The Fall of Qaliqala, 133, and its Rebuilding

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1. The Fall of Qaliqala, 133, and its Rebuilding — c. 750 CE · 133 AH

   In al-Baladhuri from Muhammad ibn Bishr and Ibn Warz al-Qaliyan from the shaykhs of Qaliqala: the city had remained defiant with its folk since its conquest until the tyrant came out in year 133, besieged Malatya's people, razed its wall and evacuated its Muslims to the Jazira, then camped at Marj al-Hasa and sent Kusan the Armenian, who camped on Qaliqala and besieged it — its people then few and its governor Abu Karima — whereupon two Armenian brothers of the city undermined an earthwork in its wall, went out to Kusan and let him into the city; he took it, killed, captured, demolished, drove the spoil to the tyrant and divided the captives among his men; al-Waqidi says: in year 139 al-Mansur ransomed those of Qaliqala's captives still alive, rebuilt and resettled the city, returned the ransomed to it and levied for it a garrison of Jazirans and others; and the Roman tyrant had come out against Qaliqala in al-Mu'tasim's caliphate and battered its wall near collapse, whereupon al-Mu'tasim spent five hundred thousand dirhams on it until it was fortified.

2. Armenia's Rising under al-Hasan ibn Qahtaba — between 754 and 775 CE

   In al-Baladhuri: Armenia's people rose in revolt in the governorship of al-Hasan ibn Qahtaba al-Ta'i — after the removal of Ibn Asid and Bakkar ibn Muslim al-Uqayli — their chief being Mushay'il the Armenian; al-Mansur sent him reinforcements under Amir ibn Isma'il, and al-Hasan met Mushay'il, who was killed, his hosts scattered, and matters settled for him — it is he after whom Nahr al-Hasan at al-Baylaqan, the garden called Bagh al-Hasan at Bardha'a, and the estates known as al-Hasaniyya were named.

3. Yazid ibn Asid al-Sulami's Governorship of Armenia — between 754 and 775 CE

   In al-Baladhuri: al-Mansur gave Armenia to Yazid ibn Asid al-Sulami, who opened Bab al-Lan, stationed there a ribat of diwan men, and tamed the Sanariyya till they submitted to kharaj; al-Mansur wrote ordering him to marry into the Khazar king's family — he did so, the Khaqan's daughter bearing him a son who died while she died in her lying-in; Yazid sent to Shirwan's salt-source and salt-pans, taxed them and set a deputy over it; he built the city of Arjil the Lesser and Arjil the Greater, settling Palestine's people in them; and it is told from a body of Bardha'a's shaykhs that al-Shamakhiyya in Shirwan's district was named for al-Shamakh ibn Shuja', who was king of Shirwan in Sa'id ibn Sam al-Bahili's governorship of Armenia.

4. Al-Mansur's Rebuilding of Malatya — c. 757 CE · c. 140 AH

   In al-Baladhuri: in year 139 al-Mansur wrote to Salih ibn Ali ordering Malatya rebuilt and fortified, then resolved to send Abd al-Wahhab ibn Ibrahim al-Imam as governor of the Jazira and its frontier — he set out in year 140 with al-Hasan ibn Qahtaba among the Khurasani armies, proclaiming a levy on the people of Syria and the Jazira until seventy thousand converged, and camped on Malatya having gathered labourers from every land; al-Hasan ibn Qahtaba would carry stone to hand the builder, and a camel of his went round feeding the people from his own purse with field-kitchens deployed — Abd al-Wahhab envied this and wrote to Abu Ja'far accusing him of out-feeding the state in a bid to prolong and corrupt the work by extravagance and vainglory, and of having callers summon people to his food; Abu Ja'far wrote back: 'O boy! Al-Hasan feeds from his own money, and you feed from mine — nothing comes of you but smallness of worth, littleness of ambition and foolishness of opinion,' and wrote to al-Hasan: feed, but keep no caller — so al-Hasan would say 'whoever reaches my awning first gets such-and-such'; the men worked hard and finished Malatya and its mosque in six months; for the garrison each 'arafa — ten to fifteen men — received two lower houses, two upper chambers and a stable; he built a muslaha thirty miles out and another on the river called Qubaqib that feeds the Euphrates; al-Mansur settled four thousand Jaziran fighters in Malatya, it being of their frontier, with ten dinars added to every man's pay and a hundred-dinar allowance besides the camel the tribes engaged between them; he deposited its armoury, granted the soldiers farms and built the fortress of Qaludhiya — and Constantine the tyrant came on with over a hundred thousand as far as Jayhan, heard of the Arabs' numbers and held back.

