory that RusafatHisham was not at the Rusafa which was ancient Sergiopolis but wasrather to be identified with Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi near Palmyra I

xx Foreword to the Second Edition

ought to have known but did not that that theory proposed bySauvaget and others has been discredited by Oleg Grabar in hiswork on Qasr al-Hayr City in the Desert Qasr al-Hayr East(Cambridge Ma Harvard University Press 1978) There is now aconvenient discussion of Ruafat Hisham in the second edition ofthe Encyclopaedia of Islam sv lsquoRusafarsquo (by C-PHaase) whichexplains too the problematic tradition that Hisham was there whenhe received the caliphal regalia

GRH March 2000

xxi

Preface and Acknowledgements

Between the general surveys of Islamic Arab or Middle Easternhistory of which there are several of varying quality and detailedmonographs on particular aspects of Umayyad history many ofwhich are not in English there is little that can be recommendedconfidently as an introduction to the importance main events andpersonalities and problems of the Umayyad period The presentwork tries to provide such an introduction

The standard modern account of Umayyad history is JuliusWellhausenrsquos The Arab kingdom and its fall first published inGerman in 1902 and translated into English in 1927 In spite of theinevitable dating of Wellhausenrsquos own political and religiousoutlook and the criticisms of his method of source analysis maderecently by Albrecht Noth his book remains of fundamentalimportance for anyone wanting more than an introductoryknowledge of Umayyad history particularly its political andmilitary events The present work is certainly not intended tosupersede The Arab kingdom

As an introduction however experience has shown thatWellhausenrsquos work is not especially suitable Leaving aside therather idiosyncratic English of its translation it contains more detailthan is readily absorbed its presentation is not as clear as modernreaders expect and its concern with source criticism is notappreciated by those who do not have even a simplified traditionalnarrative against which to set it Attempts to get students to read anddigest Wellhausen usually result in puzzlement and the beginningsof a conviction that Umayyad history is too difficult forundergraduate study

But there is really little else especially in English which treatsthe period as a whole and which can serve as an introduction MAShabanrsquos first volume of his Islamic history A new interpretation itis true is readily available and does provide a lively narrativecoverage of the period Its interpretation however seems to me tobe frequently questionable and on occasion only loosely related to

xxii Preface

the sources and the title itself indicates that it was not conceived asan introduction Similarly Patricia Cronersquos Slaves on horses seemsto me a brilliant analysis of the development of the early Islamicstate and society but not a book for relative beginners since itpresumes rather than provides a fairly detailed acquaintance withthe events of the period There still seems a need therefore for thesort of introduction which I have attempted here

Given then that the present work is not attempting to provide awholly new version of the Umayyad period and that much of itdepends on the findings of the many scholars who have contributedto our understanding of Umayyad history it has seemed unnecessaryto provide references to the original Arabic or other sourcesReaders capable of studying the primary sources themselves willeasily be able to track them down in the secondary works to whichreferences are normally confined in my notes These notes areusually a guide to further reading with readers of English primarilyin mind and are not necessarily the sources of particular statementsbut in a general way they indicate the scholars and works to which Ihave been most indebted Neither the references in my notes nor thebibliography given at the end claim to be complete or extensive butI hope that I have mentioned most works of fundamentalimportance

My special thanks are due to my colleague Dr David Morganwho kindly read the whole typescript and whose feeling for bothhistory and style has undoubtedly saved me from a number ofblunders to my wife Joyce who has similarly read and commentedon the typescript to Sue Harrop the Cartographer at the School ofAfrican and Oriental Studies University of London for help withthe maps and to Peter Sowden who first suggested that I write thebook and then gently prodded until it was done For the remaininglimitations imperfections and errors I am responsible

1

Chapter 1

Introduction The Importance of theUmayyad Period and its Place in IslamicHistory

In the summer or autumn of AD 661 Mulsquoawiya b Abi Sufyangovernor of Syria since 639 and already acclaimed by his Syrianfollowers as caliph (khalifa) religious and political leader of theMuslim state entered the Iraqi garrison town of Kufa In historicaltradition this event is seen as bringing to an end a bitter period ofcivil war among the Arabs achieving the reunification under oneruler of all the territories conquered by them and initiating thecaliphate of the Umayyad dynasty of which Mulsquoawiya was thefounder The dynasty was to rule for 90 years or so until itsoverthrow and replacement by that of the lsquoAbbasids in 749ndash50

The Umayyad dynasty was the first to emerge in the Middle Eastfollowing the conquest of the region by the Arabs a conquest whichhad begun in the 630s and was still continuing for much of theUmayyad period Apart from this fact however what was theimportance of the period of Umayyad rule a period which in itsdetails is often complex and confusing and how has it traditionallybeen regarded by Muslims in relation to the history of Islam Theanswer to the first part of this question is provided by discussion ofthe two concepts of islamisation and arabisation referring to tworelated but essentially distinct historical processes

Islamisation

The term lsquoislamisationrsquo refers both to the extension of the area underMuslim rule and to the acceptance of Islam as their religion bypeoples of different faiths but in the Umayyad period the question isfurther complicated by the fact that Islam itself was developing fromits still to us not completely understood origins into somethingapproaching the religion with which we are familiar One should notimagine that Islam as we know it came fully formed out of Arabiawith the Arabs at the time of their conquest of the Middle East and

2 Introduction

was then accepted or rejected as the case might be by the non-Arabpeoples Although many of the details are obscure and oftencontroversial it seems clear that Islam as we know it is largely a resultof the interaction between the Arabs and the peoples they conqueredduring the first two centuries or so of the Islamic era which began inAD 6221 During the Umayyad period therefore the spread of Islamand the development of Islam were taking place at the same time anda discussion of islamisation has to begin with some consideration ofthe importance of the Umayyad period for the development of Islam

In the first place it was under the Umayyads that there began toemerge that class of religious scholars which eventually became theleading authority within Sunni Islam and which is chiefly responsiblefor shaping the historical and religious tradition which has comedown to us In effect it was this class which led the development ofIslam as we know it and it is important to remember that it emergedlargely in opposition to the Umayyad government The Umayyads hadtheir own conception of Islam itself developing with time anddifferent circumstances but on the whole we see the religion from theviewpoint of the religious scholars

In the emergence of this class the most important region was Iraqand in Iraq Kufa was the leading centre Other regions tended tofollow its lead Building on and reacting against the ideas andpractices available in Kufa and other centres from the second half ofthe Umayyad period onwards groups of Muslim scholars tried todevelop and put on a sound footing what they saw as a true form ofIslam In doing so they frequently accused the Umayyads of impiousor unislamic behaviour

The main concept which these scholars developed and worked withwas that of the Sunna This idea went through several stages butincreasingly came to be identified with the custom and practice of theProphet Muhammad which was to serve as the ideal norm ofbehaviour for his followers and was eventually accepted as the majorsource of Muslim law alongside the Koran Increasingly Muslimideas practices and institutions came to be justified by reference tothe Sunna the words and deeds of Muhammad as transmitted by hiscompanions to later generations The proponents of the Sunna as thusunderstood became increasingly influential and political andreligious developments after the Umayyads had been overthrownresulted in the final crystallisation of the Sunni form of Islam with thereligious scholars the guardians of the Sunna as its leadingauthority2

Introduction 3

Not all Muslims though accepted the primacy or even thelegitimacy of the Sunna and the Umayyad period also saw theemergence of the two other main forms of Islam Shilsquoism andKharijism Tradition dates the fragmentation of a previously unitedIslam into the three main forms which we know today (SunnisShilsquoites and Kharijites) to the time of the first civil war (656ndash61)which ended with the accession of Mulsquoawiya to the caliphateHowever just as the development of Sunni Islam was a slow processwhich only began under the Umayyads so too Shilsquoism andKharijism were not born in one instant They too developed inopposition to the Umayyads in a number of distinct movementswhich each had individual characteristics and again Iraq was ofprime importance

Kufa was the centre of the development of Shilsquoism in theUmayyad period As early as 670 but especially after the revolt ofMukhtar in 685ndash7 Kufa saw a number of movements aimed atoverthrowing the Umayyads and appointing a relative of theProphet usually a descendant of his cousin and son-in-law lsquoAli asimam which title the Shilsquoites tend to prefer to caliph Where theseShilsquoite movements differed from one another was in the particularmember of the Prophetrsquos family whom they favoured and in certainother doctrines they developed what they had in common wasdevotion to the Prophetrsquos family and insistence that membership ofit was a sine qua non for the imam Some of them developed moreextreme beliefs such as acceptance of the imam as an incarnation ofGod and a doctrine of the transmigration of souls It seems that froman early date the conquered non-Arab peoples were attracted to theShilsquoite movements and it may be that some of their doctrines wereinfluenced by the previous beliefs of these non-Arab supportersShilsquoism has a long and complex history which extends well beyondthe Umayyad period but it was then that its basic character wasestablished3

The basic principle of Kharijism was a demand for piety andreligious excellence as the only necessary qualification for the imamand a rejection of the view that he should belong to the family of theProphet as the Shilsquoites demanded or to the tribe of the Prophet(Quraysh) as the Sunnis required Like Shilsquoism Kharijism too wasmanifested in a number of movements some relatively moderate andothers more extreme The extremists tended to insist on the rejectionof all other Muslims regarding them as infidels and therefore liable tobe killed unless they lsquorepentedrsquo and lsquoaccepted Islamrsquo that is unless

4 Introduction

they recognised the Kharijite imam and accepted the Kharijite form ofIslam This fierce rejection of other Muslims however involving theduty of rebellion against what was regarded as an illegitimategovernment became increasingly difficult to maintain except in areasremote from the authority of the government or in times when theauthority of the government for some reason collapsed In Basra thesecond of the Iraqi garrison towns on the other hand a moremoderate form of Kharijism was elaborated and spread to easternArabia and North Africa It is this form of Kharijism which hassurvived into the modern world4

Each of these three main Muslim groups came to hold that Islamshould be open to all peoples and that all should enjoy the same statuswithin it regarding rights and duties The development of this idea tooof Islam as a universal religion can be traced to the Umayyad periodagain in circles opposed to the dynasty

Although it can be debated whether the Koran was addressed to allmen or to the Arabs only the Umayyads and the Arab tribesmen whofirst conquered the Middle East regarded their religion as largelyexclusive of the conquered peoples There was no sustained attempt toforce or even persuade the conquered peoples to accept Islam and itwas assumed that they would remain in their own communities payingtaxes to support the conquerors Although from the start there wassome movement of the conquered into the community of theconquerors the separation of Arabs from non-Arabs was a basicprinciple of the state established as a result of the conquests This isclear both from the procedure which a non-Arab had to adopt in orderto enter Islam and from the fact that there were from time to timeofficial measures designed to prevent such changes of status Islamwas in fact regarded as the property of the conquering aristocracy

In order to attach himself to the religion and society of the Arabs anon-Arab had to become the client (mawla pl mawali) of an Arabtribe In other words in order to become a Muslim something whichit is possible to see as a social or political as much as a religious movehe had to acquire an Arab patron and become a sort of honorarymember of his patronrsquos tribe adding the tribal name to his own newMuslim one even though he and his descendants were in some waystreated as second-class Muslims It is evident therefore thatmembership of Islam was equated with possession of an Arab ethnicidentity5

Nevertheless association with the elite in this way did haveadvantages for some and at various times in different places we hear

Introduction 5

of large numbers of non-Arabs attempting to enter Islam bybecoming mawali but being prevented from doing so or at leastfrom having their changed status recognised by local Umayyadgovernors Probably the best-known example was in Iraq around 700when large numbers of local non-Arab cultivators sought to abandontheir lands and flee into the Arab garrison towns to enter Islam asmawali only to be forced back by the Umayyad governor al-Hajjajwho refused to recognise their claims

In the long run it proved impossible to maintain the isolation ofconquerors and conquered from one another in this way andattempts to do so only served to alienate further those Muslimgroups which had come to see Islam as a religion open to all Theproblem for the Umayyads was that they had come to power asleaders of a conquering Arab elite and to have allowed theconquered peoples to enter Islam en masse would have abolished orat least weakened the distinction between the elite and the massesThe crucial privileges of Islam from this point of view were in thearea of taxation In principle the Arabs were to be the recipients ofthe taxes paid by the non-Arabs If the conquered peoples wereallowed to become Muslims and to change their position from thatof payers to that of recipients of taxes the whole system upon whichthe Umayyads depended would collapse But as the pressure fromthe non-Arabs built up and the universalist notion of Islam becamestronger this problem became increasingly urgent for the dynastyand played a major part in the generally negative attitude of Muslimstowards the Umayyad dynasty6

How far the development of Islam in the Umayyad periodinvolved radical changes in religious practices or beliefs is not easyto say Broadly speaking Muslim tradition assumes that thefundamental institutions of Islammdashsuch things as belief inMuhammad as a prophet acceptance of the Koran in the form inwhich we know it as the word of God and performance of the mainrituals such as the five times daily prayer (salat) and the annualpilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) mdashexisted at the beginning of theUmayyad period and were accepted equally by the Umayyads andtheir opponents The difficulty is to decide how far our Muslimsources which are relatively late in the form in which we have themare reading back later conditions into an earlier period

Sometimes certainly we have hints that the situation was not sostatic or so uniform as the tradition generally implies For examplewe are told that Muslim rebels supporting Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the

6 Introduction

Umayyads in the early years of the eighth century accused the caliphof lsquomurderingrsquo the ritual prayer (salat) and called for vengeance forit although what this meant and what exactly was involved ifanything specific is not spelled out7 Even such tantalisinglyobscure hints are relatively scarce and when we do sometimes havemore substantial information its significance seems often to belimited in one of two ways

First the information may centre on a point which seems to berelatively minor For instance much play is made with the chargethat the Umayyads insisted on delivering the khutba (in the earlyperiod a speech or sermon given usually in the mosque by the caliphor his representative and often dealing with secular as well as morepurely religious affairs) while sitting contrary to what is alleged tohave been the practice established by the Prophet and his immediatesuccessors This is supposed to be a sign of the haughtiness of theUmayyads refusing to stand before their subjects and preferringlike kings to remain seated Even though the detail may have lostsome of its significance because of the later decline in importance ofthe khutba and its associated institutions and ceremonies howeverit is difficult to see arguments about the correct posture for thekhutba as of fundamental importance for the development of IslamIn the way in which the practice is presented by Muslim tradition itdoes not provide grounds for arguing that the outward forms ofIslam underwent great and radical changes under the Umayyads8

Secondly even when the information is apparently more weightythe impression is usually given that the Umayyads were pervertingsome orthodox practice or belief which already existed and waswidely accepted by Muslims There is no suggestion that basicreligious ideas were still in a state of flux and that lsquoorthodoxyrsquo (anambiguous term in Islam since there is no central authority to saywhat is and what is not orthodox) was only slowly developing Weare told for instance that some of the Umayyads tried to makeJerusalem a centre of pilgrimage but the sources imply that this wasagainst the background of an already generally accepted practice ofannual pilgrimage to Mecca which had been established as the culticcentre of Islam from the time of the Prophet The reader should beaware of such preconceptions in the sources and consider thepossibility that there may not have been as yet any firmlyestablished cultic centre in Islam9

Any attempt to argue that there were during the Umayyad periodmore fundamental religious developments than the sources allow

Introduction 7

for therefore involves a certain amount of lsquoreading between thelinesrsquo of Muslim tradition and using whatever evidence is availableoutside the Muslim literary sources A recent discussion using suchmethods has questioned whether the name lsquoIslamrsquo as thedesignation for the religion of the Arabs existed much before theend of the seventh century10 Muslim tradition itself though hasproved remarkably impervious to analysis with such questions inmind and onersquos attitude to the question of the extent of the religiousdevelopment of Islam in the Umayyad period must depend greatlyon onersquos attitude to the value of Muslim sources for the history ofthe period and especially the earlier part

The spread of Islam during this period as already indicated hasto be viewed on two levels that of its territorial expansion and thatof its acceptance by the conquered non-Arab peoples from a varietyof religious backgrounds

Muslim tradition is generally more concerned with the formerprocess When an area is under Muslim rule and subject to Muslimlaw that area is regarded as a part of the Muslim world (dar al-Islam) even though the majority of its population may remain non-Muslim Strictly speaking only Christians Jews and Zoroastrians(these last known as majus) were to be allowed to refuse to acceptIslam and maintain their existence as separate religious communitiesunder Muslim rule but in practice toleration was frequentlyextended more widely

From this point of view then the extensive conquests made underthe Umayyads were an extension of Islam At the beginning of theUmayyad period Arab Muslim rule did not extend much further westthan modern Libya or further east than the eastern regions of Iranand even within these areas many regions must have been held onlyprecariously or merely nominally By the end of the dynasty all ofNorth Africa and southern and central Spain were included in theboundaries of the Muslim world and in the east the extension ofcontrol into central Asia and northern India prepared the way forlater advances in those areas

In the west the garrison town of Qayrawan was founded about 670 inIfriqiya (modern Tunisia) and this served as the base for furtherwestward expansion lsquoUqba b Nafilsquo is subsequently said to havemarched as far as the Atlantic before being killed by the still unsubduedBerbers but it was not until the end of the century that regions ofmodern Algeria and Morocco were substantially pacified and theBerbers brought into Islam but keeping their own language and tribal

8 Introduction

system This development is associated with the governorship ofHassan b Nulsquoman in Ifriqiya (683ndash707) It was Hassanrsquos successorMusa b Nusayr who initiated the invasion of Spain in 711 sending hisBerber client (mawla) Tariq to lead the expedition It is from this Tariqthat Gibraltar takes its name (Jabal Tariq lsquothe hill of Tariqrsquo)

In the east too the years around 700 saw major advances Al-Hajjajgovernor of the eastern part of the Umayyad territories from 694 to 714sent his generals Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the ruler of Kabul Qutayba bMuslim into the territories lying beyond the river Oxus (Jayhun or AmuDarya in Muslim works) and Muhammad b al-Qasim into northernIndia Qutayba is said to have reached the borders of China and sent anembassy demanding submission from the lsquoking of Chinarsquo The extentand effectiveness of these expeditions may sometimes be open toquestion but it is clear that Arab Muslim control was extended andconsolidated in the east under the Umayyads11

The spread of Islam among the non-Arab peoples of the conqueredregions is much less explicitly described in our sources At the outset ofthe Umayyad period it is clear that very few of the conquered peopleshad accepted Islam however we understand this last phrase (islamliterally means lsquosubmissionrsquo) But by the end of the period in spite ofthe initial attempt by the Arabs to keep themselves apart religiously andsocially from their subjects and in spite of the refusal by caliphs andgovernors to allow the non-Arabs to enjoy the advantages of acceptanceof Islam large numbers of the subject peoples had come to identifythemselves as Muslims

The spread of Islam vertically in this way is clearly a complexprocess depending on a variety of factors which were not the same inevery area or among every group of the non-Arab population andresulting in divergent rates of progress Because of the silence orambiguity of the sources we are often reduced to speculation aboutcauses and the spread of the process For example we know very littleabout the islamisation of Syria and there are only one or two referencesin non-Muslim sources which seem to indicate substantial islamisationof the local peoples during the Umayyad period On the other hand theMuslim sources have many references to the difficulties caused toUmayyad governors of Iraq and Khurasan when large numbers of non-Arab non-Muslims attempted to accept Islam by becoming mawali inthe early decades of the eighth century but they still leave manyquestions unanswered or answered at best ambiguously

So far as the evidence enables us to judge and leaving aside theBerbers whose society and way of life made them likely allies for

Introduction 9

the Arabs in the wars of conquest it seems to have been in lowerIraq Khurasan and Syria that Islam made the most significantadvances among the subjects peoples in the Umayyad period Inwestern Persia and Egypt on the other hand it seems thatislamisation in this sense was relatively slow and that it was not untilafter the dynasty had been overthrown that Islam became thereligion of the majority in these areas12

In spite of our uncertainties it seems clear that the Umayyadperiod was crucial for the process of Islamisation in all its forms

Arabisation

By lsquoarabisationrsquo I mean the spread of a culture characterised aboveall by its use of the Arabic language in the area which had becomesubject to Arab Muslim rule Although associated with the processof islamisation arabisation is a distinct movement as can be seenfrom the fact that important communities of Jews and Christianssurvived in the Islamic Middle East into modern times Thesecommunities maintained their religious traditions in spite of the factthat they had renounced the everyday languages which they hadused before the Arab conquest and had adopted Arabic ConverselyPersia presents a striking example of a region which largelyaccepted Islam as its religion but maintained its pre-Islamiclanguage at first in everyday and later in literary use although ofcourse the language underwent significant changes in the earlyIslamic period

Again one has to take into account that Arabic itself changed as itspread and was elaborated in the process of interaction betweenArabs and non-Arabs Put crudely as the non-Arab peoples adoptedArabic so their own linguistic habits and backgrounds affected thelanguage leading to significant changes and to the formation ofdifferent dialects The result of this evolution is usually described asMiddle Arabic as opposed to Classical Arabic which is identifiedwith the language of the Koran and of the poetry which it isclaimed originated in pre-Islamic Arabia The origin and nature ofClassical Arabic itself though is to some extent a topic ofcontroversy What led to the adoption or rejection of Arabic by non-Arabic speakers is obviously a very complex question involvingconsideration of political and social relationships as well as morepurely linguistic ones

10 Introduction

In attempting to chart the progress of arabisation the difficultiesagain arise from the lack of explicit information on the topic in ourliterary sources and from the paucity of written material survivingfrom the Umayyad period For instance although it has beensuggested that Jews of all sorts began to speak Arabic as early as theseventh century the process of change must have been gradual andour earliest texts written in Judaeo-Arabic (that is the form of MiddleArabic used by Jews and written in Hebrew rather than Arabic script)come from the ninth century Our earliest Christian Arabic texts(Arabic written in the Greek script) have been dated to the eighthcentury but there has been some argument about the dating On theother hand from later developments we know that Persian must havesurvived as the spoken language of the majority of Iranians during theUmayyad period but our sources only rarely and ambiguously let ussee that it was so and almost all of our source material on the historyof Persia under the Umayyads is in Arabic

More concrete evidence is provided by the administrative papyriwhich have survived from Egypt In spite of the limited range ofsubjects with which they are concerned they at least enable us to see agradual change from Greek to Arabic in the language of theadministration Furthermore our literary sources report that around700 it was ordered that henceforth the government administrationshould use Arabic rather than the languages which had been usedbefore the Arab conquest and which had continued in use thus farThis could indicate that there was at that time a significant number ofnon-Arabs with sufficient command of Arabic at least for the purposesof administration since the bureaucracy continued to relyoverwhelmingly on non-Arabs The change of language in thebureaucracy did not happen overnight and the sources are notunanimous about when it was ordered but in the development ofarabisation it seems to have been a significant step

Why and how Arabic and with it the other features which seem tomake Islamic culture in the Middle East significantly Arab anddistinguish it from others spread is therefore still debatableEventually as we know the adoption of Arabic for most purposesbecame general in Syria Iraq and Egypt while the Berbers andPersians in spite of their acceptance of Islam and therefore of Arabicas their sacred language continued to use their own languages foreveryday purposes We can assume that arabisation like islamisationprogressed a long way under the Umayyads but precise evidence ishard to come by13

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

xii Glossary

imam a) the supreme head of the Muslims particularlyused in this sense by the Shilsquoites b) a prayerleader in a mosque c) an honorific title applied toa religious scholar

jizya a tax in the classical system a poll tax (tax on

individual persons)jund lsquoarmyrsquo a military district khalifa lsquodeputyrsquo the caliphkharaj a tax in the classical system a land taxkhutba a speech in the early period any speech of

importance delivered by a figure of authorityespecially the caliph or governor eventuallydeveloping into the sermon delivered at the mid-day prayer service in the mosque on Fridays

majus lsquoMagianrsquo in the strict sense Zoroastrians but used

more widely for followers of religions other thanJudaism or Christianity to whom the Muslimswished to grant some toleration

mawla lsquoclientrsquo a non-Arab who has accepted Islam afollower of an important individual

salat the ritual five times daily prayer service of Islamshurta a small force used by the governor or other

authority to keep ordersunna lsquoaccepted usage or practicersquo eventually identified

with the Sunna of the Prophet the usage ofMuhammad which Sunni Islam accepted as beingtogether with the Koran the main source ofauthority for its law

lsquoulamarsquo the religious scholars of Islam walirsquol-lsquoahd the heir apparent The meanings given are those usually applicable in this book Inother contexts the words may have other meanings

Figu

re 1

Th

e lsquoN

orth

erne

rsrsquo

Figu

re 2

Th

e lsquoS

outh

erne

rsrsquo

Figu

re 3

Th

e U

may

yads

Figu

re 4

Th

e O

ther

Des

cend

ants

of lsquo

Abd

Man

af

xix

Foreword to the Second Edition

In spite of some significant developments in our understanding ofaspects of the history of the Umayyad caliphate in the fifteen yearsor so since this book was first published readily accessibleintroductions to the period for undergraduates and interested non-specialists remain few This book was generally well received byreviewers and has proved useful for its intended readership Since ithas been out of print for some time and in any case was availableonly as a (rather expensive) hardback it has now been decided toreissue it in paperback The opportunity has been taken to correct afew errors (for pointing out which I am grateful to reviewers) and toadd a postscript surveying some of the important work relevant tothe Umayyad caliphate which has appeared since the first edition in1986 The postscript also refers to a few works which should havebeen included in the original bibliography

For technical reasons it has not been possible to change theoriginal text in three places where some expansion is required

At p 83 with reference to the victory of Charles Martel over theArabs the date of 732 should probably be changed to 733 At thevery least the article of MBaudoit lsquoLocalisation et datation de lapremiegravere victoire remporteacutee par Charles Martel contre lesmusulmansrsquo in Meacutemoires et documents publieacutes par la Societeacute delrsquoEcole de Chartres 12 (1955) 93ndash105 needs to be consulted on thisquestion Secondly at p 52 it is wrong to give the impression thatthe term mahdi is not known in accounts of events before the risingof al-Mukhtar it occurs of course apparently for the first time inreports about the rising of the Tawwabun which took place justbefore that of al-Mukhtar I am especially grateful for MichaelMoronyrsquos review (IJMES 21 (1989)) for drawing attention to thesepoints I remain unconvinced however that the word mahdioriginally lacked any eschatological significance

Finally on p 91 reference is made to the theory that RusafatHisham was not at the Rusafa which was ancient Sergiopolis but wasrather to be identified with Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi near Palmyra I

xx Foreword to the Second Edition

ought to have known but did not that that theory proposed bySauvaget and others has been discredited by Oleg Grabar in hiswork on Qasr al-Hayr City in the Desert Qasr al-Hayr East(Cambridge Ma Harvard University Press 1978) There is now aconvenient discussion of Ruafat Hisham in the second edition ofthe Encyclopaedia of Islam sv lsquoRusafarsquo (by C-PHaase) whichexplains too the problematic tradition that Hisham was there whenhe received the caliphal regalia

GRH March 2000

xxi

Preface and Acknowledgements

Between the general surveys of Islamic Arab or Middle Easternhistory of which there are several of varying quality and detailedmonographs on particular aspects of Umayyad history many ofwhich are not in English there is little that can be recommendedconfidently as an introduction to the importance main events andpersonalities and problems of the Umayyad period The presentwork tries to provide such an introduction

The standard modern account of Umayyad history is JuliusWellhausenrsquos The Arab kingdom and its fall first published inGerman in 1902 and translated into English in 1927 In spite of theinevitable dating of Wellhausenrsquos own political and religiousoutlook and the criticisms of his method of source analysis maderecently by Albrecht Noth his book remains of fundamentalimportance for anyone wanting more than an introductoryknowledge of Umayyad history particularly its political andmilitary events The present work is certainly not intended tosupersede The Arab kingdom

As an introduction however experience has shown thatWellhausenrsquos work is not especially suitable Leaving aside therather idiosyncratic English of its translation it contains more detailthan is readily absorbed its presentation is not as clear as modernreaders expect and its concern with source criticism is notappreciated by those who do not have even a simplified traditionalnarrative against which to set it Attempts to get students to read anddigest Wellhausen usually result in puzzlement and the beginningsof a conviction that Umayyad history is too difficult forundergraduate study

But there is really little else especially in English which treatsthe period as a whole and which can serve as an introduction MAShabanrsquos first volume of his Islamic history A new interpretation itis true is readily available and does provide a lively narrativecoverage of the period Its interpretation however seems to me tobe frequently questionable and on occasion only loosely related to

xxii Preface

the sources and the title itself indicates that it was not conceived asan introduction Similarly Patricia Cronersquos Slaves on horses seemsto me a brilliant analysis of the development of the early Islamicstate and society but not a book for relative beginners since itpresumes rather than provides a fairly detailed acquaintance withthe events of the period There still seems a need therefore for thesort of introduction which I have attempted here

Given then that the present work is not attempting to provide awholly new version of the Umayyad period and that much of itdepends on the findings of the many scholars who have contributedto our understanding of Umayyad history it has seemed unnecessaryto provide references to the original Arabic or other sourcesReaders capable of studying the primary sources themselves willeasily be able to track them down in the secondary works to whichreferences are normally confined in my notes These notes areusually a guide to further reading with readers of English primarilyin mind and are not necessarily the sources of particular statementsbut in a general way they indicate the scholars and works to which Ihave been most indebted Neither the references in my notes nor thebibliography given at the end claim to be complete or extensive butI hope that I have mentioned most works of fundamentalimportance

My special thanks are due to my colleague Dr David Morganwho kindly read the whole typescript and whose feeling for bothhistory and style has undoubtedly saved me from a number ofblunders to my wife Joyce who has similarly read and commentedon the typescript to Sue Harrop the Cartographer at the School ofAfrican and Oriental Studies University of London for help withthe maps and to Peter Sowden who first suggested that I write thebook and then gently prodded until it was done For the remaininglimitations imperfections and errors I am responsible

1

Chapter 1

Introduction The Importance of theUmayyad Period and its Place in IslamicHistory

In the summer or autumn of AD 661 Mulsquoawiya b Abi Sufyangovernor of Syria since 639 and already acclaimed by his Syrianfollowers as caliph (khalifa) religious and political leader of theMuslim state entered the Iraqi garrison town of Kufa In historicaltradition this event is seen as bringing to an end a bitter period ofcivil war among the Arabs achieving the reunification under oneruler of all the territories conquered by them and initiating thecaliphate of the Umayyad dynasty of which Mulsquoawiya was thefounder The dynasty was to rule for 90 years or so until itsoverthrow and replacement by that of the lsquoAbbasids in 749ndash50

The Umayyad dynasty was the first to emerge in the Middle Eastfollowing the conquest of the region by the Arabs a conquest whichhad begun in the 630s and was still continuing for much of theUmayyad period Apart from this fact however what was theimportance of the period of Umayyad rule a period which in itsdetails is often complex and confusing and how has it traditionallybeen regarded by Muslims in relation to the history of Islam Theanswer to the first part of this question is provided by discussion ofthe two concepts of islamisation and arabisation referring to tworelated but essentially distinct historical processes

Islamisation

The term lsquoislamisationrsquo refers both to the extension of the area underMuslim rule and to the acceptance of Islam as their religion bypeoples of different faiths but in the Umayyad period the question isfurther complicated by the fact that Islam itself was developing fromits still to us not completely understood origins into somethingapproaching the religion with which we are familiar One should notimagine that Islam as we know it came fully formed out of Arabiawith the Arabs at the time of their conquest of the Middle East and

2 Introduction

was then accepted or rejected as the case might be by the non-Arabpeoples Although many of the details are obscure and oftencontroversial it seems clear that Islam as we know it is largely a resultof the interaction between the Arabs and the peoples they conqueredduring the first two centuries or so of the Islamic era which began inAD 6221 During the Umayyad period therefore the spread of Islamand the development of Islam were taking place at the same time anda discussion of islamisation has to begin with some consideration ofthe importance of the Umayyad period for the development of Islam

In the first place it was under the Umayyads that there began toemerge that class of religious scholars which eventually became theleading authority within Sunni Islam and which is chiefly responsiblefor shaping the historical and religious tradition which has comedown to us In effect it was this class which led the development ofIslam as we know it and it is important to remember that it emergedlargely in opposition to the Umayyad government The Umayyads hadtheir own conception of Islam itself developing with time anddifferent circumstances but on the whole we see the religion from theviewpoint of the religious scholars

In the emergence of this class the most important region was Iraqand in Iraq Kufa was the leading centre Other regions tended tofollow its lead Building on and reacting against the ideas andpractices available in Kufa and other centres from the second half ofthe Umayyad period onwards groups of Muslim scholars tried todevelop and put on a sound footing what they saw as a true form ofIslam In doing so they frequently accused the Umayyads of impiousor unislamic behaviour

The main concept which these scholars developed and worked withwas that of the Sunna This idea went through several stages butincreasingly came to be identified with the custom and practice of theProphet Muhammad which was to serve as the ideal norm ofbehaviour for his followers and was eventually accepted as the majorsource of Muslim law alongside the Koran Increasingly Muslimideas practices and institutions came to be justified by reference tothe Sunna the words and deeds of Muhammad as transmitted by hiscompanions to later generations The proponents of the Sunna as thusunderstood became increasingly influential and political andreligious developments after the Umayyads had been overthrownresulted in the final crystallisation of the Sunni form of Islam with thereligious scholars the guardians of the Sunna as its leadingauthority2

Introduction 3

Not all Muslims though accepted the primacy or even thelegitimacy of the Sunna and the Umayyad period also saw theemergence of the two other main forms of Islam Shilsquoism andKharijism Tradition dates the fragmentation of a previously unitedIslam into the three main forms which we know today (SunnisShilsquoites and Kharijites) to the time of the first civil war (656ndash61)which ended with the accession of Mulsquoawiya to the caliphateHowever just as the development of Sunni Islam was a slow processwhich only began under the Umayyads so too Shilsquoism andKharijism were not born in one instant They too developed inopposition to the Umayyads in a number of distinct movementswhich each had individual characteristics and again Iraq was ofprime importance

Kufa was the centre of the development of Shilsquoism in theUmayyad period As early as 670 but especially after the revolt ofMukhtar in 685ndash7 Kufa saw a number of movements aimed atoverthrowing the Umayyads and appointing a relative of theProphet usually a descendant of his cousin and son-in-law lsquoAli asimam which title the Shilsquoites tend to prefer to caliph Where theseShilsquoite movements differed from one another was in the particularmember of the Prophetrsquos family whom they favoured and in certainother doctrines they developed what they had in common wasdevotion to the Prophetrsquos family and insistence that membership ofit was a sine qua non for the imam Some of them developed moreextreme beliefs such as acceptance of the imam as an incarnation ofGod and a doctrine of the transmigration of souls It seems that froman early date the conquered non-Arab peoples were attracted to theShilsquoite movements and it may be that some of their doctrines wereinfluenced by the previous beliefs of these non-Arab supportersShilsquoism has a long and complex history which extends well beyondthe Umayyad period but it was then that its basic character wasestablished3

The basic principle of Kharijism was a demand for piety andreligious excellence as the only necessary qualification for the imamand a rejection of the view that he should belong to the family of theProphet as the Shilsquoites demanded or to the tribe of the Prophet(Quraysh) as the Sunnis required Like Shilsquoism Kharijism too wasmanifested in a number of movements some relatively moderate andothers more extreme The extremists tended to insist on the rejectionof all other Muslims regarding them as infidels and therefore liable tobe killed unless they lsquorepentedrsquo and lsquoaccepted Islamrsquo that is unless

4 Introduction

they recognised the Kharijite imam and accepted the Kharijite form ofIslam This fierce rejection of other Muslims however involving theduty of rebellion against what was regarded as an illegitimategovernment became increasingly difficult to maintain except in areasremote from the authority of the government or in times when theauthority of the government for some reason collapsed In Basra thesecond of the Iraqi garrison towns on the other hand a moremoderate form of Kharijism was elaborated and spread to easternArabia and North Africa It is this form of Kharijism which hassurvived into the modern world4

Each of these three main Muslim groups came to hold that Islamshould be open to all peoples and that all should enjoy the same statuswithin it regarding rights and duties The development of this idea tooof Islam as a universal religion can be traced to the Umayyad periodagain in circles opposed to the dynasty

Although it can be debated whether the Koran was addressed to allmen or to the Arabs only the Umayyads and the Arab tribesmen whofirst conquered the Middle East regarded their religion as largelyexclusive of the conquered peoples There was no sustained attempt toforce or even persuade the conquered peoples to accept Islam and itwas assumed that they would remain in their own communities payingtaxes to support the conquerors Although from the start there wassome movement of the conquered into the community of theconquerors the separation of Arabs from non-Arabs was a basicprinciple of the state established as a result of the conquests This isclear both from the procedure which a non-Arab had to adopt in orderto enter Islam and from the fact that there were from time to timeofficial measures designed to prevent such changes of status Islamwas in fact regarded as the property of the conquering aristocracy

In order to attach himself to the religion and society of the Arabs anon-Arab had to become the client (mawla pl mawali) of an Arabtribe In other words in order to become a Muslim something whichit is possible to see as a social or political as much as a religious movehe had to acquire an Arab patron and become a sort of honorarymember of his patronrsquos tribe adding the tribal name to his own newMuslim one even though he and his descendants were in some waystreated as second-class Muslims It is evident therefore thatmembership of Islam was equated with possession of an Arab ethnicidentity5

Nevertheless association with the elite in this way did haveadvantages for some and at various times in different places we hear

Introduction 5

of large numbers of non-Arabs attempting to enter Islam bybecoming mawali but being prevented from doing so or at leastfrom having their changed status recognised by local Umayyadgovernors Probably the best-known example was in Iraq around 700when large numbers of local non-Arab cultivators sought to abandontheir lands and flee into the Arab garrison towns to enter Islam asmawali only to be forced back by the Umayyad governor al-Hajjajwho refused to recognise their claims

In the long run it proved impossible to maintain the isolation ofconquerors and conquered from one another in this way andattempts to do so only served to alienate further those Muslimgroups which had come to see Islam as a religion open to all Theproblem for the Umayyads was that they had come to power asleaders of a conquering Arab elite and to have allowed theconquered peoples to enter Islam en masse would have abolished orat least weakened the distinction between the elite and the massesThe crucial privileges of Islam from this point of view were in thearea of taxation In principle the Arabs were to be the recipients ofthe taxes paid by the non-Arabs If the conquered peoples wereallowed to become Muslims and to change their position from thatof payers to that of recipients of taxes the whole system upon whichthe Umayyads depended would collapse But as the pressure fromthe non-Arabs built up and the universalist notion of Islam becamestronger this problem became increasingly urgent for the dynastyand played a major part in the generally negative attitude of Muslimstowards the Umayyad dynasty6

How far the development of Islam in the Umayyad periodinvolved radical changes in religious practices or beliefs is not easyto say Broadly speaking Muslim tradition assumes that thefundamental institutions of Islammdashsuch things as belief inMuhammad as a prophet acceptance of the Koran in the form inwhich we know it as the word of God and performance of the mainrituals such as the five times daily prayer (salat) and the annualpilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) mdashexisted at the beginning of theUmayyad period and were accepted equally by the Umayyads andtheir opponents The difficulty is to decide how far our Muslimsources which are relatively late in the form in which we have themare reading back later conditions into an earlier period

Sometimes certainly we have hints that the situation was not sostatic or so uniform as the tradition generally implies For examplewe are told that Muslim rebels supporting Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the

6 Introduction

Umayyads in the early years of the eighth century accused the caliphof lsquomurderingrsquo the ritual prayer (salat) and called for vengeance forit although what this meant and what exactly was involved ifanything specific is not spelled out7 Even such tantalisinglyobscure hints are relatively scarce and when we do sometimes havemore substantial information its significance seems often to belimited in one of two ways

First the information may centre on a point which seems to berelatively minor For instance much play is made with the chargethat the Umayyads insisted on delivering the khutba (in the earlyperiod a speech or sermon given usually in the mosque by the caliphor his representative and often dealing with secular as well as morepurely religious affairs) while sitting contrary to what is alleged tohave been the practice established by the Prophet and his immediatesuccessors This is supposed to be a sign of the haughtiness of theUmayyads refusing to stand before their subjects and preferringlike kings to remain seated Even though the detail may have lostsome of its significance because of the later decline in importance ofthe khutba and its associated institutions and ceremonies howeverit is difficult to see arguments about the correct posture for thekhutba as of fundamental importance for the development of IslamIn the way in which the practice is presented by Muslim tradition itdoes not provide grounds for arguing that the outward forms ofIslam underwent great and radical changes under the Umayyads8

Secondly even when the information is apparently more weightythe impression is usually given that the Umayyads were pervertingsome orthodox practice or belief which already existed and waswidely accepted by Muslims There is no suggestion that basicreligious ideas were still in a state of flux and that lsquoorthodoxyrsquo (anambiguous term in Islam since there is no central authority to saywhat is and what is not orthodox) was only slowly developing Weare told for instance that some of the Umayyads tried to makeJerusalem a centre of pilgrimage but the sources imply that this wasagainst the background of an already generally accepted practice ofannual pilgrimage to Mecca which had been established as the culticcentre of Islam from the time of the Prophet The reader should beaware of such preconceptions in the sources and consider thepossibility that there may not have been as yet any firmlyestablished cultic centre in Islam9

Any attempt to argue that there were during the Umayyad periodmore fundamental religious developments than the sources allow

Introduction 7

for therefore involves a certain amount of lsquoreading between thelinesrsquo of Muslim tradition and using whatever evidence is availableoutside the Muslim literary sources A recent discussion using suchmethods has questioned whether the name lsquoIslamrsquo as thedesignation for the religion of the Arabs existed much before theend of the seventh century10 Muslim tradition itself though hasproved remarkably impervious to analysis with such questions inmind and onersquos attitude to the question of the extent of the religiousdevelopment of Islam in the Umayyad period must depend greatlyon onersquos attitude to the value of Muslim sources for the history ofthe period and especially the earlier part

The spread of Islam during this period as already indicated hasto be viewed on two levels that of its territorial expansion and thatof its acceptance by the conquered non-Arab peoples from a varietyof religious backgrounds

Muslim tradition is generally more concerned with the formerprocess When an area is under Muslim rule and subject to Muslimlaw that area is regarded as a part of the Muslim world (dar al-Islam) even though the majority of its population may remain non-Muslim Strictly speaking only Christians Jews and Zoroastrians(these last known as majus) were to be allowed to refuse to acceptIslam and maintain their existence as separate religious communitiesunder Muslim rule but in practice toleration was frequentlyextended more widely

From this point of view then the extensive conquests made underthe Umayyads were an extension of Islam At the beginning of theUmayyad period Arab Muslim rule did not extend much further westthan modern Libya or further east than the eastern regions of Iranand even within these areas many regions must have been held onlyprecariously or merely nominally By the end of the dynasty all ofNorth Africa and southern and central Spain were included in theboundaries of the Muslim world and in the east the extension ofcontrol into central Asia and northern India prepared the way forlater advances in those areas

In the west the garrison town of Qayrawan was founded about 670 inIfriqiya (modern Tunisia) and this served as the base for furtherwestward expansion lsquoUqba b Nafilsquo is subsequently said to havemarched as far as the Atlantic before being killed by the still unsubduedBerbers but it was not until the end of the century that regions ofmodern Algeria and Morocco were substantially pacified and theBerbers brought into Islam but keeping their own language and tribal

8 Introduction

system This development is associated with the governorship ofHassan b Nulsquoman in Ifriqiya (683ndash707) It was Hassanrsquos successorMusa b Nusayr who initiated the invasion of Spain in 711 sending hisBerber client (mawla) Tariq to lead the expedition It is from this Tariqthat Gibraltar takes its name (Jabal Tariq lsquothe hill of Tariqrsquo)

In the east too the years around 700 saw major advances Al-Hajjajgovernor of the eastern part of the Umayyad territories from 694 to 714sent his generals Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the ruler of Kabul Qutayba bMuslim into the territories lying beyond the river Oxus (Jayhun or AmuDarya in Muslim works) and Muhammad b al-Qasim into northernIndia Qutayba is said to have reached the borders of China and sent anembassy demanding submission from the lsquoking of Chinarsquo The extentand effectiveness of these expeditions may sometimes be open toquestion but it is clear that Arab Muslim control was extended andconsolidated in the east under the Umayyads11

The spread of Islam among the non-Arab peoples of the conqueredregions is much less explicitly described in our sources At the outset ofthe Umayyad period it is clear that very few of the conquered peopleshad accepted Islam however we understand this last phrase (islamliterally means lsquosubmissionrsquo) But by the end of the period in spite ofthe initial attempt by the Arabs to keep themselves apart religiously andsocially from their subjects and in spite of the refusal by caliphs andgovernors to allow the non-Arabs to enjoy the advantages of acceptanceof Islam large numbers of the subject peoples had come to identifythemselves as Muslims

The spread of Islam vertically in this way is clearly a complexprocess depending on a variety of factors which were not the same inevery area or among every group of the non-Arab population andresulting in divergent rates of progress Because of the silence orambiguity of the sources we are often reduced to speculation aboutcauses and the spread of the process For example we know very littleabout the islamisation of Syria and there are only one or two referencesin non-Muslim sources which seem to indicate substantial islamisationof the local peoples during the Umayyad period On the other hand theMuslim sources have many references to the difficulties caused toUmayyad governors of Iraq and Khurasan when large numbers of non-Arab non-Muslims attempted to accept Islam by becoming mawali inthe early decades of the eighth century but they still leave manyquestions unanswered or answered at best ambiguously

So far as the evidence enables us to judge and leaving aside theBerbers whose society and way of life made them likely allies for

Introduction 9

the Arabs in the wars of conquest it seems to have been in lowerIraq Khurasan and Syria that Islam made the most significantadvances among the subjects peoples in the Umayyad period Inwestern Persia and Egypt on the other hand it seems thatislamisation in this sense was relatively slow and that it was not untilafter the dynasty had been overthrown that Islam became thereligion of the majority in these areas12

In spite of our uncertainties it seems clear that the Umayyadperiod was crucial for the process of Islamisation in all its forms

Arabisation

By lsquoarabisationrsquo I mean the spread of a culture characterised aboveall by its use of the Arabic language in the area which had becomesubject to Arab Muslim rule Although associated with the processof islamisation arabisation is a distinct movement as can be seenfrom the fact that important communities of Jews and Christianssurvived in the Islamic Middle East into modern times Thesecommunities maintained their religious traditions in spite of the factthat they had renounced the everyday languages which they hadused before the Arab conquest and had adopted Arabic ConverselyPersia presents a striking example of a region which largelyaccepted Islam as its religion but maintained its pre-Islamiclanguage at first in everyday and later in literary use although ofcourse the language underwent significant changes in the earlyIslamic period

Again one has to take into account that Arabic itself changed as itspread and was elaborated in the process of interaction betweenArabs and non-Arabs Put crudely as the non-Arab peoples adoptedArabic so their own linguistic habits and backgrounds affected thelanguage leading to significant changes and to the formation ofdifferent dialects The result of this evolution is usually described asMiddle Arabic as opposed to Classical Arabic which is identifiedwith the language of the Koran and of the poetry which it isclaimed originated in pre-Islamic Arabia The origin and nature ofClassical Arabic itself though is to some extent a topic ofcontroversy What led to the adoption or rejection of Arabic by non-Arabic speakers is obviously a very complex question involvingconsideration of political and social relationships as well as morepurely linguistic ones

10 Introduction

In attempting to chart the progress of arabisation the difficultiesagain arise from the lack of explicit information on the topic in ourliterary sources and from the paucity of written material survivingfrom the Umayyad period For instance although it has beensuggested that Jews of all sorts began to speak Arabic as early as theseventh century the process of change must have been gradual andour earliest texts written in Judaeo-Arabic (that is the form of MiddleArabic used by Jews and written in Hebrew rather than Arabic script)come from the ninth century Our earliest Christian Arabic texts(Arabic written in the Greek script) have been dated to the eighthcentury but there has been some argument about the dating On theother hand from later developments we know that Persian must havesurvived as the spoken language of the majority of Iranians during theUmayyad period but our sources only rarely and ambiguously let ussee that it was so and almost all of our source material on the historyof Persia under the Umayyads is in Arabic

