The History of al-Tabari Vol. 23

This volume covers the years 700-715 A.D., a period that witnessed the last five years of the caliphate of the Umayyad 'Abd al-Malik b. Marwan and the whole of the caliphate of his son al-Walid. In retrospect, this period can be seen to have marked the apogee of Marwanid Umayyad power. It began with the dangerous revolt of the Iraqi tribal leader Ibn al-Ash'ath, which seriously imperilled Marwanid control of Iraq and was countered with considerable difficulty; but this proved to be the last of the obstacles faced by 'Abd al-Malik in the wake of the Second Civil War of 685-693. Thereafter he was able to preside over a strong and dynamic Arab kingdom, with al-Hajjaj b. Yusuf as his powerful governor of Iraq and the East. When 'Abd al-Malik died in 705, the caliphate passed to his son al-Walid, during whose decade of office al-Hajjaj remained at his post and further Arab expansion took place in Central Asia, in Sind, and in the Iberian Peninsula. To many of their contemporaries, the Arabs of that time must have looked like potential world conquerors. The volume ends shortly after the deaths of al-Hajjaj and al-Walid and just two years before the dispatch in 717 of the ill-fated Arab expedition to Constantinople.