Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan

Muhammad was a son of the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik and one of his slave women (umm walad).[1] According to the historian Shiv Rai Chowdhry, Muhammad and his brother al-Hajjaj were named by Abd al-Malik because their names "were the most dear" to the caliph's staunchly loyal governor of Iraq al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf (d. 714).[2] Muhammad lived in Tiberias, the capital of Jund al-Urdunn (the military district of Jordan, e.g. modern-day northwestern Jordan, northern Israel and southern Lebanon).[3] He had an estate at Raysun, also located in Jund al-Urdunn, which may have been granted to him by his half-brother Caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik (r. 724–743).[4] The latter had appointed Muhammad as his first governor of Egypt on 6 March 724.[5] He resigned over a policy difference with the caliph and was replaced by another Umayyad, al-Hurr ibn Yusuf, on 2 May 724.[5]

Muhammad played a role in the Third Muslim Civil War, which came about following the assassination of his nephew, Caliph al-Walid II, in 744 and the subsequent accession of the leader of al-Walid's opponents within the Umayyad family, Muhammad's other nephew Yazid III.[6] When news of al-Walid II's slaying reached the troops of Jund Filastin (the military district of Palestine) they deposed al-Walid II's governor, Muhammad's brother Sa'id al-Khayr, and proclaimed as their caliph Yazid ibn Sulayman, the son of Muhammad's and Sa'id's brother Caliph Sulayman (r. 715–717).[3][7] Afterward, the troops of Jund al-Urdunn, led by the grandsons of Hubaysh ibn Dulja from the Balqayn tribe, joined the rebellion against Yazid III and appointed Muhammad as their leader.[3][7] Yazid III dispatched Muhammad's nephew Sulayman ibn Hisham against the rebels. According to one account, Muhammad was persuaded by Yazid III's envoys to give the caliph his allegiance.[7] Another account holds that the caliph's troops made forays into the villages of Jund al-Urdunn and raided Tiberias, where Muhammad's residence was plundered and his weapons, horses and camels seized, after which the troops of Jund al-Urdunn offered Yazid III their allegiance in nearby Sinnabra.[3][7] Afterward, Yazid III appointed his brother Ibrahim ibn al-Walid the governor of Jund al-Urdunn.[8] A third account holds that after Yazid III appointed Ibrahim governor, the troops of Jund al-Urdunn refused to recognize him, upholding their support for Muhammad, until they were offered financial incentives to decamp.[9]

Yazid III died later in 744 and Ibrahim acceded as caliph for a few months before abdicating to his distant cousin Marwan II. In 745 Muhammad, along with his brothers Sa'id al-Khayr and Abu Bakr Bakkar and the families of his nephews, the sons of caliphs al-Walid I (r. 705–715), Sulayman, Yazid II (r. 720–724) and Hisham, gave his allegiance to Marwan II at Deir Ayyub in the Hauran.[10]

In 747/48, Marwan II appointed Muhammad the governor of Mecca, Medina and Ta'if in the Hejaz (western Arabia).[11][12] He led the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca in August 748.[11] He was replaced as governor the following year with al-Walid ibn Urwa al-Sa'di.[13] In the aftermath of the Abbasid Revolution, which toppled the Umayyad Caliphate in 750, Muhammad was among the dozens of Umayyads who were executed by the Abbasids at a banquet at the Antipatris river (Nahr Abi Futrus) in Palestine.[6]

• Abbott, Nabia (1965). "A New Papyrus and a Review of the Administration of ʿUbaid Allāh b. al-Ḥabḥāb". In Makdisi, George (ed.). Arabic and Islamic Studies in Honor of Hamilton A. R. Gibb. Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 21–35.
• Biesterfeldt, Hinrich; Günther, Sebastian (2018). The Works of Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-Yaʿqūbī (Volume 3): An English Translation. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-35621-4.
• Blankinship, Khalid Yahya (1994). The End of the Jihâd State: The Reign of Hishām ibn ʻAbd al-Malik and the Collapse of the Umayyads. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-1827-7.
• Chowdhry, Shiv Rai (1972). Al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf (An Examination of His Works and Personality) (Thesis). University of Delhi.
• Hillenbrand, Carole, ed. (1989). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XXVI: The Waning of the Umayyad Caliphate: Prelude to Revolution, A.D. 738–744/A.H. 121–126. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-88706-810-2.
• Hinds, Martin, ed. (1990). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XXIII: 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. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-88706-721-1.
• Humphreys, R. Stephen, ed. (1990). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XV: The Crisis of the Early Caliphate: The Reign of ʿUthmān, A.D. 644–656/A.H. 24–35. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-0154-5.
• Soucek, Priscilla P. (1993). "Solomon's Throne / Solomon's Bath: Model or Metaphor?". Ars Orientalis. 23: 109–134.
• Williams, John Alden, ed. (1985). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XXVII: The ʿAbbāsid Revolution, A.D. 743–750/A.H. 126–132. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-87395-884-4.