Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad

Ubayd Allah was the son of Ziyad ibn Abihi whose tribal origins were obscure; while his mother was a Persian concubine named Murjanah.[1] Ziyad served as the Umayyad governor of Iraq and the lands east of that province, collectively known as Khurasan, during the reign of Caliph Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680).[2]

Umayyad Caliphate coin imitating Sasanid Empire ruler Khosrau II. Coin of the time of Mu'awiya I ibn Abi Sufyan. BCRA (Basra) mint; "Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad, governor". Dated AH 56 = 675/6 CE. Sasanian style bust imitating Khosrau II right; bismillah and three pellets in margin; c/m: winged creature right / Fire altar with ribbons and attendants; star and crescent flanking flames; date to left, mint name to right.

Ubayd Allah's father prepared him to succeed him as governor, and indeed, after Ziyad's death in 672/673, Ubayd Allah became governor of Khurasan.[1] A year or two later, he was also appointed to the governorship of Basra.[1] According to historian Hugh N. Kennedy, Ubayd Allah was "more hasty and given to the use of force than his father, but a man whose devotion to the Umayyad cause could not have been doubted".[3]

In 674 he crossed the Amu Darya and defeated the forces of the ruler of Bukhara in the first known invasion of the city by Muslim Arabs.[4] From at least 674 and 675, Ubayd Allah had coins struck in his name in Khurasan and Basra, respectively.[1] They were based on Sasanian coinage and written in Pahlavi script.[1] The mints were located in Basra, Darabjird, Maysan, Narmashir, Jayy and, to a lesser extent, Kufa.[1] The latter was attached to Ubayd Allah's governorship in 679/680, giving him full control of Iraq.[1]

The death of Yazid in 683 led to a major leadership crisis in the caliphate, and "the power of his house seemed to collapse everywhere", in the words of Orientalist Julius Wellhausen.[10] Ubayd Allah initially neglected to support Yazid's son and designated successor, Mu'awiya II and secured oaths of allegiance to himself from the Basran Arab nobility.[10] In a speech addressed to them, he emphasized his connection to Basra and promised to maintain the wealth of the city's inhabitants.[11] Nonetheless, the Basrans turned against him, forcing him to abandon his palace.[11][12] He was replaced by Abd Allah ibn al-Harith, a member of the Banu Hashim.[12] Ubayd Allah took refuge with the Azdi chieftain Mas'ud ibn Amr in late 683 or early 684.[12] He plotted to restore his governorship by encouraging Mas'ud to form an alliance of the Yamani and Rabi'a tribes against his opponents from the Banu Tamim and Ibn al-Harith.[13] Mas'ud took to the pulpit of Basra's mosque to stir up the revolt, but Tamimi tribesmen under Ibn al-Harith and their asawira allies under Mah-Afridhun, stormed the building and killed Mas'ud.[13] After Mas'ud's death, Ubayd Allah fled the city practically alone in March 684, taking the Syrian desert route to Hawran or Palmyra.[11][12][14] In his rush to escape, he left his wife and family behind.[13]

When Ubayd Allah arrived in Syria, he found it in political disarray; Caliph Mu'awiya II had died weeks into his rule and a power vacuum ensued with many Syrian noblemen, particularly from the Qaysi tribes, switching allegiance to the rival, Mecca-based caliphate of Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr.[11] The latter had expelled the Umayyads from the Hejaz and among the exiles to Syria was Marwan ibn al-Hakam, an Umayyad elder.[15] Ubayd Allah persuaded Marwan, who was preparing to recognize Ibn al-Zubayr's sovereignty, to enter his candidacy as Mu'awiya II's successor.[16] The Umayyads' principal Syrian allies, the Banu Kalb, had sought to maintain Umayyad rule and nominated Mu'awiya II's half-brother Khalid as caliph.[16] However, the other pro-Umayyad Syrian tribes viewed Khalid as too young and inexperienced, and rallied around Marwan, who was ultimately chosen as caliph.[16]

