Years of service ca. 738 – after 750 | ||
Battles and wars Arab–Khazar wars, Third Fitna, Abbasid Revolution Allegiances Umayyad Caliphate, Abbasid Caliphate | ||
Ishaq ibn Muslim ibn Rabi'a ibn Asim al-Uqayli was a general and governor for the Umayyad Caliphate in the region of Arminiya (Transcaucasia), and a close supporter of the last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II. Following the defeat of Marwan by the Abbasid Revolution, he initially resisted but finally came to terms with the Abbasids.
Biography
Ishaq's grandfather Rabi'a was a Basran who had fought and died in the Battle of the Camel, after which the family moved to the Jazira. Along with his brothers, Abd al-Malik and Isa, Ishaq was one of the commanders of Marwan ibn Muhammad (the future Marwan II) during the latter's governorship in Armenia and Azerbaijan and his campaigns against the Khazars. Thus in 738 he defeated the Caucasian prince Tuman Shah and captured his strongholds. In 743/744, he was appointed as commander of Derbent (Bab al-Abwab) and governor of Arminiya (the combined province of Armenia and Azerbaijan), and he accompanied Marwan in 745/746 in the fighting in the Jazira, during the Third Fitna. He then returned to his governorship in Armenia, which he seems to have kept until the end of the Umayyad Caliphate in 749/750.
At that time, following the defeat of Marwan at the hands of the armies of the Abbasid Revolution, he assembled the remnants of the Umayyad armies and rallied Marwan's supporters in Armenia and the Jazira (the areas which had been Marwan's personal power base) and established himself with reportedly 60,000 men at the fortress of Sumaysat, awaiting the Abbasid advance. In the event, a negotiated settlement was reached between Ishaq and Abu Ja'far (the future Caliph al-Mansur), and many of the pro-Umayyad leaders became accepted in the ranks of the Abbasids. Thus Ishaq himself became one of the most influential members of al-Mansur's council, and even his brother Bakkar, who participated in the rebellion of Abdallah ibn Ali in 754, was pardoned again and rehabilitated, going on to govern Arminiya under al-Mansur.