Abd al-Rahman ibn Khalid ibn al-Walid ( ar, عبد الرحمن بن خالد, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Khālid ibn al-Walīd; 616–666) was the governor of
Homs
Homs ( , , , ; ar, حِمْص / ALA-LC: ; Levantine Arabic: / ''Ḥomṣ'' ), known in pre-Islamic Syria as Emesa ( ; grc, Ἔμεσα, Émesa), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level ...
under caliphs
Uthman
Uthman ibn Affan ( ar, عثمان بن عفان, ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān; – 17 June 656), also spelled by Colloquial Arabic, Turkish and Persian rendering Osman, was a second cousin, son-in-law and notable companion of the Islamic proph ...
() and
Mu'awiya I
Mu'awiya I ( ar, معاوية بن أبي سفيان, Muʿāwiya ibn Abī Sufyān; –April 680) was the founder and first caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, ruling from 661 until his death. He became caliph less than thirty years after the deat ...
(). During Mu'awiya's governorship of Syria (639–661), Abd al-Rahman commanded a number of campaigns against the
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
and defended the
Upper Mesopotamia
Upper Mesopotamia is the name used for the Upland and lowland, uplands and great outwash plain of northwestern Iraq, northeastern Syria and southeastern Turkey, in the northern Middle East. Since the early Muslim conquests of the mid-7th century, ...
n frontier from the Iraq-based forces of Caliph
Ali
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam ...
(). He fought reputably against the latter at the
Battle of Siffin
The Battle of Siffin was fought in 657 CE (37 AH) between Ali ibn Abi Talib, the fourth of the Rashidun Caliphs and the first Shia Imam, and Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, the rebellious governor of Syria. The battle is named after its location S ...
in 657 and continued his governorship of Homs and campaigns against the Byzantines after Mu'awiya became caliph in 661. His battlefield reputation and descent from his father, the prominent general
Khalid ibn al-Walid, made him particularly popular among the Arabs of
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
. Mu'awiya ultimately perceived him as a potential rival of his own son
Yazid, who he was grooming as his successor, which led the caliph to allegedly order Abd al-Rahman's poisoning in 666.
Life
![Khaled Ebn El-Walid Mosque3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Khaled_Ebn_El-Walid_Mosque3.jpg)
Abd al-Rahman was born in , the son of the prominent Muslim general and member of the
Quraysh
The Quraysh ( ar, قُرَيْشٌ) were a grouping of Arab clans that historically inhabited and controlled the city of Mecca and its Kaaba. The Islamic prophet Muhammad was born into the Hashim clan of the tribe. Despite this, many of the Qur ...
i clan of
Banu Makhzum
The Banu Makhzum () was one of the wealthy clans of the Quraysh. They are regarded as being among the three most powerful and influential clans in Mecca before the advent of Islam, the other two being the Banu Hashim (the tribe of the Islamic prop ...
,
Khalid ibn al-Walid. Abd al-Rahman's mother was Khalid's wife Asma, the daughter of
Anas ibn Mudrik, a prominent chieftain and poet of the
Khath'am
Khath'am ( ar, خثعم, Khathʿam) was an ancient and medieval Arab tribe which traditionally dwelt in southwestern Arabia. They took part either in cooperation or opposition to the 6th-century expedition of the Aksumite ruler Abraha against Mecc ...
tribe who was active during the
pre-Islamic period and died several years after the advent of Islam in the 620s. Abd al-Rahman likely entered military service during the caliphate of
Uthman
Uthman ibn Affan ( ar, عثمان بن عفان, ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān; – 17 June 656), also spelled by Colloquial Arabic, Turkish and Persian rendering Osman, was a second cousin, son-in-law and notable companion of the Islamic proph ...
(). During Uthman's reign, he was appointed the governor of
Jund Hims
''Jund Ḥimṣ'' ( ar, جند حمص, " military district of Homs") was one of the military districts of the caliphal province of Syria.
Geography
The capital of Jund Hims was Homs, from which the district received its name. Its principal urb ...
(military district of
Homs
Homs ( , , , ; ar, حِمْص / ALA-LC: ; Levantine Arabic: / ''Ḥomṣ'' ), known in pre-Islamic Syria as Emesa ( ; grc, Ἔμεσα, Émesa), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level ...
) by
Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan
Mu'awiya I ( ar, معاوية بن أبي سفيان, Muʿāwiya ibn Abī Sufyān; –April 680) was the founder and first caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, ruling from 661 until his death. He became caliph less than thirty years after the deat ...
, the overall governor of the province of
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
. Abd al-Rahman was dispatched by Mu'awiya to command a number of military campaigns against the
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
s in
Anatolia
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
and was referred to in the Greek sources "Abderachman". He fended off a raid against Mu'awiya's territory in the
Jazira
Jazira or Al-Jazira ( 'island'), or variants, may refer to:
Business
*Jazeera Airways, an airlines company based in Kuwait
Locations
* Al-Jazira, a traditional region known today as Upper Mesopotamia or the smaller region of Cizre
* Al-Jazira (c ...
