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‘Abd al-Malik, who came to prominence during the second civil war of early Islam, ruled the Islamic empire from 692 until 705. Not only did he successfully suppress rebellion within the Muslim world and expand its frontiers, but in many respects he founded the empire itself. By about 700, the forms of a new realm, which stretched from North Arica in the west to Iran in the east, has taken clear shape with ‘Abd al-Malik at its head. This book covers the beginnings and rise to power of this immensely influential caliph, as well as his religious policies and innovations, his fiscal, administrative and military reforms, and his legacy, including the Dome of the Rock, the oldest surviving monumental building erected by Muslims.
- Sales Rank: #1628071 in eBooks
- Published on: 2012-12-01
- Released on: 2012-12-01
- Format: Kindle eBook
Review
"Any reader, whether coming to 'Abd al-Malik for the first time or already familiar with some of the evidence and literature pertaining to him, will find this book rewarding." International Journal of Middle East Studies
About the Author
Chase F. Robinson is Lecturer in Islamic History at the University of Oxford. His works include: Empire and Elites after the Muslim Conquest: The Transformation of Northern Mesopotamia (Cambridge University Press, 2000).
Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
missed opportunities
By David Reid Ross
This is Oneworld Publications' "'Abd al-Malik", effectively the sequel to their "Mu'awiya". Each has a different author, but the same editor - who is the famed Dr. Patricia Crone. The author of *this* book, Dr Chase Robinson, has written some classic work in the field(s) of early Islam. In addition, Oneworld's "Mu'awiya" proved a comprehensive yet secular view of that early amir. So, we would expect similar for this slightly-less-early amir now styled "caliph". We do get secular; but we don't, unfortunately, get comprehensive.
The book notes, and I think it's right, that the most important legacy of 'Abd al-Malik was the caliphate itself. This man was, in fact, the *only* Umayyad ruler ever to call himself "Caliph" on his coinage. That means this book should focus on how 'Abd al-Malik conceived "the caliphate". And so it does. BUT - when I was researching the period for a project of my own ("Throne of Glass": sorry, I must disclose this, lest someone think of conflicts-of-interest) - I noticed some gaps in the text. Some of these gaps go right to the heart of Marwanid state formation, the whole point of the book. (And, at that personal level, these gaps in the text and bibliography meant I couldn't even know what I didn't know.)
The most glaring near-omission is that of 'Abd al-Rahman Ibn al-Ash'ath. This commander of armies is only in here as having mounted a "spectacular" mutiny (for some reason Asha'itha scholars always drift to the word "spectacular"; Hawting had used it too). If you look into this event, Ibn al-Ash'ath was attempting a completely new conception of the Islamic state - not a caliphate whose leader ruled in God's name, but a "nasirate" in which the leader would "champion (nasara)" the Believers in accordance with Sunni jurisprudence. Given that the whole foundation of Islamic governance was at stake, this rebellion deserved its own chapter. The qurra' were involved too (to be fair, Robinson *does* inform us that the Qur'an as a book was edited at this time): I recommend Ridwan Sayed's "Die Revolte des Ibn al-As'at und die Koranleser" (1977).
Also important was the role of the caliph's family in helping to prop up the caliphate. His brother Muhammad bin Marwan was critical here, over the Jazira and Azerbaijan, facing Ibn al-Ash'ath's northwest flank. But Muhammad only performs one act in this book: persecuting Armenians.
I understand that there was only so much room in this book for the deeds done under this man's reign. But the omissions in this book are great. Dr Robinson's background is more in discussing the non-Muslim witness to the early caliphs, and not so much the caliphs themselves. Honestly I think that Oneworld and Dr Crone should have chosen a different scholar.
The book is still a well-written introduction. It is fine up to 80 AH / 700 CE-ish (about when Ibn al-Ash'ath was sent to Afghanistan). University students may use it for that period. Highschool students will get value from all of it.
5 of 33 people found the following review helpful.
Abd Al Malik - a critical review
By M. Ferdous Islam
Cloaked as the biography of the Islamic Caliph Abd al-Malik, the book `Abd al-Malik by Chase F. Robinson of Oxford University, is a character assassination of its subject. It thus casts a shadow on all of Abd al-Malik's formidable achievements in history. The writer, with his characteristic Orientalist venom, quacks like a Christian evangelist and spreads diatribes against Islam and Muslims - their beliefs, their scripture, their language, their philosophy, their place in history- in short what they stand for in society.
