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124-522: The ancient settlement lies adjacent to the modern town. Excavations have revealed that the site was occupied intermittently over the past 5,000 years, its earliest occupation occurring in the Early Bronze Age in the third millennium BC. The site's extensive settlement history is in part due to its location on the King's Highway , a major commercial route in antiquity. The majority of evidence for this population

248-567: A "member of the family" of Muhammad, without making explicit mention of the Abbasids. These missions met with success both among Arabs and non-Arabs ( mawali ), although the latter may have played a particularly important role in the growth of the movement. Around 746, Abu Muslim assumed leadership of the Hashimiyya in Khurasan. In 747, he successfully initiated an open revolt against Umayyad rule, which

372-805: A claim unrecognized outside of al-Andalus, he maintained that the Umayyad Caliphate, the true, authentic caliphate, more legitimate than the Abbasids, was continued through him in Córdoba . It was to survive for centuries. Some Umayyads also survived in Syria, and their descendants would once more attempt to restore their old regime during the Fourth Fitna . Two Umayyads, Abu al-Umaytir al-Sufyani and Maslama ibn Ya'qub, successively seized control of Damascus from 811 to 813, and declared themselves caliphs. However, their rebellions were suppressed. Previté-Orton argues that

496-570: A collapse in revenue, the converts' lands would become the property of their villages and remain liable for the full rate of the kharaj . In tandem, Umar intensified the Islamization drive of his Marwanid predecessors, enacting measures to distinguish Muslims from non-Muslims and inaugurating Islamic iconoclasm . His position among the Umayyad caliphs is unusual, in that he became the only one to have been recognized in subsequent Islamic tradition as

620-532: A diverse agricultural economy, with einkorn wheat and barley supplemented with grapes , figs , lentils , and chickpeas . Agriculture in Dhiban heavily depended upon the use of cisterns providing water for irrigation, since the semi-arid climate made rainfall uncertain. The farmers practised multi-cropping and raised swine, sheep, goats, and cattle; they also caught fish, shellfish, and crabs. However, Dhiban appears to have declined in importance after 1356, when

744-529: A genuine caliph ( khalifa ) and not merely as a worldly king ( malik ). After the death of Umar II, another son of Abd al-Malik, Yazid II ( r.  720–724 ) became caliph. Not long after his accession, another mass revolt against Umayyad rule was staged in Iraq, this time by the prominent statesman Yazid ibn al-Muhallab . The latter declared a holy war against the Umayyads, took control of Basra and Wasit and gained

868-491: A kneeling spear wall formation in battle, probably as a result of their encounters with Roman armies. This was radically different from the original Bedouin style of mobile and individualistic fighting. The Byzantine and Sassanid Empires relied on money economies before the Muslim conquest and that system remained in effect during the Umayyad period. Byzantine coinage was used until 658; Byzantine gold coins were still in use until

992-460: A large and heavily armed force. After making a detour and coming to the Transjordan area between River Arnon and River Jabbok , they made the same request to Amorite King Sihon . For the second time, on the same road, they were denied passage and King Sihon engaged them in battle at Jahaz, where they won that battle "by the edge of the sword". As a result, they gained control in that land and to

1116-687: A largely impenetrable region for earlier Muslim armies, between 705 and 715. Despite the distance from the Arab garrison towns of Khurasan, the unfavorable terrain and climate and his enemies' numerical superiority, Qutayba, through his persistent raids, gained the surrender of Bukhara in 706–709, Khwarazm and Samarkand in 711–712 and Farghana in 713. He established Arab garrisons and tax administrations in Samarkand and Bukhara and demolished their Zoroastrian fire temples . Both cities developed as future centers of Islamic and Arabic learning. Umayyad suzerainty

1240-466: A majority of the caliphate's population, and Jews were allowed to practice their own religion but had to pay the jizya ( poll tax ) from which Muslims were exempt. Muslims were required to pay the zakat , which was earmarked or hypothecated explicitly for various alms programmes for the benefit of Muslims or Muslim converts. Under the early Umayyad caliphs, prominent positions were held by Christians, some of whom belonged to families that had served

1364-744: A military and trade road along the fortified Limes Arabicus . In the Byzantine period , the road was an important pilgrimage route for Christians , as it passed next to Mount Nebo , Moses ' death and burial site according to the Bible . Another road connected it with Jerusalem passing by Livias and the traditional site of Jesus ' baptism by John the Baptist on the Jordan River near, known today in Arabic as al-Maghtas , and on via Jericho . During Muslim rule from

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1488-707: A monument of victory over the Christians that would distinguish Islam's uniqueness within the common Abrahamic setting of Jerusalem, home of the two older Abrahamic faiths, Judaism and Christianity. An alternative motive may have been to divert the religious focus of Muslims in the Umayyad realm from the Ka'aba in Zubayrid Mecca (683–692), where the Umayyads were routinely condemned during the Hajj. In Damascus, Abd al-Malik's son and successor al-Walid I ( r.  705–715 ) confiscated

1612-697: A more serious threat had arisen in Khorasan . The Hashimiyya movement (a sub-sect of the Kaysanites Shia ), led by the Abbasid family, overthrew the Umayyad caliphate. The Abbasids were members of the Hashim clan, rivals of the Umayyads, but the word "Hashimiyya" seems to refer specifically to Abu Hashim, a grandson of Ali and son of Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya. According to certain traditions, Abu Hashim died in 717 in Humeima in

1736-414: A naval campaign against the city. The Byzantines destroyed the Umayyad fleets and defeated Maslama's army, prompting his withdrawal to Syria in 718. The massive losses incurred during the campaign led to a partial retrenchment of Umayyad forces from the captured Byzantine frontier districts, but already in 720, Umayyad raids against Byzantium recommenced. Nevertheless, the goal of conquering Constantinople

1860-648: A population decrease at the site. Coins, a multi-generational family tomb, and an inscription do, however, indicate that the site remained inhabited and there were some building projects during this time. The inscription also suggests that the Romans maintained a road near the site, which might have been the King's Highway. Later on in the Roman period and leading into the Byzantine period Dhiban's population began gradually increasing in size. It

