page_title: Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Genealogical diagram of the Umayyad dynasty during the caliphate of Abd al-Malik. The diagram indicates those members of the Umayyad clan who served as governors and/or commanders in Abd al-Malik's government (see list below) and their common ancestors with Abd al-Malik. Diagram also indicates the sons and grandsons of Abd al-Malik who succeeded him as caliphs. List of Umayyads who served as Abd al-Malik's governors or commanders: Yahya ibn al-Hakam (uncle), governor of Palestine (ca. 685–694), governor of Medina (694–695), commander on Byzantine front (697–698) Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan (half-brother), governor/viceroy of Egypt and its western dependencies (685–704) Bishr ibn Marwan (half-brother), governor of Kufa (691–694), governor of Basra (693–694) Muhammad ibn Marwan (half-brother), governor of Upper Mesopotamia and later Armenia and Azerbaijan (685–710) Aban ibn Marwan (half-brother), governor of Palestine and/or Jordan (694?–pre-705) Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik (son), governor of Palestine (pre-705–715) Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik (son), commander on Byzantine front (705–738) Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Malik (son), commander on Byzantine front (701–703), governor of Egypt (704–709) Sa'id ibn Abd al-Malik (son), governor of Mosul (undetermined period between 691–705) Yazid II (son), governor of al-Balqa subdistrict of Damascus (undetermined period between 685–705) Aban ibn Uthman ibn Affan (second cousin), governor of Medina (695–702) Amr al-Ashdaq ibn Sa'id ibn al-As (third cousin, once removed), commander or courtier in Damascus (685–689) Khalid ibn Abd Allah ibn Khalid ibn Asid (third cousin, once removed), commander on Basran front (690), governor of Basra (691–693) Umayya ibn Abd Allah ibn Khalid ibn Asid (third cousin, once removed), governor of Khurasan (ca. 693–698) Aban ibn al-Walid ibn Uqba (third cousin, once removed), governor of Homs (ca. 685–691 or beyond) Khalid ibn Yazid I (third cousin, once removed), commander on Iraqi front (691) Abd Allah ibn Yazid I (third cousin, once removed), commander on Iraqi front (691) Yusuf ibn Yahya ibn al-Hakam (second cousin), governor of Mosul (undetermined period between 691–705) Sources: Crone, Patricia (1980). Slaves on Horses: The Evolution of the Islamic Polity. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press Della Vida, Giorgio Levi (2000). "Umayya b. ʿAbd Shams". In Bearman, P. J.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W. P. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition, Volume X: T–U. Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 837–838. ISBN 90-04-11211-1. Fishbein, Michael, ed. (1990). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume 21: The Victory of the Marwānids, A.D. 685–693/A.H. 66–73. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press Gibb, H. A. R. (1960). "ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwān". In Gibb, H. A. R.; Kramers, J. H.; Lévi-Provençal, E.; Schacht, J.; Lewis, B.; Pellat, Ch. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition, Volume I: A–B. Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 76–77. Hinds, Martin, ed. (1990). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume 23: The Zenith of the Marwānid House: The Last Years of ʿAbd al-Malik and the Caliphate of al-Walīd, A.D. 700–715/A.H. 81–95. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-88706-721-1. Robinson, Chase F. (2004). Empire and Elites after the Muslim Conquest: The Transformation of Northern Mesopotamia. Cambridge University Press Sharon, Moshe (June 1966). "An Arabic Inscription From The Time Of The Caliph 'Abd Al-Malik". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 29 (2): 367–372
context_page_description: Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan ibn al-Hakam was the fifth Umayyad caliph, ruling from April 685 until his death. A member of the first generation of born Muslims, his early life in Medina was occupied with pious pursuits. He held administrative and military posts under Caliph Mu'awiya I, founder of the Umayyad Caliphate, and his own father, Caliph Marwan I. By the time of Abd al-Malik's accession, Umayyad authority had collapsed across the Caliphate as a result of the Second Muslim Civil War and had been reconstituted in Syria and Egypt during his father's reign.
