Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan

Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan ibn al-Hakam (; died 12 May 705) was the Umayyad governor and de facto viceroy of Egypt between 685 and his death. He was appointed by his father, Caliph Marwan I (r. 684–685). Abd al-Aziz's reign was marked by stability and prosperity, partly due to his close relations and reliance on the Arab military settlers of Fustat. Under his direction and supervision, an army led by Musa ibn Nusayr completed the Muslim conquest of North Africa. He was removed from the line of succession to the caliphal throne and, in any case, died before his brother, Caliph Abd al-Malik. However, one of Abd al-Aziz's sons, Umar II, would become caliph in 717. Early life and career Abd al-Aziz was the son of a prominent Umayyad statesman, Marwan ibn al-Hakam, and one of his wives, Layla bint Zabban ibn al-Asbagh of the Banu Kalb tribe. Abd al-Aziz may have visited Egypt when the province was governed by Maslama ibn Mukhallad al-Ansari (667–682), the appointee of Mu'awiya I, founder of the Umayyad Caliphate. In 682, Abd al-Aziz was part of an embassy, alongside his elder half-brother Abd al-Malik, sent by Marwan to the anti-Umayyad rebel Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr in Mecca. When the people of Medina, home to the Umayyad family, rebelled against Mu'awiya's successor, Caliph Yazid I, and besieged the Umayyads in 683, Abd al-Aziz is not mentioned as being present. The historian Wilhelm Barthold speculates he could have been in Egypt at the time. Ibn al-Zubayr declared himself and gained wide recognition as caliph after the death of Yazid in 683. In the summer of 684, when Marwan was elected caliph by pro-Umayyad loyalist tribes in Syria, chief among them the Banu Kalb, Abd al-Aziz was in his father's company. He fought alongside his father and the Banu Kalb against the supporters of Ibn al-Zubayr in Syria, al-Dahhak ibn Qays al-Fihri and the Qays tribes, at the subsequent Battle of Marj Rahit near Damascus in August. Abd al-Aziz was thrown off his horse during the battle, which ended in a crushing Umayyad–Kalbite victory. Afterward, he played a leading role in Marwan's conquest of Egypt from its Zubayrid governor Ibn Jahdam al-Fihri, serving as the commander of a contingent which crossed into the province through the Sinai Peninsula, via the Red Sea port town of Ayla. There, he confronted Ibn Jahdam and his deputy Zuhayr ibn Qays al-Balawi, with the latter later defecting to Abd al-Aziz.