text:
Umayyad
caliph
Palestine
Abd al-Malik
al-Walid I
Raja ibn Haywa al-Kindi
Lydda
Ramla
White Mosque
Khurasan
Yazid ibn al-Muhallab
southern Caspian coast
Byzantine Empire
northern Syria
Dabiq
Maslama
sieges of Constantinople
Umar II
Medina
Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan
Umayyad
Quraysh
Zuhayr ibn Jadhima
Banu Abs
Caliphate
Mu'awiya I
Umayyad ruling dynasty
Yazid I
Mu'awiya II
Mecca
Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr
Syria
Marwan I
Qays
Jazira
Jund Filastin
Palestine
Yahya ibn al-Hakam
Aban ibn Marwan
Hajj
al-Walid I
Raja ibn Haywa al-Kindi
Dome of the Rock
Jerusalem
al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf
Muhallabid
Yazid ibn al-Muhallab
Khurasan
Hisham ibn al-Kalbi
al-Tabari
Ramla
Lydda
Fatimid
Muslim conquest
Ibn Fadlallah al-Umari
al-Jahshiyari
Great Mosque of Damascus
diwan
congregational mosque
White Mosque
Umar II
Tel Gezer
Samaritan
Temple Mount
ablution
Syriac
Jericho
Qutayfa
Abd al-Aziz
Umar ibn Shabba
Qutayba ibn Muslim
Transoxiana
Abbad ibn Ziyad
Damascus
shurṭa
Hugh N. Kennedy
Julius Wellhausen
mawālī
Jaxartes
Ferghana
Waki ibn Abi Sud al-Tamimi
Merv
Sind
Muhammad ibn al-Qasim
Wasit
Kufa
Basra
Salih ibn Abd al-Rahman
Khalid ibn Abdallah al-Qasri
Uthman ibn Hayyan al-Murri
Abd al-Aziz ibn Abdallah
Musa ibn Nusayr
Ifriqiya
Hispania
Abd al-Aziz
Habib ibn Abi Ubayd al-Fihri
Jurjan
Tabaristan
Caspian Sea
Rayy
Merv
Malatya
Dabiq
northern Syria
Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik
besiege the Byzantine capital
Constantinople
Umar ibn Hubayra al-Fazari
Elias of Nisibis
Abu Mikhnaf
Friday prayer
Jarir
Psalms
Torah
Yazid ibn Abd al-Malik
al-Farazdaq
hijra
Alids
Muhammad
Uthman
al-Hakam ibn Abi al-As
Ziyad ibn Abd Allah
Talha ibn Ubayd Allah
companion of Muhammad
Banu Makhzum
Ibn Qutayba
Abd al-Wahid
Marwan II
Abbasid Revolution

categories: 717 deaths,History of Ramla,8th-century Umayyad caliphs,City founders,675 births

image: 512px-سليمان_بن_عبد_الملك.png

paragraph: Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik

paragraph: Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik (, – 22 September 717) was the seventh Umayyad caliph, ruling from 23 February 715 until his death. Prior to his accession, he successively served as the governor of Palestine for his father Caliph Abd al-Malik () and brother Caliph al-Walid I (). During this period, Sulayman came under the mentorship of the Umayyads' court theologian Raja ibn Haywa al-Kindi and forged close ties with the Arab tribal elite of the district. In place of the long-established urban center of Lydda, he founded the nearby city of Ramla and in it, his palace and the White Mosque. The new city served as the administrative capital of Palestine as late as the 11th century.

paragraph: After succeeding al-Walid, Sulayman dismissed his predecessor's governors and generals, many of whom had led the war efforts which brought the Caliphate to its greatest territorial extent. Though expansion largely stopped under Sulayman, partly due to increasing push-back from local forces along the frontiers, his governor over Iraq and Khurasan, Yazid ibn al-Muhallab, conquered the southern Caspian coast in 716. Moreover, under Sulayman, the war with the Byzantine Empire intensified. He directed the campaign from his northern Syrian headquarters in Dabiq, while his half-brother Maslama held the overall field command. Their offensive was one of the deepest to be launched by the Arabs against Byzantium, culminating in the sieges of Constantinople in the summers of 717 and 718, both ending in the Arabs' defeat. Sulayman died in Dabiq in between the two sieges. On his deathbed and under the counsel of his chief adviser, Raja, he made the unconventional choice of nominating his cousin, Umar II, as his successor, rather than one of his sons or brothers.

paragraph: Section::::Early life.

paragraph: There are few details in the medieval sources about the first thirty years of Sulayman's life. He was born in Medina around 675. His father, Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, belonged to the Umayyad clan of the Quraysh tribe, while his mother, Wallada bint al-Abbas ibn al-Jaz', was a great-granddaughter of Zuhayr ibn Jadhima, a prominent 6th-century chieftain of the Arab tribe of Banu Abs. Sulayman was partly raised in the desert by his maternal kinsmen from the Banu Abs.

paragraph: At the time of his birth, the Caliphate was ruled by Sulayman's distant cousin, Mu'awiya I, who had founded the Umayyad ruling dynasty in 661. Following the deaths of Mu'awiya I's successors, Yazid I and Mu'awiya II, in 683 and 684, respectively, Umayyad authority collapsed across the Caliphate and most provinces recognized the Mecca-based caliph, Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr. The Umayyads of Medina, including Sulayman, were consequently expelled from the city and became refugees in central Syria, where the family was supported by certain loyalist Arab tribes. These tribes elected as caliph Sulayman's grandfather, Marwan I, and formed the "Yaman" confederation in opposition to the Qaysi tribes, which dominated northern Syria and the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) and gave their allegiance to Ibn al-Zubayr. By 685, Marwan had retaken control of Syria and Egypt and was succeeded by Abd al-Malik, who reconquered the remainder of the Caliphate by 692.

paragraph: Section::::Governorship of Palestine.

paragraph: At an undetermined point, Abd al-Malik made Sulayman governor of Jund Filastin (military district of Palestine), a post Abd al-Malik formerly held under Marwan. Sulayman's appointment to the district followed successive stints by the caliph's uncle Yahya ibn al-Hakam and half-brother Aban ibn Marwan. In 701, Sulayman led the Hajj pilgrimage caravan to Mecca. Before Abd al-Malik died in 705, he nominated his eldest son, al-Walid I, as his successor to be followed by Sulayman. Sulayman remained governor of Palestine throughout al-Walid's reign, which lasted until 715. His governorship likely brought him in close contact with the Yamani chieftains who dominated the district. He established a strong relationship with Raja ibn Haywa al-Kindi, a local, Yamani-affiliated, religious scholar who had previously supervised Abd al-Malik's construction of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. Raja became Sulayman's tutor and senior aide.

paragraph: Sulayman cultivated ties with the opponents of al-Walid's viceroy over Iraq and the eastern half of the Caliphate, al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, whose considerable influence over al-Walid was resented by the heir apparent. In 708, he gave refuge to the Muhallabid family and its head, Yazid ibn al-Muhallab, who had been dismissed from the governorship of Khurasan by al-Hajjaj and later became a fugitive when he escaped the latter's prison. To placate the consequent anger of al-Walid, Sulayman offered to assume the unpaid fine al-Hajjaj had imposed on Yazid and sent the latter and his own son, Ayyub, in shackles to the caliph with a letter pleading for the Muhallabids' pardon, which the caliph granted. Yazid became a close confidant of Sulayman, who held him in "the highest regard". According to a report by Arab historian Hisham ibn al-Kalbi (737–819), cited by the 9th-century historian al-Tabari, "Yazid ... stayed with him [Sulayman], teaching him how to dress well, making delicious dishes for him, and giving him large presents". Yazid remained with Sulayman for nine months or until al-Hajjaj died in 714 and highly influenced and prejudiced him against al-Hajjaj.

paragraph: Section::::Governorship of Palestine.:Foundation of Ramla.

paragraph: During his governorship, Sulayman founded the city of Ramla as the seat of his administration. Replacing the Muslims' original capital at Lydda, Ramla remained the capital of Palestine as late as the Fatimid period (10th–11th centuries). In founding the new city, Sulayman was motivated by personal ambition and practical considerations. The location of Lydda, a long-established and prosperous city, was logistically and economically advantageous, but Sulayman established his capital outside of the city proper. According to the historian Nimrod Luz, this was likely due to a lack of available space for wide-scale development and agreements dating to the Muslim conquest in the 630s that, at least formally, precluded him from confiscating desirable property within the city. In a tradition recorded by the historian Ibn Fadlallah al-Umari (d. 1347), Sulayman's requests for parcels in the middle of Lydda were refused by a determined, local Christian cleric. Infuriated, he attempted to have the cleric executed, but was dissuaded by Raja who instead proposed building a new city at a superior, adjacent site. According to al-Jahshiyari (d. 962), Sulayman sought a lasting reputation as a great builder following the example of his father and al-Walid, founder of the Great Mosque of Damascus. The construction of Ramla was his "way to immortality" and "his personal stamp on the landscape of Palestine", according to Luz. In choosing the site, Sulayman utilized the strategic advantages of Lydda's vicinity while avoiding the physical constraints of an already-established urban center.

paragraph: The first structure Sulayman erected in Ramla was his palatial residence, which dually served as the seat of Palestine's ("diwan") administration. At the center of the new city was a congregational mosque, later known as the White Mosque. It was not completed until the reign of Caliph Umar II (). From early on, Ramla developed economically as a market town for the surrounding area's agricultural products and a center for dyeing, weaving and pottery. It was also home to a high proportion of Muslim religious scholars. Sulayman built an aqueduct in the city called al-Barada, which transported water to Ramla from Tel Gezer about 10 kilometers to the southeast. Many of Lydda's Christian, Samaritan and Jewish inhabitants were moved to the new city. Traditional accounts vary about Sulayman's efforts to transfer settlement to Ramla, with some holding that he only demolished a church in Lydda and others that he demolished the city altogether. In any case, Ramla ultimately superseded Lydda as the commercial center of Palestine. In the words of al-Jahshiyari, Sulayman "founded the town of al-Ramla and its mosque and thus caused the ruin of Lod [Lydda]".

paragraph: Jerusalem remained the region's religious focal point, and according to an 8th-century Arabic source, Sulayman ordered the construction of number of public buildings there, namely a bathhouse, at the same time that al-Walid was developing the Temple Mount (Haram al-Sharif). The bathhouse was used for ablution by Muslims worshipping at the Dome of the Rock. Sulayman is further credited by an anonymous 13th-century Syriac chronicler for building arches, mills and gardens in Jericho, but these were later destroyed by floods. He also maintained an agricultural tract near Qutayfa in the environs of Damascus that was called "al-Sulaymaniyya" after him.

paragraph: Section::::Caliphate.

paragraph: Section::::Caliphate.:Accession.

