Maslamah ibn Abd al-Malik

Maslamah ibn Abd al-Malik
Died	738
Allegiance	Umayyad Caliphate
Battles/wars	Byzantine–Arab Wars, Khazar–Arab Wars
Relations	Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (father); Muhammad ibn Marwan (uncle); Al-Walid I, Sulayman, Yazid II and Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik (brothers)

Maslamah ibn Abd al-Malik (Arabic: مسلمة بن عبد الملك ‎, in Greek sources Μασαλμᾶς, Masalmas; 705–738fl. 705–738) was an Umayyad prince and one of the most prominent Arab generals of the early decades of the 8th century, leading several campaigns against the Byzantine Empire and the Khazar Khaganate. He achieved great fame especially for leading the second and last Arab siege of the Byzantine capital Constantinople, and for strengthening the Muslim presence in the Caucasus, among other things as the "founder of Islamic Derbent".^[1]

Life

Maslamah was the son of the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan and half-brother of the caliphs Al-Walid I, Sulayman, Yazid II and Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik.^[2][3] As his mother was a slave however, he was excluded from the line of succession.^[1][4]

The Arab attack on Constantinople, from the Manasses Chronicle

He is first mentioned as leading, along with al-'Abbas ibn al-Walid, the annual summer campaigns against Byzantium (ṣawā'if) in 705.^[1] His first major expedition was the 707–708 campaign against the Byzantine city of Tyana, which was launched in retaliation for the defeat and death of the distinguished general Maimun the Mardaite the year before. The Arabs defeated a Byzantine relief force in spring 708, whereupon the city surrendered itself.^[3][4][5] A few months later, in the same summer, Maslamah led another expedition into Anatolia, and defeated a Byzantine army near Amorium, while in 709 he raided into Isauria.^[5]

In the same year, Maslamah was appointed military governor of Armenia and Azerbaijan, succeeding his uncle Muhammad ibn Marwan. In addition to the post of governor of the Jund Qinnasrin, which he already held, this effectively gave him complete control of the Caliphate's entire northwestern border. From this post he launched several campaigns against Byzantium, devastating Galatia and sacking Amaseia in 712, and taking Melitene in 714.^[1][2][4] He was also the first to establish the Caliphate's presence north of the Caucasus, leading to the commencement of direct conflict with the Khazars (see Khazar–Arab Wars).^[6] In 710 and again in 714, he marched his army up to Bab al-Abwab (Derbent), which he took and destroyed during the latter expedition.^[1]

From 715 he was the leading general in Sulayman's plans to conquer the Byzantine capital, Constantinople; after advancing with his army through Asia Minor, he led the Second Arab Siege of Constantinople in 717–718, but was unable to overcome the Byzantine defences. His navy was repulsed by Greek fire, and his army suffered from disease and Bulgar attacks, so that he was recalled in August 718 by Umar II.^[1][2][4] According to the 10th-century De Administrando Imperio, at that time he convinced the Byzantines to build Constantinople's first mosque, near the city's praetorium.^[3] Later Ottoman tradition also ascribed the building of the Arap Mosque (located outside Constantinople proper in Galata) to Maslamah, although it erroneously dated this to around 686, probably confusing Maslamah's attack with the first Arab siege in the 670s. In reality, the mosque near the praetorium was probably erected in about 860, as a result of an Arab embassy in that year.^[7]

After his failure at Constantinople, he was dispatched to Iraq, to quell the Kharijites. After Umar's death and the accession of his brother Yazid II in 720, he was tasked with the suppression of the revolt of Yazid ibn al-Muhallab, whom he defeated and killed in August 720.^[1][3][4] He nevertheless fell out of favour with the Caliph, who resented and feared his power as governor of both Iraqs, as well as his interfering in the succession: Maslamah favoured his brother Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik over Yazid's son Walid. Yazid soon recalled Maslamah from his post, ostensibly because he had failed to deliver his provinces' tax haul to Damascus.^[1][4][8]

