Muhammad ibn Marwan

Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān^[1] Muḥammad ibn Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam (Arabic: محمد بن مروان) (died 719/720) was an Umayyad prince and one of the most important generals of the Umayyad Caliphate in the period 690–710, and the one who completed the Arab conquest of Armenia. He defeated the Byzantines and conquered their Armenian territories, crushed an Armenian rebellion in 704–705 and made the country into an Umayyad province. His son Marwan II (r. 744–750) was the last Umayyad caliph.

Muhammad ibn Marwan
Governor of Mesopotamia, Armenia and Adharbayjan
In office Unknown–709/10
Succeeded by	Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik
Personal details
Died	719 or 720
Spouses	Umm Jumayl bint Abd al-Rahman ibn Zayd ibn al-Khattab Bint Yazid ibn Abd Allah ibn Shaybah ibn Rabi'ah Mother of Marwan II
Children	Marwan II
Parents	Marwan I (father) Zaynab (mother)
Military service
Allegiance	Umayyad Caliphate
Years of service	690–710
Battles/wars	Battle of Maskin Battle of Sebastopolis Revolt of Ibn al-Ash'ath Muslim conquest of Armenia

Life

Early life and governorship of Jazira

Muhammad was the son of Caliph Marwan I (r. 684–685) by a slave girl named Zaynab, and hence half-brother to Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (r. 685–705).^[1][2]

During the second Fitna, Muhammad commanded his brother's advance guard at the Battle of Maskin against Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr (brother of the Mecca-based rival caliph Abdallah ibn al-Zubayr) in 691.^[1] With the help of aristocratic Persian Christian physician Mardanshāh, he was able to retake Nisibis and entrusted Mardanshāh as governor.^[3] In 692, following the victory over al-Zubayr, he was appointed governor of Bēt Nahrīn (North Mesopotamia) and the Tur Abdin while holding authority in Harran.^[4] According to the Life of Simeon of the Olives, who became bishop of Harran during Muhammad's governorship, he established a madrasa there.^[5]

In 692/3, he defeated a Byzantine army in the Battle of Sebastopolis, by persuading the large Slavic contingent of the imperial army to defect to him. In the next year, he invaded Byzantine Asia Minor with the assistance of the same Slavs, and scored a success against a Byzantine army near Germanikeia, while in 695, he raided the province of Fourth Armenia.^[1][6][7]

Conquest of Armenia

In 699–701, along with his nephew, Abdallah ibn Abd al-Malik, he was dispatched to Iraq to assist the governor al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf in the suppression of the rebellion of Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath.^[1] In 701 Muhammad campaigned against the Byzantine-controlled Armenian territory east of the Euphrates, and forced its population and the local governor, Baanes, to submit to the Caliphate. Soon after his departure, however, the Armenians rebelled and called for Byzantine aid. Repeated campaigns in 703 and 704 by Muhammad and Abdallah ibn Abd al-Malik crushed the revolt, and Muhammad further secured Muslim control by organizing a large-scale massacre of the Armenian princely nakharar families in 705.^[1][6][8]

When al-Walid I acceded to the throne in 705, Muhammad began to be eclipsed by his nephew Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik, who like him was also born to a slave-girl. Maslama assumed the leadership of the campaigns against Byzantium, and finally replaced Muhammad completely in his capacity as governor of Mesopotamia, Armenia and Azerbaijan in 709/10. Muhammad died in 719/20.^[1][6]

Wives and children

Muhammad was the father of the last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II (r. 744–750) through an unnamed woman, most likely of non-Arab origin (a Kurd according to some accounts). Some sources report that Muhammad had taken her captive during the suppression of Ibn al-Zubayr's revolt.^[9]

Muhammad was also wed to two Qurayshite women, Umm Jumayl bint Abd al-Rahman, the granddaughter of Zayd ibn al-Khattab of the Banu Adi clan, and Bint Yazid ibn Abd Allah, the granddaughter of Shaybah ibn Rabi'ah of the Banu Abd Shams, the parent clan of the Umayyads.^[10]