1984-483: A revolt against Umayyad rule from Iraq. An army mobilized by Iraq's governor Ibn Ziyad intercepted and killed Husayn outside Kufa at the Battle of Karbala . Although it stymied active opposition to Yazid in Iraq, the killing of Muhammad's grandson left many Muslims outraged and significantly increased Kufan hostility toward the Umayyads and sympathy for the family of Ali. The next major challenge to Yazid's rule emanated from

2108-534: A series of raids on coastal areas of the Visigothic Kingdom paved the way to the permanent occupation of most of Iberia by the Umayyads (starting in 711), and on into south-eastern Gaul (last stronghold at Narbonne in 759). Hisham's reign witnessed the end of expansion in the west, following the defeat of the Arab army by the Franks at the Battle of Tours in 732. Arab expansion had already been limited following

2232-561: A stalemate at the Battle of Siffin in early 657. Ali agreed to settle the matter with Mu'awiya by arbitration, though the talks failed to achieve a resolution. The decision to arbitrate fundamentally weakened Ali's political position as he was forced to negotiate with Mu'awiya on equal terms, while it drove a significant number of Ali's supporters, who became known as the Kharijites , to revolt. Ali's coalition steadily disintegrated and many Iraqi tribal nobles secretly defected to Mu'awiya, while

2356-496: A summit of pro-Umayyad Syrian tribes, namely the Quda'a and their Kindite allies, organized by Ibn Bahdal in the old Ghassanid capital of Jabiya , Marwan was elected caliph in exchange for economic privileges to the loyalist tribes. At the subsequent Battle of Marj Rahit in August 684, Marwan led his tribal allies to a decisive victory against a much larger Qaysite army led by al-Dahhak, who

2480-438: A token portion of the provincial tax revenues to Damascus, the caliph let his governors rule with practical independence. After al-Mughira's death in 670, Mu'awiya attached Kufa and its dependencies to the governorship of Basra, making Ziyad the practical viceroy over the eastern half of the caliphate. Afterward, Ziyad launched a concerted campaign to firmly establish Arab rule in the vast Khurasan region east of Iran and restart

2604-486: Is concentrated in a 15-hectare tel. The release of the Mesha Inscription in 1868 led to an upsurge in visitors to the town (including tourists and scholars) due to its ostensible confirmation of biblical passages. The first substantial settlement at Dhiban's tel was during the Early Bronze Age. Archaeological evidence for a habitation of the tel between the Early Bronze Age and Iron Age has not yet been found. However,

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2728-516: The kharaj (land tax). Since avoidance of taxation incentivized both mass conversions to Islam and abandonment of land for migration to the garrison cities, it put a strain on tax revenues, especially in Egypt, Iraq and Khurasan. Thus, "the Umayyad rulers had a vested interest in preventing the conquered peoples from accepting Islam or forcing them to continue paying those taxes from which they claimed exemption as Muslims", according to Hawting. To prevent

2852-719: The American Schools of Oriental Research 's project in 1950–1953, led by F.V. Winnett and later by W.L. Reed. The ASOR effort, now led by William Morton, continued with seasons in 1955, 1956, and 1965. The current excavation and restoration project is the Dhiban Excavation and Development Project, co-directed by scholars at the University of Liverpool, Knox College, and the University of California, Berkeley. Work has been conducted in 2002, 2004, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2012, and 2013. King%27s Highway (Ancient) The King's Highway

2976-546: The Battle of Dayr al-Jamajim in April. The suppression of the revolt marked the end of the Iraqi muqātila as a military force and the beginning of Syrian military domination of Iraq. Iraqi internal divisions, and the utilization of more disciplined Syrian forces by Abd al-Malik and al-Hajjaj, voided the Iraqis' attempt to reassert power in the province. To consolidate Umayyad rule after

3100-463: The Battle of Toulouse in 721. In 739 a major Berber Revolt broke out in North Africa, which was probably the largest military setback in the reign of Caliph Hisham. From it emerged some of the first Muslim states outside the caliphate. It is also regarded as the beginning of Moroccan independence, as Morocco would never again come under the rule of an eastern caliph or any other foreign power until

3224-528: The Book of Numbers ( Numbers 20:17 , 21:22 ), where it is told that the Israelites in their Exodus journey needed to use the road. They had left from Kadesh and requested right of way from the King of Edom but were refused passage. He vowed he would attack them if they used the road. They even offered to pay for any water their cattle drank. Still the King of Edom refused them passage and advanced against them with

3348-513: The Byzantines . The employment of Christians was part of a broader policy of religious accommodation that was necessitated by the presence of large Christian populations in the conquered provinces, as in Syria. This policy also boosted Mu'awiya's popularity and solidified Syria as his power base. The Umayyad era is often considered the formative period in Islamic art . During the pre-Islamic period ,

3472-566: The Maghreb (western North Africa), conquering Tangier and Sus in 708/709. Musa's Berber mawla , Tariq ibn Ziyad , invaded the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula) in 711 and within five years most of Hispania was conquered . Al-Hajjaj managed the eastern expansion from Iraq. His lieutenant governor of Khurasan , Qutayba ibn Muslim , launched numerous campaigns against Transoxiana (Central Asia), which had been

3596-576: The Qadariyya . In 744, Yazid III , a son of al-Walid I, was proclaimed caliph in Damascus, and his army tracked down and killed al-Walid II. Yazid III has received a certain reputation for piety and may have been sympathetic to the Qadariyya. He died a mere six months into his reign. Yazid had appointed his brother, Ibrahim , as his successor, but Marwan II (744–50), the grandson of Marwan I, led an army from

3720-579: The Umayyads or Banu Umayya were a leading clan of the Quraysh tribe of Mecca . By the end of the 6th century, the Umayyads dominated the Quraysh's increasingly prosperous trade networks with Syria and developed economic and military alliances with the nomadic Arab tribes that controlled the northern and central Arabian desert expanses, affording the clan a degree of political power in the region. The Umayyads under

3844-470: The early Muslim conquests during the reign of Caliph Umar. Al-Walid I's successor, his brother Sulayman ( r.  715–717 ), continued his predecessors' militarist policies, but expansion mostly ground to a halt during his reign. The deaths of al-Hajjaj in 714 and Qutayba in 715 left the Arab armies in Transoxiana in disarray. For the next 25 years, no further eastward conquests were undertaken and