paragraph: In 714, al-Walid, encouraged or supported by al-Hajjaj, attempted to install his son Abd al-Aziz as his successor, voiding the arrangements set by Abd al-Malik, which made Sulayman heir apparent. According to the historian Umar ibn Shabba (d. 878), al-Walid offered Sulayman generous financial incentives to agree to the change, but the latter refused. Al-Walid, nonetheless, issued requests to his provincial governors to recognize Abd al-Aziz, but only received favorable responses from al-Hajjaj and Qutayba ibn Muslim, the governor of Khurasan and conqueror of Transoxiana. An adviser of al-Walid, Abbad ibn Ziyad, counseled the caliph to forcibly pressure Sulayman, at first by summoning him to the caliph's court in Damascus, and then, after Sulayman stalled in his response, to mobilize his "shurṭa" (security forces) and move against Sulayman in Ramla. Al-Walid died shortly after, on 23 February 715, and Sulayman acceded to the caliphate unopposed.

paragraph: Sulayman received oaths of allegiance in Ramla, and in Damascus during his only recorded visit to that city. Sulayman continued to govern from Palestine, where he "was much beloved", according to Wellhausen, instead of Damascus, the Umayyads' traditional administrative capital. Historian Reinhard Eisener asserts that the medieval "Syrian sources prove he obviously chose Jerusalem as his principal seat of government", while Wellhausen and historian Hugh N. Kennedy write that he remained in nearby Ramla.

paragraph: Section::::Caliphate.:Provincial politics.

paragraph: During his first year in office, Sulayman dismissed most of the provincial appointees of al-Walid and al-Hajjaj, and installed loyalist governors in their place. It is unclear whether these changes were the result of resentment and suspicion toward previous opponents of his accession or a means to ensure control over the provinces by appointing allied officials. While Eisener claims Sulayman's "choice of governors does not give the impression of bias" toward the Yaman faction, Kennedy asserts that the caliph's reign marked the political comeback of the Yaman and "reflected his Yamani leanings". One of his immediate decisions was installing Yazid ibn al-Muhallab as governor of Iraq. According to historian Muhammad Adnan Shaban, Sulayman considered Yazid to be his "own al-Hajjaj". Though Yazid acted with a staunch preference for the Yaman, there is no indication that Sulayman favored one faction over the other. In the assessment of historian Julius Wellhausen, Sulayman, from the time of his governorship of Palestine, "may have been persuaded" that the rule of al-Hajjaj engendered hatred among the Iraqis toward the Umayyads as opposed to fostering their loyalty. Sulayman thus opposed him and his influence and deposed his appointees and allies, not because of their Qaysi affiliation, but rather their connection with al-Hajjaj personally. Indeed, Sulayman kept close ties with the Qaysi troops of the Jazira.

paragraph: A protege of al-Hajjaj, Qutayba ibn Muslim, whose relations with Sulayman had been antagonistic, was confirmed in his post by the caliph, but remained wary that his dismissal was pending. At the time of Sulayman's accession, he had been leading his Khurasani Arab and "mawālī" (sing. "mawlā"; non-Arab freedman or client) troops on expedition toward the Jaxartes valley in Transoxiana. While stopping in Ferghana, he declared a rebellion against Sulayman, but most of his troops, exhausted from the distant campaigns, turned against him. Qutayba was killed by an army faction led by Waki ibn Abi Sud al-Tamimi in August 715. Sulayman subsequently ordered the withdrawal of the Khurasani army to Merv and its disbandment. Waki declared himself governor of Khurasan, and was confirmed by Sulayman, but the latter restricted his authority to military affairs. Indeed, Sulayman was concerned that Waki's nomination by the tribal factions of the Khurasani army rather than by his own initiative would lead to instability in the province. Meanwhile, al-Hajjaj's kinsman and leader of the conquest of Sind, Muhammad ibn al-Qasim, did not revolt against Sulayman, but was nonetheless dismissed, summoned to Wasit and executed.

paragraph: Waki's provisional governorship lasted nine months until mid-716, when the province, along with the other eastern parts of the Caliphate, were attached to Yazid's Iraqi governorship. The caliph directed Yazid to relocate to Khurasan and appoint lieutenant governors in the Iraqi garrison towns of Kufa, Basra and Wasit, while entrusting Iraq's fiscal affairs to his own appointee, a "mawlā" with lengthy experience in the province, Salih ibn Abd al-Rahman. Furthermore, between 715 and 716, he dismissed Khalid ibn Abdallah al-Qasri and Uthman ibn Hayyan al-Murri, the respective governors of Mecca and Medina, both of whom owed their appointments to al-Hajjaj. Al-Qasri, later considered a champion of the Yaman, was replaced by an Umayyad family member, Abd al-Aziz ibn Abdallah. In the west, Sulayman dismissed Musa ibn Nusayr, the Yamani-affiliated governor of Ifriqiya and conqueror of Hispania (al-Andalus), and his son Abd al-Aziz, the governor of al-Andalus. The latter was assassinated on Sulayman's orders and his head was delivered to the caliph by Habib ibn Abi Ubayd al-Fihri in 715/16.

paragraph: Section::::Caliphate.:War efforts.

paragraph: Though he largely replaced their governors, Sulayman maintained his predecessors' militarist policies. Nonetheless, during his relatively short reign, the significant territorial expansion of the Caliphate that occurred under al-Walid virtually came to a halt, partly as the result of more effective resistance from local forces. This was not an indication that "the impulse of expansion and conquest slackened" under Sulayman, according to Eisener. Indeed, in 716/717, his governor Yazid conquered the principalities of Jurjan and Tabaristan, both located along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea. The campaign lasted for four months and involved a 100,000-strong army derived from the garrisons of Kufa, Basra, Rayy, Merv and Syria. It marked the first deployment of Syrian troops, the elite military faction of the Caliphate, to Khurasan. In a letter, Yazid congratulated Sulayman on the conquests of the two territories, which had eluded previous caliphs until "God made this conquest on behalf" of Sulayman "in order to bestow His honor upon him, and in order to increase the blessing He has bestowed upon him".

paragraph: The caliph's principal military focus was the war with Byzantium. He appointed his son Dawud to lead a summer campaign against the Byzantine frontier, during which he captured Hisn al-Mar'a ("the Woman's Fortress") near Malatya. In late 716, after returning from the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, Sulayman encamped and mobilized his army in Dabiq in northern Syria. From there, he oversaw the massive war effort against the Byzantines. He dispatched his half-brother, Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik, to besiege the Byzantine capital of Constantinople via land with orders to remain until the city was conquered or he was recalled by the caliph. Already from early 716, the Arab commander Umar ibn Hubayra al-Fazari had launched a naval campaign against Constantinople. Sulayman's efforts ultimately failed as the Byzantines repulsed the Umayyad sieges in the early summer of 717 and summer of 718.

paragraph: Section::::Death and succession.

paragraph: Sulayman died of illness in Dabiq in between the two sieges of Constantinople, in September 717. Elias of Nisibis put the date at 20 September or 21 September, while Abu Mikhnaf puts it at 23 September or 24 September. According to a report cited by al-Tabari, he fell ill after returning from the Friday prayers and died a few days later.

paragraph: Following the death of his full brother and potential successor, Marwan al-Akbar, in 715/16, Sulayman designated his eldest son Ayyub as his successor. This is partly supported by an ode from the contemporary poet Jarir: The Imam, whose gifts will be hoped for, after the Imam [Sulayman], is the chosen successor, Ayyub ... You [Ayyub] are the successor to the merciful one [Sulayman], the one whom the people who recite the Psalms recognize, the one whose name is inscribed in the Torah.

paragraph: Ayyub predeceased the caliph in early 717. On his own deathbed, Sulayman weighed options for a successor with his chief adviser Raja. Sulayman considered nominating his other son Dawud, but Raja advised against it, citing that Dawud was away fighting in Constantinople and that it was unclear if he was still alive. Raja ultimately counseled Sulayman to choose his paternal cousin and adviser, Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, describing him as a "worthy, excellent man and a sincere Muslim". To avoid potential intra-dynastic strife between Umar and Sulayman's brothers, Yazid ibn Abd al-Malik was appointed Umar's successor. Sulayman's nomination of Umar over his own brothers defied the general assumptions among the Umayyad family that the office of the caliph would be restricted to the household of Abd al-Malik. Raja was chosen to execute Sulayman's will and secured allegiance to Umar from the caliph's brothers with the threat of force following their protestations at being bypassed. According to Eisener, Raja's personal connections to the traditional Muslim reports about Sulayman's nomination of Umar render Raja's role in the succession arrangements as "likely ... exaggerated". According to Shaban, Sulayman nominated Umar because he was the contender "most sympathetic to his policies".

paragraph: Section::::Assessment.

paragraph: According to Eisener, it is challenging "to form an appropriate picture of Sulayman's reign" due to its short length. Shaban concurs, writing His [Sulayman's] reign was very short and will permit more than one interpretation. This is why he is such an ambiguous figure for the historian. Shaban noted that the "importance of Sulayman's reign does not seem to have been realized" due to the medieval sources' "overwhelming emphasis" on the reign of his successor, Umar II. Eisener and Shaban agree that Sulayman generally maintained the expansionist policies of al-Walid and Abd al-Malik, though Shaban highlights that he sought to further integrate non-Arabs into the military hierarchy. While Shaban and Kennedy emphasize Sulayman's championing of the Yaman faction and opposition to the Qays, Eisener views his provincial and military appointments as motivated by a desire to consolidate his control over the Caliphate by installing loyalists in positions of power, their factional affiliation notwithstanding.

paragraph: In the panegyrics of Sulayman's contemporary poets al-Farazdaq and Jarir, Sulayman is viewed in messianic terms as the "rightly-guided one" sent to restore justice after a period of oppression. This may have been connected to the approaching centennial of the "hijra" (start of the Islamic calendar) and the associated Muslim hopes for the conquest of Constantinople during his reign. Sulayman was known to lead a licentious life and the traditional sources hold that he was gluttonous and promiscuous. Despite his lifestyle, his political sympathies laid with the pious, chiefly evidenced by his deference to Raja's counsel. He also cultivated ties to the religious opponents of al-Hajjaj in Iraq, was financially generous toward the Alids (the closest surviving kinsmen of the Islamic prophet Muhammad), and installed as governor of Medina, Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad al-Ansari, a member of the city's pious circles, despite his family's role in the fatal rebellion against the early clansman and patron of the Umayyads, Caliph Uthman (r. 644–656), revenge for whom had served as an ideological rallying point and foundational event for the Umayyad dynasty.

paragraph: Section::::Family.