More concrete evidence is provided by the administrative papyriwhich have survived from Egypt In spite of the limited range ofsubjects with which they are concerned they at least enable us to see agradual change from Greek to Arabic in the language of theadministration Furthermore our literary sources report that around700 it was ordered that henceforth the government administrationshould use Arabic rather than the languages which had been usedbefore the Arab conquest and which had continued in use thus farThis could indicate that there was at that time a significant number ofnon-Arabs with sufficient command of Arabic at least for the purposesof administration since the bureaucracy continued to relyoverwhelmingly on non-Arabs The change of language in thebureaucracy did not happen overnight and the sources are notunanimous about when it was ordered but in the development ofarabisation it seems to have been a significant step

Why and how Arabic and with it the other features which seem tomake Islamic culture in the Middle East significantly Arab anddistinguish it from others spread is therefore still debatableEventually as we know the adoption of Arabic for most purposesbecame general in Syria Iraq and Egypt while the Berbers andPersians in spite of their acceptance of Islam and therefore of Arabicas their sacred language continued to use their own languages foreveryday purposes We can assume that arabisation like islamisationprogressed a long way under the Umayyads but precise evidence ishard to come by13

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

Figu

re 1

Th

e lsquoN

orth

erne

rsrsquo

Figu

re 2

Th

e lsquoS

outh

erne

rsrsquo

Figu

re 3

Th

e U

may

yads

Figu

re 4

Th

e O

ther

Des

cend

ants

of lsquo

Abd

Man

af

xix

Foreword to the Second Edition

In spite of some significant developments in our understanding ofaspects of the history of the Umayyad caliphate in the fifteen yearsor so since this book was first published readily accessibleintroductions to the period for undergraduates and interested non-specialists remain few This book was generally well received byreviewers and has proved useful for its intended readership Since ithas been out of print for some time and in any case was availableonly as a (rather expensive) hardback it has now been decided toreissue it in paperback The opportunity has been taken to correct afew errors (for pointing out which I am grateful to reviewers) and toadd a postscript surveying some of the important work relevant tothe Umayyad caliphate which has appeared since the first edition in1986 The postscript also refers to a few works which should havebeen included in the original bibliography

For technical reasons it has not been possible to change theoriginal text in three places where some expansion is required

At p 83 with reference to the victory of Charles Martel over theArabs the date of 732 should probably be changed to 733 At thevery least the article of MBaudoit lsquoLocalisation et datation de lapremiegravere victoire remporteacutee par Charles Martel contre lesmusulmansrsquo in Meacutemoires et documents publieacutes par la Societeacute delrsquoEcole de Chartres 12 (1955) 93ndash105 needs to be consulted on thisquestion Secondly at p 52 it is wrong to give the impression thatthe term mahdi is not known in accounts of events before the risingof al-Mukhtar it occurs of course apparently for the first time inreports about the rising of the Tawwabun which took place justbefore that of al-Mukhtar I am especially grateful for MichaelMoronyrsquos review (IJMES 21 (1989)) for drawing attention to thesepoints I remain unconvinced however that the word mahdioriginally lacked any eschatological significance

Finally on p 91 reference is made to the theory that RusafatHisham was not at the Rusafa which was ancient Sergiopolis but wasrather to be identified with Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi near Palmyra I

xx Foreword to the Second Edition

ought to have known but did not that that theory proposed bySauvaget and others has been discredited by Oleg Grabar in hiswork on Qasr al-Hayr City in the Desert Qasr al-Hayr East(Cambridge Ma Harvard University Press 1978) There is now aconvenient discussion of Ruafat Hisham in the second edition ofthe Encyclopaedia of Islam sv lsquoRusafarsquo (by C-PHaase) whichexplains too the problematic tradition that Hisham was there whenhe received the caliphal regalia

GRH March 2000

xxi

Preface and Acknowledgements

Between the general surveys of Islamic Arab or Middle Easternhistory of which there are several of varying quality and detailedmonographs on particular aspects of Umayyad history many ofwhich are not in English there is little that can be recommendedconfidently as an introduction to the importance main events andpersonalities and problems of the Umayyad period The presentwork tries to provide such an introduction

The standard modern account of Umayyad history is JuliusWellhausenrsquos The Arab kingdom and its fall first published inGerman in 1902 and translated into English in 1927 In spite of theinevitable dating of Wellhausenrsquos own political and religiousoutlook and the criticisms of his method of source analysis maderecently by Albrecht Noth his book remains of fundamentalimportance for anyone wanting more than an introductoryknowledge of Umayyad history particularly its political andmilitary events The present work is certainly not intended tosupersede The Arab kingdom

As an introduction however experience has shown thatWellhausenrsquos work is not especially suitable Leaving aside therather idiosyncratic English of its translation it contains more detailthan is readily absorbed its presentation is not as clear as modernreaders expect and its concern with source criticism is notappreciated by those who do not have even a simplified traditionalnarrative against which to set it Attempts to get students to read anddigest Wellhausen usually result in puzzlement and the beginningsof a conviction that Umayyad history is too difficult forundergraduate study

But there is really little else especially in English which treatsthe period as a whole and which can serve as an introduction MAShabanrsquos first volume of his Islamic history A new interpretation itis true is readily available and does provide a lively narrativecoverage of the period Its interpretation however seems to me tobe frequently questionable and on occasion only loosely related to

xxii Preface

the sources and the title itself indicates that it was not conceived asan introduction Similarly Patricia Cronersquos Slaves on horses seemsto me a brilliant analysis of the development of the early Islamicstate and society but not a book for relative beginners since itpresumes rather than provides a fairly detailed acquaintance withthe events of the period There still seems a need therefore for thesort of introduction which I have attempted here

Given then that the present work is not attempting to provide awholly new version of the Umayyad period and that much of itdepends on the findings of the many scholars who have contributedto our understanding of Umayyad history it has seemed unnecessaryto provide references to the original Arabic or other sourcesReaders capable of studying the primary sources themselves willeasily be able to track them down in the secondary works to whichreferences are normally confined in my notes These notes areusually a guide to further reading with readers of English primarilyin mind and are not necessarily the sources of particular statementsbut in a general way they indicate the scholars and works to which Ihave been most indebted Neither the references in my notes nor thebibliography given at the end claim to be complete or extensive butI hope that I have mentioned most works of fundamentalimportance

My special thanks are due to my colleague Dr David Morganwho kindly read the whole typescript and whose feeling for bothhistory and style has undoubtedly saved me from a number ofblunders to my wife Joyce who has similarly read and commentedon the typescript to Sue Harrop the Cartographer at the School ofAfrican and Oriental Studies University of London for help withthe maps and to Peter Sowden who first suggested that I write thebook and then gently prodded until it was done For the remaininglimitations imperfections and errors I am responsible

1

Chapter 1

Introduction The Importance of theUmayyad Period and its Place in IslamicHistory

In the summer or autumn of AD 661 Mulsquoawiya b Abi Sufyangovernor of Syria since 639 and already acclaimed by his Syrianfollowers as caliph (khalifa) religious and political leader of theMuslim state entered the Iraqi garrison town of Kufa In historicaltradition this event is seen as bringing to an end a bitter period ofcivil war among the Arabs achieving the reunification under oneruler of all the territories conquered by them and initiating thecaliphate of the Umayyad dynasty of which Mulsquoawiya was thefounder The dynasty was to rule for 90 years or so until itsoverthrow and replacement by that of the lsquoAbbasids in 749ndash50

The Umayyad dynasty was the first to emerge in the Middle Eastfollowing the conquest of the region by the Arabs a conquest whichhad begun in the 630s and was still continuing for much of theUmayyad period Apart from this fact however what was theimportance of the period of Umayyad rule a period which in itsdetails is often complex and confusing and how has it traditionallybeen regarded by Muslims in relation to the history of Islam Theanswer to the first part of this question is provided by discussion ofthe two concepts of islamisation and arabisation referring to tworelated but essentially distinct historical processes

Islamisation

The term lsquoislamisationrsquo refers both to the extension of the area underMuslim rule and to the acceptance of Islam as their religion bypeoples of different faiths but in the Umayyad period the question isfurther complicated by the fact that Islam itself was developing fromits still to us not completely understood origins into somethingapproaching the religion with which we are familiar One should notimagine that Islam as we know it came fully formed out of Arabiawith the Arabs at the time of their conquest of the Middle East and

2 Introduction

was then accepted or rejected as the case might be by the non-Arabpeoples Although many of the details are obscure and oftencontroversial it seems clear that Islam as we know it is largely a resultof the interaction between the Arabs and the peoples they conqueredduring the first two centuries or so of the Islamic era which began inAD 6221 During the Umayyad period therefore the spread of Islamand the development of Islam were taking place at the same time anda discussion of islamisation has to begin with some consideration ofthe importance of the Umayyad period for the development of Islam

In the first place it was under the Umayyads that there began toemerge that class of religious scholars which eventually became theleading authority within Sunni Islam and which is chiefly responsiblefor shaping the historical and religious tradition which has comedown to us In effect it was this class which led the development ofIslam as we know it and it is important to remember that it emergedlargely in opposition to the Umayyad government The Umayyads hadtheir own conception of Islam itself developing with time anddifferent circumstances but on the whole we see the religion from theviewpoint of the religious scholars

In the emergence of this class the most important region was Iraqand in Iraq Kufa was the leading centre Other regions tended tofollow its lead Building on and reacting against the ideas andpractices available in Kufa and other centres from the second half ofthe Umayyad period onwards groups of Muslim scholars tried todevelop and put on a sound footing what they saw as a true form ofIslam In doing so they frequently accused the Umayyads of impiousor unislamic behaviour

The main concept which these scholars developed and worked withwas that of the Sunna This idea went through several stages butincreasingly came to be identified with the custom and practice of theProphet Muhammad which was to serve as the ideal norm ofbehaviour for his followers and was eventually accepted as the majorsource of Muslim law alongside the Koran Increasingly Muslimideas practices and institutions came to be justified by reference tothe Sunna the words and deeds of Muhammad as transmitted by hiscompanions to later generations The proponents of the Sunna as thusunderstood became increasingly influential and political andreligious developments after the Umayyads had been overthrownresulted in the final crystallisation of the Sunni form of Islam with thereligious scholars the guardians of the Sunna as its leadingauthority2

Introduction 3

Not all Muslims though accepted the primacy or even thelegitimacy of the Sunna and the Umayyad period also saw theemergence of the two other main forms of Islam Shilsquoism andKharijism Tradition dates the fragmentation of a previously unitedIslam into the three main forms which we know today (SunnisShilsquoites and Kharijites) to the time of the first civil war (656ndash61)which ended with the accession of Mulsquoawiya to the caliphateHowever just as the development of Sunni Islam was a slow processwhich only began under the Umayyads so too Shilsquoism andKharijism were not born in one instant They too developed inopposition to the Umayyads in a number of distinct movementswhich each had individual characteristics and again Iraq was ofprime importance

Kufa was the centre of the development of Shilsquoism in theUmayyad period As early as 670 but especially after the revolt ofMukhtar in 685ndash7 Kufa saw a number of movements aimed atoverthrowing the Umayyads and appointing a relative of theProphet usually a descendant of his cousin and son-in-law lsquoAli asimam which title the Shilsquoites tend to prefer to caliph Where theseShilsquoite movements differed from one another was in the particularmember of the Prophetrsquos family whom they favoured and in certainother doctrines they developed what they had in common wasdevotion to the Prophetrsquos family and insistence that membership ofit was a sine qua non for the imam Some of them developed moreextreme beliefs such as acceptance of the imam as an incarnation ofGod and a doctrine of the transmigration of souls It seems that froman early date the conquered non-Arab peoples were attracted to theShilsquoite movements and it may be that some of their doctrines wereinfluenced by the previous beliefs of these non-Arab supportersShilsquoism has a long and complex history which extends well beyondthe Umayyad period but it was then that its basic character wasestablished3

The basic principle of Kharijism was a demand for piety andreligious excellence as the only necessary qualification for the imamand a rejection of the view that he should belong to the family of theProphet as the Shilsquoites demanded or to the tribe of the Prophet(Quraysh) as the Sunnis required Like Shilsquoism Kharijism too wasmanifested in a number of movements some relatively moderate andothers more extreme The extremists tended to insist on the rejectionof all other Muslims regarding them as infidels and therefore liable tobe killed unless they lsquorepentedrsquo and lsquoaccepted Islamrsquo that is unless

4 Introduction

they recognised the Kharijite imam and accepted the Kharijite form ofIslam This fierce rejection of other Muslims however involving theduty of rebellion against what was regarded as an illegitimategovernment became increasingly difficult to maintain except in areasremote from the authority of the government or in times when theauthority of the government for some reason collapsed In Basra thesecond of the Iraqi garrison towns on the other hand a moremoderate form of Kharijism was elaborated and spread to easternArabia and North Africa It is this form of Kharijism which hassurvived into the modern world4

Each of these three main Muslim groups came to hold that Islamshould be open to all peoples and that all should enjoy the same statuswithin it regarding rights and duties The development of this idea tooof Islam as a universal religion can be traced to the Umayyad periodagain in circles opposed to the dynasty

Although it can be debated whether the Koran was addressed to allmen or to the Arabs only the Umayyads and the Arab tribesmen whofirst conquered the Middle East regarded their religion as largelyexclusive of the conquered peoples There was no sustained attempt toforce or even persuade the conquered peoples to accept Islam and itwas assumed that they would remain in their own communities payingtaxes to support the conquerors Although from the start there wassome movement of the conquered into the community of theconquerors the separation of Arabs from non-Arabs was a basicprinciple of the state established as a result of the conquests This isclear both from the procedure which a non-Arab had to adopt in orderto enter Islam and from the fact that there were from time to timeofficial measures designed to prevent such changes of status Islamwas in fact regarded as the property of the conquering aristocracy

In order to attach himself to the religion and society of the Arabs anon-Arab had to become the client (mawla pl mawali) of an Arabtribe In other words in order to become a Muslim something whichit is possible to see as a social or political as much as a religious movehe had to acquire an Arab patron and become a sort of honorarymember of his patronrsquos tribe adding the tribal name to his own newMuslim one even though he and his descendants were in some waystreated as second-class Muslims It is evident therefore thatmembership of Islam was equated with possession of an Arab ethnicidentity5

Nevertheless association with the elite in this way did haveadvantages for some and at various times in different places we hear

Introduction 5

of large numbers of non-Arabs attempting to enter Islam bybecoming mawali but being prevented from doing so or at leastfrom having their changed status recognised by local Umayyadgovernors Probably the best-known example was in Iraq around 700when large numbers of local non-Arab cultivators sought to abandontheir lands and flee into the Arab garrison towns to enter Islam asmawali only to be forced back by the Umayyad governor al-Hajjajwho refused to recognise their claims

In the long run it proved impossible to maintain the isolation ofconquerors and conquered from one another in this way andattempts to do so only served to alienate further those Muslimgroups which had come to see Islam as a religion open to all Theproblem for the Umayyads was that they had come to power asleaders of a conquering Arab elite and to have allowed theconquered peoples to enter Islam en masse would have abolished orat least weakened the distinction between the elite and the massesThe crucial privileges of Islam from this point of view were in thearea of taxation In principle the Arabs were to be the recipients ofthe taxes paid by the non-Arabs If the conquered peoples wereallowed to become Muslims and to change their position from thatof payers to that of recipients of taxes the whole system upon whichthe Umayyads depended would collapse But as the pressure fromthe non-Arabs built up and the universalist notion of Islam becamestronger this problem became increasingly urgent for the dynastyand played a major part in the generally negative attitude of Muslimstowards the Umayyad dynasty6

How far the development of Islam in the Umayyad periodinvolved radical changes in religious practices or beliefs is not easyto say Broadly speaking Muslim tradition assumes that thefundamental institutions of Islammdashsuch things as belief inMuhammad as a prophet acceptance of the Koran in the form inwhich we know it as the word of God and performance of the mainrituals such as the five times daily prayer (salat) and the annualpilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) mdashexisted at the beginning of theUmayyad period and were accepted equally by the Umayyads andtheir opponents The difficulty is to decide how far our Muslimsources which are relatively late in the form in which we have themare reading back later conditions into an earlier period

Sometimes certainly we have hints that the situation was not sostatic or so uniform as the tradition generally implies For examplewe are told that Muslim rebels supporting Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the

6 Introduction

Umayyads in the early years of the eighth century accused the caliphof lsquomurderingrsquo the ritual prayer (salat) and called for vengeance forit although what this meant and what exactly was involved ifanything specific is not spelled out7 Even such tantalisinglyobscure hints are relatively scarce and when we do sometimes havemore substantial information its significance seems often to belimited in one of two ways

First the information may centre on a point which seems to berelatively minor For instance much play is made with the chargethat the Umayyads insisted on delivering the khutba (in the earlyperiod a speech or sermon given usually in the mosque by the caliphor his representative and often dealing with secular as well as morepurely religious affairs) while sitting contrary to what is alleged tohave been the practice established by the Prophet and his immediatesuccessors This is supposed to be a sign of the haughtiness of theUmayyads refusing to stand before their subjects and preferringlike kings to remain seated Even though the detail may have lostsome of its significance because of the later decline in importance ofthe khutba and its associated institutions and ceremonies howeverit is difficult to see arguments about the correct posture for thekhutba as of fundamental importance for the development of IslamIn the way in which the practice is presented by Muslim tradition itdoes not provide grounds for arguing that the outward forms ofIslam underwent great and radical changes under the Umayyads8

Secondly even when the information is apparently more weightythe impression is usually given that the Umayyads were pervertingsome orthodox practice or belief which already existed and waswidely accepted by Muslims There is no suggestion that basicreligious ideas were still in a state of flux and that lsquoorthodoxyrsquo (anambiguous term in Islam since there is no central authority to saywhat is and what is not orthodox) was only slowly developing Weare told for instance that some of the Umayyads tried to makeJerusalem a centre of pilgrimage but the sources imply that this wasagainst the background of an already generally accepted practice ofannual pilgrimage to Mecca which had been established as the culticcentre of Islam from the time of the Prophet The reader should beaware of such preconceptions in the sources and consider thepossibility that there may not have been as yet any firmlyestablished cultic centre in Islam9

Any attempt to argue that there were during the Umayyad periodmore fundamental religious developments than the sources allow

Introduction 7

for therefore involves a certain amount of lsquoreading between thelinesrsquo of Muslim tradition and using whatever evidence is availableoutside the Muslim literary sources A recent discussion using suchmethods has questioned whether the name lsquoIslamrsquo as thedesignation for the religion of the Arabs existed much before theend of the seventh century10 Muslim tradition itself though hasproved remarkably impervious to analysis with such questions inmind and onersquos attitude to the question of the extent of the religiousdevelopment of Islam in the Umayyad period must depend greatlyon onersquos attitude to the value of Muslim sources for the history ofthe period and especially the earlier part

The spread of Islam during this period as already indicated hasto be viewed on two levels that of its territorial expansion and thatof its acceptance by the conquered non-Arab peoples from a varietyof religious backgrounds

Muslim tradition is generally more concerned with the formerprocess When an area is under Muslim rule and subject to Muslimlaw that area is regarded as a part of the Muslim world (dar al-Islam) even though the majority of its population may remain non-Muslim Strictly speaking only Christians Jews and Zoroastrians(these last known as majus) were to be allowed to refuse to acceptIslam and maintain their existence as separate religious communitiesunder Muslim rule but in practice toleration was frequentlyextended more widely

From this point of view then the extensive conquests made underthe Umayyads were an extension of Islam At the beginning of theUmayyad period Arab Muslim rule did not extend much further westthan modern Libya or further east than the eastern regions of Iranand even within these areas many regions must have been held onlyprecariously or merely nominally By the end of the dynasty all ofNorth Africa and southern and central Spain were included in theboundaries of the Muslim world and in the east the extension ofcontrol into central Asia and northern India prepared the way forlater advances in those areas

In the west the garrison town of Qayrawan was founded about 670 inIfriqiya (modern Tunisia) and this served as the base for furtherwestward expansion lsquoUqba b Nafilsquo is subsequently said to havemarched as far as the Atlantic before being killed by the still unsubduedBerbers but it was not until the end of the century that regions ofmodern Algeria and Morocco were substantially pacified and theBerbers brought into Islam but keeping their own language and tribal

8 Introduction

system This development is associated with the governorship ofHassan b Nulsquoman in Ifriqiya (683ndash707) It was Hassanrsquos successorMusa b Nusayr who initiated the invasion of Spain in 711 sending hisBerber client (mawla) Tariq to lead the expedition It is from this Tariqthat Gibraltar takes its name (Jabal Tariq lsquothe hill of Tariqrsquo)

In the east too the years around 700 saw major advances Al-Hajjajgovernor of the eastern part of the Umayyad territories from 694 to 714sent his generals Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the ruler of Kabul Qutayba bMuslim into the territories lying beyond the river Oxus (Jayhun or AmuDarya in Muslim works) and Muhammad b al-Qasim into northernIndia Qutayba is said to have reached the borders of China and sent anembassy demanding submission from the lsquoking of Chinarsquo The extentand effectiveness of these expeditions may sometimes be open toquestion but it is clear that Arab Muslim control was extended andconsolidated in the east under the Umayyads11

The spread of Islam among the non-Arab peoples of the conqueredregions is much less explicitly described in our sources At the outset ofthe Umayyad period it is clear that very few of the conquered peopleshad accepted Islam however we understand this last phrase (islamliterally means lsquosubmissionrsquo) But by the end of the period in spite ofthe initial attempt by the Arabs to keep themselves apart religiously andsocially from their subjects and in spite of the refusal by caliphs andgovernors to allow the non-Arabs to enjoy the advantages of acceptanceof Islam large numbers of the subject peoples had come to identifythemselves as Muslims

The spread of Islam vertically in this way is clearly a complexprocess depending on a variety of factors which were not the same inevery area or among every group of the non-Arab population andresulting in divergent rates of progress Because of the silence orambiguity of the sources we are often reduced to speculation aboutcauses and the spread of the process For example we know very littleabout the islamisation of Syria and there are only one or two referencesin non-Muslim sources which seem to indicate substantial islamisationof the local peoples during the Umayyad period On the other hand theMuslim sources have many references to the difficulties caused toUmayyad governors of Iraq and Khurasan when large numbers of non-Arab non-Muslims attempted to accept Islam by becoming mawali inthe early decades of the eighth century but they still leave manyquestions unanswered or answered at best ambiguously

So far as the evidence enables us to judge and leaving aside theBerbers whose society and way of life made them likely allies for

Introduction 9

the Arabs in the wars of conquest it seems to have been in lowerIraq Khurasan and Syria that Islam made the most significantadvances among the subjects peoples in the Umayyad period Inwestern Persia and Egypt on the other hand it seems thatislamisation in this sense was relatively slow and that it was not untilafter the dynasty had been overthrown that Islam became thereligion of the majority in these areas12

In spite of our uncertainties it seems clear that the Umayyadperiod was crucial for the process of Islamisation in all its forms

Arabisation

By lsquoarabisationrsquo I mean the spread of a culture characterised aboveall by its use of the Arabic language in the area which had becomesubject to Arab Muslim rule Although associated with the processof islamisation arabisation is a distinct movement as can be seenfrom the fact that important communities of Jews and Christianssurvived in the Islamic Middle East into modern times Thesecommunities maintained their religious traditions in spite of the factthat they had renounced the everyday languages which they hadused before the Arab conquest and had adopted Arabic ConverselyPersia presents a striking example of a region which largelyaccepted Islam as its religion but maintained its pre-Islamiclanguage at first in everyday and later in literary use although ofcourse the language underwent significant changes in the earlyIslamic period

Again one has to take into account that Arabic itself changed as itspread and was elaborated in the process of interaction betweenArabs and non-Arabs Put crudely as the non-Arab peoples adoptedArabic so their own linguistic habits and backgrounds affected thelanguage leading to significant changes and to the formation ofdifferent dialects The result of this evolution is usually described asMiddle Arabic as opposed to Classical Arabic which is identifiedwith the language of the Koran and of the poetry which it isclaimed originated in pre-Islamic Arabia The origin and nature ofClassical Arabic itself though is to some extent a topic ofcontroversy What led to the adoption or rejection of Arabic by non-Arabic speakers is obviously a very complex question involvingconsideration of political and social relationships as well as morepurely linguistic ones

10 Introduction

In attempting to chart the progress of arabisation the difficultiesagain arise from the lack of explicit information on the topic in ourliterary sources and from the paucity of written material survivingfrom the Umayyad period For instance although it has beensuggested that Jews of all sorts began to speak Arabic as early as theseventh century the process of change must have been gradual andour earliest texts written in Judaeo-Arabic (that is the form of MiddleArabic used by Jews and written in Hebrew rather than Arabic script)come from the ninth century Our earliest Christian Arabic texts(Arabic written in the Greek script) have been dated to the eighthcentury but there has been some argument about the dating On theother hand from later developments we know that Persian must havesurvived as the spoken language of the majority of Iranians during theUmayyad period but our sources only rarely and ambiguously let ussee that it was so and almost all of our source material on the historyof Persia under the Umayyads is in Arabic

More concrete evidence is provided by the administrative papyriwhich have survived from Egypt In spite of the limited range ofsubjects with which they are concerned they at least enable us to see agradual change from Greek to Arabic in the language of theadministration Furthermore our literary sources report that around700 it was ordered that henceforth the government administrationshould use Arabic rather than the languages which had been usedbefore the Arab conquest and which had continued in use thus farThis could indicate that there was at that time a significant number ofnon-Arabs with sufficient command of Arabic at least for the purposesof administration since the bureaucracy continued to relyoverwhelmingly on non-Arabs The change of language in thebureaucracy did not happen overnight and the sources are notunanimous about when it was ordered but in the development ofarabisation it seems to have been a significant step

Why and how Arabic and with it the other features which seem tomake Islamic culture in the Middle East significantly Arab anddistinguish it from others spread is therefore still debatableEventually as we know the adoption of Arabic for most purposesbecame general in Syria Iraq and Egypt while the Berbers andPersians in spite of their acceptance of Islam and therefore of Arabicas their sacred language continued to use their own languages foreveryday purposes We can assume that arabisation like islamisationprogressed a long way under the Umayyads but precise evidence ishard to come by13

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

Figu

re 2

Th

e lsquoS

outh

erne

rsrsquo

Figu

re 3

Th

e U

may

yads

Figu

re 4

Th

e O

ther

Des

cend

ants

of lsquo

Abd

Man

af

xix

Foreword to the Second Edition

In spite of some significant developments in our understanding ofaspects of the history of the Umayyad caliphate in the fifteen yearsor so since this book was first published readily accessibleintroductions to the period for undergraduates and interested non-specialists remain few This book was generally well received byreviewers and has proved useful for its intended readership Since ithas been out of print for some time and in any case was availableonly as a (rather expensive) hardback it has now been decided toreissue it in paperback The opportunity has been taken to correct afew errors (for pointing out which I am grateful to reviewers) and toadd a postscript surveying some of the important work relevant tothe Umayyad caliphate which has appeared since the first edition in1986 The postscript also refers to a few works which should havebeen included in the original bibliography

For technical reasons it has not been possible to change theoriginal text in three places where some expansion is required

At p 83 with reference to the victory of Charles Martel over theArabs the date of 732 should probably be changed to 733 At thevery least the article of MBaudoit lsquoLocalisation et datation de lapremiegravere victoire remporteacutee par Charles Martel contre lesmusulmansrsquo in Meacutemoires et documents publieacutes par la Societeacute delrsquoEcole de Chartres 12 (1955) 93ndash105 needs to be consulted on thisquestion Secondly at p 52 it is wrong to give the impression thatthe term mahdi is not known in accounts of events before the risingof al-Mukhtar it occurs of course apparently for the first time inreports about the rising of the Tawwabun which took place justbefore that of al-Mukhtar I am especially grateful for MichaelMoronyrsquos review (IJMES 21 (1989)) for drawing attention to thesepoints I remain unconvinced however that the word mahdioriginally lacked any eschatological significance

Finally on p 91 reference is made to the theory that RusafatHisham was not at the Rusafa which was ancient Sergiopolis but wasrather to be identified with Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi near Palmyra I

xx Foreword to the Second Edition

ought to have known but did not that that theory proposed bySauvaget and others has been discredited by Oleg Grabar in hiswork on Qasr al-Hayr City in the Desert Qasr al-Hayr East(Cambridge Ma Harvard University Press 1978) There is now aconvenient discussion of Ruafat Hisham in the second edition ofthe Encyclopaedia of Islam sv lsquoRusafarsquo (by C-PHaase) whichexplains too the problematic tradition that Hisham was there whenhe received the caliphal regalia

GRH March 2000

xxi

Preface and Acknowledgements

Between the general surveys of Islamic Arab or Middle Easternhistory of which there are several of varying quality and detailedmonographs on particular aspects of Umayyad history many ofwhich are not in English there is little that can be recommendedconfidently as an introduction to the importance main events andpersonalities and problems of the Umayyad period The presentwork tries to provide such an introduction

The standard modern account of Umayyad history is JuliusWellhausenrsquos The Arab kingdom and its fall first published inGerman in 1902 and translated into English in 1927 In spite of theinevitable dating of Wellhausenrsquos own political and religiousoutlook and the criticisms of his method of source analysis maderecently by Albrecht Noth his book remains of fundamentalimportance for anyone wanting more than an introductoryknowledge of Umayyad history particularly its political andmilitary events The present work is certainly not intended tosupersede The Arab kingdom

As an introduction however experience has shown thatWellhausenrsquos work is not especially suitable Leaving aside therather idiosyncratic English of its translation it contains more detailthan is readily absorbed its presentation is not as clear as modernreaders expect and its concern with source criticism is notappreciated by those who do not have even a simplified traditionalnarrative against which to set it Attempts to get students to read anddigest Wellhausen usually result in puzzlement and the beginningsof a conviction that Umayyad history is too difficult forundergraduate study

But there is really little else especially in English which treatsthe period as a whole and which can serve as an introduction MAShabanrsquos first volume of his Islamic history A new interpretation itis true is readily available and does provide a lively narrativecoverage of the period Its interpretation however seems to me tobe frequently questionable and on occasion only loosely related to

xxii Preface

the sources and the title itself indicates that it was not conceived asan introduction Similarly Patricia Cronersquos Slaves on horses seemsto me a brilliant analysis of the development of the early Islamicstate and society but not a book for relative beginners since itpresumes rather than provides a fairly detailed acquaintance withthe events of the period There still seems a need therefore for thesort of introduction which I have attempted here

Given then that the present work is not attempting to provide awholly new version of the Umayyad period and that much of itdepends on the findings of the many scholars who have contributedto our understanding of Umayyad history it has seemed unnecessaryto provide references to the original Arabic or other sourcesReaders capable of studying the primary sources themselves willeasily be able to track them down in the secondary works to whichreferences are normally confined in my notes These notes areusually a guide to further reading with readers of English primarilyin mind and are not necessarily the sources of particular statementsbut in a general way they indicate the scholars and works to which Ihave been most indebted Neither the references in my notes nor thebibliography given at the end claim to be complete or extensive butI hope that I have mentioned most works of fundamentalimportance

My special thanks are due to my colleague Dr David Morganwho kindly read the whole typescript and whose feeling for bothhistory and style has undoubtedly saved me from a number ofblunders to my wife Joyce who has similarly read and commentedon the typescript to Sue Harrop the Cartographer at the School ofAfrican and Oriental Studies University of London for help withthe maps and to Peter Sowden who first suggested that I write thebook and then gently prodded until it was done For the remaininglimitations imperfections and errors I am responsible

1

Chapter 1

Introduction The Importance of theUmayyad Period and its Place in IslamicHistory

In the summer or autumn of AD 661 Mulsquoawiya b Abi Sufyangovernor of Syria since 639 and already acclaimed by his Syrianfollowers as caliph (khalifa) religious and political leader of theMuslim state entered the Iraqi garrison town of Kufa In historicaltradition this event is seen as bringing to an end a bitter period ofcivil war among the Arabs achieving the reunification under oneruler of all the territories conquered by them and initiating thecaliphate of the Umayyad dynasty of which Mulsquoawiya was thefounder The dynasty was to rule for 90 years or so until itsoverthrow and replacement by that of the lsquoAbbasids in 749ndash50

The Umayyad dynasty was the first to emerge in the Middle Eastfollowing the conquest of the region by the Arabs a conquest whichhad begun in the 630s and was still continuing for much of theUmayyad period Apart from this fact however what was theimportance of the period of Umayyad rule a period which in itsdetails is often complex and confusing and how has it traditionallybeen regarded by Muslims in relation to the history of Islam Theanswer to the first part of this question is provided by discussion ofthe two concepts of islamisation and arabisation referring to tworelated but essentially distinct historical processes

Islamisation

The term lsquoislamisationrsquo refers both to the extension of the area underMuslim rule and to the acceptance of Islam as their religion bypeoples of different faiths but in the Umayyad period the question isfurther complicated by the fact that Islam itself was developing fromits still to us not completely understood origins into somethingapproaching the religion with which we are familiar One should notimagine that Islam as we know it came fully formed out of Arabiawith the Arabs at the time of their conquest of the Middle East and

2 Introduction

was then accepted or rejected as the case might be by the non-Arabpeoples Although many of the details are obscure and oftencontroversial it seems clear that Islam as we know it is largely a resultof the interaction between the Arabs and the peoples they conqueredduring the first two centuries or so of the Islamic era which began inAD 6221 During the Umayyad period therefore the spread of Islamand the development of Islam were taking place at the same time anda discussion of islamisation has to begin with some consideration ofthe importance of the Umayyad period for the development of Islam

In the first place it was under the Umayyads that there began toemerge that class of religious scholars which eventually became theleading authority within Sunni Islam and which is chiefly responsiblefor shaping the historical and religious tradition which has comedown to us In effect it was this class which led the development ofIslam as we know it and it is important to remember that it emergedlargely in opposition to the Umayyad government The Umayyads hadtheir own conception of Islam itself developing with time anddifferent circumstances but on the whole we see the religion from theviewpoint of the religious scholars

In the emergence of this class the most important region was Iraqand in Iraq Kufa was the leading centre Other regions tended tofollow its lead Building on and reacting against the ideas andpractices available in Kufa and other centres from the second half ofthe Umayyad period onwards groups of Muslim scholars tried todevelop and put on a sound footing what they saw as a true form ofIslam In doing so they frequently accused the Umayyads of impiousor unislamic behaviour

The main concept which these scholars developed and worked withwas that of the Sunna This idea went through several stages butincreasingly came to be identified with the custom and practice of theProphet Muhammad which was to serve as the ideal norm ofbehaviour for his followers and was eventually accepted as the majorsource of Muslim law alongside the Koran Increasingly Muslimideas practices and institutions came to be justified by reference tothe Sunna the words and deeds of Muhammad as transmitted by hiscompanions to later generations The proponents of the Sunna as thusunderstood became increasingly influential and political andreligious developments after the Umayyads had been overthrownresulted in the final crystallisation of the Sunni form of Islam with thereligious scholars the guardians of the Sunna as its leadingauthority2

Introduction 3

Not all Muslims though accepted the primacy or even thelegitimacy of the Sunna and the Umayyad period also saw theemergence of the two other main forms of Islam Shilsquoism andKharijism Tradition dates the fragmentation of a previously unitedIslam into the three main forms which we know today (SunnisShilsquoites and Kharijites) to the time of the first civil war (656ndash61)which ended with the accession of Mulsquoawiya to the caliphateHowever just as the development of Sunni Islam was a slow processwhich only began under the Umayyads so too Shilsquoism andKharijism were not born in one instant They too developed inopposition to the Umayyads in a number of distinct movementswhich each had individual characteristics and again Iraq was ofprime importance

Kufa was the centre of the development of Shilsquoism in theUmayyad period As early as 670 but especially after the revolt ofMukhtar in 685ndash7 Kufa saw a number of movements aimed atoverthrowing the Umayyads and appointing a relative of theProphet usually a descendant of his cousin and son-in-law lsquoAli asimam which title the Shilsquoites tend to prefer to caliph Where theseShilsquoite movements differed from one another was in the particularmember of the Prophetrsquos family whom they favoured and in certainother doctrines they developed what they had in common wasdevotion to the Prophetrsquos family and insistence that membership ofit was a sine qua non for the imam Some of them developed moreextreme beliefs such as acceptance of the imam as an incarnation ofGod and a doctrine of the transmigration of souls It seems that froman early date the conquered non-Arab peoples were attracted to theShilsquoite movements and it may be that some of their doctrines wereinfluenced by the previous beliefs of these non-Arab supportersShilsquoism has a long and complex history which extends well beyondthe Umayyad period but it was then that its basic character wasestablished3

The basic principle of Kharijism was a demand for piety andreligious excellence as the only necessary qualification for the imamand a rejection of the view that he should belong to the family of theProphet as the Shilsquoites demanded or to the tribe of the Prophet(Quraysh) as the Sunnis required Like Shilsquoism Kharijism too wasmanifested in a number of movements some relatively moderate andothers more extreme The extremists tended to insist on the rejectionof all other Muslims regarding them as infidels and therefore liable tobe killed unless they lsquorepentedrsquo and lsquoaccepted Islamrsquo that is unless

4 Introduction

they recognised the Kharijite imam and accepted the Kharijite form ofIslam This fierce rejection of other Muslims however involving theduty of rebellion against what was regarded as an illegitimategovernment became increasingly difficult to maintain except in areasremote from the authority of the government or in times when theauthority of the government for some reason collapsed In Basra thesecond of the Iraqi garrison towns on the other hand a moremoderate form of Kharijism was elaborated and spread to easternArabia and North Africa It is this form of Kharijism which hassurvived into the modern world4

Each of these three main Muslim groups came to hold that Islamshould be open to all peoples and that all should enjoy the same statuswithin it regarding rights and duties The development of this idea tooof Islam as a universal religion can be traced to the Umayyad periodagain in circles opposed to the dynasty

Although it can be debated whether the Koran was addressed to allmen or to the Arabs only the Umayyads and the Arab tribesmen whofirst conquered the Middle East regarded their religion as largelyexclusive of the conquered peoples There was no sustained attempt toforce or even persuade the conquered peoples to accept Islam and itwas assumed that they would remain in their own communities payingtaxes to support the conquerors Although from the start there wassome movement of the conquered into the community of theconquerors the separation of Arabs from non-Arabs was a basicprinciple of the state established as a result of the conquests This isclear both from the procedure which a non-Arab had to adopt in orderto enter Islam and from the fact that there were from time to timeofficial measures designed to prevent such changes of status Islamwas in fact regarded as the property of the conquering aristocracy

In order to attach himself to the religion and society of the Arabs anon-Arab had to become the client (mawla pl mawali) of an Arabtribe In other words in order to become a Muslim something whichit is possible to see as a social or political as much as a religious movehe had to acquire an Arab patron and become a sort of honorarymember of his patronrsquos tribe adding the tribal name to his own newMuslim one even though he and his descendants were in some waystreated as second-class Muslims It is evident therefore thatmembership of Islam was equated with possession of an Arab ethnicidentity5

Nevertheless association with the elite in this way did haveadvantages for some and at various times in different places we hear

Introduction 5

of large numbers of non-Arabs attempting to enter Islam bybecoming mawali but being prevented from doing so or at leastfrom having their changed status recognised by local Umayyadgovernors Probably the best-known example was in Iraq around 700when large numbers of local non-Arab cultivators sought to abandontheir lands and flee into the Arab garrison towns to enter Islam asmawali only to be forced back by the Umayyad governor al-Hajjajwho refused to recognise their claims

In the long run it proved impossible to maintain the isolation ofconquerors and conquered from one another in this way andattempts to do so only served to alienate further those Muslimgroups which had come to see Islam as a religion open to all Theproblem for the Umayyads was that they had come to power asleaders of a conquering Arab elite and to have allowed theconquered peoples to enter Islam en masse would have abolished orat least weakened the distinction between the elite and the massesThe crucial privileges of Islam from this point of view were in thearea of taxation In principle the Arabs were to be the recipients ofthe taxes paid by the non-Arabs If the conquered peoples wereallowed to become Muslims and to change their position from thatof payers to that of recipients of taxes the whole system upon whichthe Umayyads depended would collapse But as the pressure fromthe non-Arabs built up and the universalist notion of Islam becamestronger this problem became increasingly urgent for the dynastyand played a major part in the generally negative attitude of Muslimstowards the Umayyad dynasty6

How far the development of Islam in the Umayyad periodinvolved radical changes in religious practices or beliefs is not easyto say Broadly speaking Muslim tradition assumes that thefundamental institutions of Islammdashsuch things as belief inMuhammad as a prophet acceptance of the Koran in the form inwhich we know it as the word of God and performance of the mainrituals such as the five times daily prayer (salat) and the annualpilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) mdashexisted at the beginning of theUmayyad period and were accepted equally by the Umayyads andtheir opponents The difficulty is to decide how far our Muslimsources which are relatively late in the form in which we have themare reading back later conditions into an earlier period

Sometimes certainly we have hints that the situation was not sostatic or so uniform as the tradition generally implies For examplewe are told that Muslim rebels supporting Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the

6 Introduction

Umayyads in the early years of the eighth century accused the caliphof lsquomurderingrsquo the ritual prayer (salat) and called for vengeance forit although what this meant and what exactly was involved ifanything specific is not spelled out7 Even such tantalisinglyobscure hints are relatively scarce and when we do sometimes havemore substantial information its significance seems often to belimited in one of two ways

First the information may centre on a point which seems to berelatively minor For instance much play is made with the chargethat the Umayyads insisted on delivering the khutba (in the earlyperiod a speech or sermon given usually in the mosque by the caliphor his representative and often dealing with secular as well as morepurely religious affairs) while sitting contrary to what is alleged tohave been the practice established by the Prophet and his immediatesuccessors This is supposed to be a sign of the haughtiness of theUmayyads refusing to stand before their subjects and preferringlike kings to remain seated Even though the detail may have lostsome of its significance because of the later decline in importance ofthe khutba and its associated institutions and ceremonies howeverit is difficult to see arguments about the correct posture for thekhutba as of fundamental importance for the development of IslamIn the way in which the practice is presented by Muslim tradition itdoes not provide grounds for arguing that the outward forms ofIslam underwent great and radical changes under the Umayyads8

Secondly even when the information is apparently more weightythe impression is usually given that the Umayyads were pervertingsome orthodox practice or belief which already existed and waswidely accepted by Muslims There is no suggestion that basicreligious ideas were still in a state of flux and that lsquoorthodoxyrsquo (anambiguous term in Islam since there is no central authority to saywhat is and what is not orthodox) was only slowly developing Weare told for instance that some of the Umayyads tried to makeJerusalem a centre of pilgrimage but the sources imply that this wasagainst the background of an already generally accepted practice ofannual pilgrimage to Mecca which had been established as the culticcentre of Islam from the time of the Prophet The reader should beaware of such preconceptions in the sources and consider thepossibility that there may not have been as yet any firmlyestablished cultic centre in Islam9

Any attempt to argue that there were during the Umayyad periodmore fundamental religious developments than the sources allow

Introduction 7

for therefore involves a certain amount of lsquoreading between thelinesrsquo of Muslim tradition and using whatever evidence is availableoutside the Muslim literary sources A recent discussion using suchmethods has questioned whether the name lsquoIslamrsquo as thedesignation for the religion of the Arabs existed much before theend of the seventh century10 Muslim tradition itself though hasproved remarkably impervious to analysis with such questions inmind and onersquos attitude to the question of the extent of the religiousdevelopment of Islam in the Umayyad period must depend greatlyon onersquos attitude to the value of Muslim sources for the history ofthe period and especially the earlier part

The spread of Islam during this period as already indicated hasto be viewed on two levels that of its territorial expansion and thatof its acceptance by the conquered non-Arab peoples from a varietyof religious backgrounds

Muslim tradition is generally more concerned with the formerprocess When an area is under Muslim rule and subject to Muslimlaw that area is regarded as a part of the Muslim world (dar al-Islam) even though the majority of its population may remain non-Muslim Strictly speaking only Christians Jews and Zoroastrians(these last known as majus) were to be allowed to refuse to acceptIslam and maintain their existence as separate religious communitiesunder Muslim rule but in practice toleration was frequentlyextended more widely

From this point of view then the extensive conquests made underthe Umayyads were an extension of Islam At the beginning of theUmayyad period Arab Muslim rule did not extend much further westthan modern Libya or further east than the eastern regions of Iranand even within these areas many regions must have been held onlyprecariously or merely nominally By the end of the dynasty all ofNorth Africa and southern and central Spain were included in theboundaries of the Muslim world and in the east the extension ofcontrol into central Asia and northern India prepared the way forlater advances in those areas

In the west the garrison town of Qayrawan was founded about 670 inIfriqiya (modern Tunisia) and this served as the base for furtherwestward expansion lsquoUqba b Nafilsquo is subsequently said to havemarched as far as the Atlantic before being killed by the still unsubduedBerbers but it was not until the end of the century that regions ofmodern Algeria and Morocco were substantially pacified and theBerbers brought into Islam but keeping their own language and tribal

8 Introduction

system This development is associated with the governorship ofHassan b Nulsquoman in Ifriqiya (683ndash707) It was Hassanrsquos successorMusa b Nusayr who initiated the invasion of Spain in 711 sending hisBerber client (mawla) Tariq to lead the expedition It is from this Tariqthat Gibraltar takes its name (Jabal Tariq lsquothe hill of Tariqrsquo)

In the east too the years around 700 saw major advances Al-Hajjajgovernor of the eastern part of the Umayyad territories from 694 to 714sent his generals Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the ruler of Kabul Qutayba bMuslim into the territories lying beyond the river Oxus (Jayhun or AmuDarya in Muslim works) and Muhammad b al-Qasim into northernIndia Qutayba is said to have reached the borders of China and sent anembassy demanding submission from the lsquoking of Chinarsquo The extentand effectiveness of these expeditions may sometimes be open toquestion but it is clear that Arab Muslim control was extended andconsolidated in the east under the Umayyads11

The spread of Islam among the non-Arab peoples of the conqueredregions is much less explicitly described in our sources At the outset ofthe Umayyad period it is clear that very few of the conquered peopleshad accepted Islam however we understand this last phrase (islamliterally means lsquosubmissionrsquo) But by the end of the period in spite ofthe initial attempt by the Arabs to keep themselves apart religiously andsocially from their subjects and in spite of the refusal by caliphs andgovernors to allow the non-Arabs to enjoy the advantages of acceptanceof Islam large numbers of the subject peoples had come to identifythemselves as Muslims

The spread of Islam vertically in this way is clearly a complexprocess depending on a variety of factors which were not the same inevery area or among every group of the non-Arab population andresulting in divergent rates of progress Because of the silence orambiguity of the sources we are often reduced to speculation aboutcauses and the spread of the process For example we know very littleabout the islamisation of Syria and there are only one or two referencesin non-Muslim sources which seem to indicate substantial islamisationof the local peoples during the Umayyad period On the other hand theMuslim sources have many references to the difficulties caused toUmayyad governors of Iraq and Khurasan when large numbers of non-Arab non-Muslims attempted to accept Islam by becoming mawali inthe early decades of the eighth century but they still leave manyquestions unanswered or answered at best ambiguously

So far as the evidence enables us to judge and leaving aside theBerbers whose society and way of life made them likely allies for

Introduction 9

the Arabs in the wars of conquest it seems to have been in lowerIraq Khurasan and Syria that Islam made the most significantadvances among the subjects peoples in the Umayyad period Inwestern Persia and Egypt on the other hand it seems thatislamisation in this sense was relatively slow and that it was not untilafter the dynasty had been overthrown that Islam became thereligion of the majority in these areas12

In spite of our uncertainties it seems clear that the Umayyadperiod was crucial for the process of Islamisation in all its forms

Arabisation

By lsquoarabisationrsquo I mean the spread of a culture characterised aboveall by its use of the Arabic language in the area which had becomesubject to Arab Muslim rule Although associated with the processof islamisation arabisation is a distinct movement as can be seenfrom the fact that important communities of Jews and Christianssurvived in the Islamic Middle East into modern times Thesecommunities maintained their religious traditions in spite of the factthat they had renounced the everyday languages which they hadused before the Arab conquest and had adopted Arabic ConverselyPersia presents a striking example of a region which largelyaccepted Islam as its religion but maintained its pre-Islamiclanguage at first in everyday and later in literary use although ofcourse the language underwent significant changes in the earlyIslamic period

