Yazid I

A 1950 view of Damascus, Yazid's capital

Upon his accession,[lower-alpha 1] Yazid requested and received oaths of allegiance from the governors of the provinces. He wrote to the governor of Medina, his cousin Walid ibn Utba ibn Abi Sufyan, informing him of Mu'awiya's death and instructing him to secure allegiance from Husayn ibn Ali, Ibn al-Zubayr and Ibn Umar.[32] The instructions contained in the letter were:

Seize Husayn, Abdullah ibn Umar, and Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr to give the oath of allegiance. Act so fiercely that they have no chance to do anything before giving the oath of allegiance.[33]

Walid sought the advice of Marwan, who suggested that Ibn al-Zubayr and Husayn be forced to pay allegiance as they were dangerous, while Ibn Umar should be left alone as he posed no threat. Husayn answered Walid's summon, meeting Walid and Marwan in a semi-private meeting where he was informed of Mu'awiya's death and Yazid's accession. When asked for his oath of allegiance, Husayn responded that giving his allegiance in private would be insufficient and suggested the oath be made in public. Walid agreed, but Marwan insisted that Husayn be detained until he proffered allegiance. Husayn scolded Marwan and left to join his armed retinue, who were waiting nearby in case the authorities attempted to apprehend him. Immediately following Husayn's exit, Marwan admonished Walid, who in turn justified his refusal to harm Husayn by dint of the latter's close relation to Muhammad. Ibn al-Zubayr did not answer the summons and left for Mecca. Walid sent eighty horsemen after him, but he escaped. Husayn too left for Mecca shortly after, without having sworn allegiance to Yazid.[34] Dissatisfied with this failure, Yazid replaced Walid with his distant Umayyad kinsman Amr ibn Sa'id.[32] Unlike Husayn and Ibn al-Zubayr, Ibn Umar, Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr and Abd Allah ibn Abbas, who had also previously denounced Mu'awiya's nomination of Yazid,[lower-alpha 3] paid allegiance to him.[15]

Coin issued by Yazid I following Sasanian motives, struck at the Basra mint, dated AH 61 (AD 680/1), the year in which the Battle of Karbala occurred

In Mecca Husayn received letters from pro-Alid[lower-alpha 4] Kufans, inviting him to lead them in revolt against Yazid. Husayn subsequently sent his cousin Muslim ibn Aqil to assess the situation in the city. He also sent letters to Basra, but his messenger was handed over to the governor Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad and killed. Ibn Aqil informed Husayn of the large-scale support he found in Kufa, signalling that the latter should enter the city. The news of this prompted Yazid to replace the governor of Kufa, Nu'man ibn Bashir al-Ansari, who had been unwilling to take action against pro-Alid activity, with Ibn Ziyad, whom he ordered to execute or imprison Ibn Aqil. As a result of Ibn Ziyad's suppression and political maneuvering, Ibn Aqil's following began to dissipate and he was forced to declare the revolt prematurely. It was suppressed and Ibn Aqil was executed.[39]

Encouraged by Ibn Aqil's letter, Husayn left for Kufa, ignoring warnings from Ibn Umar and Ibn Abbas. The latter reminded him, to no avail, of the Kufans' previous abandonment of his father Ali and his brother Hasan. On the way to the city, he received news of Ibn Aqil's death.[39] Nonetheless, he continued his march towards Kufa. Ibn Ziyad's 4,000-strong army blocked his entry into the city and forced him to camp in the desert of Karbala. Ibn Ziyad would not let Husayn pass without submitting, which Husayn refused. Week-long negotiations failed, and in the ensuing hostilities on 10 October 680, Husayn and 72 of his male companions were slain, while his family were taken prisoner.[39][40] The captives and Husayn's severed head were sent to Yazid, who, according to the account of Abu Mikhnaf (d. 774),[41] played with Husayn's head with his staff.[42] He showed compassion towards the captives and sent them back to Medina after a few days.[42][39]

