Yazid I.

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Arab-Sassanid drachmas of Yazid

Abū Chālid Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiya ( Arabic أبو خالد يزيد بن معاوية, DMG Abū Ḫālid Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiya , also known as Yazid I. , * 644 ; † 11 November 683 near Damascus was) from 680 until his death in 683, the second Umayyad - Caliph . His appointment was the first line of succession in Islamic history and he was the first in this office who no longer knew the Prophet Muhammad personally. When he came to power, the dynastic principle was established in the Islamic empire. His caliphate was marked by the death of Muhammad's grandson, Husain ibn Ali, and the beginning of the crisis known as the second Fitna .

His appointment by Muawiya in 676 was rejected by several prominent Muslims from the Hejaz . After his accession, Husain and ʿAbdallāh ibn az-Zubair refused to recognize him after Muawiya's death in 680 and fled to Mecca. When Husain was on his way to Kufa to lead an uprising against Yazid, he was killed with his small group of supporters by Yazid's forces at the Battle of Karbala . The murder of Husain led to riots in the Hejaz, where Ibn al-Zubayr put his opposition to the rule of Yazid at the center and was supported by many people in Mecca and Medina. After failed attempts to regain the trust of Ibn al-Zubayr and the Hejaz people through diplomacy, Yazid sent an army to end the uprising. The army defeated the Medinese at the Battle of Harra in August 683 and the city was sacked in three days. Mecca was later besieged, which lasted several weeks. The siege ended with the death of Yazid in November 683, and the empire fell into civil war.

Yazid is viewed by many Muslims as an illegitimate ruler and tyrant due to his succession, the death of Husayn, and the attack by his armed forces on the city of Medina.

Descent and descendants

Pedigree of Yazid I.

Yazid comes from the Banu Umayya clan of the Quraish tribe . Yazid's grandfather, Abu Sufyan , and his grandmother, Hind bint Utba , were arch enemies of the prophets of Islam before the conquest of Mecca. At the Battle of Uhud , when Hamza ibn 'Abd al-Muttalib was killed, his liver was taken out and Hind bit Hamza's liver out of anger and hatred. After conquering Mecca, Muhammad forgave his enemies, including Abu Sufyan and Hind, and named them Tulaqa '(the liberated). This nickname was later applied derogatory to them. In some hadiths, Ali ibn Abi Taleb states that Mu'awiya and his father never believed in Islam, but only accepted it out of fear and therefore do not deserve to be the Prophet's successor. After the events of Ashura , the granddaughter of Muhammad Zaynab bint Ali gave a speech in which she referred to Yazid as "the son of the liver-eating woman".

He had several children including Khalid, Mu'awiya , Abu Sufyan, and 'Abdallah. His wives were Fakhta, Umm Kulthum and Umm Miskin.

Birth and early childhood

Yazid was born in Syria in 646 (26 years after the Hijra) as the son of Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan , the then governor of Syria under the Caliph Uthman (r. 644-656), and Maisun , the daughter of Bahdal ibn Unayf, a chief of the mighty tribe of the Banu calf, born. His mother was a Bedouin who married Muawiya and with whom she went to Damascus. But soon she could no longer live in Damascus and so Muawiya divorced her and returned to the desert. At the time, Yazid was either an infant or not yet born. Yazid grew up with his maternal calbite tribesmen and spent his early childhood with them.

personality

In many sources, Yazid has been presented as an immoral and corrupt person. The Muslim historiographer Baladhuri considered him the first caliph to drink wine in public, entertain singers and players, and let dogs and roosters fight for his own pleasure. In Shiite hadiths as well as some Sunni hadith works such as Sahih al-Bukhari or Sahih Muslim , Yazid was considered one of the most lavish rulers and a tyrant, as drunk and as a poet. Yazid's immoral and corrupt reputation was so widespread that some of Muhammad's companions, including ʿAbdallāh ibn az-Zubair , ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿUmar, and Mohammed's grandson, Husain ibn Ali , called him a wrongdoer and therefore refused to be faithful to him.