Ubayd Allah fought for Marwan and his tribal allies against the Qaysi tribes led by al-Dahhak ibn Qays al-Fihri, the governor of Damascus, at the Battle of Marj Rahit in August 684.[1] The Qays were routed and al-Dahhak killed. Ubayd Allah was put in command of Marwan's army which, during Marj Rahit, consisted 6,000 men from a handful of loyalist tribes.[17] According to Kennedy, Ubayd Allah "clearly intended to rebuild the Syrian army which had served Mu'awiya and Yazid I so well".[17] In the aftermath of Marj Rahit, Ubayd Allah oversaw campaigns against rebel Qaysi tribes for Marwan and his son and successor Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705) in the Jazira.[1] However, Marwan's forces were too little to assert Umayyad rule throughout the caliphate.[17] Thus, Ubayd Allah expanded recruitment to include various Qaysi tribes.[17] He placed Husayn ibn Numayr al-Sakuni of Kindah as his second-in-command, and Shurahbil ibn Dhi'l-Kila' of Himyar, Adham ibn Muhriz of Bahila, al-Rabi'a ibn Mukhariq of Banu Ghani and Jabala ibn Abd Allah of Khath'am as deputy commanders.[17] Other than Husayn ibn Numayr, all of the commanders were either Qaysi or had earlier supported al-Dahhak against Marwan.[17]

In January 685, as Ubayd Allah was in Manbij preparing for the Umayyad reconquest of Iraq, Husayn ibn Numayr defeated the pro-Alid Penitents at the Battle of Ayn al-Warda.[1][18] Ubayd Allah had been promised by Marwan the governorship over all of the lands he could conquer from the Alids and Ibn al-Zubayr, and he may have been sanctioned to plunder Kufa.[18] For the following year, Ubayd Allah was bogged down in battles with the Qaysi tribes of Jazira led by Zufar ibn al-Harith al-Kilabi.[18] By 686, Ubayd Allah's army numbered some 60,000 troops.[17]

By the time Ubayd Allah's army approached Mosul toward Iraq, the Zubayrids under Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr had established themselves in Basra while al-Mukhtar ibn Abi Ubayd took control of Kufa in the name of the Alid Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya.[19] Al-Mukhtar dispatched Ibrahim ibn al-Ashtar and an army composed largely of non-Arab freedmen to confront Ubayd Allah.[19] The latter fended off the first wave of al-Mukhtar's troops, and proceeded to face off Ibn al-Ashtar at the Khazir River.[19] In the ensuing Battle of Khazir, the Umayyad army was routed and Ubayd Allah was slain by Ibn al-Ashtar.[19] His lieutenants Husayn, Shurahbil and al-Rabi'a were also killed.[19] With Ubayd Allah's death, Caliph Abd al-Malik halted further advances against Iraq until 691.[19]

• Brock, Sebastian P. (1987). "North Mesopotamia in the late Seventh Century: Book XV of John Bar Penkāyē's Rīš Mellē". Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam. 9: 51–75. ISSN 0334-4118.
• Crone, Patricia (1980). Slaves on Horses: The Evolution of the Islamic Polity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-52940-9.
• Donner, Fred M. (2010). Muhammad and the Believers. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-05097-6.
• Gibb, H. A. R. (2013) [1923]. The Arab Conquests in Central Asia. Read Books. ISBN 1-4067-5239-8.
• Hasson, I. (2002). "Ziyād b. Abiḥī". In Bearman, P. J.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W. P. (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Islam. Vol. XI: W–Z (new ed.). Leiden and New York: Brill. pp. 519–522. ISBN 90-04-12756-9.
• Kennedy, Hugh (2001). The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-25093-5.
• Kennedy, Hugh (2004). The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates: The Islamic Near East from the 6th to the 11th Century (Second ed.). Harlow: Longman. ISBN 978-0-582-40525-7.
• Madelung, Wifred (October 1981). "ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Zubayr and the Mahdi". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 4 (1): 291–305. ISSN 0022-2968. JSTOR 544603.
• Robinson, C. F. (2000). "ʿUbayd Allāh b. Ziyād". In Bearman, P. J.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E. & Heinrichs, W. P. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Volume X: T–U (2nd ed.). Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 763–764. ISBN 978-90-04-11211-7.
• Wellhausen, Julius (1927). The Arab Kingdom and Its Fall. Translated by Margaret Graham Weir. Calcutta: University of Calcutta. OCLC 752790641.

• Umayyad Governors of al-Basra and al-Kufa
• Muhammad and Islamic Conquest