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Sa'id ibn Uthman
Al Ameer son: new article
'''Saʿīd ibn ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān''' (died ) was an [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad]] general and military governor of [[Greater Khorasan|Khurasan]] in 676–677 during the reign of Caliph [[Mu'awiya I]]. He was a son of Caliph [[Uthman]] () and a one-time seeker of the caliphate in 675/76. During his short term in Khurasan, he launched a campaign deep into [[Transoxiana]] and defeated one or two [[Soghdia]]n armies. He reportedly captured [[Bukhara]] and besieged [[Samarkand]], gaining tributary status from the latter, before proceeding to capture [[Tirmidh]]. He was dismissed by Mu'awiya, possibly due to concerns that his popularity and battlefield successes had strengthened Sa'id's previous bid to seek the caliphate instead of Mu'awiya's designated successor, [[Yazid I]]. He was killed in Medina by his noble Soghdian slaves.
==Life==
Sa'id was a son of Caliph [[Uthman]] () and the latter's wife Fatima bint al-Walid, a scion of the prominent [[Banu Makhzum]] clan of the [[Quraysh]]. Upon hearing that Caliph [[Mu'awiya I]] (), whose own claim to the caliphate was partly based on his pursuit of justice over the assassination in 656 of Uthman, his [[Umayyad dynasty|Umayyad]] kinsman, had nominated his son [[Yazid I]] as his successor, Sa'id left Medina for Mu'awiya's court in Damascus to petition against the decision. According to the accounts of the medieval Muslim historians [[al-Mada'ini]] (d. 843) and [[al-Baladhuri]] (d. 892), Sa'id visited Damascus to demand a high-ranking office from Mu'awiya and that the latter questioned Sa'id about rumors that he was seeking the caliphate. Sa'id, in turn, argued that because he was a son of Uthman and that his mother was a noble Qurayshite (as opposed to Yazid whose mother [[Maysun bint Bahdal]] was [[Banu Kalb|Kalbite]] tribeswoman), he was indeed a more legitimate candidate for the caliphate than Yazid. Sa'id had been supported or encouraged to claim the office by people in Medina, including a segment of the elite [[Ansar (Islam)|Ansar]] faction. He may have also been quietly encouraged by [[Marwan ibn al-Hakam]], a senior Umayyad in Medina who resented Mu'awiya's rule and sought the office to be restored to the Abu al-As branch of the Umayyad clan, to which Marwan and Sa'id belonged. Mu'awiya accepted the merit of Sa'id's arguments, though [[Ibn Kathir]] (d. 1373) holds that the caliph rejected Sa'id's assertion that he was more worthy than Yazid.
===Governorship of Khurasan===
Depending on the source, during his meeting with Sa'id, Mu'awiya recommended that he should take up office in [[Greater Khorasan|Khurasan]], the easternmost province of the [[Umayyad Caliphate|Caliphate]], or granted this to Sa'id per the latter's own request. In any event, the caliph sent Sa'id to [[Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad]], the governor of [[Basra]] and the eastern Caliphate with directions to assign Sa'id commander of the conquests in Khurasan in 675/76. Per the caliph's instructions, Ibn Ziyad allotted Sa'id four million [[dirham]]s to distribute among the 4,000 soldiers he was given command over. Though there were capable commanders among the men assigned to Sa'id, including [[al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra]], many of the troops collected were Basran prisoners and otherwise disruptive tribal elements of the population. On the way to Khurasan, Sa'id further recruited bandits from the [[Banu Tamim]] to join his ranks. Mu'awiya restricted Sa'id's jurisdiction to military affairs, assigning fiscal responsibilities to Ishaq ibn Talha, who died en route to Khurasan and was replaced in the role by [[Aslam ibn Zur'a al-Kilabi]], a [[Qays]]ite tribal leader in the Khurasan garrison and the province's former lieutenant governor. According to the historian Muhammad Shaban, Mu'awiya's deployment of Sa'id and Ishaq represented efforts to ensure that the surplus tax revenue of Khurasan, in addition to traditional fifth of the war booty from the conquests there, was forwarded to the caliphal treasury in Damascus. This was generally opposed by the Arab tribesmen who made up the ranks of Khurasan's garrisons, who sought to keep the bulk of the provincial revenue under their control. With Ishaq's death and Aslam's virtual usurpation of the former's role, as well as Mu'awiya's efforts to keep good relations with the Qaysites so that their Syrian counterparts would recognize Yazid's nomination, Sa'id was forced to work with Aslam as his partner-in-government.