Appointment as successor

Yazid is the son of the first Umayyad caliph Muʿāwiyas I and his favorite consort Maisūn . According to historical reports, Muawiya decided to appoint him crown prince. However, his governor in Iraq, Ziyad ibn Abi , was against his appointment because he considered Yazid to be a weak and unsuitable person who loves hunting more than being a caliph. To lessen the criticism of him, Muawiya sent his son to Rome with the army of Muslims in the year 52 after the hijra and let his son take part in the siege of Constantinople to show a brave personality of his. He also gave him administration of Hejaz to prevent him from drinking alcohol. Muawiya postponed the people's oath of allegiance to Yazid until after the death of the second Shiite imam, Hasan ibn ʿAlī .

In the peace treaty of Hasan ibn ʿAli with Muawiya it was stipulated that Muawiya may not appoint a successor and must leave the choice of the caliph to the Muslim community. However, Muawiya did not abide by the peace treaty and after Hasan's death ordered his governors and representatives to praise his son and to send groups from large cities to swear allegiance to his son. However, the people of Medina in particular rejected loyalty to Yazid, more than other cities. So Muawiya gave gifts to the poets who were against Yazid and who at that time had a great influence on the population, in order to give them new "ideas". He also traveled to Medina to receive the people's oath of allegiance in person, but he could not force important people such as Hussain ibn ʿ Ali, ʿAbdallāh ibn az-Zubair, ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿUmar and Abd al Rahman to swear allegiance to Yazid.

Caliphate of Yazid

After the death of his father, Yazīd became the ruler in 680 AD. He was the first person to inherit the caliphate through the appointment of his father, contrary to the tradition of previous caliphs. Yazid requested and received the oath of allegiance from the governors of the provinces. On the first day he wrote a letter to the governor of Medina informing him of the death of Muawiya and ordering him to force Hussain ibn ʿ Ali, ʿAbdallāh ibn az-Zubair, ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿUmar and Abd al-Rahman to give him allegiance and to behead anyone who refuses.

The brief reign of Yazīd was a time of great unrest during which he relentlessly tried to wipe out any adverse tendency. Social and political freedom was very limited in his time. The historian Al-Mas'udi wrote: “The behavior of Yazid was the same as that of the Pharaoh; Rather, the Pharaoh was more just than he was to his people and more fair to the elite and the masses. ”In the first year of his reign, Yazid killed al-Husain and other members of the Prophet's family ( Ahl al-Bait ). In the second year he disregarded the sanctuary of Medina, the "city of the prophet" and allowed his soldiers to pillage the city and do whatever they wanted with the people there. In the third year he besieged Mecca, and the Kaaba was badly damaged.

The suppression and crimes committed by Yazid during his brief reign marked the beginning of a series of uprisings against the Umayyad dynasty that later led to its overthrow.

Karbala event

When Yazid came to power, he ordered the governor of Medina to force the grandson of Muhammad and third Shiite imam, al-Husain , to swear allegiance to Yazid and, if Husain refused, then to send Husain's head to Yazid. Husain refused to give allegiance to Yazid and went to Mecca with his family and some followers from his Hashim tribe . The people in the city of Kufa found out about this and sent Husain many letters inviting him to come to Kufa. Husein then went to Kufa. Yazid found out about it and appointed Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad as the new governor of Kufa, who was supposed to force the people of Kufa to give up Husain. He managed this and Husain approached Kerbala . On the 10th of Muharram he met the army of 'Umar ibn Sa'd there.

In this battle Husain and his children, his brother Abbas, 17 people of his tribe and more than 50 of his companions were killed. After the battle, the riders of Yazid's army trampled the bodies, attacked the tents of the survivors, took whatever was left as booty, and set the tents on fire. Husain's son and fourth Shiite imam, Ali ibn Husain Zain-ul-Abidien , was unable to fight due to illness and survived. He and his aunt and granddaughter of Muhammad, Zaynab, were captured by the army along with the other women and children. The army had the heads of the corpses impaled on spears and took them with the prisoners to Kufa and from there to Syria to Yazid.

