Abd Al Malik
Birth Sign Pisces
Birthplace Medina, Rashidun Caliphate
DEATH DATE 9 October 705 (aged 58–61), Damascus, Umayyad Caliphate (49 years old)
Nationality Saudi Arabia
Height 6' 3¼" (1.91 m)
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[["Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan<\/a> ibn al-Hakam (\u0639\u064e\u0628\u0652\u062f \u0627\u0644\u0652\u0645\u064e\u0644\u0650\u0643 \u0671\u0628\u0652\u0646 \u0645\u064e\u0631\u0652\u0648\u064e\u0627\u0646 \u0671\u0628\u0652\u0646 \u0627\u0644\u0652\u062d\u064e\u0643\u064e\u0645; July\/August 644 or June\/July 647 \u2013 9 October 705) was the fifth Umayyad caliph, ruling from April 685 until his death in October 705.","A member of the first generation of born Muslims, his early life in Medina was occupied with pious pursuits.","He held administrative and military posts under Caliph Mu'awiya I ((r.","661 \u2013 680)), founder of the Umayyad Caliphate, and his own father, Caliph Marwan<\/a> I ((r.","684 \u2013 685)). By the time of Abd al-Malik's accession, Umayyad authority had collapsed across the Caliphate as a result of the Second Fitna and had been reconstituted in Syria and Egypt during his father's reign.","Following a failed invasion of Iraq in 686, Abd al-Malik focused on securing Syria before making further attempts to conquer the greater part of the Caliphate from his principal rival, the Mecca-based caliph Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr.","To that end, he concluded an unfavorable truce with the reinvigorated Byzantine Empire in 689, quashed a coup attempt in Damascus by his kinsman, al-Ashdaq, the following year, and reincorporated into the army the rebellious Qaysi tribes of the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) in 691.","He then conquered Zubayrid Iraq and dispatched his general, al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, to Mecca where he killed Ibn al-Zubayr in late 692, thereby reuniting the Caliphate under Abd al-Malik's rule.","The war with Byzantium resumed, resulting in Umayyad advances into Anatolia and Armenia, the destruction of Carthage and the recapture of Kairouan, the launchpad for the later conquests of western North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, in 698.","In the east, Abd al-Malik's viceroy, al-Hajjaj, firmly established the caliph's authority in Iraq and Khurasan, stamping out opposition by the Kharijites and the Arab tribal nobility by 702.","Abd al-Malik's final years were marked by a domestically peaceful and prosperous consolidation of power.","In a significant departure from his predecessors, rule over the Caliphate's provinces was centralized under Abd al-Malik, following the elimination of his rivals.","Gradually, loyalist Arab troops from Syria were tasked with maintaining order in the provinces as dependence on less reliable, local Arab garrisons was reduced.","Tax surpluses from the provinces were forwarded to Damascus and the traditional stipends to veterans of the early Muslim conquests and their descendants were abolished, salaries being restricted to those in active service.","The most consequential of Abd al-Malik's reforms were the introduction of a single Islamic currency in place of Byzantine and Sasanian coinage and the establishment of Arabic as the language of the bureaucracy in place of Greek and Persian in Syria and Iraq, respectively.","His Muslim upbringing, the conflicts with external and local Christian forces and rival claimants to Islamic leadership all influenced Abd al-Malik's efforts to prescribe a distinctly Islamic character to the Umayyad state.","Another manifestation of this initiative was his founding of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, the earliest archaeologically attested religious monument built by a Muslim ruler and the possessor of the earliest epigraphic proclamations of Islam and the Islamic prophet Muhammad.","The foundations established by Abd al-Malik enabled his son and successor, al-Walid I ((r.","705 \u2013 715)), who largely maintained his father's policies, to oversee the Umayyad Caliphate's territorial and economic zenith.","Abd al-Malik's centralized government became the prototype of later medieval Muslim states.","Abd al-Malik was born in July\/August 644 or June\/July 647 in the house of his father Marwan<\/a> ibn al-Hakam in Medina in the Hejaz (western Arabia).","His mother was A'isha, a daughter of Mu'awiya ibn al-Mughira.","His parents belonged to the Banu Umayya, one of the strongest and wealthiest clans of the Quraysh tribe.","Muhammad was a member of the Quraysh, but was ardently opposed by the tribe before they embraced Islam in 630.","Not long after, the Quraysh came to dominate Muslim politics.","Abd al-Malik belonged to the first generation of born-Muslims and his upbringing in Medina, Islam's political center at the time, was generally described as pious and rigorous by the traditional Muslim sources.","He took a deep interest in Islam and possibly memorized the Qur'an.","Abd al-Malik's father was a senior aide of their Umayyad kinsman, Caliph Uthman ((r.","644 \u2013 656)). In 656, Abd al-Malik witnessed Uthman's assassination in Medina, an \"event [that] had a lasting effect on him\" and contributed to his \"distrust\" of the townspeople of Medina, according to the historian A. A. Dixon.","Six years later, Abd al-Malik distinguished himself in a campaign against the Byzantines as commander of a Medinese naval unit.","He was appointed to the role by his distant cousin, Caliph Mu'awiya I ((r.","661 \u2013 680)), founder of the Umayyad Caliphate.","Afterward, he returned to Medina, where he operated under his father, who had become governor of the city, as the k\u0101tib (secretary) of Medina's d\u012bw\u0101n (bureaucracy).","As with the rest of the Umayyads in the Hejaz, Abd al-Malik lacked close ties with Mu'awiya, who ruled from his power base in Damascus in Syria.","Mu'awiya belonged to the Sufyanid line of the Umayyad clan, while Abd al-Malik belonged to the larger Abu al-As line.","When a revolt broke out in Medina in 683 against Mu'awiya's son and successor, Caliph Yazid I ((r.","680 \u2013 683)), the Umayyads, including Abd al-Malik, were expelled from the city.","The revolt was part of the wider anti-Umayyad rebellion that became known as the Second Muslim Civil War.","On the way to the Umayyad capital in Syria, Abd al-Malik encountered the army of Muslim ibn Uqba, who had been sent by Yazid to subdue the rebels in Medina.","He provided Ibn Uqba with intelligence about Medina's defenses."]]