Following Husayn's death, Yazid faced increased opposition to his rule from Ibn al-Zubayr, who secretly began taking allegiance in Mecca,[43] though publicly he only called for a shura to elect a new caliph.[38] At first, Yazid attempted to placate him by sending gifts and delegations in an attempt to reach a settlement.[43] After Ibn al-Zubayr's refusal to recognize him, Yazid sent a force led by Ibn al-Zubayr's estranged brother Amr to arrest him. The force was defeated and Amr was taken captive and executed.[44] In addition to Ibn al-Zubayr's growing influence in Medina, the city's inhabitants were disillusioned with Umayyad rule and Mu'awiya's agricultural projects, which included the confiscation of their lands to boost government revenue.[38] Yazid invited the notables of Medina to Damascus and tried to win them over with gifts. They were unpersuaded and on their return to Medina narrated tales of Yazid's lavish lifestyle and practices considered by many to be impious, including drinking wine, hunting with hounds, and his love for music. The Medinese, under the leadership of Abd Allah ibn Hanzala, renounced their allegiance to Yazid and expelled the governor, Yazid's cousin Uthman ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Sufyan, and the Umayyads residing in the city. Yazid dispatched a 12,000-strong army under the command of Muslim ibn Uqba to reconquer the Hejaz. After failed negotiations, the Medinese were defeated in the Battle of al-Harra. According to the accounts of Abu Mikhnaf and al-Samhudi (d. 1533), the city was plundered for three days, whereas per the account of Awana (d. 764) only the ringleaders of the rebellion were executed.[45] Having forced the rebels to renew their allegiance, Yazid's army headed for Mecca to subdue Ibn al-Zubayr.[46] Ibn Uqba died on the way to Mecca and command passed to Husayn ibn Numayr al-Sakuni, who besieged Mecca in September 683. The siege lasted for several weeks, during which the Ka'ba caught fire.[lower-alpha 5] Yazid's sudden death in November 683 ended the campaign and Ibn Numayr retreated to Syria with his army.[50]

The lands of the Ghouta oasis around Damascus where Yazid dug a canal called Nahr Yazid after him

The style of Yazid's governance was, by and large, a continuation of the model developed by Mu'awiya. He continued to rely on the governors of the provinces and local tribal chiefs (ashraf), like Mu'awiya had, instead of relatives, and retained several of Mu'awiya's officials, including Ibn Ziyad, who was Mu'awiya's governor of Basra, and Sarjun ibn Mansur, a native Syrian Christian, who had served as the head of the fiscal administration under Mu'awiya.[51][49] Like Mu'awiya, Yazid received delegations of the tribal notables (wufud) from the provinces in order to persuade and win their support, which would also involve distributing gifts and bribes.[51] The structure of the caliphal administration and military remained decentralised as in Mu'awiya's time. Provinces retained much of the tax revenue and forwarded a small portion to the Caliph.[52] The military units in the provinces were derived from local tribes whose command also fell to the ashraf.[53]

In Syria, Yazid established the northern border district of Qinnasrin.

Yazid approved a decrease in taxes on the Arab Christian tribe of Najran upon their request, but abolished the special tax exemption of the Samaritans, which had been granted to them by previous caliphs as a reward for their aid to the Muslim conquerors. He improved the irrigation system of the fertile lands of the Ghouta near Damascus by digging a canal, that became known as Nahr Yazid.[49]

Toward the end of his reign, Mu'awiya reached a thirty-year peace agreement with the Byzantines, obliging the Caliphate to pay an annual tribute of 3,000 gold coins, 50 horses and 50 slaves, and withdraw Muslim troops from the forward bases they had occupied on the Byzantine coast.[54] Under Yazid, Muslim bases along the Sea of Marmara were abandoned.[55] In contrast to the far-reaching raids against the Byzantine Empire launched under his father, Yazid focused on stabilizing the border with Byzantium.[55] In order to improve Syria's military defences and prevent Byzantine incursions, Yazid established and garrisoned the northern Syrian frontier district of Qinnasrin out of the district of Hims.[56][55]

