JOURNAL OF ARABIC AND ISLAMIC STUDIES

JAIS
Andrew Marsham
115
Jarīr (d. 111/729), is linked by tradition to al-Ḥajjāj’s execution of Saʿīd
b. Jubayr:
How many a breaker of the two pledges of allegiance have you left, with
his beard dyed with the blood of [his] jugular veins. 38
An unnamed Anṣārī poet is said to have denigrated the head of Zayd b.
ʿAlī when it was displayed in Medina in 122/739–40:
Indeed, O violator of the covenant (nāqiḍ al-mīthāq), rejoice in what has
brought you disaster.
You betrayed the contract (naqaḍta al-ʿahd) and the covenant of olden
times which preceded you.
Iblīs has violated an oath (akhlafa) regarding what he promised you. 39
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caliphs’ claims to represent God’s covenant on earth made rebellion
against them also a rebellion against God. Violent rebels were, therefore,
‘making war on God’ (yuhāribūna Allāh) and ‘violating God’s covenant’
(yanquḍūna ʿahd Allāh) with the consequence of ‘corruption in the land’
(al-fasād fī l-arḍ). 40
The punishments in Umayyad rhetoric
In contrast to their clear justification for executions, Umayyad texts give
little insight into the precise punishments themselves. In general, they
simply emphasise the Umayyads’ God-given right to mete out exemplary
and humiliating punishment. Thus, in a letter full of blood-curdling
threats against insurgents, also from the last decades of Umayyad rule,
the head of their dīwān al-rasāʾil, ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd writes:
God will assist us with His angels and help us with His military support,
with what His custom (sunna) brings and His tradition (ʿāda) has
established; and we will impose the penalties (naqamāt) from God, the
exemplary punishments (nakāl) and deadly might (saṭawāt muhlika); you
have seen that in the revelations (al-manāzil), and you have known it on the
battlefields upon which wrong meets right. So hear the good news from us
38 yā rubba nākithi bayʿatayni taraktahu wa­khiḍābu liḥyatihi damu alawdājī.
Ibid., ii, 1265; tr. M. Hinds, in al­Ṭabarī, The History of al­Ṭabarī,
Volume xxiii: The Zenith of the Marwānid House, ed. E. Yar­Shater (New
York, 1990), 212; Jarīr b. ʿAṭīya, Sharḥ dīwān Jarīr, ed. M. I. A. al­Sāwī
(Cairo, 1934; reprint. Beirut, n.d.), 110.
39 al­Ṭabarī, Taʾrīkh, ii, 1714.
40 Cf. ibid., ii, 1758, where a letter of al­Walīd II cites Qurʾān 2.251.