Battle of Harra

→ Main article: Battle of Harra

Yazid's tyranny led to growing discontent among the Hejaz people. This situation gradually led to a crisis. To alleviate the situation, the young governor of Medina, Uthman ibn Muhammed ibn Abi Sufyan, has sent a group of companions of Muhammad ( Sahaba ) from Medina to Damascus , where Yazid resides. They were supposed to see how the caliph lived and then appease the population in Medina.

Among other things, Abdullah ibn Hanzala and his sons Abd Allah ibn Amr and Mundhir ibn Al-Zubayr belonged to this group. Upon their arrival in Damascus, the group was received with all honors and received many (monetary) gifts. However, Yazid committed inappropriate acts in the presence of the group, which she deeply offended. For example, he drank wine, made women dance and sing in front of everyone, and played with dogs and monkeys. When the group returned to Medina, this group openly cursed Yazid, took their oath of allegiance to him, and spoke about his immoral character. Thereupon the entire people in Medina renounced Yazid and swore allegiance to Abdullah ibn Hanzala.

Yazid sent an army of twelve thousand men with Muslims to Medina with Uqba ibn Nafi as its commander. When they reached Medina, they drove the people to the Harra area and gave the people a three-day ultimatum to stop the uprising and again obey Yazid. But the people refused and the battle began, leading to the defeat of the Medinese and the deaths of thousands of people, including Abdullah ibn Hanzala and his sons. The city was sacked for three days by the soldiers of Yazid. The event ended on the 28th of Dhū l-Hiddscha 63 (August 27, 683).

Uprising in Mecca

At around the same time that the people of Medina rebelled against Yazid, ʿAbdallāh ibn az-Zubair and his companions took control of Mecca. After the Battle of Harra, Yazid's army moved to Mecca to defeat Ibn az-Zubair. His army besieged Mecca and during the siege they attacked the city with catapults. As a result of these attacks, the Kaaba burned and the Kaaba was badly damaged. The siege lasted until news of Yazid's death reached his army.

Death and succession

After ruling for three years and eight months, Yazid died at the age of 38 on November 11, 683 (64 years after the Hijra ) and was buried in his residence in Hūwarīn, near Damascus. It is reported that when the Abbasids later came to power and took Damascus, they exhumed Yazid's body. It was said that the cause of death was that he put his monkey on a wild donkey; Yazid himself chased the donkey while it was drunk and rode a horse until it fell off and broke its neck. Some people mentioned that the cause of death was too much alcohol. Some others say he died of pneumonia.

After Yazid's untimely death, his son Muʿāwiya II (683–684) became the last Sufyanid caliph before Marwan I (684–685) brought the Umayyad line of the Marwanids to power. The rapid change of caliphs and the withdrawal of the Umayyad troops from the Hejaz after the death of Yazid I led to the proclamation of the counter-caliph ʿAbdallāh ibn az-Zubair (684–692) and to a serious crisis of Umayyad rule.

Military conquests

Great conquests could not take place under these domestic political circumstances. Although the Muslims under Uqba ibn Nafi advanced through the Maghreb to the Atlantic , they were defeated by the Berbers in 683 , so that the troops had to withdraw to Tripolitania . The Muslims also suffered a number of setbacks against Byzantium , when they recaptured Rhodes and Cyprus and regained maritime domination in the Mediterranean (683).

aftermath

Yazid is seen as an evil figure by many Muslims, especially Shiites. He was the first person in the history of the Caliphate to be named heir due to consanguinity, and this later became a tradition. He is considered a tyrant who was responsible for three main crimes during his caliphate: the death of Hussain ibn Ali and his followers at the Battle of Karbala, which was considered a massacre; the aftermath of the battle of al-Harrah, in which the troops of Yazid's general, bn Uqba, sacked the city of Medina; and the burning of the Kaaba during the siege of Mecca, which Yazid's commander, Husain ibn Numayr, was charged with. He is also considered ungodly and unworthy to lead the Muslim community because of his drinking, dancing, and hunting habits, and keeping pets such as dogs and monkeys.

There are different views on the curse of Yazid.

Shiite view

The Karbala event during the reign of Yazid made him one of the most hated individuals in the opinion of the Shiites. In Shiite hadith sources, Yazid and the murderer of Husain, Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad, are cursed.

