Sa'id ibn Abd al-Malik

Sa'id was the son of the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705) and one of his concubines.[1] He became known as Sa'id al-Khayr,[2] which translates as 'Sa'id the Good', because of his piety, pleasantness and charitable works.[3][4] The 9th-century historian al-Tabari notes that he was "man of good character",[5] while the historian al-Baladhuri claimed he practiced asceticism.[2] Between 688 and 692, Sa'id was the supervisory representative of his father for the construction of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.[6]

Sa'id was appointed governor of Mosul by Abd al-Malik,[7] who conquered Iraq from the Umayyads' opponents, the Zubayrids, in 691.[8] Others who served as governor of Mosul at some point during Abd al-Malik's reign were Sa'id's uncle Muhammad ibn Marwan and cousin Yusuf, the son of Yahya ibn al-Hakam.[7][lower-alpha 1] Sa'id was responsible for a number of building works in the city during his rule. The 8th-century historian al-Waqidi attributes to him the construction of city walls, but these were later tore down by the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid in 796.[9] Sa'id is further credited in medieval Muslim sources for constructing a mosque, a monastery, a market, and the pavement of Mosul's streets.[10][11]

Al-Baladhuri asserts that Caliph al-Walid I (r. 705–715) or Caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz (r. 717–720) granted property in the Diyar Mudar district, in the vicinity of Mosul, to Sa'id as an iqta (land grant).[2][3] He had a canal dug through the property, which was later named Nahr Sa'id after him.[3][12] Through his irrigation and infrastructural works, he transformed his iqta from a lion-infested swamp into an agriculturally-productive area.[12] Umar recalled Sa'id to Syria and replaced him with Yahya ibn Yahya al-Ghassani.[13]

Under caliphs Yazid II (r. 720–724) and Hisham (r. 724–743), Sa'id led a number of summer campaigns against the Byzantines in Anatolia.[3] He commanded the left flank of the Umayyad army during the summer expedition of 724, but his forces incurred heavy losses.[14] Yazid II was said to have considered Sa'id as a suitable chosen successor to the caliphate and may have encouraged Sa'id to entertain such notions.[3] In 725, Sa'id again led the summer campaign against the Byzantines.[13]

During the relatively short caliphate of al-Walid II (r. 743–744), Sa'id was appointed governor of Palestine.[3] He was known to have governed the district well.[15] According to al-Tabari, when al-Walid II was killed in 744, the Arab tribes of Palestine, led by Sa'id ibn Rawh, a chieftain of the Banu Judham and son of Rawh ibn Zinba, opted for their local Umayyad patron, Yazid ibn Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik, to be their governor.[5] To that end, they demanded that Sa'id, who was encamped in Beersheba or in the vicinity of Bayt Jibrin, vacate the governorship.[5][13] Sa'id obliged and sought safety with al-Walid II's successor, Yazid III, in Damascus. The latter subsequently sent an expedition against the rebels in Palestine.[5] Sa'id's governorship lasted fourteen months, between February 743 and April 744.[16]

In excavations carried out by an Israeli archaeological team in Beit Shean in 1990, a broken bronze weight produced on the orders of Sa'id was unearthed.[17] The weight was most likely produced in Ramla or Jerusalem.[16] In addition to the Muslim statement of belief, the surviving portion of the rare weight bore an inscription in Kufic Arabic that read: "Ordered by the Amir Sa'id ibn Abd al-Malik at the hands of ...".[4]

Along with other princes descended from Abd al-Malik, including Sa'id's brothers Bakkar and Muhammad, Sa'id gave the oaths of allegiance to Caliph Marwan II (r. 744–750), a nephew of Abd al-Malik, at Dayr Ayyub in 744.[18] Sa'id was killed alongside dozens of other Umayyads in a massacre by the Abbasids at the Abu Futrus river near Ramla in the wake of the Abbasids' toppling of the Umayyads in 750.[3]

Following the Abbasid takeover of Syria, Sa'id's grandsons, the brothers al-Asbagh ibn Muhammad, Hisham ibn Muhammad, and al-Walid ibn Muhammad, established themselves with other Umayyads in al-Andalus, where the Umayyad prince Abd al-Rahman I established the Emirate of Cordoba. Al-Asbagh married a sister of Abd al-Rahman I and their descendants held high-ranking positions as qadis (judges) and commanders. The family of Hisham was based in Seville. Al-Walid's family, the Banu A'isha, also held high ranks in the Emirate.[19]

• Bosworth, C. E. (1972). "Rajāʾ ibn Haywa al-Kindī and the Umayyad Caliphs". The Islamic Quarterly. 16: 36–84.
• Hitti, Philip Khuri (1916). The Origins of the Islamic State: Being a Translation from the Arabic Accompanied With Annotations, Geographic and Historic Notes of the Kitab Futuh al-buldan. New York: Columbia University. p. 280.
• 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.
• Gil, Moshe (1997) [1983]. A History of Palestine, 634–1099. Translated by Ethel Broido. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-59984-9.
• 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.
• Kennedy, Hugh N. (2006). The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East. Ashgate Variorum. ISBN 0-7546-5909-7.
• Kennedy, Hugh (2016). The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates: The Islamic Near East from the 6th to the 11th Century (Third ed.). Abingdon, Oxon and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-78761-2.
• Khamis, Elias (July 2002). "A Bronze Weight of Saʿîd b. ʿAbd al-Malik from Bet Shean/Baysân". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 12 (2): 143–154. JSTOR 25188250.
• Robinson, Chase F. (2004). Empire and Elites after the Muslim Conquest: The Transformation of Northern Mesopotamia. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-511-03072-X.
• Sábada, Elías Terés (1957). "Linajes árabes en al-Andalus". Al-Andalus (in Spanish). 22 (1): 55–112. ISSN 0304-4335.
• 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.