White Banners: Contention in 'Abbasid Syria, 750-880Using Arabic, non-Arabic and newly available local Syrian sources, this richly detailed study examines the central events of medieval Islamic history: the fall of the Syrian Umayyad caliphate and the rise of the Abbasid state. As the Abbasids forged their new state from Iraq, Syrians raised their white banners of opposition and violently contested the changes that occurred under the Abbasid rule. As a result, the Syrian population quickly gained a reputation as uniquely contentious. White Banners traces the divergent fates of Syria s populace in their shift from center to periphery, rooting the many sources of Syrian contention in the nature of early Islamic provincial government. The book also provides answers to key questions concerning the history of medieval Syria: what strategies did the Abbasid government use to rule their new province? What was the fate of the Umayyads in Syria who survived the revolution? How did Syria s tribal-military elite cope under new masters? What pushed the common folk to violence? |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Contentious Syrians | 5 |
Who Will Act Equitably Between the People? The Dynamic of Provincial Power in Syria | 11 |
The Dynamic of Provincial Power | 14 |
A Good Reputation and Supporting Hands Provincial Governors and Provincial Rebellion | 21 |
Early Abbasid Strategies | 22 |
The Revolt of Abd Allah b Ali | 23 |
The Rise of the Banu Salih | 27 |
The Joint Revolt of Habib b Murra and Ibn Suraqa | 76 |
The Crisis of the Ashraf | 78 |
The Revolt of Abu alHaydham alMurri | 82 |
The Revolt Erupts | 83 |
Denouement | 86 |
Other Early Outbreaks of Factionalism | 91 |
The Ashraf of Syria and the Fourth Civil War | 92 |
Syria under the Ashraf | 93 |
The Khurasaniyya and Abbasid Clients | 31 |
Continuities and Changes after the Fourth Civil War | 34 |
Syria and Samarra | 36 |
The Strange Success of Isa b alShaykh | 37 |
The Last Governors of Early Abbasid Syria | 41 |
Conclusion | 42 |
The Swords of Our Forefathers Umayyads and the Alternatives to Abbasid Rule | 43 |
Abbasid Revolution and Umayyad Rebellion | 44 |
Abu alWard and Abu Muhammad alSufyani | 46 |
Other Umayyad Counterrevolts | 48 |
Umayyad Legitimacy in the Abbasid Age | 51 |
The Revolt of Abu alUmaytir | 55 |
Context and Outbreak | 56 |
The Qaysiyya Respond | 60 |
The Aftermath of the Revolt | 62 |
Conclusion | 64 |
As One Face Your Faces Are Marred Asabiyya and the Ashraf of Syria | 67 |
A Short History of Factionalism in Syria | 68 |
The Umayyad Background | 69 |
The Third Civil War | 71 |
The Reign of Marwan II | 72 |
Initial Reactions to the Abbasid Revolution in Syria | 75 |
Central Authority Restored | 95 |
The End of the Ashraf | 98 |
Conclusion | 101 |
Worst Elements The Impolitics of Unnotables in Abbasid Syria | 103 |
Urban Violence and the Lower Strata | 104 |
The Constraints upon Rural Contention | 106 |
The Revolt of BundarTheodore | 112 |
Abu Harb alMubarqa | 116 |
Banditry and the Zawaqil | 118 |
Conclusion | 122 |
Conclusion Standards of Revolt | 125 |
The View from Syria | 128 |
Contextualizing Syria | 131 |
Questions | 133 |
Governors of the jund of Dimashq | 137 |
Governors of the jund of Qinnasrin | 141 |
A Chronology of Contention in Syria | 145 |
Notes | 147 |
197 | |
213 | |
223 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Abbās Abbasid caliphs Abbasid period Abbasid revolution Abbasid rule Abbasid Syria Abd al-Malik Abd Allah Abū Abu al-'Umayțir Abu al-Haydhām Abu al-Ward Abū Ḥarb Abū Muḥammad Aḥmad ajnad al-'Abbās al-Ma'mun al-Manṣur al-Mu'taşim al-Mutawakkil al-Rashid al-Tabarī al-Urdunn al-Walid II al-Wathiq Alī Allāh Ansāb Arab army Baghdad Balādhuri bandits Banu Ṣāliḥ Banu Umayya Beirut Bilad al-sham central government chapter commander Crone Damascus Dār Dimashq early Islamic Egypt elites faḍā'il Filasțin Fourth Civil frontier Futūḥ governor of Dimashq Ḥabīb Ibn Asākir Ibn Bayhas Ibrāhīm Īsā Ishaq Islamic Jazīra jund Khurāsāniyya Kitāb leaders Marwan Marwan II Mawṣil Michael the Syrian military MTMD Muḥammad Mūsā Muslim peasants political populace pro-Umayyad provincial government Qaysi Qaysiyya Qinnasrīn rebel rebellion reign revolt of Abu rural Samarra Slaves sources Sufyānī Sulayman Syrian ashraf Syrian contention Syro-Jaziran Ta'rikh Tabarī tribal factionalism tribesmen Umayyad caliph Uthman Ya'qubi Yaḥyā Yamanī Yamaniyya Yazid Yazid III Zawāqīl