Caliph Abd al-Malik was the fifth Umayyad caliph, reigning between 685 and 705. He ended the civil war of 680-692 when he defeated ibn al-Zubayr in the Siege of Mecca. In doing so, he once more united the Muslim world under Umayyad rule and set about reforms that changed the nature of Islamic government forever.
Caliph
The ruler of the Islamic political and religious community (known as a caliphate)
Abd al-Malik: Umayyad Dynasty
To get an idea of where Abd al-Malik fits into the Umayyad dynasty, let's take a look at this family tree, which goes back to Umayya.
The Umayyad dynasty ruled the Muslim world from 661 to 750 C.E.
Fig. 1 - Umayyad family tree.
Abd Al-Malik, shown here in red, was the son of Marwan I, who rose to become caliph during the Second Fitna. This made Abd al-Malik a Marwinid (named after Marwan's line of descent).
Second Fitna
The second civil war in Islam, waged between 680 and 692.
However, Marwanids only became caliphs later during the Umayyad dynasty. The first Umayyad to become caliph was Uthman (shown in yellow on the right side of the family tree). After Uthman, Muawiya I was the next Umayyad Caliph (shown in yellow on the left side of the family tree). Muawiya, his son, and grandson, who became caliphs, were known as Sufyanids because they descended from Abu Sufyan, Muawiya's father. The Marwinids came to power after the Sufyanids died out with Muawiya II.
Abd al-Malik's Early Life
Abd al-Malik was born in 644 to Marwan in the city of Medina. He devoted himself to Islam and spent time with religious scholars in Medina.
In 656, Abd al-Malik saw his kinsman, Caliph Uthman, assassinated in Medina. He then became a naval commander. When his father Marwan I became caliph, he became one of his father's closest advisors in the Umayyad capital of Damascus.
By the time Abd al-Malik came to rule the caliphate, he had significant experience in religion, warfare, and politics. This was to stand him in good stead, and he became one of the Umayyad dynasty's most influential caliphs.
Caliph Abd al-Malik
Abd al-Malik's reign splits into two phases: the civil war years (685-692) and the Islamisation of the caliphate years (692-705). Let's look at each of these in turn.
Islamisation
The process by which a society shifts towards the religion of Islam
Civil War Years (685-692)
Abd al-Malik became the caliph of Egypt and Syria in 685 when his father Marwan I died. However, this was during the Second Fitna, meaning that many others claimed to be caliphs and held territory in other parts of the Islamic world.
Abd al-Malik's main rival was Zubayr, who had been proclaimed caliph in the Hejaz region. Another rival was Mukhtar, who wanted a member of the Prophet Muhammad's family to become the next caliph. Mukhtar held most of Iraq.
However, before Abd al-Malik even got to ride out to war against these two rivals, he had to put down several local revolts within his own territories of Syria, Egypt, and Palestine. During this time, Zubayr managed to kill Mukhtar, meaning that the only two contenders left for the caliphate were Zubayr and Abd al-Malik. Once he had quelled opposition in his own region, Abd al-Malik attempted to invade the Hejaz region to defeat Zubayr in 689. This first attempt failed because he had to return to put down yet another local revolt in his own capital, Damascus.
Abd al-Malik finally managed a successful campaign against Zubayr in 692. He besieged Mecca for six months, after which his forces killed Zubayr. This victory made Abd al-Malik the sole ruler of the Islamic Caliphate, and he reunited the Islamic community once more.
Abd al-Malik and Iraq
Iraq was the wealthiest region within the Caliphate, making it a key area to conquer during the civil war. Initially, Mukhtar and Zubayr's forces divided Iraq. In 686, Abd al-Malik marched on Iraq, and his forces suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Mukhtar - a significant setback to his attempt to win the war.
Abd al-Malik refrained from going near Iraq for the next five years. It was al-Zubayr who defeated Mukhtar and gained control of the whole of the Iraq region. Abd al-Malik then developed a new strategy of secretly winning over Arab nobles in Iraq, which meant that by the time his forces re-attempted their conquest in 691, he had control of all of Iraq's leaders anyway.
