Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik

Early life

Hisham was born in Damascus, the administrative capital of the Umayyad Caliphate, in AH 72 (691–692 CE). His father was the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705). His mother, A'isha, was a daughter of Hisham ibn Isma'il of the Banu Makhzum, a prominent family of the Quraysh, and Abd al-Malik's longtime governor of the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina. According to the history of al-Tabari (d. 923), Hisham was given the kunya (patronymic) of Abu al-Walid.

There is little information about Hisham's early life. He was too young to play any political or military role during his father's reign. He supposedly led the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca once during his brother al-Walid I's reign (r. 705–715) and while there, met a respected descendant of Caliph Ali (r. 656–661), Zayn al-Abidin. Hisham is credited by al-Tabari for leading an expedition against the Byzantines across the Caliphate's frontier in 706 and capturing a number of their fortified positions.

Hisham began to demonstrate aspirations for the caliphate at the death of his brother, Caliph Sulayman (r. 715–717) in 717. On his deathbed, Sulayman had nominated as his successor their paternal first cousin, Umar II, but kept the order secret, entrusting the revelation to his chief adviser Raja ibn Haywa. When Raja informed the Umayyad family of the decision, Hisham protested that the caliphal office was the preserve of Abd al-Malik's direct descendants and only relented from his opposition when threatened by force. He played no political or military role under Umar (r. 717–720) but is mentioned in a 10th-century biography of Umar as having issued a letter to the caliph complaining of his and his brothers' treatment under the caliph's rule. Hisham also held no posts under his brother, Caliph Yazid II (r. 720–724).

Caliphate

Accession

Upon the counsel of their brother, the prominent general Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik, Yazid nominated Hisham as his successor over his own son al-Walid II, whom he had originally intended to designate as first-in-line. Hisham acceded after Yazid died in January 724. He received the news while at his Syrian desert estate, al-Zaytuna, which is identified as Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi, near Hisham's favored residence, al-Rusafa, which is identified as Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi. He was given the caliphal ring and staff by a postal messenger, after which he rode to Damascus, where he was publicly acclaimed as caliph.

Provincial politics

Among Hisham's first acts was the dismissal of Umar ibn Hubayra al-Fazari from the governorship of Iraq in March 724. Ibn Hubayra had governed as a partisan stalwart of the Qays–Mudar, one of the two tribal-military factions of the caliphate, and aggressively suppressed the opposing Yaman–Rabi'a and its champions, the Muhallabid family. Hisham aimed to neutralize the partisan politics in the eastern caliphate by replacing Ibn Hubayra with Khalid ibn Abdallah al-Qasri, a staunch loyalist of the Umayyad family and member of the factionally neutral Bajila tribe. Hisham extended Khalid's jurisdiction beyond Iraq to the Iranian provinces and Khurasan, i.e. the eastern half of the caliphate. Khalid played a role similar to the Umayyads' former powerful viceroys of the east, Ziyad ibn Abihi and al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, though he lacked their reputation for statesmanship and energetic leadership.

Khalid's fifteen-year term in the east was largely stable and peaceful, save for minor and abortive Kharijite and Shia disturbances in the Jazira and Kufa, respectively, in 737. Despite Khalid's ostensible neutrality, the Qays–Mudar perceived him as an opponent for replacing their benefactor, Ibn Hubayra. Lobbying by the Qays-Mudar or jealousy of Khalid's lucrative enterprises in Iraq led Hisham to dismiss Khalid in 738. Although the Yaman had not necessarily embraced Khalid during his governorship, he became strongly identified with Yamani interests as a result of his dismissal and imprisonment by Hisham's new appointee, Yusuf ibn Umar al-Thaqafi, who restored Qaysi–Mudari dominance of the east.

External challenges

During the reign of Caliph al-Walid I (r. 705–715), the territories east of Khurasan, in particular Transoxiana and Tukharistan, had been conquered by Umayyad forces but other than the Arab garrisons set up in Samarkand, Bukhara and Balkh, these regions remained largely self-administered by local Iranian and Turkic rulers. Not long after the conquests, there rose a confederation of Turkic nomads in Transoxiana, the Chinese-backed Turgesh under the khaqan Suluk, which countered Arab influence. The Arab troops of Khurasan (ahl Khurasan, 'the Khurasani army') were riven by divisions along Qaysi–Mudari and Yamani-Raba'i factional lines, which weakened their standing.

Not long after Hisham's accession, in 724, the Khurasani army under the governor Muslim ibn Sa'id al-Kilabi was trapped by the Turgesh and Sogdian rebels while besieging Ferghana. Their predicament was partly caused by the Yamani troops' refusal to engage while waiting for direction from Ibn Hubayra's incoming replacement, Khalid. In a precarious retreat known as the Day of Thirst, the Khurasani army extricated itself to safety in Samarkand after an eight-day trek. The event left Arab forces on the defensive, with no further conquests undertaken in the east until 739. Khalid appointed his brother Asad ibn Abdallah al-Qasri in Muslim's place. Asad worked to reconcile the local population, relieving Muslim converts from the jizya, a poll tax ostensibly restricted to non-Muslims but generally extended to non-Arab Muslim converts, and making inroads with the Sogdian nobility. His military activities focused on consolidating Umayyad rule west of the Oxus River, with moderately successful campaigns in Ghur and Gharjistan. The Arab soldiery resented Asad's tax overtures to the locals and he alienated them by publicly flogging the leaders of Khurasani army's main tribal factions.