paragraph: Among Sulayman's wives was a granddaughter of al-Hakam ibn Abi al-As, the father of Marwan I; she bore him Ayyub. Another of his Umayyad wives was Umm Yazid, a sister of Ziyad ibn Abd Allah, a grandson of Caliph Yazid I. Sulayman was also married to Su'da bint Yahya, a granddaughter of Talha ibn Ubayd Allah, a senior companion of Muhammad and an early Muslim leader. From his wife A'isha bint Asma bint Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Harith, a member of the prominent Qurayshi clan of Banu Makhzum, he had two sons. From one of his "ummahat awlad" (slave women; sing. "umm walad"), Sulayman had his son Dawud.

paragraph: Sulayman had fourteen sons. According to the 9th-century historian Ibn Qutayba, his oldest surviving son, Muhammad, was twelve years old at the time of Sulayman's death. Sulayman's sons remained in Palestine and maintained strong ties to the district's Yamani tribal nobility. Indeed, the Arab tribes which formed Palestine's garrison were committed to Sulayman's family and in 744, unsuccessfully attempted to install the head of the family, Sulayman's son Yazid, as caliph. Another of Sulayman's sons, Abd al-Wahid, served as governor of Medina and Mecca in 747 for Caliph Marwan II (). Sulayman's property in Palestine remained in the possession of his family until the Abbasid Revolution toppled the Umayyad dynasty in 750.

description: Umayyad caliph

wikidata_label: Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik

wikipedia_title: Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik


text: Umayyad

text: caliph

text: Abd al-Malik

text: Abd al-Aziz

text: Umar ibn Al-Khattab

text: Medina

text: Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan

text: Banu Umayya

text: Umar ibn al-Khattab

text: Umayyad

text: Caliphate

text: Damascus

text: Yazid I

text: Mu'awiya II

text: Hejaz

text: Mecca

text: Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr

text: Banu Kalb

text: Marwan I

text: Hulwan

text: Abd al-Malik

text: hadith

text: al-Walid I

text: Julius Wellhausen

text: Hisham ibn Isma'il al-Makhzumi

text: Ta'if

text: Paul Cobb

text: Hajj

text: Sa'id ibn al-Musayyab

text: Prophet's Mosque

text: al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf

text: al-Ya'qubi

text: Sulayman

text: Raja ibn Haywa al-Kindi

text: Jerusalem

text: Dabiq

text: Byzantine

text: Constantinople

text: Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik

text: Yazid II

text: al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf

text: Yazid ibn al-Muhallab

text: Tabaristan

text: Caspian

text: Kufa

text: Adi ibn Artah al-Fazari

text: Basra

text: al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah al-Hakami

text: Khurasan

text: Amr ibn Muslim al-Bahili

text: Qutayba ibn Muslim

text: Sindh

text: Jazira

text: Umar ibn Hubayra al-Fazari

text: al-Samh ibn Malik al-Khawlani

text: al-Andalus

text: Isma'il ibn Abd Allah

text: Ifriqiya

text: Qays

text: Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik

text: Malatya

text: jihad

text: Khunasira

text: Adharbayjan

text: Kharijite

text: Shawdhab al-Yashkuri

text: Transoxiana

text: Narbonne

text: Persia

text: Khorasan

text: North Africa

text: jizya

text: hadith

text: Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn Hazm

text: Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri

text: jizya

text: mawali

text: kharaj

text: Aleppo

text: Dayr Sim'an

text: Simeon

text: Ma'arrat al-Nu'man

text: Julius Wellhausen

text: Mujaddid

text: Pact of Umar

text: Sunni view of the Sahaba

categories: 720 deaths,Umayyad governors of Medina,8th-century Umayyad caliphs,Year of birth uncertain,Mujaddid,682 births

image: 512px-عمر_بن_عبد_العزيز.png

paragraph: Umar II

paragraph: Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz (; 2 November 682 – 4 February 720), commonly known as Umar II, was the eighth Umayyad caliph, ruling from 22 September 717 until his death in 720. He was also a cousin of the former caliph, being the son of Abd al-Malik's younger brother, Abd al-Aziz. He was also a matrilineal great-grandson of the second caliph Umar ibn Al-Khattab.

paragraph: Section::::Early life.

paragraph: Umar was likely born in Medina in circa 680. His father, Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan, belonged to the wealthy Banu Umayya clan resident in the city, while his mother, Umm Asim bint Asim, was a granddaughter of Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab (). His descent from Caliph Umar would later be much emphasized by Umar II and the traditional Muslim sources to differentiate him from the other Umayyad rulers. At the time of his birth, another branch of the Umayyads, the Sufyanids, ruled the Caliphate from Damascus. When Caliph Yazid I and his son and successor, Mu'awiya II, died in quick succession in 683 and 684, respectively, Umayyad authority collapsed across the Caliphate and the Umayyads of the Hejaz, including Medina, were expelled by supporters of the rival caliph, the Mecca-based Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr. The Umayyad exiles took refuge in Syria, where the dynasty was supported by powerful Arab tribes such as the Banu Kalb. Umar's grandfather, Marwan I, was ultimately recognized by these tribes as caliph and with their support, reasserted Umayyad rule in Syria.

paragraph: In 685, Marwan ousted Ibn al-Zubayr's governor from Egypt and appointed Umar's father to the province. Umar spent part of his childhood in Egypt, particularly in Hulwan, which had become the seat of his father's governorship between 686 and his death in 705. He received his education in Medina, however, which was retaken by the Umayyads under Umar's paternal uncle, Caliph Abd al-Malik (), in 692. Having spent much of his youth in Medina, Umar developed ties with the city's pious men and transmitters of the hadith. Following the death of Umar's father, Abd al-Malik recalled Umar to Damascus, where he married off his daughter, Fatima, to him.

paragraph: Section::::Governor of Medina.

paragraph: Shortly after his accession, Abd al-Malik's son and successor, al-Walid I (), appointed Umar governor of Medina. According to Julius Wellhausen, al-Walid's intention was to use Umar to reconcile the townspeople of Medina to Umayyad rule and " the evil memory" of the preceding Umayyad governors, namely Hisham ibn Isma'il al-Makhzumi, whose rule over Medina had been harsh to its inhabitants. Umar took up the post in February/March 706 and his jurisdiction later extended to Mecca and Ta'if.

paragraph: Information about his governorship is scant, but most traditional accounts note that he was a "just governor", according to historian Paul Cobb. He often led the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca and showed favor toward the Islamic legal scholars of Medina, notably Sa'id ibn al-Musayyab. Umar tolerated many of these scholars' vocal criticism of the Umayyad government's conduct. However, other accounts hold that he showed himself to be materialistic during his early career. On al-Walid's orders, Umar undertook the reconstruction and expansion of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina beginning in 707. Under Umar's generally lenient rule, the Hejaz became a refuge for Iraqi political and religious exiles fleeing the persecutions of al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, al-Walid's powerful viceroy over the eastern half of the Caliphate. According to Cobb, this ultimately served as Umar's "undoing" as al-Hajjaj pressured the caliph to dismiss Umar in May/June 712.

paragraph: Section::::Courtier of al-Walid and Sulayman.

paragraph: Despite his dismissal, Umar remained in al-Walid's favor, being the brother of the caliph's first wife, Umm al-Banin bint Abd al-Aziz. He remained in al-Walid's court in Damascus until the caliph's death in 715, and according to the 9th-century historian al-Ya'qubi, he performed the funeral prayers for al-Walid. The latter's brother and successor, Sulayman (), held Umar in high regard. Alongside Raja ibn Haywa al-Kindi, an influential religious figure in the Umayyads' court, Umar served as a principal adviser of Sulayman. He accompanied the latter when he led the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in 716 and on his return to Jerusalem. Likewise, he was at the caliph's side at the Muslims' marshaling camp at Dabiq in northern Syria, where Sulayman directed the massive war effort to conquer the Byzantine capital of Constantinople in 717.

paragraph: Section::::Caliphate.

paragraph: Section::::Caliphate.:Accession.

paragraph: According to the traditional Muslim sources, when Sulayman was on his deathbed in Dabiq, he was persuaded by Raja to designate Umar as his successor. Sulayman's son Ayyub had been his initial nominee, but predeceased him, while his other sons were either too young or away fighting on the Byzantine front. The nomination of Umar voided the wishes of Abd al-Malik, who sought to restrict the office to his direct descendants. The elevation of Umar, a member of a cadet branch of the dynasty, in preference to the numerous princes descended from Abd al-Malik surprised these princes. According to Wellhausen, "nobody dreamed of this, himself [Umar] least of all". Raja managed the affair, calling the Umayyad princes present at Dabiq into its mosque and demanding that they recognize Sulayman's will, which Raja had kept secret. Only after the Umayyads accepted did Raja reveal that Umar was the caliph's nominee. Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik voiced his opposition, but relented after being threatened with the use of force. Potential intra-dynastic conflict was averted with the designation of a son of Abd al-Malik, Yazid II, as Umar's successor.

paragraph: According to historian Reinhard Eisener, Raja's role in the affair was likely "exaggerated"; "more reasonable" was that Umar's succession was the result of "traditional patterns, like seniority and well-founded claims" stemming from Caliph Marwan I's original designation of Umar's father, Abd al-Aziz, as Abd al-Malik's successor, which had not materialized due to Abd al-Aziz predeceasing Abd al-Malik. Umar acceded without significant opposition on 22 September 717.

paragraph: Section::::Caliphate.:Role in provincial administration.

paragraph: Shortly after his accession, Umar overhauled the administrations of the provinces. He split up the vast governorship established over Iraq and the eastern Caliphate during the reign of Abd al-Malik and his viceroy al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf. Sulayman's appointee to this super-province, Yazid ibn al-Muhallab, was dismissed and imprisoned by Umar for failing to forward the spoils from his earlier conquest of Tabaristan along the southern Caspian coast to the caliphal treasury. In place of Ibn al-Muhallab, he assigned Abd al-Hamid ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Zayd ibn al-Khattab, a member of Caliph Umar I's family, to Kufa, Adi ibn Artah al-Fazari to Basra, al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah al-Hakami to Khurasan and Amr ibn Muslim al-Bahili, a brother of the accomplished general Qutayba ibn Muslim, to Sindh. To the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia), he appointed Umar ibn Hubayra al-Fazari, while al-Samh ibn Malik al-Khawlani was appointed to al-Andalus (Iberian Peninsula) and Isma'il ibn Abd Allah to Ifriqiya.

paragraph: Though many of the appointees in the eastern provinces were pupils of al-Hajjaj or affiliated with the Qays faction, Umar chose them based on their reliability and integrity, rather than opposition to Sulayman's government. His choice of governors for al-Andalus and Ifriqiya stemmed from his perceptions of their neutrality amid the tribal factionalism of the Qays and Yaman and justice toward the oppressed. According to Kennedy, Umar seemingly assigned competent men that he could control, indicating his intention "to keep a close eye on provincial administration". Wellhausen notes that the caliph did not leave the governors to their own devices in return for their forwarding of the provincial revenues; rather, he actively oversaw his governors' administrations and his main interest was "not so much the increase of power as the establishment of right".

