Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik

Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik, an Umayyad prince, died on 24 December 738. He was among the most notable Arab generals of the early 700s, commanding campaigns against both the Byzantine Empire and the Khazar Khaganate. His greatest renown came from leading the final Arab siege of Constantinople, the Byzantine capital.

Campaigns against the Byzantines

His military career began with annual summer raids into Byzantine Anatolia. By 709, he governed Qinnasrin in northern Syria, the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia), Armenia, and Adharbayjan, which gave him authority over the Caliphate’s entire northern frontier. From this post he launched the first Arab expeditions against the Khazars across the Caucasus. His brother, Caliph Sulayman, put him in charge of the campaign to take Constantinople in 715, but the effort ended in failure; Sulayman’s successor, Umar II, ordered a withdrawal in 718.

Governorship in Iraq

After his brother Yazid II became caliph, Maslama was sent to put down the revolt of Yazid ibn al-Muhallab in Iraq. Though he succeeded, the caliph recalled him in 721, worried about Maslama’s growing influence as governor of Iraq.

Family background

Because his mother was a slave concubine, Maslama was barred from the line of succession, but he helped secure the accession of another brother, Hisham. Under Hisham, Maslama resumed fighting the Byzantines and Khazars, with mixed outcomes. In 732, his cousin, the future caliph Marwan II, replaced him.

Descendants

His brothers granted him large estates, and he invested heavily in reclaiming and developing farmland in Balis, the Balikh valley, and the marshlands of southern Iraq. These lands passed to his descendants, but the Abbasids confiscated most of them after overthrowing the Umayyads in 750. Still, because of his battlefield reputation, his family largely escaped the Abbasids’ widespread persecution of the Umayyad clan.

Maslama was the son of Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan and a half-brother to caliphs al-Walid I, Sulayman, Yazid II, and Hisham. Around 691, Abd al-Malik arranged his marriage to al-Rabab, daughter of the Qaysi tribal chief Zufar ibn al-Harith al-Kilabi, as part of a settlement ending Zufar’s revolt.

Maslama is first recorded leading the annual summer campaign against the Byzantines in 705, alongside his nephew al-Abbas ibn al-Walid. His first major expedition was the 707–708 siege of Tyana in southeastern Asia Minor, launched in retaliation for the defeat and death of the general Maimun the Mardaite the year before. The siege lasted through winter, causing great hardship for the Arab army, but after they defeated a Byzantine relief force in spring 708, the city surrendered. That summer, Maslama led another raid into Asia Minor and beat a Byzantine army near Amorium; in 709 he raided Isauria.

That same year, he became military governor of the Jazira, Armenia, and Adharbayjan, succeeding his uncle Muhammad ibn Marwan. He already held the governorship of Jund Qinnasrin in northern Syria from his father’s reign.

Early Arabic chroniclers recorded less about his time in Qinnasrin than his other posts. With these provinces, he controlled the Caliphate’s entire northwestern border. From there he campaigned against the Byzantines, devastating Galatia and sacking Amaseia in 712, and taking Melitene in 714.

Maslama was also the first to establish the Caliphate’s presence north of the Caucasus, starting direct conflict with the Khazars. Sources date the renewed fighting to as early as 707, when Maslama campaigned in Adharbayjan and up to Derbent. Further attacks on Derbent are reported in 708 by Muhammad ibn Marwan and again by Maslama in 709.

In 713/14, Maslama captured Derbent after a resident showed him a secret underground passage. The Armenian historian Łewond claims the Arabs, realizing they could not hold the fortress, tore down its walls.

Maslama then pushed deeper into Khazar territory. The Khazar army confronted him at the city of Tarku, but apart from single combats between champions, the two sides did not fight for several days. When Khazar reinforcements under the general Alp' were about to arrive, Maslama abandoned the campaign and retreated to Iberia, leaving his camp and equipment as a ruse.

Early Muslim sources generally credit Maslama with leading the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in 713, though his nephew Abd al-Aziz ibn al-Walid is also named as the leader that year. Leadership of the Hajj and the summer raids were prestigious commands, almost always held by prominent Umayyad family members.

From 715, Maslama was the chief general in his brother Caliph Sulayman’s plan to conquer Constantinople, since Sulayman was too ill to lead in person. Maslama commanded a huge army—sources say 120,000 men and 1,800 ships. In late 715, the Arab vanguard crossed the Taurus Mountains into Byzantine territory, with Maslama following in spring 716.