5. The Killing of Mansur ibn Jamwana — c. 758 CE · 141 AH

   In al-Baladhuri from Abu Amr al-Bahili and others: Hisn Mansur is named for Mansur ibn Jamwana ibn al-Harith al-Amiri of Qays, who undertook its building and upkeep, being stationed there in Marwan's days with a dense Syrian and Jaziran host to repel the enemy; this Mansur was set over al-Ruha's people when they withheld in the dynasty's first days, whereupon al-Mansur besieged them — as al-Abbas's governor of the Jazira and Armenia — and when he took it Mansur fled, then was given aman and came out; when Abdallah ibn Ali deposed Abu Ja'far al-Mansur he made him chief of his police, and when Abdallah fled to Basra he went into hiding, was betrayed in year 141, brought before al-Mansur and killed at al-Raqqa as the caliph returned from Bayt al-Maqdis — others say he was amaned after Ibn Ali's flight, appeared, and was then found to have letters to the Romans betraying Islam, so when al-Mansur reached al-Raqqa from Bayt al-Maqdis in year 141 he sent for him and struck off his head there before departing for al-Hashimiyya at Kufa; al-Rashid had built and garrisoned Hisn Mansur in al-Mahdi's caliphate.

6. The uprising of Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya and his brother Ibrahim — c. 762 CE · 145 AH

   In year 145 Muhammad and Ibrahim, sons of Abdallah ibn al-Hasan the Hasanid, rose; al-Mansur overcame and killed them with a great company of the Prophet's house. He was the first to sow strife between Abbasids and Alids — hitherto one party — and harmed scholars who joined or sanctioned the rising, killing and flogging: Abu Hanifa, Abd al-Hamid ibn Ja'far and Ibn Ajlan among them. Malik ibn Anas ruled the rising lawful: 'your bay'a was coerced, and there is no oath upon the coerced' .

7. Yazid ibn Hatim's March to Ifriqiya and His Killing of Abu Khatim — between 767 and 787 CE

   In al-Baladhuri: after Hazarmard, Yazid ibn Hatim ibn Qubaysa ibn al-Muhallab governed — he went out in fifty thousand, Abu Ja'far al-Mansur escorting him to Bayt al-Maqdis and spending great wealth on him; Yazid marched until he met Abu Khatim at Batr Iblis, killed him, and entered Ifriqiya which settled for him; then Rawh ibn Hatim ruled, then al-Fadl ibn Rawh — the army rose on him and slaughtered him.

8. The Building of al-Rafiqa — c. 772 CE · 155 AH

   In al-Baladhuri: al-Rafiqa had no ancient trace — the commander of the faithful al-Mansur built it in year 155 on the model of his city at Baghdad and stationed a Khurasani army in it; works continued under al-Mahdi while heir apparent, then al-Rashid built its palaces, and between al-Raqqa and al-Rafiqa lay an open space of sown fields; when Ali ibn Sulayman ibn Ali came as governor of the Jazira he moved al-Raqqa's markets into that space — the city's great old market having been called Suq Hisham al-Atiq — and when al-Rashid later came to al-Raqqa he increased those markets, which have since been assessed with the crown lands; as for Rusafat Hisham, Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik founded it, having previously dwelt at al-Zaytuna, dug the al-Hani and al-Mari canals and laid out Wasit al-Raqqa in it; that estate was seized at the dynasty's opening and passed to Umm Ja'far Zubayda bint Ja'far ibn al-Mansur, who built in it the estate named for her and added to its splendour.