(Upper Mesopotamia) by the
Iraqi forces of Caliph
Ali
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam ...
() in 657. Later that year, Abd al-Rahman served as a commander in the Syrian army of Mu'awiya against Ali at the
Battle of Siffin
The Battle of Siffin was fought in 657 CE (37 AH) between Ali ibn Abi Talib, the fourth of the Rashidun Caliphs and the first Shia Imam, and Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, the rebellious governor of Syria. The battle is named after its location S ...
, where he fought with distinction and held the banner of the Syrians. His brother
Muhajir
Muhajir or Mohajir ( ar, مهاجر, '; pl. , ') is an Arabic word meaning ''migrant'' (see immigration and emigration) which is also used in other languages spoken by Muslims, including English. In English, this term and its derivatives may refer ...
fought for Ali's side in the same battle and was killed. During the subsequent arbitration talks in
Adhruh or
Dumat al-Jandal in 658 or 659 between the representatives of Ali and Mu'awiya, Abd al-Rahman was among those in the latter's faction to witness the arbitration document.
Abd al-Rahman continued as governor of Jund Hims during the caliphate of Mu'awiya beginning in 661. In 664/665 and 665/666, he led the winter campaigns against the Byzantines along the Anatolian front. According to the Muslim traditional sources, Abd al-Rahman posed a threat to Mu'awiya's ambitions to appoint his own
Yazid as his successor and the caliph resolved to eliminate him. At the time, he was the last surviving son of Khalid ibn al-Walid and his descent from the reputable general, as well as his own valor and effectiveness fighting the Byzantines, had endeared him to the Syrian Arabs. To that end, Mu'awiya allegedly had his Christian physician,
Ibn Uthal
Ibn Uthal or Ibn Athal ( ar, ابن أثال) was an Arab Christian who was the personal physician of the caliph Mu'awiya I and was regarded as the most distinguished of the medical practitioners of the early Umayyad period. His medical knowledge ...
, poison Abd al-Rahman upon the latter's return to Homs from the Byzantine front in 666. The physician was later killed by a kinsman of Abd al-Rahman called Khalid, who was either his son or the son of his brother Muhajir. This Khalid was consequently imprisoned and fined Ibn Uthal's
blood money
Blood money may refer to:
* Blood money (restitution), money paid to the family of a murder victim
Films
* Blood Money (1917 film), ''Blood Money'' (1917 film), a film starring Harry Carey
* Blood Money (1921 film), ''Blood Money'' (1921 film ...
by Mu'awiya to protect him from potential retaliation. Relations between the influential Banu Makhzum, who were mostly concentrated in the
Hejaz
The Hejaz (, also ; ar, ٱلْحِجَاز, al-Ḥijāz, lit=the Barrier, ) is a region in the west of Saudi Arabia. It includes the cities of Mecca, Medina, Jeddah, Tabuk, Yanbu, Taif, and Baljurashi. It is also known as the "Western Provin ...
(western Arabia), and Mu'awiya deteriorated as a result of Abd al-Rahman's alleged poisoning. The Orientalist historian
Henri Lammens
Henri Lammens (1 Jul 1862 – 23 Apr 1937) was a Belgian Orientalist historian and Jesuit, who wrote (in French) on the early history of Islam.
Education and career as a Jesuit
Born in Ghent, Belgium of Catholic Flemish stock, Henri Lammens joi ...
doubts the reliability of the narrative, which he relates to the anti-Christian violence in Homs around that time. Abd al-Rahman's son Khalid was a commander of a naval campaign against the Byzantines in 668 or 669.
The line of Khalid ibn al-Walid died out with the deaths of Abd al-Rahman's roughly forty male descendants as a result of a plague in Syria toward the end of the
Umayyad
The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...
period (661–750). Abd al-Rahman is buried alongside his father and one of his father's wives, Fadda, in Homs. In 1908, the
Ottoman rulers of Syria built the
Khalid ibn al-Walid Mosque
The Khalid ibn al-Walid Mosque ( ar, مَسْجِد خَالِد ٱبْن ٱلْوَلِيد, Masjid Ḵālid ibn al-Walīd) is a mosque in Homs, Syria, located in a park along ''Hama Street'' in ash-Shuhada Square. The mosque is dedicated to Kha ...
around the site claimed since at least the 12th century to contain their graves.
See also
*
Taba'een
The tābi‘ūn ( ar, اَلتَّابِعُونَ, also accusative or genitive tābi‘īn , singular ''tābi‘'' ), "followers" or "successors", are the generation of Muslims who followed the companions (''ṣaḥābah'') of the Islamic prop ...
References
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Abd al-Rahman ibn Khalid
616 births
666 deaths
7th-century Arabs
7th-century people from the Umayyad Caliphate
Banu Makhzum
Deaths by poisoning
Umayyad people of the Arab–Byzantine wars
People of the First Fitna
Tabi‘un
Umayyad governors of Hims
Umayyad governors of Ta'if