Al-Hakam ibn Abi al-As ibn Umayya ( Arabic: الحكم بن أبي العاص بن أمية, romanized: al-Ḥakam ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ ibn Umayya; died 655/56), was the father of the founder of the Marwanid line of the Umayyad dynasty, Marwan I ( r. 684–685), and a paternal uncle of Caliph Uthman ( r. 644–656). He was known as a staunch opponent of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was consequently exiled when the latter captured their hometown of Mecca in 630. He was later pardoned by Uthman.

Family

Al-Hakam was the son of Abu al-As ibn Umayya of the Banu Abd Shams and Ruqayya bint al-Harith of the Banu Makhzum, both parents' clans belonging to the Quraysh tribe of Mecca. ^[1] His paternal grandfather was the progenitor of the Umayyad family.

Al-Hakam married Amina bint Alqama ibn Safwan al-Kinaniyya after she was divorced by his half-brother Affan ibn Abi al-As. ^[2] She gave birth to al-Hakam's son, Marwan, who became the Umayyad caliph in 684-685 and the progenitor of all successive Umayyad caliphs. ^[2] Al-Hakam fathered at least twenty, but probably over thirty children from four different wives and a number of slave women. ^[3] Besides Marwan, Amina bint Alqama was the mother of al-Hakam's eldest son, Uthman al-Azraq, and al-Harith, Abd al-Rahman, Salih and daughters Umm al-Banin and Zaynab. His second wife, Mulayka bint Awfa of the Banu Murra clan of the Ghatafan tribe, was the mother of his sons Yahya, Aban, Uthman al-Asghar, Habib, Amr and daughters Umm Yahya, Zaynab, Umm Shayba, Umm Uthman and Umm Salama. ^[4] His third wife, Umm al-Nu'man bint al-Harith ibn Abi Amr of the Banu Thaqif tribe, gave him sons Nu'man, Aws, Suhayl, and Amr, and daughters Umm Aban, Umama, Umm Amr and Umm al-Hakam. His Qurayshite wife, al-Ba'itha bint Hashim ibn Utba ibn Rabi'a of the Banu Abd Shams was the mother of his son Yusuf. ^[5]

Life

Al-Hakam was known to have staunchly opposed the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was thus exiled by the latter from Mecca to the nearby town of Taif. ^[6] According to the history of 9th-century historian al-Tabari, Muhammad later pardoned al-Hakam and he was allowed to return to his hometown. ^[7] However, in the history of 9th-century historian al-Yaqubi, al-Hakam was allowed to return to Mecca by his nephew, Caliph Uthman ( r. 644–656), after his petitions to return were rejected by the previous two caliphs, Abu Bakr ( r. 632–634) and Umar ( r. 634–644). ^[8] Uthman showed special favor to his kinsmen and he symbolically honored al-Hakam, along with his Umayyad relatives Abu Sufyan ibn Harb and al-Walid ibn Uqba and Banu Hashim member al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, by allowing them to sit on his throne in Medina. ^[9] Al-Hakam died in 655/56. ^[10]

References

Bibliography

• Donner, Fred (2014). "Was Marwan ibn al-Hakam the First "Real" Muslim". In Savant, Sarah Bowen; de Felipe, Helena (eds.). Genealogy and Knowledge in Muslim Societies: Understanding the Past. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN  978-0-7486-4497-1.
• Humphreys, R. Stephen, ed. (1990). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XV: The Crisis of the Early Caliphate: The Reign of ʿUthmān, A.D. 644–656/A.H. 24–35. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN  978-0-7914-0154-5.
• Madelung, Wilferd (1997). The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN  0-521-56181-7.
• Sears, Stuart D. (March 2003). "The Legitimation of al-Hakam b. al-'As: Umayyad Government in Seventh-Century Kirman". Iranian Studies. 36 (1). Taylor & Francis: 5–25. doi: 10.1080/021086032000062587. JSTOR  4311489. S2CID  161094119.
• Gordon, Michael (2018). The Works of Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-Yaʿqūbī (Volume 3): An English Translation. Brill. ISBN  978-90-04-35619-1.
• Marsham, Andrew (2022). "Kinship, Dynasty, and the Umayyads". The Historian of Islam at Work: Essays in Honor of Hugh N. Kennedy. Leiden: Brill. pp. 12–45. ISBN  978-90-04-52523-8.