Sunni view

There is also a Sunni (including Ahmad ibn Hanbal , Dhahabi, Ibn Imad Hanbali, Ibn al-Jawzi, and Ibn Khaldun ) who believe in the curse of Yazid. Some other Sunnis, including Ghazzali, do not consider it permissible to curse a Muslim, including Yazid.

See also

literature

German:

  • Jafar Shahidi: Early history of Islam: from the time of ignorance to the fall of the Umayyads . Eslamica, Bremen, 2017, ISBN 978-3-946179-04-7 .
  • Gernot Rotter : The Umayyads and the Second Civil War. (680-692). Steiner, Wiesbaden 1982, ISBN 3-515-02913-3 , ( Treatises for the customer of the Orient 45, 3).

French:

  • Al-Masʿūdī : Kitāb at-Tanbīh wa-l-išrāf . French Translation by B. Carra de Vaux. Imprimerie Nationale, Paris, 1896. pp. 393-398. Digitized

Arabic:

Persian:

  • Muḥammad ibn Jarīr at-Ṭabarī : Tārīkh al-umam wa l-mulūk . Pers. Translation of Abū l-Qāsim Pāyanda. Bunyād-i Farhang-i Iran, Tehran, 1352 Sh (1973), Volume 7, pp. 2867-3123.
  • Muḥammad Suhayl al-Ṭaqūsh: Dawlat-i umawīyān . Pers. Translation of Jūdakī. Pazhūhishgāh-i Ḥawza wa Dānishgāh, Qom 1389 Sh (2010), pp. 32-75.
  • Aḥmad b. Abī Yaʿqūb al-Yaʿqūbī : Tārīkh al-Yaʿqūbī . Pers. Translation by Muḥammad Ibrāhīm Āyatī. ʿIlmī wa Farhangī, Tehran, 1378 Sh (1999), Volume 2, pp. 160-253.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Ṭabarī: Tārīkh al-umam wa l-mulūk . Volume 7, 1973, p. 3123.
  2. ↑ a b c Cf. Ṭaqūsh. Dawlat-i umawīyān, 2010, p. 61.
  3. ↑ a b Goldschmidt Jr., Arthur; Al-Marashi, Ibrahim: A Concise History of the Middle East . Routledge, New York 2019, ISBN 978-1-138-62397-2 , pp. 53 .
  4. ↑ explosive Ling, Martin: The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures . The University of Chicago Press, April 1939.
  5. ↑ a b Muhammad ibn Ahmad adh-Dhahabī . Tārīkh al-Islām wa wafayāt al-mashāhīr wa l-aʿlām . Second edition. Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, Beirut, 1413 AH, Volume 5, pp. 270-271.
  6. ↑ a b ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan Ibn ʿAsākir . Tārīkh madīnat Damascus . Dār al-Fikr, Beirut, 1415 AH, volume 65, p. 397.
  7. ↑ Cf. Balādhurī: Ansāb al-ashrāf . Volume 5, 1996, p. 297.
  8. ↑ ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ʿAbbāsābādī: Pazhūhishī sizā dar bāyadhā wa nabāyadhā-yi nāsizā . Qom, Gulistān-i Maʿrifat, 1386 Sh (2007). Pp. 89-93.
  9. ↑ Cf. Yaʿqūbī: Tārīkh al-Yaʿqūbī . Volume 2, 1999, p. 160.
  10. ↑ Cf. Ṭabarī: Tārīkh al-umam wa l-mulūk . tape 5 , 1976, p. 302-303 .
  11. ↑ a b Cf. Yaʿqūbī: Tārīkh al-Yaʿqūbī . Volume 2, 1999, p. 160.
  12. ↑ a b Cf. Balādhurī: Ansāb al-ashrāf . Volume 5, 1996, p. 86.
  13. ↑ See Muḥammad Suhayl al-Ṭaqūsh. Dawlat-i umawīyān . 2010, p. 34.
  14. ↑ ʿAlī b. Muḥammad Ibn Athīr : Al-Kāmil fī l-tārīkh . Dār al-Ṣādir, Beirut, 1386 Sh. Volume 3, p. 250.