Again one has to take into account that Arabic itself changed as itspread and was elaborated in the process of interaction betweenArabs and non-Arabs Put crudely as the non-Arab peoples adoptedArabic so their own linguistic habits and backgrounds affected thelanguage leading to significant changes and to the formation ofdifferent dialects The result of this evolution is usually described asMiddle Arabic as opposed to Classical Arabic which is identifiedwith the language of the Koran and of the poetry which it isclaimed originated in pre-Islamic Arabia The origin and nature ofClassical Arabic itself though is to some extent a topic ofcontroversy What led to the adoption or rejection of Arabic by non-Arabic speakers is obviously a very complex question involvingconsideration of political and social relationships as well as morepurely linguistic ones

10 Introduction

In attempting to chart the progress of arabisation the difficultiesagain arise from the lack of explicit information on the topic in ourliterary sources and from the paucity of written material survivingfrom the Umayyad period For instance although it has beensuggested that Jews of all sorts began to speak Arabic as early as theseventh century the process of change must have been gradual andour earliest texts written in Judaeo-Arabic (that is the form of MiddleArabic used by Jews and written in Hebrew rather than Arabic script)come from the ninth century Our earliest Christian Arabic texts(Arabic written in the Greek script) have been dated to the eighthcentury but there has been some argument about the dating On theother hand from later developments we know that Persian must havesurvived as the spoken language of the majority of Iranians during theUmayyad period but our sources only rarely and ambiguously let ussee that it was so and almost all of our source material on the historyof Persia under the Umayyads is in Arabic

More concrete evidence is provided by the administrative papyriwhich have survived from Egypt In spite of the limited range ofsubjects with which they are concerned they at least enable us to see agradual change from Greek to Arabic in the language of theadministration Furthermore our literary sources report that around700 it was ordered that henceforth the government administrationshould use Arabic rather than the languages which had been usedbefore the Arab conquest and which had continued in use thus farThis could indicate that there was at that time a significant number ofnon-Arabs with sufficient command of Arabic at least for the purposesof administration since the bureaucracy continued to relyoverwhelmingly on non-Arabs The change of language in thebureaucracy did not happen overnight and the sources are notunanimous about when it was ordered but in the development ofarabisation it seems to have been a significant step

Why and how Arabic and with it the other features which seem tomake Islamic culture in the Middle East significantly Arab anddistinguish it from others spread is therefore still debatableEventually as we know the adoption of Arabic for most purposesbecame general in Syria Iraq and Egypt while the Berbers andPersians in spite of their acceptance of Islam and therefore of Arabicas their sacred language continued to use their own languages foreveryday purposes We can assume that arabisation like islamisationprogressed a long way under the Umayyads but precise evidence ishard to come by13

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

Figu

re 3

Th

e U

may

yads

Figu

re 4

Th

e O

ther

Des

cend

ants

of lsquo

Abd

Man

af

xix

Foreword to the Second Edition

In spite of some significant developments in our understanding ofaspects of the history of the Umayyad caliphate in the fifteen yearsor so since this book was first published readily accessibleintroductions to the period for undergraduates and interested non-specialists remain few This book was generally well received byreviewers and has proved useful for its intended readership Since ithas been out of print for some time and in any case was availableonly as a (rather expensive) hardback it has now been decided toreissue it in paperback The opportunity has been taken to correct afew errors (for pointing out which I am grateful to reviewers) and toadd a postscript surveying some of the important work relevant tothe Umayyad caliphate which has appeared since the first edition in1986 The postscript also refers to a few works which should havebeen included in the original bibliography

For technical reasons it has not been possible to change theoriginal text in three places where some expansion is required

At p 83 with reference to the victory of Charles Martel over theArabs the date of 732 should probably be changed to 733 At thevery least the article of MBaudoit lsquoLocalisation et datation de lapremiegravere victoire remporteacutee par Charles Martel contre lesmusulmansrsquo in Meacutemoires et documents publieacutes par la Societeacute delrsquoEcole de Chartres 12 (1955) 93ndash105 needs to be consulted on thisquestion Secondly at p 52 it is wrong to give the impression thatthe term mahdi is not known in accounts of events before the risingof al-Mukhtar it occurs of course apparently for the first time inreports about the rising of the Tawwabun which took place justbefore that of al-Mukhtar I am especially grateful for MichaelMoronyrsquos review (IJMES 21 (1989)) for drawing attention to thesepoints I remain unconvinced however that the word mahdioriginally lacked any eschatological significance

Finally on p 91 reference is made to the theory that RusafatHisham was not at the Rusafa which was ancient Sergiopolis but wasrather to be identified with Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi near Palmyra I

xx Foreword to the Second Edition

ought to have known but did not that that theory proposed bySauvaget and others has been discredited by Oleg Grabar in hiswork on Qasr al-Hayr City in the Desert Qasr al-Hayr East(Cambridge Ma Harvard University Press 1978) There is now aconvenient discussion of Ruafat Hisham in the second edition ofthe Encyclopaedia of Islam sv lsquoRusafarsquo (by C-PHaase) whichexplains too the problematic tradition that Hisham was there whenhe received the caliphal regalia

GRH March 2000

xxi

Preface and Acknowledgements

Between the general surveys of Islamic Arab or Middle Easternhistory of which there are several of varying quality and detailedmonographs on particular aspects of Umayyad history many ofwhich are not in English there is little that can be recommendedconfidently as an introduction to the importance main events andpersonalities and problems of the Umayyad period The presentwork tries to provide such an introduction

The standard modern account of Umayyad history is JuliusWellhausenrsquos The Arab kingdom and its fall first published inGerman in 1902 and translated into English in 1927 In spite of theinevitable dating of Wellhausenrsquos own political and religiousoutlook and the criticisms of his method of source analysis maderecently by Albrecht Noth his book remains of fundamentalimportance for anyone wanting more than an introductoryknowledge of Umayyad history particularly its political andmilitary events The present work is certainly not intended tosupersede The Arab kingdom

As an introduction however experience has shown thatWellhausenrsquos work is not especially suitable Leaving aside therather idiosyncratic English of its translation it contains more detailthan is readily absorbed its presentation is not as clear as modernreaders expect and its concern with source criticism is notappreciated by those who do not have even a simplified traditionalnarrative against which to set it Attempts to get students to read anddigest Wellhausen usually result in puzzlement and the beginningsof a conviction that Umayyad history is too difficult forundergraduate study

But there is really little else especially in English which treatsthe period as a whole and which can serve as an introduction MAShabanrsquos first volume of his Islamic history A new interpretation itis true is readily available and does provide a lively narrativecoverage of the period Its interpretation however seems to me tobe frequently questionable and on occasion only loosely related to

xxii Preface

the sources and the title itself indicates that it was not conceived asan introduction Similarly Patricia Cronersquos Slaves on horses seemsto me a brilliant analysis of the development of the early Islamicstate and society but not a book for relative beginners since itpresumes rather than provides a fairly detailed acquaintance withthe events of the period There still seems a need therefore for thesort of introduction which I have attempted here

Given then that the present work is not attempting to provide awholly new version of the Umayyad period and that much of itdepends on the findings of the many scholars who have contributedto our understanding of Umayyad history it has seemed unnecessaryto provide references to the original Arabic or other sourcesReaders capable of studying the primary sources themselves willeasily be able to track them down in the secondary works to whichreferences are normally confined in my notes These notes areusually a guide to further reading with readers of English primarilyin mind and are not necessarily the sources of particular statementsbut in a general way they indicate the scholars and works to which Ihave been most indebted Neither the references in my notes nor thebibliography given at the end claim to be complete or extensive butI hope that I have mentioned most works of fundamentalimportance

My special thanks are due to my colleague Dr David Morganwho kindly read the whole typescript and whose feeling for bothhistory and style has undoubtedly saved me from a number ofblunders to my wife Joyce who has similarly read and commentedon the typescript to Sue Harrop the Cartographer at the School ofAfrican and Oriental Studies University of London for help withthe maps and to Peter Sowden who first suggested that I write thebook and then gently prodded until it was done For the remaininglimitations imperfections and errors I am responsible

1

Chapter 1

Introduction The Importance of theUmayyad Period and its Place in IslamicHistory

In the summer or autumn of AD 661 Mulsquoawiya b Abi Sufyangovernor of Syria since 639 and already acclaimed by his Syrianfollowers as caliph (khalifa) religious and political leader of theMuslim state entered the Iraqi garrison town of Kufa In historicaltradition this event is seen as bringing to an end a bitter period ofcivil war among the Arabs achieving the reunification under oneruler of all the territories conquered by them and initiating thecaliphate of the Umayyad dynasty of which Mulsquoawiya was thefounder The dynasty was to rule for 90 years or so until itsoverthrow and replacement by that of the lsquoAbbasids in 749ndash50

The Umayyad dynasty was the first to emerge in the Middle Eastfollowing the conquest of the region by the Arabs a conquest whichhad begun in the 630s and was still continuing for much of theUmayyad period Apart from this fact however what was theimportance of the period of Umayyad rule a period which in itsdetails is often complex and confusing and how has it traditionallybeen regarded by Muslims in relation to the history of Islam Theanswer to the first part of this question is provided by discussion ofthe two concepts of islamisation and arabisation referring to tworelated but essentially distinct historical processes

Islamisation

The term lsquoislamisationrsquo refers both to the extension of the area underMuslim rule and to the acceptance of Islam as their religion bypeoples of different faiths but in the Umayyad period the question isfurther complicated by the fact that Islam itself was developing fromits still to us not completely understood origins into somethingapproaching the religion with which we are familiar One should notimagine that Islam as we know it came fully formed out of Arabiawith the Arabs at the time of their conquest of the Middle East and

2 Introduction

was then accepted or rejected as the case might be by the non-Arabpeoples Although many of the details are obscure and oftencontroversial it seems clear that Islam as we know it is largely a resultof the interaction between the Arabs and the peoples they conqueredduring the first two centuries or so of the Islamic era which began inAD 6221 During the Umayyad period therefore the spread of Islamand the development of Islam were taking place at the same time anda discussion of islamisation has to begin with some consideration ofthe importance of the Umayyad period for the development of Islam

In the first place it was under the Umayyads that there began toemerge that class of religious scholars which eventually became theleading authority within Sunni Islam and which is chiefly responsiblefor shaping the historical and religious tradition which has comedown to us In effect it was this class which led the development ofIslam as we know it and it is important to remember that it emergedlargely in opposition to the Umayyad government The Umayyads hadtheir own conception of Islam itself developing with time anddifferent circumstances but on the whole we see the religion from theviewpoint of the religious scholars

In the emergence of this class the most important region was Iraqand in Iraq Kufa was the leading centre Other regions tended tofollow its lead Building on and reacting against the ideas andpractices available in Kufa and other centres from the second half ofthe Umayyad period onwards groups of Muslim scholars tried todevelop and put on a sound footing what they saw as a true form ofIslam In doing so they frequently accused the Umayyads of impiousor unislamic behaviour

The main concept which these scholars developed and worked withwas that of the Sunna This idea went through several stages butincreasingly came to be identified with the custom and practice of theProphet Muhammad which was to serve as the ideal norm ofbehaviour for his followers and was eventually accepted as the majorsource of Muslim law alongside the Koran Increasingly Muslimideas practices and institutions came to be justified by reference tothe Sunna the words and deeds of Muhammad as transmitted by hiscompanions to later generations The proponents of the Sunna as thusunderstood became increasingly influential and political andreligious developments after the Umayyads had been overthrownresulted in the final crystallisation of the Sunni form of Islam with thereligious scholars the guardians of the Sunna as its leadingauthority2

Introduction 3

Not all Muslims though accepted the primacy or even thelegitimacy of the Sunna and the Umayyad period also saw theemergence of the two other main forms of Islam Shilsquoism andKharijism Tradition dates the fragmentation of a previously unitedIslam into the three main forms which we know today (SunnisShilsquoites and Kharijites) to the time of the first civil war (656ndash61)which ended with the accession of Mulsquoawiya to the caliphateHowever just as the development of Sunni Islam was a slow processwhich only began under the Umayyads so too Shilsquoism andKharijism were not born in one instant They too developed inopposition to the Umayyads in a number of distinct movementswhich each had individual characteristics and again Iraq was ofprime importance

Kufa was the centre of the development of Shilsquoism in theUmayyad period As early as 670 but especially after the revolt ofMukhtar in 685ndash7 Kufa saw a number of movements aimed atoverthrowing the Umayyads and appointing a relative of theProphet usually a descendant of his cousin and son-in-law lsquoAli asimam which title the Shilsquoites tend to prefer to caliph Where theseShilsquoite movements differed from one another was in the particularmember of the Prophetrsquos family whom they favoured and in certainother doctrines they developed what they had in common wasdevotion to the Prophetrsquos family and insistence that membership ofit was a sine qua non for the imam Some of them developed moreextreme beliefs such as acceptance of the imam as an incarnation ofGod and a doctrine of the transmigration of souls It seems that froman early date the conquered non-Arab peoples were attracted to theShilsquoite movements and it may be that some of their doctrines wereinfluenced by the previous beliefs of these non-Arab supportersShilsquoism has a long and complex history which extends well beyondthe Umayyad period but it was then that its basic character wasestablished3

The basic principle of Kharijism was a demand for piety andreligious excellence as the only necessary qualification for the imamand a rejection of the view that he should belong to the family of theProphet as the Shilsquoites demanded or to the tribe of the Prophet(Quraysh) as the Sunnis required Like Shilsquoism Kharijism too wasmanifested in a number of movements some relatively moderate andothers more extreme The extremists tended to insist on the rejectionof all other Muslims regarding them as infidels and therefore liable tobe killed unless they lsquorepentedrsquo and lsquoaccepted Islamrsquo that is unless

4 Introduction

they recognised the Kharijite imam and accepted the Kharijite form ofIslam This fierce rejection of other Muslims however involving theduty of rebellion against what was regarded as an illegitimategovernment became increasingly difficult to maintain except in areasremote from the authority of the government or in times when theauthority of the government for some reason collapsed In Basra thesecond of the Iraqi garrison towns on the other hand a moremoderate form of Kharijism was elaborated and spread to easternArabia and North Africa It is this form of Kharijism which hassurvived into the modern world4

Each of these three main Muslim groups came to hold that Islamshould be open to all peoples and that all should enjoy the same statuswithin it regarding rights and duties The development of this idea tooof Islam as a universal religion can be traced to the Umayyad periodagain in circles opposed to the dynasty

Although it can be debated whether the Koran was addressed to allmen or to the Arabs only the Umayyads and the Arab tribesmen whofirst conquered the Middle East regarded their religion as largelyexclusive of the conquered peoples There was no sustained attempt toforce or even persuade the conquered peoples to accept Islam and itwas assumed that they would remain in their own communities payingtaxes to support the conquerors Although from the start there wassome movement of the conquered into the community of theconquerors the separation of Arabs from non-Arabs was a basicprinciple of the state established as a result of the conquests This isclear both from the procedure which a non-Arab had to adopt in orderto enter Islam and from the fact that there were from time to timeofficial measures designed to prevent such changes of status Islamwas in fact regarded as the property of the conquering aristocracy

In order to attach himself to the religion and society of the Arabs anon-Arab had to become the client (mawla pl mawali) of an Arabtribe In other words in order to become a Muslim something whichit is possible to see as a social or political as much as a religious movehe had to acquire an Arab patron and become a sort of honorarymember of his patronrsquos tribe adding the tribal name to his own newMuslim one even though he and his descendants were in some waystreated as second-class Muslims It is evident therefore thatmembership of Islam was equated with possession of an Arab ethnicidentity5

Nevertheless association with the elite in this way did haveadvantages for some and at various times in different places we hear

Introduction 5

of large numbers of non-Arabs attempting to enter Islam bybecoming mawali but being prevented from doing so or at leastfrom having their changed status recognised by local Umayyadgovernors Probably the best-known example was in Iraq around 700when large numbers of local non-Arab cultivators sought to abandontheir lands and flee into the Arab garrison towns to enter Islam asmawali only to be forced back by the Umayyad governor al-Hajjajwho refused to recognise their claims

In the long run it proved impossible to maintain the isolation ofconquerors and conquered from one another in this way andattempts to do so only served to alienate further those Muslimgroups which had come to see Islam as a religion open to all Theproblem for the Umayyads was that they had come to power asleaders of a conquering Arab elite and to have allowed theconquered peoples to enter Islam en masse would have abolished orat least weakened the distinction between the elite and the massesThe crucial privileges of Islam from this point of view were in thearea of taxation In principle the Arabs were to be the recipients ofthe taxes paid by the non-Arabs If the conquered peoples wereallowed to become Muslims and to change their position from thatof payers to that of recipients of taxes the whole system upon whichthe Umayyads depended would collapse But as the pressure fromthe non-Arabs built up and the universalist notion of Islam becamestronger this problem became increasingly urgent for the dynastyand played a major part in the generally negative attitude of Muslimstowards the Umayyad dynasty6

How far the development of Islam in the Umayyad periodinvolved radical changes in religious practices or beliefs is not easyto say Broadly speaking Muslim tradition assumes that thefundamental institutions of Islammdashsuch things as belief inMuhammad as a prophet acceptance of the Koran in the form inwhich we know it as the word of God and performance of the mainrituals such as the five times daily prayer (salat) and the annualpilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) mdashexisted at the beginning of theUmayyad period and were accepted equally by the Umayyads andtheir opponents The difficulty is to decide how far our Muslimsources which are relatively late in the form in which we have themare reading back later conditions into an earlier period

Sometimes certainly we have hints that the situation was not sostatic or so uniform as the tradition generally implies For examplewe are told that Muslim rebels supporting Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the

6 Introduction

Umayyads in the early years of the eighth century accused the caliphof lsquomurderingrsquo the ritual prayer (salat) and called for vengeance forit although what this meant and what exactly was involved ifanything specific is not spelled out7 Even such tantalisinglyobscure hints are relatively scarce and when we do sometimes havemore substantial information its significance seems often to belimited in one of two ways

First the information may centre on a point which seems to berelatively minor For instance much play is made with the chargethat the Umayyads insisted on delivering the khutba (in the earlyperiod a speech or sermon given usually in the mosque by the caliphor his representative and often dealing with secular as well as morepurely religious affairs) while sitting contrary to what is alleged tohave been the practice established by the Prophet and his immediatesuccessors This is supposed to be a sign of the haughtiness of theUmayyads refusing to stand before their subjects and preferringlike kings to remain seated Even though the detail may have lostsome of its significance because of the later decline in importance ofthe khutba and its associated institutions and ceremonies howeverit is difficult to see arguments about the correct posture for thekhutba as of fundamental importance for the development of IslamIn the way in which the practice is presented by Muslim tradition itdoes not provide grounds for arguing that the outward forms ofIslam underwent great and radical changes under the Umayyads8

Secondly even when the information is apparently more weightythe impression is usually given that the Umayyads were pervertingsome orthodox practice or belief which already existed and waswidely accepted by Muslims There is no suggestion that basicreligious ideas were still in a state of flux and that lsquoorthodoxyrsquo (anambiguous term in Islam since there is no central authority to saywhat is and what is not orthodox) was only slowly developing Weare told for instance that some of the Umayyads tried to makeJerusalem a centre of pilgrimage but the sources imply that this wasagainst the background of an already generally accepted practice ofannual pilgrimage to Mecca which had been established as the culticcentre of Islam from the time of the Prophet The reader should beaware of such preconceptions in the sources and consider thepossibility that there may not have been as yet any firmlyestablished cultic centre in Islam9

Any attempt to argue that there were during the Umayyad periodmore fundamental religious developments than the sources allow

Introduction 7

for therefore involves a certain amount of lsquoreading between thelinesrsquo of Muslim tradition and using whatever evidence is availableoutside the Muslim literary sources A recent discussion using suchmethods has questioned whether the name lsquoIslamrsquo as thedesignation for the religion of the Arabs existed much before theend of the seventh century10 Muslim tradition itself though hasproved remarkably impervious to analysis with such questions inmind and onersquos attitude to the question of the extent of the religiousdevelopment of Islam in the Umayyad period must depend greatlyon onersquos attitude to the value of Muslim sources for the history ofthe period and especially the earlier part

The spread of Islam during this period as already indicated hasto be viewed on two levels that of its territorial expansion and thatof its acceptance by the conquered non-Arab peoples from a varietyof religious backgrounds

Muslim tradition is generally more concerned with the formerprocess When an area is under Muslim rule and subject to Muslimlaw that area is regarded as a part of the Muslim world (dar al-Islam) even though the majority of its population may remain non-Muslim Strictly speaking only Christians Jews and Zoroastrians(these last known as majus) were to be allowed to refuse to acceptIslam and maintain their existence as separate religious communitiesunder Muslim rule but in practice toleration was frequentlyextended more widely

From this point of view then the extensive conquests made underthe Umayyads were an extension of Islam At the beginning of theUmayyad period Arab Muslim rule did not extend much further westthan modern Libya or further east than the eastern regions of Iranand even within these areas many regions must have been held onlyprecariously or merely nominally By the end of the dynasty all ofNorth Africa and southern and central Spain were included in theboundaries of the Muslim world and in the east the extension ofcontrol into central Asia and northern India prepared the way forlater advances in those areas

In the west the garrison town of Qayrawan was founded about 670 inIfriqiya (modern Tunisia) and this served as the base for furtherwestward expansion lsquoUqba b Nafilsquo is subsequently said to havemarched as far as the Atlantic before being killed by the still unsubduedBerbers but it was not until the end of the century that regions ofmodern Algeria and Morocco were substantially pacified and theBerbers brought into Islam but keeping their own language and tribal

8 Introduction

system This development is associated with the governorship ofHassan b Nulsquoman in Ifriqiya (683ndash707) It was Hassanrsquos successorMusa b Nusayr who initiated the invasion of Spain in 711 sending hisBerber client (mawla) Tariq to lead the expedition It is from this Tariqthat Gibraltar takes its name (Jabal Tariq lsquothe hill of Tariqrsquo)

In the east too the years around 700 saw major advances Al-Hajjajgovernor of the eastern part of the Umayyad territories from 694 to 714sent his generals Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the ruler of Kabul Qutayba bMuslim into the territories lying beyond the river Oxus (Jayhun or AmuDarya in Muslim works) and Muhammad b al-Qasim into northernIndia Qutayba is said to have reached the borders of China and sent anembassy demanding submission from the lsquoking of Chinarsquo The extentand effectiveness of these expeditions may sometimes be open toquestion but it is clear that Arab Muslim control was extended andconsolidated in the east under the Umayyads11

The spread of Islam among the non-Arab peoples of the conqueredregions is much less explicitly described in our sources At the outset ofthe Umayyad period it is clear that very few of the conquered peopleshad accepted Islam however we understand this last phrase (islamliterally means lsquosubmissionrsquo) But by the end of the period in spite ofthe initial attempt by the Arabs to keep themselves apart religiously andsocially from their subjects and in spite of the refusal by caliphs andgovernors to allow the non-Arabs to enjoy the advantages of acceptanceof Islam large numbers of the subject peoples had come to identifythemselves as Muslims

The spread of Islam vertically in this way is clearly a complexprocess depending on a variety of factors which were not the same inevery area or among every group of the non-Arab population andresulting in divergent rates of progress Because of the silence orambiguity of the sources we are often reduced to speculation aboutcauses and the spread of the process For example we know very littleabout the islamisation of Syria and there are only one or two referencesin non-Muslim sources which seem to indicate substantial islamisationof the local peoples during the Umayyad period On the other hand theMuslim sources have many references to the difficulties caused toUmayyad governors of Iraq and Khurasan when large numbers of non-Arab non-Muslims attempted to accept Islam by becoming mawali inthe early decades of the eighth century but they still leave manyquestions unanswered or answered at best ambiguously

So far as the evidence enables us to judge and leaving aside theBerbers whose society and way of life made them likely allies for

Introduction 9

the Arabs in the wars of conquest it seems to have been in lowerIraq Khurasan and Syria that Islam made the most significantadvances among the subjects peoples in the Umayyad period Inwestern Persia and Egypt on the other hand it seems thatislamisation in this sense was relatively slow and that it was not untilafter the dynasty had been overthrown that Islam became thereligion of the majority in these areas12

In spite of our uncertainties it seems clear that the Umayyadperiod was crucial for the process of Islamisation in all its forms

Arabisation

By lsquoarabisationrsquo I mean the spread of a culture characterised aboveall by its use of the Arabic language in the area which had becomesubject to Arab Muslim rule Although associated with the processof islamisation arabisation is a distinct movement as can be seenfrom the fact that important communities of Jews and Christianssurvived in the Islamic Middle East into modern times Thesecommunities maintained their religious traditions in spite of the factthat they had renounced the everyday languages which they hadused before the Arab conquest and had adopted Arabic ConverselyPersia presents a striking example of a region which largelyaccepted Islam as its religion but maintained its pre-Islamiclanguage at first in everyday and later in literary use although ofcourse the language underwent significant changes in the earlyIslamic period

Again one has to take into account that Arabic itself changed as itspread and was elaborated in the process of interaction betweenArabs and non-Arabs Put crudely as the non-Arab peoples adoptedArabic so their own linguistic habits and backgrounds affected thelanguage leading to significant changes and to the formation ofdifferent dialects The result of this evolution is usually described asMiddle Arabic as opposed to Classical Arabic which is identifiedwith the language of the Koran and of the poetry which it isclaimed originated in pre-Islamic Arabia The origin and nature ofClassical Arabic itself though is to some extent a topic ofcontroversy What led to the adoption or rejection of Arabic by non-Arabic speakers is obviously a very complex question involvingconsideration of political and social relationships as well as morepurely linguistic ones

10 Introduction

In attempting to chart the progress of arabisation the difficultiesagain arise from the lack of explicit information on the topic in ourliterary sources and from the paucity of written material survivingfrom the Umayyad period For instance although it has beensuggested that Jews of all sorts began to speak Arabic as early as theseventh century the process of change must have been gradual andour earliest texts written in Judaeo-Arabic (that is the form of MiddleArabic used by Jews and written in Hebrew rather than Arabic script)come from the ninth century Our earliest Christian Arabic texts(Arabic written in the Greek script) have been dated to the eighthcentury but there has been some argument about the dating On theother hand from later developments we know that Persian must havesurvived as the spoken language of the majority of Iranians during theUmayyad period but our sources only rarely and ambiguously let ussee that it was so and almost all of our source material on the historyof Persia under the Umayyads is in Arabic

More concrete evidence is provided by the administrative papyriwhich have survived from Egypt In spite of the limited range ofsubjects with which they are concerned they at least enable us to see agradual change from Greek to Arabic in the language of theadministration Furthermore our literary sources report that around700 it was ordered that henceforth the government administrationshould use Arabic rather than the languages which had been usedbefore the Arab conquest and which had continued in use thus farThis could indicate that there was at that time a significant number ofnon-Arabs with sufficient command of Arabic at least for the purposesof administration since the bureaucracy continued to relyoverwhelmingly on non-Arabs The change of language in thebureaucracy did not happen overnight and the sources are notunanimous about when it was ordered but in the development ofarabisation it seems to have been a significant step

Why and how Arabic and with it the other features which seem tomake Islamic culture in the Middle East significantly Arab anddistinguish it from others spread is therefore still debatableEventually as we know the adoption of Arabic for most purposesbecame general in Syria Iraq and Egypt while the Berbers andPersians in spite of their acceptance of Islam and therefore of Arabicas their sacred language continued to use their own languages foreveryday purposes We can assume that arabisation like islamisationprogressed a long way under the Umayyads but precise evidence ishard to come by13

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

Figu

re 4

Th

e O

ther

Des

cend

ants

of lsquo

Abd

Man

af

xix

Foreword to the Second Edition

In spite of some significant developments in our understanding ofaspects of the history of the Umayyad caliphate in the fifteen yearsor so since this book was first published readily accessibleintroductions to the period for undergraduates and interested non-specialists remain few This book was generally well received byreviewers and has proved useful for its intended readership Since ithas been out of print for some time and in any case was availableonly as a (rather expensive) hardback it has now been decided toreissue it in paperback The opportunity has been taken to correct afew errors (for pointing out which I am grateful to reviewers) and toadd a postscript surveying some of the important work relevant tothe Umayyad caliphate which has appeared since the first edition in1986 The postscript also refers to a few works which should havebeen included in the original bibliography

For technical reasons it has not been possible to change theoriginal text in three places where some expansion is required

At p 83 with reference to the victory of Charles Martel over theArabs the date of 732 should probably be changed to 733 At thevery least the article of MBaudoit lsquoLocalisation et datation de lapremiegravere victoire remporteacutee par Charles Martel contre lesmusulmansrsquo in Meacutemoires et documents publieacutes par la Societeacute delrsquoEcole de Chartres 12 (1955) 93ndash105 needs to be consulted on thisquestion Secondly at p 52 it is wrong to give the impression thatthe term mahdi is not known in accounts of events before the risingof al-Mukhtar it occurs of course apparently for the first time inreports about the rising of the Tawwabun which took place justbefore that of al-Mukhtar I am especially grateful for MichaelMoronyrsquos review (IJMES 21 (1989)) for drawing attention to thesepoints I remain unconvinced however that the word mahdioriginally lacked any eschatological significance

Finally on p 91 reference is made to the theory that RusafatHisham was not at the Rusafa which was ancient Sergiopolis but wasrather to be identified with Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi near Palmyra I

xx Foreword to the Second Edition

ought to have known but did not that that theory proposed bySauvaget and others has been discredited by Oleg Grabar in hiswork on Qasr al-Hayr City in the Desert Qasr al-Hayr East(Cambridge Ma Harvard University Press 1978) There is now aconvenient discussion of Ruafat Hisham in the second edition ofthe Encyclopaedia of Islam sv lsquoRusafarsquo (by C-PHaase) whichexplains too the problematic tradition that Hisham was there whenhe received the caliphal regalia

GRH March 2000

xxi

Preface and Acknowledgements

Between the general surveys of Islamic Arab or Middle Easternhistory of which there are several of varying quality and detailedmonographs on particular aspects of Umayyad history many ofwhich are not in English there is little that can be recommendedconfidently as an introduction to the importance main events andpersonalities and problems of the Umayyad period The presentwork tries to provide such an introduction

The standard modern account of Umayyad history is JuliusWellhausenrsquos The Arab kingdom and its fall first published inGerman in 1902 and translated into English in 1927 In spite of theinevitable dating of Wellhausenrsquos own political and religiousoutlook and the criticisms of his method of source analysis maderecently by Albrecht Noth his book remains of fundamentalimportance for anyone wanting more than an introductoryknowledge of Umayyad history particularly its political andmilitary events The present work is certainly not intended tosupersede The Arab kingdom

As an introduction however experience has shown thatWellhausenrsquos work is not especially suitable Leaving aside therather idiosyncratic English of its translation it contains more detailthan is readily absorbed its presentation is not as clear as modernreaders expect and its concern with source criticism is notappreciated by those who do not have even a simplified traditionalnarrative against which to set it Attempts to get students to read anddigest Wellhausen usually result in puzzlement and the beginningsof a conviction that Umayyad history is too difficult forundergraduate study

But there is really little else especially in English which treatsthe period as a whole and which can serve as an introduction MAShabanrsquos first volume of his Islamic history A new interpretation itis true is readily available and does provide a lively narrativecoverage of the period Its interpretation however seems to me tobe frequently questionable and on occasion only loosely related to

xxii Preface

the sources and the title itself indicates that it was not conceived asan introduction Similarly Patricia Cronersquos Slaves on horses seemsto me a brilliant analysis of the development of the early Islamicstate and society but not a book for relative beginners since itpresumes rather than provides a fairly detailed acquaintance withthe events of the period There still seems a need therefore for thesort of introduction which I have attempted here

Given then that the present work is not attempting to provide awholly new version of the Umayyad period and that much of itdepends on the findings of the many scholars who have contributedto our understanding of Umayyad history it has seemed unnecessaryto provide references to the original Arabic or other sourcesReaders capable of studying the primary sources themselves willeasily be able to track them down in the secondary works to whichreferences are normally confined in my notes These notes areusually a guide to further reading with readers of English primarilyin mind and are not necessarily the sources of particular statementsbut in a general way they indicate the scholars and works to which Ihave been most indebted Neither the references in my notes nor thebibliography given at the end claim to be complete or extensive butI hope that I have mentioned most works of fundamentalimportance

My special thanks are due to my colleague Dr David Morganwho kindly read the whole typescript and whose feeling for bothhistory and style has undoubtedly saved me from a number ofblunders to my wife Joyce who has similarly read and commentedon the typescript to Sue Harrop the Cartographer at the School ofAfrican and Oriental Studies University of London for help withthe maps and to Peter Sowden who first suggested that I write thebook and then gently prodded until it was done For the remaininglimitations imperfections and errors I am responsible

1

Chapter 1

Introduction The Importance of theUmayyad Period and its Place in IslamicHistory

In the summer or autumn of AD 661 Mulsquoawiya b Abi Sufyangovernor of Syria since 639 and already acclaimed by his Syrianfollowers as caliph (khalifa) religious and political leader of theMuslim state entered the Iraqi garrison town of Kufa In historicaltradition this event is seen as bringing to an end a bitter period ofcivil war among the Arabs achieving the reunification under oneruler of all the territories conquered by them and initiating thecaliphate of the Umayyad dynasty of which Mulsquoawiya was thefounder The dynasty was to rule for 90 years or so until itsoverthrow and replacement by that of the lsquoAbbasids in 749ndash50

The Umayyad dynasty was the first to emerge in the Middle Eastfollowing the conquest of the region by the Arabs a conquest whichhad begun in the 630s and was still continuing for much of theUmayyad period Apart from this fact however what was theimportance of the period of Umayyad rule a period which in itsdetails is often complex and confusing and how has it traditionallybeen regarded by Muslims in relation to the history of Islam Theanswer to the first part of this question is provided by discussion ofthe two concepts of islamisation and arabisation referring to tworelated but essentially distinct historical processes

Islamisation

The term lsquoislamisationrsquo refers both to the extension of the area underMuslim rule and to the acceptance of Islam as their religion bypeoples of different faiths but in the Umayyad period the question isfurther complicated by the fact that Islam itself was developing fromits still to us not completely understood origins into somethingapproaching the religion with which we are familiar One should notimagine that Islam as we know it came fully formed out of Arabiawith the Arabs at the time of their conquest of the Middle East and

2 Introduction

was then accepted or rejected as the case might be by the non-Arabpeoples Although many of the details are obscure and oftencontroversial it seems clear that Islam as we know it is largely a resultof the interaction between the Arabs and the peoples they conqueredduring the first two centuries or so of the Islamic era which began inAD 6221 During the Umayyad period therefore the spread of Islamand the development of Islam were taking place at the same time anda discussion of islamisation has to begin with some consideration ofthe importance of the Umayyad period for the development of Islam

In the first place it was under the Umayyads that there began toemerge that class of religious scholars which eventually became theleading authority within Sunni Islam and which is chiefly responsiblefor shaping the historical and religious tradition which has comedown to us In effect it was this class which led the development ofIslam as we know it and it is important to remember that it emergedlargely in opposition to the Umayyad government The Umayyads hadtheir own conception of Islam itself developing with time anddifferent circumstances but on the whole we see the religion from theviewpoint of the religious scholars

In the emergence of this class the most important region was Iraqand in Iraq Kufa was the leading centre Other regions tended tofollow its lead Building on and reacting against the ideas andpractices available in Kufa and other centres from the second half ofthe Umayyad period onwards groups of Muslim scholars tried todevelop and put on a sound footing what they saw as a true form ofIslam In doing so they frequently accused the Umayyads of impiousor unislamic behaviour

The main concept which these scholars developed and worked withwas that of the Sunna This idea went through several stages butincreasingly came to be identified with the custom and practice of theProphet Muhammad which was to serve as the ideal norm ofbehaviour for his followers and was eventually accepted as the majorsource of Muslim law alongside the Koran Increasingly Muslimideas practices and institutions came to be justified by reference tothe Sunna the words and deeds of Muhammad as transmitted by hiscompanions to later generations The proponents of the Sunna as thusunderstood became increasingly influential and political andreligious developments after the Umayyads had been overthrownresulted in the final crystallisation of the Sunni form of Islam with thereligious scholars the guardians of the Sunna as its leadingauthority2

Introduction 3

Not all Muslims though accepted the primacy or even thelegitimacy of the Sunna and the Umayyad period also saw theemergence of the two other main forms of Islam Shilsquoism andKharijism Tradition dates the fragmentation of a previously unitedIslam into the three main forms which we know today (SunnisShilsquoites and Kharijites) to the time of the first civil war (656ndash61)which ended with the accession of Mulsquoawiya to the caliphateHowever just as the development of Sunni Islam was a slow processwhich only began under the Umayyads so too Shilsquoism andKharijism were not born in one instant They too developed inopposition to the Umayyads in a number of distinct movementswhich each had individual characteristics and again Iraq was ofprime importance

Kufa was the centre of the development of Shilsquoism in theUmayyad period As early as 670 but especially after the revolt ofMukhtar in 685ndash7 Kufa saw a number of movements aimed atoverthrowing the Umayyads and appointing a relative of theProphet usually a descendant of his cousin and son-in-law lsquoAli asimam which title the Shilsquoites tend to prefer to caliph Where theseShilsquoite movements differed from one another was in the particularmember of the Prophetrsquos family whom they favoured and in certainother doctrines they developed what they had in common wasdevotion to the Prophetrsquos family and insistence that membership ofit was a sine qua non for the imam Some of them developed moreextreme beliefs such as acceptance of the imam as an incarnation ofGod and a doctrine of the transmigration of souls It seems that froman early date the conquered non-Arab peoples were attracted to theShilsquoite movements and it may be that some of their doctrines wereinfluenced by the previous beliefs of these non-Arab supportersShilsquoism has a long and complex history which extends well beyondthe Umayyad period but it was then that its basic character wasestablished3

The basic principle of Kharijism was a demand for piety andreligious excellence as the only necessary qualification for the imamand a rejection of the view that he should belong to the family of theProphet as the Shilsquoites demanded or to the tribe of the Prophet(Quraysh) as the Sunnis required Like Shilsquoism Kharijism too wasmanifested in a number of movements some relatively moderate andothers more extreme The extremists tended to insist on the rejectionof all other Muslims regarding them as infidels and therefore liable tobe killed unless they lsquorepentedrsquo and lsquoaccepted Islamrsquo that is unless

4 Introduction

they recognised the Kharijite imam and accepted the Kharijite form ofIslam This fierce rejection of other Muslims however involving theduty of rebellion against what was regarded as an illegitimategovernment became increasingly difficult to maintain except in areasremote from the authority of the government or in times when theauthority of the government for some reason collapsed In Basra thesecond of the Iraqi garrison towns on the other hand a moremoderate form of Kharijism was elaborated and spread to easternArabia and North Africa It is this form of Kharijism which hassurvived into the modern world4

Each of these three main Muslim groups came to hold that Islamshould be open to all peoples and that all should enjoy the same statuswithin it regarding rights and duties The development of this idea tooof Islam as a universal religion can be traced to the Umayyad periodagain in circles opposed to the dynasty

Although it can be debated whether the Koran was addressed to allmen or to the Arabs only the Umayyads and the Arab tribesmen whofirst conquered the Middle East regarded their religion as largelyexclusive of the conquered peoples There was no sustained attempt toforce or even persuade the conquered peoples to accept Islam and itwas assumed that they would remain in their own communities payingtaxes to support the conquerors Although from the start there wassome movement of the conquered into the community of theconquerors the separation of Arabs from non-Arabs was a basicprinciple of the state established as a result of the conquests This isclear both from the procedure which a non-Arab had to adopt in orderto enter Islam and from the fact that there were from time to timeofficial measures designed to prevent such changes of status Islamwas in fact regarded as the property of the conquering aristocracy

In order to attach himself to the religion and society of the Arabs anon-Arab had to become the client (mawla pl mawali) of an Arabtribe In other words in order to become a Muslim something whichit is possible to see as a social or political as much as a religious movehe had to acquire an Arab patron and become a sort of honorarymember of his patronrsquos tribe adding the tribal name to his own newMuslim one even though he and his descendants were in some waystreated as second-class Muslims It is evident therefore thatmembership of Islam was equated with possession of an Arab ethnicidentity5

Nevertheless association with the elite in this way did haveadvantages for some and at various times in different places we hear

Introduction 5

of large numbers of non-Arabs attempting to enter Islam bybecoming mawali but being prevented from doing so or at leastfrom having their changed status recognised by local Umayyadgovernors Probably the best-known example was in Iraq around 700when large numbers of local non-Arab cultivators sought to abandontheir lands and flee into the Arab garrison towns to enter Islam asmawali only to be forced back by the Umayyad governor al-Hajjajwho refused to recognise their claims

In the long run it proved impossible to maintain the isolation ofconquerors and conquered from one another in this way andattempts to do so only served to alienate further those Muslimgroups which had come to see Islam as a religion open to all Theproblem for the Umayyads was that they had come to power asleaders of a conquering Arab elite and to have allowed theconquered peoples to enter Islam en masse would have abolished orat least weakened the distinction between the elite and the massesThe crucial privileges of Islam from this point of view were in thearea of taxation In principle the Arabs were to be the recipients ofthe taxes paid by the non-Arabs If the conquered peoples wereallowed to become Muslims and to change their position from thatof payers to that of recipients of taxes the whole system upon whichthe Umayyads depended would collapse But as the pressure fromthe non-Arabs built up and the universalist notion of Islam becamestronger this problem became increasingly urgent for the dynastyand played a major part in the generally negative attitude of Muslimstowards the Umayyad dynasty6

How far the development of Islam in the Umayyad periodinvolved radical changes in religious practices or beliefs is not easyto say Broadly speaking Muslim tradition assumes that thefundamental institutions of Islammdashsuch things as belief inMuhammad as a prophet acceptance of the Koran in the form inwhich we know it as the word of God and performance of the mainrituals such as the five times daily prayer (salat) and the annualpilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) mdashexisted at the beginning of theUmayyad period and were accepted equally by the Umayyads andtheir opponents The difficulty is to decide how far our Muslimsources which are relatively late in the form in which we have themare reading back later conditions into an earlier period

Sometimes certainly we have hints that the situation was not sostatic or so uniform as the tradition generally implies For examplewe are told that Muslim rebels supporting Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the

6 Introduction

Umayyads in the early years of the eighth century accused the caliphof lsquomurderingrsquo the ritual prayer (salat) and called for vengeance forit although what this meant and what exactly was involved ifanything specific is not spelled out7 Even such tantalisinglyobscure hints are relatively scarce and when we do sometimes havemore substantial information its significance seems often to belimited in one of two ways

First the information may centre on a point which seems to berelatively minor For instance much play is made with the chargethat the Umayyads insisted on delivering the khutba (in the earlyperiod a speech or sermon given usually in the mosque by the caliphor his representative and often dealing with secular as well as morepurely religious affairs) while sitting contrary to what is alleged tohave been the practice established by the Prophet and his immediatesuccessors This is supposed to be a sign of the haughtiness of theUmayyads refusing to stand before their subjects and preferringlike kings to remain seated Even though the detail may have lostsome of its significance because of the later decline in importance ofthe khutba and its associated institutions and ceremonies howeverit is difficult to see arguments about the correct posture for thekhutba as of fundamental importance for the development of IslamIn the way in which the practice is presented by Muslim tradition itdoes not provide grounds for arguing that the outward forms ofIslam underwent great and radical changes under the Umayyads8

Secondly even when the information is apparently more weightythe impression is usually given that the Umayyads were pervertingsome orthodox practice or belief which already existed and waswidely accepted by Muslims There is no suggestion that basicreligious ideas were still in a state of flux and that lsquoorthodoxyrsquo (anambiguous term in Islam since there is no central authority to saywhat is and what is not orthodox) was only slowly developing Weare told for instance that some of the Umayyads tried to makeJerusalem a centre of pilgrimage but the sources imply that this wasagainst the background of an already generally accepted practice ofannual pilgrimage to Mecca which had been established as the culticcentre of Islam from the time of the Prophet The reader should beaware of such preconceptions in the sources and consider thepossibility that there may not have been as yet any firmlyestablished cultic centre in Islam9

Any attempt to argue that there were during the Umayyad periodmore fundamental religious developments than the sources allow

Introduction 7

for therefore involves a certain amount of lsquoreading between thelinesrsquo of Muslim tradition and using whatever evidence is availableoutside the Muslim literary sources A recent discussion using suchmethods has questioned whether the name lsquoIslamrsquo as thedesignation for the religion of the Arabs existed much before theend of the seventh century10 Muslim tradition itself though hasproved remarkably impervious to analysis with such questions inmind and onersquos attitude to the question of the extent of the religiousdevelopment of Islam in the Umayyad period must depend greatlyon onersquos attitude to the value of Muslim sources for the history ofthe period and especially the earlier part

The spread of Islam during this period as already indicated hasto be viewed on two levels that of its territorial expansion and thatof its acceptance by the conquered non-Arab peoples from a varietyof religious backgrounds

Muslim tradition is generally more concerned with the formerprocess When an area is under Muslim rule and subject to Muslimlaw that area is regarded as a part of the Muslim world (dar al-Islam) even though the majority of its population may remain non-Muslim Strictly speaking only Christians Jews and Zoroastrians(these last known as majus) were to be allowed to refuse to acceptIslam and maintain their existence as separate religious communitiesunder Muslim rule but in practice toleration was frequentlyextended more widely

From this point of view then the extensive conquests made underthe Umayyads were an extension of Islam At the beginning of theUmayyad period Arab Muslim rule did not extend much further westthan modern Libya or further east than the eastern regions of Iranand even within these areas many regions must have been held onlyprecariously or merely nominally By the end of the dynasty all ofNorth Africa and southern and central Spain were included in theboundaries of the Muslim world and in the east the extension ofcontrol into central Asia and northern India prepared the way forlater advances in those areas

In the west the garrison town of Qayrawan was founded about 670 inIfriqiya (modern Tunisia) and this served as the base for furtherwestward expansion lsquoUqba b Nafilsquo is subsequently said to havemarched as far as the Atlantic before being killed by the still unsubduedBerbers but it was not until the end of the century that regions ofmodern Algeria and Morocco were substantially pacified and theBerbers brought into Islam but keeping their own language and tribal

8 Introduction

system This development is associated with the governorship ofHassan b Nulsquoman in Ifriqiya (683ndash707) It was Hassanrsquos successorMusa b Nusayr who initiated the invasion of Spain in 711 sending hisBerber client (mawla) Tariq to lead the expedition It is from this Tariqthat Gibraltar takes its name (Jabal Tariq lsquothe hill of Tariqrsquo)

In the east too the years around 700 saw major advances Al-Hajjajgovernor of the eastern part of the Umayyad territories from 694 to 714sent his generals Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the ruler of Kabul Qutayba bMuslim into the territories lying beyond the river Oxus (Jayhun or AmuDarya in Muslim works) and Muhammad b al-Qasim into northernIndia Qutayba is said to have reached the borders of China and sent anembassy demanding submission from the lsquoking of Chinarsquo The extentand effectiveness of these expeditions may sometimes be open toquestion but it is clear that Arab Muslim control was extended andconsolidated in the east under the Umayyads11

The spread of Islam among the non-Arab peoples of the conqueredregions is much less explicitly described in our sources At the outset ofthe Umayyad period it is clear that very few of the conquered peopleshad accepted Islam however we understand this last phrase (islamliterally means lsquosubmissionrsquo) But by the end of the period in spite ofthe initial attempt by the Arabs to keep themselves apart religiously andsocially from their subjects and in spite of the refusal by caliphs andgovernors to allow the non-Arabs to enjoy the advantages of acceptanceof Islam large numbers of the subject peoples had come to identifythemselves as Muslims

The spread of Islam vertically in this way is clearly a complexprocess depending on a variety of factors which were not the same inevery area or among every group of the non-Arab population andresulting in divergent rates of progress Because of the silence orambiguity of the sources we are often reduced to speculation aboutcauses and the spread of the process For example we know very littleabout the islamisation of Syria and there are only one or two referencesin non-Muslim sources which seem to indicate substantial islamisationof the local peoples during the Umayyad period On the other hand theMuslim sources have many references to the difficulties caused toUmayyad governors of Iraq and Khurasan when large numbers of non-Arab non-Muslims attempted to accept Islam by becoming mawali inthe early decades of the eighth century but they still leave manyquestions unanswered or answered at best ambiguously

