يزيد بن عبد الملك

71 AH – Sha'ban 105 AH

The ninth Umayyad caliph, Abu Khalid, born in year 71; he took the caliphate after Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz by his brother Sulayman's designation. On accession he declared 'follow the sira of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz' — forty elders testified there is no reckoning or torment upon caliphs — yet per Ibn al-Majishun he kept Umar's ways forty days then turned aside. In year two Yazid ibn al-Muhallab rose and was routed by Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik at al-Aqr. He died in late Sha'ban 105 {cite:tarikh-khulafa-minhaj-1434 p. 399-400}.

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The Building of the Fortress of Masisa

In al-Baladhuri from al-Waqidi and others: in year 84 Abdullah ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan led the summer raid, entering by the pass of Antioch and coming to Masisa, where he built its fortress on the ancient foundation and settled garrison troops among them three hundred picked men of known valour and stoutness — the Muslims had never dwelt there before — and built a mosque atop the fortress hill; Abu al-Khattab al-Azdi says the first to build its fortress in Islam was Abd al-Malik through his son Abdullah in year 84, its building and garrisoning complete in year 85; the fortress held a church called Herya which the summer columns from Antioch would reach and winter at yearly, numbering a thousand five hundred to two thousand; Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz went out to Herya-Masisa meaning to demolish it and the forts between it and Antioch, saying 'I hate for the Byzantines to besiege its people', until the people showed him it was populated only to shield Antioch and that razing it would leave the enemy no barrier before it, so he held back and built them a congregational mosque by Kafarbayya with a cistern bearing his name — called the fortress mosque, ruined in al-Mu'tasim's caliphate; then Hisham built the rabad, Marwan ibn Muhammad built the suburb east of the Jayhan with a wall, timber gate and moat, and Abu al-Abbas set four hundred more men at Masisa, granting them estates.

يزيد بن عبد الملك

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The Building of the Fortress of Masisa