The Islamisation of the Caliphate Years (685-692)
Between 685 and 692, Abd al-Malik reigned as caliph over the whole of the Islamic caliphate's territories. He sought to restore the Believers' original agenda to the Muslim world and introduced the following policies to Islamise the empire:
Campaigns of conquest against Byzantine territories to expand God's law to new countries.
Creation of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.
The order to kill all pigs in Syria and Mesopotamia.
Redefinition of the term 'Muslim' from meaning all monotheists (including Christians and Jews) to only monotheists who believed in the Prophet Muhammad.
An increased focus on the Prophet Muhammad in important documents.
Elevation of the Qur'an from being an equal revelation to the Torah and the gospels to having a higher status than either of these texts.
Development of new coins which had Qur'anic verses printed on them.
New prayer rituals, including a set direction for prayer.
Anti-trinitarian rhetoric.
Abd al-Malik killed pigs because pigs were considered unclean in the Islamic religion. The Qur'an specifically forbids Muslims from eating pork.
Monotheists
People who believe in just one God, rather than lots of deities. Monotheistic religions include Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.
Anti-trinitarian
Against the trinitarian concept of God, which holds that God is three persons in one being. This is a view held by Christians who believe in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Qur'an
The holy book of Islam
Torah
The holy writings of Judaism
Gospels
The accounts of the life of Jesus, written within a century of his death.
Fig. 2 - The Mamluk Qur'an.
These policies were undoubtedly politically motivated in that they helped to boost Abd al-Malik's legitimacy and unite the caliphate after a period of civil war. Still, it would be reductionist to see these policies as purely political. Religion was also core to Abd al-Malik's identity and motivation.
Another fundamental change brought about by Abd al-Malik was the Arabisation of the empire. Before then, "Arab" wasn't a national identity; it was more of a linguistic community. Abd al-Malik, however, ordered that all administration be done in Arabic, and Arabic became a political identity held by the ruling classes of the Umayyad dynasty.
The final significant reform brought about by Abd al-Malik was the centralisation of the empire's bureaucracy. He believed that the Sufyanid line failed to maintain power because Muawiya had such a decentralised system, in which local leaders kept a great deal of autonomy in exchange for loyalty to the empire. Therefore, Abd al-Malik centralised the administrative system under Arab control. This became the model for all future Muslim states during the medieval era.
Syrian dominance in Iraq
As before, Abd al-Malik struggled to successfully rule over the province of Iraq as caliph. After putting down a Kharijite rebellion in the region, he installed al-Hajjaj as governor of Iraq.
Al-Hajjaj was very unpopular, he threatened to execute anyone who supported the Kharijites, and he lowered Iraqi soldiers' pay compared to their Syrian counterparts. In response, Iraqi soldiers rebelled, and al-Hajjaj brutally put down their uprising.
This marked the start of Syrian domination over Iraq - Syrian troops became the ruling class. In contrast, Iraq's former nobles and scholars no longer had power. This became part of Abd al-Malik's centralisation of the caliphate under Syrian Arab rule.
Kharijites
An Islamic sect that emerged during the First Fitna (civil war). They believed any Muslim from any background could become caliph as long as they were morally pure. They believed it was their duty to assassinate any caliph who was sinful.
Abd al-Malik: Coinage Reform
Abd al-Malik introduced an overhaul of the coinage system in one of his most effective Islamisation policies.
Before his reign, the caliphate had used coins almost identical to the Byzantine and Sasanian coins - sometimes with a slogan like 'There is no god but God.' Most of these coins had images inscribed, such as a cross or a temple.
Fig. 3 - New coins issued by Abd al-Malik.
So, how did Abd al-Malik completely redesign these coins?
- He eradicated all images so that the coins were distinctive in having only inscriptions on them.
- All coins had to have the double shahada on them and Qur'anic verses.
- The verses chosen were anti-trinitarian, reinforcing the Muslim community's difference from other monotheists. One such anti-trinitarian example that came up a lot on coins was the following:
God is one, the Lord of refuge, He neither begets nor is begotten. 1
Shahada
The declaration of the Islamic faith: 'There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger.' It is the first of the Five Pillars of Islam.
The impact of the coinage reform was to create a standardised iconography for the Islamic empire and to boost the legitimacy of Abd al-Malik's rule since it linked his image with that of a pious believer.