9. The Building of Madinat al-Hadath — between 778 and 785 CE · c. 162 AH

   In al-Baladhuri: al-Hadath was among the conquests of Umar's days, taken by Habib ibn Maslama at Iyad ibn Ghanm's direction, and Mu'awiya kept it up thereafter; Banu Umayya called the Darb al-Hadath 'al-Salama' out of omen, for the Muslims had been smitten there — that calamity being 'the event' as some say — while others say a Byzantine youth (ghulam hadath) fought them on the pass so it was named Darb al-Hadath; in Marwan ibn Muhammad's civil war the Romans demolished Madinat al-Hadath and evacuated its people as they had Malatya; then in year 161 Michael came out to Amq Mar'ash, and al-Mahdi sent al-Hasan ibn Qahtaba ranging Byzantine lands — in this expedition were Mandal al-Anzi the Kufan and Mu'tayyir ibn Sulayman al-Basri — who chose his city-site there, and on return spoke to al-Mahdi of building it and Tarsus; al-Mahdi ordered al-Hadath built first, and Ali ibn Sulayman ibn Ali founded it while over the Jazira and Qinnasrin — it was named al-Muhammadiyya — and al-Mahdi died just as they finished, so it is called al-Mahdiyya and al-Hamadiyya; it was built of mud brick, his death falling in year 169, when his son Musa al-Hadi succeeded, removed Ali ibn Sulayman and gave the Jazira and Qinnasrin to Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Ali; Ali had finished the city, and Muhammad levied for it a contingent of Syrians, Jazirans and Khurasanis at forty dinars' pay, granted them house-lots and gave each man three hundred dirhams — completed in year 169; Abu al-Khattab says Ali ibn Sulayman levied four thousand for the city, settled them in it and transferred two thousand men from Malatya, Shimshat, Sumaysat, Kaysum, Duluk and Ra'ban; when built, winter struck with snows and heavy rain — its building not sound — and the city collapsed in ruin, the Romans occupied it and its garrison scattered; word reached Musa, who dispatched columns with al-Musayyab ibn Zuhayr, Rawh ibn Hatim and Hamza ibn Malik, but died before they could march; al-Rashid then ordered it rebuilt, fortified, garrisoned and its fighters granted houses and estates — another than al-Waqidi says a patrikios grandee camped on the city with a dense host just as it was built, the stacked mud brick ruined by snow, its governor and people fleeing while the enemy burned its mosque, wrecked it and carried off the people's goods — al-Rashid rebuilt it at his accession.

10. The Building of Tarsus — c. April 788 CE · Rabi' II 172 AH

    In al-Baladhuri from al-Waqidi: al-Hasan ibn Qahtaba al-Ta'i raided Byzantine lands in year 162 with the men of Khurasan, Mosul and Syria, Yemenite reinforcements and the volunteers of Iraq and the Hijaz, setting out by way of Tarsus, and reported to al-Mahdi the great benefit for Islam in building, fortifying and manning it and the check and vexation it would give the enemy — al-Hasan having fought so well on that raid and harried the Byzantine land that they named him the Shaytan; coming out of Byzantine territory he camped at Tarsus's meadow and rode to the ruined city, circling it on every side and reckoning its capacity at a hundred thousand; he described it to al-Mahdi and likewise told him of al-Hadath, rousing him to build it, so al-Mahdi ordered him to build Tarsus beginning with al-Hadath city, which was built, and charged him with Tarsus; in year 171 al-Rashid heard the Byzantines had conspired to go to Tarsus to fortify and man it, so he sent the summer raid of year 171 under Harthama ibn A'yan ordering him to settle, build and fortify it, putting the work in the hands of Faraj ibn Sulaym the eunuch at his command, and Abu Sulaym marched him to Madinat al-Salam whence he mustered the first levy of Khurasanis — three thousand men — who entered Tarsus, then a second levy of two thousand — a thousand of Masisa's people and a thousand of Antioch's, each man on a ten-dinar increase over his pay — who camped with the first levy at al-Mada'in at the Jihad gate at the opening of Muharram year 172 until Tarsus's building, fortification and mosque were complete; Faraj surveyed from river to river four thousand lots, each twenty cubits square, granted the Tarsusis their lots, and the two levies settled it in Rabi' II year 172; Abd al-Malik ibn Salih had appointed Yazid ibn Makhlad al-Fazari over it, whom the Khurasanis expelled in resentment for the Hubayriyya, and Abu al-Fawaris replaced him, confirmed in 170-and-odd.

