Marwan
bin Hakam
Marwan bin Hakam bin Abi Al-Aas bin
Umayyah bin Abd Shams bin Abd Manaf was born in 2 A.H. His mother was known by
the name of Amna bint Alqaman bin Safwan. He had been the head clerk and
minister during Uthman bin Affan's رضى الله عنه
period of caliphate. During Amir Muawiya's reign, he governed Madinah several
times. Following Muawiya bin Yazid's death, it was Abdullah bin Zubair رضى الله عنه had been the caliph for six or seven
months. With the exception of Marwan, none from among Banu Umayyah had a claim
to the caliphate. All the governors and administrators had accorded recognition
to Abdullah bin Zubair's caliphate. After struggling for six or seven months,
Marwan succeeded in occupying Syria. Therefore, Marwan can be considered to be
a rebel and as Banu Umayyah had lost the caliphate, he can be credited with the
revival of the caliphate for Banu Umayyah.
Bay'at
for the Caliphate and the Battle of Marj Rahat
After Muawiya bin Yazid's death as
mentioned earlier, there appeared two sects in Syria. One was Banu Umayyah who
justified the caliphate on the basis that it belonged to their tribe alone, and
the other comprising of Dahhak bin Qais, the governor of Damascus and his like
minded officers and administrators who inwardly supported Abdullah bin Zubair's
caliphate but kept silent. First of all Noman bin Basheer رضى الله عنه began to take bay'at in Hims in the name
of Abdullah bin Zubair رضى الله عنه.
The governor of Qansareen, Zafar bin Harith, also followed suit. In Damascus
Banu Umayyah and Banu Kalb were in the majority. Those two tribes were
like-minded and critical of Abdullah bin Zubair. Dahhak bin Qais who inwardly
sided with Abdullah bin Zubair did not express it openly, ruled over Damascus.
The inhabitants of Damascus were in the dark about the fact that the armies of
Hims and Qansareen had taken bay'at for Abdullah bin Zubair's caliphate. It
was, Hassan bin Malik Kalbi the governor of Palestine and a supporter of the
Banu Umayyah due to his relation with them, got the information first. Making
Ruh bin Zamba his deputy, he said, "The leaders of Ibn Zubair's army
continue to take bay'at for him from the people. The people of my tribe are in
Jordan and I will go there to inform them. You must be vigilant here and kill
those who oppose us." Having insisted in this manner he went to Jordan.
Immediately after his departure, Nabil bin Qais, as a supporter of Abdullah bin
Zubair رضى الله عنه expelled Ruh bin
Zamba from Palestine. Ruh went to Hassan bin Malik in Jordan and Palestine was
annexed to Abdullah bin Zubair's caliphate. Hassan bin Malik assembled the
Jordanians and incited them against Abdullah bin Zubair رضى الله عنه and promised that they would try to make
Khalid bin Yazid bin Muawiya bin Abi Sufyan the caliph. Hassan also came to
know that Dahhak bin Qais, the governor of Damascus, was a secret follower of
ibn Zubair but Hassan did not reveal it and chose another method to deal with
this problem. Hassan using the strategy of politics wrote Dahhak bin Qais a
letter containing the vices attributed to Abdullah bin Zubair and stated that
Dahhak was the rightful claimant of the caliphate for Banu Umayyah. Further, he
drew his attention to the fact that the people were continuing to take bay'at
for Abdullah bin Zubair رضى الله عنه
and asked him to remedy this at once. The messenger carrying the letter to
Damascus was instructed that he should read the letter to Dahhak bin Qais in
the central mosque on Friday before all the influential people of the city and
the Banu Umayyah. The purpose of this was to create an obstacle between Dahhak
bin Qais and ibn Zubair, to destroy Dahhak's credibility with Abdullah bin
Zubair, and to cause confusion among Dahhak's followers.
At the mosque in Damascus, a large
number of Dahhak bin Qais's followers were present. When they heard the letter,
they were divided into two groups. One was the Banu Umayyah and their followers
and the other was Abdullah bin Zubair's supporters. Both the groups clashed and
they went to the extent of taking arms against the other and prepared to attack
each other. However, Khalid bin Yazid bin Muawiya intervened and pacified them
and prevented them from fighting, Dahhak bin Qais left the mosque and entered
his house and did not come out for three days.
During that period Obaidullah bin
Zeyad who had been expelled from Iraq and frustrated, had fled to Syria and
arrived in Damascus His arrival in Damascus gave great strength to the Banu
Umayyah and their followers. Dahhak bin Qais and Banu Umayyah together
proceeded to Jabia. Thour bin Maan Sulami went to Dahhak and said to him,
"You gave us counsel to take bay'at for Abdullah bin Zubair رضى الله عنه and we accepted it. And now at the
instance of Hassan bin Malik Kalbi, you want to try to arrange the ba'it for
his sister's son Khalid bin Yazid." Dahhak was ashamed and asked him what
his opinion was. He said, "Express what you have concealed so far and
invite the people openly to take bay'at for Abdullah bin Zubair."
Dahhak parted along with his
supporters and halted at Marj Rahat. Banu Umayyah and Banu Kalb were stationed
at Jabia. Hassan along with his followers also arrived there from Jordan. Five
thousand of the Banu Umayyah and Banu Kalb had assembled at Jabia while Dahhak
bin Qais had only one thousand of the Banu Qais at Marj Rahat with him. The
deputy whom Dahhak bin Qais left in Damascus was expelled by Yazid bin Anis and
took over the captured treasury, which was really a great defeat for Dahhak,
Had Damascus and the treasury been in his possession he would not have suffered
such a blow to his power. From Marj Rahat he sent information to Noman bin
Basheer, Zafar bin Harith and Nayel bin Qais in Hims, Qansareen and Palestine.