So far as the evidence enables us to judge and leaving aside theBerbers whose society and way of life made them likely allies for

Introduction 9

the Arabs in the wars of conquest it seems to have been in lowerIraq Khurasan and Syria that Islam made the most significantadvances among the subjects peoples in the Umayyad period Inwestern Persia and Egypt on the other hand it seems thatislamisation in this sense was relatively slow and that it was not untilafter the dynasty had been overthrown that Islam became thereligion of the majority in these areas12

In spite of our uncertainties it seems clear that the Umayyadperiod was crucial for the process of Islamisation in all its forms

Arabisation

By lsquoarabisationrsquo I mean the spread of a culture characterised aboveall by its use of the Arabic language in the area which had becomesubject to Arab Muslim rule Although associated with the processof islamisation arabisation is a distinct movement as can be seenfrom the fact that important communities of Jews and Christianssurvived in the Islamic Middle East into modern times Thesecommunities maintained their religious traditions in spite of the factthat they had renounced the everyday languages which they hadused before the Arab conquest and had adopted Arabic ConverselyPersia presents a striking example of a region which largelyaccepted Islam as its religion but maintained its pre-Islamiclanguage at first in everyday and later in literary use although ofcourse the language underwent significant changes in the earlyIslamic period

Again one has to take into account that Arabic itself changed as itspread and was elaborated in the process of interaction betweenArabs and non-Arabs Put crudely as the non-Arab peoples adoptedArabic so their own linguistic habits and backgrounds affected thelanguage leading to significant changes and to the formation ofdifferent dialects The result of this evolution is usually described asMiddle Arabic as opposed to Classical Arabic which is identifiedwith the language of the Koran and of the poetry which it isclaimed originated in pre-Islamic Arabia The origin and nature ofClassical Arabic itself though is to some extent a topic ofcontroversy What led to the adoption or rejection of Arabic by non-Arabic speakers is obviously a very complex question involvingconsideration of political and social relationships as well as morepurely linguistic ones

10 Introduction

In attempting to chart the progress of arabisation the difficultiesagain arise from the lack of explicit information on the topic in ourliterary sources and from the paucity of written material survivingfrom the Umayyad period For instance although it has beensuggested that Jews of all sorts began to speak Arabic as early as theseventh century the process of change must have been gradual andour earliest texts written in Judaeo-Arabic (that is the form of MiddleArabic used by Jews and written in Hebrew rather than Arabic script)come from the ninth century Our earliest Christian Arabic texts(Arabic written in the Greek script) have been dated to the eighthcentury but there has been some argument about the dating On theother hand from later developments we know that Persian must havesurvived as the spoken language of the majority of Iranians during theUmayyad period but our sources only rarely and ambiguously let ussee that it was so and almost all of our source material on the historyof Persia under the Umayyads is in Arabic

More concrete evidence is provided by the administrative papyriwhich have survived from Egypt In spite of the limited range ofsubjects with which they are concerned they at least enable us to see agradual change from Greek to Arabic in the language of theadministration Furthermore our literary sources report that around700 it was ordered that henceforth the government administrationshould use Arabic rather than the languages which had been usedbefore the Arab conquest and which had continued in use thus farThis could indicate that there was at that time a significant number ofnon-Arabs with sufficient command of Arabic at least for the purposesof administration since the bureaucracy continued to relyoverwhelmingly on non-Arabs The change of language in thebureaucracy did not happen overnight and the sources are notunanimous about when it was ordered but in the development ofarabisation it seems to have been a significant step

Why and how Arabic and with it the other features which seem tomake Islamic culture in the Middle East significantly Arab anddistinguish it from others spread is therefore still debatableEventually as we know the adoption of Arabic for most purposesbecame general in Syria Iraq and Egypt while the Berbers andPersians in spite of their acceptance of Islam and therefore of Arabicas their sacred language continued to use their own languages foreveryday purposes We can assume that arabisation like islamisationprogressed a long way under the Umayyads but precise evidence ishard to come by13

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

xix

Foreword to the Second Edition

In spite of some significant developments in our understanding ofaspects of the history of the Umayyad caliphate in the fifteen yearsor so since this book was first published readily accessibleintroductions to the period for undergraduates and interested non-specialists remain few This book was generally well received byreviewers and has proved useful for its intended readership Since ithas been out of print for some time and in any case was availableonly as a (rather expensive) hardback it has now been decided toreissue it in paperback The opportunity has been taken to correct afew errors (for pointing out which I am grateful to reviewers) and toadd a postscript surveying some of the important work relevant tothe Umayyad caliphate which has appeared since the first edition in1986 The postscript also refers to a few works which should havebeen included in the original bibliography

For technical reasons it has not been possible to change theoriginal text in three places where some expansion is required

At p 83 with reference to the victory of Charles Martel over theArabs the date of 732 should probably be changed to 733 At thevery least the article of MBaudoit lsquoLocalisation et datation de lapremiegravere victoire remporteacutee par Charles Martel contre lesmusulmansrsquo in Meacutemoires et documents publieacutes par la Societeacute delrsquoEcole de Chartres 12 (1955) 93ndash105 needs to be consulted on thisquestion Secondly at p 52 it is wrong to give the impression thatthe term mahdi is not known in accounts of events before the risingof al-Mukhtar it occurs of course apparently for the first time inreports about the rising of the Tawwabun which took place justbefore that of al-Mukhtar I am especially grateful for MichaelMoronyrsquos review (IJMES 21 (1989)) for drawing attention to thesepoints I remain unconvinced however that the word mahdioriginally lacked any eschatological significance

Finally on p 91 reference is made to the theory that RusafatHisham was not at the Rusafa which was ancient Sergiopolis but wasrather to be identified with Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi near Palmyra I

xx Foreword to the Second Edition

ought to have known but did not that that theory proposed bySauvaget and others has been discredited by Oleg Grabar in hiswork on Qasr al-Hayr City in the Desert Qasr al-Hayr East(Cambridge Ma Harvard University Press 1978) There is now aconvenient discussion of Ruafat Hisham in the second edition ofthe Encyclopaedia of Islam sv lsquoRusafarsquo (by C-PHaase) whichexplains too the problematic tradition that Hisham was there whenhe received the caliphal regalia

GRH March 2000

xxi

Preface and Acknowledgements

Between the general surveys of Islamic Arab or Middle Easternhistory of which there are several of varying quality and detailedmonographs on particular aspects of Umayyad history many ofwhich are not in English there is little that can be recommendedconfidently as an introduction to the importance main events andpersonalities and problems of the Umayyad period The presentwork tries to provide such an introduction

The standard modern account of Umayyad history is JuliusWellhausenrsquos The Arab kingdom and its fall first published inGerman in 1902 and translated into English in 1927 In spite of theinevitable dating of Wellhausenrsquos own political and religiousoutlook and the criticisms of his method of source analysis maderecently by Albrecht Noth his book remains of fundamentalimportance for anyone wanting more than an introductoryknowledge of Umayyad history particularly its political andmilitary events The present work is certainly not intended tosupersede The Arab kingdom

As an introduction however experience has shown thatWellhausenrsquos work is not especially suitable Leaving aside therather idiosyncratic English of its translation it contains more detailthan is readily absorbed its presentation is not as clear as modernreaders expect and its concern with source criticism is notappreciated by those who do not have even a simplified traditionalnarrative against which to set it Attempts to get students to read anddigest Wellhausen usually result in puzzlement and the beginningsof a conviction that Umayyad history is too difficult forundergraduate study

But there is really little else especially in English which treatsthe period as a whole and which can serve as an introduction MAShabanrsquos first volume of his Islamic history A new interpretation itis true is readily available and does provide a lively narrativecoverage of the period Its interpretation however seems to me tobe frequently questionable and on occasion only loosely related to

xxii Preface

the sources and the title itself indicates that it was not conceived asan introduction Similarly Patricia Cronersquos Slaves on horses seemsto me a brilliant analysis of the development of the early Islamicstate and society but not a book for relative beginners since itpresumes rather than provides a fairly detailed acquaintance withthe events of the period There still seems a need therefore for thesort of introduction which I have attempted here

Given then that the present work is not attempting to provide awholly new version of the Umayyad period and that much of itdepends on the findings of the many scholars who have contributedto our understanding of Umayyad history it has seemed unnecessaryto provide references to the original Arabic or other sourcesReaders capable of studying the primary sources themselves willeasily be able to track them down in the secondary works to whichreferences are normally confined in my notes These notes areusually a guide to further reading with readers of English primarilyin mind and are not necessarily the sources of particular statementsbut in a general way they indicate the scholars and works to which Ihave been most indebted Neither the references in my notes nor thebibliography given at the end claim to be complete or extensive butI hope that I have mentioned most works of fundamentalimportance

My special thanks are due to my colleague Dr David Morganwho kindly read the whole typescript and whose feeling for bothhistory and style has undoubtedly saved me from a number ofblunders to my wife Joyce who has similarly read and commentedon the typescript to Sue Harrop the Cartographer at the School ofAfrican and Oriental Studies University of London for help withthe maps and to Peter Sowden who first suggested that I write thebook and then gently prodded until it was done For the remaininglimitations imperfections and errors I am responsible

1

Chapter 1

Introduction The Importance of theUmayyad Period and its Place in IslamicHistory

In the summer or autumn of AD 661 Mulsquoawiya b Abi Sufyangovernor of Syria since 639 and already acclaimed by his Syrianfollowers as caliph (khalifa) religious and political leader of theMuslim state entered the Iraqi garrison town of Kufa In historicaltradition this event is seen as bringing to an end a bitter period ofcivil war among the Arabs achieving the reunification under oneruler of all the territories conquered by them and initiating thecaliphate of the Umayyad dynasty of which Mulsquoawiya was thefounder The dynasty was to rule for 90 years or so until itsoverthrow and replacement by that of the lsquoAbbasids in 749ndash50

The Umayyad dynasty was the first to emerge in the Middle Eastfollowing the conquest of the region by the Arabs a conquest whichhad begun in the 630s and was still continuing for much of theUmayyad period Apart from this fact however what was theimportance of the period of Umayyad rule a period which in itsdetails is often complex and confusing and how has it traditionallybeen regarded by Muslims in relation to the history of Islam Theanswer to the first part of this question is provided by discussion ofthe two concepts of islamisation and arabisation referring to tworelated but essentially distinct historical processes

Islamisation

The term lsquoislamisationrsquo refers both to the extension of the area underMuslim rule and to the acceptance of Islam as their religion bypeoples of different faiths but in the Umayyad period the question isfurther complicated by the fact that Islam itself was developing fromits still to us not completely understood origins into somethingapproaching the religion with which we are familiar One should notimagine that Islam as we know it came fully formed out of Arabiawith the Arabs at the time of their conquest of the Middle East and

2 Introduction

was then accepted or rejected as the case might be by the non-Arabpeoples Although many of the details are obscure and oftencontroversial it seems clear that Islam as we know it is largely a resultof the interaction between the Arabs and the peoples they conqueredduring the first two centuries or so of the Islamic era which began inAD 6221 During the Umayyad period therefore the spread of Islamand the development of Islam were taking place at the same time anda discussion of islamisation has to begin with some consideration ofthe importance of the Umayyad period for the development of Islam

In the first place it was under the Umayyads that there began toemerge that class of religious scholars which eventually became theleading authority within Sunni Islam and which is chiefly responsiblefor shaping the historical and religious tradition which has comedown to us In effect it was this class which led the development ofIslam as we know it and it is important to remember that it emergedlargely in opposition to the Umayyad government The Umayyads hadtheir own conception of Islam itself developing with time anddifferent circumstances but on the whole we see the religion from theviewpoint of the religious scholars

In the emergence of this class the most important region was Iraqand in Iraq Kufa was the leading centre Other regions tended tofollow its lead Building on and reacting against the ideas andpractices available in Kufa and other centres from the second half ofthe Umayyad period onwards groups of Muslim scholars tried todevelop and put on a sound footing what they saw as a true form ofIslam In doing so they frequently accused the Umayyads of impiousor unislamic behaviour

The main concept which these scholars developed and worked withwas that of the Sunna This idea went through several stages butincreasingly came to be identified with the custom and practice of theProphet Muhammad which was to serve as the ideal norm ofbehaviour for his followers and was eventually accepted as the majorsource of Muslim law alongside the Koran Increasingly Muslimideas practices and institutions came to be justified by reference tothe Sunna the words and deeds of Muhammad as transmitted by hiscompanions to later generations The proponents of the Sunna as thusunderstood became increasingly influential and political andreligious developments after the Umayyads had been overthrownresulted in the final crystallisation of the Sunni form of Islam with thereligious scholars the guardians of the Sunna as its leadingauthority2

Introduction 3

Not all Muslims though accepted the primacy or even thelegitimacy of the Sunna and the Umayyad period also saw theemergence of the two other main forms of Islam Shilsquoism andKharijism Tradition dates the fragmentation of a previously unitedIslam into the three main forms which we know today (SunnisShilsquoites and Kharijites) to the time of the first civil war (656ndash61)which ended with the accession of Mulsquoawiya to the caliphateHowever just as the development of Sunni Islam was a slow processwhich only began under the Umayyads so too Shilsquoism andKharijism were not born in one instant They too developed inopposition to the Umayyads in a number of distinct movementswhich each had individual characteristics and again Iraq was ofprime importance

Kufa was the centre of the development of Shilsquoism in theUmayyad period As early as 670 but especially after the revolt ofMukhtar in 685ndash7 Kufa saw a number of movements aimed atoverthrowing the Umayyads and appointing a relative of theProphet usually a descendant of his cousin and son-in-law lsquoAli asimam which title the Shilsquoites tend to prefer to caliph Where theseShilsquoite movements differed from one another was in the particularmember of the Prophetrsquos family whom they favoured and in certainother doctrines they developed what they had in common wasdevotion to the Prophetrsquos family and insistence that membership ofit was a sine qua non for the imam Some of them developed moreextreme beliefs such as acceptance of the imam as an incarnation ofGod and a doctrine of the transmigration of souls It seems that froman early date the conquered non-Arab peoples were attracted to theShilsquoite movements and it may be that some of their doctrines wereinfluenced by the previous beliefs of these non-Arab supportersShilsquoism has a long and complex history which extends well beyondthe Umayyad period but it was then that its basic character wasestablished3

The basic principle of Kharijism was a demand for piety andreligious excellence as the only necessary qualification for the imamand a rejection of the view that he should belong to the family of theProphet as the Shilsquoites demanded or to the tribe of the Prophet(Quraysh) as the Sunnis required Like Shilsquoism Kharijism too wasmanifested in a number of movements some relatively moderate andothers more extreme The extremists tended to insist on the rejectionof all other Muslims regarding them as infidels and therefore liable tobe killed unless they lsquorepentedrsquo and lsquoaccepted Islamrsquo that is unless

4 Introduction

they recognised the Kharijite imam and accepted the Kharijite form ofIslam This fierce rejection of other Muslims however involving theduty of rebellion against what was regarded as an illegitimategovernment became increasingly difficult to maintain except in areasremote from the authority of the government or in times when theauthority of the government for some reason collapsed In Basra thesecond of the Iraqi garrison towns on the other hand a moremoderate form of Kharijism was elaborated and spread to easternArabia and North Africa It is this form of Kharijism which hassurvived into the modern world4

Each of these three main Muslim groups came to hold that Islamshould be open to all peoples and that all should enjoy the same statuswithin it regarding rights and duties The development of this idea tooof Islam as a universal religion can be traced to the Umayyad periodagain in circles opposed to the dynasty

Although it can be debated whether the Koran was addressed to allmen or to the Arabs only the Umayyads and the Arab tribesmen whofirst conquered the Middle East regarded their religion as largelyexclusive of the conquered peoples There was no sustained attempt toforce or even persuade the conquered peoples to accept Islam and itwas assumed that they would remain in their own communities payingtaxes to support the conquerors Although from the start there wassome movement of the conquered into the community of theconquerors the separation of Arabs from non-Arabs was a basicprinciple of the state established as a result of the conquests This isclear both from the procedure which a non-Arab had to adopt in orderto enter Islam and from the fact that there were from time to timeofficial measures designed to prevent such changes of status Islamwas in fact regarded as the property of the conquering aristocracy

In order to attach himself to the religion and society of the Arabs anon-Arab had to become the client (mawla pl mawali) of an Arabtribe In other words in order to become a Muslim something whichit is possible to see as a social or political as much as a religious movehe had to acquire an Arab patron and become a sort of honorarymember of his patronrsquos tribe adding the tribal name to his own newMuslim one even though he and his descendants were in some waystreated as second-class Muslims It is evident therefore thatmembership of Islam was equated with possession of an Arab ethnicidentity5

Nevertheless association with the elite in this way did haveadvantages for some and at various times in different places we hear

Introduction 5

of large numbers of non-Arabs attempting to enter Islam bybecoming mawali but being prevented from doing so or at leastfrom having their changed status recognised by local Umayyadgovernors Probably the best-known example was in Iraq around 700when large numbers of local non-Arab cultivators sought to abandontheir lands and flee into the Arab garrison towns to enter Islam asmawali only to be forced back by the Umayyad governor al-Hajjajwho refused to recognise their claims

In the long run it proved impossible to maintain the isolation ofconquerors and conquered from one another in this way andattempts to do so only served to alienate further those Muslimgroups which had come to see Islam as a religion open to all Theproblem for the Umayyads was that they had come to power asleaders of a conquering Arab elite and to have allowed theconquered peoples to enter Islam en masse would have abolished orat least weakened the distinction between the elite and the massesThe crucial privileges of Islam from this point of view were in thearea of taxation In principle the Arabs were to be the recipients ofthe taxes paid by the non-Arabs If the conquered peoples wereallowed to become Muslims and to change their position from thatof payers to that of recipients of taxes the whole system upon whichthe Umayyads depended would collapse But as the pressure fromthe non-Arabs built up and the universalist notion of Islam becamestronger this problem became increasingly urgent for the dynastyand played a major part in the generally negative attitude of Muslimstowards the Umayyad dynasty6

How far the development of Islam in the Umayyad periodinvolved radical changes in religious practices or beliefs is not easyto say Broadly speaking Muslim tradition assumes that thefundamental institutions of Islammdashsuch things as belief inMuhammad as a prophet acceptance of the Koran in the form inwhich we know it as the word of God and performance of the mainrituals such as the five times daily prayer (salat) and the annualpilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) mdashexisted at the beginning of theUmayyad period and were accepted equally by the Umayyads andtheir opponents The difficulty is to decide how far our Muslimsources which are relatively late in the form in which we have themare reading back later conditions into an earlier period

Sometimes certainly we have hints that the situation was not sostatic or so uniform as the tradition generally implies For examplewe are told that Muslim rebels supporting Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the

6 Introduction

Umayyads in the early years of the eighth century accused the caliphof lsquomurderingrsquo the ritual prayer (salat) and called for vengeance forit although what this meant and what exactly was involved ifanything specific is not spelled out7 Even such tantalisinglyobscure hints are relatively scarce and when we do sometimes havemore substantial information its significance seems often to belimited in one of two ways

First the information may centre on a point which seems to berelatively minor For instance much play is made with the chargethat the Umayyads insisted on delivering the khutba (in the earlyperiod a speech or sermon given usually in the mosque by the caliphor his representative and often dealing with secular as well as morepurely religious affairs) while sitting contrary to what is alleged tohave been the practice established by the Prophet and his immediatesuccessors This is supposed to be a sign of the haughtiness of theUmayyads refusing to stand before their subjects and preferringlike kings to remain seated Even though the detail may have lostsome of its significance because of the later decline in importance ofthe khutba and its associated institutions and ceremonies howeverit is difficult to see arguments about the correct posture for thekhutba as of fundamental importance for the development of IslamIn the way in which the practice is presented by Muslim tradition itdoes not provide grounds for arguing that the outward forms ofIslam underwent great and radical changes under the Umayyads8

Secondly even when the information is apparently more weightythe impression is usually given that the Umayyads were pervertingsome orthodox practice or belief which already existed and waswidely accepted by Muslims There is no suggestion that basicreligious ideas were still in a state of flux and that lsquoorthodoxyrsquo (anambiguous term in Islam since there is no central authority to saywhat is and what is not orthodox) was only slowly developing Weare told for instance that some of the Umayyads tried to makeJerusalem a centre of pilgrimage but the sources imply that this wasagainst the background of an already generally accepted practice ofannual pilgrimage to Mecca which had been established as the culticcentre of Islam from the time of the Prophet The reader should beaware of such preconceptions in the sources and consider thepossibility that there may not have been as yet any firmlyestablished cultic centre in Islam9

Any attempt to argue that there were during the Umayyad periodmore fundamental religious developments than the sources allow

Introduction 7

for therefore involves a certain amount of lsquoreading between thelinesrsquo of Muslim tradition and using whatever evidence is availableoutside the Muslim literary sources A recent discussion using suchmethods has questioned whether the name lsquoIslamrsquo as thedesignation for the religion of the Arabs existed much before theend of the seventh century10 Muslim tradition itself though hasproved remarkably impervious to analysis with such questions inmind and onersquos attitude to the question of the extent of the religiousdevelopment of Islam in the Umayyad period must depend greatlyon onersquos attitude to the value of Muslim sources for the history ofthe period and especially the earlier part

The spread of Islam during this period as already indicated hasto be viewed on two levels that of its territorial expansion and thatof its acceptance by the conquered non-Arab peoples from a varietyof religious backgrounds

Muslim tradition is generally more concerned with the formerprocess When an area is under Muslim rule and subject to Muslimlaw that area is regarded as a part of the Muslim world (dar al-Islam) even though the majority of its population may remain non-Muslim Strictly speaking only Christians Jews and Zoroastrians(these last known as majus) were to be allowed to refuse to acceptIslam and maintain their existence as separate religious communitiesunder Muslim rule but in practice toleration was frequentlyextended more widely

From this point of view then the extensive conquests made underthe Umayyads were an extension of Islam At the beginning of theUmayyad period Arab Muslim rule did not extend much further westthan modern Libya or further east than the eastern regions of Iranand even within these areas many regions must have been held onlyprecariously or merely nominally By the end of the dynasty all ofNorth Africa and southern and central Spain were included in theboundaries of the Muslim world and in the east the extension ofcontrol into central Asia and northern India prepared the way forlater advances in those areas

In the west the garrison town of Qayrawan was founded about 670 inIfriqiya (modern Tunisia) and this served as the base for furtherwestward expansion lsquoUqba b Nafilsquo is subsequently said to havemarched as far as the Atlantic before being killed by the still unsubduedBerbers but it was not until the end of the century that regions ofmodern Algeria and Morocco were substantially pacified and theBerbers brought into Islam but keeping their own language and tribal

8 Introduction

system This development is associated with the governorship ofHassan b Nulsquoman in Ifriqiya (683ndash707) It was Hassanrsquos successorMusa b Nusayr who initiated the invasion of Spain in 711 sending hisBerber client (mawla) Tariq to lead the expedition It is from this Tariqthat Gibraltar takes its name (Jabal Tariq lsquothe hill of Tariqrsquo)

In the east too the years around 700 saw major advances Al-Hajjajgovernor of the eastern part of the Umayyad territories from 694 to 714sent his generals Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the ruler of Kabul Qutayba bMuslim into the territories lying beyond the river Oxus (Jayhun or AmuDarya in Muslim works) and Muhammad b al-Qasim into northernIndia Qutayba is said to have reached the borders of China and sent anembassy demanding submission from the lsquoking of Chinarsquo The extentand effectiveness of these expeditions may sometimes be open toquestion but it is clear that Arab Muslim control was extended andconsolidated in the east under the Umayyads11

The spread of Islam among the non-Arab peoples of the conqueredregions is much less explicitly described in our sources At the outset ofthe Umayyad period it is clear that very few of the conquered peopleshad accepted Islam however we understand this last phrase (islamliterally means lsquosubmissionrsquo) But by the end of the period in spite ofthe initial attempt by the Arabs to keep themselves apart religiously andsocially from their subjects and in spite of the refusal by caliphs andgovernors to allow the non-Arabs to enjoy the advantages of acceptanceof Islam large numbers of the subject peoples had come to identifythemselves as Muslims

The spread of Islam vertically in this way is clearly a complexprocess depending on a variety of factors which were not the same inevery area or among every group of the non-Arab population andresulting in divergent rates of progress Because of the silence orambiguity of the sources we are often reduced to speculation aboutcauses and the spread of the process For example we know very littleabout the islamisation of Syria and there are only one or two referencesin non-Muslim sources which seem to indicate substantial islamisationof the local peoples during the Umayyad period On the other hand theMuslim sources have many references to the difficulties caused toUmayyad governors of Iraq and Khurasan when large numbers of non-Arab non-Muslims attempted to accept Islam by becoming mawali inthe early decades of the eighth century but they still leave manyquestions unanswered or answered at best ambiguously

So far as the evidence enables us to judge and leaving aside theBerbers whose society and way of life made them likely allies for

Introduction 9

the Arabs in the wars of conquest it seems to have been in lowerIraq Khurasan and Syria that Islam made the most significantadvances among the subjects peoples in the Umayyad period Inwestern Persia and Egypt on the other hand it seems thatislamisation in this sense was relatively slow and that it was not untilafter the dynasty had been overthrown that Islam became thereligion of the majority in these areas12

In spite of our uncertainties it seems clear that the Umayyadperiod was crucial for the process of Islamisation in all its forms

Arabisation

By lsquoarabisationrsquo I mean the spread of a culture characterised aboveall by its use of the Arabic language in the area which had becomesubject to Arab Muslim rule Although associated with the processof islamisation arabisation is a distinct movement as can be seenfrom the fact that important communities of Jews and Christianssurvived in the Islamic Middle East into modern times Thesecommunities maintained their religious traditions in spite of the factthat they had renounced the everyday languages which they hadused before the Arab conquest and had adopted Arabic ConverselyPersia presents a striking example of a region which largelyaccepted Islam as its religion but maintained its pre-Islamiclanguage at first in everyday and later in literary use although ofcourse the language underwent significant changes in the earlyIslamic period

Again one has to take into account that Arabic itself changed as itspread and was elaborated in the process of interaction betweenArabs and non-Arabs Put crudely as the non-Arab peoples adoptedArabic so their own linguistic habits and backgrounds affected thelanguage leading to significant changes and to the formation ofdifferent dialects The result of this evolution is usually described asMiddle Arabic as opposed to Classical Arabic which is identifiedwith the language of the Koran and of the poetry which it isclaimed originated in pre-Islamic Arabia The origin and nature ofClassical Arabic itself though is to some extent a topic ofcontroversy What led to the adoption or rejection of Arabic by non-Arabic speakers is obviously a very complex question involvingconsideration of political and social relationships as well as morepurely linguistic ones

10 Introduction

In attempting to chart the progress of arabisation the difficultiesagain arise from the lack of explicit information on the topic in ourliterary sources and from the paucity of written material survivingfrom the Umayyad period For instance although it has beensuggested that Jews of all sorts began to speak Arabic as early as theseventh century the process of change must have been gradual andour earliest texts written in Judaeo-Arabic (that is the form of MiddleArabic used by Jews and written in Hebrew rather than Arabic script)come from the ninth century Our earliest Christian Arabic texts(Arabic written in the Greek script) have been dated to the eighthcentury but there has been some argument about the dating On theother hand from later developments we know that Persian must havesurvived as the spoken language of the majority of Iranians during theUmayyad period but our sources only rarely and ambiguously let ussee that it was so and almost all of our source material on the historyof Persia under the Umayyads is in Arabic

More concrete evidence is provided by the administrative papyriwhich have survived from Egypt In spite of the limited range ofsubjects with which they are concerned they at least enable us to see agradual change from Greek to Arabic in the language of theadministration Furthermore our literary sources report that around700 it was ordered that henceforth the government administrationshould use Arabic rather than the languages which had been usedbefore the Arab conquest and which had continued in use thus farThis could indicate that there was at that time a significant number ofnon-Arabs with sufficient command of Arabic at least for the purposesof administration since the bureaucracy continued to relyoverwhelmingly on non-Arabs The change of language in thebureaucracy did not happen overnight and the sources are notunanimous about when it was ordered but in the development ofarabisation it seems to have been a significant step

Why and how Arabic and with it the other features which seem tomake Islamic culture in the Middle East significantly Arab anddistinguish it from others spread is therefore still debatableEventually as we know the adoption of Arabic for most purposesbecame general in Syria Iraq and Egypt while the Berbers andPersians in spite of their acceptance of Islam and therefore of Arabicas their sacred language continued to use their own languages foreveryday purposes We can assume that arabisation like islamisationprogressed a long way under the Umayyads but precise evidence ishard to come by13

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

xx Foreword to the Second Edition

ought to have known but did not that that theory proposed bySauvaget and others has been discredited by Oleg Grabar in hiswork on Qasr al-Hayr City in the Desert Qasr al-Hayr East(Cambridge Ma Harvard University Press 1978) There is now aconvenient discussion of Ruafat Hisham in the second edition ofthe Encyclopaedia of Islam sv lsquoRusafarsquo (by C-PHaase) whichexplains too the problematic tradition that Hisham was there whenhe received the caliphal regalia

GRH March 2000

xxi

Preface and Acknowledgements

Between the general surveys of Islamic Arab or Middle Easternhistory of which there are several of varying quality and detailedmonographs on particular aspects of Umayyad history many ofwhich are not in English there is little that can be recommendedconfidently as an introduction to the importance main events andpersonalities and problems of the Umayyad period The presentwork tries to provide such an introduction

The standard modern account of Umayyad history is JuliusWellhausenrsquos The Arab kingdom and its fall first published inGerman in 1902 and translated into English in 1927 In spite of theinevitable dating of Wellhausenrsquos own political and religiousoutlook and the criticisms of his method of source analysis maderecently by Albrecht Noth his book remains of fundamentalimportance for anyone wanting more than an introductoryknowledge of Umayyad history particularly its political andmilitary events The present work is certainly not intended tosupersede The Arab kingdom

As an introduction however experience has shown thatWellhausenrsquos work is not especially suitable Leaving aside therather idiosyncratic English of its translation it contains more detailthan is readily absorbed its presentation is not as clear as modernreaders expect and its concern with source criticism is notappreciated by those who do not have even a simplified traditionalnarrative against which to set it Attempts to get students to read anddigest Wellhausen usually result in puzzlement and the beginningsof a conviction that Umayyad history is too difficult forundergraduate study

But there is really little else especially in English which treatsthe period as a whole and which can serve as an introduction MAShabanrsquos first volume of his Islamic history A new interpretation itis true is readily available and does provide a lively narrativecoverage of the period Its interpretation however seems to me tobe frequently questionable and on occasion only loosely related to

xxii Preface

the sources and the title itself indicates that it was not conceived asan introduction Similarly Patricia Cronersquos Slaves on horses seemsto me a brilliant analysis of the development of the early Islamicstate and society but not a book for relative beginners since itpresumes rather than provides a fairly detailed acquaintance withthe events of the period There still seems a need therefore for thesort of introduction which I have attempted here

Given then that the present work is not attempting to provide awholly new version of the Umayyad period and that much of itdepends on the findings of the many scholars who have contributedto our understanding of Umayyad history it has seemed unnecessaryto provide references to the original Arabic or other sourcesReaders capable of studying the primary sources themselves willeasily be able to track them down in the secondary works to whichreferences are normally confined in my notes These notes areusually a guide to further reading with readers of English primarilyin mind and are not necessarily the sources of particular statementsbut in a general way they indicate the scholars and works to which Ihave been most indebted Neither the references in my notes nor thebibliography given at the end claim to be complete or extensive butI hope that I have mentioned most works of fundamentalimportance

My special thanks are due to my colleague Dr David Morganwho kindly read the whole typescript and whose feeling for bothhistory and style has undoubtedly saved me from a number ofblunders to my wife Joyce who has similarly read and commentedon the typescript to Sue Harrop the Cartographer at the School ofAfrican and Oriental Studies University of London for help withthe maps and to Peter Sowden who first suggested that I write thebook and then gently prodded until it was done For the remaininglimitations imperfections and errors I am responsible

1

Chapter 1

Introduction The Importance of theUmayyad Period and its Place in IslamicHistory

In the summer or autumn of AD 661 Mulsquoawiya b Abi Sufyangovernor of Syria since 639 and already acclaimed by his Syrianfollowers as caliph (khalifa) religious and political leader of theMuslim state entered the Iraqi garrison town of Kufa In historicaltradition this event is seen as bringing to an end a bitter period ofcivil war among the Arabs achieving the reunification under oneruler of all the territories conquered by them and initiating thecaliphate of the Umayyad dynasty of which Mulsquoawiya was thefounder The dynasty was to rule for 90 years or so until itsoverthrow and replacement by that of the lsquoAbbasids in 749ndash50

The Umayyad dynasty was the first to emerge in the Middle Eastfollowing the conquest of the region by the Arabs a conquest whichhad begun in the 630s and was still continuing for much of theUmayyad period Apart from this fact however what was theimportance of the period of Umayyad rule a period which in itsdetails is often complex and confusing and how has it traditionallybeen regarded by Muslims in relation to the history of Islam Theanswer to the first part of this question is provided by discussion ofthe two concepts of islamisation and arabisation referring to tworelated but essentially distinct historical processes

Islamisation

The term lsquoislamisationrsquo refers both to the extension of the area underMuslim rule and to the acceptance of Islam as their religion bypeoples of different faiths but in the Umayyad period the question isfurther complicated by the fact that Islam itself was developing fromits still to us not completely understood origins into somethingapproaching the religion with which we are familiar One should notimagine that Islam as we know it came fully formed out of Arabiawith the Arabs at the time of their conquest of the Middle East and

2 Introduction

was then accepted or rejected as the case might be by the non-Arabpeoples Although many of the details are obscure and oftencontroversial it seems clear that Islam as we know it is largely a resultof the interaction between the Arabs and the peoples they conqueredduring the first two centuries or so of the Islamic era which began inAD 6221 During the Umayyad period therefore the spread of Islamand the development of Islam were taking place at the same time anda discussion of islamisation has to begin with some consideration ofthe importance of the Umayyad period for the development of Islam

In the first place it was under the Umayyads that there began toemerge that class of religious scholars which eventually became theleading authority within Sunni Islam and which is chiefly responsiblefor shaping the historical and religious tradition which has comedown to us In effect it was this class which led the development ofIslam as we know it and it is important to remember that it emergedlargely in opposition to the Umayyad government The Umayyads hadtheir own conception of Islam itself developing with time anddifferent circumstances but on the whole we see the religion from theviewpoint of the religious scholars

In the emergence of this class the most important region was Iraqand in Iraq Kufa was the leading centre Other regions tended tofollow its lead Building on and reacting against the ideas andpractices available in Kufa and other centres from the second half ofthe Umayyad period onwards groups of Muslim scholars tried todevelop and put on a sound footing what they saw as a true form ofIslam In doing so they frequently accused the Umayyads of impiousor unislamic behaviour

The main concept which these scholars developed and worked withwas that of the Sunna This idea went through several stages butincreasingly came to be identified with the custom and practice of theProphet Muhammad which was to serve as the ideal norm ofbehaviour for his followers and was eventually accepted as the majorsource of Muslim law alongside the Koran Increasingly Muslimideas practices and institutions came to be justified by reference tothe Sunna the words and deeds of Muhammad as transmitted by hiscompanions to later generations The proponents of the Sunna as thusunderstood became increasingly influential and political andreligious developments after the Umayyads had been overthrownresulted in the final crystallisation of the Sunni form of Islam with thereligious scholars the guardians of the Sunna as its leadingauthority2

Introduction 3

Not all Muslims though accepted the primacy or even thelegitimacy of the Sunna and the Umayyad period also saw theemergence of the two other main forms of Islam Shilsquoism andKharijism Tradition dates the fragmentation of a previously unitedIslam into the three main forms which we know today (SunnisShilsquoites and Kharijites) to the time of the first civil war (656ndash61)which ended with the accession of Mulsquoawiya to the caliphateHowever just as the development of Sunni Islam was a slow processwhich only began under the Umayyads so too Shilsquoism andKharijism were not born in one instant They too developed inopposition to the Umayyads in a number of distinct movementswhich each had individual characteristics and again Iraq was ofprime importance

Kufa was the centre of the development of Shilsquoism in theUmayyad period As early as 670 but especially after the revolt ofMukhtar in 685ndash7 Kufa saw a number of movements aimed atoverthrowing the Umayyads and appointing a relative of theProphet usually a descendant of his cousin and son-in-law lsquoAli asimam which title the Shilsquoites tend to prefer to caliph Where theseShilsquoite movements differed from one another was in the particularmember of the Prophetrsquos family whom they favoured and in certainother doctrines they developed what they had in common wasdevotion to the Prophetrsquos family and insistence that membership ofit was a sine qua non for the imam Some of them developed moreextreme beliefs such as acceptance of the imam as an incarnation ofGod and a doctrine of the transmigration of souls It seems that froman early date the conquered non-Arab peoples were attracted to theShilsquoite movements and it may be that some of their doctrines wereinfluenced by the previous beliefs of these non-Arab supportersShilsquoism has a long and complex history which extends well beyondthe Umayyad period but it was then that its basic character wasestablished3

The basic principle of Kharijism was a demand for piety andreligious excellence as the only necessary qualification for the imamand a rejection of the view that he should belong to the family of theProphet as the Shilsquoites demanded or to the tribe of the Prophet(Quraysh) as the Sunnis required Like Shilsquoism Kharijism too wasmanifested in a number of movements some relatively moderate andothers more extreme The extremists tended to insist on the rejectionof all other Muslims regarding them as infidels and therefore liable tobe killed unless they lsquorepentedrsquo and lsquoaccepted Islamrsquo that is unless

4 Introduction

they recognised the Kharijite imam and accepted the Kharijite form ofIslam This fierce rejection of other Muslims however involving theduty of rebellion against what was regarded as an illegitimategovernment became increasingly difficult to maintain except in areasremote from the authority of the government or in times when theauthority of the government for some reason collapsed In Basra thesecond of the Iraqi garrison towns on the other hand a moremoderate form of Kharijism was elaborated and spread to easternArabia and North Africa It is this form of Kharijism which hassurvived into the modern world4

Each of these three main Muslim groups came to hold that Islamshould be open to all peoples and that all should enjoy the same statuswithin it regarding rights and duties The development of this idea tooof Islam as a universal religion can be traced to the Umayyad periodagain in circles opposed to the dynasty

Although it can be debated whether the Koran was addressed to allmen or to the Arabs only the Umayyads and the Arab tribesmen whofirst conquered the Middle East regarded their religion as largelyexclusive of the conquered peoples There was no sustained attempt toforce or even persuade the conquered peoples to accept Islam and itwas assumed that they would remain in their own communities payingtaxes to support the conquerors Although from the start there wassome movement of the conquered into the community of theconquerors the separation of Arabs from non-Arabs was a basicprinciple of the state established as a result of the conquests This isclear both from the procedure which a non-Arab had to adopt in orderto enter Islam and from the fact that there were from time to timeofficial measures designed to prevent such changes of status Islamwas in fact regarded as the property of the conquering aristocracy

In order to attach himself to the religion and society of the Arabs anon-Arab had to become the client (mawla pl mawali) of an Arabtribe In other words in order to become a Muslim something whichit is possible to see as a social or political as much as a religious movehe had to acquire an Arab patron and become a sort of honorarymember of his patronrsquos tribe adding the tribal name to his own newMuslim one even though he and his descendants were in some waystreated as second-class Muslims It is evident therefore thatmembership of Islam was equated with possession of an Arab ethnicidentity5

Nevertheless association with the elite in this way did haveadvantages for some and at various times in different places we hear

Introduction 5

of large numbers of non-Arabs attempting to enter Islam bybecoming mawali but being prevented from doing so or at leastfrom having their changed status recognised by local Umayyadgovernors Probably the best-known example was in Iraq around 700when large numbers of local non-Arab cultivators sought to abandontheir lands and flee into the Arab garrison towns to enter Islam asmawali only to be forced back by the Umayyad governor al-Hajjajwho refused to recognise their claims

In the long run it proved impossible to maintain the isolation ofconquerors and conquered from one another in this way andattempts to do so only served to alienate further those Muslimgroups which had come to see Islam as a religion open to all Theproblem for the Umayyads was that they had come to power asleaders of a conquering Arab elite and to have allowed theconquered peoples to enter Islam en masse would have abolished orat least weakened the distinction between the elite and the massesThe crucial privileges of Islam from this point of view were in thearea of taxation In principle the Arabs were to be the recipients ofthe taxes paid by the non-Arabs If the conquered peoples wereallowed to become Muslims and to change their position from thatof payers to that of recipients of taxes the whole system upon whichthe Umayyads depended would collapse But as the pressure fromthe non-Arabs built up and the universalist notion of Islam becamestronger this problem became increasingly urgent for the dynastyand played a major part in the generally negative attitude of Muslimstowards the Umayyad dynasty6

How far the development of Islam in the Umayyad periodinvolved radical changes in religious practices or beliefs is not easyto say Broadly speaking Muslim tradition assumes that thefundamental institutions of Islammdashsuch things as belief inMuhammad as a prophet acceptance of the Koran in the form inwhich we know it as the word of God and performance of the mainrituals such as the five times daily prayer (salat) and the annualpilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) mdashexisted at the beginning of theUmayyad period and were accepted equally by the Umayyads andtheir opponents The difficulty is to decide how far our Muslimsources which are relatively late in the form in which we have themare reading back later conditions into an earlier period

Sometimes certainly we have hints that the situation was not sostatic or so uniform as the tradition generally implies For examplewe are told that Muslim rebels supporting Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the

6 Introduction

Umayyads in the early years of the eighth century accused the caliphof lsquomurderingrsquo the ritual prayer (salat) and called for vengeance forit although what this meant and what exactly was involved ifanything specific is not spelled out7 Even such tantalisinglyobscure hints are relatively scarce and when we do sometimes havemore substantial information its significance seems often to belimited in one of two ways

First the information may centre on a point which seems to berelatively minor For instance much play is made with the chargethat the Umayyads insisted on delivering the khutba (in the earlyperiod a speech or sermon given usually in the mosque by the caliphor his representative and often dealing with secular as well as morepurely religious affairs) while sitting contrary to what is alleged tohave been the practice established by the Prophet and his immediatesuccessors This is supposed to be a sign of the haughtiness of theUmayyads refusing to stand before their subjects and preferringlike kings to remain seated Even though the detail may have lostsome of its significance because of the later decline in importance ofthe khutba and its associated institutions and ceremonies howeverit is difficult to see arguments about the correct posture for thekhutba as of fundamental importance for the development of IslamIn the way in which the practice is presented by Muslim tradition itdoes not provide grounds for arguing that the outward forms ofIslam underwent great and radical changes under the Umayyads8

Secondly even when the information is apparently more weightythe impression is usually given that the Umayyads were pervertingsome orthodox practice or belief which already existed and waswidely accepted by Muslims There is no suggestion that basicreligious ideas were still in a state of flux and that lsquoorthodoxyrsquo (anambiguous term in Islam since there is no central authority to saywhat is and what is not orthodox) was only slowly developing Weare told for instance that some of the Umayyads tried to makeJerusalem a centre of pilgrimage but the sources imply that this wasagainst the background of an already generally accepted practice ofannual pilgrimage to Mecca which had been established as the culticcentre of Islam from the time of the Prophet The reader should beaware of such preconceptions in the sources and consider thepossibility that there may not have been as yet any firmlyestablished cultic centre in Islam9

Any attempt to argue that there were during the Umayyad periodmore fundamental religious developments than the sources allow

Introduction 7

for therefore involves a certain amount of lsquoreading between thelinesrsquo of Muslim tradition and using whatever evidence is availableoutside the Muslim literary sources A recent discussion using suchmethods has questioned whether the name lsquoIslamrsquo as thedesignation for the religion of the Arabs existed much before theend of the seventh century10 Muslim tradition itself though hasproved remarkably impervious to analysis with such questions inmind and onersquos attitude to the question of the extent of the religiousdevelopment of Islam in the Umayyad period must depend greatlyon onersquos attitude to the value of Muslim sources for the history ofthe period and especially the earlier part

The spread of Islam during this period as already indicated hasto be viewed on two levels that of its territorial expansion and thatof its acceptance by the conquered non-Arab peoples from a varietyof religious backgrounds

Muslim tradition is generally more concerned with the formerprocess When an area is under Muslim rule and subject to Muslimlaw that area is regarded as a part of the Muslim world (dar al-Islam) even though the majority of its population may remain non-Muslim Strictly speaking only Christians Jews and Zoroastrians(these last known as majus) were to be allowed to refuse to acceptIslam and maintain their existence as separate religious communitiesunder Muslim rule but in practice toleration was frequentlyextended more widely

From this point of view then the extensive conquests made underthe Umayyads were an extension of Islam At the beginning of theUmayyad period Arab Muslim rule did not extend much further westthan modern Libya or further east than the eastern regions of Iranand even within these areas many regions must have been held onlyprecariously or merely nominally By the end of the dynasty all ofNorth Africa and southern and central Spain were included in theboundaries of the Muslim world and in the east the extension ofcontrol into central Asia and northern India prepared the way forlater advances in those areas

In the west the garrison town of Qayrawan was founded about 670 inIfriqiya (modern Tunisia) and this served as the base for furtherwestward expansion lsquoUqba b Nafilsquo is subsequently said to havemarched as far as the Atlantic before being killed by the still unsubduedBerbers but it was not until the end of the century that regions ofmodern Algeria and Morocco were substantially pacified and theBerbers brought into Islam but keeping their own language and tribal

8 Introduction

system This development is associated with the governorship ofHassan b Nulsquoman in Ifriqiya (683ndash707) It was Hassanrsquos successorMusa b Nusayr who initiated the invasion of Spain in 711 sending hisBerber client (mawla) Tariq to lead the expedition It is from this Tariqthat Gibraltar takes its name (Jabal Tariq lsquothe hill of Tariqrsquo)

In the east too the years around 700 saw major advances Al-Hajjajgovernor of the eastern part of the Umayyad territories from 694 to 714sent his generals Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the ruler of Kabul Qutayba bMuslim into the territories lying beyond the river Oxus (Jayhun or AmuDarya in Muslim works) and Muhammad b al-Qasim into northernIndia Qutayba is said to have reached the borders of China and sent anembassy demanding submission from the lsquoking of Chinarsquo The extentand effectiveness of these expeditions may sometimes be open toquestion but it is clear that Arab Muslim control was extended andconsolidated in the east under the Umayyads11

The spread of Islam among the non-Arab peoples of the conqueredregions is much less explicitly described in our sources At the outset ofthe Umayyad period it is clear that very few of the conquered peopleshad accepted Islam however we understand this last phrase (islamliterally means lsquosubmissionrsquo) But by the end of the period in spite ofthe initial attempt by the Arabs to keep themselves apart religiously andsocially from their subjects and in spite of the refusal by caliphs andgovernors to allow the non-Arabs to enjoy the advantages of acceptanceof Islam large numbers of the subject peoples had come to identifythemselves as Muslims

The spread of Islam vertically in this way is clearly a complexprocess depending on a variety of factors which were not the same inevery area or among every group of the non-Arab population andresulting in divergent rates of progress Because of the silence orambiguity of the sources we are often reduced to speculation aboutcauses and the spread of the process For example we know very littleabout the islamisation of Syria and there are only one or two referencesin non-Muslim sources which seem to indicate substantial islamisationof the local peoples during the Umayyad period On the other hand theMuslim sources have many references to the difficulties caused toUmayyad governors of Iraq and Khurasan when large numbers of non-Arab non-Muslims attempted to accept Islam by becoming mawali inthe early decades of the eighth century but they still leave manyquestions unanswered or answered at best ambiguously

So far as the evidence enables us to judge and leaving aside theBerbers whose society and way of life made them likely allies for

Introduction 9

the Arabs in the wars of conquest it seems to have been in lowerIraq Khurasan and Syria that Islam made the most significantadvances among the subjects peoples in the Umayyad period Inwestern Persia and Egypt on the other hand it seems thatislamisation in this sense was relatively slow and that it was not untilafter the dynasty had been overthrown that Islam became thereligion of the majority in these areas12

