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Habib ibn Abd al-Malik al-Qurashi
Umayyad prince, general and governor of Toledo From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Abu Sulaymān Ḥabīb ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Walīd ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan al-Qurashī al-Marwānī (حبيب بن عبد الملك بن عمر بن الوليد بن عبد الملك بن مروان القرشي المرواني)[a] was an Umayyad prince and commander in al-Andalus during the reign of the Umayyad emir Abd al-Rahman I.
Habib belonged to a collateral branch of the Umayyad ruling family in al-Andalus and was a descendant of Caliph al-Walid I (r. 705–715). He became a major backer of Abd al-Rahman I's bid to take over al-Andalus and played a decisive command role in the Battle of Alameda, which paved the way for the establishment of the Umayyad emirate of Córdoba. Abd al-Rahman I, who kept him as a trusted adviser, thereafter appointed him as governor of Toledo and granted him extensive land holdings across al-Andalus. Habib's descendants, the eponymous Habibiyyun (Banu Habib), became a prominent cultural family in al-Andalus through the 12th century.
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Background
Habib's great-grandfather was the Damascus-based Umayyad caliph al-Walid I (r. 705–715).[5] His grandfather was the prince Umar ibn al-Walid, who was known to have fathered so many children he was nicknamed Fahl Bani Marwan ('the Stallion of the Marwanids', who were the ruling branch of the Umayyad dynasty).[6][7] Habib's father, Abd al-Malik, was the son of Umar and his Umayyad wife Umm Abd Allah bint Habib, whose father (Habib's namesake) was a son of al-Hakam ibn Abi al-As, the ancestor of the Marwanids.[8][9] Abd al-Malik's name was mentioned in an inscription in his father's Qasr Kharana desert palace in modern Jordan.[10]
After the toppling of the Umayyads by the Abbasids in 750, the new rulers engaged in purges of the Umayyad family. The most notable of these was the massacre of Nahr Abi Futrus (the Antipatris in Palestine), where an Abbasid general invited the family to a peace banquet as a ruse to lure and trap them.[11] Dozens of Umayyads were killed, including twenty-one direct descendants of al-Walid I.[12]
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Life
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Habib fled Syria after the massacre at Nahr Abi Futrus and took refuge in al-Andalus (Islamic Spain).[13][b] He arrived there prior to his cousin Abd al-Rahman ibn Mu'awiya, a grandson of Caliph Hisham (r. 724–743) and the future Umayyad emir of Córdoba Abd al-Rahman I. Habib backed Abd al-Rahman upon the latter's arrival and supported his ambitions to rule the region.[13][14]
On the eve of the Battle of al-Musara (also known as 'Alameda') between Abd al-Rahman and the governor of al-Andalus, Yusuf al-Fihri, Habib was entrusted with command of the Umayyad cavalry and played a decisive role in securing victory.[13][15] According to the historian Elias Terés, the battled "decide[d] the fate of the throne" of Córdoba.[13] In light of his role in the battle, Abd al-Rahman kept Habib as a close confidant.[13]
Subsequently, Habib was appointed governor of Toledo, a strategic center in al-Andalus which had previously been under the control of the Fihrids, supporters of the former governor. Habib governed with vigor, maintaining order and preventing rebellion. Toledo served as his base of operations in suppressing several uprisings, notably that of the Berber leader Shakya in 768, as well as other lesser insurrections.[13]
Habib captured the fortress of Sopetrán in Guadalajara, the principal stronghold of the Berbers, and in 778 he countered the rebellion of the qaʾid (commander) al-Sulami.[13][16] Abd al-Rahman granted Habib extensive estates around Córdoba, Cabra, Rayyu (Málaga and Archidona) and Porcuna.[14] Habib also seized numerous lands, often without legal justification; on one occasion, when a Cordoban judge ruled in favor of the dispossessed, the emir personally compensated them from his own funds to allow his cousin Habib to retain the estates.[13]
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Death and legacy
The exact date of Habib's death is unknown,[13] but according to José Antonio Conde he died around 778.[1] His death caused great grief to Abd al-Rahman, which the medieval sources detail.[13]
Habib had several sons, namely Sulayman, al-Mubarak, Umar, Aban, al-Khiyar, and al-Walid.[17] Habib's descendants, the al-Habibiyyun,[18] were a distinguished family that produced several notable men of letters and science, and from which also descended the branch known as the Banu Dahhun. Among his descendants were the poets Habib Dahhun and Bishr ibn Habib Dahhun, renowned poets of the reign of Abd al-Rahman II, and Sa'id ibn Hisham ibn Dahhun, a poet of the 12th century.[19]
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