Episode 33: Hisham bin Abdulmalik

In the nine years between al Walid’s death in 715 and Hisham’s ascension in 724 the umma went through three caliphs, each with a radically different vision for its future. This swinging between political projects greatly undermined any stability Umayyad power was founded upon, an important development which is unfortunately difficult to trace in our sources. A quick look at some of the unspoken changes will reveal the unenviable work ahead that lay ahead of our latest caliph.

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Glossary

• Khalid and Asad il Qasri: the two brothers were from the small and neutral Bahili tribe, although it should be noted that many sources peg them as Qahtanis. Khalid was close to al Hajjaj and therefore Yazid, the previous caliph, but Hisham chose him to govern the restive east. Khalid picked his brother as his governor of Khurasan, something we’ll revisit in detail later. These two will be important figures during Hisham’s reign, though they won’t leave much of a legacy afterwards.
• Suluk and the Turgesh: the Turgesh sort of appear out of nowhere, and there’s plenty of disagreement on how exactly their Chinese connection came about. Suluk was their Khagan, their khan of khans, a supreme title common among the nomadic bands of Central Asia – for example the turkic Khazars used it for their leader. The umma’s struggle against the Turgesh will be relatively long and epic, and it will lay bare the fact that the only power who could rival the Arabs in Central Asia was China.
• Sa’id il Harashi: a governor of Khurasan who did well against the Turgesh under Yazid, but was ultimately replaced by the caliph for failing to forward enough money to the drained treasury.
• Muslim: a less fortunate governor under whom the Arabs suffered a major loss to the Turgesh just as Hisham succeeded his half-brother to the throne. The “day of thirst” crippled the umma’s armies in the East, and was caused as much by the Turgesh as it was by the local nobility who for the first time rebelled successfully against Arab power by allying with them.