The Taking and Settling of Mar'ash

فتح مرعش وعمارتها

c. 637 CE · c. 18 AH

Mar'ash (Germanikeia)

In al-Baladhuri: Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah — he being at Manbij — sent Khalid ibn al-Walid to the Mar'ash region, and he took its fortress on condition its people evacuate, then demolished it; when Sufyan ibn Awf al-Ghamidi raided the Byzantines in year 30 he set out from before Mar'ash and ranged their lands; Mu'awiya built the city of Mar'ash and garrisoned it, but at Yazid ibn Mu'awiya's death Byzantine raids multiplied and its people left, and Abd al-Malik — after his father Marwan ibn al-Hakam's death — compounded with the Byzantines for tribute while seeking the caliphate; in year 74 Muhammad ibn Marwan raided and the truce broke, and in year 75 he again led the summer expedition, the Romans coming out in Jumada I by way of Mar'ash into the depths, where the Muslims under Aban ibn al-Walid ibn Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayt — with him Dinar ibn Dinar, mawla of Abd al-Malik and governor of Qinnasrin and its districts — met them at Amq Mar'ash in a hard battle, routed them and pursued killing and capturing — Dinar having that same year met a Roman body at Jisr Yaghra, some ten miles from Shimshat, and overcome them; then al-Abbas ibn al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik went to Mar'ash, rebuilt and fortified it, transferred people to it, built its congregational mosque and levied an annual contingent on Qinnasrin; in Marwan ibn Muhammad's days — he busy fighting Hims — the Romans besieged Mar'ash until its people compounded to evacuate toward the Jazira with the Qinnasrin troops and their families, then demolished it — Marwan's governor being al-Kawthar ibn Zufar ibn al-Harith al-Kilabi, the tyrant being Constantine son of Leo; when Marwan had finished with Hims and razed its wall he sent an army to rebuild Mar'ash, and built it was and made a city — but in his civil war the Romans wrecked it again; Salih ibn Ali rebuilt and fortified it in al-Mansur's caliphate, calling people to it with increased pay, and al-Mahdi enlarged its garrison and strengthened its people.