Every other page of this book is either sharply contrasting with historical facts or is in the tune of fiction. In the preface, the author writes - "I have only very inadequate evidence to work with; being unsure of so much....." (Robinson, x). So why call this a biography? May we call this a fictitious portrayal of a historical figure? Facts are often ignored in his writing and he prefers to dwell in the realm of fictions, fibs, myths and legends.
The writer begins with his mythical assertion that "Abd al_Malik built the Dome of the Rock as an alternative pilgrimage site" (Robinson, 6). The Dome of the Rock was built by the Caliph Abd al-Malik at the approximate center of the original Al-Aksa mosque precinct as an artifact of his architectural glory, in competition with the rival Byzantine Empire. This mosque is where Prophet of Islam, was taken to God by the Archangel Gabriel for a meeting with Him, as stated in the Quran (Al-Isra, 17:1). On the other hand, Mecca was firmly established as the Qibla (direction of prayer for all Muslims) during the Prophet's life by the commandment of God in the Quran (Karen Armstrong, Islam, 18), which was originally established by Patriarch Abraham and his son Ishmael as a sacred sanctuary for all. The role of Mecca is pivotal in Islam and off-limit for all faithful to question. No historical account, ever suggested that Abd al-Malik was a heretic and thus attempted to forge a new sacred Islamic sanctuary. The role of Mecca was central during the course of Islamic history and has been followed faithfully, never questioned, as the noblest of all sanctuaries in Islam. To make his assertion believable, the author quoted a questionable source that, "Abd al-Malik, therefore, prevented the people from performing the Pilgrimage" Robinson, audacious claim indeed! He went as far as to say, "Certainly the Quran is not explicit about it (it speaks only of making pilgrimage to the "house" without describing what that entails), and in any case we should not assume that early Muslims acted in accordance to a text that itself had not become fixed or authoritative.....It seems, for example, that the Kaba's centrality in Meccan ritual; may have been secondary" (Robinson, 96).
My breath almost stopped at this arrogance and ignorance about Islam and Quran. Kaba was made the definitive Qibla (direction) of every prayer for every Muslim within three years of receiving the divine revelation by the Prophet of Islam. Secondly, every single letter and word of the revelation was ordered to be recorded on available materials, as they were, by the Prophet of Islam. Every single commandment lovingly became a crucial part of every faithful's life, in utter reverence to God. During the first three years of Islam's infancy, Al-Aksa mosque in Jerusalem was the direction of prayer for the Muslims and then during one Friday prayer the Prophet was commanded to steer his direction toward Kaaba (Mecca), as he was longing for a while (Karen Armstrong, Islam, 18). The Prophet and all his followers instantly re-steered themselves toward Kaaba, while they were still in prayer in a local mosque, called the Mosque-of-the- two Qiblas (masjeed-e-Qiblataeen) and still preserved and in use in Saudi Arabia today. I have personally visited and prayed in this mosque. There is no other example of this anywhere in the Muslim world. This bears testimony to how the early Muslims followed the commandments of revelation, and acted upon, in their lives instantly, as soon as they were received. Another example was the prohibition of wine. In the earlier Meccan period wine was not ruled out and then came the revelation of prohibition - every follower of the Prophet (PBUH) dropped all containers/bottles instantly, as they heard the message. Thus the proximity of receiving and acting on Quranic messages had always been of the utmost importance. No time was ever spent between receiving revelation and it becoming authoritative, contrary to the author's misreading of Islamic corpus.
Robinson embarks on another historical distortion - that Abd al-Malik rebuilt the Dome of Rock as an alternative to the Kaaba for Muslims - "Abd al-Malik's intention was to rebuild Solomon's Temple... to appropriate the Holy Land symbolically". Throughout Islamic history the Kaaba remained the center of spirituality and no Caliph could even claim legitimacy, let alone rule the masses, without their adherence to the basic tenets of Islamic faith and that included the centrality of the Kaaba. Thus the assertion that the Dome of the Rock was an attempt to desecrate the Kaaba by Abd al-Malik, is at best illegitimate and at worst, misappropriation of Islam's central tenet, which Abd al-Malik never attempted. Regardless of the author's assertion, the ever lasting Quranic passage on the status of Al-Aksa mosque retains its importance as the second most holy site in Islam.
