Abd al-Wahid ibn Sulayman

Abd al-Wahid was a son of Caliph Sulayman (r. 715–717) and a grandson of Caliph Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705).[1] His mother, Umm Amr, a daughter of Abd Allah ibn Khalid ibn Asid, was one of the Umayyad wives of Sulayman.[2]

According to a contemporary poem preserved in the 10th-century Kitab al-aghani (Book of Songs), Abd al-Wahid rewarded the Taghlibite poet al-Qutami (d. 747) with fifty camels loaded with wheat, dates and clothing for a panegyric praising the prince during the rule of Caliph Umar II (r. 717–720); Abd al-Wahid made the gift to al-Qutami shortly after hearing that Umar had refused to gift him the thirty camels al-Qutami had requested due to the caliph's apparent disdain for poetry.[3]

In 747 Abd al-Wahid was appointed the governor of Mecca and Medina by Caliph Marwan II (r. 744–750), his distant cousin.[4] During the Hajj (annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca) in August 747, Kharijite rebels led by Abu Hamza al-Azdi entered Mecca and Abd al-Wahid entered a truce with them stipulating that each side could resume the Hajj in peace.[4] As the two sides approached Mina, a closing stage of the Hajj, the Kharijites "pushed aside" Abd al-Wahid and the pilgrims he led, according to al-Tabari, leading the pilgrims to criticize the governor for not taking firmer action against Abu Hamza.[5] Afterward, the latter encamped outside Mecca while Abd al-Wahid returned to the governor's palace in Mecca.[5] Abd al-Wahid sent a delegation of Medinese nobles to persuade Abu Hamza to withdraw from the region, but Abu Hamza refused and Abd al-Wahid consequently abandoned Mecca to the Kharijites, who entered without a fight.[5]

Upon returning to Medina, Abd al-Wahid mobilized an army of local volunteers and appointed to its command his distant kinsman, Abd al-Aziz ibn Abd Allah ibn Amr, a great-grandson of Caliph Uthman (r. 644–656).[6] On their way to Mecca, the Medinese volunteers, who lacked military experience, were ambushed by the Kharijites at the village of Qudayd between Medina and Mecca and Abd al-Aziz was slain.[7] The Kharijites subsequently entered Medina in late 747 or early 748, spurring Abd al-Wahid to flee for Syria, the center of the Umayyad Caliphate. [8]

In the aftermath of the toppling of the Umayyads and invasion of Syria by the Abbasids in 750, Abd al-Wahid went into hiding among friendly Arab tribes until being pardoned and promised safety by the Abbasid authorities.[9] Later that year, however, he was executed with numerous other Umayyads by the Abbasids in Jund Filastin (military district of Palestine) at a banquet at an estate along Nahr Abi Futrus (Antipatris river),[10] in the village of Qalansawa,[11] or in the court of the Abbasid caliph al-Saffah (r. 750–754).[12] According to the last account, Abd al-Wahid was singled out and seated next to the Abbasid caliph in honor of certain favors Abd al-Wahid had once granted the Abbasid family; after the caliph ordered his guards to execute the other Umayyads brought to his court by bashing in their skulls with maces, he reportedly told Abd al-Wahid "there is no point in you staying alive after your people and your power have gone", but granted him the dignity of death by the sword.[10]

A number of Umayyads fled the massacres of their family in Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Arabia and found refuge in al-Andalus (the Iberian Peninsula) where Abd al-Rahman I, a son of Abd al-Wahid's cousin Mu'awiya ibn Hisham, established the Cordoba-based Umayyad emirate in 756. The sources record a number of descendants of Abd al-Wahid's sons Abd al-Malik and Abd al-Salam playing active roles in the emirate,[13] including a sixth-generation descendant of the former, Abd al-Malik ibn Muhammad al-Sulaymani (d. 970).[14]

• Avila, Maria Luisa (1985). La sociedad hispanomusulmana al final del califato: aproximación a un estudio demográfico. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. ISBN 84-00-06045-8.
• Bakhouch, Mohamed (2008–2009). "Le calife 'Umar b. 'Abd al-'Azīz et les poètes". Bulletin d'Études Orientales. 58: 161–204. JSTOR 41608619.
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• Robinson, Chase F. (2010). "The Violence of the Abbasid Revolution". In Suleiman, Yasir (ed.). Living Islamic History: Studies in Honour of Professor Carole Hillenbrand: Studies in Honour of Professor Carole Hillenbrand. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. pp. 226–251. ISBN 978-0-7486-3738-6.
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