al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik
Umayyad caliph who ruled 86 to 96 AH/705 to 715 CE and succeeded his father Abd al-Malik without opposition after the death of his uncle Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan. The Encyclopaedia of Islam describes his reign as a time of internal peace and outward expansion into al-Andalus, Transoxania and Sind, and him as a great patron of architecture, with the Great Mosque of Damascus given its present form and the Prophet's Mosque in Medina rebuilt. The article asks how far he contributed personally, and suggests his main achievement was preserving balance among the factions of the ruling family.
Reign · Umayyad Caliphate · no. 6 in the chain · 705–715 CE
Ruled the caliphate
Events of the reign
-
The Umayyad al-Aqsa mosque completed under al-Walid I
The Umayyad mosque of Jerusalem was a hypostyle building: many aisles perpendicular to the qibla with a wider central nave on the axis of the Dome of the Rock, reusing earlier materials, and it was either built from scratch or completed under the caliph al-Walid I; Abd al-Malik had built on the earlier foundation, as al-Muqaddasi reports. It served as the city's congregational mosque and as the roofed part of the whole Haram.
-
Battle of Aror
Draft card for the Battle of Aror in 712, Muhammad ibn al-Qasim's victory over Raja Dahir opening Sind; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
-
Building of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus
In year 87 al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik began building the congregational mosque of Damascus and ordered the enlargement and rebuilding of the Prophet's Mosque; Ibn Abi Abla couples the conquests of India and al-Andalus with 'he built the mosque of Damascus', and recalls the silver basins al-Walid gave him to distribute among the qurra' of the Jerusalem mosque.
-
Capture of Ecija (713)
Draft card for Capture of Ecija (713); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
-
Capture of Malaga (713)
Draft card for Capture of Malaga (713); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
-
Capture of Orihuela (713)
Draft card for Capture of Orihuela (713); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
-
Conquest of Bukhara
Tabari records that in the year 90 Qutayba conquered Bukhara and routed the enemy hosts there; in the same year comes the report of the conquest of Taliqan.
-
Conquest of Cordoba
Tariq's lieutenant Mughith al-Rumi took Cordoba in 92 by a wall-breach a shepherd showed him — a fig tree for scaling and a heaven-sent drizzle masking the hooves — and captured its fleeing lord near Tatlira.
-
Conquest of Mérida
Draft card for the Conquest of Mérida in 712, Musa ibn Nusayr's capture of the Visigothic city; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
-
Capture of Seville by the Umayyads (713)
Draft card for Capture of Seville by the Umayyads (713); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
-
The Founding of al-Ramla
In al-Baladhuri: al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik gave his brother Sulayman command of the Filastin jund, and he settled at Lydda then founded the city of al-Ramla and made it an amsar — the first thing he built being his palace and the house known as Dar al-Sabbaghin with a central cistern, then he laid out the mosque's plan and built it, taking the caliphate before completing it and finishing it in his reign, Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz completing it while reducing the plan, saying 'the people of al-Ramla are content with this measure'; when Sulayman built for himself he gave people leave to build and they did, digging the canal called Barada and wells for them, a Christian clerk of Lydda named al-Batriq ibn al-Nakka overseeing the expenditure on the works and the congregational mosque; the city of al-Ramla did not exist before Sulayman, its site being a sandy tract; the Umayyads spent on its wells and canal after him, then the Abbasids did likewise, the charge issuing yearly from caliph to caliph until al-Mu'tasim entered it in the register, whence it became a standing annuity reckoned to the claimants.
-
The Siege of Multan and the House of Gold
Across the Bayas, Multan's folk fought — Za'ida ibn Umayr al-Ta'i excelled — then shut themselves in. The Muslims ate their donkeys till a protected man showed the water-intake — the spring al-Balah fed from Basmad's river — and cut it, they yielded on terms: the fighters slain, six thousand temple sadins and offspring enslaved, and gold heaped in a ten-by-eight cubit house filled through a roof hole — whence 'Multan, Faraj Bayt al-Dhahab', the frontier of the House of Gold. Its budd drew offerings and vows; Sind's pilgrims shaved heads and beards there and claimed its idol was the prophet Ayyub.
-
Qutayba's Conquest of Samarqand
Qutayba besieged Samarqand — the old seat of Sughd's kings before Ishtikhan — through repeated battles, while the Shash king came from Tarband with his fighters for the fiercest fighting, broken and routed. Ghurak truced at two hundred and two thousand dirhams yearly with leave to pray in the city — entered, ate the food Ghurak prepared, built a mosque, and left a Muslim colony including the exegete al-Dahhak ibn Muzahim — or, some say, seven hundred thousand and three days' hospitality. The pact covered the idol- and fire-houses: the idols were taken out, stripped, and burned — the Ajam swore whoever touched them perished — and when Qutayba burned them with his own hand many embraced Islam. Abu Ubayda counts the conquest by force, Sa'id's unbroken sulh deemed too small; and he opened Baykand, Kish, Nasaf, al-Shash, Bum of Farghana, Sughd and Ushrusana.
-
Siege of Debal
Draft card for the Siege of Debal in 712, Muhammad ibn al-Qasim's capture of the Sindh port in his conquest; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
-
Siege of Tyana
Draft card for the Siege of Tyana of 707–709, the Umayyad capture of the last Byzantine stronghold on the Anatolian road; its sources are not yet checked on the page.