Qays ibn al-Haytham al-Sulamī (Arabic: قيس بن الهيثم السلمي) (fl. 649 – 684) was an Arab commander and administrator in the service of the Rashidun, Umayyad and Zubayrid caliphates. Under the caliphs Uthman (r. 644–656) and Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680) he served at time as the sub-governor of Khurasan and the cities of Nishapur and Marw al-Rudh. He was from a prominent Arab family in Basra and was a leader among the tribal nobility of that city until his death after 684.
Qays ibn al-Haytham al-Sulami | |
|---|---|
| Sub-Governor of Nishapur | |
| In office 649/650–656 | |
| Monarch | Uthman (r. 644–656) |
| Sub-Governor of Khurasan | |
| In office 656 | |
| Monarch | Uthman |
| Succeeded by | Abd Allah ibn Khazim al-Sulami |
| In office 661 | |
| Monarch | Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680) |
| Preceded by | 663 |
| Succeeded by | Abd Allah ibn Khazim al-Sulami |
| Deputy governor of Marw al-Rudh | |
| In office 665 | |
| Monarch | Mu'awiya I |
| Personal details | |
| Died | After 684 |
| Relations | Banu Sulaym (tribe) |
| Children | Shabib ibn Qays |
Life
editQays ibn al-Haytham belonged to the Banu Sulaym tribe, a component of the Qays/Mudar faction.[1] He came from a prominent family in Basra,[2] part of the Mudar ashraf (Arab tribal nobility).[1] His full name is given as Qays ibn al-Haytham ibn Qays ibn al-Salt ibn Habib[2] or Qays ibn al-Haytham ibn Asma ibn al-Salt.[3] The 8th-century historian Sayf ibn Umar names Qays's brother Amr as a participant in the Muslim conquest of Iraq in 634, but this was deemed implausible by the historian Khalid Yahya Blankinship.[2] According to al-Baladhuri, an uncle of Qays, Asim ibn Qays ibn al-Salt, was appointed by Abu Musa al-Ash'ari governor of the town of Manadhir in the Ahwaz region after it was conquered from the Sasanians by Rabi ibn Ziyad al-Harithi around 638.[4]
Qays was appointed by Caliph Uthman (r. 644–656) over the Nishapur district of Khurasan in 649/50.[5] Before his assassination in 656, Uthman expanded Qays' governorship to the entire province of Khurasan.[5] Qays appointed his paternal cousin, Abd Allah ibn Khazim al-Sulami, as his deputy governor and left the province for Basra to assess the political situation in the wake of Uthman's death; however, Ibn Khazim, using a diploma he previously obtained from the governor of Basra, Abd Allah ibn Amir, declared himself governor and remained in the post until his dismissal by Caliph Ali (r. 656–661).[6] Qays was angered by his cousin's ruse and reportedly stated: "I had a better right than Abd Allah to be the son of [Abd Allah's mother] Ajla."[5] When Mu'awiya I acceded to the caliphate in 661, Qays was reappointed governor of Khurasan by the order of Ibn Amir or the caliph himself.[7] He remained in the post for two years.[7] He was again replaced by his cousin Abd Allah after failing to quell a revolt at Qarin and briefly imprisoned in Basra until his mother intervened on his behalf.[8] He was later made the deputy governor of Basra by Ibn Amir when the latter visited Mu'awiya's court in Syria in 664.[9]
After Ziyad ibn Abihi was appointed governor of Basra in 665, he appointed Qays as governor of Marw al-Rudh in Khurasan.[10] In 678/79, Ziyad's son Abd al-Rahman was made governor of Khurasan by Mu'awiya.[11] By then, Qays had become the leader of the Banu Sulaym faction of Basra, one of five tribal divisions of the city's garrison.[12] Abd al-Rahman appointed Qays his deputy and had him enter the province ahead of him. Afterward, Qays arrested the powerful tribal chief Aslam ibn Zur'a al-Kilabi.