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  16. ↑ a b Cf. Ṭabarī: Tārīkh al-umam wa l-mulūk . Volume 7, 1973, p. 2867.
  17. ↑ Cf. Ṭabarī: Tārīkh al-umam wa l-mulūk . Volume 7, 1352 Sh, p. 2904.
  18. ↑ See Muḥammad Suhayl al-Ṭaqūsh. Dawlat-i umawīyān . 2010. p. 32.
  19. ↑ Cf. Yaʿqūbī: Tārīkh al-Yaʿqūbī . Volume 2, 1999, p. 177.
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  22. ↑ See Muḥammad Suhayl al-Ṭaqūsh. Dawlat-i umawīyān . 2010. p. 75.
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  27. ↑ Cf. Ṭabarī: Tārīkh al-umam wa l-mulūk . Volume 7, 1973, pp. 2933-2962.
  28. ↑ a b Cf. Ṭabarī: Tārīkh al-umam wa l-mulūk . Volume 7, 1973, pp. 2989-3060.
  29. ↑ a b al-Mufīd : Al-Irshād . Kungira-yi Shaykh al-Mufīd, Qom, 1413 AH, Volume 2, p. 113.
  30. ↑ a b Cf. Ṭabarī: Tārīkh al-umam wa l-mulūk . Volume 5, 1976, pp. 455-456.
  31. ↑ a b ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn al-Masʿūdī: Murūj al-dhahab wa maʿadin al-jawhar . Edited by Asʿad Dāghir. Dār al-Hijra, Qom, 1409 AH, Volume 3, p. 259.
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  33. ↑ Cf. Balādhurī: Ansāb al-ashrāf . 1996. Volume 5, p. 323.
  34. ↑ Dīnawarī: al-Imāma wa l-sīyāsa . tape 1 , p. 184 .
  35. ↑ Ibn al-Jawzī: al-Muntaẓam fī tārīkh al-umam wa l-mulūk . tape 6 , p. 15 .
  36. ↑ Cf. Al-Masʿūdī: Kitāb at-Tanbīh , p. 396.
  37. ↑ a b Dīnawarī: al-Akhbār al-ṭiwāl . S. 267-268 .
  38. ↑ Ṭabarī: Tārīkh al-umam wa l-mulūk . tape 7 , p. 3119-3120 .
  39. ↑ a b Cf. Yaʿqūbī: Tārīkh al-Ya ʿ qūbī . tape 2 , 1999, p. 191 .
  40. ↑ Ṭabarī: Tārīkh al-umam wa l-mulūk . tape 7 , p. 3120 .
  41. ↑ Cf. Balādhurī: Ansāb al-ashrāf . Volume 5, 1996, p. 354.
  42. ↑ Abū Bakr Muḥammad al-Nuwayrī: Nahāyat al-arab . Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyya, Beirut, 1424 AH, Volume 22, p. 33.
  43. ↑ Cf. Balādhurī: Ansāb al-ashrāf . Volume 5, 1996, p. 287.
  44. ↑ a b Hawting, Gerald R .: The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition, Volume XI: W-Z . Ed .: Bearman, PJ Leiden: EJ Brill, 2002, ISBN 90-04-12756-9 , pp. 309-311 .
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  46. ↑ Ibn Nimā al-Ḥillī: Muthīr al-aḥzān . S. 16 .
  47. ↑ Ibn al-Jawzī: al-Radd ʿ alā l-muta ʿ aṣṣib . S. 13 .
  48. ↑ ʿAbbāsābādī: Pazhūhishī sizā . S. 90-91 .
  49. ↑ Ghazālī: Iḥyā ʾ al- ʿ ulūm . tape 3 , p. 162 .
  50. ↑ ʿAbbāsābādī: Pazhūhishī sizā . S. 89 .
predecessor Office successor
Muʿāwiya I. Umayyad Caliph
680–683 		Muʿāwiya II.
personal data
SURNAME Yazid I.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Yazid ibn Muawiya
BRIEF DESCRIPTION second Umayyad caliph (680–683)
DATE OF BIRTH 644
DATE OF DEATH November 11, 683
Place of death at Damascus