The Treaty with the Jarajima

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1. The Treaty with the Jarajima — c. 637 CE · c. 16 AH

   In al-Baladhuri from shaykhs of Antioch: the Jarajima are of a city on Jabal al-Lukkam by the vitriol mine between Bayyas and Buqa called al-Jurjuma; in the days of Byzantine rule over Syria they answered to the patrician and governor of Antioch, and when Abu Ubayda took it they stayed in their city, meaning to join the Byzantines for fear of their lives but unreported; when Antioch's people broke faith he sent Habib ibn Maslama who retook it, then came to al-Jurjuma whose people hastened to ask for aman, compounding to be auxiliaries, scouts and watchmen for the Muslims in Jabal al-Lukkam, exempted from jizya and granted the spoils of those they killed when attending the Muslims' wars — the treaty taking in the traders, hirelings, Nabataean clients and villagers among them who were called the Rawadif for following after them; they would keep faith with the governors one while and veer another, corresponding with and favouring the Byzantines, until in Ibn al-Zubayr's days a Byzantine cavalry came to Jabal al-Lukkam then moved to Lebanon, drawing to it a great company of Jarajima, Nabataeans and runaway slaves of the Muslims, forcing Abd al-Malik to compound with them for a thousand dinars every Friday and with the Byzantine tyrant for a payment to keep him occupied — after Mu'awiya's example when preoccupied with Iraq; then Abd al-Malik sent Suhaym ibn al-Muhajir to the Byzantine leader, who wormed his way in by feigned favour until trusted, then fell on him and his company and killed them, proclaiming aman so the Jarajima scattered through the villages of Hims and Damascus, most returning to their city and the slaves to their masters.

2. The Second Raid on Cyprus — c. 653 CE · 33 AH

   In al-Baladhuri: in year 32 the people of Cyprus aided the Byzantines against the sea-raiders, giving them vessels, so Mu'awiya raided them in year 33 with five hundred ships, taking Cyprus by force — killing and making captives — then restored them to their treaty, sending there twelve thousand men all of the diwan who built its mosques, and transferring companies from Ba'labakk; he built a city there and they dwelt drawing stipends until Mu'awiya died and his son Yazid succeeded, who disbanded that force and ordered the city demolished — some transmitters place the second raid in year 35, and Muhammad ibn Musaffa was told Yazid was bribed with great wealth to withdraw the Cyprus garrison, whose people then demolished their city and mosques once they had gone; al-Walid ibn Yazid ibn Abd al-Malik exiled a body of them to Syria on a charge which the people disapproved, and Yazid ibn al-Walid returned them to their land; Hayy ibn Ma'yuf al-Hamdani raided them in al-Rashid's caliphate for an offence and took captives, and when they straightened to the Muslims al-Rashid ordered the captives returned; the people of Cyprus remained on Mu'awiya's treaty until Abd al-Malik added a thousand dinars, which ran until Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz remitted it, Hisham restored it, and Abu Ja'far al-Mansur declared 'we are worthier of being just to them and did not profit by wronging them', returning them to Mu'awiya's treaty.

3. The Caliphate of Marwan ibn al-Hakam — c. 684 CE · 64 AH

   After Mu'awiya II's death Marwan ibn al-Hakam rose and mastered Syria then Egypt until he died in 65, having willed the succession to his son Abd al-Malik. Al-Dhahabi judges that Marwan is not reckoned among the commanders of the faithful — he was a rebel in revolt against Ibn al-Zubayr, whose testament to his son carried no validity; Abd al-Malik's caliphate became sound only from Ibn al-Zubayr's death .

4. Construction of the Dome of the Rock under Abd al-Malik — 685 CE · 66 AH

   Building of the Dome of the Rock over the sacred rock in the Haram at Jerusalem, ordered by Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan; begun in 66 AH (685 CE) and finished in 72 AH (691 CE), the book says, with its cost drawn from seven years of Egypt's land revenue .

5. The killing of Amr ibn Sa'id al-Ashdaq — c. 690 CE · 70 AH

   Marwan ibn al-Hakam had made Amr ibn Sa'id ibn al-As heir after his son; Abd al-Malik killed him — in Ibn al-Kalbi's reckoning the first treachery (ghadr) in Islam — mourned in the verse 'they have slain Amr and not done right' .