After preparing his army, Sa'id launched a campaign east of the [[Oxus]] river, deeper than the previous campaign of 674 by Ibn Ziyad, and defeated a [[Soghdia]]n army on the open field before capturing one of their cities and then occupying the [[Tirmidh]] fortress. The traditional Muslim histories of [[Abu Ubaidah (scholar)|Abu Ubayda]] (d. 825), al-Baladhuri, [[al-Tabari]] (d. 923), [[Narshakhi]] (d. 959) offer varying accounts of the campaign. Al-Baladhuri and Narkashi hold that Sa'id's crossing of the Oxus prompted Khatun, the queen of [[Bukhara]] to give allegiance to the Caliphate, but she then reneged upon the arrival of a supportive 120,000-strong army of Turks, Soghdians and soldiers from [[Shahrisabz|Kish]] and [[Nasaf]]. Sa'id's forces decisively defeated this army, entered Bukhara in triumph and with numerous defectors among the Soghdians, besieged [[Samarkand]] for three days, after which it became a tributary of the Caliphate. Abu Ubayda also records that Sa'id besieged Samarkand. He then proceeded to capture Tirmidh and it was there that he received the tribute owed by Khatun and the allegiance of [[Khuttal]].
===Dismissal, death and legacy===
Mu'awiya relieved Sa'id of his post in 677. This may have stemmed from Sa'id's growing popularity and battlefield successes, which could potentially reinforce his claims as a legitimate rival to Yazid. On his return to Medina, he took with him fifty Soghdian nobles as slaves whom he employed to work his land. He abused them by confiscating their valuables and having them dressed in wool. A number of the Soghdians then killed Sa'id, possibly with their shovels, in his walled garden before killing themselves. Marwan had attempted to rescue Sa'id, but was unable as the Soghdians had locked the garden's gate. [[Ibn Asakir]] (d. 1176) relates that Sa'id had returned to Medina after Mu'awiya's death in 680.
Sa'id had at least two wives, one of whom was Ramla, the daughter of Mu'awiya's father and a leading figure among the Quraysh [[Abu Sufyan ibn Harb]]; the other wife is not named in the sources. From Ramla, Sa'id had his son Muhammad, about whom nothing is known in the sources, and A'isha, who married Abd Allah, the son of Mu'awiya I. From his second wife, Sa'id had a daughter called Umm Sa'id who successively married Caliph [[Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik]] (), [[al-Abbas ibn al-Walid]] (son of Caliph [[al-Walid]], ) and [[Abd al-Aziz ibn Umar]] (son of Caliph [[Umar II]], ). Another son of Sa'id recorded in the sources was Aban, whose ''[[mawla]]'' (non-Arab, Muslim freedman) was a high-ranking supporter of the Umayyad rebel [[Abu al-Umaytir]] in his revolt against the [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasids]], who had overthrown the Umayyads in 750.
==References==
==Bibliography==
*Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (1 for 2)
*
*Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (1 for 2)
*Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (1 for 2)
* |ref=harv}}
*
[[Category:680s deaths]]
[[Category:7th-century Arabs]]
[[Category:People from Medina]]
[[Category:Umayyad dynasty]]
[[Category:Umayyad governors of Khurasan]]
[[Category:Medieval murder victims]]
==Life==
Sa'id was a son of Caliph [[Uthman]] () and the latter's wife Fatima bint al-Walid, a scion of the prominent [[Banu Makhzum]] clan of the [[Quraysh]]. Upon hearing that Caliph [[Mu'awiya I]] (), whose own claim to the caliphate was partly based on his pursuit of justice over the assassination in 656 of Uthman, his [[Umayyad dynasty|Umayyad]] kinsman, had nominated his son [[Yazid I]] as his successor, Sa'id left Medina for Mu'awiya's court in Damascus to petition against the decision. According to the accounts of the medieval Muslim historians [[al-Mada'ini]] (d. 843) and [[al-Baladhuri]] (d. 892), Sa'id visited Damascus to demand a high-ranking office from Mu'awiya and that the latter questioned Sa'id about rumors that he was seeking the caliphate. Sa'id, in turn, argued that because he was a son of Uthman and that his mother was a noble Qurayshite (as opposed to Yazid whose mother [[Maysun bint Bahdal]] was [[Banu Kalb|Kalbite]] tribeswoman), he was indeed a more legitimate candidate for the caliphate than Yazid. Sa'id had been supported or encouraged to claim the office by people in Medina, including a segment of the elite [[Ansar (Islam)|Ansar]] faction. He may have also been quietly encouraged by [[Marwan ibn al-Hakam]], a senior Umayyad in Medina who resented Mu'awiya's rule and sought the office to be restored to the Abu al-As branch of the Umayyad clan, to which Marwan and Sa'id belonged. Mu'awiya accepted the merit of Sa'id's arguments, though [[Ibn Kathir]] (d. 1373) holds that the caliph rejected Sa'id's assertion that he was more worthy than Yazid.
