Hisham ibn Isma'il al-Makhzumi

Hisham ibn Isma'il al-Makhzumi (Arabic: هشام بن إسماعيل المخزومي, romanized: Hishām ibn Ismāʿīl al-Makhzūmī) was an 8th-century official of the Umayyad Caliphate, and the maternal grandfather of Caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik. He served as the governor of Medina from 701 to 706.

Family

Hisham was a member of the Banu Makhzum, a clan of the Arab tribe of Quraysh, being a great-grandson of al-Walid ibn al-Mughira. Hisham gained prominence when his daughter A'isha married the fifth Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (r. 685–705). In 691 he became a grandfather to the future caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik (r. 724–743), who was reportedly named after him at A'isha's insistence.^[1] Hisham's sons Ibrahim and Muhammad, like their father under Abd al-Malik, served as governors of Medina for Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik. They fell out of favour during the reign of his successor al-Walid ibn Yazid (r. 743–744) and were tortured to death by Yusuf ibn Umar al-Thaqafi in 743.^[2] A third son, Khalid, participated in the failed rebellion of Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik's son Sulayman in 744 and was consequently executed by the caliph Marwan ibn Muhammad (r. 744–750).^[3]

Governor of Medina

Abd al-Malik appointed Hisham, his father-in-law, governor of Medina in 701.^[4] During his time in that position he dismissed Nawfal ibn Musahiq al-Amiri from the head of the judiciary and appointed Amr ibn Khalid al-Zuraqi in his stead,^[5] and led the people of the city in rendering the oath of allegiance to Abd al-Malik's sons al-Walid I (r. 705–715) and Sulayman (r. 715–717). When the faqih Sa'id ibn al-Musayyab refused to give the oath, Hisham ordered him to be beaten and imprisoned, and subjected him to a mock execution by having him marched to a mountain pass where individuals would normally be killed and crucified.^[6] Hisham also led the annual Hajj pilgrimages to Mecca in 703 and 704, and possibly those of 702/3 and 705 as well.^[7]

Following the death of Abd al-Malik in 705, Hisham was initially confirmed as governor by his successor al-Walid I. The new caliph disliked Hisham, however, and in early 706 he dismissed him in favour of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz. Al-Walid also instructed Umar to display Hisham in front of the people of Medina, as a form of humiliation for his conduct during his governorship, but Hisham was spared from further harm after both Sa'id ibn al-Musayyab and the Alid Ali ibn al-Husayn ordered their followers to refrain from acts of retaliation against him.^[8]

Notes

References

• Hinds, M. (1991). "Makhzum". In Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E. & Pellat, Ch. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume VI: Mahk–Mid. Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 137–140. ISBN 978-90-04-08112-3.
• Ibn Hazm, Abu Muhammad 'Ali ibn Ahmad ibn Sa'id al-Andalusi (1982). Harun, 'Abd al-Salam Muhammad (ed.). Jamharat Ansab al-'Arab (in Arabic) (5th ed.). Cairo: Dar al-Ma'arif.
• Khalifah ibn Khayyat (1985). al-'Umari, Akram Diya' (ed.). Tarikh Khalifah ibn Khayyat, 3rd ed (in Arabic). Al-Riyadh: Dar Taybah.
• Al-Mas'udi, Ali ibn al-Husain (1877). Les Prairies D'Or, Tome Neuvième (in French). Ed. and Trans. Charles Barbier de Meynard and Abel Pavet de Courteille. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale.
• McMillan, M.E. (2011). The Meaning of Mecca: The Politics of Pilgrimage in Early Islam. London: Saqi. ISBN 978-0-86356-437-6.
• Munt, Harry (2014). The Holy City of Medina: Sacred Space in Early Islamic Arabia. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-04213-1.
• Al-Ya'qubi, Ahmad ibn Abu Ya'qub (1883). Houtsma, M. Th. (ed.). Historiae, Vol. 2 (in Arabic). Leiden: E. J. Brill.
• Yarshater, Ehsan, ed. (1985–2007). The History of al-Ṭabarī (40 vols). SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-7249-1.