paragraph: Section::::Caliphate.:Military efforts.

paragraph: Umar is often deemed a pacifist by the sources, though Cobb attributes the caliph's war-weariness to concerns over the diminishing funds of the Caliphate's treasury. Wellhausen asserts that Umar was "disinclined to wars of conquest, well-knowing that they were waged, not for God, but for the sake of spoil". Indeed, shortly after his accession in late 717, he ordered the withdrawal of the Muslim army led by his cousin Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik from their abortive siege against Constantinople to the region of Malatya, closer to the Syrian frontier. Despite the withdrawal, Umar kept up the annual summer raids against the Byzantine frontier, out of the obligation to "jihad". Umar remained in northern Syria, often residing at his estate Khunasira, where he built a fortified headquarters.

paragraph: At some point in 717, he dispatched a force under Ibn Hatim ibn al-Nu'man al-Bahili to Adharbayjan to disperse a group of Turks who had launched damaging raids against the province. In 718, he successively deployed Iraqi and Syrian troops to suppress the Kharijite rebellion of Shawdhab al-Yashkuri in Iraq, though some sources say the revolt was settled diplomatically. Along the Caliphate's northeastern frontiers, in Transoxiana, Islam had already been established in a number of cities, precluding Umar's withdrawal of Arab troops from there. However, he prevented further eastward expansion. During his reign, Muslim forces based in al-Andalus conquered and fortified the Mediterranean coastal city of Narbonne in modern-day France.

paragraph: Section::::Caliphate.:Reforms.

paragraph: Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz was a scholar himself and surrounded himself with great scholars like Muhammed bin Kaab and Maimun bin Mehran. He offered stipends to teachers and encouraged education. Through his personal example, he inculcated piety, steadfastness, business ethics and moral rectitude in the general population. His reforms included strict abolition of drinking, forbidding public nudity, elimination of mixed bathrooms for men and women and fair dispensation of Zakat. He undertook extensive public works in Persia, Khorasan and North Africa, including the construction of canals, roads, rest houses for travellers and medical dispensaries.

paragraph: He continued the welfare programs of the last few Umayyad caliphs, expanding them and including special programs for orphans and the destitute. He would also abolish the jizya tax for converts to Islam, who were former dhimmis, who used to be taxed even after they had converted under other Umayyad rulers.

paragraph: Umar II is credited with having ordered the first official collection of hadith (sayings and actions attributed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad), fearing that some of it might be lost. Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn Hazm and Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri, are among those who compiled hadiths at Umar II's behest.

paragraph: He made other reforms:

paragraph: BULLET::::- State officials were excluded from entering into any business.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Unpaid labour was made illegal.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Pasture lands and game reserves, which were reserved for the family of the dignitaries, were evenly distributed among the poor for the purpose of cultivation.

paragraph: BULLET::::- He urged to all of the officials to listen the complaints of the people and during any occasion, he used to announce that if any subject had seen any officer mistreating others, he should report him to the leader and will be given a reward ranging from 100 to 300 dirhams.

paragraph: Section::::Caliphate.:Reforms.:Taxation.

paragraph: Under previous Umayyad rulers, Arab Muslims had certain financial privileges over non-Arab Muslims. Non-Arab converts to Islam were still expected to pay the jizya poll tax that they paid before becoming Muslims. Umar put into practice a new system that exempted all Muslims, regardless of their heritage, from the jizya tax. He also added some safeguards to the system to make sure that mass conversion to Islam would not cause the collapse of the finances of the Umayyad government. Under the new tax policy, converted mawali would not pay the jizya, but upon conversion, their land would become the property of the villages and remain liable to the full rate of the kharaj, or land tax. This compensated for the loss of income due to the diminished jizya tax base.

paragraph: Section::::Caliphate.:Efforts in inviting people to Islam (Dawah).

paragraph: Following the example of the Prophet, Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz sent out emissaries to China and Tibet, inviting their rulers to accept Islam. It was during the time of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz that Islam took roots and was accepted by a large segment of the population of Persia and Egypt. When the officials complained that because of conversions, the jizya revenues of the state had experienced a steep decline, Umar wrote back saying that he had accepted the Caliphate to invite people to Islam and not to become a tax collector. The infusion of non-Arabs in large number into the fold of Islam shifted the center of gravity of the empire from Medina and Damascus to Persia and Egypt.

paragraph: Section::::Death and legacy.

paragraph: His reforms in favor of the people greatly angered the nobility of the Umayyads, and they would eventually bribe a servant into poisoning his food. Umar learned of this on his death bed and pardoned the culprit, collecting the punitive payments he was entitled to under Islamic law but depositing them in the public treasury. On his way back from Damascus to Aleppo or possibly to his Khunasira estate, Umar fell ill. He died between 5 February and 10 February 720, at the age of 37, in the village of Dayr Sim'an (the Monastery of Simeon) near Ma'arrat al-Nu'man. Umar had purchased a plot there with his own funds and was buried in the village, where the ruins of his tomb, built at an unknown date, are still visible. He was succeeded by Yazid II.

paragraph: The unanimous view in the Muslim traditional sources is that Umar was pious and ruled like a true Muslim in singular opposition to the other Umayyad caliphs, who were generally considered "godless usurpers, tyrants and playboys". The tradition recognized Umar as an authentic caliph, while the other Umayyads were viewed as kings. In the view of Hawting, this is partly based on the historical facts and Umar's character and actions, but "it is also clear that much of the traditional writing about him should be regarded as pious and moralistic story-telling in keeping with the needs and outlook of tradition". As a result of this and his short term in office, it is difficult to assess the achievements of his caliphate and his motives. Indeed, Kennedy calls Umar "the most puzzling character among the Marwanid rulers". According to Hawting, the work of German historian Julius Wellhausen marked a transition in western studies of Umar from the early tendency to view this caliph as "an impractical idealist" to the more modern view of him as "a pious individual who attempted to solve the problems of his day in a way which would reconcile the needs of his dynasty and state with the demands of Islam".

paragraph: Section::::Views.

paragraph: stated:

paragraph: Section::::See also.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Mujaddid

paragraph: BULLET::::- Pact of Umar

paragraph: BULLET::::- Sunni view of the Sahaba

alias:
Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz
umayyad saint
second umar

description: Umayyad caliph

wikidata_label: Umar II

wikipedia_title: Umar II


text:
Umayyad
caliph
Abd al-Malik
Byzantines
Mecca
Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan
al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf
Maghreb
Hispania
Sind
Transoxiana
Great Mosque of Damascus
al-Aqsa Mosque
Jerusalem
Prophet's Mosque
Medina
Medina
Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan
Banu Umayya
Mu'awiya I
caliph
Sufyanid
Syria
Abu'l-'As
Hejaz
Arabia
Arab
Zuhayr ibn Jadhima
Banu Abs
Ghatafan
Second Islamic Civil War
Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr
Marwan I
Banu Kalb
Egypt
Iraq
al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf
Byzantine Empire
Arab–Byzantine frontier zone
Malatya
al-Massisa
Hajj
Mecca
Qasr Burqu'
Syrian Desert
Palmyra
Azraq
Wadi Sirhan
Muslim holy cities
commander of the faithful
Jere L. Bacharach
Bedouin
al-Qaryatayn
Abd al-Aziz
Julius Wellhausen
Khurasan
Qutayba ibn Muslim
Transoxiana
Bukhara
Khwarazm
Samarkand
Farghana
Zoroastrian
Muhammad ibn Qasim
Sind
Ifriqiya
North Africa
Musa ibn Nusayr
Hawwara
Zenata
Kutama
Maghreb
Tangier
Sus
Morocco
mawlā
Tariq ibn Ziyad
Balearic Islands
Visigothic Kingdom
Hispania
had been nearly entirely conquered
early Muslim conquests
Umar ibn al-Khattab
Maslama
Jazira
lengthy siege
Tyana
military district
al-Abbas
Homs
Abd al-Aziz
Damascus
Jordan
Sasanian
Arabic
Coptic
dīwān
Abd Allah
Battle of Marj Rahit
Yemen
Qays
Hugh N. Kennedy
Hisham ibn Isma'il al-Makhzumi
Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz
Khalid ibn Abdallah al-Qasri
Uthman ibn Hayyan al-Murri
Palestine
Sulayman
Yazid ibn al-Muhallab
kātib
Qurra ibn Sharik al-Absi
Egypt's army
mosque of Fustat
Umayyad Mosque
muṣallā
John the Baptist
Hadad
Jupiter
minaret
Haram al-Sharif
al-Aqsa Mosque
Prophet's Mosque
Abu Bakr
miḥrāb
Coptic
Sanctuary Mosque
Ka'aba
Ta'if
Dayr Murran
Bab al-Saghir
Bab al-Faradis
Yazid III
Ibrahim
Umar ibn Shabba
al-Farazdaq
Jarir
al-Ya'qubi
Qur'an
al-Tabari
Abd al-Aziz
Banu Fazara
Uthman ibn Affan
Yazid III
Sasanian
Peroz III
Ibrahim
al-Abbas
Bishr

categories: People from Medina,8th-century Umayyad caliphs,674 births,715 deaths

image: 512px-الوليد_بن_عبد_الملك.png

paragraph: Al-Walid I

paragraph: Al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (; circa 674 – 23 February 715), commonly known as al-Walid I (), was the sixth Umayyad caliph, ruling from October 705 until his death.

paragraph: Al-Walid was the eldest son of his predecessor Caliph Abd al-Malik (). While still a prince, he led annual raids against the Byzantines in 695–698 and built or restored fortifications along the Syrian Desert route to Mecca. He became the heir apparent after the death of Abd al-Malik's brother and designated successor, Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan, in 704. Al-Walid largely continued his father's policies of centralization and expansion, and heavily depended on al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, his father's powerful viceroy over the eastern half of the Caliphate. During his reign, Umayyad armies conquered the Maghreb, Hispania, Sind and Transoxiana, expanding the Caliphate to its largest territorial extent. War spoils from the conquests allowed al-Walid to finance public works of great magnitude, including the Great Mosque of Damascus, the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and the Prophet's Mosque in Medina. He was the first caliph to institute programs for social welfare, aiding the poor and handicapped in Syria. Though it is difficult to ascertain al-Walid's direct role in the affairs of his caliphate, his reign was marked by domestic peace and prosperity and likely represented the peak of Umayyad power.

paragraph: Section::::Early life.

