IBN AL-ASH'ATH

died 704 in full 'Abd ar-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath Umayyad general who became celebrated as leader of a revolt (AD 699701) against the governor of Iraq, al-Hajjaj. A member of the noble tribe of Kindah of the old aristocracy, Ibn al-Ash'ath was at first friendly toward the Umayyad authorities but then began to smart under the governance of the plebeian administrators. Styling himself Nasir al-mu'minim (Helper of the Believers) in opposition to the Umayyad and other bad Muslims, he slowly became so estranged from al-Hajjaj that a clash of wills led to open revolt. In 699 al-Hajjaj dispatched a crack force of Kufans and Basrans, known as the Peacock Army, to put down a rebellion in Kabulistan (in present Afghanistan). After an initial invasion of Kabulistan, Ibn al-Ash'ath, the commanding general, decided to wait until spring before continuing his campaign. Al-Hajjaj pressed for immediate action, and the dispute led to a revolt by Ibn al-Ash'ath and his troops. Ibn al-Ash'ath moved slowly westward into Iraq, gathering support from both Arabs and non-Arabs along the way and engaging in two battles, one a victory and one a mild setback, forcing him to withdraw from Basra to Kufah. Al-Hajjaj, having received in the meantime a steady stream of Syrian reinforcements from the caliph 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, confronted Ibn al-Ash'ath's superior army of 200,000 at Dayr al-Jamajim, outside Kufah. Negotiations were initiated by the caliph's agents, who offered the rebels the dismissal of al-Hajjaj, equal pay with their Syrian counterparts, and a governorship for Ibn al-Ash'ath. The Iraqis, however, rejected the proposals and were defeated in battle in September 701. The last of the rebellion was finally put down in October, when al-Hajjaj destroyed the Iraqi army in a violent battle at Maskin, on the Shatt ad-Dujaylah. The defeated Iraqis fled to Sijistan, eventually surrendering to the Syrians, while Ibn al-Ash'ath took refuge in Kabul; he either was murdered or committed suicide in 704.