Robinson further unleashes his preaching rhetoric on the Quranic passages inscripted on the inside of the Dome of the Rock, which he terms as "frequently fiercely anti-Christian in tone" (Robinson, 7). He seems to imply, how dare it overturns the canonical Christian Trinity? Mr. Oxford lecturer does not even care to know that the Trinity is a Nicene creed adopted in 325 AD, by the Roman Emperor Constantine, which rang true with existing Roman gods, three centuries after the death of Jesus. The Trinity was never taught by Jesus (bring evidence from anywhere in the Bible) and was grafted into the mainstream Christian eschatology, many centuries after Jesus' death. It is more of an evolved belief than what Jesus taught. Thus the modern day Unitarian Church, like the earliest Monophysite Christians, departed sharply from this canonical dogma and stresses the essence of the Unity of One God and the human nature of Jesus. (A World Without Islam, Graham. E. Fuller, 55). This is what reverberates in those inscripted passages of the Quran. Even Jehovah's Witnesses totally reject the idea of the Trinity and consider Jesus as human and separate from God. Does Mr. Robinson care to know this?
The author does not stop here - he further goes on to weave preposterous tales about how the Quran was canonized during its earliest period and sows seeds of doubt that these passages may indeed have been part of falsified passages. Thus ".. we lack contemporaneous evidence as it is that there may be grounds for doubting the traditional view: contradictory evidence and contradictory models for the emergence of scripture...It would be virtually unprecedented.... Are we really to think that within a single generation God's word moved from individual lines.... Scribbled on camel shoulder-blades and rocks to authoritative text on papyrus or vellum?" (Robinson, 101,102). The writer's knowledge about the process of documentation of the Quran is far short of historical reality - no other revealed divine book ever came down so much in the light of history and with so much meticulous retention. Thus writes, Maurice Bucaille, in his Origin of Man, "This process of recitation afforded a considerable advantage as far as an uncorrupted text was concerned, for it provided a system of double-checking at the time the definitive text was written down...Uthman sent copies of his entire recension to the principal centers of the vast Islamic empire. Some copies still exist today, in more or less complete form, in such places as Tashkent (U.S.S.R) and Istanbul". He drew some unconvincing and certainly uneducated comments on how different passages put together make it unworthy of the whole, as inscripted on the inside of Dome of Rock. As he writes, "the inscription on the Dome, for example, manifests "juxtaposition of disparate passages, conflation, shift of person and occasional omission of brief phrases" (Robinson, 103). His bigoted view of Islam and the Quran further climaxes when he writes "Arabic, long the passage of barbarians and only revealed as the language of God" (Robinson, 9). Huh? Since when is an Oxford lecturer entitled to decide which languages are sacred or not? The Jewish tribes remained nomadic throughout much of their history, bonded as slaves in Pharaoh's empire, until God chose Moses, to glorify them above other nations. The Hebrew of these nomads is also a sacred language of the Bible. Alas! Jesus did not speak Oxford English; he spoke Aramaic, a long extinct lingua. If Jesus spoke English, then the divine language of the Bible would have also been considered barbaric as the entire English-speaking world was steeped in barbarism until the Middle Ages.
Another stark example of the author's head-spinning accusations against Islam is, as he writes, "Now there is little clear evidence that the first generations of Muslims thought that the law had to be based on Prophetic Traditions or that these Traditions existed in number" (Robinson 12). The Prophet of Islam was and remains, among his followers, the supreme example of God's revelation turned into action. All the laws governing divine and mundane matters were directly sourced to the Prophet's life - his words and actions - during his life time and subsequent Caliphates. The examples in the lives of his four closest scribes - who later became the four rightly guided Caliphs - bear historical testimony to how they lived up to the words of their Prophet. They followed their beloved Prophet faithfully throughout their lives as recorded in Islamic history. These historical facts stand in sharp contrast to the author's feigned assertions.