paragraph: Al-Walid was born in Medina . His father, Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, was a member of the Banu Umayya clan. At the time of al-Walid's birth, another Umayyad, Mu'awiya I, was caliph. The latter hailed from the Sufyanid branch of the clan, resident in Syria, while al-Walid's family belonged to the larger Abu'l-'As line in the Hejaz (western Arabia). Al-Walid's mother was Wallada bint al-Abbas ibn al-Jaz, a fourth-generation descendant of the 6th-century Arab chieftain Zuhayr ibn Jadhima of the Banu Abs clan of Ghatafan. When Umayyad rule collapsed in 684 during the Second Islamic Civil War, the Umayyads of the Hejaz were expelled by a rival claimant to the caliphate, Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr. After reaching Syria, al-Walid's grandfather, Marwan I, who, at the time, was among the most senior members of the clan, was recognized as caliph by the pro-Umayyad Arab tribes of the province, including the powerful Banu Kalb. With these tribes' support, he gradually restored the dynasty's rule in Syria and Egypt. Abd al-Malik succeeded Marwan and conquered the rest of the Caliphate, namely Iraq with its eastern dependencies and Arabia. With the key assistance of his viceroy in Iraq, al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, he instituted several centralization measures, which consolidated Umayyad territorial gains.

paragraph: The war with the Byzantine Empire resumed in 692 after the collapse of the ten-year truce that had been reached in 689. Annual campaigns were thereafter launched by the Umayyads in the Arab–Byzantine frontier zone and beyond. During his father's caliphate, al-Walid led the campaigns in 695, 696, 697 and 698. In his summer 696 campaign, he raided the area between Malatya (Melitene) and al-Massisa (Mopsuestia), while in the following year, he targeted a place known in Arabic sources as "Atmar", located at some point north of Malatya. He also led the annual Hajj pilgrim caravan to Mecca in 698.

paragraph: In 700/01, al-Walid patronized the construction or expansion of Qasr Burqu', a fortified Syrian Desert outpost connecting Palmyra in the north with the Azraq oasis and Wadi Sirhan valley in the south, ultimately leading to the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina. A dedicatory inscription at the site describes him as "the emir ... son of the commander of the faithful". According to historian Jere L. Bacharach, al-Walid also built up the nearby site of Jabal Says, likely as a Bedouin summer encampment between his base of operations in al-Qaryatayn and Qasr Burqu'. Bacharach speculates that al-Walid used these sites, located in the territory of Arab tribes, such as the Banu Kalb, to reaffirm their loyalty, which had been critical to the Umayyads during the civil war.

paragraph: Section::::Caliphate.

paragraph: Toward the end of his reign, Abd al-Malik, supported by al-Hajjaj, attempted to nominate al-Walid as his successor, abrogating the arrangement set by Marwan whereby Abd al-Malik's brother, the governor of Egypt, Abd al-Aziz, was slated to succeed. Though the latter refused to step down from the line of succession, he died in 704 or early 705, removing the principal obstacle to al-Walid's nomination. After the death of Abd al-Malik on 9 October 705, al-Walid acceded. Al-Walid's reign largely served as a continuation of his father's policies of centralization and expansion. Unlike his father, he was heavily dependent on al-Hajjaj and allowed him free rein over the eastern half of the Caliphate. Moreover, al-Hajjaj strongly influenced al-Walid's internal decision-making, with officials often being installed and dismissed upon the viceroy's direction. Al-Hajjaj's prominence was such that he is discussed more frequently in the medieval Muslim sources than al-Walid or Abd al-Malik, and his time in office (694–714) is a hallmark of the continuity between the two reigns.

paragraph: Section::::Caliphate.:Territorial expansion.

paragraph: Under al-Walid, the armies of the Caliphate "received a fresh impulse" and a "period of great conquests" began, according to historian Julius Wellhausen. During the second half of his reign, the Umayyads reached their furthest territorial extent. Expansion of the eastern frontier regions was overseen by al-Hajjaj from Iraq. Without participating in person, he carefully chose, equipped and generously financed the commanders of the expeditions. His lieutenant governor of Khurasan, Qutayba ibn Muslim, launched numerous campaigns against Transoxiana (Central Asia), which had been a largely impenetrable region for earlier Muslim armies, between 705 and 715. Despite the distance from the Arab garrison towns of Khurasan, the unfavorable terrain and climate and his enemies' numerical superiority, Qutayba, through his persistent raids, gained the surrender of Bukhara in 706–709, Khwarazm and Samarkand in 711–712 and Farghana in 713. In contrast to most other Muslim conquests, he did not attempt to settle Arab Muslims in Transoxiana; instead, he secured Umayyad suzerainty through tributary alliances with local rulers, whose power remained intact. The exceptions to this policy were the cities of Samarkand and Bukhara, which were each assigned Arab garrisons and tax administrators, had their Zoroastrian houses of worship razed and in the case of Samarkand, fitted with a mosque. As a long-term result, both cities developed as future centers of Islamic and Arabic learning. From 708/09, al-Hajjaj's nephew and lieutenant commander, Muhammad ibn Qasim, conquered Sind, the northwestern region of South Asia.

paragraph: In the west, al-Walid's governor in Ifriqiya (central North Africa), Musa ibn Nusayr, a holdover from Abd al-Malik's reign, had subjugated the Berbers of the Hawwara, Zenata and Kutama confederations and proceeded with his advance toward the Maghreb (western North Africa). In 708/09, he conquered Tangier and Sus, in the far north and south of modern-day Morocco, and installed his son Marwan as governor of the former and his Berber "mawlā" (freedman; pl. "mawālī"), Tariq ibn Ziyad, as governor of Sus. In the same year, Musa dispatched his son Abd Allah to raid the Balearic Islands. Tariq invaded the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania (Iberian Peninsula) in 711, and was reinforced by an army led by Musa in the following year. By 716, a year after al-Walid's death, Hispania had been nearly entirely conquered. The massive war spoils netted by the conquests of Transoxiana, Sind and Hispania were comparable to the amounts accrued in the early Muslim conquests during the reign of Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab ().

paragraph: Closer to the Umayyad seat of power in Syria, al-Walid appointed his half-brother Maslama governor of the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) and charged him with raiding the frontier zone with Byzantium. Though Maslama established a strong power base in his province, he achieved few territorial gains. After a lengthy siege, the Byzantine fortress of Tyana was captured in . Al-Walid entrusted most of Syria's military district governorships to his sons; al-Abbas was assigned to Homs and fought reputably in the campaigns against Byzantium alongside Maslama, while Abd al-Aziz, who also took part in the anti-Byzantine war effort, and Umar were appointed to Damascus and Jordan, respectively. Al-Walid did not participate in the campaigns and is reported to have left Syria once as caliph when he led the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in 710.

paragraph: Section::::Caliphate.:Domestic politics.

paragraph: In stages between 693 and 700, Abd al-Malik and al-Hajjaj initiated the dual processes of issuing a single Islamic currency in place of the previously used Byzantine and Sasanian coinage and replacing Greek and Persian with Arabic as the language of the bureaucracy in Syria and Iraq, respectively. These administrative reforms continued under al-Walid, during whose reign, in 705/06, Arabic replaced Greek and Coptic in the "dīwān" (government registers) of Egypt. The change was implemented by the caliph's half-brother, Abd Allah, the governor of Egypt and appointee of Abd al-Malik. These policies effected the gradual transition of Arabic as the sole official language of the state, unified the varied tax systems of the Caliphate's provinces and contributed to the establishment of a more ideologically Islamic government.

paragraph: As a result of the Battle of Marj Rahit, which inaugurated Marwan's reign in 684, a sharp division developed among the Syrian Arab tribes, who formed the core of the Umayyad army. The loyalist tribes that supported Marwan formed the "Yaman" confederation, alluding to ancestral roots in Yemen (South Arabia), while the Qaysi or Northern Arab tribes largely supported Ibn al-Zubayr. Abd al-Malik reconciled with the Qays in 691, though competition for influence between the two factions intensified as the Syrian army was increasingly empowered and deployed to the provinces, where they replaced or supplemented Iraqi and other garrisons. Al-Walid maintained his father's policy of balancing the power of the two factions in the military and administration. According to historian Hugh N. Kennedy, it is "possible that the caliph kept it [the rivalry] on the boil so that one faction should not acquire a monopoly of power". His mother was genealogically affiliated with the Qays and he apparently accorded Qaysi officials certain advantages. However, Wellhausen doubts that al-Walid preferred one faction over the other, "for he had no need to do so, and it is not reported" by the medieval historians.

paragraph: In response to the maltreatment of Medina's pious residents by Abd al-Malik's appointed governor to the Hejaz, Hisham ibn Isma'il al-Makhzumi, al-Walid replaced Hisham with his cousin Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz in 706; the latter had friendly ties to the region's religious circles. However, Umar gained al-Hajjaj's enmity for providing safe haven to Iraqis evading his persecution. Upon the advice of al-Hajjaj, al-Walid dismissed Umar in 712 and split the governorship of the Hejaz, appointing al-Hajjaj's allies Khalid ibn Abdallah al-Qasri to Mecca and Uthman ibn Hayyan al-Murri to Medina. In Palestine, al-Walid's brother Sulayman cultivated strong ties to the Yaman and in 708, sheltered the deposed Yamani governor of Khurasan, Yazid ibn al-Muhallab, a fugitive from al-Hajjaj's prison. Despite his initial disapproval, al-Walid pardoned Yazid as a result of Sulayman's lobbying and payment of the heavy fine that al-Hajjaj had imposed on Yazid.

paragraph: In 709, al-Walid recalled Abd Allah from Egypt, either as a result of mounting complaints against the governor, whose corruption was blamed for famine in the province, the first recorded in Islamic history, or a desire to install one of his own loyalists, his "kātib" (scribe), Qurra ibn Sharik al-Absi. The latter served until his death in 715 and established a more efficient means of tax collection, enlisted more troops into Egypt's army and, on al-Walid's orders, restored the mosque of Fustat.

paragraph: From the beginning of his rule, al-Walid inaugurated public works and social welfare programs on a scale unprecedented in the history of the Caliphate. The efforts were financed by treasure accrued from the conquests and tax revenue. Throughout his reign, the caliph and his brothers and sons built way-stations and dug wells along the roads in Syria and installed street lighting in the cities. They invested in land reclamation projects, entailing irrigation networks and canals, which drove agricultural production. Welfare programs included financial relief for the poor and servants to assist the handicapped, though this initiative was limited to Syria.

paragraph: Section::::Caliphate.:Public works and social welfare.:Patronage of great mosques.

