Marwan I
Marwan ibn al-Hakam ibn Abi al-As ibn Umayya was the fourth Umayyad caliph. He ruled for less than a year in 684–685. He founded the Marwanid ruling house, which remained in power until 750. He was stigmatized as an outlaw and a father of tyrants in later anti-UMayyad tradition.
About Marwan I in brief
Marwan ibn al-Hakam ibn Abi al-As ibn Umayya was the fourth Umayyad caliph. He ruled for less than a year in 684–685. He founded the Marwanid ruling house, which remained in power until 750. Marwan had at least sixteen children, among them at least twelve sons from five wives and an umm walad. He was stigmatized as an outlaw and a father of tyrants in later anti-UMayyad tradition. However, historian Clifford E. Bosworth asserts that Marwan was a shrewd, capable, and decisive military leader and statesman who laid the foundations of continued UmayYad rule for a further sixty-five years. He died while it was underway to reconquer Zubayrid Iraq, but died before it was completed in the spring of 685. His sons Abd al-Malik was designated his successor, Abd al.-Aziz was made governor of Egypt, and Muhammad oversaw military command in Upper Mesopotamia. Marwa’s great-grandson was Uthman al-Walid, who became caliph in 644. His great-great-nephew was Mu’awiya I, who was caliph from 685 to 750. He is also the grandfather of the current caliph, Al-Hasan al-Mansur. He had a daughter, Umm Umm Amr Amr, who later married a member of the Banu Umayyan tribe.
He also had a son, Muwatta, who went on to become caliph of Mecca in 7th century. His wife A’isha, a daughter of his paternal first cousin Mu’wattam, was married to Caliph Mu’Wattam’s son-in-law Al-Husain al-Aqsa. His daughter, Layla bint Bint Alqama, married Caliph al-Aziz and had two sons, including Umm Al-Azzal, the current Caliph of Egypt. His father was al-hakam of the Quraysh, a polytheistic tribe which dominated the town of Mecca. He converted to Islam en masse in c.630 following the conquest of Mecca by the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He knew Muhammad and is thus counted among the latter’s sahaba. Marwan’s mother was Amina bint alqama of the Kinana, the ancestral tribe of the Qaysh whichdominated the area stretching southwest from Mecca to the Tihama coastline. He later served as governor of Medina under his distant kinsman Caliph Mu’awya I, founder of the Umayyo Caliphate. He took part in a military campaign against the Byzantines of the Exarchate of Africa where he acquired significant war spoils. In 683, the Mecca-based rebel Abd Allah declared himself caliph and expelled Marwan, who took refuge in Syria.
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This page is based on the article Marwan I published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 09, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
