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Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik (سليمان بن عبد الملك; c. 674 – 22 September 717) was the seventh Umayyad caliph, ruling from 715 until his death. Prior to his accession, he served as the governor of Palestine, where he developed close ties with the Yaman and founded the city of Ramla. He succeeded his brother, al-Walid I ((r. 705 – 715)) and dismissed nearly all of his predecessors' governors and generals, many of whom had previously driven the massive expansion of the caliphate. Though territorial expansion under Sulayman largely came to a halt due to increasing local resistance along the frontiers, he ordered one of the deepest offensives undertaken by the Arabs against the Byzantine Empire, culminating in the siege of Constantinople in the summer of 717, which ended in the Arabs' defeat. He died while directing the campaign from Dabiq and was succeeded by his cousin Umar II.

Early life and governorship of Palestine


There are few details in the medieval sources about the first thirty years of Sulayman's life. He was born in Medina around 675. His father, Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, belonged to the Umayyad clan, while his mother, Wallada bint al-Abbas ibn al-Jaz', was a great-granddaughter of Zuhayr ibn Jadhima, a prominent 6th-century Arab chieftain of the Banu Abs tribe. Sulayman was born during the reign of his distant kinsman, Mu'awiya I, who founded the Umayyad Caliphate in 661. Following the deaths of Mu'awiya I's successors, Yazid I and Mu'awiya II in 683 and 684, respectively, Umayyad authority collapsed across the caliphate and most provinces recognized the Mecca-based caliph, Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr. The Umayyads of Medina, including Sulayman, were consequently expelled from the city and became refugees in central Syria, where the family was supported by certain loyalist Arab tribes. These tribes elected Sulayman's grandfather, Marwan I, as caliph and would soon after constitute the "Yaman" confederation, which was formed in opposition to the Qays, a group of tribes largely based in northern Syria and Upper Mesopotamia that swore allegiance to Ibn al-Zubayr. By 685, Marwan had retaken control of Syria and Egypt and was succeeded by Abd al-Malik, who reconquered the remainder of the caliphate by 692. At an undetermined point, he made Sulayman governor of Jund Filastin (military district of Palestine), a post Abd al-Malik formerly held under Marwan. Sulayman's appointment to the district followed successive stints by his uncle Yahya ibn al-Hakam and half-brother Aban ibn Marwan. In 701, Sulayman led the Hajj pilgrimage caravan to Mecca. Before Abd al-Malik died in 705, he nominated his eldest son, al-Walid I, as his successor to be followed by Sulayman.



Sulayman remained governor of Palestine throughout al-Walid's reign, which lasted until 715. During this time, he moved the capital of the district from Lydda to Ramla, a nearby city he founded. Traditional accounts vary regarding his efforts to transfer settlement from Lydda to Ramla, with some holding that he only demolished a church in Lydda and others that he demolished the city altogether. During his brother's rule, Sulayman commissioned the construction of what became known as the White Mosque in Ramla. It was not completed until the reign of Sulayman's successor, Caliph Umar II (r. 717–720). He also built an aqueduct in the city and is credited by an anonymous 13th-century Syriac chronicler for building arches, mills and gardens in Jericho, which were later destroyed by floods.

His governorship in Palestine likely brought him in close contact with the Yamani chieftains who dominated the district. He established a strong relationship with Raja ibn Haywa al-Kindi, a local, Yamani-affiliated, religious scholar who had previously supervised Abd al-Malik's construction of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. Raja became Sulayman's tutor and senior aide. As governor and heir apparent, Sulayman used his influence to cultivate allies among the opponents of al-Walid's viceroy over Iraq and the eastern half of the caliphate, al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf. Most notably, he gave refuge to the Muhallabid family and its head, Yazid ibn al-Muhallab, who had been dismissed from the governorship of Khurasan by al-Hajjaj and later became a fugitive when he escaped his prison. To placate the consequent anger of al-Walid and al-Hajjaj, Sulayman offered to assume the unpaid fine the governor had imposed on Yazid and sent the latter and his own son, Ayyub, in shackles to the caliph with a letter pleading for the Muhallabids' pardon, which the caliph granted. Yazid became a close confidant of Sulayman, who held him in "the highest regard". According to a report by Arab historian Hisham ibn al-Kalbi (737–819), cited by the 9th-century historian al-Tabari, "Yazid ... stayed with him [Sulayman], teaching him how to dress well, making delicious dishes for him, and giving him large presents".