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3968-554: The largest empires in history in terms of area. The dynasty was toppled by the Abbasids in 750. Survivors of the dynasty established themselves in Córdoba which, in the form of an emirate and then a caliphate , became a world centre of science, medicine, philosophy and invention during the Islamic Golden Age . The Umayyad Caliphate ruled over a vast multiethnic and multicultural population. Christians, who still constituted

4092-423: The 1950s and both built upon preexisting structures and used them for raw materials. In the following years, the land surrounding the tel was distributed to the community for private ownership and the tel itself remains Jordanian government property. The first work at Dhibon was conducted by Duncan Mackenzie in 1910, mainly a surface examination. Scientific excavations began at the site in the mid-20th century with

4216-573: The 20th century. It was followed by the collapse of Umayyad authority in al-Andalus. In India , the Umayyad armies were defeated by the south Indian Chalukya dynasty and by the north Indian Pratiharas , stagnating further eastward Arab expansion. In the Caucasus , the confrontation with the Khazars peaked under Hisham: the Arabs established Derbent as a major military base and launched several invasions of

4340-786: The 7th century, the road was the main Hajj route from Syria to Mecca , until the Ottoman Turks built the Tariq al-Bint in the 16th century. During the Crusader period, use of the road was problematic. The road passed through the province of Oultrejordain of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem . During periods of truce, the Hajj caravans were usually left unharmed by the Crusader lords of Oultrejourdain; however, Raynald of Châtillon attacked and plundered

4464-459: The 9th and 8th centuries BCE. These large buildings appear to have been abandoned in the Iron IIc period. The site also featured a large necropolis to the northeast of the tel. This contained multi-generational burials with corresponding funerary offerings, and one had a clay coffin with an anthropomorphic lid. The necropolis appears to be contemporary with these building projects. Another name for Dibon

4588-530: The Ansar and the Iraqis, while the bulk of the Quraysh was wary of his rule. The first challenge to his authority came from the Qurayshite leaders al-Zubayr and Talha, who had opposed Uthman's empowerment of the Umayyad clan but feared that their own influence and the power of the Quraysh, in general, would dissipate under Ali. Backed by one of Muhammad's wives, A'isha , they attempted to rally support against Ali among

4712-419: The Arab immigrants and troops who arrived during the conquest of Iraq in the 630s–640s , resented the transition of power to Syria. They remained divided, nonetheless, as both cities competed for power and influence in Iraq and its eastern dependencies and remained divided between the Arab tribal nobility and the early Muslim converts, the latter of whom were divided between the pro- Alids (loyalists of Ali) and

4836-741: The Arab tribes who originally served in the army of the Eastern Roman Empire in Syria. These were supported by tribes in the Syrian desert and in the frontier with the Byzantines, as well as Christian Syrian tribes. Soldiers were registered with the Army Ministry, the Diwan Al-Jaysh, and were salaried. The army was divided into junds based on regional fortified cities. The Umayyad Syrian forces specialised in close order infantry warfare, and favoured using

4960-420: The Arabs lost territory. The Tang Chinese defeated the Arabs at the Battle of Aksu in 717, forcing their withdrawal to Tashkent . Meanwhile, in 716, the governor of Khurasan, Yazid ibn al-Muhallab , attempted to conquer the principalities of Jurjan and Tabaristan along the southern Caspian coast. His Khurasani and Iraqi troops were reinforced by Syrians, marking their first deployment to Khurasan, but

5084-448: The Arabs' initial successes were reversed by the local Iranian coalition of Farrukhan the Great . Afterward, the Arabs withdrew in return for a tributary agreement. On the Byzantine front, Sulayman took up his predecessor's project to capture Constantinople with increased vigor. His brother Maslama besieged the Byzantine capital from the land, while Umar ibn Hubayra al-Fazari launched

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5208-406: The Arabs' severe losses in the offensive against Constantinople, Umar drew down Arab forces on the caliphate's war fronts, though Narbonne in modern France was conquered during his reign. To maintain stronger oversight in the provinces, Umar dismissed all his predecessors' governors, his new appointees being generally competent men he could control. To that end, the massive viceroyalty of Iraq and

5332-586: The Berbers of Ifriqiya, where the Umayyad governor was assassinated by his discontented Berber guards. Warfare on the frontiers was also resumed, with renewed annual raids against the Byzantines and the Khazars in Transcaucasia . The final son of Abd al-Malik to become caliph was Hisham ( r.  724–743 ), whose long and eventful reign was above all marked by the curtailment of military expansion. Hisham established his court at Resafa in northern Syria, which

5456-682: The Bible, the city was conquered by the Amorite king Sihon from the Moabites . Later, it fell into the hands of the Israelites and was allocated to either Gad or Reuben. According to the Mesha Stele found at the site, Mesha , a Moabite king from the 9th century BC, ruled from Dhiban, as his father did 30 years before him. So it was probably a Moabite town from at least the late 10th century BC. Biblical texts suggest that Dhiban remained under Moabite control until

5580-589: The Byzantine Empire and raids into Syria by the Byzantines' Mardaite allies compelled him to sign a peace treaty with Byzantium in 689 which substantially increased the Umayyads' annual tribute to the Empire. During his siege of Circesium in 691, Abd al-Malik reconciled with Zufar and the Qays by offering them privileged positions in the Umayyad court and army, signaling a new policy by the caliph and his successors to balance

5704-526: The Egyptian dīwān in 705/706. Arabic ultimately became the sole official language of the Umayyad state, but the transition in faraway provinces, such as Khurasan, did not occur until the 740s. Although the official language was changed, Greek and Persian-speaking bureaucrats who were versed in Arabic kept their posts. According to Gibb, the decrees were the "first step towards the reorganization and unification of

5828-613: The Hejaz where Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr , the son of al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam and grandson of Abu Bakr, advocated for a shura among the Quraysh to elect the caliph and rallied opposition to the Umayyads from his headquarters in Islam's holiest sanctuary, the Ka'aba in Mecca. The Ansar and Quraysh of Medina also took up the anti-Umayyad cause and in 683 expelled the Umayyads from the city. Yazid's Syrian troops routed

