When Mu’awiya (r. 661-680)—founder of the Umayyad Dynasty—had to end his unsuccessful siege of Constantinople in 678, an uneasy peace was achieved between the two foes. Constantinople’s Emperor Constantine IV (r. 668-685) kept his side of the deal, as did Mu’awiya’s immediate Umayyad successors—Yazīd I (r. 680-683), Mu’awiya II (r. 683-684?) and Marwān I (r. 684-685). This peaceful coexistence continued for a time after Emperor Constantine IV’s death in 685, as his son and successor, Emperor Justinian II of Constantinople (r. 685-695, 705-711) began his reign by making diplomatic overtures and gestures of good faith to his Umayyad counterpart, Abd al-Malik (r. 685-705). For one, in the first years of their rule, the two used diplomacy to settle a dispute caused by the Mardaites on their Syrian and Lebanese borders. Not long after, occurring before or around 692, Emperor Justinian II also began contributing masonry to Abd al-Malik’s construction projects.
As the story goes, the masonry arrangement between Justinian II and Abd al-Malik began when the Umayyad leader was considering dismantling pillars and stonework from structures in Jerusalem and Palestine to use the materials for construction projects at Mecca. Hearing of this distasteful possibility, Christians in Abd al-Malik’s court, along with the Palestinian-Christian community in general, began petitioning Abd al-Malik to consider other options. In particular, it was suggested that Emperor Justinian II of Constantinople could be convinced to provide the stonework that Abd al-Malik needed. To the Umayyad leader’s credit, he reportedly decided to halt his original plans and instead gave his subjects’ suggestion a chance. Interestingly, the resulting diplomatic exchange went well. The arrangement was described by the chronicler, Theophanes (c. 750s-818), who wrote:
“Abd al-Malik also sent orders to rebuild the temple at Mecca. He wanted to take way pillars from holy Gethsemane, but Sergios the son of Mansur (a Christian who was public finance minister and was very friendly with Abd al-Malik) and his co-leader of the Palestinian Christians, Patricius (surnamed Klausus), asked him not to do this, but to persuade Justinian through their request to send other columns in place of these. This was done” (Theophanes, Chronographia, entry for Annus Mundi 6183 [Sept. 1, 691-Aug. 31, 692]).
Unfortunately, this stonework arrangement was one of the last gestures of peaceful coexistence and good will between Emperor Justinian II and Abd al-Malik. Around the end of the year 692, Constantinople and the Umayyads went to war following a diplomatic dispute over Cyprus and military tensions on the Armenian front. Justinian II gathered forces for a campaign near Armenia, but he greatly misjudged the situation and the expedition did not go well, at all, for the forces of Constantinople. In the ensuing opening moves of the renewed conflict, the Umayyads inflicted a decisive defeat on the forces of Emperor Justinian II near Sebastopolis, which subsequently allowed the Arabs to impose their rule on Armenia and other nearby regions. A few years later, in 695, Emperor Justinian II would be dethroned and facially mutilated by rivals in his disgruntled empire, and in his absence, Abd al-Malik’s forces soon after captured Carthage (the seat of the imperial province of Africa) in 697.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Picture Attribution: (Foreigner chipping away at the lighthouse of Alexandria in the time of Abd al-Malik, attributed to Zakarīyā ibn Muḥammad Qazwīnī (c. 1203-1283), [No known rights restrictions] via Creative Commons and the NYPL).
Sources:
- Theophanes, The Chronicle of Theophanes, translated by Harry Turtledove. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982.
- The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity, edited by Oliver Nicholson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Justinian-II
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Abd-al-Malik-Umayyad-caliph
