Sa'id ibn Abd al-Malik

Sa'id was appointed governor of Mosul by his father (r. 685–705),[7] who had captured it in c. 691. Others who served the post at some point during his fathers reign were his uncle Muhammad ibn Marwan and cousin Yusuf, the son of Yahya ibn al-Hakam.[7] Sa'id was responsible for a number of building works in the city during his rule as governor. The historian al-Waqidi attributes the city walls to him, later torn down by the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid in 796.[8] Sa'id is further credited in medieval Muslim sources for constructing a mosque, a monastery, a market, and for paving Mosul's streets.[9][10]

Al-Baladhuri asserts that Caliph al-Walid I (r. 705–715) or his successor Caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz (r. 717–720) granted property in the Diyar Mudar district, in the vicinity of Mosul, to Sa'id as a qati'a (land grant).[2][3] He had a canal dug through the property, which was later named Nahr Sa'id (Sa'id River) after him.[3][11] Through his irrigation and infrastructural works, he transformed his qati'a from a lion-infested swamp into an agriculturally-productive area.[11] Umar recalled Sa'id to Syria and replaced him with Yahya ibn Yahya al-Ghassani.[12]

Under caliphs Yazid II (r. 720–724) and Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik (r. 724–743), Sa'id led a number of summer campaigns against the Byzantines in Anatolia.[3] In one of the campaigns, he commanded the left flank of the Umayyad army during the summer expedition of 724, but his forces incurred heavy losses.[13] Yazid II was said to have considered Sa'id as a suitable chosen successor to the caliphate and may have encouraged Sa'id to entertain such notions.[3] In 725, Sa'id again led the summer campaign against the Byzantines.[12]

During the relatively short caliphate of al-Walid II (r. 743–744), Sa'id was appointed governor of Palestine.[3] He was known to have governed the district well.[14] According to al-Tabari, when al-Walid II was killed in 744, the Arab tribes of Palestine, led by Sa'id ibn Rawh, a chieftain of the Banu Judham and son of Rawh ibn Zinba, opted for their local Umayyad patron, Yazid ibn Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik, to be their governor.[5] To that end, they demanded that Sa'id, who was encamped in Beersheba or in the vicinity of Bayt Jibrin, vacate the governorship.[5][14] Sa'id obliged and sought safety with al-Walid II's successor, Yazid III, in Damascus.[5] The latter subsequently sent an expedition against the rebels in Palestine.[5] Sa'id's governorship lasted fourteen months, between February 743 and April 744.[15]

In excavations carried out by an Israeli archaeological team in Beit Shean in 1990, a broken bronze weight produced on the orders of Sa'id was unearthed.[16] The weight was most likely produced in Ramla or Jerusalem.[15] In addition to the Muslim statement of belief, the surviving portion of the rare weight bore an inscription in Kufic Arabic that read: "Ordered by the Amir (Governor) Sa'id ibn Abd al-Malik at the hands of ...".[4]

Sa'id was killed alongside dozens of other Umayyads in a massacre by the Abbasids at the Abu Futrus river near Ramla in the wake of the Abbasids' toppling of the Umayyad state in 750.[3]