11 Wealth and the Image of the Umayyads in the Sermons Attributed to Abū Ḥamza (d. 748)

Abstract

A Generational Explanation of theThird Fitna (126-36/744-54)Leone Pecorini Goodall between these groups to demonstrate how endogamous unions brought the families closer, with the banū Hishām taking a subordinate role: they were younger, and there were more daughters of marriageable age available than among the banū al-Walīd.Concerning the historiographical problems posed by this transitionary period, Steven Judd argued in a study of the literary accounts of the fitna that, 'in the absence of reliable contemporary Umayyad sources, it is increasingly clear that the history of the fall of the Umayyads remains more literary than factual'.2 Judd pointed out that the main sources available to historians of early Islam, al-Ṭabarī (d.312/923) and al-Balādhurī (d.c.279/892), provide significantly different justifications for the event despite both using al-Madāʾinī (d.225/843) as their primary transmitter, one focusing on religious disputes (al-Balādhurī), the other on tribal disputes (al-Ṭabarī).3 Al-Balādhurī frames his argument in terms of Qaḍarite (a group supporting the doctrine of free will) opposition to al-Walīd b.Yazīd's immoral behaviour, spearheaded by his cousin Yazīd b. al-Walīd (d.126/744).4 Judd views these discrepancies as attempts to generate a coherent narrative -always difficult when dealing with the end of any dynasty -and use the Umayyads' demise as a foil for contemporary ʿAbbāsid concerns.5 That the narrative's contents and details had not been streamlined is also visible when comparing Arabic with Greek and Syriac sources; 6 however, its chronological structure has largely been determined and seems fairly stable.Given Judd's warnings, I have opted to use prosopographical methods to argue that an ulterior, albeit not incompatible, explanation for the fitna can be found when tracing the implications of vertical succession in the Marwānid family.7 I will argue that the fall of the Marwānids was a direct consequence of the factionalism of the Marwānid polity and the long-term unsustainability of 'agnatic rotation', meaning that the position of caliph 2 Judd, 'Medieval Explanations', 103. 3 Ibid., 90-4. 4 Ibid., 91-2.5 Ibid., 103.6 Pecorini Goodall, 'The ʿAbbās', passim.7 Interestingly, al-Yaʿqūbī, who does not use al-Madāʾinī, explains the fall of al-Walīd as a consequence of his drinking, womanising and neglect of caliphal duties: al-Yaʿqūbī, Tārīkh, II:400; trans.Works, III:1054-6.generational explanation of the third fitna | 291 8 Al-Ṭabarī, Tārīkh, II:1740-1.9 Al-Balādhurī, Ansāb, VIII:388.10 Al-Ṭabarī, Tārīkh, II:1751; al-Balādhurī, Ansāb, IX:143; Ibn Khayyāṭ, Tārīkh, II:546.11 On the evidence for this nomination process, see Marsham, Rituals, 156-7.12 For a summary of the events leading up to the caliph's death, see Pecorini Goodall, 'The ʿAbbās', 402-9.13 Marsham, Rituals, 119-22; Décobert, 'Notule', 229.14 This was not unique to the Marwānid polity but was a limitation of dynasties that employed polygamy and had numerous cadet branches that could make a claim to rule: Duindam, Dynasty, 17-23; Marsham, 'Kinship', 20.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Edinburgh University Press eBooks, 2025 · DOI ↗