Accession
In 714 or early 715, al-Walid, encouraged or supported by al-Hajjaj, attempted to install his son Abd al-Aziz as his successor, voiding the arrangements set by Abd al-Malik, which made Sulayman heir apparent. According to the historian Umar ibn Shabba (d. 878), cited by al-Tabari, al-Walid offered Sulayman generous financial incentives to agree to the change, but Sulayman refused. Al-Walid nonetheless sent requests to his provincial governors to recognize Abd al-Aziz, and only received favorable responses from al-Hajjaj and Qutayba ibn Muslim, the governor Khurasan and conqueror of Transoxiana. An adviser of al-Walid, Abbad ibn Ziyad, counseled the caliph to forcibly pressure Sulayman, at first by summoning him to the caliph's court in Damascus, and when Sulayman stalled in his response, to gather his shurṭa (security forces) and head for Ramla. However, al-Walid died shortly after, on 23 February 715, and Sulayman acceded to the caliphate unopposed,, receiving his oaths of allegiance while in Ramla. Though it is certain Sulayman continued to govern from Palestine instead of Damascus, historian Reinhard Eisener asserts that the medieval "Syrian sources prove he [Sulayman] obviously chose Jerusalem as his principal seat of government", while historian Hugh N. Kennedy writes he remained in Ramla.

Domestic politics


During his first year in office, Sulayman dismissed most of the provincial appointees of al-Walid and al-Hajjaj, who had died in 714, and installed loyalist governors in their place. It is unclear whether these changes were the result of resentment and suspicion toward previous opponents of his accession or a drive to ensure control over the provinces by appointing allied officials. While Eisener claims Sulayman's "choice of governors does not give the impression of bias" toward the Yaman faction, Kennedy asserts that the caliph's reign marked the political comeback of the Yaman and "reflected his Yamani leanings". One of his immediate decisions was installing Yazid ibn al-Muhallab as governor of Iraq. Later that year, Qutayba ibn Muslim, whose relations with Sulayman had been antagonististic, launched a rebellion in Khurasan, but he was killed by a faction of his troops led by Waki ibn Abi Sud al-Tamimi shortly after in August 715. Waki declared himself governor of Khurasan, but the province, along with the eastern parts of the caliphate, was attached to Yazid's Iraqi governorship in 716. Furthermore, between 715 and 716, he replaced the governor of Mecca, Khalid ibn Abdallah al-Qasri, with his Umayyad kinsman Abd al-Aziz ibn Abdallah and dismissed Musa ibn Nusayr, the governor of Ifriqiyah and conqueror of Hispania, and his son Abd al-Aziz, governor of Hispania. The latter was assassinated on the order of Sulayman and his head was delivered to the caliph by Habib ibn Abi Ubayd al-Fihri in 715/16.

War efforts
Though he largely replaced their governors, Sulayman maintained his predecessors' militarist policies. Nonetheless, during his relatively short reign, the significant territorial expansion of the caliphate under al-Walid virtually came to a halt, partly as the result of more effective resistance from local forces. This was not an indication that "the impulse of expansion and conquest slackened" under Sulayman, according to Eisener. Indeed, during a four-month campaign in 716/17, Yazid, at the head of a 100,000-strong army derived from the garrisons of Kufa, Basra, Jibal, Khurasan and Syria, conquered the principalities of Jurjan and Tabaristan, both located along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea. In a letter, Yazid congratulated Sulayman on the conquests of the two territories, which had eluded previous caliphs until "God made this conquest on behalf" of Sulayman "in order to bestow His honor upon him, and in order to increase the blessing He has bestowed upon him".



The caliph's principal military focus, however, was the war with Byzantium. He appointed his son Dawud to lead the summer campaign along the Byzantine frontier, and the latter captured Hisn al-Mar'a ("the Woman's Fortress") near Malatya. In late 716, after leading the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, Sulayman returned to Syria and encamped at the northern mobilization center of Dabiq to oversee the massive Umayyad war effort against the Byzantines. He dispatched his half-brother, Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik, to besiege the Byzantine capital of Constantinople via land with orders to remain until the city was conquered or he was recalled by the caliph. Already from early 716, the Arab commander Umar ibn Hubayra al-Fazari had launched a naval campaign against Constantinople. Sulayman's efforts ultimately failed as the Byzantines repulsed the Umayyad sieges in the early summer of 717 and summer of 718.

Death and legacy
Sulayman died of illness in Dabiq in between the two sieges of Constantinople, on 24 September 717. According to a report cited by al-Tabari, he fell ill after returning from leading the Friday prayers and died a few days later. Though he previously designated his eldest son Ayyub as his successor, the latter predeceased the caliph in early 717. On his deathbed, he weighed options for a successor with his chief adviser Raja. Sulayman considered nominating his son Dawud, but Raja advised against this, citing that his son was away fighting in Constantinople and it was unclear if he was still alive. Raja ultimately counseled Sulayman to choose his paternal cousin, Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, describing him as a "worthy, excellent man and a sincere Muslim". To avoid potential intra-dynastic strife between Umar and Sulayman's brothers, Yazid ibn Abd al-Malik, was appointed Umar's successor. According to Eisener, because most of the traditional reports about Sulayman's nomination of Umar are personally connected to Raja, the latter's role in the succession arrangements has likely been "exaggerated". By 743, Sulayman's surviving sons, senior of whom was Yazid, continued to live in Palestine and maintained strong ties with the district's Yamani tribal nobility.