Abdullah ibn Qays al-Jasi

Summary

Abdullah ibn Qays al-Jasi, an ally of Banu Fazara, commanded the Muslim fleet in Syria during the caliphate of Uthman ibn Affan; Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan put him in charge of the sea, and he led fifty raids, in winter and in summer. ¹

Context: permission to campaign at sea

Al-Sallabi relates that Umar ibn al-Khattab (may God be pleased with him) refused to carry Muslims on the sea after Amr ibn al-As (may God be pleased with him) described it to him, and that Mu'awiya renewed the request under Uthman until he was allowed, on condition that he took his own wife with him and forced no one to go; Mu'awiya then ordered the people of the coasts to repair the ships and bring them to the fort of Acre. ² The Cyprus campaign of 28 AH followed, and al-Sallabi narrates it directly before his entry on Abdullah ibn Qays. ³ ¹

His command

Al-Sallabi reports that Abdullah ibn Qays made fifty raids at sea in which none of his men drowned or met disaster, and that he used to pray that God would keep his men safe and not try him with the loss of any of them. ¹

His death

One day he went out alone in his skiff as a scout and reached an anchorage in Byzantine territory where beggars were gathered, and gave them alms. A woman among them went back to her village and told the men that Abdullah ibn Qays was at the anchorage; when they scoffed that she could know him, she rebuked them, and they rushed at him. He fought them and was killed alone, while the boatman escaped to his companions. ¹ Asked how she had recognised him, the woman said: he looked like a merchant, but when I asked of him he gave like a king. ⁴

Sufyan ibn Awf (may God be pleased with him) al-Azdi succeeded him over the troops and fought the Byzantines, berating and cursing his men, until Abdullah's slave-girl told him that this was not how Abdullah spoke in battle: he would say, "The depths, then they clear from us." Sufyan took up the saying. ¹ The narrator calls that day the end of the time of Abdullah ibn Qays al-Jasi. ¹

In al-Sallabi's reading

Al-Sallabi sees in the report the model of a commander who scouts in person, is gentle with his men and generous even to the poor of the enemy's land, and contrasts his steadiness with the agitation of his successor Sufyan, which he attributes to Sufyan's inexperience in command. ⁴ See also the first raid on Cyprus.

Sources

Taysir al-Karim al-Mannan fi Sirat Uthman ibn Affan — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi (History of the Rightly Guided Caliphs 3, Dar al-Tawzi' wa-l-Nashr al-Islamiyya, Cairo, 2nd printing 1424/2003) , p.195

Taysir al-Karim al-Mannan fi Sirat Uthman ibn Affan — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi (History of the Rightly Guided Caliphs 3, Dar al-Tawzi' wa-l-Nashr al-Islamiyya, Cairo, 2nd printing 1424/2003) , p.192

Taysir al-Karim al-Mannan fi Sirat Uthman ibn Affan — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi (History of the Rightly Guided Caliphs 3, Dar al-Tawzi' wa-l-Nashr al-Islamiyya, Cairo, 2nd printing 1424/2003) , p.193

Taysir al-Karim al-Mannan fi Sirat Uthman ibn Affan — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi (History of the Rightly Guided Caliphs 3, Dar al-Tawzi' wa-l-Nashr al-Islamiyya, Cairo, 2nd printing 1424/2003) , p.196

Diwan al-Barid (the postal diwan)

The postal diwan as Abu al-Faraj Qudama ibn Ja'far prescribes it in Kitab al-Kharaj wa-Sina'at al-Kitaba: a diwan unto itself receiving dispatches from every province and forwarding each to its destination, presenting the barid masters' reports from all regions to the caliph or composing their digests, overseeing the station-masters, timekeepers and clerks of the relay routes, disbursing their rations and commissioning the keepers of itineraries in every misr — its chief required to be a man of trust. Al-Qalqashandi's Subh al-a'sha traces the barid from the Persian and Roman emperors through Mu'awiya, Abd al-Malik and the Abbasids, its suspension by the Buyids, its revival by al-Zahir Baybars between Egypt and Syria and its collapse after Timur's invasion in 804 AH, and describes the engraved silver plaques couriers wore and the relay stations from the Cairo Citadel to Qus, Alexandria, Damietta, Gaza, Damascus and Aleppo.

Abdullah ibn Qays al-Jasi

At a glance