The followers of Islam, if not the Prophet himself, are branded in blood and swords, often portrayed as a clan-like, conspiratory and power-grabbing monolithic body. "His maternal grandfather, Muawiya b. Mughira, was apparently executed for his opposition to Muhammad, while others were sent into exile; such was the case of al-Hakam, his parental grandfather, who only converted when Mecca fell to Muhammad..." (Robinson, 17). Inflammatory accusations indeed! The Prophet of Islam and his small followings faced near-death starvation from the sanction and obstruction of the pagan Quraish clan and Muawiya b. Mughira and al-Hakam were part of the brutish opposition. They did not stop here - they confederated with other pagan clans to exterminate the small band of Muslims and attacked them in many skirmishes while the victims only defended their mere existence. Muwaiya b. Mughira and al-Hakam vanquished during their aggression on the Muslims and we should be clear about their role and fate they met with in their war of aggression. The Prophet did not kill them, nor did he advise any of his followers to kill them. They met with the fate of the game of war.
The author continues to attack Abd al-Malik on his introduction of coins devoid of the Christian Cross, as "....especially since so much care was taken to remove the symbols of Christianity and Byzantine rule from the Byzantine-style coins" (Robinson, 75). The rules of war specify that the winner takes all. Abd al-Malik was no exception as a winner. More importantly, any iconoclastic imagery has been forbidden from the time of the Prophet of Islam on any art or craft. The Islamic faith sharply contrasts with the Nicene decree of the Cross - let's make no mistake about it - and thus has no place for iconography. It is quite natural that Abd al-Malik would have done so as the winner of the Byzantine empire and as a faithful Muslim, obeying the commands of his faith.
The author's assertion's of the state tax on non-Muslims is misconstrued. "...[T]his meant that non-Muslims (chiefly Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians) bore the great bulk of tax burden.....It also meant that the tax-payers, faced unprecedented levels of taxation ..." (Robinson, 76). How is this possible by simple arithmetic, when the majority of the population was Muslim in the state Abd al-Malik ruled over? The rate of tax on non-Muslims had been set at 2.5% in return for protection of their land and family and exemption from military duties, as it was for the Muslims too, on account of their religiously ordained charity of 2.5% on their excess wealth (known as zakaat). The People of the Book, as the Christians and Jews are called in the Quran, are especially revered and always have been granted freedom of religion under Islamic rule, in contrast to the plight of Muslims and Jews after the Inquisition heralded by the Spanish Fernando and Isabella - who annihilated 300,000 Muslims and 100,000 Jews who refused to convert to Christianity. Even the Ottoman rulers sheltered Jews when they were persecuted by Hitler and fled to Turkey. The Oxford lecturer surely doesn't make a fuss about paying 40% tax in Britain for the social services he receives, but makes a great deal on the puny 2.5% jizya taxes, as they were called, on the non-Muslims. Nor does he blink at the Holocaust meted out to the Muslims and Jews in Spain.
Nonetheless, the Orientalist writer has succeeded in what he set out to do - confuse readers, corrupt their minds with a soup of facts and fictions, stoke bigotry against Muslims, and create an environ of condescension against Islamic civilization. I suspect this is part of the well-financed Islamophobic campaign in the US and Europe to denigrate the Islamic faith, its history and its impact on human civilization. The writer claims to want to increase reader's curiosity about Islamic history, which I seriously doubt he has achieved. Instead, he has succeeded in maligning and stoking contempt toward Abd al-Malik - and by extension, Islamic rulers and their history. Perhaps he is well inspired by Samuel Huntington's vision of the clash of civilizations, thus creating doubt about his own credibility. We need fewer such writings in the politically poisoned, Islamophobic, and hateful world of today.
References:
Chase F. Robinson, Abd al-Malik, 2005, Oneworld Publications, Oxford, England, ISBN 1-85168-361-5
Karen Armstrong, Islam, , 2000, Random House Inc, New York, USA, ISBN 0-679-64040-1
Graham E. Fuller, A World Without Islam, 2010, Little, Brown and Company, New York, USA, ISBN 978-0-316-07288-5
Maurice Bucaille,The Origin of Man
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