Timeline Explorer · Abu Ja'far al-Mansur · Stop 1 of 14
c. 653 CE · 33 AH approximate debated before the Hijra
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…
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.
The Rising of Musafir al-Qassab in Armenia — between 744 and 754 CE · c. 126 AH
In al-Baladhuri: Thabit ibn Nu'aym al-Judhami rose against Marwan ibn Muhammad, and Musafir al-Qassab — one whom al-Dahhak al-Khariji had empowered at al-Bab — came agreeing with his view; al-Dahhak gave him Armenia and Adharbayjan, and he came to Ardabil in disguise, whence a body of Sharat (Kharijites) went out with him — among them Bajirwan — finding at ... like-minded men who joined them, then Wartan whose folk accompanied them in numbers sharing their view, crossing to al-Baylaqan where a great crowd of like view attached itself, till they camped at Yunan; Marwan ibn Muhammad gave Armenia to Ishaq ibn Muslim, who fought Musafir ceaselessly, Musafir holding the fortress of al-Kilab in Sisajan; then when the blessed Dawla came and Abu Ja'far al-Mansur governed Jazira and Armenia under al-Saffah, he sent against Musafir and his fellows a commander of Khurasan's people who fought them till he overcame them and killed Musafir — the people of al-Baylaqan had fortified themselves in Qal'at al-Kilab under their chief Wadad ibn Asfar al-Baylaqani, and were brought down under aman.
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.
The Ifriqiyan Army's Rising against Ibn al-Ash'ath in His Palace — between 754 and 758 CE
In al-Baladhuri: Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath al-Khuza'i entered Ifriqiya as governor at Abu al-Abbas's caliphate's end in seventy thousand — it is said forty — and governed it four years, repairing Qayrawan's city; then the province's army and others rose on him — al-Baladhuri heard from informants that the townspeople and resident troops rose on him and he fought them forty days in his palace until the obedient gathered to him of the Khurasanis who had come with him and others, and he prevailed over his foes and passed them over the names: whoever was named Mu'awiya or Sufyan or Marwan or a name matching the Umayyads' he killed, and whoever was named otherwise he spared — then al-Mansur dismissed him.
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.
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.
The Entry of Abd al-Rahman al-Dakhil into al-Andalus — c. 756 CE · 138 AH
In year 138 Abd al-Rahman ibn Muawiya ibn Hisham the Umayyad entered al-Andalus and seized it; his days extended and al-Andalus remained in his descendants' hands past the year 400. A man of learning and justice whose mother was Berber, they said: 'The world is ruled by two sons of Berber women — al-Mansur and Abd al-Rahman ibn Muawiya.' By year 148 nothing lay outside al-Mansur's sway but al-Andalus, held by Abd al-Rahman, who did not take the title Commander of the Faithful but only amir — as did his sons .
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.
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.
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' .
Deposition of Isa ibn Musa from the succession — c. 764 CE · 147 AH
In year 147 al-Mansur deposed his uncle Isa ibn Musa from the succession — al-Saffah had settled it on him after al-Mansur, and Isa was the very man who had fought the brothers Muhammad and Ibrahim for him and overcome them; al-Mansur requited him by deposing him under duress and settling the succession on his son al-Mahdi .
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.
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.
Death of al-Mansur — c. October 775 CE · Dhu al-Hijja 158 AH
In year 158 al-Mansur ordered his deputy at Mecca to imprison Sufyan al-Thawri and Abbad ibn Kathir, and fear spread that he would kill them on arrival for hajj; God did not bring him to Mecca in health — he arrived ill and died of his ailment in Dhu'l-Hijja and was buried between al-Hujun and Bi'r Maymun .