6. The Papyrus Affair and the Striking of the Dinars — c. 692 CE · c. 73 AH†

   In al-Baladhuri: papyrus rolls entered Roman lands from Egypt and dinars came to the Arabs from the Romans; Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan was among the first to inscribe what was written at scroll-heads — 'Say He is God, One' and other mentions of God — so Rome's king wrote him: 'you have introduced an inscription on your papyri that we hate; if you leave it, we will put on the dinars of mention of you what you hate.' That weighed on Abd al-Malik — loath to abandon a good practice he had established — so he sent to Khalid ibn Yazid ibn Mu'awiya, who said: 'set your heart at ease, Commander of the Faithful: forbid their dinars that they not be traded, strike coinage for the people, and do not relieve these unbelievers of what they hated in the scrolls.' Abd al-Malik said 'you have relieved me, may God relieve you' and struck the dinars. Awana ibn al-Hakam said: the Copts used to mention Christ at scroll-heads attributing divinity to him, placing the cross where the basmala was — hence Rome's king was galled and Abd al-Malik's change weighed on him. Al-Mada'ini via Maslama ibn Muharib: Khalid ibn Yazid counselled Abd al-Malik to forbid their dinars, prevent trading in them, and stop papyrus entering Roman lands — so for a time none was carried to them.

7. Killing of Abdallah ibn al-Zubayr — c. November 692 CE · Jumada I 73 AH

   Abd al-Malik sent al-Hajjaj with forty thousand against Ibn al-Zubayr; he besieged him in Mecca for months and cast mangonels at him until his men deserted to al-Hajjaj, who took and killed him and crucified the body — Tuesday, 17 Jumada I or II of year 73. Muhammad ibn Zayd ibn Abdullah ibn Umar was atop Abu Qubays when the mangonel was planted and saw a lightning bolt like a red veil burn some fifty of its crew. Ibn al-Zubayr had been praying within the Hijr while mangonel stones clipped the edge of his garment and he never turned .

8. The Transfer of Syria's Diwan from Greek — c. 700 CE · 81 AH

   In al-Baladhuri: the diwan of Syria remained in Greek until Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan ruled; in year 81 he ordered it transferred, and that because a man of the Roman scribes, needing to write something and finding no water, urinated in the inkwell — word reached Abd al-Malik, who was incensed and ordered Sulayman ibn Sa'd to transfer the diwan; Sulayman asked to be helped by a year's kharaj of al-Urdunn, which was done, and was made its governor — before the year ended he had finished the transfer and brought it to Abd al-Malik, who called his scribe Sarjun and displayed it to him, which grieved him, and he went out dejected; a group of the Roman scribes met him and he said 'seek your livelihood in a craft other than this — God has cut it off from you'; the levy of al-Urdunn granted as aid was a hundred and eighty thousand dinars, that of Filastin three hundred and fifty thousand dinars, of Damascus four hundred thousand dinars, and of Hims with Qinnasrin and the districts called today the Awasim eight hundred thousand dinars — or, it is said, seven hundred thousand.

9. The Building of the Fortress of Masisa — 703 CE · 84 AH

   In al-Baladhuri from al-Waqidi and others: in year 84 Abdullah ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan led the summer raid, entering by the pass of Antioch and coming to Masisa, where he built its fortress on the ancient foundation and settled garrison troops among them three hundred picked men of known valour and stoutness — the Muslims had never dwelt there before — and built a mosque atop the fortress hill; Abu al-Khattab al-Azdi says the first to build its fortress in Islam was Abd al-Malik through his son Abdullah in year 84, its building and garrisoning complete in year 85; the fortress held a church called Herya which the summer columns from Antioch would reach and winter at yearly, numbering a thousand five hundred to two thousand; Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz went out to Herya-Masisa meaning to demolish it and the forts between it and Antioch, saying 'I hate for the Byzantines to besiege its people', until the people showed him it was populated only to shield Antioch and that razing it would leave the enemy no barrier before it, so he held back and built them a congregational mosque by Kafarbayya with a cistern bearing his name — called the fortress mosque, ruined in al-Mu'tasim's caliphate; then Hisham built the rabad, Marwan ibn Muhammad built the suburb east of the Jayhan with a wall, timber gate and moat, and Abu al-Abbas set four hundred more men at Masisa, granting them estates.