[11] During the reign of Caliph Yazid I (r. 680–683), in 680/81, the caliph's new appointee over Khurasan, Abd al-Rahman's brother Salm, dispatched his lieutenant al-Harith ibn Mu'awiya al-Harithi to settle matters for him in the province before his arrival. Al-Harith arrested and imprisoned Qays and put his son Shabib in shackles.[13] Qays later returned to Basra where he continued as a nobleman of the Sulaym and the wider Mudar confederation (which was opposed to the Azd–Rabi'a confederation).[14] Together with a Basran tribal noble from the Azd–Rabi'a faction, al-Nu'man ibn Suhban al-Rasibi, Qays was an arbitrator for selecting the successor of Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad as governor of Basra following Ubayd Allah's expulsion in the aftermath of Yazid's death in 683.[15]
Basra and most of the Caliphate recognized the Mecca-based, anti-Umayyad Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr as caliph. Qays was dispatched with the Basran security forces to stamp out an attempt by supporters of al-Mukhtar al-Thaqafi, the pro-Alid ruler of Kufa, to gain control of Basra.[16] He died after 684.[2]
References
edit- ^ a b Hawting 1989, p. 6, note 25.
- ^ a b c d Blankinship 1993, p. 179, note 902.
- ^ Hawting 1989, p. 12.
- ^ Murgotten 1924, pp. 113–114.
- ^ a b c Humphreys 1990, pp. 36–37.
- ^ Humphreys 1990, pp. 36–37, 108–109.
- ^ a b Hawting 1989, p. 21.
- ^ Hawting 1996, pp. 68–69.
- ^ Hawting 1996, p. 73.
- ^ Hawting 1996, p. 85.
- ^ a b Hawting 1996, p. 200.
- ^ Howard 1990, p. 32, note 148.
- ^ Howard 1990, p. 185, note 600.
- ^ Hawting 1989, p. 6.
- ^ Hawting 1989, pp. 20–23.
- ^ Fishbein 1990, pp. 45–48.
Bibliography
edit- Blankinship, Khalid Yahya, ed. (1993). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XI: The Challenge to the Empires. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-0851-3.
- Fishbein, Michael, ed. (1990). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XXI: The Victory of the Marwānids, A.D. 685–693/A.H. 66–73. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-0221-4.
- Humphreys, R. Stephen, ed. (1990). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XV: The Crisis of the Early Caliphate: The Reign of ʿUthmān, A.D. 644–656/A.H. 24–35. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-0154-5.
- Hawting, G. R., ed. (1996). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XVII: The First Civil War: From the Battle of Siffīn to the Death of ʿAlī, A.D. 656–661/A.H. 36–40. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-2393-6.
- Hawting, G. R., ed. (1989). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XX: The Collapse of Sufyānid Authority and the Coming of the Marwānids: The Caliphates of Muʿāwiyah II and Marwān I and the Beginning of the Caliphate of ʿAbd al-Malik, A.D. 683–685/A.H. 64–66. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-88706-855-3.
- Howard, I. K. A., ed. (1990). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XIX: The Caliphate of Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiyah, A.D. 680–683/A.H. 60–64. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-0040-1.
- Morony, Michael G., ed. (1987). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XVIII: Between Civil Wars: The Caliphate of Muʿāwiyah, 661–680 A.D./A.H. 40–60. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-87395-933-9.
- Murgotten, Francis Clark (1924). The Origins of the Islamic State, Being a Translation from the Arabic, Accompanied with Annotations, Geographic and Historic Notes of the Kitâb Fitûh al-Buldân of al-Imâm Abu-l Abbâs Ahmad Ibn-Jâbir al-Balâdhuri, Part 2. New York and London: Columbia University & Longman, Green & Co.
- Morony, Michael G., ed. (1987). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XVIII: Between Civil Wars: The Caliphate of Muʿāwiyah, 661–680 A.D./A.H. 40–60. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-87395-933-9.[dead link]