Al-Ashdaq

Abū Umayya ʿAmr ibn Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ al-Umawī (; died 689/90), better known as al-Ashdaq, was a member of the Umayyad dynasty, general and a contender for the caliphal throne. He served as the governor of Medina in 680, during the reign of Caliph Yazid I and fought off attempts by the Zubayrids to conquer Syria in 684 and 685 during the reign of Caliph Marwan I. The latter removed Yazid I's son Khalid and al-Ashdaq from the line of succession in favor of his own sons Abd al-Malik and Abd al-Aziz. Al-Ashdaq's attempted coup against Abd al-Malik in 689 ended with his surrender and his execution by Abd al-Malik. Life Amr was the son of the Umayyad statesman Sa'id ibn al-As and Umm al-Banin bint al-Hakam, the sister of another Umayyad statesman, Marwan ibn al-Hakam. He was nicknamed "al-Ashdaq" (the Widemouthed). When Sa'id died in 679, al-Ashdaq became the leader of this branch of the Umayyad clan. At the end of the reign of Caliph Mu'awiya I, he was governor of Mecca but was then appointed the governor of Medina at the accession of Caliph Yazid I. When the Umayyads were driven out of Mecca during the revolt of Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr in 682, al-Ashdaq was ordered by Yazid to send an army against the Zubayrids in the city. Al-Ashdaq appointed Ibn al-Zubayr's brother, Amr, to lead the expedition, but the force was defeated and Amr was executed by Ibn al-Zubayr. Toward the end of 683, al-Ashdaq was dismissed. Yazid died and was succeeded by his son Mu'awiya II. The latter was ill and died a few months later, causing a leadership crisis in the Umayyad Caliphate, during which most of its provinces recognized Ibn al-Zubayr as caliph. When the pro-Umayyad Arab tribal nobility of Syria, chief among them the chief of the Banu Kalb, elected Marwan ibn al-Hakam as caliph at the Jabiya summit of 684, it was stipulated that Yazid's then-young son Khalid would succeed Marwan, followed by al-Ashdaq. The latter commanded the right wing of Marwan's army during the Battle of Marj Rahit later that year, in which the Umayyads scored a resounding victory over the pro-Zubayrid Qaysi tribes of Syria. Al-Ashdaq took part in Marwan's expedition to wrest control of Egypt from its Zubayrid governor in 685. After the Umayyad victory, al-Ashdaq proclaimed Marwan's sovereignty from the pulpit of the mosque in the provincial capital Fustat.