5952-685: The Kharijites, who followed their own strict interpretation of Islam. The caliph applied a decentralized approach to governing Iraq by forging alliances with its tribal nobility, such as the Kufan leader al-Ash'ath ibn Qays , and entrusting the administration of Kufa and Basra to highly experienced members of the Thaqif tribe, al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba and the latter's protege Ziyad ibn Abihi (whom Mu'awiya adopted as his half-brother), respectively. In return for recognizing his suzerainty, maintaining order, and forwarding

6076-406: The Khorasani Arabs rose sharply after the losses suffered in the Battle of the Defile in 731. In 734, al-Harith ibn Surayj led a revolt that received broad backing from Arabs and natives alike, capturing Balkh but failing to take Merv . After this defeat, al-Harith's movement seems to have been dissolved. The problem of the rights of non-Arab Muslims would continue to plague the Umayyads. Hisham

6200-445: The King's Highway for trade. The Nabataeans used the road as a trade route for luxury goods such as frankincense and spices from southern Arabia . It was possibly the cause of their war with Hasmonean Alexander Jannaeus and with Iturea in the beginning of the 1st century BC. During the Roman period the road was called Via Regia . Emperor Trajan rebuilt and renamed it Via Traiana Nova , under which name it served as

6324-434: The Medinans at the Battle of al-Harra and subsequently plundered Medina before besieging Ibn al-Zubayr in Mecca . The Syrians withdrew upon news of Yazid's death in 683, after which Ibn al-Zubayr declared himself caliph and soon after gained recognition in most provinces of the caliphate, including Iraq and Egypt. In Syria Ibn Bahdal secured the succession of Yazid's son and appointed successor Mu'awiya II , whose authority

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6448-453: The Muslim conquests in the surrounding areas. Not long after Ziyad's death, he was succeeded by his son Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad . Meanwhile, Amr ibn al-As ruled Egypt from the provincial capital of Fustat as a virtual partner of Mu'awiya until his death in 663, after which loyalist governors were appointed and the province became a practical appendage of Syria. Under Mu'awiya's direction, the Muslim conquest of Ifriqiya (central North Africa)

6572-409: The Nabataean empire in the mid-1st century BC. These include Nabataean-style ceramics, coins, and architecture (such as a temple with a Nabataean-like layout, Nabataean masonry, an aqueduct, retaining wall, and monumental stairway). In 106 the Romans incorporated Nabataean territories into their own empire, including Dhiban. The Nabataean monumental buildings were abandoned and there were indications of

6696-498: The Second Fitna, the Marwanids launched a series of centralization, Islamization and Arabization measures. To prevent further rebellions in Iraq, al-Hajjaj founded a permanent Syrian garrison in Wasit , situated between Kufa and Basra, and instituted a more rigorous administration in the province. Power thereafter derived from the Syrian troops, who became Iraq's ruling class, while Iraq's Arab nobility, religious scholars and mawālī became their virtual subjects. The surplus from

6820-471: The Sinai desert to Eilat and Aqaba . From there the Highway turned northward through the Arabah , past Petra and Ma'an to Udhruh , Sela , and Shaubak . It passed through Kerak and the land of Moab to Madaba , Rabbah Ammon/Philadelphia (modern Amman ), Gerasa , Bosra , Damascus , and Tadmor , ending at Resafa on the upper Euphrates. Numerous ancient states, including Edom , Moab , Ammon , and various Aramaean polities depended largely on

6944-453: The Umayyad Caliphate reached its greatest territorial extent. The war with the Byzantines had resumed under his father after the civil war, with the Umayyads defeating the Byzantines at the Battle of Sebastopolis in 692. The Umayyads frequently raided Byzantine Anatolia and Armenia in the following years. By 705, Armenia was annexed by the caliphate along with the principalities of Caucasian Albania and Iberia , which collectively became

7068-401: The Umayyads by awarding them command roles in the Muslim conquest of Syria . One of the appointees was Yazid , the son of Abu Sufyan, who owned property and maintained trade networks in Syria. Abu Bakr's successor Umar ( r.  634–644 ) curtailed the influence of the Qurayshite elite in favor of Muhammad's earlier supporters in the administration and military, but nonetheless allowed

7192-456: The Umayyads to pay the Empire an annual tribute of gold, horses and slaves. Mu'awiya's main challenge was reestablishing the unity of the Muslim community and asserting his authority and that of the caliphate in the provinces amid the political and social disintegration of the First Fitna. There remained significant opposition to his assumption of the caliphate and to a strong central government. The garrison towns of Kufa and Basra, populated by

7316-470: The agriculturally rich Sawad lands was redirected from the muqātila to the caliphal treasury in Damascus to pay the Syrian troops in Iraq. The system of military pay established by Umar, which paid stipends to veterans of the earlier Muslim conquests and their descendants, was ended, salaries being restricted to those in active service. The old system was considered a handicap on Abd al-Malik's executive authority and financial ability to reward loyalists in

7440-407: The allegiance of the Iraqis. The recognition of Mu'awiya in Kufa, referred to as the "year of unification of the community" in the Muslim traditional sources, is generally considered the start of his caliphate. With his accession, the political capital and the caliphal treasury were transferred to Damascus , the seat of Mu'awiya's power. Syria's emergence as the metropolis of the Umayyad Caliphate

7564-426: The army. Thus, a professional army was established during Abd al-Malik's reign whose salaries derived from tax proceeds. In 693, the Byzantine gold solidus was replaced in Syria and Egypt with the dinar . Initially, the new coinage contained depictions of the caliph as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community and its supreme military commander. This image proved no less acceptable to Muslim officialdom and

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7688-425: The cathedral of St. John the Baptist and founded the Great Mosque in its place as a "symbol of the political supremacy and moral prestige of Islam", according to historian Nikita Elisséeff. Noting al-Walid's awareness of architecture's propaganda value, historian Robert Hillenbrand calls the Damascus mosque a "victory monument" intended as a "visible statement of Muslim supremacy and permanence". Under al-Walid I

7812-506: The death of Mu'awiya II. Al-Dahhak in Damascus, the Qays tribes in Qinnasrin (northern Syria) and the Jazira, the Judham in Palestine, and the Ansar and South Arabians of Homs all opted to recognize Ibn al-Zubayr. Marwan ibn al-Hakam, the leader of the Umayyads expelled to Syria from Medina, was prepared to submit to Ibn al-Zubayr as well but was persuaded to forward his candidacy for the caliphate by Ibn Ziyad. The latter had been driven out of Iraq and strove to uphold Umayyad rule. During