In spite of our uncertainties it seems clear that the Umayyadperiod was crucial for the process of Islamisation in all its forms

Arabisation

By lsquoarabisationrsquo I mean the spread of a culture characterised aboveall by its use of the Arabic language in the area which had becomesubject to Arab Muslim rule Although associated with the processof islamisation arabisation is a distinct movement as can be seenfrom the fact that important communities of Jews and Christianssurvived in the Islamic Middle East into modern times Thesecommunities maintained their religious traditions in spite of the factthat they had renounced the everyday languages which they hadused before the Arab conquest and had adopted Arabic ConverselyPersia presents a striking example of a region which largelyaccepted Islam as its religion but maintained its pre-Islamiclanguage at first in everyday and later in literary use although ofcourse the language underwent significant changes in the earlyIslamic period

Again one has to take into account that Arabic itself changed as itspread and was elaborated in the process of interaction betweenArabs and non-Arabs Put crudely as the non-Arab peoples adoptedArabic so their own linguistic habits and backgrounds affected thelanguage leading to significant changes and to the formation ofdifferent dialects The result of this evolution is usually described asMiddle Arabic as opposed to Classical Arabic which is identifiedwith the language of the Koran and of the poetry which it isclaimed originated in pre-Islamic Arabia The origin and nature ofClassical Arabic itself though is to some extent a topic ofcontroversy What led to the adoption or rejection of Arabic by non-Arabic speakers is obviously a very complex question involvingconsideration of political and social relationships as well as morepurely linguistic ones

10 Introduction

In attempting to chart the progress of arabisation the difficultiesagain arise from the lack of explicit information on the topic in ourliterary sources and from the paucity of written material survivingfrom the Umayyad period For instance although it has beensuggested that Jews of all sorts began to speak Arabic as early as theseventh century the process of change must have been gradual andour earliest texts written in Judaeo-Arabic (that is the form of MiddleArabic used by Jews and written in Hebrew rather than Arabic script)come from the ninth century Our earliest Christian Arabic texts(Arabic written in the Greek script) have been dated to the eighthcentury but there has been some argument about the dating On theother hand from later developments we know that Persian must havesurvived as the spoken language of the majority of Iranians during theUmayyad period but our sources only rarely and ambiguously let ussee that it was so and almost all of our source material on the historyof Persia under the Umayyads is in Arabic

More concrete evidence is provided by the administrative papyriwhich have survived from Egypt In spite of the limited range ofsubjects with which they are concerned they at least enable us to see agradual change from Greek to Arabic in the language of theadministration Furthermore our literary sources report that around700 it was ordered that henceforth the government administrationshould use Arabic rather than the languages which had been usedbefore the Arab conquest and which had continued in use thus farThis could indicate that there was at that time a significant number ofnon-Arabs with sufficient command of Arabic at least for the purposesof administration since the bureaucracy continued to relyoverwhelmingly on non-Arabs The change of language in thebureaucracy did not happen overnight and the sources are notunanimous about when it was ordered but in the development ofarabisation it seems to have been a significant step

Why and how Arabic and with it the other features which seem tomake Islamic culture in the Middle East significantly Arab anddistinguish it from others spread is therefore still debatableEventually as we know the adoption of Arabic for most purposesbecame general in Syria Iraq and Egypt while the Berbers andPersians in spite of their acceptance of Islam and therefore of Arabicas their sacred language continued to use their own languages foreveryday purposes We can assume that arabisation like islamisationprogressed a long way under the Umayyads but precise evidence ishard to come by13

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

xxi

Preface and Acknowledgements

Between the general surveys of Islamic Arab or Middle Easternhistory of which there are several of varying quality and detailedmonographs on particular aspects of Umayyad history many ofwhich are not in English there is little that can be recommendedconfidently as an introduction to the importance main events andpersonalities and problems of the Umayyad period The presentwork tries to provide such an introduction

The standard modern account of Umayyad history is JuliusWellhausenrsquos The Arab kingdom and its fall first published inGerman in 1902 and translated into English in 1927 In spite of theinevitable dating of Wellhausenrsquos own political and religiousoutlook and the criticisms of his method of source analysis maderecently by Albrecht Noth his book remains of fundamentalimportance for anyone wanting more than an introductoryknowledge of Umayyad history particularly its political andmilitary events The present work is certainly not intended tosupersede The Arab kingdom

As an introduction however experience has shown thatWellhausenrsquos work is not especially suitable Leaving aside therather idiosyncratic English of its translation it contains more detailthan is readily absorbed its presentation is not as clear as modernreaders expect and its concern with source criticism is notappreciated by those who do not have even a simplified traditionalnarrative against which to set it Attempts to get students to read anddigest Wellhausen usually result in puzzlement and the beginningsof a conviction that Umayyad history is too difficult forundergraduate study

But there is really little else especially in English which treatsthe period as a whole and which can serve as an introduction MAShabanrsquos first volume of his Islamic history A new interpretation itis true is readily available and does provide a lively narrativecoverage of the period Its interpretation however seems to me tobe frequently questionable and on occasion only loosely related to

xxii Preface

the sources and the title itself indicates that it was not conceived asan introduction Similarly Patricia Cronersquos Slaves on horses seemsto me a brilliant analysis of the development of the early Islamicstate and society but not a book for relative beginners since itpresumes rather than provides a fairly detailed acquaintance withthe events of the period There still seems a need therefore for thesort of introduction which I have attempted here

Given then that the present work is not attempting to provide awholly new version of the Umayyad period and that much of itdepends on the findings of the many scholars who have contributedto our understanding of Umayyad history it has seemed unnecessaryto provide references to the original Arabic or other sourcesReaders capable of studying the primary sources themselves willeasily be able to track them down in the secondary works to whichreferences are normally confined in my notes These notes areusually a guide to further reading with readers of English primarilyin mind and are not necessarily the sources of particular statementsbut in a general way they indicate the scholars and works to which Ihave been most indebted Neither the references in my notes nor thebibliography given at the end claim to be complete or extensive butI hope that I have mentioned most works of fundamentalimportance

My special thanks are due to my colleague Dr David Morganwho kindly read the whole typescript and whose feeling for bothhistory and style has undoubtedly saved me from a number ofblunders to my wife Joyce who has similarly read and commentedon the typescript to Sue Harrop the Cartographer at the School ofAfrican and Oriental Studies University of London for help withthe maps and to Peter Sowden who first suggested that I write thebook and then gently prodded until it was done For the remaininglimitations imperfections and errors I am responsible

1

Chapter 1

Introduction The Importance of theUmayyad Period and its Place in IslamicHistory

In the summer or autumn of AD 661 Mulsquoawiya b Abi Sufyangovernor of Syria since 639 and already acclaimed by his Syrianfollowers as caliph (khalifa) religious and political leader of theMuslim state entered the Iraqi garrison town of Kufa In historicaltradition this event is seen as bringing to an end a bitter period ofcivil war among the Arabs achieving the reunification under oneruler of all the territories conquered by them and initiating thecaliphate of the Umayyad dynasty of which Mulsquoawiya was thefounder The dynasty was to rule for 90 years or so until itsoverthrow and replacement by that of the lsquoAbbasids in 749ndash50

The Umayyad dynasty was the first to emerge in the Middle Eastfollowing the conquest of the region by the Arabs a conquest whichhad begun in the 630s and was still continuing for much of theUmayyad period Apart from this fact however what was theimportance of the period of Umayyad rule a period which in itsdetails is often complex and confusing and how has it traditionallybeen regarded by Muslims in relation to the history of Islam Theanswer to the first part of this question is provided by discussion ofthe two concepts of islamisation and arabisation referring to tworelated but essentially distinct historical processes

Islamisation

The term lsquoislamisationrsquo refers both to the extension of the area underMuslim rule and to the acceptance of Islam as their religion bypeoples of different faiths but in the Umayyad period the question isfurther complicated by the fact that Islam itself was developing fromits still to us not completely understood origins into somethingapproaching the religion with which we are familiar One should notimagine that Islam as we know it came fully formed out of Arabiawith the Arabs at the time of their conquest of the Middle East and

2 Introduction

was then accepted or rejected as the case might be by the non-Arabpeoples Although many of the details are obscure and oftencontroversial it seems clear that Islam as we know it is largely a resultof the interaction between the Arabs and the peoples they conqueredduring the first two centuries or so of the Islamic era which began inAD 6221 During the Umayyad period therefore the spread of Islamand the development of Islam were taking place at the same time anda discussion of islamisation has to begin with some consideration ofthe importance of the Umayyad period for the development of Islam

In the first place it was under the Umayyads that there began toemerge that class of religious scholars which eventually became theleading authority within Sunni Islam and which is chiefly responsiblefor shaping the historical and religious tradition which has comedown to us In effect it was this class which led the development ofIslam as we know it and it is important to remember that it emergedlargely in opposition to the Umayyad government The Umayyads hadtheir own conception of Islam itself developing with time anddifferent circumstances but on the whole we see the religion from theviewpoint of the religious scholars

In the emergence of this class the most important region was Iraqand in Iraq Kufa was the leading centre Other regions tended tofollow its lead Building on and reacting against the ideas andpractices available in Kufa and other centres from the second half ofthe Umayyad period onwards groups of Muslim scholars tried todevelop and put on a sound footing what they saw as a true form ofIslam In doing so they frequently accused the Umayyads of impiousor unislamic behaviour

The main concept which these scholars developed and worked withwas that of the Sunna This idea went through several stages butincreasingly came to be identified with the custom and practice of theProphet Muhammad which was to serve as the ideal norm ofbehaviour for his followers and was eventually accepted as the majorsource of Muslim law alongside the Koran Increasingly Muslimideas practices and institutions came to be justified by reference tothe Sunna the words and deeds of Muhammad as transmitted by hiscompanions to later generations The proponents of the Sunna as thusunderstood became increasingly influential and political andreligious developments after the Umayyads had been overthrownresulted in the final crystallisation of the Sunni form of Islam with thereligious scholars the guardians of the Sunna as its leadingauthority2

Introduction 3

Not all Muslims though accepted the primacy or even thelegitimacy of the Sunna and the Umayyad period also saw theemergence of the two other main forms of Islam Shilsquoism andKharijism Tradition dates the fragmentation of a previously unitedIslam into the three main forms which we know today (SunnisShilsquoites and Kharijites) to the time of the first civil war (656ndash61)which ended with the accession of Mulsquoawiya to the caliphateHowever just as the development of Sunni Islam was a slow processwhich only began under the Umayyads so too Shilsquoism andKharijism were not born in one instant They too developed inopposition to the Umayyads in a number of distinct movementswhich each had individual characteristics and again Iraq was ofprime importance

Kufa was the centre of the development of Shilsquoism in theUmayyad period As early as 670 but especially after the revolt ofMukhtar in 685ndash7 Kufa saw a number of movements aimed atoverthrowing the Umayyads and appointing a relative of theProphet usually a descendant of his cousin and son-in-law lsquoAli asimam which title the Shilsquoites tend to prefer to caliph Where theseShilsquoite movements differed from one another was in the particularmember of the Prophetrsquos family whom they favoured and in certainother doctrines they developed what they had in common wasdevotion to the Prophetrsquos family and insistence that membership ofit was a sine qua non for the imam Some of them developed moreextreme beliefs such as acceptance of the imam as an incarnation ofGod and a doctrine of the transmigration of souls It seems that froman early date the conquered non-Arab peoples were attracted to theShilsquoite movements and it may be that some of their doctrines wereinfluenced by the previous beliefs of these non-Arab supportersShilsquoism has a long and complex history which extends well beyondthe Umayyad period but it was then that its basic character wasestablished3

The basic principle of Kharijism was a demand for piety andreligious excellence as the only necessary qualification for the imamand a rejection of the view that he should belong to the family of theProphet as the Shilsquoites demanded or to the tribe of the Prophet(Quraysh) as the Sunnis required Like Shilsquoism Kharijism too wasmanifested in a number of movements some relatively moderate andothers more extreme The extremists tended to insist on the rejectionof all other Muslims regarding them as infidels and therefore liable tobe killed unless they lsquorepentedrsquo and lsquoaccepted Islamrsquo that is unless

4 Introduction

they recognised the Kharijite imam and accepted the Kharijite form ofIslam This fierce rejection of other Muslims however involving theduty of rebellion against what was regarded as an illegitimategovernment became increasingly difficult to maintain except in areasremote from the authority of the government or in times when theauthority of the government for some reason collapsed In Basra thesecond of the Iraqi garrison towns on the other hand a moremoderate form of Kharijism was elaborated and spread to easternArabia and North Africa It is this form of Kharijism which hassurvived into the modern world4

Each of these three main Muslim groups came to hold that Islamshould be open to all peoples and that all should enjoy the same statuswithin it regarding rights and duties The development of this idea tooof Islam as a universal religion can be traced to the Umayyad periodagain in circles opposed to the dynasty

Although it can be debated whether the Koran was addressed to allmen or to the Arabs only the Umayyads and the Arab tribesmen whofirst conquered the Middle East regarded their religion as largelyexclusive of the conquered peoples There was no sustained attempt toforce or even persuade the conquered peoples to accept Islam and itwas assumed that they would remain in their own communities payingtaxes to support the conquerors Although from the start there wassome movement of the conquered into the community of theconquerors the separation of Arabs from non-Arabs was a basicprinciple of the state established as a result of the conquests This isclear both from the procedure which a non-Arab had to adopt in orderto enter Islam and from the fact that there were from time to timeofficial measures designed to prevent such changes of status Islamwas in fact regarded as the property of the conquering aristocracy

In order to attach himself to the religion and society of the Arabs anon-Arab had to become the client (mawla pl mawali) of an Arabtribe In other words in order to become a Muslim something whichit is possible to see as a social or political as much as a religious movehe had to acquire an Arab patron and become a sort of honorarymember of his patronrsquos tribe adding the tribal name to his own newMuslim one even though he and his descendants were in some waystreated as second-class Muslims It is evident therefore thatmembership of Islam was equated with possession of an Arab ethnicidentity5

Nevertheless association with the elite in this way did haveadvantages for some and at various times in different places we hear

Introduction 5

of large numbers of non-Arabs attempting to enter Islam bybecoming mawali but being prevented from doing so or at leastfrom having their changed status recognised by local Umayyadgovernors Probably the best-known example was in Iraq around 700when large numbers of local non-Arab cultivators sought to abandontheir lands and flee into the Arab garrison towns to enter Islam asmawali only to be forced back by the Umayyad governor al-Hajjajwho refused to recognise their claims

In the long run it proved impossible to maintain the isolation ofconquerors and conquered from one another in this way andattempts to do so only served to alienate further those Muslimgroups which had come to see Islam as a religion open to all Theproblem for the Umayyads was that they had come to power asleaders of a conquering Arab elite and to have allowed theconquered peoples to enter Islam en masse would have abolished orat least weakened the distinction between the elite and the massesThe crucial privileges of Islam from this point of view were in thearea of taxation In principle the Arabs were to be the recipients ofthe taxes paid by the non-Arabs If the conquered peoples wereallowed to become Muslims and to change their position from thatof payers to that of recipients of taxes the whole system upon whichthe Umayyads depended would collapse But as the pressure fromthe non-Arabs built up and the universalist notion of Islam becamestronger this problem became increasingly urgent for the dynastyand played a major part in the generally negative attitude of Muslimstowards the Umayyad dynasty6

How far the development of Islam in the Umayyad periodinvolved radical changes in religious practices or beliefs is not easyto say Broadly speaking Muslim tradition assumes that thefundamental institutions of Islammdashsuch things as belief inMuhammad as a prophet acceptance of the Koran in the form inwhich we know it as the word of God and performance of the mainrituals such as the five times daily prayer (salat) and the annualpilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) mdashexisted at the beginning of theUmayyad period and were accepted equally by the Umayyads andtheir opponents The difficulty is to decide how far our Muslimsources which are relatively late in the form in which we have themare reading back later conditions into an earlier period

Sometimes certainly we have hints that the situation was not sostatic or so uniform as the tradition generally implies For examplewe are told that Muslim rebels supporting Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the

6 Introduction

Umayyads in the early years of the eighth century accused the caliphof lsquomurderingrsquo the ritual prayer (salat) and called for vengeance forit although what this meant and what exactly was involved ifanything specific is not spelled out7 Even such tantalisinglyobscure hints are relatively scarce and when we do sometimes havemore substantial information its significance seems often to belimited in one of two ways

First the information may centre on a point which seems to berelatively minor For instance much play is made with the chargethat the Umayyads insisted on delivering the khutba (in the earlyperiod a speech or sermon given usually in the mosque by the caliphor his representative and often dealing with secular as well as morepurely religious affairs) while sitting contrary to what is alleged tohave been the practice established by the Prophet and his immediatesuccessors This is supposed to be a sign of the haughtiness of theUmayyads refusing to stand before their subjects and preferringlike kings to remain seated Even though the detail may have lostsome of its significance because of the later decline in importance ofthe khutba and its associated institutions and ceremonies howeverit is difficult to see arguments about the correct posture for thekhutba as of fundamental importance for the development of IslamIn the way in which the practice is presented by Muslim tradition itdoes not provide grounds for arguing that the outward forms ofIslam underwent great and radical changes under the Umayyads8

Secondly even when the information is apparently more weightythe impression is usually given that the Umayyads were pervertingsome orthodox practice or belief which already existed and waswidely accepted by Muslims There is no suggestion that basicreligious ideas were still in a state of flux and that lsquoorthodoxyrsquo (anambiguous term in Islam since there is no central authority to saywhat is and what is not orthodox) was only slowly developing Weare told for instance that some of the Umayyads tried to makeJerusalem a centre of pilgrimage but the sources imply that this wasagainst the background of an already generally accepted practice ofannual pilgrimage to Mecca which had been established as the culticcentre of Islam from the time of the Prophet The reader should beaware of such preconceptions in the sources and consider thepossibility that there may not have been as yet any firmlyestablished cultic centre in Islam9

Any attempt to argue that there were during the Umayyad periodmore fundamental religious developments than the sources allow

Introduction 7

for therefore involves a certain amount of lsquoreading between thelinesrsquo of Muslim tradition and using whatever evidence is availableoutside the Muslim literary sources A recent discussion using suchmethods has questioned whether the name lsquoIslamrsquo as thedesignation for the religion of the Arabs existed much before theend of the seventh century10 Muslim tradition itself though hasproved remarkably impervious to analysis with such questions inmind and onersquos attitude to the question of the extent of the religiousdevelopment of Islam in the Umayyad period must depend greatlyon onersquos attitude to the value of Muslim sources for the history ofthe period and especially the earlier part

The spread of Islam during this period as already indicated hasto be viewed on two levels that of its territorial expansion and thatof its acceptance by the conquered non-Arab peoples from a varietyof religious backgrounds

Muslim tradition is generally more concerned with the formerprocess When an area is under Muslim rule and subject to Muslimlaw that area is regarded as a part of the Muslim world (dar al-Islam) even though the majority of its population may remain non-Muslim Strictly speaking only Christians Jews and Zoroastrians(these last known as majus) were to be allowed to refuse to acceptIslam and maintain their existence as separate religious communitiesunder Muslim rule but in practice toleration was frequentlyextended more widely

From this point of view then the extensive conquests made underthe Umayyads were an extension of Islam At the beginning of theUmayyad period Arab Muslim rule did not extend much further westthan modern Libya or further east than the eastern regions of Iranand even within these areas many regions must have been held onlyprecariously or merely nominally By the end of the dynasty all ofNorth Africa and southern and central Spain were included in theboundaries of the Muslim world and in the east the extension ofcontrol into central Asia and northern India prepared the way forlater advances in those areas

In the west the garrison town of Qayrawan was founded about 670 inIfriqiya (modern Tunisia) and this served as the base for furtherwestward expansion lsquoUqba b Nafilsquo is subsequently said to havemarched as far as the Atlantic before being killed by the still unsubduedBerbers but it was not until the end of the century that regions ofmodern Algeria and Morocco were substantially pacified and theBerbers brought into Islam but keeping their own language and tribal

8 Introduction

system This development is associated with the governorship ofHassan b Nulsquoman in Ifriqiya (683ndash707) It was Hassanrsquos successorMusa b Nusayr who initiated the invasion of Spain in 711 sending hisBerber client (mawla) Tariq to lead the expedition It is from this Tariqthat Gibraltar takes its name (Jabal Tariq lsquothe hill of Tariqrsquo)

In the east too the years around 700 saw major advances Al-Hajjajgovernor of the eastern part of the Umayyad territories from 694 to 714sent his generals Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the ruler of Kabul Qutayba bMuslim into the territories lying beyond the river Oxus (Jayhun or AmuDarya in Muslim works) and Muhammad b al-Qasim into northernIndia Qutayba is said to have reached the borders of China and sent anembassy demanding submission from the lsquoking of Chinarsquo The extentand effectiveness of these expeditions may sometimes be open toquestion but it is clear that Arab Muslim control was extended andconsolidated in the east under the Umayyads11

The spread of Islam among the non-Arab peoples of the conqueredregions is much less explicitly described in our sources At the outset ofthe Umayyad period it is clear that very few of the conquered peopleshad accepted Islam however we understand this last phrase (islamliterally means lsquosubmissionrsquo) But by the end of the period in spite ofthe initial attempt by the Arabs to keep themselves apart religiously andsocially from their subjects and in spite of the refusal by caliphs andgovernors to allow the non-Arabs to enjoy the advantages of acceptanceof Islam large numbers of the subject peoples had come to identifythemselves as Muslims

The spread of Islam vertically in this way is clearly a complexprocess depending on a variety of factors which were not the same inevery area or among every group of the non-Arab population andresulting in divergent rates of progress Because of the silence orambiguity of the sources we are often reduced to speculation aboutcauses and the spread of the process For example we know very littleabout the islamisation of Syria and there are only one or two referencesin non-Muslim sources which seem to indicate substantial islamisationof the local peoples during the Umayyad period On the other hand theMuslim sources have many references to the difficulties caused toUmayyad governors of Iraq and Khurasan when large numbers of non-Arab non-Muslims attempted to accept Islam by becoming mawali inthe early decades of the eighth century but they still leave manyquestions unanswered or answered at best ambiguously

So far as the evidence enables us to judge and leaving aside theBerbers whose society and way of life made them likely allies for

Introduction 9

the Arabs in the wars of conquest it seems to have been in lowerIraq Khurasan and Syria that Islam made the most significantadvances among the subjects peoples in the Umayyad period Inwestern Persia and Egypt on the other hand it seems thatislamisation in this sense was relatively slow and that it was not untilafter the dynasty had been overthrown that Islam became thereligion of the majority in these areas12

In spite of our uncertainties it seems clear that the Umayyadperiod was crucial for the process of Islamisation in all its forms

Arabisation

By lsquoarabisationrsquo I mean the spread of a culture characterised aboveall by its use of the Arabic language in the area which had becomesubject to Arab Muslim rule Although associated with the processof islamisation arabisation is a distinct movement as can be seenfrom the fact that important communities of Jews and Christianssurvived in the Islamic Middle East into modern times Thesecommunities maintained their religious traditions in spite of the factthat they had renounced the everyday languages which they hadused before the Arab conquest and had adopted Arabic ConverselyPersia presents a striking example of a region which largelyaccepted Islam as its religion but maintained its pre-Islamiclanguage at first in everyday and later in literary use although ofcourse the language underwent significant changes in the earlyIslamic period

Again one has to take into account that Arabic itself changed as itspread and was elaborated in the process of interaction betweenArabs and non-Arabs Put crudely as the non-Arab peoples adoptedArabic so their own linguistic habits and backgrounds affected thelanguage leading to significant changes and to the formation ofdifferent dialects The result of this evolution is usually described asMiddle Arabic as opposed to Classical Arabic which is identifiedwith the language of the Koran and of the poetry which it isclaimed originated in pre-Islamic Arabia The origin and nature ofClassical Arabic itself though is to some extent a topic ofcontroversy What led to the adoption or rejection of Arabic by non-Arabic speakers is obviously a very complex question involvingconsideration of political and social relationships as well as morepurely linguistic ones

10 Introduction

In attempting to chart the progress of arabisation the difficultiesagain arise from the lack of explicit information on the topic in ourliterary sources and from the paucity of written material survivingfrom the Umayyad period For instance although it has beensuggested that Jews of all sorts began to speak Arabic as early as theseventh century the process of change must have been gradual andour earliest texts written in Judaeo-Arabic (that is the form of MiddleArabic used by Jews and written in Hebrew rather than Arabic script)come from the ninth century Our earliest Christian Arabic texts(Arabic written in the Greek script) have been dated to the eighthcentury but there has been some argument about the dating On theother hand from later developments we know that Persian must havesurvived as the spoken language of the majority of Iranians during theUmayyad period but our sources only rarely and ambiguously let ussee that it was so and almost all of our source material on the historyof Persia under the Umayyads is in Arabic

More concrete evidence is provided by the administrative papyriwhich have survived from Egypt In spite of the limited range ofsubjects with which they are concerned they at least enable us to see agradual change from Greek to Arabic in the language of theadministration Furthermore our literary sources report that around700 it was ordered that henceforth the government administrationshould use Arabic rather than the languages which had been usedbefore the Arab conquest and which had continued in use thus farThis could indicate that there was at that time a significant number ofnon-Arabs with sufficient command of Arabic at least for the purposesof administration since the bureaucracy continued to relyoverwhelmingly on non-Arabs The change of language in thebureaucracy did not happen overnight and the sources are notunanimous about when it was ordered but in the development ofarabisation it seems to have been a significant step

Why and how Arabic and with it the other features which seem tomake Islamic culture in the Middle East significantly Arab anddistinguish it from others spread is therefore still debatableEventually as we know the adoption of Arabic for most purposesbecame general in Syria Iraq and Egypt while the Berbers andPersians in spite of their acceptance of Islam and therefore of Arabicas their sacred language continued to use their own languages foreveryday purposes We can assume that arabisation like islamisationprogressed a long way under the Umayyads but precise evidence ishard to come by13

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

xxii Preface

the sources and the title itself indicates that it was not conceived asan introduction Similarly Patricia Cronersquos Slaves on horses seemsto me a brilliant analysis of the development of the early Islamicstate and society but not a book for relative beginners since itpresumes rather than provides a fairly detailed acquaintance withthe events of the period There still seems a need therefore for thesort of introduction which I have attempted here

Given then that the present work is not attempting to provide awholly new version of the Umayyad period and that much of itdepends on the findings of the many scholars who have contributedto our understanding of Umayyad history it has seemed unnecessaryto provide references to the original Arabic or other sourcesReaders capable of studying the primary sources themselves willeasily be able to track them down in the secondary works to whichreferences are normally confined in my notes These notes areusually a guide to further reading with readers of English primarilyin mind and are not necessarily the sources of particular statementsbut in a general way they indicate the scholars and works to which Ihave been most indebted Neither the references in my notes nor thebibliography given at the end claim to be complete or extensive butI hope that I have mentioned most works of fundamentalimportance

My special thanks are due to my colleague Dr David Morganwho kindly read the whole typescript and whose feeling for bothhistory and style has undoubtedly saved me from a number ofblunders to my wife Joyce who has similarly read and commentedon the typescript to Sue Harrop the Cartographer at the School ofAfrican and Oriental Studies University of London for help withthe maps and to Peter Sowden who first suggested that I write thebook and then gently prodded until it was done For the remaininglimitations imperfections and errors I am responsible

1

Chapter 1

Introduction The Importance of theUmayyad Period and its Place in IslamicHistory

In the summer or autumn of AD 661 Mulsquoawiya b Abi Sufyangovernor of Syria since 639 and already acclaimed by his Syrianfollowers as caliph (khalifa) religious and political leader of theMuslim state entered the Iraqi garrison town of Kufa In historicaltradition this event is seen as bringing to an end a bitter period ofcivil war among the Arabs achieving the reunification under oneruler of all the territories conquered by them and initiating thecaliphate of the Umayyad dynasty of which Mulsquoawiya was thefounder The dynasty was to rule for 90 years or so until itsoverthrow and replacement by that of the lsquoAbbasids in 749ndash50

The Umayyad dynasty was the first to emerge in the Middle Eastfollowing the conquest of the region by the Arabs a conquest whichhad begun in the 630s and was still continuing for much of theUmayyad period Apart from this fact however what was theimportance of the period of Umayyad rule a period which in itsdetails is often complex and confusing and how has it traditionallybeen regarded by Muslims in relation to the history of Islam Theanswer to the first part of this question is provided by discussion ofthe two concepts of islamisation and arabisation referring to tworelated but essentially distinct historical processes

Islamisation

The term lsquoislamisationrsquo refers both to the extension of the area underMuslim rule and to the acceptance of Islam as their religion bypeoples of different faiths but in the Umayyad period the question isfurther complicated by the fact that Islam itself was developing fromits still to us not completely understood origins into somethingapproaching the religion with which we are familiar One should notimagine that Islam as we know it came fully formed out of Arabiawith the Arabs at the time of their conquest of the Middle East and

2 Introduction

was then accepted or rejected as the case might be by the non-Arabpeoples Although many of the details are obscure and oftencontroversial it seems clear that Islam as we know it is largely a resultof the interaction between the Arabs and the peoples they conqueredduring the first two centuries or so of the Islamic era which began inAD 6221 During the Umayyad period therefore the spread of Islamand the development of Islam were taking place at the same time anda discussion of islamisation has to begin with some consideration ofthe importance of the Umayyad period for the development of Islam

In the first place it was under the Umayyads that there began toemerge that class of religious scholars which eventually became theleading authority within Sunni Islam and which is chiefly responsiblefor shaping the historical and religious tradition which has comedown to us In effect it was this class which led the development ofIslam as we know it and it is important to remember that it emergedlargely in opposition to the Umayyad government The Umayyads hadtheir own conception of Islam itself developing with time anddifferent circumstances but on the whole we see the religion from theviewpoint of the religious scholars

In the emergence of this class the most important region was Iraqand in Iraq Kufa was the leading centre Other regions tended tofollow its lead Building on and reacting against the ideas andpractices available in Kufa and other centres from the second half ofthe Umayyad period onwards groups of Muslim scholars tried todevelop and put on a sound footing what they saw as a true form ofIslam In doing so they frequently accused the Umayyads of impiousor unislamic behaviour

The main concept which these scholars developed and worked withwas that of the Sunna This idea went through several stages butincreasingly came to be identified with the custom and practice of theProphet Muhammad which was to serve as the ideal norm ofbehaviour for his followers and was eventually accepted as the majorsource of Muslim law alongside the Koran Increasingly Muslimideas practices and institutions came to be justified by reference tothe Sunna the words and deeds of Muhammad as transmitted by hiscompanions to later generations The proponents of the Sunna as thusunderstood became increasingly influential and political andreligious developments after the Umayyads had been overthrownresulted in the final crystallisation of the Sunni form of Islam with thereligious scholars the guardians of the Sunna as its leadingauthority2

Introduction 3

Not all Muslims though accepted the primacy or even thelegitimacy of the Sunna and the Umayyad period also saw theemergence of the two other main forms of Islam Shilsquoism andKharijism Tradition dates the fragmentation of a previously unitedIslam into the three main forms which we know today (SunnisShilsquoites and Kharijites) to the time of the first civil war (656ndash61)which ended with the accession of Mulsquoawiya to the caliphateHowever just as the development of Sunni Islam was a slow processwhich only began under the Umayyads so too Shilsquoism andKharijism were not born in one instant They too developed inopposition to the Umayyads in a number of distinct movementswhich each had individual characteristics and again Iraq was ofprime importance

Kufa was the centre of the development of Shilsquoism in theUmayyad period As early as 670 but especially after the revolt ofMukhtar in 685ndash7 Kufa saw a number of movements aimed atoverthrowing the Umayyads and appointing a relative of theProphet usually a descendant of his cousin and son-in-law lsquoAli asimam which title the Shilsquoites tend to prefer to caliph Where theseShilsquoite movements differed from one another was in the particularmember of the Prophetrsquos family whom they favoured and in certainother doctrines they developed what they had in common wasdevotion to the Prophetrsquos family and insistence that membership ofit was a sine qua non for the imam Some of them developed moreextreme beliefs such as acceptance of the imam as an incarnation ofGod and a doctrine of the transmigration of souls It seems that froman early date the conquered non-Arab peoples were attracted to theShilsquoite movements and it may be that some of their doctrines wereinfluenced by the previous beliefs of these non-Arab supportersShilsquoism has a long and complex history which extends well beyondthe Umayyad period but it was then that its basic character wasestablished3

The basic principle of Kharijism was a demand for piety andreligious excellence as the only necessary qualification for the imamand a rejection of the view that he should belong to the family of theProphet as the Shilsquoites demanded or to the tribe of the Prophet(Quraysh) as the Sunnis required Like Shilsquoism Kharijism too wasmanifested in a number of movements some relatively moderate andothers more extreme The extremists tended to insist on the rejectionof all other Muslims regarding them as infidels and therefore liable tobe killed unless they lsquorepentedrsquo and lsquoaccepted Islamrsquo that is unless

4 Introduction

they recognised the Kharijite imam and accepted the Kharijite form ofIslam This fierce rejection of other Muslims however involving theduty of rebellion against what was regarded as an illegitimategovernment became increasingly difficult to maintain except in areasremote from the authority of the government or in times when theauthority of the government for some reason collapsed In Basra thesecond of the Iraqi garrison towns on the other hand a moremoderate form of Kharijism was elaborated and spread to easternArabia and North Africa It is this form of Kharijism which hassurvived into the modern world4

Each of these three main Muslim groups came to hold that Islamshould be open to all peoples and that all should enjoy the same statuswithin it regarding rights and duties The development of this idea tooof Islam as a universal religion can be traced to the Umayyad periodagain in circles opposed to the dynasty

Although it can be debated whether the Koran was addressed to allmen or to the Arabs only the Umayyads and the Arab tribesmen whofirst conquered the Middle East regarded their religion as largelyexclusive of the conquered peoples There was no sustained attempt toforce or even persuade the conquered peoples to accept Islam and itwas assumed that they would remain in their own communities payingtaxes to support the conquerors Although from the start there wassome movement of the conquered into the community of theconquerors the separation of Arabs from non-Arabs was a basicprinciple of the state established as a result of the conquests This isclear both from the procedure which a non-Arab had to adopt in orderto enter Islam and from the fact that there were from time to timeofficial measures designed to prevent such changes of status Islamwas in fact regarded as the property of the conquering aristocracy

In order to attach himself to the religion and society of the Arabs anon-Arab had to become the client (mawla pl mawali) of an Arabtribe In other words in order to become a Muslim something whichit is possible to see as a social or political as much as a religious movehe had to acquire an Arab patron and become a sort of honorarymember of his patronrsquos tribe adding the tribal name to his own newMuslim one even though he and his descendants were in some waystreated as second-class Muslims It is evident therefore thatmembership of Islam was equated with possession of an Arab ethnicidentity5

Nevertheless association with the elite in this way did haveadvantages for some and at various times in different places we hear

Introduction 5

of large numbers of non-Arabs attempting to enter Islam bybecoming mawali but being prevented from doing so or at leastfrom having their changed status recognised by local Umayyadgovernors Probably the best-known example was in Iraq around 700when large numbers of local non-Arab cultivators sought to abandontheir lands and flee into the Arab garrison towns to enter Islam asmawali only to be forced back by the Umayyad governor al-Hajjajwho refused to recognise their claims

In the long run it proved impossible to maintain the isolation ofconquerors and conquered from one another in this way andattempts to do so only served to alienate further those Muslimgroups which had come to see Islam as a religion open to all Theproblem for the Umayyads was that they had come to power asleaders of a conquering Arab elite and to have allowed theconquered peoples to enter Islam en masse would have abolished orat least weakened the distinction between the elite and the massesThe crucial privileges of Islam from this point of view were in thearea of taxation In principle the Arabs were to be the recipients ofthe taxes paid by the non-Arabs If the conquered peoples wereallowed to become Muslims and to change their position from thatof payers to that of recipients of taxes the whole system upon whichthe Umayyads depended would collapse But as the pressure fromthe non-Arabs built up and the universalist notion of Islam becamestronger this problem became increasingly urgent for the dynastyand played a major part in the generally negative attitude of Muslimstowards the Umayyad dynasty6

How far the development of Islam in the Umayyad periodinvolved radical changes in religious practices or beliefs is not easyto say Broadly speaking Muslim tradition assumes that thefundamental institutions of Islammdashsuch things as belief inMuhammad as a prophet acceptance of the Koran in the form inwhich we know it as the word of God and performance of the mainrituals such as the five times daily prayer (salat) and the annualpilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) mdashexisted at the beginning of theUmayyad period and were accepted equally by the Umayyads andtheir opponents The difficulty is to decide how far our Muslimsources which are relatively late in the form in which we have themare reading back later conditions into an earlier period

Sometimes certainly we have hints that the situation was not sostatic or so uniform as the tradition generally implies For examplewe are told that Muslim rebels supporting Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the

6 Introduction

Umayyads in the early years of the eighth century accused the caliphof lsquomurderingrsquo the ritual prayer (salat) and called for vengeance forit although what this meant and what exactly was involved ifanything specific is not spelled out7 Even such tantalisinglyobscure hints are relatively scarce and when we do sometimes havemore substantial information its significance seems often to belimited in one of two ways

First the information may centre on a point which seems to berelatively minor For instance much play is made with the chargethat the Umayyads insisted on delivering the khutba (in the earlyperiod a speech or sermon given usually in the mosque by the caliphor his representative and often dealing with secular as well as morepurely religious affairs) while sitting contrary to what is alleged tohave been the practice established by the Prophet and his immediatesuccessors This is supposed to be a sign of the haughtiness of theUmayyads refusing to stand before their subjects and preferringlike kings to remain seated Even though the detail may have lostsome of its significance because of the later decline in importance ofthe khutba and its associated institutions and ceremonies howeverit is difficult to see arguments about the correct posture for thekhutba as of fundamental importance for the development of IslamIn the way in which the practice is presented by Muslim tradition itdoes not provide grounds for arguing that the outward forms ofIslam underwent great and radical changes under the Umayyads8

Secondly even when the information is apparently more weightythe impression is usually given that the Umayyads were pervertingsome orthodox practice or belief which already existed and waswidely accepted by Muslims There is no suggestion that basicreligious ideas were still in a state of flux and that lsquoorthodoxyrsquo (anambiguous term in Islam since there is no central authority to saywhat is and what is not orthodox) was only slowly developing Weare told for instance that some of the Umayyads tried to makeJerusalem a centre of pilgrimage but the sources imply that this wasagainst the background of an already generally accepted practice ofannual pilgrimage to Mecca which had been established as the culticcentre of Islam from the time of the Prophet The reader should beaware of such preconceptions in the sources and consider thepossibility that there may not have been as yet any firmlyestablished cultic centre in Islam9

Any attempt to argue that there were during the Umayyad periodmore fundamental religious developments than the sources allow

Introduction 7

for therefore involves a certain amount of lsquoreading between thelinesrsquo of Muslim tradition and using whatever evidence is availableoutside the Muslim literary sources A recent discussion using suchmethods has questioned whether the name lsquoIslamrsquo as thedesignation for the religion of the Arabs existed much before theend of the seventh century10 Muslim tradition itself though hasproved remarkably impervious to analysis with such questions inmind and onersquos attitude to the question of the extent of the religiousdevelopment of Islam in the Umayyad period must depend greatlyon onersquos attitude to the value of Muslim sources for the history ofthe period and especially the earlier part

The spread of Islam during this period as already indicated hasto be viewed on two levels that of its territorial expansion and thatof its acceptance by the conquered non-Arab peoples from a varietyof religious backgrounds

Muslim tradition is generally more concerned with the formerprocess When an area is under Muslim rule and subject to Muslimlaw that area is regarded as a part of the Muslim world (dar al-Islam) even though the majority of its population may remain non-Muslim Strictly speaking only Christians Jews and Zoroastrians(these last known as majus) were to be allowed to refuse to acceptIslam and maintain their existence as separate religious communitiesunder Muslim rule but in practice toleration was frequentlyextended more widely

From this point of view then the extensive conquests made underthe Umayyads were an extension of Islam At the beginning of theUmayyad period Arab Muslim rule did not extend much further westthan modern Libya or further east than the eastern regions of Iranand even within these areas many regions must have been held onlyprecariously or merely nominally By the end of the dynasty all ofNorth Africa and southern and central Spain were included in theboundaries of the Muslim world and in the east the extension ofcontrol into central Asia and northern India prepared the way forlater advances in those areas

In the west the garrison town of Qayrawan was founded about 670 inIfriqiya (modern Tunisia) and this served as the base for furtherwestward expansion lsquoUqba b Nafilsquo is subsequently said to havemarched as far as the Atlantic before being killed by the still unsubduedBerbers but it was not until the end of the century that regions ofmodern Algeria and Morocco were substantially pacified and theBerbers brought into Islam but keeping their own language and tribal

8 Introduction

system This development is associated with the governorship ofHassan b Nulsquoman in Ifriqiya (683ndash707) It was Hassanrsquos successorMusa b Nusayr who initiated the invasion of Spain in 711 sending hisBerber client (mawla) Tariq to lead the expedition It is from this Tariqthat Gibraltar takes its name (Jabal Tariq lsquothe hill of Tariqrsquo)

In the east too the years around 700 saw major advances Al-Hajjajgovernor of the eastern part of the Umayyad territories from 694 to 714sent his generals Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the ruler of Kabul Qutayba bMuslim into the territories lying beyond the river Oxus (Jayhun or AmuDarya in Muslim works) and Muhammad b al-Qasim into northernIndia Qutayba is said to have reached the borders of China and sent anembassy demanding submission from the lsquoking of Chinarsquo The extentand effectiveness of these expeditions may sometimes be open toquestion but it is clear that Arab Muslim control was extended andconsolidated in the east under the Umayyads11

The spread of Islam among the non-Arab peoples of the conqueredregions is much less explicitly described in our sources At the outset ofthe Umayyad period it is clear that very few of the conquered peopleshad accepted Islam however we understand this last phrase (islamliterally means lsquosubmissionrsquo) But by the end of the period in spite ofthe initial attempt by the Arabs to keep themselves apart religiously andsocially from their subjects and in spite of the refusal by caliphs andgovernors to allow the non-Arabs to enjoy the advantages of acceptanceof Islam large numbers of the subject peoples had come to identifythemselves as Muslims

The spread of Islam vertically in this way is clearly a complexprocess depending on a variety of factors which were not the same inevery area or among every group of the non-Arab population andresulting in divergent rates of progress Because of the silence orambiguity of the sources we are often reduced to speculation aboutcauses and the spread of the process For example we know very littleabout the islamisation of Syria and there are only one or two referencesin non-Muslim sources which seem to indicate substantial islamisationof the local peoples during the Umayyad period On the other hand theMuslim sources have many references to the difficulties caused toUmayyad governors of Iraq and Khurasan when large numbers of non-Arab non-Muslims attempted to accept Islam by becoming mawali inthe early decades of the eighth century but they still leave manyquestions unanswered or answered at best ambiguously

So far as the evidence enables us to judge and leaving aside theBerbers whose society and way of life made them likely allies for

Introduction 9

the Arabs in the wars of conquest it seems to have been in lowerIraq Khurasan and Syria that Islam made the most significantadvances among the subjects peoples in the Umayyad period Inwestern Persia and Egypt on the other hand it seems thatislamisation in this sense was relatively slow and that it was not untilafter the dynasty had been overthrown that Islam became thereligion of the majority in these areas12

In spite of our uncertainties it seems clear that the Umayyadperiod was crucial for the process of Islamisation in all its forms

Arabisation

By lsquoarabisationrsquo I mean the spread of a culture characterised aboveall by its use of the Arabic language in the area which had becomesubject to Arab Muslim rule Although associated with the processof islamisation arabisation is a distinct movement as can be seenfrom the fact that important communities of Jews and Christianssurvived in the Islamic Middle East into modern times Thesecommunities maintained their religious traditions in spite of the factthat they had renounced the everyday languages which they hadused before the Arab conquest and had adopted Arabic ConverselyPersia presents a striking example of a region which largelyaccepted Islam as its religion but maintained its pre-Islamiclanguage at first in everyday and later in literary use although ofcourse the language underwent significant changes in the earlyIslamic period

Again one has to take into account that Arabic itself changed as itspread and was elaborated in the process of interaction betweenArabs and non-Arabs Put crudely as the non-Arab peoples adoptedArabic so their own linguistic habits and backgrounds affected thelanguage leading to significant changes and to the formation ofdifferent dialects The result of this evolution is usually described asMiddle Arabic as opposed to Classical Arabic which is identifiedwith the language of the Koran and of the poetry which it isclaimed originated in pre-Islamic Arabia The origin and nature ofClassical Arabic itself though is to some extent a topic ofcontroversy What led to the adoption or rejection of Arabic by non-Arabic speakers is obviously a very complex question involvingconsideration of political and social relationships as well as morepurely linguistic ones

10 Introduction

In attempting to chart the progress of arabisation the difficultiesagain arise from the lack of explicit information on the topic in ourliterary sources and from the paucity of written material survivingfrom the Umayyad period For instance although it has beensuggested that Jews of all sorts began to speak Arabic as early as theseventh century the process of change must have been gradual andour earliest texts written in Judaeo-Arabic (that is the form of MiddleArabic used by Jews and written in Hebrew rather than Arabic script)come from the ninth century Our earliest Christian Arabic texts(Arabic written in the Greek script) have been dated to the eighthcentury but there has been some argument about the dating On theother hand from later developments we know that Persian must havesurvived as the spoken language of the majority of Iranians during theUmayyad period but our sources only rarely and ambiguously let ussee that it was so and almost all of our source material on the historyof Persia under the Umayyads is in Arabic

More concrete evidence is provided by the administrative papyriwhich have survived from Egypt In spite of the limited range ofsubjects with which they are concerned they at least enable us to see agradual change from Greek to Arabic in the language of theadministration Furthermore our literary sources report that around700 it was ordered that henceforth the government administrationshould use Arabic rather than the languages which had been usedbefore the Arab conquest and which had continued in use thus farThis could indicate that there was at that time a significant number ofnon-Arabs with sufficient command of Arabic at least for the purposesof administration since the bureaucracy continued to relyoverwhelmingly on non-Arabs The change of language in thebureaucracy did not happen overnight and the sources are notunanimous about when it was ordered but in the development ofarabisation it seems to have been a significant step

Why and how Arabic and with it the other features which seem tomake Islamic culture in the Middle East significantly Arab anddistinguish it from others spread is therefore still debatableEventually as we know the adoption of Arabic for most purposesbecame general in Syria Iraq and Egypt while the Berbers andPersians in spite of their acceptance of Islam and therefore of Arabicas their sacred language continued to use their own languages foreveryday purposes We can assume that arabisation like islamisationprogressed a long way under the Umayyads but precise evidence ishard to come by13

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

1

Chapter 1

Introduction The Importance of theUmayyad Period and its Place in IslamicHistory

In the summer or autumn of AD 661 Mulsquoawiya b Abi Sufyangovernor of Syria since 639 and already acclaimed by his Syrianfollowers as caliph (khalifa) religious and political leader of theMuslim state entered the Iraqi garrison town of Kufa In historicaltradition this event is seen as bringing to an end a bitter period ofcivil war among the Arabs achieving the reunification under oneruler of all the territories conquered by them and initiating thecaliphate of the Umayyad dynasty of which Mulsquoawiya was thefounder The dynasty was to rule for 90 years or so until itsoverthrow and replacement by that of the lsquoAbbasids in 749ndash50

The Umayyad dynasty was the first to emerge in the Middle Eastfollowing the conquest of the region by the Arabs a conquest whichhad begun in the 630s and was still continuing for much of theUmayyad period Apart from this fact however what was theimportance of the period of Umayyad rule a period which in itsdetails is often complex and confusing and how has it traditionallybeen regarded by Muslims in relation to the history of Islam Theanswer to the first part of this question is provided by discussion ofthe two concepts of islamisation and arabisation referring to tworelated but essentially distinct historical processes

