Ziyad ibn Abi Sufyan
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Ziyad ibn Abi Sufyan (Arabic: زياد بن أبي سفيان) was born in Taif to a member of the Banu Fuqaim, of unknown parentage. He was often accused of being the offspring of the slave Ubayd and the prostitute Sumayyah [1]. Abbasid histories refer to him with the Patronymic "Ibn Abihi (son of his own [unknown] father)".
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[edit] Biography
In 659 CE, the Ali appointed Ziyad to suppress a Persian rebellion in Istakhr. Ziyad succeeded at this and stayed on as its governor.
In 661 on Ali's death, the new amir Mu`awiyah ibn Abu Sufyan inherited the rule of Basra and nominal overlordship of Istakhr. Mu`awiyah's first governor at Basra was an Umayyad `Abd Allah, who proved to be a great general (under him, Kabul was forced to pay tribute) but a poor mayor. His governor at Kufa was the more politically-astute Mughira. In 662 Mu`awiyah sent Mughira to Istakhr to recall Ziyad to Damascus; Ziyad agreed.
In 664 Mu`awiyah recognised Ziyad as a brother - Ziyad ibn Abu Sufyan. Having done this he appointed Ziyad as governor in Basra. This was then and later considered a scandal in Islam, criticised in contemporary satire and by the historian Ibn al-Athir.
Ziyad's first act in Basra was to deliver a khutba from the pulpit. This speech promised that Umayyad jurisprudence would be swift and talionic: "We have brought a punishment to fit every crime. Whoever drowns another will himself be drowned; whoever burns another will be burned; whoever breaks into a house, I will break into his heart; and whoever breaks into a grave, I will bury him alive in it." And Ziyad warned: "I demand obedience from you, and you can demand uprightness from me.... Do not be carried away by your hatred and anger against me, it would go ill with you. I see many heads rolling; let each man see that his own head stays upon his shoulders!" (Morony pp.78-81)
In 670, Mughira governor of Kufa died of plague, and caliph Mu'awiya installed Ziyad to govern that city as well. Ziyad altered the city's plan from seven districts to quarters. Hujr ibn Adi soon agitated against Ziyad, and Ziyad clapped him in irons and shipped him to Damascus.
Ziyad also planned great mosques where he ruled, as a symbol of his supremacy and that of his religion. (Cresswell pp. 12-13)
In 671, Ziyad sent 50,000 Arab troops to the Iranian oasis of Merv as a colony. This colony retained its native Kufan sympathies and became the nucleus of Khurasan. (Muir pp. 295-6)
Ziyad died in 673, and Mu`awiyah appointed his son Ubayd-Allah ibn Ziyad to succeed him.
In Shia's traditions, Ziyad's notoriety as a brutal master outlived him. By tradition, Hasan ibn Ali used to say that the testimony of four companions will not be accepted and those four are Mu'awiya, Amr bin Aas, Mugheera (bin Shuba) and Ziyad (bin Abi Sufyan). This was widely quoted by al-Sha'bi; and then Abu Mikhnaf, Tabari (Morony p. 154).
[edit] See also
- Family tree of Ziyad ibn Abu Sufyan
- Sahaba
[edit] References
- ^ see Nikah Ijtimah for references
[edit] External links
[edit] Bibliography
- Cresswell, K. A. C. "A Short Account of Muslim Architecture". Beirut, Librairie du Liban. 1958.
- Morony, Michael G. "Tabari's History" vol. XVIII. 1987.
