YAZID I

in full Yazid Ibn Mu'awiyah Ibn Abi Sufyan born c. 645, , Arabia died 683, Damascus second Umayyad caliph (680683), particularly noted for his suppression of a rebellion led by Husayn, the son of 'Ali. The death of Husayn at the Battle of Karbala' (680) made him a martyr and made permanent a division in Islam between the party of 'Ali (the Shi'ites) and the majority Sunnites. As a young man Yazid commanded the Arab army that his father, Mu'awiyah, sent to lay siege to Constantinople. Soon afterward he became caliph, but many of those whom his father had kept in check rebelled against him. Although presented in many sources as a dissolute ruler, Yazid energetically tried to continue the policies of Mu'awiyah and kept many of the men who had been in his father's service. He strengthened the administrative structure of the empire and improved the military defenses of Syria. The financial system was reformed. He lightened the taxation of some Christian groups and abolished the tax concessions granted to the Samaritans as a reward for aid they had rendered in the days of the Arab conquests. He concerned himself with agricultural matters and improved the irrigation system of the Damascus oasis.