Islamisation

The term lsquoislamisationrsquo refers both to the extension of the area underMuslim rule and to the acceptance of Islam as their religion bypeoples of different faiths but in the Umayyad period the question isfurther complicated by the fact that Islam itself was developing fromits still to us not completely understood origins into somethingapproaching the religion with which we are familiar One should notimagine that Islam as we know it came fully formed out of Arabiawith the Arabs at the time of their conquest of the Middle East and

2 Introduction

was then accepted or rejected as the case might be by the non-Arabpeoples Although many of the details are obscure and oftencontroversial it seems clear that Islam as we know it is largely a resultof the interaction between the Arabs and the peoples they conqueredduring the first two centuries or so of the Islamic era which began inAD 6221 During the Umayyad period therefore the spread of Islamand the development of Islam were taking place at the same time anda discussion of islamisation has to begin with some consideration ofthe importance of the Umayyad period for the development of Islam

In the first place it was under the Umayyads that there began toemerge that class of religious scholars which eventually became theleading authority within Sunni Islam and which is chiefly responsiblefor shaping the historical and religious tradition which has comedown to us In effect it was this class which led the development ofIslam as we know it and it is important to remember that it emergedlargely in opposition to the Umayyad government The Umayyads hadtheir own conception of Islam itself developing with time anddifferent circumstances but on the whole we see the religion from theviewpoint of the religious scholars

In the emergence of this class the most important region was Iraqand in Iraq Kufa was the leading centre Other regions tended tofollow its lead Building on and reacting against the ideas andpractices available in Kufa and other centres from the second half ofthe Umayyad period onwards groups of Muslim scholars tried todevelop and put on a sound footing what they saw as a true form ofIslam In doing so they frequently accused the Umayyads of impiousor unislamic behaviour

The main concept which these scholars developed and worked withwas that of the Sunna This idea went through several stages butincreasingly came to be identified with the custom and practice of theProphet Muhammad which was to serve as the ideal norm ofbehaviour for his followers and was eventually accepted as the majorsource of Muslim law alongside the Koran Increasingly Muslimideas practices and institutions came to be justified by reference tothe Sunna the words and deeds of Muhammad as transmitted by hiscompanions to later generations The proponents of the Sunna as thusunderstood became increasingly influential and political andreligious developments after the Umayyads had been overthrownresulted in the final crystallisation of the Sunni form of Islam with thereligious scholars the guardians of the Sunna as its leadingauthority2

Introduction 3

Not all Muslims though accepted the primacy or even thelegitimacy of the Sunna and the Umayyad period also saw theemergence of the two other main forms of Islam Shilsquoism andKharijism Tradition dates the fragmentation of a previously unitedIslam into the three main forms which we know today (SunnisShilsquoites and Kharijites) to the time of the first civil war (656ndash61)which ended with the accession of Mulsquoawiya to the caliphateHowever just as the development of Sunni Islam was a slow processwhich only began under the Umayyads so too Shilsquoism andKharijism were not born in one instant They too developed inopposition to the Umayyads in a number of distinct movementswhich each had individual characteristics and again Iraq was ofprime importance

Kufa was the centre of the development of Shilsquoism in theUmayyad period As early as 670 but especially after the revolt ofMukhtar in 685ndash7 Kufa saw a number of movements aimed atoverthrowing the Umayyads and appointing a relative of theProphet usually a descendant of his cousin and son-in-law lsquoAli asimam which title the Shilsquoites tend to prefer to caliph Where theseShilsquoite movements differed from one another was in the particularmember of the Prophetrsquos family whom they favoured and in certainother doctrines they developed what they had in common wasdevotion to the Prophetrsquos family and insistence that membership ofit was a sine qua non for the imam Some of them developed moreextreme beliefs such as acceptance of the imam as an incarnation ofGod and a doctrine of the transmigration of souls It seems that froman early date the conquered non-Arab peoples were attracted to theShilsquoite movements and it may be that some of their doctrines wereinfluenced by the previous beliefs of these non-Arab supportersShilsquoism has a long and complex history which extends well beyondthe Umayyad period but it was then that its basic character wasestablished3

The basic principle of Kharijism was a demand for piety andreligious excellence as the only necessary qualification for the imamand a rejection of the view that he should belong to the family of theProphet as the Shilsquoites demanded or to the tribe of the Prophet(Quraysh) as the Sunnis required Like Shilsquoism Kharijism too wasmanifested in a number of movements some relatively moderate andothers more extreme The extremists tended to insist on the rejectionof all other Muslims regarding them as infidels and therefore liable tobe killed unless they lsquorepentedrsquo and lsquoaccepted Islamrsquo that is unless

4 Introduction

they recognised the Kharijite imam and accepted the Kharijite form ofIslam This fierce rejection of other Muslims however involving theduty of rebellion against what was regarded as an illegitimategovernment became increasingly difficult to maintain except in areasremote from the authority of the government or in times when theauthority of the government for some reason collapsed In Basra thesecond of the Iraqi garrison towns on the other hand a moremoderate form of Kharijism was elaborated and spread to easternArabia and North Africa It is this form of Kharijism which hassurvived into the modern world4

Each of these three main Muslim groups came to hold that Islamshould be open to all peoples and that all should enjoy the same statuswithin it regarding rights and duties The development of this idea tooof Islam as a universal religion can be traced to the Umayyad periodagain in circles opposed to the dynasty

Although it can be debated whether the Koran was addressed to allmen or to the Arabs only the Umayyads and the Arab tribesmen whofirst conquered the Middle East regarded their religion as largelyexclusive of the conquered peoples There was no sustained attempt toforce or even persuade the conquered peoples to accept Islam and itwas assumed that they would remain in their own communities payingtaxes to support the conquerors Although from the start there wassome movement of the conquered into the community of theconquerors the separation of Arabs from non-Arabs was a basicprinciple of the state established as a result of the conquests This isclear both from the procedure which a non-Arab had to adopt in orderto enter Islam and from the fact that there were from time to timeofficial measures designed to prevent such changes of status Islamwas in fact regarded as the property of the conquering aristocracy

In order to attach himself to the religion and society of the Arabs anon-Arab had to become the client (mawla pl mawali) of an Arabtribe In other words in order to become a Muslim something whichit is possible to see as a social or political as much as a religious movehe had to acquire an Arab patron and become a sort of honorarymember of his patronrsquos tribe adding the tribal name to his own newMuslim one even though he and his descendants were in some waystreated as second-class Muslims It is evident therefore thatmembership of Islam was equated with possession of an Arab ethnicidentity5

Nevertheless association with the elite in this way did haveadvantages for some and at various times in different places we hear

Introduction 5

of large numbers of non-Arabs attempting to enter Islam bybecoming mawali but being prevented from doing so or at leastfrom having their changed status recognised by local Umayyadgovernors Probably the best-known example was in Iraq around 700when large numbers of local non-Arab cultivators sought to abandontheir lands and flee into the Arab garrison towns to enter Islam asmawali only to be forced back by the Umayyad governor al-Hajjajwho refused to recognise their claims

In the long run it proved impossible to maintain the isolation ofconquerors and conquered from one another in this way andattempts to do so only served to alienate further those Muslimgroups which had come to see Islam as a religion open to all Theproblem for the Umayyads was that they had come to power asleaders of a conquering Arab elite and to have allowed theconquered peoples to enter Islam en masse would have abolished orat least weakened the distinction between the elite and the massesThe crucial privileges of Islam from this point of view were in thearea of taxation In principle the Arabs were to be the recipients ofthe taxes paid by the non-Arabs If the conquered peoples wereallowed to become Muslims and to change their position from thatof payers to that of recipients of taxes the whole system upon whichthe Umayyads depended would collapse But as the pressure fromthe non-Arabs built up and the universalist notion of Islam becamestronger this problem became increasingly urgent for the dynastyand played a major part in the generally negative attitude of Muslimstowards the Umayyad dynasty6

How far the development of Islam in the Umayyad periodinvolved radical changes in religious practices or beliefs is not easyto say Broadly speaking Muslim tradition assumes that thefundamental institutions of Islammdashsuch things as belief inMuhammad as a prophet acceptance of the Koran in the form inwhich we know it as the word of God and performance of the mainrituals such as the five times daily prayer (salat) and the annualpilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) mdashexisted at the beginning of theUmayyad period and were accepted equally by the Umayyads andtheir opponents The difficulty is to decide how far our Muslimsources which are relatively late in the form in which we have themare reading back later conditions into an earlier period

Sometimes certainly we have hints that the situation was not sostatic or so uniform as the tradition generally implies For examplewe are told that Muslim rebels supporting Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the

6 Introduction

Umayyads in the early years of the eighth century accused the caliphof lsquomurderingrsquo the ritual prayer (salat) and called for vengeance forit although what this meant and what exactly was involved ifanything specific is not spelled out7 Even such tantalisinglyobscure hints are relatively scarce and when we do sometimes havemore substantial information its significance seems often to belimited in one of two ways

First the information may centre on a point which seems to berelatively minor For instance much play is made with the chargethat the Umayyads insisted on delivering the khutba (in the earlyperiod a speech or sermon given usually in the mosque by the caliphor his representative and often dealing with secular as well as morepurely religious affairs) while sitting contrary to what is alleged tohave been the practice established by the Prophet and his immediatesuccessors This is supposed to be a sign of the haughtiness of theUmayyads refusing to stand before their subjects and preferringlike kings to remain seated Even though the detail may have lostsome of its significance because of the later decline in importance ofthe khutba and its associated institutions and ceremonies howeverit is difficult to see arguments about the correct posture for thekhutba as of fundamental importance for the development of IslamIn the way in which the practice is presented by Muslim tradition itdoes not provide grounds for arguing that the outward forms ofIslam underwent great and radical changes under the Umayyads8

Secondly even when the information is apparently more weightythe impression is usually given that the Umayyads were pervertingsome orthodox practice or belief which already existed and waswidely accepted by Muslims There is no suggestion that basicreligious ideas were still in a state of flux and that lsquoorthodoxyrsquo (anambiguous term in Islam since there is no central authority to saywhat is and what is not orthodox) was only slowly developing Weare told for instance that some of the Umayyads tried to makeJerusalem a centre of pilgrimage but the sources imply that this wasagainst the background of an already generally accepted practice ofannual pilgrimage to Mecca which had been established as the culticcentre of Islam from the time of the Prophet The reader should beaware of such preconceptions in the sources and consider thepossibility that there may not have been as yet any firmlyestablished cultic centre in Islam9

Any attempt to argue that there were during the Umayyad periodmore fundamental religious developments than the sources allow

Introduction 7

for therefore involves a certain amount of lsquoreading between thelinesrsquo of Muslim tradition and using whatever evidence is availableoutside the Muslim literary sources A recent discussion using suchmethods has questioned whether the name lsquoIslamrsquo as thedesignation for the religion of the Arabs existed much before theend of the seventh century10 Muslim tradition itself though hasproved remarkably impervious to analysis with such questions inmind and onersquos attitude to the question of the extent of the religiousdevelopment of Islam in the Umayyad period must depend greatlyon onersquos attitude to the value of Muslim sources for the history ofthe period and especially the earlier part

The spread of Islam during this period as already indicated hasto be viewed on two levels that of its territorial expansion and thatof its acceptance by the conquered non-Arab peoples from a varietyof religious backgrounds

Muslim tradition is generally more concerned with the formerprocess When an area is under Muslim rule and subject to Muslimlaw that area is regarded as a part of the Muslim world (dar al-Islam) even though the majority of its population may remain non-Muslim Strictly speaking only Christians Jews and Zoroastrians(these last known as majus) were to be allowed to refuse to acceptIslam and maintain their existence as separate religious communitiesunder Muslim rule but in practice toleration was frequentlyextended more widely

From this point of view then the extensive conquests made underthe Umayyads were an extension of Islam At the beginning of theUmayyad period Arab Muslim rule did not extend much further westthan modern Libya or further east than the eastern regions of Iranand even within these areas many regions must have been held onlyprecariously or merely nominally By the end of the dynasty all ofNorth Africa and southern and central Spain were included in theboundaries of the Muslim world and in the east the extension ofcontrol into central Asia and northern India prepared the way forlater advances in those areas

In the west the garrison town of Qayrawan was founded about 670 inIfriqiya (modern Tunisia) and this served as the base for furtherwestward expansion lsquoUqba b Nafilsquo is subsequently said to havemarched as far as the Atlantic before being killed by the still unsubduedBerbers but it was not until the end of the century that regions ofmodern Algeria and Morocco were substantially pacified and theBerbers brought into Islam but keeping their own language and tribal

8 Introduction

system This development is associated with the governorship ofHassan b Nulsquoman in Ifriqiya (683ndash707) It was Hassanrsquos successorMusa b Nusayr who initiated the invasion of Spain in 711 sending hisBerber client (mawla) Tariq to lead the expedition It is from this Tariqthat Gibraltar takes its name (Jabal Tariq lsquothe hill of Tariqrsquo)

In the east too the years around 700 saw major advances Al-Hajjajgovernor of the eastern part of the Umayyad territories from 694 to 714sent his generals Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the ruler of Kabul Qutayba bMuslim into the territories lying beyond the river Oxus (Jayhun or AmuDarya in Muslim works) and Muhammad b al-Qasim into northernIndia Qutayba is said to have reached the borders of China and sent anembassy demanding submission from the lsquoking of Chinarsquo The extentand effectiveness of these expeditions may sometimes be open toquestion but it is clear that Arab Muslim control was extended andconsolidated in the east under the Umayyads11

The spread of Islam among the non-Arab peoples of the conqueredregions is much less explicitly described in our sources At the outset ofthe Umayyad period it is clear that very few of the conquered peopleshad accepted Islam however we understand this last phrase (islamliterally means lsquosubmissionrsquo) But by the end of the period in spite ofthe initial attempt by the Arabs to keep themselves apart religiously andsocially from their subjects and in spite of the refusal by caliphs andgovernors to allow the non-Arabs to enjoy the advantages of acceptanceof Islam large numbers of the subject peoples had come to identifythemselves as Muslims

The spread of Islam vertically in this way is clearly a complexprocess depending on a variety of factors which were not the same inevery area or among every group of the non-Arab population andresulting in divergent rates of progress Because of the silence orambiguity of the sources we are often reduced to speculation aboutcauses and the spread of the process For example we know very littleabout the islamisation of Syria and there are only one or two referencesin non-Muslim sources which seem to indicate substantial islamisationof the local peoples during the Umayyad period On the other hand theMuslim sources have many references to the difficulties caused toUmayyad governors of Iraq and Khurasan when large numbers of non-Arab non-Muslims attempted to accept Islam by becoming mawali inthe early decades of the eighth century but they still leave manyquestions unanswered or answered at best ambiguously

So far as the evidence enables us to judge and leaving aside theBerbers whose society and way of life made them likely allies for

Introduction 9

the Arabs in the wars of conquest it seems to have been in lowerIraq Khurasan and Syria that Islam made the most significantadvances among the subjects peoples in the Umayyad period Inwestern Persia and Egypt on the other hand it seems thatislamisation in this sense was relatively slow and that it was not untilafter the dynasty had been overthrown that Islam became thereligion of the majority in these areas12

In spite of our uncertainties it seems clear that the Umayyadperiod was crucial for the process of Islamisation in all its forms

Arabisation

By lsquoarabisationrsquo I mean the spread of a culture characterised aboveall by its use of the Arabic language in the area which had becomesubject to Arab Muslim rule Although associated with the processof islamisation arabisation is a distinct movement as can be seenfrom the fact that important communities of Jews and Christianssurvived in the Islamic Middle East into modern times Thesecommunities maintained their religious traditions in spite of the factthat they had renounced the everyday languages which they hadused before the Arab conquest and had adopted Arabic ConverselyPersia presents a striking example of a region which largelyaccepted Islam as its religion but maintained its pre-Islamiclanguage at first in everyday and later in literary use although ofcourse the language underwent significant changes in the earlyIslamic period

Again one has to take into account that Arabic itself changed as itspread and was elaborated in the process of interaction betweenArabs and non-Arabs Put crudely as the non-Arab peoples adoptedArabic so their own linguistic habits and backgrounds affected thelanguage leading to significant changes and to the formation ofdifferent dialects The result of this evolution is usually described asMiddle Arabic as opposed to Classical Arabic which is identifiedwith the language of the Koran and of the poetry which it isclaimed originated in pre-Islamic Arabia The origin and nature ofClassical Arabic itself though is to some extent a topic ofcontroversy What led to the adoption or rejection of Arabic by non-Arabic speakers is obviously a very complex question involvingconsideration of political and social relationships as well as morepurely linguistic ones

10 Introduction

In attempting to chart the progress of arabisation the difficultiesagain arise from the lack of explicit information on the topic in ourliterary sources and from the paucity of written material survivingfrom the Umayyad period For instance although it has beensuggested that Jews of all sorts began to speak Arabic as early as theseventh century the process of change must have been gradual andour earliest texts written in Judaeo-Arabic (that is the form of MiddleArabic used by Jews and written in Hebrew rather than Arabic script)come from the ninth century Our earliest Christian Arabic texts(Arabic written in the Greek script) have been dated to the eighthcentury but there has been some argument about the dating On theother hand from later developments we know that Persian must havesurvived as the spoken language of the majority of Iranians during theUmayyad period but our sources only rarely and ambiguously let ussee that it was so and almost all of our source material on the historyof Persia under the Umayyads is in Arabic

More concrete evidence is provided by the administrative papyriwhich have survived from Egypt In spite of the limited range ofsubjects with which they are concerned they at least enable us to see agradual change from Greek to Arabic in the language of theadministration Furthermore our literary sources report that around700 it was ordered that henceforth the government administrationshould use Arabic rather than the languages which had been usedbefore the Arab conquest and which had continued in use thus farThis could indicate that there was at that time a significant number ofnon-Arabs with sufficient command of Arabic at least for the purposesof administration since the bureaucracy continued to relyoverwhelmingly on non-Arabs The change of language in thebureaucracy did not happen overnight and the sources are notunanimous about when it was ordered but in the development ofarabisation it seems to have been a significant step

Why and how Arabic and with it the other features which seem tomake Islamic culture in the Middle East significantly Arab anddistinguish it from others spread is therefore still debatableEventually as we know the adoption of Arabic for most purposesbecame general in Syria Iraq and Egypt while the Berbers andPersians in spite of their acceptance of Islam and therefore of Arabicas their sacred language continued to use their own languages foreveryday purposes We can assume that arabisation like islamisationprogressed a long way under the Umayyads but precise evidence ishard to come by13

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

2 Introduction

was then accepted or rejected as the case might be by the non-Arabpeoples Although many of the details are obscure and oftencontroversial it seems clear that Islam as we know it is largely a resultof the interaction between the Arabs and the peoples they conqueredduring the first two centuries or so of the Islamic era which began inAD 6221 During the Umayyad period therefore the spread of Islamand the development of Islam were taking place at the same time anda discussion of islamisation has to begin with some consideration ofthe importance of the Umayyad period for the development of Islam

In the first place it was under the Umayyads that there began toemerge that class of religious scholars which eventually became theleading authority within Sunni Islam and which is chiefly responsiblefor shaping the historical and religious tradition which has comedown to us In effect it was this class which led the development ofIslam as we know it and it is important to remember that it emergedlargely in opposition to the Umayyad government The Umayyads hadtheir own conception of Islam itself developing with time anddifferent circumstances but on the whole we see the religion from theviewpoint of the religious scholars

In the emergence of this class the most important region was Iraqand in Iraq Kufa was the leading centre Other regions tended tofollow its lead Building on and reacting against the ideas andpractices available in Kufa and other centres from the second half ofthe Umayyad period onwards groups of Muslim scholars tried todevelop and put on a sound footing what they saw as a true form ofIslam In doing so they frequently accused the Umayyads of impiousor unislamic behaviour

The main concept which these scholars developed and worked withwas that of the Sunna This idea went through several stages butincreasingly came to be identified with the custom and practice of theProphet Muhammad which was to serve as the ideal norm ofbehaviour for his followers and was eventually accepted as the majorsource of Muslim law alongside the Koran Increasingly Muslimideas practices and institutions came to be justified by reference tothe Sunna the words and deeds of Muhammad as transmitted by hiscompanions to later generations The proponents of the Sunna as thusunderstood became increasingly influential and political andreligious developments after the Umayyads had been overthrownresulted in the final crystallisation of the Sunni form of Islam with thereligious scholars the guardians of the Sunna as its leadingauthority2

Introduction 3

Not all Muslims though accepted the primacy or even thelegitimacy of the Sunna and the Umayyad period also saw theemergence of the two other main forms of Islam Shilsquoism andKharijism Tradition dates the fragmentation of a previously unitedIslam into the three main forms which we know today (SunnisShilsquoites and Kharijites) to the time of the first civil war (656ndash61)which ended with the accession of Mulsquoawiya to the caliphateHowever just as the development of Sunni Islam was a slow processwhich only began under the Umayyads so too Shilsquoism andKharijism were not born in one instant They too developed inopposition to the Umayyads in a number of distinct movementswhich each had individual characteristics and again Iraq was ofprime importance

Kufa was the centre of the development of Shilsquoism in theUmayyad period As early as 670 but especially after the revolt ofMukhtar in 685ndash7 Kufa saw a number of movements aimed atoverthrowing the Umayyads and appointing a relative of theProphet usually a descendant of his cousin and son-in-law lsquoAli asimam which title the Shilsquoites tend to prefer to caliph Where theseShilsquoite movements differed from one another was in the particularmember of the Prophetrsquos family whom they favoured and in certainother doctrines they developed what they had in common wasdevotion to the Prophetrsquos family and insistence that membership ofit was a sine qua non for the imam Some of them developed moreextreme beliefs such as acceptance of the imam as an incarnation ofGod and a doctrine of the transmigration of souls It seems that froman early date the conquered non-Arab peoples were attracted to theShilsquoite movements and it may be that some of their doctrines wereinfluenced by the previous beliefs of these non-Arab supportersShilsquoism has a long and complex history which extends well beyondthe Umayyad period but it was then that its basic character wasestablished3

The basic principle of Kharijism was a demand for piety andreligious excellence as the only necessary qualification for the imamand a rejection of the view that he should belong to the family of theProphet as the Shilsquoites demanded or to the tribe of the Prophet(Quraysh) as the Sunnis required Like Shilsquoism Kharijism too wasmanifested in a number of movements some relatively moderate andothers more extreme The extremists tended to insist on the rejectionof all other Muslims regarding them as infidels and therefore liable tobe killed unless they lsquorepentedrsquo and lsquoaccepted Islamrsquo that is unless

4 Introduction

they recognised the Kharijite imam and accepted the Kharijite form ofIslam This fierce rejection of other Muslims however involving theduty of rebellion against what was regarded as an illegitimategovernment became increasingly difficult to maintain except in areasremote from the authority of the government or in times when theauthority of the government for some reason collapsed In Basra thesecond of the Iraqi garrison towns on the other hand a moremoderate form of Kharijism was elaborated and spread to easternArabia and North Africa It is this form of Kharijism which hassurvived into the modern world4

Each of these three main Muslim groups came to hold that Islamshould be open to all peoples and that all should enjoy the same statuswithin it regarding rights and duties The development of this idea tooof Islam as a universal religion can be traced to the Umayyad periodagain in circles opposed to the dynasty

Although it can be debated whether the Koran was addressed to allmen or to the Arabs only the Umayyads and the Arab tribesmen whofirst conquered the Middle East regarded their religion as largelyexclusive of the conquered peoples There was no sustained attempt toforce or even persuade the conquered peoples to accept Islam and itwas assumed that they would remain in their own communities payingtaxes to support the conquerors Although from the start there wassome movement of the conquered into the community of theconquerors the separation of Arabs from non-Arabs was a basicprinciple of the state established as a result of the conquests This isclear both from the procedure which a non-Arab had to adopt in orderto enter Islam and from the fact that there were from time to timeofficial measures designed to prevent such changes of status Islamwas in fact regarded as the property of the conquering aristocracy

In order to attach himself to the religion and society of the Arabs anon-Arab had to become the client (mawla pl mawali) of an Arabtribe In other words in order to become a Muslim something whichit is possible to see as a social or political as much as a religious movehe had to acquire an Arab patron and become a sort of honorarymember of his patronrsquos tribe adding the tribal name to his own newMuslim one even though he and his descendants were in some waystreated as second-class Muslims It is evident therefore thatmembership of Islam was equated with possession of an Arab ethnicidentity5

Nevertheless association with the elite in this way did haveadvantages for some and at various times in different places we hear

Introduction 5

of large numbers of non-Arabs attempting to enter Islam bybecoming mawali but being prevented from doing so or at leastfrom having their changed status recognised by local Umayyadgovernors Probably the best-known example was in Iraq around 700when large numbers of local non-Arab cultivators sought to abandontheir lands and flee into the Arab garrison towns to enter Islam asmawali only to be forced back by the Umayyad governor al-Hajjajwho refused to recognise their claims

In the long run it proved impossible to maintain the isolation ofconquerors and conquered from one another in this way andattempts to do so only served to alienate further those Muslimgroups which had come to see Islam as a religion open to all Theproblem for the Umayyads was that they had come to power asleaders of a conquering Arab elite and to have allowed theconquered peoples to enter Islam en masse would have abolished orat least weakened the distinction between the elite and the massesThe crucial privileges of Islam from this point of view were in thearea of taxation In principle the Arabs were to be the recipients ofthe taxes paid by the non-Arabs If the conquered peoples wereallowed to become Muslims and to change their position from thatof payers to that of recipients of taxes the whole system upon whichthe Umayyads depended would collapse But as the pressure fromthe non-Arabs built up and the universalist notion of Islam becamestronger this problem became increasingly urgent for the dynastyand played a major part in the generally negative attitude of Muslimstowards the Umayyad dynasty6

How far the development of Islam in the Umayyad periodinvolved radical changes in religious practices or beliefs is not easyto say Broadly speaking Muslim tradition assumes that thefundamental institutions of Islammdashsuch things as belief inMuhammad as a prophet acceptance of the Koran in the form inwhich we know it as the word of God and performance of the mainrituals such as the five times daily prayer (salat) and the annualpilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) mdashexisted at the beginning of theUmayyad period and were accepted equally by the Umayyads andtheir opponents The difficulty is to decide how far our Muslimsources which are relatively late in the form in which we have themare reading back later conditions into an earlier period

Sometimes certainly we have hints that the situation was not sostatic or so uniform as the tradition generally implies For examplewe are told that Muslim rebels supporting Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the

6 Introduction

Umayyads in the early years of the eighth century accused the caliphof lsquomurderingrsquo the ritual prayer (salat) and called for vengeance forit although what this meant and what exactly was involved ifanything specific is not spelled out7 Even such tantalisinglyobscure hints are relatively scarce and when we do sometimes havemore substantial information its significance seems often to belimited in one of two ways

First the information may centre on a point which seems to berelatively minor For instance much play is made with the chargethat the Umayyads insisted on delivering the khutba (in the earlyperiod a speech or sermon given usually in the mosque by the caliphor his representative and often dealing with secular as well as morepurely religious affairs) while sitting contrary to what is alleged tohave been the practice established by the Prophet and his immediatesuccessors This is supposed to be a sign of the haughtiness of theUmayyads refusing to stand before their subjects and preferringlike kings to remain seated Even though the detail may have lostsome of its significance because of the later decline in importance ofthe khutba and its associated institutions and ceremonies howeverit is difficult to see arguments about the correct posture for thekhutba as of fundamental importance for the development of IslamIn the way in which the practice is presented by Muslim tradition itdoes not provide grounds for arguing that the outward forms ofIslam underwent great and radical changes under the Umayyads8

Secondly even when the information is apparently more weightythe impression is usually given that the Umayyads were pervertingsome orthodox practice or belief which already existed and waswidely accepted by Muslims There is no suggestion that basicreligious ideas were still in a state of flux and that lsquoorthodoxyrsquo (anambiguous term in Islam since there is no central authority to saywhat is and what is not orthodox) was only slowly developing Weare told for instance that some of the Umayyads tried to makeJerusalem a centre of pilgrimage but the sources imply that this wasagainst the background of an already generally accepted practice ofannual pilgrimage to Mecca which had been established as the culticcentre of Islam from the time of the Prophet The reader should beaware of such preconceptions in the sources and consider thepossibility that there may not have been as yet any firmlyestablished cultic centre in Islam9

Any attempt to argue that there were during the Umayyad periodmore fundamental religious developments than the sources allow

Introduction 7

for therefore involves a certain amount of lsquoreading between thelinesrsquo of Muslim tradition and using whatever evidence is availableoutside the Muslim literary sources A recent discussion using suchmethods has questioned whether the name lsquoIslamrsquo as thedesignation for the religion of the Arabs existed much before theend of the seventh century10 Muslim tradition itself though hasproved remarkably impervious to analysis with such questions inmind and onersquos attitude to the question of the extent of the religiousdevelopment of Islam in the Umayyad period must depend greatlyon onersquos attitude to the value of Muslim sources for the history ofthe period and especially the earlier part

The spread of Islam during this period as already indicated hasto be viewed on two levels that of its territorial expansion and thatof its acceptance by the conquered non-Arab peoples from a varietyof religious backgrounds

Muslim tradition is generally more concerned with the formerprocess When an area is under Muslim rule and subject to Muslimlaw that area is regarded as a part of the Muslim world (dar al-Islam) even though the majority of its population may remain non-Muslim Strictly speaking only Christians Jews and Zoroastrians(these last known as majus) were to be allowed to refuse to acceptIslam and maintain their existence as separate religious communitiesunder Muslim rule but in practice toleration was frequentlyextended more widely

From this point of view then the extensive conquests made underthe Umayyads were an extension of Islam At the beginning of theUmayyad period Arab Muslim rule did not extend much further westthan modern Libya or further east than the eastern regions of Iranand even within these areas many regions must have been held onlyprecariously or merely nominally By the end of the dynasty all ofNorth Africa and southern and central Spain were included in theboundaries of the Muslim world and in the east the extension ofcontrol into central Asia and northern India prepared the way forlater advances in those areas

In the west the garrison town of Qayrawan was founded about 670 inIfriqiya (modern Tunisia) and this served as the base for furtherwestward expansion lsquoUqba b Nafilsquo is subsequently said to havemarched as far as the Atlantic before being killed by the still unsubduedBerbers but it was not until the end of the century that regions ofmodern Algeria and Morocco were substantially pacified and theBerbers brought into Islam but keeping their own language and tribal

8 Introduction

system This development is associated with the governorship ofHassan b Nulsquoman in Ifriqiya (683ndash707) It was Hassanrsquos successorMusa b Nusayr who initiated the invasion of Spain in 711 sending hisBerber client (mawla) Tariq to lead the expedition It is from this Tariqthat Gibraltar takes its name (Jabal Tariq lsquothe hill of Tariqrsquo)

In the east too the years around 700 saw major advances Al-Hajjajgovernor of the eastern part of the Umayyad territories from 694 to 714sent his generals Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the ruler of Kabul Qutayba bMuslim into the territories lying beyond the river Oxus (Jayhun or AmuDarya in Muslim works) and Muhammad b al-Qasim into northernIndia Qutayba is said to have reached the borders of China and sent anembassy demanding submission from the lsquoking of Chinarsquo The extentand effectiveness of these expeditions may sometimes be open toquestion but it is clear that Arab Muslim control was extended andconsolidated in the east under the Umayyads11

The spread of Islam among the non-Arab peoples of the conqueredregions is much less explicitly described in our sources At the outset ofthe Umayyad period it is clear that very few of the conquered peopleshad accepted Islam however we understand this last phrase (islamliterally means lsquosubmissionrsquo) But by the end of the period in spite ofthe initial attempt by the Arabs to keep themselves apart religiously andsocially from their subjects and in spite of the refusal by caliphs andgovernors to allow the non-Arabs to enjoy the advantages of acceptanceof Islam large numbers of the subject peoples had come to identifythemselves as Muslims

The spread of Islam vertically in this way is clearly a complexprocess depending on a variety of factors which were not the same inevery area or among every group of the non-Arab population andresulting in divergent rates of progress Because of the silence orambiguity of the sources we are often reduced to speculation aboutcauses and the spread of the process For example we know very littleabout the islamisation of Syria and there are only one or two referencesin non-Muslim sources which seem to indicate substantial islamisationof the local peoples during the Umayyad period On the other hand theMuslim sources have many references to the difficulties caused toUmayyad governors of Iraq and Khurasan when large numbers of non-Arab non-Muslims attempted to accept Islam by becoming mawali inthe early decades of the eighth century but they still leave manyquestions unanswered or answered at best ambiguously

So far as the evidence enables us to judge and leaving aside theBerbers whose society and way of life made them likely allies for

Introduction 9

the Arabs in the wars of conquest it seems to have been in lowerIraq Khurasan and Syria that Islam made the most significantadvances among the subjects peoples in the Umayyad period Inwestern Persia and Egypt on the other hand it seems thatislamisation in this sense was relatively slow and that it was not untilafter the dynasty had been overthrown that Islam became thereligion of the majority in these areas12

In spite of our uncertainties it seems clear that the Umayyadperiod was crucial for the process of Islamisation in all its forms

Arabisation

By lsquoarabisationrsquo I mean the spread of a culture characterised aboveall by its use of the Arabic language in the area which had becomesubject to Arab Muslim rule Although associated with the processof islamisation arabisation is a distinct movement as can be seenfrom the fact that important communities of Jews and Christianssurvived in the Islamic Middle East into modern times Thesecommunities maintained their religious traditions in spite of the factthat they had renounced the everyday languages which they hadused before the Arab conquest and had adopted Arabic ConverselyPersia presents a striking example of a region which largelyaccepted Islam as its religion but maintained its pre-Islamiclanguage at first in everyday and later in literary use although ofcourse the language underwent significant changes in the earlyIslamic period

Again one has to take into account that Arabic itself changed as itspread and was elaborated in the process of interaction betweenArabs and non-Arabs Put crudely as the non-Arab peoples adoptedArabic so their own linguistic habits and backgrounds affected thelanguage leading to significant changes and to the formation ofdifferent dialects The result of this evolution is usually described asMiddle Arabic as opposed to Classical Arabic which is identifiedwith the language of the Koran and of the poetry which it isclaimed originated in pre-Islamic Arabia The origin and nature ofClassical Arabic itself though is to some extent a topic ofcontroversy What led to the adoption or rejection of Arabic by non-Arabic speakers is obviously a very complex question involvingconsideration of political and social relationships as well as morepurely linguistic ones

10 Introduction

In attempting to chart the progress of arabisation the difficultiesagain arise from the lack of explicit information on the topic in ourliterary sources and from the paucity of written material survivingfrom the Umayyad period For instance although it has beensuggested that Jews of all sorts began to speak Arabic as early as theseventh century the process of change must have been gradual andour earliest texts written in Judaeo-Arabic (that is the form of MiddleArabic used by Jews and written in Hebrew rather than Arabic script)come from the ninth century Our earliest Christian Arabic texts(Arabic written in the Greek script) have been dated to the eighthcentury but there has been some argument about the dating On theother hand from later developments we know that Persian must havesurvived as the spoken language of the majority of Iranians during theUmayyad period but our sources only rarely and ambiguously let ussee that it was so and almost all of our source material on the historyof Persia under the Umayyads is in Arabic

More concrete evidence is provided by the administrative papyriwhich have survived from Egypt In spite of the limited range ofsubjects with which they are concerned they at least enable us to see agradual change from Greek to Arabic in the language of theadministration Furthermore our literary sources report that around700 it was ordered that henceforth the government administrationshould use Arabic rather than the languages which had been usedbefore the Arab conquest and which had continued in use thus farThis could indicate that there was at that time a significant number ofnon-Arabs with sufficient command of Arabic at least for the purposesof administration since the bureaucracy continued to relyoverwhelmingly on non-Arabs The change of language in thebureaucracy did not happen overnight and the sources are notunanimous about when it was ordered but in the development ofarabisation it seems to have been a significant step

Why and how Arabic and with it the other features which seem tomake Islamic culture in the Middle East significantly Arab anddistinguish it from others spread is therefore still debatableEventually as we know the adoption of Arabic for most purposesbecame general in Syria Iraq and Egypt while the Berbers andPersians in spite of their acceptance of Islam and therefore of Arabicas their sacred language continued to use their own languages foreveryday purposes We can assume that arabisation like islamisationprogressed a long way under the Umayyads but precise evidence ishard to come by13

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

Introduction 3

Not all Muslims though accepted the primacy or even thelegitimacy of the Sunna and the Umayyad period also saw theemergence of the two other main forms of Islam Shilsquoism andKharijism Tradition dates the fragmentation of a previously unitedIslam into the three main forms which we know today (SunnisShilsquoites and Kharijites) to the time of the first civil war (656ndash61)which ended with the accession of Mulsquoawiya to the caliphateHowever just as the development of Sunni Islam was a slow processwhich only began under the Umayyads so too Shilsquoism andKharijism were not born in one instant They too developed inopposition to the Umayyads in a number of distinct movementswhich each had individual characteristics and again Iraq was ofprime importance

Kufa was the centre of the development of Shilsquoism in theUmayyad period As early as 670 but especially after the revolt ofMukhtar in 685ndash7 Kufa saw a number of movements aimed atoverthrowing the Umayyads and appointing a relative of theProphet usually a descendant of his cousin and son-in-law lsquoAli asimam which title the Shilsquoites tend to prefer to caliph Where theseShilsquoite movements differed from one another was in the particularmember of the Prophetrsquos family whom they favoured and in certainother doctrines they developed what they had in common wasdevotion to the Prophetrsquos family and insistence that membership ofit was a sine qua non for the imam Some of them developed moreextreme beliefs such as acceptance of the imam as an incarnation ofGod and a doctrine of the transmigration of souls It seems that froman early date the conquered non-Arab peoples were attracted to theShilsquoite movements and it may be that some of their doctrines wereinfluenced by the previous beliefs of these non-Arab supportersShilsquoism has a long and complex history which extends well beyondthe Umayyad period but it was then that its basic character wasestablished3

The basic principle of Kharijism was a demand for piety andreligious excellence as the only necessary qualification for the imamand a rejection of the view that he should belong to the family of theProphet as the Shilsquoites demanded or to the tribe of the Prophet(Quraysh) as the Sunnis required Like Shilsquoism Kharijism too wasmanifested in a number of movements some relatively moderate andothers more extreme The extremists tended to insist on the rejectionof all other Muslims regarding them as infidels and therefore liable tobe killed unless they lsquorepentedrsquo and lsquoaccepted Islamrsquo that is unless

4 Introduction

they recognised the Kharijite imam and accepted the Kharijite form ofIslam This fierce rejection of other Muslims however involving theduty of rebellion against what was regarded as an illegitimategovernment became increasingly difficult to maintain except in areasremote from the authority of the government or in times when theauthority of the government for some reason collapsed In Basra thesecond of the Iraqi garrison towns on the other hand a moremoderate form of Kharijism was elaborated and spread to easternArabia and North Africa It is this form of Kharijism which hassurvived into the modern world4

Each of these three main Muslim groups came to hold that Islamshould be open to all peoples and that all should enjoy the same statuswithin it regarding rights and duties The development of this idea tooof Islam as a universal religion can be traced to the Umayyad periodagain in circles opposed to the dynasty

Although it can be debated whether the Koran was addressed to allmen or to the Arabs only the Umayyads and the Arab tribesmen whofirst conquered the Middle East regarded their religion as largelyexclusive of the conquered peoples There was no sustained attempt toforce or even persuade the conquered peoples to accept Islam and itwas assumed that they would remain in their own communities payingtaxes to support the conquerors Although from the start there wassome movement of the conquered into the community of theconquerors the separation of Arabs from non-Arabs was a basicprinciple of the state established as a result of the conquests This isclear both from the procedure which a non-Arab had to adopt in orderto enter Islam and from the fact that there were from time to timeofficial measures designed to prevent such changes of status Islamwas in fact regarded as the property of the conquering aristocracy

In order to attach himself to the religion and society of the Arabs anon-Arab had to become the client (mawla pl mawali) of an Arabtribe In other words in order to become a Muslim something whichit is possible to see as a social or political as much as a religious movehe had to acquire an Arab patron and become a sort of honorarymember of his patronrsquos tribe adding the tribal name to his own newMuslim one even though he and his descendants were in some waystreated as second-class Muslims It is evident therefore thatmembership of Islam was equated with possession of an Arab ethnicidentity5

Nevertheless association with the elite in this way did haveadvantages for some and at various times in different places we hear

Introduction 5

of large numbers of non-Arabs attempting to enter Islam bybecoming mawali but being prevented from doing so or at leastfrom having their changed status recognised by local Umayyadgovernors Probably the best-known example was in Iraq around 700when large numbers of local non-Arab cultivators sought to abandontheir lands and flee into the Arab garrison towns to enter Islam asmawali only to be forced back by the Umayyad governor al-Hajjajwho refused to recognise their claims

In the long run it proved impossible to maintain the isolation ofconquerors and conquered from one another in this way andattempts to do so only served to alienate further those Muslimgroups which had come to see Islam as a religion open to all Theproblem for the Umayyads was that they had come to power asleaders of a conquering Arab elite and to have allowed theconquered peoples to enter Islam en masse would have abolished orat least weakened the distinction between the elite and the massesThe crucial privileges of Islam from this point of view were in thearea of taxation In principle the Arabs were to be the recipients ofthe taxes paid by the non-Arabs If the conquered peoples wereallowed to become Muslims and to change their position from thatof payers to that of recipients of taxes the whole system upon whichthe Umayyads depended would collapse But as the pressure fromthe non-Arabs built up and the universalist notion of Islam becamestronger this problem became increasingly urgent for the dynastyand played a major part in the generally negative attitude of Muslimstowards the Umayyad dynasty6

How far the development of Islam in the Umayyad periodinvolved radical changes in religious practices or beliefs is not easyto say Broadly speaking Muslim tradition assumes that thefundamental institutions of Islammdashsuch things as belief inMuhammad as a prophet acceptance of the Koran in the form inwhich we know it as the word of God and performance of the mainrituals such as the five times daily prayer (salat) and the annualpilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) mdashexisted at the beginning of theUmayyad period and were accepted equally by the Umayyads andtheir opponents The difficulty is to decide how far our Muslimsources which are relatively late in the form in which we have themare reading back later conditions into an earlier period

Sometimes certainly we have hints that the situation was not sostatic or so uniform as the tradition generally implies For examplewe are told that Muslim rebels supporting Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the

6 Introduction

Umayyads in the early years of the eighth century accused the caliphof lsquomurderingrsquo the ritual prayer (salat) and called for vengeance forit although what this meant and what exactly was involved ifanything specific is not spelled out7 Even such tantalisinglyobscure hints are relatively scarce and when we do sometimes havemore substantial information its significance seems often to belimited in one of two ways

First the information may centre on a point which seems to berelatively minor For instance much play is made with the chargethat the Umayyads insisted on delivering the khutba (in the earlyperiod a speech or sermon given usually in the mosque by the caliphor his representative and often dealing with secular as well as morepurely religious affairs) while sitting contrary to what is alleged tohave been the practice established by the Prophet and his immediatesuccessors This is supposed to be a sign of the haughtiness of theUmayyads refusing to stand before their subjects and preferringlike kings to remain seated Even though the detail may have lostsome of its significance because of the later decline in importance ofthe khutba and its associated institutions and ceremonies howeverit is difficult to see arguments about the correct posture for thekhutba as of fundamental importance for the development of IslamIn the way in which the practice is presented by Muslim tradition itdoes not provide grounds for arguing that the outward forms ofIslam underwent great and radical changes under the Umayyads8

Secondly even when the information is apparently more weightythe impression is usually given that the Umayyads were pervertingsome orthodox practice or belief which already existed and waswidely accepted by Muslims There is no suggestion that basicreligious ideas were still in a state of flux and that lsquoorthodoxyrsquo (anambiguous term in Islam since there is no central authority to saywhat is and what is not orthodox) was only slowly developing Weare told for instance that some of the Umayyads tried to makeJerusalem a centre of pilgrimage but the sources imply that this wasagainst the background of an already generally accepted practice ofannual pilgrimage to Mecca which had been established as the culticcentre of Islam from the time of the Prophet The reader should beaware of such preconceptions in the sources and consider thepossibility that there may not have been as yet any firmlyestablished cultic centre in Islam9

Any attempt to argue that there were during the Umayyad periodmore fundamental religious developments than the sources allow

Introduction 7

for therefore involves a certain amount of lsquoreading between thelinesrsquo of Muslim tradition and using whatever evidence is availableoutside the Muslim literary sources A recent discussion using suchmethods has questioned whether the name lsquoIslamrsquo as thedesignation for the religion of the Arabs existed much before theend of the seventh century10 Muslim tradition itself though hasproved remarkably impervious to analysis with such questions inmind and onersquos attitude to the question of the extent of the religiousdevelopment of Islam in the Umayyad period must depend greatlyon onersquos attitude to the value of Muslim sources for the history ofthe period and especially the earlier part

The spread of Islam during this period as already indicated hasto be viewed on two levels that of its territorial expansion and thatof its acceptance by the conquered non-Arab peoples from a varietyof religious backgrounds

Muslim tradition is generally more concerned with the formerprocess When an area is under Muslim rule and subject to Muslimlaw that area is regarded as a part of the Muslim world (dar al-Islam) even though the majority of its population may remain non-Muslim Strictly speaking only Christians Jews and Zoroastrians(these last known as majus) were to be allowed to refuse to acceptIslam and maintain their existence as separate religious communitiesunder Muslim rule but in practice toleration was frequentlyextended more widely

From this point of view then the extensive conquests made underthe Umayyads were an extension of Islam At the beginning of theUmayyad period Arab Muslim rule did not extend much further westthan modern Libya or further east than the eastern regions of Iranand even within these areas many regions must have been held onlyprecariously or merely nominally By the end of the dynasty all ofNorth Africa and southern and central Spain were included in theboundaries of the Muslim world and in the east the extension ofcontrol into central Asia and northern India prepared the way forlater advances in those areas

In the west the garrison town of Qayrawan was founded about 670 inIfriqiya (modern Tunisia) and this served as the base for furtherwestward expansion lsquoUqba b Nafilsquo is subsequently said to havemarched as far as the Atlantic before being killed by the still unsubduedBerbers but it was not until the end of the century that regions ofmodern Algeria and Morocco were substantially pacified and theBerbers brought into Islam but keeping their own language and tribal

8 Introduction

system This development is associated with the governorship ofHassan b Nulsquoman in Ifriqiya (683ndash707) It was Hassanrsquos successorMusa b Nusayr who initiated the invasion of Spain in 711 sending hisBerber client (mawla) Tariq to lead the expedition It is from this Tariqthat Gibraltar takes its name (Jabal Tariq lsquothe hill of Tariqrsquo)

In the east too the years around 700 saw major advances Al-Hajjajgovernor of the eastern part of the Umayyad territories from 694 to 714sent his generals Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the ruler of Kabul Qutayba bMuslim into the territories lying beyond the river Oxus (Jayhun or AmuDarya in Muslim works) and Muhammad b al-Qasim into northernIndia Qutayba is said to have reached the borders of China and sent anembassy demanding submission from the lsquoking of Chinarsquo The extentand effectiveness of these expeditions may sometimes be open toquestion but it is clear that Arab Muslim control was extended andconsolidated in the east under the Umayyads11

The spread of Islam among the non-Arab peoples of the conqueredregions is much less explicitly described in our sources At the outset ofthe Umayyad period it is clear that very few of the conquered peopleshad accepted Islam however we understand this last phrase (islamliterally means lsquosubmissionrsquo) But by the end of the period in spite ofthe initial attempt by the Arabs to keep themselves apart religiously andsocially from their subjects and in spite of the refusal by caliphs andgovernors to allow the non-Arabs to enjoy the advantages of acceptanceof Islam large numbers of the subject peoples had come to identifythemselves as Muslims

The spread of Islam vertically in this way is clearly a complexprocess depending on a variety of factors which were not the same inevery area or among every group of the non-Arab population andresulting in divergent rates of progress Because of the silence orambiguity of the sources we are often reduced to speculation aboutcauses and the spread of the process For example we know very littleabout the islamisation of Syria and there are only one or two referencesin non-Muslim sources which seem to indicate substantial islamisationof the local peoples during the Umayyad period On the other hand theMuslim sources have many references to the difficulties caused toUmayyad governors of Iraq and Khurasan when large numbers of non-Arab non-Muslims attempted to accept Islam by becoming mawali inthe early decades of the eighth century but they still leave manyquestions unanswered or answered at best ambiguously