7936-473: The disturbed archaeological context at the site means that this might not be definitive. Dhiban might correspond with the town “Tpn” or “Tbn” found in Egyptian texts from the reigns of Thutmoses III, Amenhotep III, and Rameses II. The Bible calls the city "Divon" ( Hebrew : דִּיבֹן ), or "Divon Gad" ( דִּיבֹן גָּד ‎) because the city was said to have been occupied by the tribe of Gad . The name in Biblical Hebrew means wasting or pining . According to

8060-409: The diverse tax-systems in the provinces, and also a step towards a more definitely Muslim administration". Indeed, it formed an important part of the Islamization measures that lent the Umayyad Caliphate "a more ideological and programmatic coloring it had previously lacked", according to Blankinship. In 691/692, Abd al-Malik completed the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. It was possibly intended as

8184-491: The east was broken up. Umar's most significant policy entailed fiscal reforms to equalize the status of the Arabs and mawali , thus remedying a long-standing issue which threatened the Muslim community. The jizya (poll tax) on the mawali was eliminated. Hitherto, the jizya, which was traditionally reserved for the non-Muslim majorities of the caliphate, continued to be imposed on non-Arab converts to Islam, while all Muslims who cultivated conquered lands were liable to pay

8308-652: The east, where his armies attempted to subdue both Tokharistan , with its centre at Balkh , and Transoxiana , with its centre at Samarkand . Both areas had already been partially conquered but remained difficult to govern. Once again, a particular difficulty concerned the question of the conversion of non-Arabs, especially the Sogdians of Transoxiana. Following the Umayyad defeat in the " Day of Thirst " in 724, Ashras ibn 'Abd Allah al-Sulami, governor of Khurasan , promised tax relief to those Sogdians who converted to Islam but went back on his offer when it proved too popular and threatened to reduce tax revenues. Discontent among

8432-414: The end of the Iron Age. Archaeological excavations conducted in the 1950s revealed settlements dating back to the Early Bronze Age, as well as structures from the Iron Age. However, in the early sixth century BC, Dhiban suffered destruction at the hands of the Babylonians and remained uninhabited until Roman times. The Mesha Inscription connected Dhiban with the biblical “Dibon” as well as implying that it

8556-404: The end of the Second Fitna and the reunification of the caliphate under Abd al-Malik's rule. Iraq remained politically unstable and the garrisons of Kufa and Basra had become exhausted by warfare with Kharijite rebels. In 694 Abd al-Malik combined both cities as a single province under the governorship of al-Hajjaj, who oversaw the suppression of the Kharijite revolts in Iraq and Iran by 698 and

8680-513: The family, their burgeoning alliance with the powerful Banu Kalb tribe as a counterbalance to the influential Himyarite settlers in Homs who viewed themselves as equals to the Quraysh in nobility, or the lack of a suitable candidate at the time, particularly amid the plague of Amwas which had already killed Abu Ubayda and Yazid. Under Mu'awiya's stewardship, Syria remained domestically peaceful, organized and well-defended from its former Byzantine rulers. Umar's successor, Uthman ibn Affan ,

8804-408: The feud between Syria and Iraq further weakened the empire. The first four caliphs created a stable administration for the empire, following the practices and administrative institutions of the Byzantine Empire which had ruled the same region previously. These consisted of four main governmental branches: political affairs, military affairs, tax collection, and religious administration. Each of these

8928-410: The former Byzantine territories of Syria and Egypt. In Medina, he relied extensively on the counsel of his Umayyad cousins, the brothers al-Harith and Marwan ibn al-Hakam . According to the historian Wilferd Madelung , this policy stemmed from Uthman's "conviction that the house of Umayya, as the core clan of Quraysh, was uniquely qualified to rule in the name of Islam". Uthman's nepotism provoked

9052-399: The former Qurayshite elite and take control of the Muslim state. The Muhajirun gave allegiance to one of their own, the early, elderly companion of Muhammad , Abu Bakr ( r.  632–634 ), and put an end to Ansarite deliberations. Abu Bakr was viewed as acceptable by the Ansar and the Qurayshite elite and was acknowledged as caliph (leader of the Muslim community). He showed favor to

9176-432: The growing foothold of Abu Sufyan's sons in Syria, which was all but conquered by 638. When Umar's overall commander of the province Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah died in 639, he appointed Yazid governor of Syria's Damascus , Palestine and Jordan districts. Yazid died shortly after and Umar appointed his brother Mu'awiya in his place. Umar's exceptional treatment of Abu Sufyan's sons may have stemmed from his respect for

9300-459: The hands of the Quraysh, as opposed to Ali's determination to diffuse power among all of the Muslim factions. From early in his reign, Uthman displayed explicit favouritism to his kinsmen, in stark contrast to his predecessors. He appointed his family members as governors over the regions successively conquered under Umar and himself, namely much of the Sasanian Empire , i.e. Iraq and Iran, and

9424-507: The historian Hugh N. Kennedy , Uthman was killed because of his determination to centralize control over the caliphate 's government by the traditional elite of the Quraysh, particularly his Umayyad clan, which he believed possessed the "experience and ability" to govern, at the expense of the interests, rights and privileges of many early Muslims. After Uthman's assassination, Ali was recognized as caliph in Medina, though his support stemmed from

9548-592: The holy city of Mecca . In modern Jordan , Highway 35 and Highway 15 follow this route, connecting Irbid in the north with Aqaba in the south. The southern part crosses several deep wadis , making it a highly scenic if curvy and rather low-speed road. The Highway began in Heliopolis, Egypt and then went eastward to Clysma (modern Suez ), through the Mitla Pass and the Egyptian forts of Nekhl and Themed in

9672-508: The house of Muhammad ibn Ali, the head of the Abbasid family, and before dying named Muhammad ibn Ali as his successor. This tradition allowed the Abbasids to rally the supporters of the failed revolt of Mukhtar , who had represented themselves as the supporters of Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya. Beginning around 719, Hashimiyya missions began to seek adherents in Khurasan. Their campaign was framed as one of proselytism ( dawah ). They sought support for