  Following a failed invasion of Iraq in 686, Abd al-Malik focused on securing Syria before making further attempts to conquer the greater part of the Caliphate from his principal rival, the Mecca-based caliph Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr. To that end, he concluded an unfavorable truce with the reinvigorated Byzantine Empire in 689, quashed a coup attempt in Damascus by his kinsman, al-Ashdaq, the following year, and reincorporated into the army the rebellious Qaysi tribes of the Jazira in 691.
context_section_description: Abd al-Malik is considered the most "celebrated" Umayyad caliph by the historian Julius Wellhausen. "His reign had been a period of hard-won successes", in the words of Kennedy. The 9th-century historian al-Yaqubi described Abd al-Malik as "courageous, shrewd and sagacious, but also ... miserly". His successor, al-Walid, continued his father's policies and his rule likely marked the peak of Umayyad power and prosperity. Abd al-Malik's key administrative reforms, reunification of the Caliphate and suppression of all active domestic opposition enabled the major territorial expansion of the Caliphate during al-Walid's reign. Three other sons of Abd al-Malik, Sulayman, Yazid II and Hisham, would rule in succession until 743, interrupted only by the rule of Abd al-Aziz's son, Umar II (r. 717–720). With the exceptions of the latter and Marwan II (r. 744–750), all the Umayyad caliphs who came after Abd al-Malik were directly descended from him, hence the references to him as the "father of kings" in the traditional Muslim sources. The Umayyad emirs and caliphs who ruled in the Iberian Peninsula between 756 and 1031 were also his direct descendants. In the assessment of his biographer Chase F. Robinson, "Mu'awiya may have introduced the principle of dynastic succession into the ruling tradition of early Islam, but Abd al-Malik made it work".
  Abd al-Malik's concentration of power into the hands of his family was unprecedented; at one point, his brothers or sons held nearly all governorships of the provinces and Syria's districts. Likewise, his court in Damascus was filled with far more Umayyads than under his Sufyanid predecessors, a result of the clan's exile to the city from Medina in 683. He maintained close ties with the Sufyanids through marital relations and official appointments, such as according Yazid I's son Khalid a prominent role in the court and army and wedding to him his daughter A'isha. Abd al-Malik also married Khalid's sister Atika, who became his favorite and most influential wife.
  After his victory in the civil war, Abd al-Malik embarked on a far-reaching campaign to consolidate Umayyad rule over the Caliphate. The collapse of Umayyad authority precipitated by Mu'awiya I's death made it apparent to Abd al-Malik that the decentralized Sufyanid system was unsustainable. Moreover, despite the defeat of his Muslim rivals, his dynasty remained domestically and externally insecure, prompting a need to legitimize its existence, according to Blankinship. Abd al-Malik's solution to the fractious tribalism which defined his predecessors' caliphate was to centralize power. At the same time, his response to the Byzantine–Christian resurgence and the criticism of Muslim religious circles, which dated from the beginning of Umayyad rule and culminated with the outbreak of the civil war, was to implement Islamization measures. The centralized administration he established became the prototype of later medieval Muslim states. In Kennedy's assessment, Abd al-Malik's "centralized, bureaucratic empire ... was in many ways an impressive achievement", but the political, economic and social divisions that developed within the Islamic community during his reign "was to prove something of a difficult inheritance for the later Umayyads".
  According to Wellhausen, government "evidently became more technical and hierarchical" under Abd al-Malik, though not nearly to the extent of the later Abbasid caliphs. As opposed to the freewheeling governing style of the Sufyanids, Abd al-Malik ruled strictly over his officials and kept interactions with them largely formal. He put an end to the provinces' retention of the lion's share of surplus tax revenues, as had been the case under the Sufyanids, and had them redirected to the caliphal treasury in Damascus. He supported al-Hajjaj's policy of collecting the poll tax, traditionally imposed on the Caliphate's non-Muslim subjects, from the mawālī of Iraq and instructed Abd al-Aziz to implement this measure in Egypt, though the latter allegedly disregarded the order. Abd al-Malik may have inaugurated
caption: Family tree of the Umayyad dynasty during the reign of Abd al-Malik, whose reliance on his family was unprecedented in the Caliphate's history.
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