So far as the evidence enables us to judge and leaving aside theBerbers whose society and way of life made them likely allies for

Introduction 9

the Arabs in the wars of conquest it seems to have been in lowerIraq Khurasan and Syria that Islam made the most significantadvances among the subjects peoples in the Umayyad period Inwestern Persia and Egypt on the other hand it seems thatislamisation in this sense was relatively slow and that it was not untilafter the dynasty had been overthrown that Islam became thereligion of the majority in these areas12

In spite of our uncertainties it seems clear that the Umayyadperiod was crucial for the process of Islamisation in all its forms

Arabisation

By lsquoarabisationrsquo I mean the spread of a culture characterised aboveall by its use of the Arabic language in the area which had becomesubject to Arab Muslim rule Although associated with the processof islamisation arabisation is a distinct movement as can be seenfrom the fact that important communities of Jews and Christianssurvived in the Islamic Middle East into modern times Thesecommunities maintained their religious traditions in spite of the factthat they had renounced the everyday languages which they hadused before the Arab conquest and had adopted Arabic ConverselyPersia presents a striking example of a region which largelyaccepted Islam as its religion but maintained its pre-Islamiclanguage at first in everyday and later in literary use although ofcourse the language underwent significant changes in the earlyIslamic period

Again one has to take into account that Arabic itself changed as itspread and was elaborated in the process of interaction betweenArabs and non-Arabs Put crudely as the non-Arab peoples adoptedArabic so their own linguistic habits and backgrounds affected thelanguage leading to significant changes and to the formation ofdifferent dialects The result of this evolution is usually described asMiddle Arabic as opposed to Classical Arabic which is identifiedwith the language of the Koran and of the poetry which it isclaimed originated in pre-Islamic Arabia The origin and nature ofClassical Arabic itself though is to some extent a topic ofcontroversy What led to the adoption or rejection of Arabic by non-Arabic speakers is obviously a very complex question involvingconsideration of political and social relationships as well as morepurely linguistic ones

10 Introduction

In attempting to chart the progress of arabisation the difficultiesagain arise from the lack of explicit information on the topic in ourliterary sources and from the paucity of written material survivingfrom the Umayyad period For instance although it has beensuggested that Jews of all sorts began to speak Arabic as early as theseventh century the process of change must have been gradual andour earliest texts written in Judaeo-Arabic (that is the form of MiddleArabic used by Jews and written in Hebrew rather than Arabic script)come from the ninth century Our earliest Christian Arabic texts(Arabic written in the Greek script) have been dated to the eighthcentury but there has been some argument about the dating On theother hand from later developments we know that Persian must havesurvived as the spoken language of the majority of Iranians during theUmayyad period but our sources only rarely and ambiguously let ussee that it was so and almost all of our source material on the historyof Persia under the Umayyads is in Arabic

More concrete evidence is provided by the administrative papyriwhich have survived from Egypt In spite of the limited range ofsubjects with which they are concerned they at least enable us to see agradual change from Greek to Arabic in the language of theadministration Furthermore our literary sources report that around700 it was ordered that henceforth the government administrationshould use Arabic rather than the languages which had been usedbefore the Arab conquest and which had continued in use thus farThis could indicate that there was at that time a significant number ofnon-Arabs with sufficient command of Arabic at least for the purposesof administration since the bureaucracy continued to relyoverwhelmingly on non-Arabs The change of language in thebureaucracy did not happen overnight and the sources are notunanimous about when it was ordered but in the development ofarabisation it seems to have been a significant step

Why and how Arabic and with it the other features which seem tomake Islamic culture in the Middle East significantly Arab anddistinguish it from others spread is therefore still debatableEventually as we know the adoption of Arabic for most purposesbecame general in Syria Iraq and Egypt while the Berbers andPersians in spite of their acceptance of Islam and therefore of Arabicas their sacred language continued to use their own languages foreveryday purposes We can assume that arabisation like islamisationprogressed a long way under the Umayyads but precise evidence ishard to come by13

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

4 Introduction

they recognised the Kharijite imam and accepted the Kharijite form ofIslam This fierce rejection of other Muslims however involving theduty of rebellion against what was regarded as an illegitimategovernment became increasingly difficult to maintain except in areasremote from the authority of the government or in times when theauthority of the government for some reason collapsed In Basra thesecond of the Iraqi garrison towns on the other hand a moremoderate form of Kharijism was elaborated and spread to easternArabia and North Africa It is this form of Kharijism which hassurvived into the modern world4

Each of these three main Muslim groups came to hold that Islamshould be open to all peoples and that all should enjoy the same statuswithin it regarding rights and duties The development of this idea tooof Islam as a universal religion can be traced to the Umayyad periodagain in circles opposed to the dynasty

Although it can be debated whether the Koran was addressed to allmen or to the Arabs only the Umayyads and the Arab tribesmen whofirst conquered the Middle East regarded their religion as largelyexclusive of the conquered peoples There was no sustained attempt toforce or even persuade the conquered peoples to accept Islam and itwas assumed that they would remain in their own communities payingtaxes to support the conquerors Although from the start there wassome movement of the conquered into the community of theconquerors the separation of Arabs from non-Arabs was a basicprinciple of the state established as a result of the conquests This isclear both from the procedure which a non-Arab had to adopt in orderto enter Islam and from the fact that there were from time to timeofficial measures designed to prevent such changes of status Islamwas in fact regarded as the property of the conquering aristocracy

In order to attach himself to the religion and society of the Arabs anon-Arab had to become the client (mawla pl mawali) of an Arabtribe In other words in order to become a Muslim something whichit is possible to see as a social or political as much as a religious movehe had to acquire an Arab patron and become a sort of honorarymember of his patronrsquos tribe adding the tribal name to his own newMuslim one even though he and his descendants were in some waystreated as second-class Muslims It is evident therefore thatmembership of Islam was equated with possession of an Arab ethnicidentity5

Nevertheless association with the elite in this way did haveadvantages for some and at various times in different places we hear

Introduction 5

of large numbers of non-Arabs attempting to enter Islam bybecoming mawali but being prevented from doing so or at leastfrom having their changed status recognised by local Umayyadgovernors Probably the best-known example was in Iraq around 700when large numbers of local non-Arab cultivators sought to abandontheir lands and flee into the Arab garrison towns to enter Islam asmawali only to be forced back by the Umayyad governor al-Hajjajwho refused to recognise their claims

In the long run it proved impossible to maintain the isolation ofconquerors and conquered from one another in this way andattempts to do so only served to alienate further those Muslimgroups which had come to see Islam as a religion open to all Theproblem for the Umayyads was that they had come to power asleaders of a conquering Arab elite and to have allowed theconquered peoples to enter Islam en masse would have abolished orat least weakened the distinction between the elite and the massesThe crucial privileges of Islam from this point of view were in thearea of taxation In principle the Arabs were to be the recipients ofthe taxes paid by the non-Arabs If the conquered peoples wereallowed to become Muslims and to change their position from thatof payers to that of recipients of taxes the whole system upon whichthe Umayyads depended would collapse But as the pressure fromthe non-Arabs built up and the universalist notion of Islam becamestronger this problem became increasingly urgent for the dynastyand played a major part in the generally negative attitude of Muslimstowards the Umayyad dynasty6

How far the development of Islam in the Umayyad periodinvolved radical changes in religious practices or beliefs is not easyto say Broadly speaking Muslim tradition assumes that thefundamental institutions of Islammdashsuch things as belief inMuhammad as a prophet acceptance of the Koran in the form inwhich we know it as the word of God and performance of the mainrituals such as the five times daily prayer (salat) and the annualpilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) mdashexisted at the beginning of theUmayyad period and were accepted equally by the Umayyads andtheir opponents The difficulty is to decide how far our Muslimsources which are relatively late in the form in which we have themare reading back later conditions into an earlier period

Sometimes certainly we have hints that the situation was not sostatic or so uniform as the tradition generally implies For examplewe are told that Muslim rebels supporting Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the

6 Introduction

Umayyads in the early years of the eighth century accused the caliphof lsquomurderingrsquo the ritual prayer (salat) and called for vengeance forit although what this meant and what exactly was involved ifanything specific is not spelled out7 Even such tantalisinglyobscure hints are relatively scarce and when we do sometimes havemore substantial information its significance seems often to belimited in one of two ways

First the information may centre on a point which seems to berelatively minor For instance much play is made with the chargethat the Umayyads insisted on delivering the khutba (in the earlyperiod a speech or sermon given usually in the mosque by the caliphor his representative and often dealing with secular as well as morepurely religious affairs) while sitting contrary to what is alleged tohave been the practice established by the Prophet and his immediatesuccessors This is supposed to be a sign of the haughtiness of theUmayyads refusing to stand before their subjects and preferringlike kings to remain seated Even though the detail may have lostsome of its significance because of the later decline in importance ofthe khutba and its associated institutions and ceremonies howeverit is difficult to see arguments about the correct posture for thekhutba as of fundamental importance for the development of IslamIn the way in which the practice is presented by Muslim tradition itdoes not provide grounds for arguing that the outward forms ofIslam underwent great and radical changes under the Umayyads8

Secondly even when the information is apparently more weightythe impression is usually given that the Umayyads were pervertingsome orthodox practice or belief which already existed and waswidely accepted by Muslims There is no suggestion that basicreligious ideas were still in a state of flux and that lsquoorthodoxyrsquo (anambiguous term in Islam since there is no central authority to saywhat is and what is not orthodox) was only slowly developing Weare told for instance that some of the Umayyads tried to makeJerusalem a centre of pilgrimage but the sources imply that this wasagainst the background of an already generally accepted practice ofannual pilgrimage to Mecca which had been established as the culticcentre of Islam from the time of the Prophet The reader should beaware of such preconceptions in the sources and consider thepossibility that there may not have been as yet any firmlyestablished cultic centre in Islam9

Any attempt to argue that there were during the Umayyad periodmore fundamental religious developments than the sources allow

Introduction 7

for therefore involves a certain amount of lsquoreading between thelinesrsquo of Muslim tradition and using whatever evidence is availableoutside the Muslim literary sources A recent discussion using suchmethods has questioned whether the name lsquoIslamrsquo as thedesignation for the religion of the Arabs existed much before theend of the seventh century10 Muslim tradition itself though hasproved remarkably impervious to analysis with such questions inmind and onersquos attitude to the question of the extent of the religiousdevelopment of Islam in the Umayyad period must depend greatlyon onersquos attitude to the value of Muslim sources for the history ofthe period and especially the earlier part

The spread of Islam during this period as already indicated hasto be viewed on two levels that of its territorial expansion and thatof its acceptance by the conquered non-Arab peoples from a varietyof religious backgrounds

Muslim tradition is generally more concerned with the formerprocess When an area is under Muslim rule and subject to Muslimlaw that area is regarded as a part of the Muslim world (dar al-Islam) even though the majority of its population may remain non-Muslim Strictly speaking only Christians Jews and Zoroastrians(these last known as majus) were to be allowed to refuse to acceptIslam and maintain their existence as separate religious communitiesunder Muslim rule but in practice toleration was frequentlyextended more widely

From this point of view then the extensive conquests made underthe Umayyads were an extension of Islam At the beginning of theUmayyad period Arab Muslim rule did not extend much further westthan modern Libya or further east than the eastern regions of Iranand even within these areas many regions must have been held onlyprecariously or merely nominally By the end of the dynasty all ofNorth Africa and southern and central Spain were included in theboundaries of the Muslim world and in the east the extension ofcontrol into central Asia and northern India prepared the way forlater advances in those areas

In the west the garrison town of Qayrawan was founded about 670 inIfriqiya (modern Tunisia) and this served as the base for furtherwestward expansion lsquoUqba b Nafilsquo is subsequently said to havemarched as far as the Atlantic before being killed by the still unsubduedBerbers but it was not until the end of the century that regions ofmodern Algeria and Morocco were substantially pacified and theBerbers brought into Islam but keeping their own language and tribal

8 Introduction

system This development is associated with the governorship ofHassan b Nulsquoman in Ifriqiya (683ndash707) It was Hassanrsquos successorMusa b Nusayr who initiated the invasion of Spain in 711 sending hisBerber client (mawla) Tariq to lead the expedition It is from this Tariqthat Gibraltar takes its name (Jabal Tariq lsquothe hill of Tariqrsquo)

In the east too the years around 700 saw major advances Al-Hajjajgovernor of the eastern part of the Umayyad territories from 694 to 714sent his generals Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the ruler of Kabul Qutayba bMuslim into the territories lying beyond the river Oxus (Jayhun or AmuDarya in Muslim works) and Muhammad b al-Qasim into northernIndia Qutayba is said to have reached the borders of China and sent anembassy demanding submission from the lsquoking of Chinarsquo The extentand effectiveness of these expeditions may sometimes be open toquestion but it is clear that Arab Muslim control was extended andconsolidated in the east under the Umayyads11

The spread of Islam among the non-Arab peoples of the conqueredregions is much less explicitly described in our sources At the outset ofthe Umayyad period it is clear that very few of the conquered peopleshad accepted Islam however we understand this last phrase (islamliterally means lsquosubmissionrsquo) But by the end of the period in spite ofthe initial attempt by the Arabs to keep themselves apart religiously andsocially from their subjects and in spite of the refusal by caliphs andgovernors to allow the non-Arabs to enjoy the advantages of acceptanceof Islam large numbers of the subject peoples had come to identifythemselves as Muslims

The spread of Islam vertically in this way is clearly a complexprocess depending on a variety of factors which were not the same inevery area or among every group of the non-Arab population andresulting in divergent rates of progress Because of the silence orambiguity of the sources we are often reduced to speculation aboutcauses and the spread of the process For example we know very littleabout the islamisation of Syria and there are only one or two referencesin non-Muslim sources which seem to indicate substantial islamisationof the local peoples during the Umayyad period On the other hand theMuslim sources have many references to the difficulties caused toUmayyad governors of Iraq and Khurasan when large numbers of non-Arab non-Muslims attempted to accept Islam by becoming mawali inthe early decades of the eighth century but they still leave manyquestions unanswered or answered at best ambiguously

So far as the evidence enables us to judge and leaving aside theBerbers whose society and way of life made them likely allies for

Introduction 9

the Arabs in the wars of conquest it seems to have been in lowerIraq Khurasan and Syria that Islam made the most significantadvances among the subjects peoples in the Umayyad period Inwestern Persia and Egypt on the other hand it seems thatislamisation in this sense was relatively slow and that it was not untilafter the dynasty had been overthrown that Islam became thereligion of the majority in these areas12

In spite of our uncertainties it seems clear that the Umayyadperiod was crucial for the process of Islamisation in all its forms

Arabisation

By lsquoarabisationrsquo I mean the spread of a culture characterised aboveall by its use of the Arabic language in the area which had becomesubject to Arab Muslim rule Although associated with the processof islamisation arabisation is a distinct movement as can be seenfrom the fact that important communities of Jews and Christianssurvived in the Islamic Middle East into modern times Thesecommunities maintained their religious traditions in spite of the factthat they had renounced the everyday languages which they hadused before the Arab conquest and had adopted Arabic ConverselyPersia presents a striking example of a region which largelyaccepted Islam as its religion but maintained its pre-Islamiclanguage at first in everyday and later in literary use although ofcourse the language underwent significant changes in the earlyIslamic period

Again one has to take into account that Arabic itself changed as itspread and was elaborated in the process of interaction betweenArabs and non-Arabs Put crudely as the non-Arab peoples adoptedArabic so their own linguistic habits and backgrounds affected thelanguage leading to significant changes and to the formation ofdifferent dialects The result of this evolution is usually described asMiddle Arabic as opposed to Classical Arabic which is identifiedwith the language of the Koran and of the poetry which it isclaimed originated in pre-Islamic Arabia The origin and nature ofClassical Arabic itself though is to some extent a topic ofcontroversy What led to the adoption or rejection of Arabic by non-Arabic speakers is obviously a very complex question involvingconsideration of political and social relationships as well as morepurely linguistic ones

10 Introduction

In attempting to chart the progress of arabisation the difficultiesagain arise from the lack of explicit information on the topic in ourliterary sources and from the paucity of written material survivingfrom the Umayyad period For instance although it has beensuggested that Jews of all sorts began to speak Arabic as early as theseventh century the process of change must have been gradual andour earliest texts written in Judaeo-Arabic (that is the form of MiddleArabic used by Jews and written in Hebrew rather than Arabic script)come from the ninth century Our earliest Christian Arabic texts(Arabic written in the Greek script) have been dated to the eighthcentury but there has been some argument about the dating On theother hand from later developments we know that Persian must havesurvived as the spoken language of the majority of Iranians during theUmayyad period but our sources only rarely and ambiguously let ussee that it was so and almost all of our source material on the historyof Persia under the Umayyads is in Arabic

More concrete evidence is provided by the administrative papyriwhich have survived from Egypt In spite of the limited range ofsubjects with which they are concerned they at least enable us to see agradual change from Greek to Arabic in the language of theadministration Furthermore our literary sources report that around700 it was ordered that henceforth the government administrationshould use Arabic rather than the languages which had been usedbefore the Arab conquest and which had continued in use thus farThis could indicate that there was at that time a significant number ofnon-Arabs with sufficient command of Arabic at least for the purposesof administration since the bureaucracy continued to relyoverwhelmingly on non-Arabs The change of language in thebureaucracy did not happen overnight and the sources are notunanimous about when it was ordered but in the development ofarabisation it seems to have been a significant step

Why and how Arabic and with it the other features which seem tomake Islamic culture in the Middle East significantly Arab anddistinguish it from others spread is therefore still debatableEventually as we know the adoption of Arabic for most purposesbecame general in Syria Iraq and Egypt while the Berbers andPersians in spite of their acceptance of Islam and therefore of Arabicas their sacred language continued to use their own languages foreveryday purposes We can assume that arabisation like islamisationprogressed a long way under the Umayyads but precise evidence ishard to come by13

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

Introduction 5

of large numbers of non-Arabs attempting to enter Islam bybecoming mawali but being prevented from doing so or at leastfrom having their changed status recognised by local Umayyadgovernors Probably the best-known example was in Iraq around 700when large numbers of local non-Arab cultivators sought to abandontheir lands and flee into the Arab garrison towns to enter Islam asmawali only to be forced back by the Umayyad governor al-Hajjajwho refused to recognise their claims

In the long run it proved impossible to maintain the isolation ofconquerors and conquered from one another in this way andattempts to do so only served to alienate further those Muslimgroups which had come to see Islam as a religion open to all Theproblem for the Umayyads was that they had come to power asleaders of a conquering Arab elite and to have allowed theconquered peoples to enter Islam en masse would have abolished orat least weakened the distinction between the elite and the massesThe crucial privileges of Islam from this point of view were in thearea of taxation In principle the Arabs were to be the recipients ofthe taxes paid by the non-Arabs If the conquered peoples wereallowed to become Muslims and to change their position from thatof payers to that of recipients of taxes the whole system upon whichthe Umayyads depended would collapse But as the pressure fromthe non-Arabs built up and the universalist notion of Islam becamestronger this problem became increasingly urgent for the dynastyand played a major part in the generally negative attitude of Muslimstowards the Umayyad dynasty6

How far the development of Islam in the Umayyad periodinvolved radical changes in religious practices or beliefs is not easyto say Broadly speaking Muslim tradition assumes that thefundamental institutions of Islammdashsuch things as belief inMuhammad as a prophet acceptance of the Koran in the form inwhich we know it as the word of God and performance of the mainrituals such as the five times daily prayer (salat) and the annualpilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) mdashexisted at the beginning of theUmayyad period and were accepted equally by the Umayyads andtheir opponents The difficulty is to decide how far our Muslimsources which are relatively late in the form in which we have themare reading back later conditions into an earlier period

Sometimes certainly we have hints that the situation was not sostatic or so uniform as the tradition generally implies For examplewe are told that Muslim rebels supporting Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the

6 Introduction

Umayyads in the early years of the eighth century accused the caliphof lsquomurderingrsquo the ritual prayer (salat) and called for vengeance forit although what this meant and what exactly was involved ifanything specific is not spelled out7 Even such tantalisinglyobscure hints are relatively scarce and when we do sometimes havemore substantial information its significance seems often to belimited in one of two ways

First the information may centre on a point which seems to berelatively minor For instance much play is made with the chargethat the Umayyads insisted on delivering the khutba (in the earlyperiod a speech or sermon given usually in the mosque by the caliphor his representative and often dealing with secular as well as morepurely religious affairs) while sitting contrary to what is alleged tohave been the practice established by the Prophet and his immediatesuccessors This is supposed to be a sign of the haughtiness of theUmayyads refusing to stand before their subjects and preferringlike kings to remain seated Even though the detail may have lostsome of its significance because of the later decline in importance ofthe khutba and its associated institutions and ceremonies howeverit is difficult to see arguments about the correct posture for thekhutba as of fundamental importance for the development of IslamIn the way in which the practice is presented by Muslim tradition itdoes not provide grounds for arguing that the outward forms ofIslam underwent great and radical changes under the Umayyads8

Secondly even when the information is apparently more weightythe impression is usually given that the Umayyads were pervertingsome orthodox practice or belief which already existed and waswidely accepted by Muslims There is no suggestion that basicreligious ideas were still in a state of flux and that lsquoorthodoxyrsquo (anambiguous term in Islam since there is no central authority to saywhat is and what is not orthodox) was only slowly developing Weare told for instance that some of the Umayyads tried to makeJerusalem a centre of pilgrimage but the sources imply that this wasagainst the background of an already generally accepted practice ofannual pilgrimage to Mecca which had been established as the culticcentre of Islam from the time of the Prophet The reader should beaware of such preconceptions in the sources and consider thepossibility that there may not have been as yet any firmlyestablished cultic centre in Islam9

Any attempt to argue that there were during the Umayyad periodmore fundamental religious developments than the sources allow

Introduction 7

for therefore involves a certain amount of lsquoreading between thelinesrsquo of Muslim tradition and using whatever evidence is availableoutside the Muslim literary sources A recent discussion using suchmethods has questioned whether the name lsquoIslamrsquo as thedesignation for the religion of the Arabs existed much before theend of the seventh century10 Muslim tradition itself though hasproved remarkably impervious to analysis with such questions inmind and onersquos attitude to the question of the extent of the religiousdevelopment of Islam in the Umayyad period must depend greatlyon onersquos attitude to the value of Muslim sources for the history ofthe period and especially the earlier part

The spread of Islam during this period as already indicated hasto be viewed on two levels that of its territorial expansion and thatof its acceptance by the conquered non-Arab peoples from a varietyof religious backgrounds

Muslim tradition is generally more concerned with the formerprocess When an area is under Muslim rule and subject to Muslimlaw that area is regarded as a part of the Muslim world (dar al-Islam) even though the majority of its population may remain non-Muslim Strictly speaking only Christians Jews and Zoroastrians(these last known as majus) were to be allowed to refuse to acceptIslam and maintain their existence as separate religious communitiesunder Muslim rule but in practice toleration was frequentlyextended more widely

From this point of view then the extensive conquests made underthe Umayyads were an extension of Islam At the beginning of theUmayyad period Arab Muslim rule did not extend much further westthan modern Libya or further east than the eastern regions of Iranand even within these areas many regions must have been held onlyprecariously or merely nominally By the end of the dynasty all ofNorth Africa and southern and central Spain were included in theboundaries of the Muslim world and in the east the extension ofcontrol into central Asia and northern India prepared the way forlater advances in those areas

In the west the garrison town of Qayrawan was founded about 670 inIfriqiya (modern Tunisia) and this served as the base for furtherwestward expansion lsquoUqba b Nafilsquo is subsequently said to havemarched as far as the Atlantic before being killed by the still unsubduedBerbers but it was not until the end of the century that regions ofmodern Algeria and Morocco were substantially pacified and theBerbers brought into Islam but keeping their own language and tribal

8 Introduction

system This development is associated with the governorship ofHassan b Nulsquoman in Ifriqiya (683ndash707) It was Hassanrsquos successorMusa b Nusayr who initiated the invasion of Spain in 711 sending hisBerber client (mawla) Tariq to lead the expedition It is from this Tariqthat Gibraltar takes its name (Jabal Tariq lsquothe hill of Tariqrsquo)

In the east too the years around 700 saw major advances Al-Hajjajgovernor of the eastern part of the Umayyad territories from 694 to 714sent his generals Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the ruler of Kabul Qutayba bMuslim into the territories lying beyond the river Oxus (Jayhun or AmuDarya in Muslim works) and Muhammad b al-Qasim into northernIndia Qutayba is said to have reached the borders of China and sent anembassy demanding submission from the lsquoking of Chinarsquo The extentand effectiveness of these expeditions may sometimes be open toquestion but it is clear that Arab Muslim control was extended andconsolidated in the east under the Umayyads11

The spread of Islam among the non-Arab peoples of the conqueredregions is much less explicitly described in our sources At the outset ofthe Umayyad period it is clear that very few of the conquered peopleshad accepted Islam however we understand this last phrase (islamliterally means lsquosubmissionrsquo) But by the end of the period in spite ofthe initial attempt by the Arabs to keep themselves apart religiously andsocially from their subjects and in spite of the refusal by caliphs andgovernors to allow the non-Arabs to enjoy the advantages of acceptanceof Islam large numbers of the subject peoples had come to identifythemselves as Muslims

The spread of Islam vertically in this way is clearly a complexprocess depending on a variety of factors which were not the same inevery area or among every group of the non-Arab population andresulting in divergent rates of progress Because of the silence orambiguity of the sources we are often reduced to speculation aboutcauses and the spread of the process For example we know very littleabout the islamisation of Syria and there are only one or two referencesin non-Muslim sources which seem to indicate substantial islamisationof the local peoples during the Umayyad period On the other hand theMuslim sources have many references to the difficulties caused toUmayyad governors of Iraq and Khurasan when large numbers of non-Arab non-Muslims attempted to accept Islam by becoming mawali inthe early decades of the eighth century but they still leave manyquestions unanswered or answered at best ambiguously

So far as the evidence enables us to judge and leaving aside theBerbers whose society and way of life made them likely allies for

Introduction 9

the Arabs in the wars of conquest it seems to have been in lowerIraq Khurasan and Syria that Islam made the most significantadvances among the subjects peoples in the Umayyad period Inwestern Persia and Egypt on the other hand it seems thatislamisation in this sense was relatively slow and that it was not untilafter the dynasty had been overthrown that Islam became thereligion of the majority in these areas12

In spite of our uncertainties it seems clear that the Umayyadperiod was crucial for the process of Islamisation in all its forms

Arabisation

By lsquoarabisationrsquo I mean the spread of a culture characterised aboveall by its use of the Arabic language in the area which had becomesubject to Arab Muslim rule Although associated with the processof islamisation arabisation is a distinct movement as can be seenfrom the fact that important communities of Jews and Christianssurvived in the Islamic Middle East into modern times Thesecommunities maintained their religious traditions in spite of the factthat they had renounced the everyday languages which they hadused before the Arab conquest and had adopted Arabic ConverselyPersia presents a striking example of a region which largelyaccepted Islam as its religion but maintained its pre-Islamiclanguage at first in everyday and later in literary use although ofcourse the language underwent significant changes in the earlyIslamic period

Again one has to take into account that Arabic itself changed as itspread and was elaborated in the process of interaction betweenArabs and non-Arabs Put crudely as the non-Arab peoples adoptedArabic so their own linguistic habits and backgrounds affected thelanguage leading to significant changes and to the formation ofdifferent dialects The result of this evolution is usually described asMiddle Arabic as opposed to Classical Arabic which is identifiedwith the language of the Koran and of the poetry which it isclaimed originated in pre-Islamic Arabia The origin and nature ofClassical Arabic itself though is to some extent a topic ofcontroversy What led to the adoption or rejection of Arabic by non-Arabic speakers is obviously a very complex question involvingconsideration of political and social relationships as well as morepurely linguistic ones

10 Introduction

In attempting to chart the progress of arabisation the difficultiesagain arise from the lack of explicit information on the topic in ourliterary sources and from the paucity of written material survivingfrom the Umayyad period For instance although it has beensuggested that Jews of all sorts began to speak Arabic as early as theseventh century the process of change must have been gradual andour earliest texts written in Judaeo-Arabic (that is the form of MiddleArabic used by Jews and written in Hebrew rather than Arabic script)come from the ninth century Our earliest Christian Arabic texts(Arabic written in the Greek script) have been dated to the eighthcentury but there has been some argument about the dating On theother hand from later developments we know that Persian must havesurvived as the spoken language of the majority of Iranians during theUmayyad period but our sources only rarely and ambiguously let ussee that it was so and almost all of our source material on the historyof Persia under the Umayyads is in Arabic

More concrete evidence is provided by the administrative papyriwhich have survived from Egypt In spite of the limited range ofsubjects with which they are concerned they at least enable us to see agradual change from Greek to Arabic in the language of theadministration Furthermore our literary sources report that around700 it was ordered that henceforth the government administrationshould use Arabic rather than the languages which had been usedbefore the Arab conquest and which had continued in use thus farThis could indicate that there was at that time a significant number ofnon-Arabs with sufficient command of Arabic at least for the purposesof administration since the bureaucracy continued to relyoverwhelmingly on non-Arabs The change of language in thebureaucracy did not happen overnight and the sources are notunanimous about when it was ordered but in the development ofarabisation it seems to have been a significant step

Why and how Arabic and with it the other features which seem tomake Islamic culture in the Middle East significantly Arab anddistinguish it from others spread is therefore still debatableEventually as we know the adoption of Arabic for most purposesbecame general in Syria Iraq and Egypt while the Berbers andPersians in spite of their acceptance of Islam and therefore of Arabicas their sacred language continued to use their own languages foreveryday purposes We can assume that arabisation like islamisationprogressed a long way under the Umayyads but precise evidence ishard to come by13

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

6 Introduction

Umayyads in the early years of the eighth century accused the caliphof lsquomurderingrsquo the ritual prayer (salat) and called for vengeance forit although what this meant and what exactly was involved ifanything specific is not spelled out7 Even such tantalisinglyobscure hints are relatively scarce and when we do sometimes havemore substantial information its significance seems often to belimited in one of two ways

First the information may centre on a point which seems to berelatively minor For instance much play is made with the chargethat the Umayyads insisted on delivering the khutba (in the earlyperiod a speech or sermon given usually in the mosque by the caliphor his representative and often dealing with secular as well as morepurely religious affairs) while sitting contrary to what is alleged tohave been the practice established by the Prophet and his immediatesuccessors This is supposed to be a sign of the haughtiness of theUmayyads refusing to stand before their subjects and preferringlike kings to remain seated Even though the detail may have lostsome of its significance because of the later decline in importance ofthe khutba and its associated institutions and ceremonies howeverit is difficult to see arguments about the correct posture for thekhutba as of fundamental importance for the development of IslamIn the way in which the practice is presented by Muslim tradition itdoes not provide grounds for arguing that the outward forms ofIslam underwent great and radical changes under the Umayyads8

Secondly even when the information is apparently more weightythe impression is usually given that the Umayyads were pervertingsome orthodox practice or belief which already existed and waswidely accepted by Muslims There is no suggestion that basicreligious ideas were still in a state of flux and that lsquoorthodoxyrsquo (anambiguous term in Islam since there is no central authority to saywhat is and what is not orthodox) was only slowly developing Weare told for instance that some of the Umayyads tried to makeJerusalem a centre of pilgrimage but the sources imply that this wasagainst the background of an already generally accepted practice ofannual pilgrimage to Mecca which had been established as the culticcentre of Islam from the time of the Prophet The reader should beaware of such preconceptions in the sources and consider thepossibility that there may not have been as yet any firmlyestablished cultic centre in Islam9

Any attempt to argue that there were during the Umayyad periodmore fundamental religious developments than the sources allow

Introduction 7

for therefore involves a certain amount of lsquoreading between thelinesrsquo of Muslim tradition and using whatever evidence is availableoutside the Muslim literary sources A recent discussion using suchmethods has questioned whether the name lsquoIslamrsquo as thedesignation for the religion of the Arabs existed much before theend of the seventh century10 Muslim tradition itself though hasproved remarkably impervious to analysis with such questions inmind and onersquos attitude to the question of the extent of the religiousdevelopment of Islam in the Umayyad period must depend greatlyon onersquos attitude to the value of Muslim sources for the history ofthe period and especially the earlier part

The spread of Islam during this period as already indicated hasto be viewed on two levels that of its territorial expansion and thatof its acceptance by the conquered non-Arab peoples from a varietyof religious backgrounds

Muslim tradition is generally more concerned with the formerprocess When an area is under Muslim rule and subject to Muslimlaw that area is regarded as a part of the Muslim world (dar al-Islam) even though the majority of its population may remain non-Muslim Strictly speaking only Christians Jews and Zoroastrians(these last known as majus) were to be allowed to refuse to acceptIslam and maintain their existence as separate religious communitiesunder Muslim rule but in practice toleration was frequentlyextended more widely

From this point of view then the extensive conquests made underthe Umayyads were an extension of Islam At the beginning of theUmayyad period Arab Muslim rule did not extend much further westthan modern Libya or further east than the eastern regions of Iranand even within these areas many regions must have been held onlyprecariously or merely nominally By the end of the dynasty all ofNorth Africa and southern and central Spain were included in theboundaries of the Muslim world and in the east the extension ofcontrol into central Asia and northern India prepared the way forlater advances in those areas

In the west the garrison town of Qayrawan was founded about 670 inIfriqiya (modern Tunisia) and this served as the base for furtherwestward expansion lsquoUqba b Nafilsquo is subsequently said to havemarched as far as the Atlantic before being killed by the still unsubduedBerbers but it was not until the end of the century that regions ofmodern Algeria and Morocco were substantially pacified and theBerbers brought into Islam but keeping their own language and tribal

8 Introduction

system This development is associated with the governorship ofHassan b Nulsquoman in Ifriqiya (683ndash707) It was Hassanrsquos successorMusa b Nusayr who initiated the invasion of Spain in 711 sending hisBerber client (mawla) Tariq to lead the expedition It is from this Tariqthat Gibraltar takes its name (Jabal Tariq lsquothe hill of Tariqrsquo)

In the east too the years around 700 saw major advances Al-Hajjajgovernor of the eastern part of the Umayyad territories from 694 to 714sent his generals Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the ruler of Kabul Qutayba bMuslim into the territories lying beyond the river Oxus (Jayhun or AmuDarya in Muslim works) and Muhammad b al-Qasim into northernIndia Qutayba is said to have reached the borders of China and sent anembassy demanding submission from the lsquoking of Chinarsquo The extentand effectiveness of these expeditions may sometimes be open toquestion but it is clear that Arab Muslim control was extended andconsolidated in the east under the Umayyads11

The spread of Islam among the non-Arab peoples of the conqueredregions is much less explicitly described in our sources At the outset ofthe Umayyad period it is clear that very few of the conquered peopleshad accepted Islam however we understand this last phrase (islamliterally means lsquosubmissionrsquo) But by the end of the period in spite ofthe initial attempt by the Arabs to keep themselves apart religiously andsocially from their subjects and in spite of the refusal by caliphs andgovernors to allow the non-Arabs to enjoy the advantages of acceptanceof Islam large numbers of the subject peoples had come to identifythemselves as Muslims

The spread of Islam vertically in this way is clearly a complexprocess depending on a variety of factors which were not the same inevery area or among every group of the non-Arab population andresulting in divergent rates of progress Because of the silence orambiguity of the sources we are often reduced to speculation aboutcauses and the spread of the process For example we know very littleabout the islamisation of Syria and there are only one or two referencesin non-Muslim sources which seem to indicate substantial islamisationof the local peoples during the Umayyad period On the other hand theMuslim sources have many references to the difficulties caused toUmayyad governors of Iraq and Khurasan when large numbers of non-Arab non-Muslims attempted to accept Islam by becoming mawali inthe early decades of the eighth century but they still leave manyquestions unanswered or answered at best ambiguously

So far as the evidence enables us to judge and leaving aside theBerbers whose society and way of life made them likely allies for

Introduction 9

the Arabs in the wars of conquest it seems to have been in lowerIraq Khurasan and Syria that Islam made the most significantadvances among the subjects peoples in the Umayyad period Inwestern Persia and Egypt on the other hand it seems thatislamisation in this sense was relatively slow and that it was not untilafter the dynasty had been overthrown that Islam became thereligion of the majority in these areas12

In spite of our uncertainties it seems clear that the Umayyadperiod was crucial for the process of Islamisation in all its forms

Arabisation

By lsquoarabisationrsquo I mean the spread of a culture characterised aboveall by its use of the Arabic language in the area which had becomesubject to Arab Muslim rule Although associated with the processof islamisation arabisation is a distinct movement as can be seenfrom the fact that important communities of Jews and Christianssurvived in the Islamic Middle East into modern times Thesecommunities maintained their religious traditions in spite of the factthat they had renounced the everyday languages which they hadused before the Arab conquest and had adopted Arabic ConverselyPersia presents a striking example of a region which largelyaccepted Islam as its religion but maintained its pre-Islamiclanguage at first in everyday and later in literary use although ofcourse the language underwent significant changes in the earlyIslamic period

Again one has to take into account that Arabic itself changed as itspread and was elaborated in the process of interaction betweenArabs and non-Arabs Put crudely as the non-Arab peoples adoptedArabic so their own linguistic habits and backgrounds affected thelanguage leading to significant changes and to the formation ofdifferent dialects The result of this evolution is usually described asMiddle Arabic as opposed to Classical Arabic which is identifiedwith the language of the Koran and of the poetry which it isclaimed originated in pre-Islamic Arabia The origin and nature ofClassical Arabic itself though is to some extent a topic ofcontroversy What led to the adoption or rejection of Arabic by non-Arabic speakers is obviously a very complex question involvingconsideration of political and social relationships as well as morepurely linguistic ones

10 Introduction

In attempting to chart the progress of arabisation the difficultiesagain arise from the lack of explicit information on the topic in ourliterary sources and from the paucity of written material survivingfrom the Umayyad period For instance although it has beensuggested that Jews of all sorts began to speak Arabic as early as theseventh century the process of change must have been gradual andour earliest texts written in Judaeo-Arabic (that is the form of MiddleArabic used by Jews and written in Hebrew rather than Arabic script)come from the ninth century Our earliest Christian Arabic texts(Arabic written in the Greek script) have been dated to the eighthcentury but there has been some argument about the dating On theother hand from later developments we know that Persian must havesurvived as the spoken language of the majority of Iranians during theUmayyad period but our sources only rarely and ambiguously let ussee that it was so and almost all of our source material on the historyof Persia under the Umayyads is in Arabic

More concrete evidence is provided by the administrative papyriwhich have survived from Egypt In spite of the limited range ofsubjects with which they are concerned they at least enable us to see agradual change from Greek to Arabic in the language of theadministration Furthermore our literary sources report that around700 it was ordered that henceforth the government administrationshould use Arabic rather than the languages which had been usedbefore the Arab conquest and which had continued in use thus farThis could indicate that there was at that time a significant number ofnon-Arabs with sufficient command of Arabic at least for the purposesof administration since the bureaucracy continued to relyoverwhelmingly on non-Arabs The change of language in thebureaucracy did not happen overnight and the sources are notunanimous about when it was ordered but in the development ofarabisation it seems to have been a significant step

Why and how Arabic and with it the other features which seem tomake Islamic culture in the Middle East significantly Arab anddistinguish it from others spread is therefore still debatableEventually as we know the adoption of Arabic for most purposesbecame general in Syria Iraq and Egypt while the Berbers andPersians in spite of their acceptance of Islam and therefore of Arabicas their sacred language continued to use their own languages foreveryday purposes We can assume that arabisation like islamisationprogressed a long way under the Umayyads but precise evidence ishard to come by13

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

Introduction 7

for therefore involves a certain amount of lsquoreading between thelinesrsquo of Muslim tradition and using whatever evidence is availableoutside the Muslim literary sources A recent discussion using suchmethods has questioned whether the name lsquoIslamrsquo as thedesignation for the religion of the Arabs existed much before theend of the seventh century10 Muslim tradition itself though hasproved remarkably impervious to analysis with such questions inmind and onersquos attitude to the question of the extent of the religiousdevelopment of Islam in the Umayyad period must depend greatlyon onersquos attitude to the value of Muslim sources for the history ofthe period and especially the earlier part

The spread of Islam during this period as already indicated hasto be viewed on two levels that of its territorial expansion and thatof its acceptance by the conquered non-Arab peoples from a varietyof religious backgrounds

Muslim tradition is generally more concerned with the formerprocess When an area is under Muslim rule and subject to Muslimlaw that area is regarded as a part of the Muslim world (dar al-Islam) even though the majority of its population may remain non-Muslim Strictly speaking only Christians Jews and Zoroastrians(these last known as majus) were to be allowed to refuse to acceptIslam and maintain their existence as separate religious communitiesunder Muslim rule but in practice toleration was frequentlyextended more widely

From this point of view then the extensive conquests made underthe Umayyads were an extension of Islam At the beginning of theUmayyad period Arab Muslim rule did not extend much further westthan modern Libya or further east than the eastern regions of Iranand even within these areas many regions must have been held onlyprecariously or merely nominally By the end of the dynasty all ofNorth Africa and southern and central Spain were included in theboundaries of the Muslim world and in the east the extension ofcontrol into central Asia and northern India prepared the way forlater advances in those areas

In the west the garrison town of Qayrawan was founded about 670 inIfriqiya (modern Tunisia) and this served as the base for furtherwestward expansion lsquoUqba b Nafilsquo is subsequently said to havemarched as far as the Atlantic before being killed by the still unsubduedBerbers but it was not until the end of the century that regions ofmodern Algeria and Morocco were substantially pacified and theBerbers brought into Islam but keeping their own language and tribal

8 Introduction

system This development is associated with the governorship ofHassan b Nulsquoman in Ifriqiya (683ndash707) It was Hassanrsquos successorMusa b Nusayr who initiated the invasion of Spain in 711 sending hisBerber client (mawla) Tariq to lead the expedition It is from this Tariqthat Gibraltar takes its name (Jabal Tariq lsquothe hill of Tariqrsquo)

In the east too the years around 700 saw major advances Al-Hajjajgovernor of the eastern part of the Umayyad territories from 694 to 714sent his generals Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the ruler of Kabul Qutayba bMuslim into the territories lying beyond the river Oxus (Jayhun or AmuDarya in Muslim works) and Muhammad b al-Qasim into northernIndia Qutayba is said to have reached the borders of China and sent anembassy demanding submission from the lsquoking of Chinarsquo The extentand effectiveness of these expeditions may sometimes be open toquestion but it is clear that Arab Muslim control was extended andconsolidated in the east under the Umayyads11

The spread of Islam among the non-Arab peoples of the conqueredregions is much less explicitly described in our sources At the outset ofthe Umayyad period it is clear that very few of the conquered peopleshad accepted Islam however we understand this last phrase (islamliterally means lsquosubmissionrsquo) But by the end of the period in spite ofthe initial attempt by the Arabs to keep themselves apart religiously andsocially from their subjects and in spite of the refusal by caliphs andgovernors to allow the non-Arabs to enjoy the advantages of acceptanceof Islam large numbers of the subject peoples had come to identifythemselves as Muslims

The spread of Islam vertically in this way is clearly a complexprocess depending on a variety of factors which were not the same inevery area or among every group of the non-Arab population andresulting in divergent rates of progress Because of the silence orambiguity of the sources we are often reduced to speculation aboutcauses and the spread of the process For example we know very littleabout the islamisation of Syria and there are only one or two referencesin non-Muslim sources which seem to indicate substantial islamisationof the local peoples during the Umayyad period On the other hand theMuslim sources have many references to the difficulties caused toUmayyad governors of Iraq and Khurasan when large numbers of non-Arab non-Muslims attempted to accept Islam by becoming mawali inthe early decades of the eighth century but they still leave manyquestions unanswered or answered at best ambiguously

So far as the evidence enables us to judge and leaving aside theBerbers whose society and way of life made them likely allies for

Introduction 9

the Arabs in the wars of conquest it seems to have been in lowerIraq Khurasan and Syria that Islam made the most significantadvances among the subjects peoples in the Umayyad period Inwestern Persia and Egypt on the other hand it seems thatislamisation in this sense was relatively slow and that it was not untilafter the dynasty had been overthrown that Islam became thereligion of the majority in these areas12

In spite of our uncertainties it seems clear that the Umayyadperiod was crucial for the process of Islamisation in all its forms

Arabisation

By lsquoarabisationrsquo I mean the spread of a culture characterised aboveall by its use of the Arabic language in the area which had becomesubject to Arab Muslim rule Although associated with the processof islamisation arabisation is a distinct movement as can be seenfrom the fact that important communities of Jews and Christianssurvived in the Islamic Middle East into modern times Thesecommunities maintained their religious traditions in spite of the factthat they had renounced the everyday languages which they hadused before the Arab conquest and had adopted Arabic ConverselyPersia presents a striking example of a region which largelyaccepted Islam as its religion but maintained its pre-Islamiclanguage at first in everyday and later in literary use although ofcourse the language underwent significant changes in the earlyIslamic period

Again one has to take into account that Arabic itself changed as itspread and was elaborated in the process of interaction betweenArabs and non-Arabs Put crudely as the non-Arab peoples adoptedArabic so their own linguistic habits and backgrounds affected thelanguage leading to significant changes and to the formation ofdifferent dialects The result of this evolution is usually described asMiddle Arabic as opposed to Classical Arabic which is identifiedwith the language of the Koran and of the poetry which it isclaimed originated in pre-Islamic Arabia The origin and nature ofClassical Arabic itself though is to some extent a topic ofcontroversy What led to the adoption or rejection of Arabic by non-Arabic speakers is obviously a very complex question involvingconsideration of political and social relationships as well as morepurely linguistic ones

10 Introduction

In attempting to chart the progress of arabisation the difficultiesagain arise from the lack of explicit information on the topic in ourliterary sources and from the paucity of written material survivingfrom the Umayyad period For instance although it has beensuggested that Jews of all sorts began to speak Arabic as early as theseventh century the process of change must have been gradual andour earliest texts written in Judaeo-Arabic (that is the form of MiddleArabic used by Jews and written in Hebrew rather than Arabic script)come from the ninth century Our earliest Christian Arabic texts(Arabic written in the Greek script) have been dated to the eighthcentury but there has been some argument about the dating On theother hand from later developments we know that Persian must havesurvived as the spoken language of the majority of Iranians during theUmayyad period but our sources only rarely and ambiguously let ussee that it was so and almost all of our source material on the historyof Persia under the Umayyads is in Arabic

More concrete evidence is provided by the administrative papyriwhich have survived from Egypt In spite of the limited range ofsubjects with which they are concerned they at least enable us to see agradual change from Greek to Arabic in the language of theadministration Furthermore our literary sources report that around700 it was ordered that henceforth the government administrationshould use Arabic rather than the languages which had been usedbefore the Arab conquest and which had continued in use thus farThis could indicate that there was at that time a significant number ofnon-Arabs with sufficient command of Arabic at least for the purposesof administration since the bureaucracy continued to relyoverwhelmingly on non-Arabs The change of language in thebureaucracy did not happen overnight and the sources are notunanimous about when it was ordered but in the development ofarabisation it seems to have been a significant step

Why and how Arabic and with it the other features which seem tomake Islamic culture in the Middle East significantly Arab anddistinguish it from others spread is therefore still debatableEventually as we know the adoption of Arabic for most purposesbecame general in Syria Iraq and Egypt while the Berbers andPersians in spite of their acceptance of Islam and therefore of Arabicas their sacred language continued to use their own languages foreveryday purposes We can assume that arabisation like islamisationprogressed a long way under the Umayyads but precise evidence ishard to come by13

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

8 Introduction

system This development is associated with the governorship ofHassan b Nulsquoman in Ifriqiya (683ndash707) It was Hassanrsquos successorMusa b Nusayr who initiated the invasion of Spain in 711 sending hisBerber client (mawla) Tariq to lead the expedition It is from this Tariqthat Gibraltar takes its name (Jabal Tariq lsquothe hill of Tariqrsquo)