9796-483: The interests of the Qays and Yaman in the Umayyad state. With his unified army, Abd al-Malik marched against the Zubayrids of Iraq, having already secretly secured the defection of the province's leading tribal chiefs, and defeated Iraq's ruler, Ibn al-Zubayr's brother Mus'ab , at the Battle of Maskin in 691. Afterward, the Umayyad commander al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf besieged Mecca and killed Ibn al-Zubayr in 692, marking

9920-536: The ire of the Ansar and the members of the shura . In 645/46, he added the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) to Mu'awiya's Syrian governorship and granted the latter's request to take possession of all Byzantine crown lands in Syria to help pay his troops. He had the surplus taxes from the wealthy provinces of Kufa and Egypt forwarded to the treasury in Medina, which he used at his personal disposal, frequently disbursing its funds and war booty to his Umayyad relatives. Moreover,

10044-582: The latter's ally Amr ibn al-As ousted Ali's governor from Egypt in July 658. In July 660 Mu'awiya was formally recognized as caliph in Jerusalem by his Syrian tribal allies. Ali was assassinated by a Kharijite dissident in January 661. His son Hasan succeeded him but abdicated in return for compensation upon Mu'awiya's arrival to Iraq with his Syrian army in the summer. At that point, Mu'awiya entered Kufa and received

10168-527: The leadership of Abu Sufyan ibn Harb were the principal leaders of Meccan opposition to the Islamic prophet Muhammad , but after the latter captured Mecca in 630, Abu Sufyan and the Quraysh embraced Islam. To reconcile his influential Qurayshite tribesmen, Muhammad gave his former opponents, including Abu Sufyan, a stake in the new order. Abu Sufyan and the Umayyads relocated to Medina , Islam's political centre, to maintain their new-found political influence in

10292-459: The local government workers in conquered provinces to keep their jobs under the new Umayyad government. Thus, much of the local government's work was recorded in Greek , Coptic , and Persian . It was only during the reign of Abd al-Malik that government work began to be regularly recorded in Arabic. The Umayyad army was mainly Arab, with its core consisting of those who had settled in urban Syria and

10416-449: The lucrative Sasanian crown lands of Iraq, which Umar had designated as communal property for the benefit of the Arab garrison towns of Kufa and Basra , were turned into caliphal crown lands to be used at Uthman's discretion. Mounting resentment against Uthman's rule in Iraq and Egypt and among the Ansar and Quraysh of Medina culminated in the killing of the caliph in 656. In the assessment of

10540-452: The military of the Byzantine Empire and their Ghassanid client kings, were "more accustomed to order and obedience" than their Iraqi counterparts, according to the historian Julius Wellhausen . Mu'awiya relied on the powerful Kalbite chief Ibn Bahdal and the Kindite nobleman Shurahbil ibn Simt alongside the Qurayshite commanders al-Dahhak ibn Qays al-Fihri and Abd al-Rahman , the son of

10664-511: The months following the battle, the inter-tribal strife undermined the foundation of Umayyad power: the Syrian army. In 685, Marwan and Ibn Bahdal expelled the Zubayrid governor of Egypt and replaced him with Marwan's son Abd al-Aziz , who would rule the province until his death in 704/05. Another son, Muhammad , was appointed to suppress Zufar's rebellion in the Jazira. Marwan died in April 685 and

10788-526: The nascent Muslim community. Muhammad's death in 632 left open the succession of leadership of the Muslim community. Leaders of the Ansar , the natives of Medina who had provided Muhammad safe haven after his emigration from Mecca in 622, discussed forwarding their own candidate out of concern that the Muhajirun , Muhammad's early followers and fellow emigrants from Mecca, would ally with their fellow tribesmen from

10912-464: The nearby town of Hisban lost its status as capital of the al-Balqa region in favour of Amman . Periods of drought in the ensuing years exacerbated this decline, and Dhiban was abandoned during the early years of Ottoman rule. The Ottoman defter for Transjordan from 1538 to 1596 neglected Dhiban, which implies that the settlement declined through the 16th century. Families of the pastoral nomadic Bani Hamida tribe established modern Dhiban in

11036-763: The north of it. The tribes of Manasseh (eastern half), Gad , and Reuben subsequently settled those territories. Many of the wars of the Israelites against the kingdoms of the trans-Jordanian highlands during the period of the Kingdom of Israel (and its sister-kingdom, the Kingdom of Judah ) were probably fought, at least in part, over control of the Highway. Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate or Umayyad Empire ( UK : / uː ˈ m aɪ j æ d / , US : / uː ˈ m aɪ æ d / ; Arabic : ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة , romanized :  al-Khilāfa al-Umawiyya )

11160-514: The northern Caucasus, but failed to subdue the nomadic Khazars. The conflict was arduous and bloody, and the Arab army even suffered a major defeat at the Battle of Marj Ardabil in 730. Marwan ibn Muhammad, the future Marwan II, finally ended the war in 737 with a massive invasion that is reported to have reached as far as the Volga , but the Khazars remained unsubdued. Hisham suffered still worse defeats in

11284-619: The northern frontier and entered Damascus in December 744, where he was proclaimed caliph. Marwan immediately moved the capital north to Harran , in present-day Turkey . A rebellion soon broke out in Syria, perhaps due to resentment over the relocation of the capital, and in 746 Marwan razed the walls of Homs and Damascus in retaliation. Marwan also faced significant opposition from Kharijites in Iraq and Iran, who put forth first Dahhak ibn Qays and then Abu Dulaf as rival caliphs. In 747, Marwan managed to reestablish control of Iraq, but by this time

11408-463: The office of the caliph into a kingship. The act was met with disapproval or opposition by the Iraqis and the Hejaz-based Quraysh, including the Umayyads, but most were bribed or coerced into acceptance. Yazid acceded after Mu'awiya's death in 680 and almost immediately faced a challenge to his rule by the Kufan partisans of Ali who had invited Ali's son and Muhammad's grandson Husayn to stage