Hisham consequently dismissed Asad in 727 and removed Khurasan from Khalid's overlordship. Blankinship speculates Hisham was alarmed by the slow pace of military progress in the east and the restlessness of the Khurasani troops and thus chose a governor from the more reliable Syro-Jaziran army (ahl al-Sham), Ashras ibn Abdallah al-Sulami, with a contingent of Jaziran troops as reinforcements. In 729/730, Ashras reduced taxes on converts, leading to mass conversions among the local populace. The resulting prospect of diminished revenues led Ashras to impose humiliating verification measures, namely circumcision tests, and eventually reimpose taxes on converts. This provoked a widescale uprising in Transoxiana, which coincided with an invasion by the Turgesh. The Umayyads consequently lost control of the territory by 728, save for Samarkand and the two minor posts of Kamarja (few leagues west of Samarkand) and Dabusiyya. After lengthy and bitter fighting, Ashras regained control of Bukhara and his troops withstood a two-month siege of Kamarja by the Turgesh. Nevertheless, by the end of Ashras's term in 730, the Umayyad frontier had receded substantially from its place at the start of Hisham's reign and much further still from its limits at Ferghana during al-Walid I's reign. Moreover, the Khurasani troops were becoming exhausted by the ceaseless, costly and unrewarding campaigns.

Berber revolt

In North Africa, Kharijite teachings combined with natural local restlessness to produce a significant Berber revolt. In 740, a large Berber force surrounded a loyal army at Wadi Sherif, where the loyalists fought to the death. Hisham dispatched a force of 27,000 Syrians, which was destroyed in 741. In 742 Handhala ibn Safwan began successfully, but soon was besieged in Qairawan. He led a desperate sortie from the city that scattered the Berbers, killing thousands and re-establishing Umayyad rule.

In Al-Andalus, the internal conflicts of the years past were ended, and Hisham's governor, Abd al-Rahman ibn Abd Allah, assembled a large army that went into Gaul. He besieged Bordeaux and pushed to the Loire. This marked the limit of Arabic conquest in Gaul. The wave was halted at the Battle of Tours by Charles Martel who ruled the kingdom of the Franks, with exception of the Fraxinetum enclave which lasted until the 10th century.

Alid revolt of 740

Hisham also faced a revolt by the followers of Zayd ibn Ali, grandson of Husayn ibn Ali, which was put down because of the lack of support it received. Although he had sympathies of many people He did not receive a substantial military support. Zayd was ordered to leave Kufa and though he appeared to set out for Mecca, he returned and dwelt secretly in Kufa moving from house to house and receiving the allegiance of many people. Yusuf ibn Umar al-Thaqafi, Iraq's governor, learned of the plot, commanded the people to gather at the great mosque, locked them inside and began a search for Zayd. Zayd with some troops fought his way to the mosque and called on people to come out. He then pushed back Yusuf's troops, but was felled by an arrow. Although his body was initially buried, the spot was pointed out and it was extracted, beheaded and the head sent to Hisham and later to Medina.

Economy and infrastructure

Under Hisham, the northern frontiers, the Jazira, and Iraq experienced a major economic revitalization. Following the final pacification of the Jazira and Iraq at the beginning of the eighth century, Hisham and the elites of his court heavily invested in the development of irrigation farming and the promotion of interregional trade across northern Syria, the Jazira, and Iraq.

The region, which had seen a decline in exchange routes since the Roman–Persian frontier split the Euphrates valley in late antiquity, regained its importance as a major zone of communication and interaction. Hisham accumulated substantial revenues from agricultural estates around Resafa, Raqqa, Mosul, and Edessa, as well as from the area irrigated by the Nahr Dawrin south of the Khabur outlet. Alongside the caliph, wealthy entrepreneurs such as his half-brother Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik and his long-serving governor of Iraq, Khalid al-Qasri, derived immense wealth from land cultivation and commercial ventures in the region.

Hisham actively patronized urban commerce and market infrastructure throughout his domains. Following tribal clashes during the reign of Yazid II that destroyed a marketplace near the Rastan Gate in Homs, Hisham ordered the market rebuilt, leading it to become known as Suq Hisham. Similarly, his investments at Resafa transformed the former military and religious outpost into a thriving center of trade by constructing a new marketplace near the cathedral that drew numerous merchants, while also founding the Suq al-Atik market in nearby Kallinicos. Despite facing fiscal pressures during his twenty-year reign, Hisham directed economic energies toward provincial development, promoting markets in Medina and funding construction projects in the provinces rather than prioritizing personal expenditure on the Hajj.

State-backed development also targeted resource-rich frontier zones like Armenia and the Caucasus for their gold and iron mines, while copper mines near Mosul secured provisions for Iraq. Under the direct patronage of Hisham and his governors, commercial infrastructure was expanded, markets and public buildings were erected, and trade routes were secured to bolster both local governmental funds and the caliphal purse.

