Abu Nasr Malik ibn al-Haytham al-Khuza'i () was an early

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...

follower and military leader.

Biography

Khurasan Greater Khorāsān,Dabeersiaghi, Commentary on Safarnâma-e Nâsir Khusraw, 6th Ed. Tehran, Zavvâr: 1375 (Solar Hijri Calendar) 235–236 or Khorāsān ( pal, Xwarāsān; fa, خراسان ), is a historical eastern region in the Iranian Plate ...

i Arab from the

Banu Khuza'a The Banū Khuzāʿah ( ar, بنو خزاعة singular ''Khuzāʿī'') is the name of an Azdite, Qaḥṭānite tribe, which is one of the main ancestral tribes of the Arabian Peninsula. They ruled Mecca for a long period, prior to the Islamic p ...

tribe, he was one of earliest followers of the Abbasid missionary effort (''

da'wa Dawah ( ar, دعوة, lit=invitation, ) is the act of inviting or calling people to embrace Islam. The plural is ''da‘wāt'' (دَعْوات) or ''da‘awāt'' (دَعَوات). Etymology The English term ''Dawah'' derives from the Arabic ...

'') in Khurasan, and eventually became one of the principal leaders ("the twelve '' naqaba'''") of the—as yet secret—Abbasid movement.Crone (1980), p. 181Sharon (1990), p. 104 On the outbreak of the

Abbasid Revolution The Abbasid Revolution, also called the Movement of the Men of the Black Raiment, was the overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE), the second of the four major Caliphates in early History of Islam, Islamic history, by the third, the A ...

in late 747, he was chosen by the Abbasid leaders as camp commander and head of the security force (''

shurta ''Shurṭa'' ( ar, شرطة) is the common Arabic term for police, although its precise meaning is that of a "picked" or elite force. Bodies termed ''shurṭa'' were established in the early days of the Caliphate, perhaps as early as the caliphate ...

'') under the main Abbasid commander,

Abu Muslim , image = Abu Muslim chastises a man for telling tales, Folio from the Ethics of Nasir (Akhlaq-e Nasiri) by Nasir al-Din Tusi (fol. 248r).jpg , caption = "Abu Muslim chastises a man for telling tales," Folio from the '' ...

, while his son Nasr was named as his deputy. In this capacity, Malik participated in the battles of the Abbasid Revolution in Khurasan and in the offensive westwards under Abu Muslim. After the success of the Revolution, Malik became one of the closest adherents of Abu Muslim. After the suppression of the revolt of

Abdallah ibn Ali Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī (; – 764 CE) was a member of the Abbasid dynasty, and played a leading role in its rise to power during the Abbasid Revolution. As governor of Bilad al-Sham, Syria, he consolidated Abbasid control over th ...

against Caliph

al-Mansur Abū Jaʿfar ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Manṣūr (; ar, أبو جعفر عبد الله بن محمد المنصور‎; 95 AH – 158 AH/714 CE – 6 October 775 CE) usually known simply as by his laqab Al-Manṣūr (المنصور) w ...

(r. 754–775) in

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 ...

in 754, the long-simmering tension between Abu Muslim—who had come to rule Khurasan as a near-sovereign prince, practically independent of the Abbasid family—and al-Mansur came to the fore. Malik counselled Abu Muslim to return straight to Khurasan for his own safety, but Abu Muslim was loath to effect a complete breach and accepted the summons of the Caliph. During the subsequent audience, the Caliph had Abu Muslim executed. Following the murder of Abu Muslim, Malik was briefly arrested, but reconciled himself with the Abbasids and regained the Caliph's favour when he came to al-Mansur's aid during the '' Rawandiya'' uprising in 758/9. He was then rewarded with the governorship of

Mosul Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second large ...

, which he held from 759/60 until 763. He is not mentioned any more, and probably died at about the same time. Nevertheless, his family remained among the most powerful in the ''Khurasaniyya'', the Khurasani army that had borne the Abbasids to power and remained the main pillar of the early Abbasid regime, and his descendants through his sons Nasr,

Hamza Hamza ( ar, همزة ') () is a letter in the Arabic alphabet, representing the glottal stop . Hamza is not one of the 28 "full" letters and owes its existence to historical inconsistencies in the standard writing system. It is derived from ...

, Ja'far, Dawud and especially Abdallah continued to hold high military and administrative offices until well into the 9th century,Kennedy (1986), pp. 80–81

References

Sources

* * * {{cite book , last=Sharon , first = Moshe , title = Revolt: the social and military aspects of the ʿAbbāsid revolution , location = Jerusalem , publisher = Graph Press Ltd. , year = 1990 , isbn = 965-223-388-9 , url = https://books.google.com/books?id=cTLMgO9dU4cC 760s deaths Generals of the Abbasid Caliphate Abbasid governors of Mosul Year of birth unknown 8th-century Arabs