paragraph: The great mosque founded by al-Walid in Damascus, later known as the Umayyad Mosque, became one of his greatest architectural achievements. Under his predecessors, Muslim residents had worshipped in a small "muṣallā" (Muslim prayer room) attached to the 4th-century cathedral of John the Baptist, itself a successor to the temples of Hadad and then Jupiter. However, by the time of al-Walid's reign, the "muṣallā" could not cope with the fast-growing Muslim community and no sufficient free spaces were available elsewhere in the urban space of Damascus for a large congregational mosque. Thus, in 705, al-Walid had the church converted into a mosque, compensating local Christians with other properties in the city. Most of the structure was demolished, with the exceptions of the exterior walls and corner towers, which were thenceforth covered by marble inlays and mosaics. The caliph's architects replaced the demolished space with a large prayer hall and a courtyard bordered on all sides by a closed portico with double arcades. A large cupola was installed at the center of the prayer hall and a high minaret was erected on the mosque's northern wall. The mosque was completed in 711 and Blankinship notes that the field army of Damascus, numbering some 45,000 soldiers, were taxed a quarter of their salaries for nine years to pay for its construction. The scale and grandeur of the great mosque made it a "symbol of the political supremacy and moral prestige of Islam", according to historian Nikita Elisséeff. Noting al-Walid's awareness of architecture's propaganda value, historian Robert Hillenbrand calls the Damascus mosque a "victory monument" intended as a "visible statement of Muslim supremacy and permanence". The mosque has maintained its original form until the present day.

paragraph: In Jerusalem, al-Walid continued his father's works on the Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount). A number of medieval-era Muslim accounts credit the construction of the al-Aqsa Mosque to al-Walid, while others credit his father. Furthermore, it is likely that the currently unfinished administrative and residential structures that were built opposite the southern and eastern walls of the Haram, next to the mosque, date to the era of al-Walid, who died before they could be completed and were not finished by his successors.

paragraph: In 706/707, al-Walid instructed Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz to significantly enlarge the Prophet's Mosque in Medina. Its redevelopment entailed the demolition of the living quarters of Muhammad's wives and the expansion of the structure to incorporate the graves of Muhammad and the first two caliphs, Abu Bakr () and Umar ibn al-Khattab. The vocal opposition to the demolition of Muhammad's home from local religious circles was dismissed by the caliph. An ornate enclosure was built around the graves and fitted with a concave "miḥrāb" (prayer niche), four minarets and a pentagonal-shaped entrance. Al-Walid lavished large sums for the mosque's reconstruction and supplied Umar with mosaics and Greek and Coptic craftsmen. According to Hillenbrand, the building of a large scale mosque in Medina, the original center of the caliphate, was an "acknowledgement" by al-Walid of "his own roots and those of Islam itself" and possibly an attempt to appease Medinese resentment at the loss of their city's political importance to Syria under the Umayyads. Other mosques that al-Walid is credited for expanding in the Hejaz include the Sanctuary Mosque around the Ka'aba in Mecca and the mosque of Ta'if.

paragraph: Section::::Death and legacy.

paragraph: Al-Walid died of an illness in Dayr Murran, an Umayyad winter estate on the outskirts of Damascus, on 23 February 715, about one year after al-Hajjaj's death. He was buried in Damascus at the cemetery of Bab al-Saghir or Bab al-Faradis and Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz led the funeral prayers. He had attempted to nominate his son Abd al-Aziz as his successor, voiding the arrangements set by his father, in which Sulayman was to accede after al-Walid. Relations between the two brothers had apparently become strained. However, al-Walid was unable to secure this change before his death and Sulayman succeeded without opposition. The latter dismissed nearly all of al-Walid's governors, and though he maintained the militarist policies of al-Walid and Abd al-Malik, expansion of the caliphate largely ground to a halt under Sulayman (). Two of al-Walid's sons, Yazid III and Ibrahim, successively served as caliphs for less than a year in 744.

paragraph: By virtue of the conquests of Hispania, Sind and Transoxiana during his reign, his patronage of the great mosques of Damascus and Medina and his charitable works, al-Walid's Syrian contemporaries viewed him as "the worthiest of their caliphs", according to the report of Umar ibn Shabba (died 878). Numerous panegyrics were dedicated to al-Walid and his sons by al-Farazdaq, his official court poet. The latter's contemporary, Jarir, lamented the caliph's death, proclaiming: "O eye, weep copious tears aroused by remembrance; after today there is no point in your tears being stored." According to Hawting, the reigns of al-Walid and Abd al-Malik, tied together by al-Hajjaj, represented in "some ways the high point of Umayyad power, witnessing significant territorial advances both in the east and the west and the emergence of a more marked Arabic and Islamic character in the state's public face". Domestically it was generally a period of peace and prosperity. Kennedy asserts that al-Walid's reign was "remarkably successful and represents, perhaps, the zenith of Umayyad power". However, the caliph's direct role in these successes, according to Kennedy, is unclear and his primary accomplishment may have been maintaining the equilibrium between the rival factions of the Umayyad family and military.

paragraph: The 9th-century historian al-Ya'qubi describes al-Walid's physical appearance as "tall and swarthy", "snub-nosed ... with a touch of gray "[sic]" at the tip of his beard" and that he "spoke ungrammatically". To his father's chagrin, al-Walid abandoned speaking the classical Arabic in which the Qur'an was written, yet he insisted that everyone in his company have knowledge of the Qur'an. He was also known to have embraced the formal trappings of monarchy, in a manner unprecedented among earlier caliphs.

paragraph: Section::::Family.

paragraph: Al-Walid was survived by several sons. Al-Ya'qubi names sixteen of his sons, while historian al-Tabari (d. 923) names nineteen. Those named by both historians were Abd al-Aziz and Muhammad, both mothered by Umm al-Banin, a daughter of al-Walid's uncle Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan; Abu Ubayda, whose mother was from the Banu Fazara tribe; Abd al-Rahman, whose mother was Umm Abd Allah bint Abd Allah ibn Amr, a great-granddaughter of Caliph Uthman ibn Affan (), a member of the Umayyad clan; Yazid III, whose mother, Shah-i Afrid or Shahfirand, was a daughter of the last Sasanian king, Peroz III, and a concubine of al-Walid given to him by al-Hajjaj; Ibrahim, whose mother was a concubine named Su'ar or Budayra; his eldest son al-Abbas, Bishr, Masrur, Umar, Rawh, Khalid, Tammam, Mubashshir, Yahya and Sadaqa, none of whose mothers are mentioned. Al-Ya'qubi alone names Jurayy, and al-Tabari alone names Mansur, Anbasa and Marwan.

description: Umayyad caliph

wikidata_label: Al-Walid I

wikipedia_title: Al-Walid I


text:
Sutton, Lancashire
Tyburn
Jesuit
beatified
St. Omer's College
Valladolid
Spanish Match
Madrid
Prince Charles
Society of Jesus
Watten
Southern Netherlands
priest
Liège
Ghent
St. Omer's
religious profession
Ghent
New Prison
Newgate
Old Bailey
Isaac Penington
confessions
Mass
execution
John Hungerford Pollen
Richard Challoner
Joseph Gillow

categories: 17th-century English Jesuits,1642 deaths,Executed Roman Catholic priests,Executed people from Lancashire,1600 births,17th-century executions by England,English beatified people,17th-century venerated Christians,People executed by Stuart England

paragraph: Thomas Holland (Jesuit)

paragraph: Thomas Holland (b. 1600 at Sutton, Lancashire; executed at Tyburn, 12 December 1642) was an English Jesuit priest. He is a Catholic martyr, beatified in 1929 .

paragraph: Section::::Life.

paragraph: He was probably son of Richard Holland, gentleman, was educated at St. Omer's College and subsequently in August, 1621, went to Valladolid, where he took the missionary oath 29 December 1633. When the abortive negotiations for the "Spanish Match" were taking place in 1623, Holland was sent to Madrid to assure Prince Charles of the loyalty of the seminarists of Valladolid, which he did in a Latin oration.

paragraph: In 1624 he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Watten in Southern Netherlands, and not long after was ordained priest at Liège. After serving as minister at Ghent and prefect at St. Omer's he made his final religious profession as spiritual coadjutor at Ghent (28 May 1634) and sent on the English mission the following year. He was an adept in disguising himself, and could speak perfect French, Spanish, and Flemish.

paragraph: He was eventually arrested on suspicion in a London street 4 October 1642, and committed to the New Prison. He was afterwards transferred to Newgate, and arraigned at the Old Bailey, 7 December, for being a priest. There was no conclusive evidence as to this; but as he refused to swear he was not, the jury found him guilty, to the indignation of the Lord Mayor, Isaac Penington, and another member of the bench named Garroway. On Saturday, 10 December, Sergeant Peter Phesant, presumably acting for the recorder, passed sentence on him. On his return to prison Holland heard many confessions.

paragraph: On Sunday and Monday he was able to say Mass in prison, and soon after his last Mass was taken off to execution. There he was allowed to make a speech and to say many prayers, and when the cart was turned away, he was left to hang till he was dead. His brethren called him "bibliotheca pietatis".

paragraph: Section::::References.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Attribution

paragraph: BULLET::::- The entry cites:

paragraph: BULLET::::- John Hungerford Pollen, "Acts of the English Martyrs" (London, 1891), 358-367

paragraph: BULLET::::- Richard Challoner, "Missionary Priests", II, no. 174

paragraph: BULLET::::- Joseph Gillow, Bibl. Dict. Eng. Cath. (London and New York, 1885–1902), III, 353-6

description: English Jesuit priest and Catholic martyr

wikidata_label: Thomas Holland

wikipedia_title: Thomas Holland (Jesuit)


text: Belgian

text: painter

text: Brussels

text: Bali

text: Singaraja

text: Denpasar

text: Balinese culture

text: Balinese people

text: local dances

text: legong

text: Singapore

text: Sanur

text: Japanese occupation of Indonesia

text: World War II

text: Proclamation of Indonesian Independence

text: Bahder Djohan

text: Indonesia

text: museum

text: Indonesia

text: ear cancer

text: Ixelles

text: Le Mayeur Museum

text: Balinese art

text: Balinese art

text: Hinduism in Indonesia

text: Balinese dance

text: Bali Le Mayeur Museum

text: Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur De Merprès

categories: People from Brussels,Deaths from cancer in Belgium,1958 deaths,1880 births,Free University of Brussels alumni,Bali

paragraph: Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur

paragraph: Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur de Merpres (9 February 1880 – 31 May 1958) was a Belgian painter from Brussels who lived the last part of his life in Bali.

paragraph: Section::::Biography.

paragraph: Adrien Le Mayeur came to Bali at Singaraja by boat in 1932. He then stayed in Denpasar and was fascinated by what remained then of Balinese culture, including the Balinese people's traditional way of life, the temple rituals and local dances. He was also impressed by the light, color and beauty of the surroundings in the then still quite unspoilt island.

paragraph: Le Mayeur rented a house in "banjar" Kelandis, Denpasar, where he got acquainted with 15-year-old legong dancer, Ni Nyoman Pollok, known by her nickname Ni Pollok , who later on became Le Mayeur's model for his paintings.