Death and succession

Hisham died on 6 February 743 (6 Rabiʽ al-Thani 125 AH). His son, Maslama, led the funeral prayers. Hisham had attempted to secure Maslama as his successor in place of Yazid II's son, al-Walid II. Hisham's initial attempts, after the Hajj of 735, to persuade al-Walid II to step down in favor of Maslama or, alternatively, to make Maslama al-Walid II's successor were rejected. Afterward, Hisham undermined al-Walid II by secretly gathering support for Maslama. The latter's nomination was supported by Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik and Hisham's maternal grandfather, Hisham ibn Isma'il, the latter's sons Ibrahim and Muhammad, as well as the sons of the tribal chief al-Qa'qa' ibn Khulayd, who were an influential family in northern Syria. Maslama's mother, Umm Hakim, also lobbied for him. Opposed to Maslama's proposed succession was Khalid al-Qasri, the governor of Iraq, to which Maslama responded by insulting him and his dead brother Asad. Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik's death in the late 730s was a major setback to Hisham's succession plans, as it represented the loss of the plan's key supporter in the Umayyad dynasty.

Al-Walid II acceded and immediately ordered his cousin, the veteran commander al-Abbas ibn al-Walid, to arrest Hisham's sons at Rusafa, near Palmyra, but expressly forbade that Maslama or his household be disturbed in deference to their old companionship and Maslama's defense of al-Walid II from Hisham.

Assessment

In general, Hisham is viewed by modern historians and the early Islamic tradition to have overseen a successful reign, on par with the similarly long reigns of the Umayyad Caliphate's founder Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680) and Abd al-Malik. In the summation of the historian Francesco Gabrieli, Hisham's rule "on the whole was glorious for the Arabs and fruitful in the development of Islamic faith and culture" and "marks the final period of prosperity and splendour of the Umayyad caliphate". By dint of his sobriety, austerity and work ethic, Hisham is held by most modern historians to have kept the Caliphate in good standing. They largely assign blame to his successor al-Walid II and longer standing internal factors, which Hisham could not resolve, for the Umayyad dynasty's unraveling in the few years after Hisham's death. Similarly, the Islamic tradition portrays Hisham as "a conscientious and efficient, if severe and tightfisted, administrator", according to Blankinship. In the view of the historian Hugh N. Kennedy, the Umayyad state "had never been as strong as it had been under Hisham only a decade before the final collapse" in 750.

Blankinship, on the other hand, concludes that the military disasters of Hisham's reign brought about the Umayyad dynasty's demise. According to him, the state struggled to absorb the significant losses incurred by these defeats. Its treasury was dependent on war booty and it lacked efficient means to collect tax revenue from its subjects. An unprecedented economic crisis ensued, precipitating stringent taxation efforts and a substantial reduction in spending. This caused widespread discontent throughout the Caliphate, while also failing to remedy state finances. Meanwhile, the harshness and diminishing material returns from campaigning along the frontiers sapped the enthusiasm of the provincial garrisons and further increased Hisham's dependence on the Syrian army, the bedrock of the dynasty, to the chagrin of the locally established troops. As Syrian troops were dispatched both to fight on the frontiers and quell major rebellions throughout the Caliphate they suffered the brunt of these wars. The Syrians were mostly Yamani and their dispersal and heavy losses disrupted the factional balance upon which the Umayyad state depended in favor of the Qays/Mudar of the Jazira. The Qays/Mudar became the main component of the army under Marwan II (r. 744–750) and their rout by the Khurasani troops of the Abbasids marked the end of the Umayyad dynasty.

Family

Hisham had five wives, all members of the Umayyad clan, from whom he had eight children. He had seven other children by umm walads (freed slave concubines).

His favorite wife was Umm Hakim, the daughter of Yahya ibn al-Hakam, brother of Hisham's grandfather caliph Marwan I (r. 684–685). Her mother was Zaynab bint Abd al-Rahman, the granddaughter of the Syrian conquest commander al-Harith ibn Hisham of the Banu Makhzum. Umm Hakim, like her mother, was well-known for her beauty and love for wine. She gave Hisham five sons, including Sulayman, Maslama, Yazid al-Afqam, and Mu'awiya.

Hisham was also married to Umm Uthman, a daughter of Sa'id ibn Khalid ibn Amr. The latter was a great-grandson of the third caliph Uthman (r. 644–656) and one of the wealthiest people of his day, who used to divide his time between Syria and Medina. Umm Uthman gave birth to Hisham's son Sa'id. Hisham was also married to Ruqayya bint Abd Allah ibn Amr, a great-granddaughter of Caliph Uthman. Another of his Umayyad wives was Abda, the daughter of Abd Allah ibn Yazid (granddaughter of Caliph Yazid I, r. 680–683). Abda was killed by the Abbasids in Homs in 750. Hisham's other sons were Muhammad, Abd Allah, Marwan, Abd al-Rahman and Quraysh. He had a daughter, A'isha, to whom he granted an estate at Ras Kayfa.