Muhammad ibn Marwan's Recovery of Armenia

استرداد محمد بن مروان لأرمينية

c. 692 CE · c. 73 AH

Armenia

In al-Baladhuri: when Ibn al-Zubayr's civil strife came, Armenia broke away, its nobles and their followers swearing league; when Muhammad ibn Marwan governed Armenia for his brother Abd al-Malik he fought and overcame them, killing and capturing, and mastered the land; then he promised the survivors he would lay before them in honour, and they gathered for it in churches of the Khilat district — whereupon he shut them in and posted guards at the doors, then terrified them; in that campaign Umm Yazid bint Usid of the Sisajan — a daughter of its patrikios — was taken captive; before this had run a chain of governors: Uthman gave al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba Adharbayjan and Armenia, then removed him for al-Qasim ibn Rabi'a ibn Umayya ibn Abi al-Salt al-Thaqafi — or, it is said, Amr ibn Mu'awiya ibn al-Mutaffiq al-Muqayli governed it, and some say a man of Banu Kilab held it fifteen years after al-Mughira, then al-Uqayli — al-Ash'ath ibn Qays held Armenia and Adharbayjan for Ali ibn Abi Talib (may God be pleased with him), then Abdallah ibn Hatim ibn al-Nu'man ibn Amr al-Bahili for Mu'awiya until he died there, whence his brother Abd al-Aziz ibn Hatim ibn al-Nu'man — who built the city of Dabil, fortified it, enlarged its mosque, built the city of Nashwa, repaired Bardha'a — or, they say, renewed its building — dug the two Fariq moats about it soundly, and renewed the city of al-Baylaqan, these cities having been ruined and decayed; some say Muhammad ibn Marwan renewed Bardha'a's building in Abd al-Malik's days, and al-Waqidi says Abd al-Malik built Bardha'a by the hand of Hatim ibn al-Nu'man al-Bahili or his son — Abd al-Malik also appointing Uthman ibn al-Walid ibn Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayt over Armenia.