Marwan II

Marwān ibn Muhammad ( Arabic مروان بن محمد, DMG Marwān ibn Muḥammad , also Marwan II. , * 688 ; † August 6, 750 in Upper Egypt ) was the fourteenth and last caliph of the Umayyads (744–750). He was the son of Muhammad, a son of the caliph Marwān ibn al-Hakam , and his slave, Zubāda.

Early years

Marwan had gained some reputation as the governor of Azerbaijan , Armenia and Mesopotamia . In the battle with the Khazars in the Caucasus region , he had also begun to replace the Arab tribal units with paid troops with permanent commanders. After the assassination of Caliph al-Walid II (744), he initially acted and waited, but appeared as the avenger of Caliph Ibrahim . Soon he entered Syria with his troops . Ibrahim's troops could soon be defeated, which is why Marwan II quickly asserted himself as caliph. On 27th Safar 127 (= 25th November 744) the oath of allegiance was taken .

As a caliph

Marwān was an energetic ruler who tried to secure the rule of the Umayyads through reforms. However, the dynasty's reputation and prestige had declined sharply since the assassination of al-Walid II. Loyalty to the Umayyads also declined in Syria when Marwan II moved his residence to Harran in the province of Mesopotamia . Marwān's reign was filled with revolts. So who brought Charidschit ad Dahhak ibn Qais al-Shaybani in 745 almost the entire Iraq under its control. Marwān was only able to defeat him in 746/47, after which his supporters dispersed. Marwān was also able to subjugate the Ibadis in Yemen in a campaign.

However, Iran increasingly slipped from the control of the Umayyads. The Tālibide Abdallah ibn Muawiya was proclaimed caliph (746-750) after a failed uprising in Iraq in southern Iran. Also, because of the clashes in Syria and Iraq, it was not possible to effectively suppress the Abbasid propaganda and to effectively fight the 747 outbreak of the Abū Muslim uprising in Khorasan .

After the advance of the insurgents into Iraq and the occupation of Kufa , Abu l-Abbas as-Saffah (749-754) was proclaimed the new caliph. ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAlī , the uncle of the new caliph, went against Marwan II and inflicted a crushing defeat on him on 18 Jumādā th-thāniya 132 (25 January 750) in the battle of the Great Zab . Marwan II fled to Egypt via Syria and was killed in the place Būsīr al-Uschmunain in Upper Egypt on the night of the 27th Dhū l-Hijah (= 6 August 750).

The Umayyad family was now exterminated by the Abbasids. Only Prince Abd ar-Rahman managed to escape to the Maghreb and later in Andalusia to found the Emirate of Cordoba , which was replaced in 929 by the Caliphate of Cordoba . This enabled the Umayyad dynasty in Andalusia to continue until 1031.

literature

Arabic sources

• Al-Masʿūdī : Kitāb at-Tanbīh wa-l-išrāf . French Translation by B. Carra de Vaux. Imprimerie Nationale, Paris, 1896. pp. 420-424. Digitized

Secondary literature

• Ulrich Haarmann : History of the Arab World . Edited by Heinz Halm . CH Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-47486-1 .
• GR Hawting: Art. "Marwān II" in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition Vol. VI, pp. 623a-625a.
• JJ Saunders: A history of Medieval Islam. Routledge & Paul, London 1965, ISBN 0-7100-2077-5 . (Reprint: Routledge, London et al. 1990, ISBN 0-415-05914-3 )
• Julius Wellhausen : The Arab Empire and its fall . Reimer, Berlin 1902. (2nd unchanged edition, de Gruyter, Berlin 1960)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cf. Al-Masʿūdī: Kitāb at-Tanbīh , p. 404.
2. ↑ Cf. Al-Masʿūdī: Kitāb at-Tanbīh , p. 420.
3. ↑ Cf. Al-Masʿūdī: Kitāb at-Tanbīh , p. 421.
4. ↑ Cf. Al-Masʿūdī: Kitāb at-Tanbīh , p. 423.

predecessor	Office	successor
Ibrāhīm ibn al-Walīd	Umayyad Caliph 745–750	-