paragraph: A number of Le Mayeur's Bali works using Ni Pollok as model were exhibited in Singapore for the first time in 1933, which turned to be a very successful exhibition and made him more widely known. Returning from Singapore, Le Mayeur bought a piece of land at Sanur beach and built a house. At this house, which was also Le Mayeur's studio, Ni Pollok with her two friends worked every day as models. The beauty and splendid figure of Ni Pollok had made Le Mayeur enjoy his stay in Bali. At first he intended to stay only for 8 months, but later on he decided to stay in the island for the rest of his life.

paragraph: After three years working together, in 1935, Le Mayeur and Pollok got married. Le Mayeur kept on painting with his wife as his model during their married life. During the Japanese occupation of Indonesia in World War II Le Mayeur was put under house arrest by the Japanese authorities. He continued painting, however, often painting on rice sack cloth and other surfaces he could find. After the war Le Mayeur's reputation grew at steady pace.

paragraph: Years after the Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, Bahder Djohan, the Indonesian Minister for Education and Culture visited Le Mayeur and Ni Pollok at their house in 1956. He was greatly impressed with the painter's work and therefore suggested to the couple that their house and all its contents should be preserved as a museum. Le Mayeur agreed to the idea and since then he worked harder to add more collections to the house and to increase the quality of his works as well.

paragraph: At last, Le Mayeur's dream came true that on 28 August 1957 a Deed of Conveyance Number 37 was signed, stating that Le Mayeur had given all his possessions including the land, his house with all its contents to Ni Pollok as a gift. And at the same moment, Ni Pollok then conveyed what she had inherited from her husband to the Government of Indonesia to be used as a museum.

paragraph: In 1958 Le Mayeur suffered from a severe ear cancer, and accompanied by Ni Pollok he returned to Belgium to have a medical treatment. After two months in Belgium, on 31 May 1958 the 78-year-old painter died and was buried in Ixelles, Brussels. Ni Pollok then returned home to take care of her house which had become the Le Mayeur Museum. She stayed there until her death on 18 July 1985 at the age of 68.

paragraph: Le Mayeur and Ni Pollok's home is kept in its original condition and is still a museum where about 80 of Le Mayeur's works are exhibited, as well as his collection of traditional Balinese art and local artifacts.

paragraph: Section::::See also.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Balinese art

paragraph: BULLET::::- Hinduism in Indonesia

paragraph: BULLET::::- Balinese dance

paragraph: Section::::External links.

paragraph: BULLET::::- History of Le Mayeur Museum in Sanur, Bali

paragraph: BULLET::::- Bali Le Mayeur Museum

paragraph: BULLET::::- Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur De Merprès

alias:
Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur de Merprès
Adrien Jean Le Mayeur de Merprès
Jean Lemayeur de Merpres
A.J. Le Mayeur de Merprés
J. Le Mayeur
Jean Le Mayeur de Merprés
Jean Le Mayeur
Jean Le Mayeur De Merpres
Adrien-Jean Henri Lemayeur

description: Belgian painter

wikidata_label: Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur

wikipedia_title: Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur


text:
200 metres
Sassari
Sardinia
International athletics competitions
national relays team
1997 Mediterranean Games
Bari
Cesenatico
Italian all-time lists - 200 metres
Italy national relay team

categories: Italian masters athletes,1966 births,Mediterranean Games gold medalists for Italy,People from Sassari,Italian male sprinters,Olympic athletes of Italy,Sportspeople from Sardinia,World Championships in Athletics medalists,World Championships in Athletics athletes for Italy,Mediterranean Games medalists in athletics,Living people,Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics,Athletes of Fiamme Gialle

paragraph: Giovanni Puggioni

paragraph: Giovanni Puggioni (born 19 March 1966) is an Italian retired sprinter who specialized in the 200 metres.

paragraph: Section::::Biography.

paragraph: Puggioni was born in Sassari, Sardinia, he won seven medals at the International athletics competitions, five of these with national relays team. His personal best 200 metres time is 20.44 seconds, achieved at the 1997 Mediterranean Games in Bari. His personal best 100 metres time is 10.36 seconds, achieved in July 1995 in Cesenatico.

paragraph: Section::::See also.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Italian all-time lists - 200 metres

paragraph: BULLET::::- Italy national relay team

description: athletics competitor

wikidata_label: Giovanni Puggioni

wikipedia_title: Giovanni Puggioni


text:
Order of Saint Louis
François IV de Beauharnais
François V de Beauharnais
Claude de Beauharnais
Claude de Beauharnais
Alexandre de Beauharnais
Eugène de Beauharnais
Hortense de Beauharnais
Nicolas de Leuchtenberg
Geneall.net

paragraph: Claude de Beauharnais (1680–1738)

paragraph: Claude de Beauharnais (22 September 1674–15 January 1738) was a French nobleman. He was "sieur" de Beaumont et de Bellechauve, captain "des vaisseaux du roi", and a knight of the Order of Saint Louis. He was the son of François IV de Beauharnais, seigneur de La Boische and his wife Marie Marguerite-Françoise Puyvart de Chastullé.

paragraph: In 1713, Claude de Beauharnais married Renée Hardouineau (daughter of Pierre Hardouineau, seigneur de La Laudanière and his wife Renée Le Pays de Beauville). They had two children:

paragraph: BULLET::::- François V de Beauharnais (February 08, 1714 - June 18, 1800), seigneur de Beaumont et de Bellechauve, marquis de la Ferté-Beauharnais.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Claude de Beauharnais, 1st comte des Roches-Baritaud (1717–1784), who in 1753 married Anne Mouchard de Chaban (1738–1813) (three children, including Claude de Beauharnais).

paragraph: Through his son François, Claude became grandfather of Alexandre de Beauharnais, great-grandfather of Eugène de Beauharnais and Hortense de Beauharnais. He is also the direct ancestor of Nicolas de Leuchtenberg.

paragraph: Section::::External links.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Geneall.net

description: French nobleman

wikidata_label: Claude de Beauharnais

wikipedia_title: Claude de Beauharnais (1680–1738)


text:
Avesta
speedway
Individual U-19 European Championship
2007
Częstochowa
2008
2009
Tarnów
Team U-19 European Championship
2008
Rawicz
2009
Holsted
Sweden national speedway team
Rye House Rockets

paragraph: Linus Sundström

paragraph: Linus Sundström (born October 28, 1990 in Avesta, Sweden) is an International Swedish speedway rider.

paragraph: Sundström has been classed as a future star of the sport making Grand Prix appearances throughout his small career and being selected in the Swedish National squad for the 2012 & 2013 Speedway World Cup.

paragraph: Section::::Honours.

paragraph: Section::::Honours.:European Championship.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Individual U-19 European Championship

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2007 - Częstochowa - 14th place (3 pts)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "2008 - 9th place in Semi-Final 2"

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2009 - Tarnów - 8th place (7 pts)

paragraph: BULLET::::- Team U-19 European Championship

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2008 Rawicz - European Champion (6 pts)

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2009 - Holsted - Runner-up (5 pts)

paragraph: Section::::See also.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Sweden national speedway team

paragraph: BULLET::::- Rye House Rockets

description: Swedish speedway rider

wikidata_label: Linus Sundström

wikipedia_title: Linus Sundström


text: Wrocław

text: Poland

text: speedway

text: Poland U-21 and U-19 national teams

text: Team U-21 World Champion

text: Team U-19 European Champion

text: Polish Ekstraliga

text: Wrocław

text: Rzeszów

text: Andreas Messing

text: Sweden

text: U-19 Bronze Helmet Final

text: Atlas Wrocław

text: European Club Champions' Cup Final

text: Team U-19 European Championship Final

text: Poland team

text: Rawicz

text: Individual U-21 Polish Championship

text: Rybnik

text: Artur Mroczka

text: Team U-21 World Champion

text: Polish Bronze Helmet Final (U-19)

text: Polish Silver Helmet Final (U-21)

text: Speedway Grand Prix of Poland

text: Bydgoszcz

text: German SGP

text: Niels Kristian Iversen

text: German

text: Martin Smolinski

text: Main Commission of Speedway Sport

text: Polish Motor Union

text: Przemysław Pawlicki

text: Atlas Wrocław

text: Poland

text: Rospiggarna

text: Sweden

text: MSC Diedenbergen

text: Germany

text: Individual Polish Championship Final

text: MotoArena Toruń

text: the final

text: Bronze Helmet Final

text: Patryk Dudek

text: Silver Helmet Final

text: Grzegorz Zengota

text: Atlas Wrocław

text: Polish Pairs Junior Championship

text: UKS Żaki Taczanów

text: Martin Vaculík

text: Artem Laguta

text: Przemysław Pawlicki

text: Polish team

text: Team U-19 European Championship Final

text: Gorzów Wielkopolski

text: Under-21 Speedway World Cup

text: Rospiggarna

text: Greg Hancock

text: Piraterna

text: Swindon Robins

text: Elite League

text: Kings Lynn Stars

text: Piotr Pawlicki Jr.

text: Piotr Pawlicki Jr.

text: Patryk Dudek

text: Bartosz Zmarzlik

text: Andreas Jonsson

text: Individual World Championship

text: Speedway Grand Prix

text: Individual U-21 World Championship

text: Goričan

text: Pardubice

text: Team U-21 World Championship

text: Holsted

text: Gorzów Wlkp.

text: Individual U-19 European Championship

text: Stralsund

text: Tarnów

text: Team U-19 European Championship

text: Rawicz

text: Holsted

text: Divišov

text: European Club Champions' Cup

text: Miskolc

text: Atlas Wrocław

text: Individual Polish Championship

text: Tarnów

text: Team Polish Championship

text: Atlas Wrocław

text: Atlas Wrocław

text: Individual U-21 Polish Championship

text: Rybnik

text: Toruń

text: Bydgoszcz

text: Rybnik

text: Taczanów

text: Polish Pairs Speedway Championship

text: Zielona Góra

text: WTS Wrocław

text: Gorzów Wielkopolski

text: Unia Tarnów

text: Polish Golden Helmet

text: Rawicz

text: Polish Silver Helmet (U-21)

text: Rzeszów

text: Częstochowa

text: Polish Bronze Helmet (U-19)

text: Gdańsk

text: Wrocław

text: Leszno

text: Poland national speedway team

text: List of Speedway Grand Prix riders

text: Speedway in Poland

text: Official webside

categories: Team Speedway Junior World Champions,Polish speedway riders,1991 births,Living people,Team Speedway Junior European Champions

paragraph: Maciej Janowski

paragraph: Maciej Janowski (born 6 August 1991 in Wrocław, Poland) is a Polish speedway rider who is a member of Poland U-21 and U-19 national teams. He is current Team U-21 World Champion and Team U-19 European Champion.

paragraph: His parents are Piotr and Beata. He has two brothers Wojciech and Krzysztof.

paragraph: Section::::Career history.