11532-413: The pilgrims twice. His deeds eventually led to his own death at the hands of Saladin , and to the fall of the Crusader kingdom in 1187 in the Battle of Hattin . With his knowledge of ancient history, it was this route that T. E. Lawrence took (160 miles in 49 hours) to Cairo to inform British Intelligence of the Arab victory at Aqaba in July 1917. The King's Highway ( Derech HaMelech ) is referred to in

11656-474: The prominent general Khalid ibn al-Walid , to guarantee the loyalty of the key military components of Syria. Mu'awiya preoccupied his core Syrian troops in nearly annual or bi-annual land and sea raids against Byzantium, which provided them with battlefield experience and war spoils, but secured no permanent territorial gains. Toward the end of his reign the caliph entered a thirty-year truce with Byzantine emperor Constantine IV ( r.  668–685 ), obliging

11780-464: The province of Arminiya . In 695–698 the commander Hassan ibn al-Nu'man al-Ghassani restored Umayyad control over Ifriqiya after defeating the Byzantines and Berbers there. Carthage was captured and destroyed in 698, signaling "the final, irretrievable end of Roman power in Africa ", according to Kennedy. Kairouan was firmly secured as a launchpad for later conquests, while the port town of Tunis

11904-402: The reason for the decline of the Umayyads was the rapid expansion of Islam. During the Umayyad period, mass conversions brought Persians, Berbers, Copts, and Aramaic to Islam. These mawalis (clients) were often better educated and more civilised than their Arab overlords. The new converts, on the basis of equality of all Muslims, transformed the political landscape. Previté-Orton also argues that

12028-421: The remainder each year being sent to the central government in Damascus. As the central power of the Umayyad rulers waned in the later years of the dynasty, some governors neglected to send the extra tax revenue to Damascus and created great personal fortunes. As the empire grew, the number of qualified Arab workers was too small to keep up with the rapid expansion of the empire. Therefore, Muawiya allowed many of

12152-575: The succession resulted in the Second Fitna , and power eventually fell to Marwan I , from another branch of the clan. Syria remained the Umayyads' main power base thereafter, with Damascus as their capital. The Umayyads continued the Muslim conquests , conquering Ifriqiya , Transoxiana , Sind , the Maghreb and Hispania ( al-Andalus ). At its greatest extent, the Umayyad Caliphate covered 11,100,000 km (4,300,000 sq mi), making it one of

12276-429: The support of the Kufan elite. The caliph's Syrian army defeated the rebels and pursued and nearly eliminated the influential Muhallabids , marking the suppression of the last major Iraqi revolt against the Umayyads. Yazid II reversed Umar II's equalization reforms, reimposing the jizya on the mawali , which sparked revolts in Khurasan in 721 or 722 that persisted for some twenty years and met strong resistance among

12400-477: The tel by the 14th century Mamluk period, if not earlier during the 13th century Ayyubid period. Several structures on the site have been dated to this period using coins and ceramics. In 1261, the Mamluk sultan Baibars granted Dhiban as an iqta to the son of an Ayyubid prince. Dhiban prospered throughout the 1200s and 1300s. It lay on the region's main trade route and supplied meat to nearby towns. The town had

12524-485: The tombs of the Umayyads in Syria, sparing only that of Umar II , and most of the remaining members of the Umayyad family were tracked down and killed. When Abbasids declared amnesty for members of the Umayyad family, eighty gathered to receive pardons, and all were massacred. One grandson of Hisham, Abd al-Rahman I , survived, escaped across North Africa, and established an emirate in Moorish Iberia ( Al-Andalus ). In

12648-514: The troops of Basra, prompting the caliph to leave for Iraq's other garrison town, Kufa, where he could better confront his challengers. Ali defeated them at the Battle of the Camel , in which al-Zubayr and Talha were slain and A'isha consequently entered self-imposed seclusion. Ali's sovereignty was thereafter recognized in Basra and Egypt and he established Kufa as the caliphate's new capital. Although Ali

12772-544: The two forces met in the Battle of the Zab , and the Umayyads were defeated. Damascus fell to the Abbasids in April, and in August, Marwan was killed in Egypt. Some Umayyads in Syria continued to resist the takeover. The Umayyad princes Abu Muhammad al-Sufyani , al-Abbas ibn Muhammad, and Hashim ibn Yazid launched revolts in Syria and the Islamic–Byzantine frontier around late 750, but they were defeated. The victors desecrated

12896-459: Was Karchoh, and there is the possibility that in the 9th century the name Dibon referred to a tribe of which Mesha was the leader, and that the name Dibon was attached to the town later (see van der Steen and Smelik 2007) There has been little evidence recovered from the site for the Persian , Hellenistic , and early Nabataean periods. But several lines of evidence indicate that Dhiban became part of

13020-632: Was a trade route of vital importance in the ancient Near East , connecting Africa with Mesopotamia . It ran from Egypt across the Sinai Peninsula to Aqaba , then turned northward across Transjordan , to Damascus and the Euphrates River . After the Muslim conquest of the Fertile Crescent in the 7th century AD and until the 16th century, it was the darb al-hajj or pilgrimage road for Muslims from Syria , Iraq , and beyond heading to

13144-472: Was a wealthy Umayyad and early Muslim convert with marital ties to Muhammad. He was elected by the shura council, composed of Muhammad's cousin Ali , al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam , Talha ibn Ubayd Allah , Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas and Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf , all of whom were close, early companions of Muhammad and belonged to the Quraysh. He was chosen over Ali because he would ensure the concentration of state power into

13268-421: Was able to replace Uthman's governors in Egypt and Iraq with relative ease, Mu'awiya had developed a solid power-base and an effective military against the Byzantines from the Arab tribes of Syria. Mu'awiya did not claim the caliphate but was determined to retain control of Syria and opposed Ali in the name of avenging his kinsman Uthman, accusing the caliph of culpability in his death. Ali and Mu'awiya fought to

13392-544: Was carried out under the sign of the black flag . He soon established control of Khurasan, expelling its Umayyad governor, Nasr ibn Sayyar , and dispatched an army westwards. Kufa fell to the Hashimiyya in 749, the last Umayyad stronghold in Iraq, Wasit , was placed under siege , and in November of the same year Abul Abbas as-Saffah was recognized as the new caliph in the mosque at Kufa. At this point Marwan mobilized his troops from Harran and advanced toward Iraq. In January 750