The problem that came first before any other work for the Banu Umayyah was
choosing the Imamate and caliph.
(Editors note: Imamate literally
concerns leadership and Caliph connotes the representative of Allah on earth,
this term is also used to describe all the sons of Adam and their position and
responsibility while on this earth. These two terms cover the spiritual and
temporal leadership of the Muslims and can be used interchangeably depending on
the context as the concept of separation of the state from religion does not
exist in Islam. In Arabic these terms and their derivations are commonly used
and they are not terms that are exclusively used for this specific terminology
only as the word Pope is in English.)
Khalid bin Yazid was named in general
and the majority were inclined to him.
Marwan began to coax the people for
his own caliphate and Ruh bin Zamba in his support addressed the gathering in
the following words:
Khalid bin Yazid is quite young now.
We need a clever and experienced caliph. Therefore, none is better than Marwan
bin Hakam. He is experienced and he has been doing the work of the caliphate
and governing since the days of Uthman bin Affan رضى
الله عنه. It is only proper that we select Marwan as our caliph provided
that after his term, Khalid bin Yazid would be the caliph and after him Amr bin
Sayeed Aas should be entrusted with the caliphate.
The choice of caliph remained under
discussion at Jabia for forty days. At long last, Ruh bin Zamba's proposal with
the support and effort of Obaidullah bin Zeyad, was approved and on 3 Dhul Qada
64 A.H. at Jabia, the Banu Umayyah, Banu Kalb, Ghassan and Tai tribes took
ba'it at Marwan's hands. After the bay'at, Marwan leading his supporters moved
towards Marj Rahat and encamped in front of Dahhak bin Qais. Marwan had 13,000
warriors while Dahhak had gathered four times more fighters. Both the armies
set the right and left flanks in proper position and started a series of
attacks. It continued for twenty days without any decisive battle being fought.
At last, Obaidullah bin Zeyad drew Marwan's attention to the small number of
their army and advised him that they should attack them at night. As both the
armies had been forming normal battle lines and neither side seemed ready to
launch a night attack, Dahhak and his soldiers were thoughtless and
unconcerned. Furthermore, Marwan, during the day had sent a proposal of peace
and requested them to stop fighting and no one should attack the other while
the proposal of peace and terms was being negotiated. Therefore, the fighting
had stopped. When the night came, preparations were a foot for the night attack
in accordance with Ibn Zeyad's plan while Dahhak and his soldiers, being
completely free from military duties, were relaxed or asleep. After midnight,
Marwan's forces attacked from different flanks. The sudden attack resulted in
the death of eighty leaders of Banu Qais and six hundred men of Banu Sulaim.
Dahhak bin Qais was also killed and the rest fled where they could.
The fight in reality was a fight
between Banu Kalb and Banu Qais. There had been a rivalry between them since
the days of ignorance Islam made them forget their ancient feuds and Amir
Muawiya رضى الله عنه made use of them
intelligently and kept the old rivalry repressed. He had Yazid married into
Banu Kalb so that he might continue to get their support. Banu Qais outnumbered
Banu Kalb and so special care was also taken to entertain and keep them in good
humor. These two tribes were regarded as the greatest powers in Syria. Just as
Umar bin Khattab's death saw the revival of the old enmity between Banu Umayyah
and Banu Hashim, similarly Amir Muawiya's death brought to life the old
forgotten rivalry between Banu Qais and Banu Kalb. And the battle of Marj Rahat
transformed the rivalry into a durable and permanent enmity and caused an
irreparable damage to the cause of Islam in the Islamic world.
Following Muawiya bin Yazid's death,
rivalries and differences of opinions between Banu Qais and Banu Kalb began to
appear regarding the choice of the caliph in Damascus, Marwan bin Hakam seeing
that Iraq, Egypt and a big part of Syria had already recognized Abdullah bin
Zubair, made up his mind to leave Damascus, go to Abdullah bin Zubair رضى الله عنه in Makkah and take bay'at at his hands and
avoid deferring the matter of recognizing his caliphate. When the uproar among
the people in the central mosque in Damascus occurred, Marwan bin Hakam became
quite hopeless of Banu Umayyah regaining the caliphate and he had packed his
belongings to undertake the journey to Makkah. With the arrival of Obaidullah
bin Zeyad in Damascus and his becoming aware of Marwan's intention, ibn Zeyad
insisted on Marwan canceling his departure. It was the result of his efforts
that bay'at for the caliphate of Marwan was taken and it was his strategy that
led to the death of Dahhak bin Qais and the defeat of Banu Qais at Marj Rahat.
After the victory at Marj Rahat,
Marwan came to Damascus and stayed in Amir Muawiya's palace. Immediately after
his arrival there he, in accordance with Ibn Zeyad's counsel, married Khalid
bin Yazid's mother in order to win the support of Banu Kalb and be free from
the danger of Khalid bin Yazid's succession. Then he advanced to Palestine and
Egypt and in the early days of 65 A.H. defeated all the followers of Abdullah
bin Zubair, he either killed or banished them.
Abdullah bin Zubair رضى الله عنه committed a gross mistake in this case by
not taking advantage of the favorable situations and events in Syria and
failing to send reinforcements to his followers in time. He instructed his
brother Musab bin Zubair رضى الله عنه
to invade Syria but by that time the opportunity had already slipped through
their fingers and hopes had already been shattered and hearts lost.
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