Yazid reappointed Uqba ibn Nafi, the conqueror of Ifriqiya (central North Africa) whom Mu'awiya had deposed, as governor of Ifriqiya. In 681, Uqba launched a large-scale expedition into western North Africa. Defeating the Berbers and the Byzantines, Uqba reached the Atlantic coast and captured Tangier and Volubilis. Despite his successes, he was unable to establish permanent control in these territories. On his return to Ifriqiya, he was ambushed and killed by a Berber–Byzantine force at the Battle of Vescera, resulting in the loss of the conquered territories.[57] In 681 Yazid appointed Ibn Ziyad's brother Salm ibn Ziyad the governor of Khurasan. Salm led several campaigns in Transoxiana (Central Asia) and raided Samarqand and Khwarazm, without gaining a permanent foothold in either place. Yazid's death in 683 and the subsequent chaos in the east ended the campaigns.[58]

Genealogical tree of Yazid's family, the Sufyanids, who ruled the Umayyad Caliphate from 661 until their replacement with the Marwanids in 684.

Yazid died on 11 November 683 in the central Syrian desert town of Huwwarin, his favourite residence, aged between 35 and 43, and was buried there.[59] Ibn al-Zubayr subsequently declared himself caliph and Iraq and Egypt came under his rule. In Syria, Yazid's son Mu'awiya II, whom he had nominated, became caliph. His control was limited to parts of Syria as most of the Syrian districts (Hims, Qinnasrin and Palestine) were controlled by allies of Ibn al-Zubayr.[50] Mu'awiya II died after a few months from an unknown illness. A number of early sources state that he abdicated before his death.[60] Following his death, Yazid's maternal Kalbite tribesmen, seeking to maintain their privileges, sought to install Yazid's son Khalid on the throne, but he was considered too young for the post by the non-Kalbites in the pro-Umayyad coalition.[61][62] Consequently, Marwan ibn al-Hakam was acknowledged as caliph in a shura of pro-Umayyad tribes in June 684.[63] Shortly after, Marwan and the Kalb routed the pro-Zubayrid forces in Syria led by Dahhak at the Battle of Marj Rahit.[64] Although the pro-Umayyad shura stipulated that Khalid would succeed Marwan, the latter nominated his son Abd al-Malik as his heir.[61][62] Thus the Sufyanid dynasty, so-called after Mu'awiya I's father Abu Sufyan, was replaced by the Marwanid dynasty.[65] By 692 Abd al-Malik defeated Ibn al-Zubayr and restored Umayyad authority across the Caliphate.[66]

Yazid is considered an evil figure by many Muslims to the present day,[9] not only by the Shi'a, who hold that the ruling position rightly belonged to Husayn's father Ali and his descendants, including Husayn, whom Yazid killed to strip him of his right,[70] but also by many Sunnis, to whom he was an affront to Islamic values.[71][72] For the Shi'a, Yazid is an epitome of evil.[73][74] He is annually reviled in the Ashura processions and passion plays,[75][76] and rulers considered tyrannical and oppressive are often equated with him.[77][78] Before the Iranian Revolution, the Shah of Iran was called the "Yazid of his time" by the Iranian cleric Rouhollah Khomeini,[79][73] as was the Iraqi president Saddam Hussein by the Iraqi shi'a during the Iran-Iraq war for his ban on the pilgrimage to the holy sites of Shi'a Islam.[80] Among the Sunnis, Hanbali scholar Ibn al-Jawzi considered cursing Yazid permitted, although the Hanbali school and many in the Shafi'i school discourage explicit cursing.[81] According to al-Ghazali, cursing Yazid is prohibited, for he was a Muslim and his role in the killing of Husayn is unverified.[82]

