Ibn al-Ashʿath

Ibn al-Ashʿath (died 704) was an Umayyad general who became celebrated as the leader of a revolt (ad 699–701) against the governor of Iraq, al-Ḥajjāj.

A member of the noble tribe of Kindah of the old aristocracy, Ibn al-Ashʿath was at first friendly toward the Umayyad authorities but then began to smart under the governance of the plebeian administrators. Styling himself Nāṣir al-muʾminīm (Helper of the Believers) in opposition to the Umayyad and other “bad” Muslims, he slowly became so estranged from al-Ḥajjāj that a clash of wills led to open revolt.

In 699 al-Ḥajjāj dispatched a crack force of Kūfans and Basrans, known as the Peacock Army, to put down a rebellion in Kābulistān (in present Afghanistan). After an initial invasion of Kābulistān, Ibn al-Ashʿath, the commanding general, decided to wait until spring before continuing his campaign. Al-Ḥajjāj pressed for immediate action, and the dispute led to a revolt by Ibn al-Ashʿath and his troops.

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Ibn al-Ashʿath moved slowly westward into Iraq, gathering support from both Arabs and non-Arabs along the way and engaging in two battles, one a victory and one a mild setback, forcing him to withdraw from Basra to Kūfah.

Al-Ḥajjāj, having received in the meantime a steady stream of Syrian reinforcements from the caliph ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān, confronted Ibn al-Ashʿath’s superior army of 200,000 at Dayr al-Jamājim, outside Kūfah. Negotiations were initiated by the caliph’s agents, who offered the rebels the dismissal of al-Ḥajjāj, equal pay with their Syrian counterparts, and a governorship for Ibn al-Ashʿath. The Iraqis, however, rejected the proposals and were defeated in battle in September 701. The last of the rebellion was finally put down in October, when al-Ḥajjāj destroyed the Iraqi army in a violent battle at Maskin, on the Shaṭṭ ad-Dujaylah. The defeated Iraqis fled to Sijistān, eventually surrendering to the Syrians, while Ibn al-Ashʿath took refuge in Kābul; he either was murdered or committed suicide in 704.