11. Harun's Appointment of Ibrahim ibn al-Aghlab over the Maghreb — between 795 and 800 CE

    In al-Baladhuri: Ibrahim ibn al-Aghlab was of Egypt's army notables; he rose with twelve men who took from the treasury only the measure of their rations and fled, reaching a place called al-Zab over ten days' march from Qayrawan, the frontier's agent then being Harun's Harthama ibn A'yan; Ibrahim claimed the leadership over that district's troops, sending gifts to Harthama, courting him and writing that he had not left obedience nor embraced sin — only need and necessity had driven him — so Harthama gave him his district and sufficed him for it; when Harthama left the frontier Ibn al-Akki ruled after him and his conduct soured until the province rose on him, so al-Rashid consulted Harthama on a man to appoint and he counselled reconciling Ibrahim, cultivating him and giving him the frontier; al-Rashid wrote that he had pardoned his offence and seen fit to give him the Maghreb as a benefaction — Ibrahim ruled that frontier, stood over it and held it firm.

12. The Conquest of Crete — c. 824 CE · c. 209 AH†

    In al-Baladhuri: Janada raided Crete; in al-Walid's time part of it was opened then it closed; Humayd ibn Ma'yuf al-Hamdani raided it in al-Rashid's caliphate and opened part; then in al-Ma'mun's caliphate Abu Hafs Umar ibn Isa al-Andalusi — known as al-Iqritishi — raided it, opened a single fortress and settled it, then kept opening bit by bit until no Romans remained in it and he ruined their fortresses.

13. The Patrikioses' Killing of Yusuf al-Marwazi — between 847 and 861 CE

    In al-Baladhuri: al-Mu'tasim gave the march to al-Hasan ibn Ali al-Badhaghisi, known as al-Ma'muni, who neglected Armenia's patrikioses and freemen, going soft with them till they worsened in corruption against the sultan and in savaging the subjects beneath them; Ishaq ibn Isma'il ibn Shu'ayb, a mawla of Banu Umayya, mastered Jurzan, and Sahl ibn Sanbat the patrikios ambushed Haydar ibn Kawus al-Afshin's governor over Armenia, killed his scribe, and escaped by a hair; then governors came to Armenia who accepted pardon from its people and contented themselves with easy kharaj; then al-Mutawakkil gave Armenia for two years of his caliphate to Yusuf ibn Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Marwazi — who at Khilat seized its patrikios Buqrat ibn Ashut and carried him to Samarra, estranging the patrikioses, freemen and warlords; then his agent called al-Mala' ibn Ahmad made for a monastery in Sisajan known as Dayr al-Aqdah, which Armenia's Christians had ever venerated and gifted, took everything in it and brutalised its people — the patrikioses held that enormity unbearable, wrote to one another urging breach and rupture, and sent to the Khwaythiyya — the Aztan — to ambush Yusuf, inciting them over his carrying off their patrikios Buqrat, each man of them and of the warlords sending horse and foot to back it; they ambushed him at Batrun while his men were dispersed among the villages, killed him and seized all that was in his camp.

14. Bugha al-Kabir's Pacification of the Armenian March — between 852 and 855 CE

    In al-Baladhuri: al-Mutawakkil gave Armenia to Bugha al-Kabir, who at Badhlis seized Musa ibn Zurara — one who had favoured Yusuf's killing and aided it in anger for Buqrat — warred on the Khwaythiyya, slaying a great slaughter and taking many captives, then besieged Ashut ibn Hamza ibn Jajiq, patrikios of Busfurrajan, at al-Baq, brought him down from his fortress and carried him to Samarra, marched on Jurzan where Ishaq ibn Isma'il was overcome and killed in cold blood, opened Jurzan, and carried off the people of Arran and the Armenian surface-dwellers in Sisajan — the rebellious and disobedient, Christians and others — till that march stood sounder than ever it had been; then he came to Samarra in the year 241.