Abd al-Malik: Dome of the Rock
The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem is Islam's oldest surviving religious building. Although historians know that it was built during Abd al-Malik's reign, there is a fierce debate about why and when exactly Abd al-Malik commissioned this fantastic monument.
Fig. 4 - The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.
Some believe that he built it early during the Second Fitna. During this period, ibn al-Zubayr held Mecca. Some historians think Abd al-Malik created the Dome of the Rock to serve as an alternative destination for pilgrimages so that his people wouldn't have to travel into his rival's territory.
Others believe it was created as a sort of 'victory monument' - a sign to Christians and Jews in Jerusalem that Islam was here to stay in a city so important to these two faiths. One piece of evidence that supports this view is the fact that the Dome of the Rock is full of anti-trinitarian inscriptions, indicating that it was deliberately created to distinguish Islam from other monotheistic religions. Another piece of evidence is that it was built on the site of the second temple of Judaism, thus representing a physical imposition of a Muslim holy site over a Jewish one.
Another view on the Dome of the Rock
Historian Fred Donner has an alternative viewpoint. He claims that the iconography of the Dome of the Rock shows that it symbolises paradise and resurrection. This is especially significant when one considers that Abd al-Malik chose to have it built in Jerusalem, the city believed to be the location of the Last Judgement by Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Therefore, it is plausible that he built the monument to be the backdrop for the events of the Last Judgement, which he thought would happen very soon.
Therefore, Fred Donner concludes that the Dome of the Rock:
stands as testimony to the continuing force of the apocalyptic impetus of the early Believers' movement.2 - Fred Donner.
Apocalypse
The destruction and complete end of the world. Early Muslim believers thought that the apocalypse was very near and that the event would happen in Jerusalem.
Abd al-Malik: Accomplishments
So, overall, what did Abd al-Malik accomplish as caliph? Several of his key achievements include:
- The reunification of the Muslim world under one recognised leader once more after a brutal civil war.
- The creation of the postal service as part of his administrative reform.
- The creation of a distinctive Muslim coinage.
- The building of the Dome of the Rock monument.
- The creation of a permanent, organised Syrian army.
- Definition of Islam as we know it today: A religion focused on the Prophet Muhammad, the Qur'an, and a state guided by rulers who were successors to Muhammad, rather than a more general group of believers who followed the teachings of Muhammad.
- Creation of the first centralised Islamic state in the way we know it today.
This is when we first get documents using the term khalifa for the ruler rather than the previous title that all leaders had adopted (ameer). Whereas an ameer simply meant a commander or ruler, a khalifa was a person divinely appointed to rule a political-religious community - referring to a Qur'anic verse in which God makes King David the khalifa on earth.
Islamic studies professor Chase Robinson argues:
only the Prophet Muhammad himself exerted more influence upon the course of early Islamic history.3
Fred Donner argues:
[Abd al-Malik's reign introduced the critical process] by which Islam, as a distinct religious confession centred on the Qur'an as the latest revelation of God's word and recognition of Muhammad as the final prophet and messenger of God's word, emerged from the more loosely defined Believers' movement inaugurated by Muhammad. It was this process [...] that first truly established the lineaments of Islam.4
Abd al-Malik - Key takeaways
- Abd al-Malik reunified the Islamic empire under Umayyad rule in 692 when he defeated al-Zubayr.
- He was the son of Marwan I, and therefore he was the second Marwinid caliph and the fifth Umayyad caliph.
- The first years of his rule (685-692) were focused on winning the civil war.
- The latter years of his rule (692-705) focused on the Empire's Islamisation.
- Two of the most significant legacies of his reign were the creation of a new Islamic coinage system and the building of the Dome of the Rock Monument in Jerusalem.
References
- Qur'an 112:1-3
- Fred Donner, Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam, 2012.
- Chase Robinson, Makers of the Muslim World: Abd al-Malik, 2005.
- Fred Donner, Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam, 2012.
- Fig. 1 - Umayyad Dynasty under Abd al-Malik (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Umayyad_dynasty_under_Abd_al-Malik.png) by Al Ameer Son (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Al_Ameer_son) is licensed by CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en)
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