paragraph: Section::::Career history.:2007.

paragraph: Janowski passed speedway licence test ("Licencja "Ż"") on 7 August 2007 at 16 years old; 5 days later he rode in his first meeting in Polish Ekstraliga (Wrocław vs Rzeszów 48:42). In his first heat, he beat Rzeszów' rider Andreas Messing from Sweden. His fourth meeting was Tournament of Junior National Team Reservs ("Turniej zaplecza kadry juniorów"). In this meeting he was 4th.

paragraph: He has won qualification to U-19 Bronze Helmet Final; Janowski was 13th (he was only 16 years old). With Atlas Wrocław he started in European Club Champions' Cup Final - Janowski scored 5 points, but Atlas was last.

paragraph: Section::::Career history.:2008.

paragraph: In season 2008 (as 17-year-old) he started in Team U-19 European Championship Final. He was the best rider in Poland team (15 points), but Poland was last on home track (Rawicz). In August he won Individual U-21 Polish Championship in Rybnik. In Individual U-19 European Championship Final he was second; lost to Artur Mroczka from Poland. In September he was the best rider in Poland team and he won Team U-21 World Champion title. He was 2nd in Polish Bronze Helmet Final (U-19). His last honour in this season was winning in Polish Silver Helmet Final (U-21).

paragraph: He was nominated as 2nd track reserve at Speedway Grand Prix of Poland in Bydgoszcz, but he did not ride any heat. Five weeks later, after re-staged German SGP in Bydgoszcz, Janowski was nominated as first track reserve at 2008 FIM Final Speedway Grand Prix. However, when Niels Kristian Iversen was injured, Janowski replaced him in GP event. He finished 15th and scored one point (0,1,0,0,0), after beating German Martin Smolinski in Heat 8.

paragraph: Weekly "Tygodnik Żużlowy" ("Speedway Weekly") awarded him as Junior of the Year. Speedway Chapter of Main Commission of Speedway Sport (part of the Polish Motor Union) awarded him and Przemysław Pawlicki for one of the best debuts in Polish speedway history.

paragraph: Section::::Career history.:2009.

paragraph: In 2009 season he rode for Atlas Wrocław (Poland), Rospiggarna Hallstravik (Sweden) and MSC Diedenbergen (Germany). In Sweden he rode in nine matches and scored 4.52 point per match.

paragraph: He qualified for the Individual Polish Championship Final at MotoArena Toruń as a track reserve. Janowski was unsuccessful in defended his Under-21 Polish Champion title in the final he scored 8 points (3,3,R,0,2) and finished eight. He won the Bronze Helmet Final, unofficial U-19 Polish Championship, at his home track in Wrocław. He scored a maximum 15 points and he beat Patryk Dudek, Under-21 Polish Champion. On 25 September he was second in Silver Helmet Final, losing to Grzegorz Zengota by two points.

paragraph: His team Atlas Wrocław did not compete in the Polish Pairs Junior Championship, therefore he was lent to UKS Żaki Taczanów for this competition only. Janowski scored a maximum 18 points in the final and his pair finished third.

paragraph: On 11 July Maciej Janowski competed in the Individual U-19 European Championship Final and won the silver medal after winning a run off with Martin Vaculík and Artem Laguta. The gold medal was won by Przemysław Pawlicki. Janowski and Pawlicki were the highest scorer for the Polish team in the Team U-19 European Championship Final on 23 August and Poland won U-19 European Champion title. On 5 September in Gorzów Wielkopolski he scored 13 points for Poland, and the team successfully defended their U-21 World Champion title at Under-21 Speedway World Cup. On 3 October will be started in Individual U-21 World Championship Final.

paragraph: Section::::Career history.:2010.

paragraph: Like his Rospiggarna Hallstravik teammate, Greg Hancock, Janowski moved to Piraterna Motala before a 2010 season.

paragraph: On 18 August it was announced that Janowski would join the Swindon Robins in the British Elite League for the remainder of the season.

paragraph: Maciej won the 2010 Polish Under-21 Championship, held in Toruń, scoring a 15-point maximum.

paragraph: Maciej is also riding in the U21-World Cup and was 2nd beating the main rival Maksim Bogdanows in Pardubice.

paragraph: Section::::Career history.:2012.

paragraph: On 23 December 2011 it was announced that Janowski would be racing for Kings Lynn Stars in the 2012 British speedway season, in the Elite League.

paragraph: Section::::Speedway Grand Prix Career.

paragraph: Janowski made the main roster in 2015, after going through the qualifying round to get in. In that year, he competed in 12 Grand Prix races, had 20 heat wins, made 4 finals, and one Grand Prix win in the Latvian Grand Prix. In 2016, Maciej struggled and raced in 11 Grands Prix, 18 heat wins, and only made one final – that being the only Grand Prix he won, in Prague, Czech Republic. Janowski was 10th in points and got picked to get back into the Grand Prix for the 2017 season.

paragraph: Section::::Speedway World Cup.

paragraph: Maciej Janowski raced in both the 2016, and 2017 Speedway World Cup's. In 2016, Janowski struggled majorly and was dropped as captain and did not race in the 2016 final, where teammate Piotr Pawlicki Jr. took his spot as captain and led Poland to the victory. In 2017, he was chosen as captain again and being the oldest on the team at 25. He raced along with 3 other Grand Prix racers: Piotr Pawlicki Jr., Patryk Dudek, and Bartosz Zmarzlik. Maciej did very well and clinched the title for team Poland's back to back championship in his own race against team Sweden's Andreas Jonsson.

paragraph: Section::::Career details.

paragraph: Section::::Career details.:World Championships.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Individual World Championship (Speedway Grand Prix)

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2008 - 29th place (1 point)

paragraph: BULLET::::- Individual U-21 World Championship

paragraph: BULLET::::- "2008 - 2nd Track Reserve in Qualifying Round 2 (0 heats)"

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2009 - Goričan - 5th place (11 pts)

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2010 - Pardubice - 2nd place after run-off (30 pts)

paragraph: BULLET::::- Team U-21 World Championship (Under-21 Speedway World Cup)

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2008 - Holsted - U-21 World Champion (11 pts)

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2009 - Gorzów Wlkp. - U-21 World Champion (13 pts)

paragraph: Section::::Career details.:European Championships.

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2008 - Stralsund - Silver medal (12+3 pts)

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2009 - Tarnów - Silver medal (13+3 pts)

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2008 - Rawicz - 4th place (15 pts)

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2009 - Holsted - U-19 European Champion (15 pts)

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2010 - Divišov - U-19 European Champion (15 pts)

paragraph: BULLET::::- European Club Champions' Cup

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2007 - Miskolc - Silver medal (6 pts) with Atlas Wrocław

paragraph: Section::::Career details.:Domestic competitions.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Individual Polish Championship

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2013 - Tarnów - 3rd place (10 pts)

paragraph: BULLET::::- Team Polish Championship (League)

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2007 - Bronze medal (CMA 1.71 - Atlas Wrocław)

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2008 - 5th-6th place (with Atlas Wrocław)

paragraph: BULLET::::- Individual U-21 Polish Championship

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2008 - Rybnik - Polish Champion (13+3 pts)

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2010 - Toruń - Polish Champion (15 pts)

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2012 - Bydgoszcz - Polish Champion (14 pts)

paragraph: BULLET::::- Polish Pairs Speedway Junior Championship

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2009 - Rybnik - Bronze medal for Taczanów (18 pts)

paragraph: BULLET::::- Polish Pairs Speedway Championship

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2011 - Zielona Góra - Polish Champion for WTS Wrocław

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2013 - Gorzów Wielkopolski - Polish Champion for Unia Tarnów

paragraph: BULLET::::- Polish Golden Helmet

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2013 - Rawicz - Winner (13 pts)

paragraph: BULLET::::- Polish Silver Helmet (U-21)

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2008 - Rzeszów - Winner (12 pts)

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2009 - Częstochowa - Runner-up (12+3 pts)

paragraph: BULLET::::- Polish Bronze Helmet (U-19)

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2008 - Gdańsk - 2nd place (12 pts)

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2009 - Wrocław - Winner (15 pts)

paragraph: BULLET::::- 2010 - Leszno - 2nd place (14 pts)

paragraph: Section::::See also.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Poland national speedway team

paragraph: BULLET::::- List of Speedway Grand Prix riders

paragraph: BULLET::::- Speedway in Poland

paragraph: Section::::External links.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Official webside

description: Polish speedway rider

wikidata_label: Maciej Janowski

wikipedia_title: Maciej Janowski


text:
Port of Savannah
Georgia
Elba Island
Savannah River
Atlantic Ocean
Felix de Weldon
Savannah
Fort Pulaski
Cockspur Island
broken heart
Liberty ship
ferry
Savannah Online article
The Waving Girl

categories: 1868 births,1943 deaths,People from Savannah, Georgia

paragraph: Florence Martus

paragraph: Florence Martus (1868–1943), also known as "the Waving Girl", took it upon herself to be the unofficial greeter of all ships that entered and left the Port of Savannah, Georgia, between 1887 and 1931. A few years after she began waving at passing sailors, she moved in with her brother, a light keeper, at his small white cottage about five miles up the river from Fort Pulaski. From her rustic home on Elba Island, a tiny piece of land in the Savannah River near the Atlantic Ocean, Martus would wave a handkerchief by day and a lantern by night. According to legend, not a ship was missed in her forty-four years on watch. A statue of Martus by the sculptor Felix de Weldon has been erected in Morrell Park on the historic riverfront of Savannah.

paragraph: Section::::Personal life.

paragraph: Martus' father was an ordnance sergeant at Fort Pulaski on Cockspur Island, where she was born.

paragraph: Section::::Legends.

paragraph: Many other legends endure about this woman, notably the following:

paragraph: BULLET::::- The reason she greeted ships was because she had fallen in love as a young girl with a sailor and wanted to be sure he would find her when he returned. When, after 44 years, he did not, she died of a broken heart

paragraph: BULLET::::- Sailors would bring her gifts

paragraph: BULLET::::- When the captain of the ship that brought her memorial statue to Savannah arrived, he refused to accept payment because of his fond memories of Martus

paragraph: While these old tales may be accurate, there is no strong supporting evidence for any of them.

paragraph: Section::::Legacy.

paragraph: On September 27, 1943 Liberty ship SS "Florence Martus" was named in her honor.

paragraph: In 1999, the city of Savannah named its ferry service the "Savannah Belles Ferry" after five of Savannah's notable women, including Florence Martus.

paragraph: The Waving Girl historical marker was officially dedicated in 1958 and is located near the visitor center at Fort Pulaski.

paragraph: Section::::External links.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Savannah Online article

paragraph: BULLET::::- The Waving Girl historical marker

description: American ship greeter

wikidata_label: Florence Martus

wikipedia_title: Florence Martus