In the east too the years around 700 saw major advances Al-Hajjajgovernor of the eastern part of the Umayyad territories from 694 to 714sent his generals Ibn al-Ashlsquoath against the ruler of Kabul Qutayba bMuslim into the territories lying beyond the river Oxus (Jayhun or AmuDarya in Muslim works) and Muhammad b al-Qasim into northernIndia Qutayba is said to have reached the borders of China and sent anembassy demanding submission from the lsquoking of Chinarsquo The extentand effectiveness of these expeditions may sometimes be open toquestion but it is clear that Arab Muslim control was extended andconsolidated in the east under the Umayyads11

The spread of Islam among the non-Arab peoples of the conqueredregions is much less explicitly described in our sources At the outset ofthe Umayyad period it is clear that very few of the conquered peopleshad accepted Islam however we understand this last phrase (islamliterally means lsquosubmissionrsquo) But by the end of the period in spite ofthe initial attempt by the Arabs to keep themselves apart religiously andsocially from their subjects and in spite of the refusal by caliphs andgovernors to allow the non-Arabs to enjoy the advantages of acceptanceof Islam large numbers of the subject peoples had come to identifythemselves as Muslims

The spread of Islam vertically in this way is clearly a complexprocess depending on a variety of factors which were not the same inevery area or among every group of the non-Arab population andresulting in divergent rates of progress Because of the silence orambiguity of the sources we are often reduced to speculation aboutcauses and the spread of the process For example we know very littleabout the islamisation of Syria and there are only one or two referencesin non-Muslim sources which seem to indicate substantial islamisationof the local peoples during the Umayyad period On the other hand theMuslim sources have many references to the difficulties caused toUmayyad governors of Iraq and Khurasan when large numbers of non-Arab non-Muslims attempted to accept Islam by becoming mawali inthe early decades of the eighth century but they still leave manyquestions unanswered or answered at best ambiguously

So far as the evidence enables us to judge and leaving aside theBerbers whose society and way of life made them likely allies for

Introduction 9

the Arabs in the wars of conquest it seems to have been in lowerIraq Khurasan and Syria that Islam made the most significantadvances among the subjects peoples in the Umayyad period Inwestern Persia and Egypt on the other hand it seems thatislamisation in this sense was relatively slow and that it was not untilafter the dynasty had been overthrown that Islam became thereligion of the majority in these areas12

In spite of our uncertainties it seems clear that the Umayyadperiod was crucial for the process of Islamisation in all its forms

Arabisation

By lsquoarabisationrsquo I mean the spread of a culture characterised aboveall by its use of the Arabic language in the area which had becomesubject to Arab Muslim rule Although associated with the processof islamisation arabisation is a distinct movement as can be seenfrom the fact that important communities of Jews and Christianssurvived in the Islamic Middle East into modern times Thesecommunities maintained their religious traditions in spite of the factthat they had renounced the everyday languages which they hadused before the Arab conquest and had adopted Arabic ConverselyPersia presents a striking example of a region which largelyaccepted Islam as its religion but maintained its pre-Islamiclanguage at first in everyday and later in literary use although ofcourse the language underwent significant changes in the earlyIslamic period

Again one has to take into account that Arabic itself changed as itspread and was elaborated in the process of interaction betweenArabs and non-Arabs Put crudely as the non-Arab peoples adoptedArabic so their own linguistic habits and backgrounds affected thelanguage leading to significant changes and to the formation ofdifferent dialects The result of this evolution is usually described asMiddle Arabic as opposed to Classical Arabic which is identifiedwith the language of the Koran and of the poetry which it isclaimed originated in pre-Islamic Arabia The origin and nature ofClassical Arabic itself though is to some extent a topic ofcontroversy What led to the adoption or rejection of Arabic by non-Arabic speakers is obviously a very complex question involvingconsideration of political and social relationships as well as morepurely linguistic ones

10 Introduction

In attempting to chart the progress of arabisation the difficultiesagain arise from the lack of explicit information on the topic in ourliterary sources and from the paucity of written material survivingfrom the Umayyad period For instance although it has beensuggested that Jews of all sorts began to speak Arabic as early as theseventh century the process of change must have been gradual andour earliest texts written in Judaeo-Arabic (that is the form of MiddleArabic used by Jews and written in Hebrew rather than Arabic script)come from the ninth century Our earliest Christian Arabic texts(Arabic written in the Greek script) have been dated to the eighthcentury but there has been some argument about the dating On theother hand from later developments we know that Persian must havesurvived as the spoken language of the majority of Iranians during theUmayyad period but our sources only rarely and ambiguously let ussee that it was so and almost all of our source material on the historyof Persia under the Umayyads is in Arabic

More concrete evidence is provided by the administrative papyriwhich have survived from Egypt In spite of the limited range ofsubjects with which they are concerned they at least enable us to see agradual change from Greek to Arabic in the language of theadministration Furthermore our literary sources report that around700 it was ordered that henceforth the government administrationshould use Arabic rather than the languages which had been usedbefore the Arab conquest and which had continued in use thus farThis could indicate that there was at that time a significant number ofnon-Arabs with sufficient command of Arabic at least for the purposesof administration since the bureaucracy continued to relyoverwhelmingly on non-Arabs The change of language in thebureaucracy did not happen overnight and the sources are notunanimous about when it was ordered but in the development ofarabisation it seems to have been a significant step

Why and how Arabic and with it the other features which seem tomake Islamic culture in the Middle East significantly Arab anddistinguish it from others spread is therefore still debatableEventually as we know the adoption of Arabic for most purposesbecame general in Syria Iraq and Egypt while the Berbers andPersians in spite of their acceptance of Islam and therefore of Arabicas their sacred language continued to use their own languages foreveryday purposes We can assume that arabisation like islamisationprogressed a long way under the Umayyads but precise evidence ishard to come by13

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

Introduction 9

the Arabs in the wars of conquest it seems to have been in lowerIraq Khurasan and Syria that Islam made the most significantadvances among the subjects peoples in the Umayyad period Inwestern Persia and Egypt on the other hand it seems thatislamisation in this sense was relatively slow and that it was not untilafter the dynasty had been overthrown that Islam became thereligion of the majority in these areas12

In spite of our uncertainties it seems clear that the Umayyadperiod was crucial for the process of Islamisation in all its forms

Arabisation

By lsquoarabisationrsquo I mean the spread of a culture characterised aboveall by its use of the Arabic language in the area which had becomesubject to Arab Muslim rule Although associated with the processof islamisation arabisation is a distinct movement as can be seenfrom the fact that important communities of Jews and Christianssurvived in the Islamic Middle East into modern times Thesecommunities maintained their religious traditions in spite of the factthat they had renounced the everyday languages which they hadused before the Arab conquest and had adopted Arabic ConverselyPersia presents a striking example of a region which largelyaccepted Islam as its religion but maintained its pre-Islamiclanguage at first in everyday and later in literary use although ofcourse the language underwent significant changes in the earlyIslamic period

Again one has to take into account that Arabic itself changed as itspread and was elaborated in the process of interaction betweenArabs and non-Arabs Put crudely as the non-Arab peoples adoptedArabic so their own linguistic habits and backgrounds affected thelanguage leading to significant changes and to the formation ofdifferent dialects The result of this evolution is usually described asMiddle Arabic as opposed to Classical Arabic which is identifiedwith the language of the Koran and of the poetry which it isclaimed originated in pre-Islamic Arabia The origin and nature ofClassical Arabic itself though is to some extent a topic ofcontroversy What led to the adoption or rejection of Arabic by non-Arabic speakers is obviously a very complex question involvingconsideration of political and social relationships as well as morepurely linguistic ones

10 Introduction

In attempting to chart the progress of arabisation the difficultiesagain arise from the lack of explicit information on the topic in ourliterary sources and from the paucity of written material survivingfrom the Umayyad period For instance although it has beensuggested that Jews of all sorts began to speak Arabic as early as theseventh century the process of change must have been gradual andour earliest texts written in Judaeo-Arabic (that is the form of MiddleArabic used by Jews and written in Hebrew rather than Arabic script)come from the ninth century Our earliest Christian Arabic texts(Arabic written in the Greek script) have been dated to the eighthcentury but there has been some argument about the dating On theother hand from later developments we know that Persian must havesurvived as the spoken language of the majority of Iranians during theUmayyad period but our sources only rarely and ambiguously let ussee that it was so and almost all of our source material on the historyof Persia under the Umayyads is in Arabic

More concrete evidence is provided by the administrative papyriwhich have survived from Egypt In spite of the limited range ofsubjects with which they are concerned they at least enable us to see agradual change from Greek to Arabic in the language of theadministration Furthermore our literary sources report that around700 it was ordered that henceforth the government administrationshould use Arabic rather than the languages which had been usedbefore the Arab conquest and which had continued in use thus farThis could indicate that there was at that time a significant number ofnon-Arabs with sufficient command of Arabic at least for the purposesof administration since the bureaucracy continued to relyoverwhelmingly on non-Arabs The change of language in thebureaucracy did not happen overnight and the sources are notunanimous about when it was ordered but in the development ofarabisation it seems to have been a significant step

Why and how Arabic and with it the other features which seem tomake Islamic culture in the Middle East significantly Arab anddistinguish it from others spread is therefore still debatableEventually as we know the adoption of Arabic for most purposesbecame general in Syria Iraq and Egypt while the Berbers andPersians in spite of their acceptance of Islam and therefore of Arabicas their sacred language continued to use their own languages foreveryday purposes We can assume that arabisation like islamisationprogressed a long way under the Umayyads but precise evidence ishard to come by13

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

10 Introduction

In attempting to chart the progress of arabisation the difficultiesagain arise from the lack of explicit information on the topic in ourliterary sources and from the paucity of written material survivingfrom the Umayyad period For instance although it has beensuggested that Jews of all sorts began to speak Arabic as early as theseventh century the process of change must have been gradual andour earliest texts written in Judaeo-Arabic (that is the form of MiddleArabic used by Jews and written in Hebrew rather than Arabic script)come from the ninth century Our earliest Christian Arabic texts(Arabic written in the Greek script) have been dated to the eighthcentury but there has been some argument about the dating On theother hand from later developments we know that Persian must havesurvived as the spoken language of the majority of Iranians during theUmayyad period but our sources only rarely and ambiguously let ussee that it was so and almost all of our source material on the historyof Persia under the Umayyads is in Arabic

More concrete evidence is provided by the administrative papyriwhich have survived from Egypt In spite of the limited range ofsubjects with which they are concerned they at least enable us to see agradual change from Greek to Arabic in the language of theadministration Furthermore our literary sources report that around700 it was ordered that henceforth the government administrationshould use Arabic rather than the languages which had been usedbefore the Arab conquest and which had continued in use thus farThis could indicate that there was at that time a significant number ofnon-Arabs with sufficient command of Arabic at least for the purposesof administration since the bureaucracy continued to relyoverwhelmingly on non-Arabs The change of language in thebureaucracy did not happen overnight and the sources are notunanimous about when it was ordered but in the development ofarabisation it seems to have been a significant step

Why and how Arabic and with it the other features which seem tomake Islamic culture in the Middle East significantly Arab anddistinguish it from others spread is therefore still debatableEventually as we know the adoption of Arabic for most purposesbecame general in Syria Iraq and Egypt while the Berbers andPersians in spite of their acceptance of Islam and therefore of Arabicas their sacred language continued to use their own languages foreveryday purposes We can assume that arabisation like islamisationprogressed a long way under the Umayyads but precise evidence ishard to come by13

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

Introduction 11

The Umayyads in Muslim Tradition

The second question asked at the beginning of this chapterconcerned the way in which the Umayyad dynasty has beenregarded by Muslim tradition and how it has been seen in the contextof Islamic history generally Discussion of this question whichinvolves some consideration of the way in which our Muslimsources for the period came to be formed is a necessary conditionfor an understanding of the narrative history which the remainder ofthis work undertakes

Even allowing for the qualifications which will be made shortlythere is no doubt that in its broad outlines as well as in its detailsMuslim tradition is generally hostile to the Umayyads When thetwo can be distinguished Shilsquoite tradition is more hostile than thatof the Sunnis but many of our sources contain material whichreflects both Shilsquoite and Sunni points of view so that there is somejustification for our purposes here in talking about Muslimtradition as a whole14 The hostility of tradition is reflected in bothwhat the tradition reports and the way in which it reports it

We are told that before Islam the Umayyad family was prominentin the opposition to Muhammad among the Meccans and that mostof the members of the family only accepted Islam at the last momentwhen it became clear that the Prophet was going to be victoriousOnce inside the Muslim community however they exploitedcircumstances and by skilful political manipulation not entirelyfree from trickery they obtained power displacing those whoseclaims to the leadership were based on long service to Islam pietyand relationship to the Prophet In power they pursued policieswhich at best paid no regard to the requirements of Islam and atworst were positively anti-Islamic Among the charges broughtagainst them some of the most prominent are that they made thecaliphate hereditary within the Umayyad family that they oppressedand even caused the death of numerous men of religion and of theProphetrsquos family most notably of the Prophetrsquos grandson Husaynthat they attacked the holy cities of Mecca and Medina going so faras to bombard Mecca with catapults on two occasionsmdash an imagewhich may well symbolise the conception of the Umayyads intradition and that they prevented non-Muslims from acceptingIslam and obtaining the rights due to them They ruled by force andtyranny Literary works came to be produced devoted to cataloguingthe crimes of the Umayyads singing the praises of their opponents

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

12 Introduction

and explaining why God allowed the community to fall under thesway of these godless tyrants The best-known of these works arethose of Jahiz in the ninth and Maqrizi in the fifteenth centuries15

Tradition expresses its hostility to the dynasty above all byinsisting that they were merely kings and refusing to recognisethem with one exception as caliphs The caliphate according totradition emerged in Medina on the death of Muhammad in order toprovide a leader for the Muslims in succession to him The titlekhalifa is interpreted as meaning lsquosuccessor of the Prophetrsquo in fullkhalifat rasul Allah and the caliph was to be motivated solely by theinterests of the Muslims The Muslim theory of the caliphate tooktime to evolve and was never static but two ideas in particular cameto be prominent First the caliph was to be chosen from amongthose with the necessary qualifications by some sort of electionHow this election was to be carried out was never agreed on but thefeeling was that the caliph should not simply seize the office byforce or be appointed by one man with no consultation of theMuslims Secondly the caliphrsquos authority was to be limited inparticular in the sphere of religion where the real authorities theguardians of the Sunna and the heirs of the Prophet were thereligious scholars (the lsquoulamarsquo) In effect the caliph was simply tomaintain the conditions in which the religious scholars could get onwith their task (All this of course refers primarily to the Sunniview of the caliphate The Shilsquoites and Kharijites had differentideas)16

A sharp distinction is then made between the idea of a caliph andthat of a king between caliphate (khilafa) and kingship (mulk)Unlike the caliph the king (malik pl muluk) is an arbitrary worldlyruler whose power depends ultimately on force The symbolic typeof king for Muslim tradition is the Byzantine emperor (Qaysar ielsquoCaesarrsquo) and the Sasanid shah (Kisra ie lsquoChosroesrsquo lsquoKhusrawrsquo)When tradition denigrates Umayyad rule as kingship therefore it isputting the Umayyads in the same category as all the other kings ofthis world and contrasting them with its own ideal of Islamicgovernment

It is not the personal qualities or defects of a ruler whichdetermine primarily whether he is to be accorded the status of caliphor discarded as a king although the personal piety or wickedness ofan individual could affect the question There were some personallyupright Umayyads just as there were corrupt and debauchedmembers of the lsquoAbbasid dynasty which took over the caliphate

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

Introduction 13

when the Umayyads were overthrown The latter however are allaccepted as caliphs by Sunni tradition while the former with the oneexception are merely kings Nor does it depend on the self-designation of the dynasty The Umayyads do not appear to haveused the title malik (king) and they did not at least in the earlierUmayyad period affect in a very marked way the paraphernalia ofkingship such as a crown throne or sceptre In contrast to them theearly lsquoAbbasid rule was associated much more with the symbols of atraditional oriental despotism17

In fact it was the Umayyadsrsquo use of the title khalifa whichprobably played an important part in the traditionrsquos classification ofthem as kings Whereas Muslim tradition regards the title as anabbreviation of khalifat rasul Allah signifying successor of theProphet the Umayyads as evidenced by coins and inscriptionsused the title khalifat Allah While it is not completely impossible toreconcile the use of this title with the traditional understanding ofkhalifa it does seem likely that the Umayyadsrsquo conception of thetitle and the office was different Khalifat Allah (Caliph of God)almost certainly means that they regarded themselves as deputies ofGod rather than as mere successors to the Prophet since it isunlikely that khalifa here means successor (one cannot be asuccessor of God) and elsewhere khalifa is frequently met with inthe sense of deputy In other words the title implies that theUmayyads regarded themselves as Godrsquos representatives at the headof the community and saw no need to share their religious powerwith or delegate it to the emergent class of religious scholars18

Above all the charge of kingship is connected with the decision ofMulsquoawiya to appoint his own son Yazid as his successor to thecaliphate during his own lifetime This event more than anythingelse seems to be behind the accusation that Mulsquoawiya perverted thecaliphate into a kingship The episode will be considered more fullylater but in the light of the Sunni conception of the nature of thecaliphate what was wrong with Mulsquoawiyarsquos appointment of Yazidwas that one man took it upon himself to choose a caliph with noconsultation with the representatives of Islam (whoever they mightbe) and without even a token nod to the idea that the office should beelective It is probable that such ideas were not generally held evenif they yet existed in the time of Mulsquoawiya But according totradition he acted as a king in this matter introducing the hereditaryprinciple into the caliphate and the dynasty which he thus foundedand which maintained the general principle that the ruler nominated

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

14 Introduction

his successor was thus a line of kings Yazidrsquos personal failingswhich are certainly underlined by tradition merely seem toreinforce the message and are not really the source of opposition tohis appointment19

It should be clear then that tradition is generally hostile to theUmayyad dynasty It is nevertheless true that the same Muslimtradition transmits some material which is more ambiguoussometimes even overtly favourable to the Umayyads For examplethe administrative and political ability of caliphs like Mulsquoawiya andlsquoAbd al-Malik is admitted and some of the lsquoAbbasids are said tohave expressed admiration for this aspect of their predecessorsrsquowork Even on more strictly religious questions the traditionsometimes seems less clear-cut than one would expect The namelsquothe year of the (reestablishment of the) communityrsquo which isapplied both to the year in which Mulsquoawiya receivedacknowledgment in Kufa after his defeat of lsquoAli and to that in whichlsquoAbd al-Malik similarly ended the second civil war recognises thevirtues of these two caliphs in rescuing the community from a periodof internal dissension Indeed one often finds in tradition afearfulness for the fate of the community under such enemies of theUmayyads as lsquoAli and Ibn al-Zubayr whatever their personal meritsmight have been In legal traditions some Umayyads notablyMarwan himself caliph for a short time and ancestor of one of thetwo branches of the Umayyad family to acquire the caliphate arefrequently referred to as makers of legal rulings and they oftencome out quite favourably even in comparison with some of themost important of the Prophetrsquos companions On occasion a maximwhich one tradition ascribes to say Marwan will appear elsewhereas a maxim of the Prophet himself Even the bombardment of Meccaand the consequent damage to the Kalsquoba which is a key point in thetraditional complaints against the dynasty can be toned downAmong the various reports of these events some say that the firewhich damaged the Kalsquoba while Mecca was being bombarded cameabout accidentally and some even say that it was caused by thecarelessness of one of the defenders of Mecca even Ibn al-Zubayrhimself being named Here we are not concerned with the historicalaccuracy of these reports merely with the fact that they aretransmitted even though the tenor of Muslim tradition is broadlyanti-Umayyad20

Even the treatment of the one Umayyad caliph who is recognisedas such in tradition and exempted from the accusation of kingship

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

Introduction 15

levelled at the others lsquoUmar b lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz (lsquoUmar II 717ndash20)may be ambiguous In one way to nominate him as the only caliph ina line of kings serves of course to underline the contrast betweenthe pious lsquoUmar and the rest of the dynasty but equally it could beargued that the existence of lsquoUmar to some extent rescues thedynasty from complete condemnation While the traditions abouthim emphasise the links on his motherrsquos side with lsquoUmar I thesecond successor of Muhammad and one of the four Rightly GuidedCaliphs they also do not hide the fact that on his fatherrsquos side he wasa leading member of the Umayyad family His father was brother ofthe caliph lsquoAbd al-Malik and governor of Egypt for most of thelatterrsquos caliphate Evidently therefore the Umayyads could producea genuine caliph and one could conclude that there was nothinginherently bad in the family21

In order to understand both the generally negative attitudetowards the Umayyads in Muslim tradition and the fact that thetradition transmits material which is apparently more favourable tothe dynasty it is necessary to understand the way in which thetradition came to be formedmdashthe way in which our Muslim literarysources originated were transmitted collected and finallycommitted to writing in the form in which we know them

It seems likely that it was not until the later part of the Umayyadperiod that traditions religious or historical (and the distinction isnot always clear) came to be committed to writing with anyfrequency Before that time they were generally transmitted orally inshort separate reports which were self-contained and relatively easyto memorise As it became more common to put them in a writtenform however these short reports could be united into morecomplex units compiled around a theme or organised in a narrativeframework In the later Umayyad and early lsquoAbbasid period thenscholars such as Abu Mikhnaf (d 774) Ibn Ishaq (d 761) orlsquoAwana (d 764) began to compile lsquobooksrsquo by collecting thetraditions available and organising them around a theme such as thebattle of the Camel the second civil war or even the history of thecaliphate They may have simply dictated the relevant material totheir disciples which would account for the different versions ofworks attributed to a particular scholar which have come down to usfrom different disciples or they may have put it in writingthemselves

The material thus collected was then transmitted to latergenerations which treated it in a variety of ways It might be again

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

16 Introduction

broken up and put together with material from different sources inorder to make it relate to a different theme long narratives might beabridged by omitting material considered irrelevant short narrativesmight be filled out by interpolation or by linking material togetherwithout making it clear where the link occurs or even that it has beenmade material might fall out of circulation or it might be reshapedconsciously or subconsciously by substitution of words or phrasesby the addition of glosses or even by formulating entirely newmaterial It is obvious therefore that there was plenty of scope forthe material to change in the course of its transmission and it wouldbe natural that it should change in accordance with changingpolitical social and religious circumstances Generally speakingthe material would have been constantly revised to make it relevantand acceptable and the original significance and context of thematerial would come to be forgotten

This process continued for some generations until in the ninthand tenth centuries written versions of the material were producedwhich have survived as our earliest Muslim literary sources ourearliest examples of Muslim historical writing biography Koranicexegesis and so on In fact of course the process continued evenbeyond the ninth and tenth centuries even in the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries Muslim scholars were selecting from andreshaping the works of their predecessors but when we have thematerial in both its early and its later form we can clearly see whathas happened to it in the course of transmission Our problem withour earliest sources for the Umayyad period is that the material priorto the ninth and tenth centuries has been lost and we have to dependon relatively late versions of it transmitted to us by scholars such asBaladhuri (d 892) and Tabari (d 923)22

An important point is that a decisive role in the collectiontransmission and reduction to writing of the material was played byscholars representative of the opposition to the Umayyads That isscholars associated with the Muslim circles hostile to the dynastypredominantly in Iraq took a leading role in collecting arrangingand editing the material If we add to this the fact that the writtenmaterial which has come down to us was produced in the periodafter the Umayyads had been overthrown under the caliphate of thelsquoAbbasids who had supplanted them it is not hard to understandwhy it has the fundamental hostility to the Umayyads which hasbeen indicated It is not a question of the lsquoAbbasids employingscholars to produce deliberate justifications for lsquoAbbasid rule rather

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

Introduction 17

that the scholars involved inherited material from and werethemselves part of the tradition of Muslim opposition to theUmayyads

Although we often refer to scholars like Baladhuri and Tabari ashistorians inasmuch as they were concerned with producing apicture of the past and its relationship to their own times objectivitywhich has been regarded as at least a desideratum of the historiansince the nineteenth century is not to be expected from themFundamentally they were religious scholars and it is useful toremember that Tabari whose Tarsquorikh (a mixture of history andchronicle) is one of our fullest sources of information on early Islamand the Umayyad period wrote a Koranic commentary which iseven more voluminous and which regarding the life of Muhammadoften provides more lsquohistoricalrsquo information than is available in theTarsquorikh

If the outlook of these scholars was likely to make them generallyhostile to the Umayyads however certain things mitigated thishostility and help to explain the more ambiguous material which hasbeen noted Most importantly the material collected and transmittedby any individual scholar may be traced ultimately to a wide varietyof sources including even pro-Umayyad sources and there was nocentral directory imposing a censorship on the scholars It used to bethought following Wellhausen that the scholars could all beclassified as the representatives of one or another lsquoschoolrsquo that thematerial associated with the name of a particular scholar would bebiased to support the geographical and religious viewpoint of thelsquoschoolrsquo to which he belonged So Abu Mikhnaf was regarded as arepresentative of the Iraqis Ibn Ishaq of the Medinese and so onBut it is now recognised that one will find many different shades ofopinion represented in the material transmitted under the name ofany individual Even the earliest of them already had an amount ofmaterial from which to select and we cannot point to a particulartime or individual as being decisive in the formation of the traditionAny analysis of the tradition needs to take into account both its finalediting and arranging and its earlier transmission23

Secondly the scholars were strongly aware of the element ofcontinuity in the history of Islam and to have been too hostile to theUmayyads portraying them as non-Muslims for example wouldhave been incompatible with this sense of continuity It may be thatthe traditions about lsquoUmar II linking the Umayyads with the periodof Rightly Guided Caliphs are particularly influenced by this sense

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

18 Introduction

of continuity Those scholars representing the Sunni tendency had aparticular problem If the legitimacy of the Umayyads wasquestioned too sharply ammunition might be provided for theShilsquoites most of whom came to see lsquoAli as having been cheated notonly by Mulsquoawiya but also by the first two caliphs Abu Bakr andlsquoUmar who are of central importance for the Sunni concept of thetransmission of the Prophetrsquos Sunna to the later communityFurthermore Mulsquoawiya himself was a companion of Muhammadhis secretary according to tradition and one of the characteristics ofSunni Islam is its championing of the companions as sources ofauthoritative teaching as against the Shilsquoites who viewed them ingeneral with suspicion and as enemies of lsquoAli and the imams

Muslim tradition is virtually our only detailed source for thehistory of the Umayyad state It should be obvious therefore thatthe nature of the tradition has to be borne in mind constantly whenattempting to discuss the history of the period

For modern treatment of the Umayyads see Appendix 2

Notes

1 CHBecker was one of the first to insist on the distinction betweenislamisation and arabisation and he stressed too the crucial importance forthe development of Islam as we know it of the interaction between Arabsand conquered peoples outside Arabia in the period after the Arabconquests See his Islamstudien i 66ndash145 and in English his lsquoTheexpansion of the Saracensrsquo in the Cambridge Mediaeval History 1stedition 1911ndash36 ii chapters 11 and 12

2 This understanding of the emergence of the schools of religiousscholars and their elaboration of the notion of Sunna depends on theresults of JSchachtrsquos persuasive but still controversial studies of earlyMuslim jurisprudence See his Introduction to Islamic law especiallychapters 5 and 6 and the article lsquoFikhrsquo in EI2 for a more conservativeanalysis of the concept of Sunna taking issue with Schacht MMBravmann The spiritual background 179 ff RBSerjeant in Arabicliterature to the end of the Umayyad period ed AFLBeeston et alCambridge 1983 142ndash7

3 JWellhausen The religio-political factions in early IslamMHodgson lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75(1955) SMoscati lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica Šilsquoarsquo RSO 30 (1955)WMWatt lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960) WFTuckerlsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of Umayyad IraqrsquoMW 65 (1975) idem lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira ibn Salsquoid and theMugiriyyarsquo Arabica 22 (1975) idem lsquoAbu Mansur al-lsquoIjli and theMansuriyya a study in medieval terrorismrsquo Isl 54 (1977) idem ldquoAbd

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

Introduction 19

Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janahiyya rebels and ideologues of the lateUmayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980) SM Jafri The origins and earlydevelopment of Shilsquoa Islam

4 JWellhausen Factions WThomson lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquoin The MacDonald presentation volume Princeton and London 1933WMWatt lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)articles lsquoAzarikarsquo lsquoIbadiyyarsquo and lsquoKharijitesrsquo in EI2

5 IGoldziher Muslim Studies i 101 ff PCrone Slaves on horses 49ndash57

6 See pp 70ndash1 76ndash81 85ndash6 105ndash77 See p 708 I Goldziher Muslim Studies ii 49 ff HLammens Molsquoawia 1er 202

ff on the development of the khutba and associated features articlelsquoKhutbarsquo in EI2

9 Cf IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 48 ff and SDGoitein lsquoThesanctity of Jerusalem and Palestinersquo in his Studies in Islamic history andinstitutions

10 PCrone and MACook Hagarism 8 19ndash2011 CHBecker lsquoThe expansion of the saracensrsquo HARGibb The Arab

conquests in central Asia FMcGraw Donner The early Islamic conquests12 DCDennett Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam

MLapidus lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS (1972) MBrett lsquoTheislamisation of North Africarsquo Islam and modernisation in North Africa edMBrett NLevtzion (ed) Conversion to Islam RBulliet Conversion toIslam in the medieval period

13 A Poliak lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938) MSprengling lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL (1939 1940) JBlau Theemergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic article ldquoArabiyyarsquoin EI2 GLazard lsquoThe rise of the New Persian languagersquo in RNFrye (ed)The Cambridge History of Iran iv London 1975

14 For Shilsquoite views of the Umayyads EKohlberg lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoiinterpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in GHAJuynboll (ed) Studies on thefirst century of Islamic society 145ff

15 Jahiz Risala fi Bani Umayya (=Risala firsquol-nabita) French trans ChPellat AIEOr Alger (1952) Maqrizi Al-Nizalsquo warsquol-takhasum fima baynaBani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim English trans CEBosworth Al-MaqrizirsquoslsquoBook of contention and strifersquo

16 Article lsquoKhalifarsquo in EI2 for discussion of one of the most importantstatements of the qualifications powers and duties of the caliph seeHARGibb lsquoAl-Mawardirsquos theory of the khilafarsquo in his Studies on thecivilization of Islam

17 IGoldziher Muslim Studies ii 38 ff GEvon GrunebaumMedieval Islam 156 ff AAbel lsquoLe Khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)OGrabar lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory ofGaston Wiet ed Myriam Rosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

18 Cf IGoldziher lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieuetcrsquo RHR 35 (1897) WMWatt lsquoGodrsquos caliph Quranic interpretations andUmayyad claimsrsquo in Iran and Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

20 Introduction

19 Note that it is Mulsquoawiya rather than Yazid who bears the brunt of thecharge of corrupting the khalifa to mulk

20 GRHawting lsquoThe Umayyads and the Hijazrsquo Proceedings of thefifth seminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

21 CHBecker lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15(1900)

22 Article lsquoTarsquorikhrsquo in EI1 Supplement PCrone Slaves on horseslsquoHistoriographical introductionrsquo AADuri The rise of historical writingamong the Arabs

23 A Noth Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen undTendenzen fruumlhislamischen Geschichtsuumlberlieferung

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

139

Bibliography

Abel A lsquoLe khalife presence sacreacuteersquo SI 7 (1957)Barthold W lsquoThe caliph lsquoUmar II and the contradictory information about

his personalityrsquo IQ 15 (1971)Becker CH lsquoThe expansion of the Saracensrsquo in CMedH ii Cambridge

1913 German version lsquoDie Ausbreitung der Araber imMittelmeergebietrsquo in his Islamstudien i Leipzig 1924

mdash lsquoStudien zur Omajjadengeschichte a) lsquoOmar IIrsquo ZA 15 (1900)Beeston AFL et al (ed) Arab literature to the end of the Umayyad

period Cambridge 1983Beg MAJ lsquoMulsquoawiya a critical surveyrsquo IC 51 (1977)Bell HI lsquoThe administration of Egypt under the Umayyad caliphsrsquo BZ 28

(1928)Blachegravere R lsquoLe prince omayyade al-Walid (II) ibn Yazid et son rocircle

litteacuterairersquo in Meacutelanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes Cairo 1935Blau J The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic

London 1965Bosworth CE Sistan under the Arabs Rome 1968mdash lsquoRajarsquo b aywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad caliphsrsquo IQ 16 (1972)mdash ldquoUbaidallah b Abi Bakra and the ldquoArmy of Destructionrdquo in Zabulistanrsquo

Isl (1973)mdash Al-Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strife concerning the relations

between the Banu Umayya and the Banu Hashimrsquo Manchester 1980mdash lsquoThe coming of Islam to Afghanistanrsquo in Islam in Asia i South Asia ed

YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984Bravmann MM lsquoSunnah and related conceptsrsquo in his The spiritual

background of early Islam Leiden 1972Brett M lsquoThe islamisation of North Africarsquo in idem (ed) Islam and

modernisation in North Africa London 1973Brock SP lsquoSyriac sources for seventh century historyrsquo in Byzantine and

modern Greek studies ii (1976)Bruumlnnow R Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Umayyeden Leiden 1884Buhl F lsquoDie Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684rsquo ZA 27 (1912)Bulliet R Conversion to Islam in the medieval period Cambridge Mass

1979Cahen C lsquoPoints de vue sur la revolution lsquoabbasidersquo RH 230 (1963)Canard M lsquoLes expeditions des Arabes centre Constantinoplersquo JA 108

(1926)Caskel W Der Felsendom und die Wallfahrt nach Jerusalem Cologne and

Opladen 1963Cook MA Early Muslim dogma Cambridge 1981

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

140 Bibliography

Coulson NJ A history of Islamic law Edinburgh 1964Cresswell KAC A short account of early Muslim architecture London

1958mdash Early Muslim architecture 2nd edn Oxford 1969Crone P Slaves on horses Cambridge 1980mdash lsquoIslam Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine iconoclasmrsquo JSAI 1 (1980)Crone P and Cook MA Hagarism Cambridge 1977Dennett D Conversion and the poll-tax in early Islam Cambridge Mass

1950mdash Marwan b Muammad the passing of the Umayyad caliphate PhD

thesis Harvard University 1939Derenk D Leben und Dichtung des Omaiyadenkalifen al-Walid ibn Yazid

Freiburg im Breisgau 1974Dixon AA The Umayyad caliphate 65ndash86684ndash705 London 1971Djait H lsquoLes Yamanites agrave Kufa au 1er siegravecle de lrsquoheacutegirersquo JESHO 1976Donner FMcGraw The early Islamic conquests Princeton 1981Dunlop DM The history of the Jewish Khazars Princeton 1954Duri lsquoAbd al-lsquoAziz lsquoawrsquo jadid lsquoala rsquol-dalsquowa al-lsquoabbasiyyarsquo in Majallat

Kulliyat al-adab ii Baghdad 1957mdash The rise of historical writing among the Arabs English trans Princeton

1983Encyclopaedia of Islam 1st edition 4 vols and Supplement Leiden 1913ndash

42 2nd edition in progress Leiden 1954Ende W Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte Die Umayyaden im

Urteil arabischer Autoren des 20 Jahrhunderts Beirut 1977Fariq KA lsquoA remarkable early Muslim governor Ziyad b Abihrsquo IC 26

(1952)mdash Ziyad b Abih London 1966mdash lsquoThe story of an Arab diplomatrsquo Studies in Islam 3 (1966) and 4 (1967)Faris NA lsquoDevelopment in Arab historiography as reflected in the

struggle between lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiyarsquo in Historians of the Middle Easted PMHolt and BLewis London 1962

Forand P lsquoThe status of the land and the inhabitants of the sawad duringthe first two centuries of Islamrsquo JESHO 14 (1971)

Friedmann Y lsquoA contribution to the early history of Islam in Indiarsquo inStudies in memory of Gaston Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977

mdash lsquoThe origins and significance of the Chach Namarsquo in Islam in Asia iSouth Asia ed YFriedmann Jerusalem 1984

Frye RN lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid conspiracy and modern revolutionary theoryrsquoIndo-Iranica 5 (1952)

mdash lsquoThe rocircle of Abu Muslim in the lsquoAbbasid revolutionrsquo MW 37 (1947)mdash (ed) The Cambridge History of Iran vol iv London 1975Gabrieli F Il califfato di Hishacircm Alexandria 1935mdash lsquoAl Walid b Yazid il califfo e il poetarsquo RSO 15 (1935)mdash lsquoLa rivolta dei Muhallabiti e il nuovo Baladuri nel Iraqrsquo Rend Linc

series vi vol 14 (1938)mdash Muhammad and the conquests of Islam London 1968mdash lsquoMuammad b Qasim al-Thaqafi and the Arab conquest of Sindrsquo East

and West 15 (1964ndash5)

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

Bibliography 141

Gelder HDvon Muhtar de valsche Profeet Leiden 1888Gibb HAR The Arab conquests in central Asia London 1923mdash lsquoThe fiscal rescript of lsquoUmar IIrsquo Arabica 2 (1955)mdash Studies on the civilisation of Islam London 1962Goitein SD lsquoThe historical background of the erection of the Dome of the

Rockrsquo JAOS 70 (1950)mdash lsquoThe sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in early Islamrsquo in his Studies in

Islamic history and institutions Leiden 1966Goldziher I Muhammedanische Studien 2 vols Halle 1889ndash90 English

trans Muslim Studies 2 vols London 1967ndash71mdash lsquoDu sens propre des expressions Ombre de Dieu etcrsquo RHR 35 (1897)mdash lsquoMulsquoawiya I der Begruumlnder des Islamstaatesrsquo Deutsche

Literaturzeitung 30 (1909)mdash Gesammelte Schriften ed JDesomogyi Hildesheim 1967Grabar O lsquoThe Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalemrsquo Ars Orientalis

3 (1959)mdash lsquoAl-Mushatta Baghdad and Wasitrsquo in The world of Islam Studies in

honour of Philip KHitti London 1959mdash lsquoNotes sur les ceremonies umayyadesrsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston

Wiet ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Grierson P lsquoThe monetary reforms of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo JESHO 3 (1960)Grunebaum GEvon Medieval Islam Chicago 1948mdash Muslim festivals New York 1951Habib I lsquoA study of ajjaj bin Yusufrsquos outlook and policies in the light of

the Chach Namarsquo Bulletin of the Institute of Islamic Studies 6ndash7 (1962ndash3)

Hawting GR lsquoThe Umayyads and the ijazrsquo Proceedings of the 5thSeminar for Arabian Studies London 1972

mdash lsquoThe significance of the slogan la ukma illa lirsquollah etcrsquo BSOAS 41(1978)

Hinds M lsquoKufan political alignments and their background in the mid-seventh century ADrsquo IJMES 1971

mdash lsquoThe banners and battle cries of the Arabs at iffinrsquo Al-Abath 1971mdash lsquoThe murder of the caliph lsquoUthmanrsquo IJMES 1972Hirschberg JW lsquoThe sources of Muslim traditions concerning Jerusalemrsquo

RO 1953Hitti PK History of Syria London 1951Hodgson MG lsquoHow did the early Shilsquoa become sectarianrsquo JAOS 75

(1955)mdash The venture of Islam i Chicago 1974Ibn Isaq Sira (redaction of Ibn Hisham) English trans AGuillaume The

life of Muhammad London 1955Jafri SM Origins and early development of Shilsquoa Islam London 1979Jai al Risala firsquol B Umayya (=Risala firsquol-Nabita) French trans C

Pellat in AIEOr (Alger) 1952Jeffery A lsquoGhevondrsquos text of the correspondence between lsquoUmar II and

Leo IIIrsquo Harvard Theological Review 1944Jenkins RJH lsquoCyprus between Byzantium and Islamrsquo in Studies

presented to DMRobinson London 1953

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

142 Bibliography

Jones AHM The later Roman Empire Oxford 1973Juynboll GHA lsquoThe qurrarsquo in early Islamic historyrsquo JESHO 16 (1973)mdash lsquoThe date of the great fitnarsquo Arabica 20 (1973)mdash (ed) Studies on the first century of Islamic society Southern Illinois

University Press 1982Kennedy H The early Abbasid caliphate London 1981Kessler C ldquoAbd al-Malikrsquos inscription in the Dome of the Rock a

reconsiderationrsquo JRAS (1970)Kister MJ lsquoThe battle of the Harrarsquo in Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet

ed MRosen-Ayalon Jerusalem 1977Kohlberg E lsquoSome Imami Shilsquoi interpretations of Umayyad historyrsquo in

Studies on the first century of Islamic society ed GHAJuynbollSouthern Illinois Univ Press 1982

Lammens H Etudes sur le regravegne du calife omaiyade Molsquoacircwia 1er Paris1908

mdash Le Califat de Yazicircd 1er Beirut 1910ndash21mdash lsquoMolsquoacircwia II ou le dernier des Sofianidesrsquo RSO 7 (1916ndash18)mdash Etudes sur le siegravecle des Omayyades Beirut 1930Lapidus IM lsquoThe conversion of Egypt to Islamrsquo IOS 1972Levtzion N (ed) Conversion to Islam London 1979Lewis B The Arabs in History London 1956mdash and Holt PM (eds) Historians of the Middle East London 1962Mackensen RS lsquoArabic books and libraries in the Umayyad periodrsquo

AJSL 52 (1936) 53 (1937) and 54 (1937)Madelung W ldquoAbd Allah b al-Zubayr and the Mahdirsquo JNES 40 (1981)Maqrizi al Al-Nizalsquo farsquol-takhasum fima bayna B Umayya wa-B Hashim

English trans CEBosworth Maqrizirsquos lsquoBook of contention and strifehelliprsquo Manchester 1980

Massignon L lsquoExplication du plan de Kufarsquo Meacutelanges Maspero Cairo1934ndash40

mdash lsquoExplication du plan de Basrarsquo Westoumlstliche Abhandlungen R Tschudied FMeier Wiesbaden 1954

Mones H lsquoThe Umayyads of the east and westrsquo Der Orient in derForschung Festschrift fuumlr OSpies ed WHoenerbach Wiesbaden 1967

Morony MG Iraq after the Muslim conquest Princeton 1984mdash lsquoReligious communities in late Sasanian and early Muslim Iraqrsquo

JESHO 1974mdash lsquoThe effects of the Muslim conquest on the Persian population of Iraqrsquo

Iran 1976Moscati S lsquoLe massacre des Umayyades dans lrsquohistoire et dans les

fragments poeacutetiquesrsquo Archiv Orientaacutelniacute 1950mdash lsquoIl testamento di Abu Hašimrsquo RSO 27 (1952)mdash lsquoPer una storia dellrsquo antica šilsquoa RSO 30 (1955)Nagel T Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifates

Bonn 1972Noumlldeke T lsquoZur Geschichte der Omaijadenrsquo ZDMG 55 (1901)Noth A Quellenkritische Studien zu Themen Formen und Tendenzen

fruumlhislamischer Geschichtsuumlberlieferung Bonn 1973

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

Bibliography 143

mdash lsquoZum Verhaumlltnis von kalifaler Zentralgewalt und Provinzen inumayyadischer Zeit die lsquoul-lsquoAnwarsquo Traditionen fuumlr Agypten und IraqrsquoWI 14 (1973)

Omar F The lsquoAbbasid caliphate 132750ndash170786 Baghdad 1969mdash lsquoThe composition of lsquoAbbasid supportrsquo Bulletin of the College of Arts

Baghdad ii (1968)Pellat C Le milieu basrien et la formation de Gai Paris 1953Perier J Vie drsquo al-adjdjacircdj ibn Yousuf Paris 1904Petersen EL lsquoAli and Mulsquoawiya in early Arabic tradition Copenhagen

1964Poliak A lsquoLrsquoarabisation de lrsquoorient semitiquersquo REI 12 (1938)Quatremegravere E lsquoMeacutemoire historique sur la vie drsquoAbd-allah ben-Zobairrsquo JA

series 2 nos 9 and 10Rizzitano U ldquoAbdalaziz b Marwan governatore drsquoEgittorsquo Rend Linc

series 8 2 (1941)Rotter G lsquoAbu Zurlsquoa al-Dimašqi (st 281894) und das Problem der fruumlhen

arabischen Geschichtsschreibung in Syrienrsquo Die Welt des Orients 1970ndash1

mdash Die Umayyaden und der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg (688ndash692) Wiesbaden1982

Rubinacci R lsquoIl califfo lsquoAbd al-Malik b Marwan e gli ibaitirsquo AIUONnew series 5 (1953)

Salibi K Syria under Islam New York 1977Sauvaget J La mosqueacutee omeyyade de Medine Paris 1947Sayed R Die Revolte des Ibn al-Aslsquoat und die Koranlesser Freiburg 1977Schacht J Introduction to Islamic law Oxford 1964Sellheim R Der zweite Buumlrgerkrieg in Islam Wiesbaden 1970Serjeant RB lsquoThe sunnah jamilsquoah pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the

tarim of Yathribrsquo BSOAS 41 (1978)Shaban MA The lsquoAbbasid revolution Cambridge 1970mdash Islamic history A new interpretation I AD 600ndash750 (AH 132)

Cambridge 1971Sharon M lsquoThe lsquoAbbasid dalsquowa reexamined on the basis of the discovery

of a new sourcersquo in Arabic and Islamic Studies ed JMansour RamatGan 1973

mdash Black banners from the east The establishment of the lsquoAbbasid statemdashIncubation of a revolt Jerusalem 1983

mdash lsquoAn Arabic inscription from the time of lsquoAbd al-Malikrsquo BSOAS 29(1966)

Siddiqi AH lsquoInsignia of sovereignty during the Umayyad caliphatersquoPPHS 3 (1953)

mdash lsquoA paper on the character of the Umayyad caliphatersquo PPHS 8 (1958)Sprengling M lsquoPersian into Arabicrsquo AJSL 1939 and 1940Thomson W lsquoKharijitism and the Kharijitesrsquo MacDonald Presentation

Volume Princeton 1933mdash lsquoThe character of early Islamic sectsrsquo Ignace Goldziher Memorial

Volume Budapest 1948Tucker W lsquoRebels and gnostics al-Mugira Ibn Salsquoid and the Mugiriyyarsquo

Arabica 22 (1975)

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References

144 Bibliography

mdash lsquoBayan b Samlsquoan and the Bayaniyya Shilsquoite extremists of UmayyadIraqrsquo MW 65 (1975)

mdash lsquoAbu Manur al-lsquoIjli and the Manuriyya a study in medievalterrorismrsquo Isl 1977

mdash ldquoAbd Allah b Mulsquoawiya and the Janaiyya rebels and ideologues of thelate Umayyad periodrsquo SI 51 (1980)

Van Ess J lsquoLes Qadarites et la Gailaniyya de Yazid IIIrsquo SI 41 (1970)Van Vloten G Recherches sur la domination arabe le Chiitisme et les

croyances messianiques sous le Khalifat des Umaiyades Amsterdam1894

Veccia Vaglieri L lsquoIl conflitto lsquoAli-Mursquoawiya e la seccessione kharigitariesaminati alla luce di fonte ibaditersquo AIUON 4 (1951)

Walker JA A catalogue of the Arab- Byzantine and post-reform Umaiyadcoins London 1956

Watt WM Muammad at Mecca London 1953mdash Muammad at Medina London 1956mdash lsquoShilsquoism under the Umayyadsrsquo JRAS (1960)mdash lsquoKharijite thought in the Umayyad periodrsquo Isl 36 (1961)mdash lsquoGodrsquos Caliph Qurrsquoanic interpretations and Umayyad claimsrsquo Iran and

Islam ed CEBosworth Edinburgh 1971mdash The formative period of Islamic thought Edinburgh 1973Wellhausen J lsquoDie Kaumlmpfe der Araber mit den Romaumlern in der Zeit der

Umaijadenrsquo Nachrichten der koumlniglichen Gesellschaft desWissenschaften Goumlttingen 1901

mdash Die religioumls-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam Berlin1901 Eng tr The religio-political factions in early Islam Amsterdam1975

mdash Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz Berlin 1902 Eng tr The Arabkingdom and its fall Calcutta 1927

Wuumlstenfeld F Die Familie el-Zubeir Der Tod Muccedillsquoab ben el-Zubeir ausden Muwaffakicircyacirct des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkicirc Goumlttingen 1878

• Cover and Prelims
• The First Dynasty of Islam
• Contents
• Conventions
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Importance of the Umayyad Period and its Place in Islamic History
• References