Episode 29: Unforced error

If Walid’s reign was the zenith of Umayyad power, then his succession marked an inflection point through which we begin to see some cracks which may have been there all along. Leaving his governor of Iraq and the East unchecked led to great discontent, and different rifts within the umma positioned themselves on either side of the growing divides. Before too long, these differences became a formidable problem for the state.

Glossary

• Al Hajjaj: the powerful governor or Iraq really ruled the roost in the East, especially considering Walid’s overall passivity. So much about his is just pure terror, but then al Mas’udi has plenty of clever letters attributed to the man that give him a sense of decency, even humor. As with so much else, there are conflicting accounts, and nothing is settled. There are plenty of apologetic narrations about al Hajjaj, and how all he was trying to do was hold everything together and keep the umma united.
• The sons of al Muhallab: some sources report up to 10 sons of al Muhallab, but the main one was the eldest, Yazid, who governed Khurasan after the death of his father. He did ok, though obviously he was no Qutayba, so I’m sort of with al Hajjaj on his removal and replacement, even if it took place for the wrong reasons. His most prominent brothers were Mufaddal (who replaced him for a spell), Mudrik, and Habib. They were like a package deal, and governed different parts of the East together when Yazid was in power. It’s notable that the Muhallabs were considered the preeminent family of the Azd-Rabi’a alliance, which fell on the Qahtani side of the Eastern tribal conflict.
• Qutayba bin Muslim: the conqueror of the East was so powerful in his domain that he was known as “king of the Arabs”. There are several narrations lamenting his death in our sources. One of them goes that his armies asked for his shrouded corpse, saying that they could conquer more with it than with any of the Muhallabs. His use of local troop levies in his armies caused some friction between his Arab and non-Arab contingents.
• Musa ibn Nusayr: the hero of Africa had an unfortunate end to his career. He was recalled to Damascus after news of his glories gave rise to jealous whispers of how he was surely withholding much wealth. He arrived as Walid was dying, but Sulayman didn’t waste too much time before he squeezed him dry of all his assets, forced him out of command, and then allowed his replacements to assassinate his son who was subduing Spain at the time.
• Sulayman bin Abdulmalik: this son of Abdulmalik had been governing Palestine since his father’s reign. Just like how Maslama was the Umayyad with the closest ties to the Adnani coalition, Sulayman was the one closest to the Qahtani alliance, by far. His mentor and erstwhile tutor, Raja il Kindi, was very close to these tribes and championed their causes effectively and often. We’ll have more to say about Sulayman next time.