13516-415: Was closer to the Byzantine border than Damascus, and resumed hostilities against the Byzantines, which had lapsed following the failure of the last siege of Constantinople. The new campaigns resulted in a number of successful raids into Anatolia , but also in a major defeat (the Battle of Akroinon ), and did not lead to any significant territorial expansion. From the caliphate's north-western African bases,

13640-461: Was effectively abandoned, and the frontier between the two empires stabilized along the line of the Taurus and Anti-Taurus Mountains , over which both sides continued to launch regular raids and counter-raids during the next centuries. Contrary to expectations of a son or brother succeeding him, Sulayman had nominated his cousin, Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz , as his successor and he took office in 717. After

13764-490: Was even mentioned in Eusebius’ Onomasticon as a very large village in the 4th century AD. Excavations have uncovered two significant buildings from this time period—a bathhouse and two churches. The exact date of Dhiban's early Islamic period settlement is under debate and could be from the 7th–8th century Umayyad period or the 8-9th century Abbasid period. The community thrived during this time and covered most of

13888-502: Was founded and equipped with an arsenal on Abd al-Malik's orders to establish a strong Arab fleet. Hassan ibn al-Nu'man continued the campaign against the Berbers, defeating them and killing their leader, the warrior queen al-Kahina , between 698 and 703. His successor in Ifriqiya, Musa ibn Nusayr , subjugated the Berbers of the Hawwara , Zenata and Kutama confederations and advanced into

14012-446: Was further subdivided into more branches, offices, and departments. Geographically, the empire was divided into several provinces, the borders of which changed numerous times during the Umayyad reign. Each province had a governor appointed by the caliph. The governor was in charge of the religious officials, army leaders, police, and civil administrators in his province. Local expenses were paid for by taxes coming from that province, with

14136-621: Was launched by the commander Uqba ibn Nafi in 670, which extended Umayyad control as far as Byzacena (modern southern Tunisia), where Uqba founded the permanent Arab garrison city of Kairouan . In contrast to Uthman, Mu'awiya restricted the influence of his Umayyad kinsmen to the governorship of Medina, where the dispossessed Islamic elite, including the Umayyads, was suspicious or hostile toward his rule. However, in an unprecedented move in Islamic politics, Mu'awiya nominated his own son, Yazid I , as his successor in 676, introducing hereditary rule to caliphal succession and, in practice, turning

14260-425: Was likely restricted to Damascus and Syria's southern districts. Mu'awiya II had been ill from the beginning of his accession, with al-Dahhak assuming the practical duties of his office, and he died in early 684 without naming a successor. His death marked the end of the Umayyads' Sufyanid ruling house, called after Mu'awiya I's father Abu Sufyan. Umayyad authority nearly collapsed in their Syrian stronghold after

14384-454: Was replaced in 696 or 697 with image-less coinage inscribed with Qur'anic quotes and other Muslim religious formulas. In 698/699, similar changes were made to the silver dirhams issued by the Muslims in the former Sasanian Persian lands of the eastern caliphate. Arabic replaced Persian as the language of the dīwān in Iraq in 697, Greek in the Syrian dīwān in 700, and Greek and Coptic in

14508-410: Was secured over the rest of conquered Transoxiana through tributary alliances with local rulers, whose power remained intact. From 708/709, al-Hajjaj's kinsman Muhammad ibn al-Qasim conquered northwestern South Asia and established out of this new territory the province of Sind . The massive war spoils netted by the conquests of Transoxiana, Sind and Hispania were comparable to the amounts accrued in

14632-567: Was slain. Not long after, the South Arabians of Homs and the Judham joined the Quda'a to form the tribal confederation of Yaman . Marj Rahit led to the long-running conflict between the Qays and Yaman coalitions. The Qays regrouped in the Euphrates river fortress of Circesium under Zufar ibn al-Harith al-Kilabi and moved to avenge their losses. Although Marwan regained full control of Syria in

14756-491: Was subsequently given authority over the rest of the eastern caliphate. Resentment among the Iraqi troops towards al-Hajjaj's methods of governance, particularly his death threats to force participation in the war efforts and his reductions to their stipends, culminated with a mass Iraqi rebellion against the Umayyads in c.  700 . The leader of the rebels was the Kufan nobleman Ibn al-Ash'ath , grandson of al-Ash'ath ibn Qays. Al-Hajjaj defeated Ibn al-Ash'ath's rebels at

14880-447: Was succeeded by Al-Walid II (743–44), the son of Yazid II. Al-Walid is reported to have been more interested in earthly pleasures than in religion, a reputation that may be confirmed by the decoration of the so-called "desert palaces" (including Qusayr Amra and Khirbat al-Mafjar ) that have been attributed to him. He quickly attracted the enmity of many, both by executing a number of those who had opposed his accession and by persecuting

15004-503: Was succeeded by his eldest son Abd al-Malik . Although Ibn Ziyad attempted to restore the Syrian army of the Sufyanid caliphs, persistent divisions along Qays–Yaman lines contributed to the army's massive rout and Ibn Ziyad's death at the hands of the pro-Alid forces of Mukhtar al-Thaqafi of Kufa at the Battle of Khazir in August 686. The setback delayed Abd al-Malik's attempts to reestablish Umayyad authority in Iraq, while pressures from

15128-573: Was the capital of Mesha, a prominent Moabite king from the 9th century BCE, though its role in Mesha's reign has not been confirmed. In the Iron IIb period, Dhiban underwent at least three large building projects. The tel was artificially enlarged during this period and included several new architectural features, including retaining walls, towers, and a monumental city wall. The building dates of these features have not been confirmed, but might be somewhere between

15252-521: Was the result of Mu'awiya's twenty-year entrenchment in the province, the geographic distribution of its relatively large Arab population throughout the province in contrast to their seclusion in garrison cities in other provinces, and the domination of a single tribal confederation, the Kalb-led Quda'a , as opposed to the wide array of competing tribal groups in Iraq. The long-established, formerly Christian Arab tribes in Syria, having been integrated into

15376-587: Was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty . Uthman ibn Affan , the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a member of the clan. The family established dynastic, hereditary rule with Mu'awiya I , the long-time governor of Greater Syria , who became caliph after the end of the First Fitna in 661. After Mu'awiya's death in 680, conflicts over

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