Map of the Caucasus region ca. 750

Maslamah re-emerges in 725, when Hisham, who had just become Caliph, sent him to he replace al-Djarrah ibn Abdallah al-Hakami in the Caucasus front against the Khazars. Initially however Maslamah was mostly active in the Byzantine front, and the war against the Khazars was delegated to al-Harith ibn Amr al-Ta'i.^[1][9] In winter 725, Maslamah led an expedition against Asia Minor from Melitene, which culminated in the sack of Caesarea on 13 January 726. Along with the capture of Gangra by Abdallah al-Battal in 727, this was one of the major successes of Arab arms against the Byzantines in the 720s. A few months later, he also led the otherwise unremarkable northern summer expedition into Byzantine territory.^[2][3][10] In 727–728, his attention was diverted by Khazar attacks which reached deep into Azerbaijan. Although Maslamah was able to drive them back and recover control of the Darial Pass, his 728 campaign across the Caucasus was difficult, bloody and indecisive. Maslamah's troops were reportedly engaged in up to thirty or forty days of constant fighting in miserable weather, and although he claimed victory in a battle over the Khazar khagan himself, the expedition did not achieve any results, and came close to being defeated. Certainly it did little to stop Khazar attacks south of the Caucasus, which resumed in 729. Maslamah was removed from office in the same year, and replaced by al-Djarrah.^[3][11] He is then recorded by the Byzantine chronicler Theophanes the Confessor as having been responsible for the sack of the fortress of Charsianon in late 730, but Arab sources credit Mu'awiyah ibn Hisham for this act.^[12]

In the Caucasus however, the situation quickly deteriorated after Maslamah's departure. While al-Djarrah campaigned north of the Caucasus, the Khazars swung behind him and attacked his main base, Ardabil. Hastening to relieve the city, al-Djarrah was defeated and killed, and his army practically annihilated in a battle outside the city on 9 December 730.^[13] The veteran general Sa'id ibn Amr al-Harashi managed to recover the situation and defeat the Khazar army. The Caliph however appointed Maslamah as the new governor of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Maslamah, allegedly out of jealousy for Sa'id's successes, had Sa'id imprisoned until Hisham ordered his release. Throughout 730 and 731 Maslamah, with a large army at his disposal, cleared the provinces south of the Caucasus of the Khazars, and then advanced beyond the mountains, sacking a couple of settlements and defeating the khagan in pitched battle. He also recovered the strategic fortress of Bab al-Awbab from the Khazars who had occupied it by poisoning its water supply, and resettled it with 24,000 soldiers. His tenure however was evidently judged as not successful enough, and he was replaced on 3 March 732 by Marwan ibn Muhammad.^[1][14]

Maslamah thereafter retired from public life, possibly to his extensive estates in northern Syria. He died on 24 December 738.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} Rotter (1991), p. 740
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Kazhdan (1991), p. 1311
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Winkelmann et al. (1998), pp. 190–191
4. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Lammens (1987), p. 394
5. ^ ^{a b} Treadgold (1997), p. 341
6. ^ Blankinship (1994), p. 108
7. ^ Hasluck (1929), pp. 718–720
8. ^ Blankinship (1994), pp. 87–88
9. ^ Blankinship (1994), p. 123
10. ^ Blankinship (1994), pp. 120–121
11. ^ Blankinship (1994), pp. 124–125, 149
12. ^ Blankinship (1994), p. 162
13. ^ Blankinship (1994), pp. 149–150
14. ^ Blankinship (1994), pp. 150–152

Sources

• Blankinship, Khalid Yahya (1994), The end of the jihâd state: the reign of Hishām ibn ʻAbd al-Malik and the collapse of the Umayyads, State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-0-791418277, http://books.google.com/books?id=Jz0Yy053WS4C 
• Hasluck, F. W. (2008) [1929], "LVII. The Mosques of the Arabs in Constantinople", Christianity and Islam Under the Sultans, Vol. 2, READ BOOKS, pp. 717–735, ISBN 978-1443729222, http://books.google.com/books?id=LyTF8v0TwekC 
• Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991), Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6 
• Lammens, H. (1987). "MASLAMA". In Houtsma, Martijn Theodoor. E.J. Brill's first encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913–1936, Volume V. Leiden: BRILL. p. 394. ISBN 978-90-04-08265-4. http://books.google.com/books?id=iJQ3AAAAIAAJ&lpg=PA394&vq=Maslama&pg=PA394#v=snippet&q=Maslama&f=false. 
• Rotter, G. (1991). "Maslama b. 'Abd Al-Malik b. Marwan". The Encyclopedia of Islam, New Edition, Volume VI: Mahk–Mid. Leiden and New York: BRILL. p. 740. ISBN 90-04-08112-7. 
• Treadgold, Warren T. (1997), A History of the Byzantine State and Society, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, ISBN 0-8047-2630-2, http://books.google.com/books?id=nYbnr5XVbzUC 
• Winkelmann, Friedhelm; Lilie, Ralph-Johannes et al. (1998), "Maslama ibn ‘Abd al-Malik (#4868)" (in German), Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit: I. Abteilung (641–867), 3. Band: Leon (#4271) – Placentius (#6265), Walter de Gruyter, pp. 190–191, ISBN 978-3-11-016673-9, http://books.google.gr/books?id=wtLm7NLZJ5wC&lpg=PP1&hl=en&pg=PA134#v=onepage&q&f=false 

Persondata
Name	Maslamah Ibn Abd Al-Malik
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth
Place of birth
Date of death	738
Place of death