===Governorship of Khurasan===
Depending on the source, during his meeting with Sa'id, Mu'awiya recommended that he should take up office in [[Greater Khorasan|Khurasan]], the easternmost province of the [[Umayyad Caliphate|Caliphate]], or granted this to Sa'id per the latter's own request. In any event, the caliph sent Sa'id to [[Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad]], the governor of [[Basra]] and the eastern Caliphate with directions to assign Sa'id commander of the conquests in Khurasan in 675/76. Per the caliph's instructions, Ibn Ziyad allotted Sa'id four million [[dirham]]s to distribute among the 4,000 soldiers he was given command over. Though there were capable commanders among the men assigned to Sa'id, including [[al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra]], many of the troops collected were Basran prisoners and otherwise disruptive tribal elements of the population. On the way to Khurasan, Sa'id further recruited bandits from the [[Banu Tamim]] to join his ranks. Mu'awiya restricted Sa'id's jurisdiction to military affairs, assigning fiscal responsibilities to Ishaq ibn Talha, who died en route to Khurasan and was replaced in the role by [[Aslam ibn Zur'a al-Kilabi]], a [[Qays]]ite tribal leader in the Khurasan garrison and the province's former lieutenant governor. According to the historian Muhammad Shaban, Mu'awiya's deployment of Sa'id and Ishaq represented efforts to ensure that the surplus tax revenue of Khurasan, in addition to traditional fifth of the war booty from the conquests there, was forwarded to the caliphal treasury in Damascus. This was generally opposed by the Arab tribesmen who made up the ranks of Khurasan's garrisons, who sought to keep the bulk of the provincial revenue under their control. With Ishaq's death and Aslam's virtual usurpation of the former's role, as well as Mu'awiya's efforts to keep good relations with the Qaysites so that their Syrian counterparts would recognize Yazid's nomination, Sa'id was forced to work with Aslam as his partner-in-government.
After preparing his army, Sa'id launched a campaign east of the [[Oxus]] river, deeper than the previous campaign of 674 by Ibn Ziyad, and defeated a [[Soghdia]]n army on the open field before capturing one of their cities and then occupying the [[Tirmidh]] fortress. The traditional Muslim histories of [[Abu Ubaidah (scholar)|Abu Ubayda]] (d. 825), al-Baladhuri, [[al-Tabari]] (d. 923), [[Narshakhi]] (d. 959) offer varying accounts of the campaign. Al-Baladhuri and Narkashi hold that Sa'id's crossing of the Oxus prompted Khatun, the queen of [[Bukhara]] to give allegiance to the Caliphate, but she then reneged upon the arrival of a supportive 120,000-strong army of Turks, Soghdians and soldiers from [[Shahrisabz|Kish]] and [[Nasaf]]. Sa'id's forces decisively defeated this army, entered Bukhara in triumph and with numerous defectors among the Soghdians, besieged [[Samarkand]] for three days, after which it became a tributary of the Caliphate. Abu Ubayda also records that Sa'id besieged Samarkand. He then proceeded to capture Tirmidh and it was there that he received the tribute owed by Khatun and the allegiance of [[Khuttal]].
===Dismissal, death and legacy===
Mu'awiya relieved Sa'id of his post in 677. This may have stemmed from Sa'id's growing popularity and battlefield successes, which could potentially reinforce his claims as a legitimate rival to Yazid. On his return to Medina, he took with him fifty Soghdian nobles as slaves whom he employed to work his land. He abused them by confiscating their valuables and having them dressed in wool. A number of the Soghdians then killed Sa'id, possibly with their shovels, in his walled garden before killing themselves. Marwan had attempted to rescue Sa'id, but was unable as the Soghdians had locked the garden's gate. [[Ibn Asakir]] (d. 1176) relates that Sa'id had returned to Medina after Mu'awiya's death in 680.
Sa'id had at least two wives, one of whom was Ramla, the daughter of Mu'awiya's father and a leading figure among the Quraysh [[Abu Sufyan ibn Harb]]; the other wife is not named in the sources. From Ramla, Sa'id had his son Muhammad, about whom nothing is known in the sources, and A'isha, who married Abd Allah, the son of Mu'awiya I. From his second wife, Sa'id had a daughter called Umm Sa'id who successively married Caliph [[Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik]] (), [[al-Abbas ibn al-Walid]] (son of Caliph [[al-Walid]], ) and [[Abd al-Aziz ibn Umar]] (son of Caliph [[Umar II]], ). Another son of Sa'id recorded in the sources was Aban, whose ''[[mawla]]'' (non-Arab, Muslim freedman) was a high-ranking supporter of the Umayyad rebel [[Abu al-Umaytir]] in his revolt against the [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasids]], who had overthrown the Umayyads in 750.
==References==
==Bibliography==
*Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (1 for 2)
*
*Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (1 for 2)
*Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (1 for 2)
* |ref=harv}}
*
[[Category:680s deaths]]
[[Category:7th-century Arabs]]
[[Category:People from Medina]]
[[Category:Umayyad dynasty]]
[[Category:Umayyad governors of Khurasan]]
[[Category:Medieval murder victims]]
August 16, 2019 at 02:19AM