Yazid was the first person in the history of the Caliphate to be nominated as heir based on a blood relationship, and this became a tradition afterwards.[22] As such, his accession is considered by Muslims as the corruption of the Caliphate into kingship. He is considered a tyrant who was responsible for three major crimes during his Caliphate: the death of Husayn and his followers at Karbala, considered a massacre; the aftermath of the Battle of al-Harra, in which the troops of Yazid's general, Muslim ibn Uqba, pillaged the town of Medina; and the burning of the Ka'ba during the siege of Mecca, which was blamed on Yazid's commander Husayn ibn Numayr. Moreover, because of his habits of drinking, dancing, hunting, and keeping pet animals such as dogs and monkeys, he is considered to have been impious and unworthy of leading the Muslim community.[51] Extant Muslim histories describe Yazid as "a sinner in respect of his belly and his private parts", "an arrogant drunken sot", "motivated by defiance of God, lack of faith in His religion and hostility toward His Messenger".[83] Baladhuri (d. 892) described him as the "Commander of the Sinners" (Amir al-Fasiqin), as opposed to the title, Commander of the Faithful (Amir al-Mu'minin), usually applied to the caliphs.[84] Nevertheless, some historians have argued that there is a tendency in early Muslim sources to exonerate Yazid of Husayn's death, and put the blame squarely on Ibn Ziyad.[39] According to the historian James Lindsay, the Syrian historian Ibn Asakir (d. 1176) attempted to stress the positive qualities of Yazid, while accepting the allegations that are generally made against him.[51][85] Ibn Asakir thus stressed that Yazid was a transmitter of hadith (the sayings and traditions attributed to Muhammad), a virtuous man "by reason of his connection to the age of the Prophet", and worthy of the ruling position.[86]

Despite his reputation in religious circles, academic historians generally portray a more favourable view of Yazid. According to Wellhausen, Yazid was a mild ruler, who resorted to violence only when necessary, and was not the tyrant that the religious tradition portrays him to be. He further notes that Yazid lacked interest in public affairs as a prince, but as a caliph "he seems to have pulled himself together, although he did not give up his old predilections,—wine, music, the chase and other sport".[87] In the words of Michael Jan de Goeje "[a]gainst the accusation of being a drinker of wine he himself protested in verses which he recited when he sent the army against Ibn Zobair...It may be true that he was fond of hunting, but he was a peace-loving, generous prince".[3] According to G. R. Hawting, he tried to continue the diplomatic policies of his father. However, unlike Mu'awiya, he was not successful in winning over the opposition with gifts and bribes. In Hawting's summation, "[t]he image of Muʿāwiya as operating more like a tribal s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ than a traditional Middle Eastern despot...also seems applicable to Yazīd".[51] In the view of Bernard Lewis, Yazid was a capable ruler "with much of the ability of his father" but was overly criticized by later Arab historians.[68] Expressing a viewpoint similar to Wellhausen's, Henri Lammens remarked: "[a] poet himself, and fond of music, he was a Maecenas of poets and artists."[49]

The characterization of Yazid in the Muslim sources has been attributed to the hostility of the Abbasid dynasty, during whose rule the histories were written, toward the Umayyads, whom they toppled in 750, including Yazid.[83] Most reports in the traditional Muslim sources focus on the revolts against Yazid,[51] and usually lack much detail on his public life in Syria and his activities other than the suppression of the revolts. Lammens has attributed this to the tendency of the Iraq-based, Abbasid-era chroniclers to portray a caliph, under whom Husayn was killed and the holy cities of Islam were attacked, only as an impious drunkard.[88] In contrast, a letter written by a Syrian in 741 describes the Caliph as "a most pleasant man and deemed highly agreeable by all the peoples subject to his rule. He never, as is the wont of men, sought glory for himself because of his royal rank, but lived as a citizen along with all the common people".[83]