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Natil ibn Qays

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Natil ibn Qays ibn Zayd al-Judhami (Arabic: ناتل بن قيس الجذامي) (died 685/86) was the chieftain of the Banu Judham tribe and a prominent tribal leader in Palestine during the reigns of caliphs Mu'awiya I and Yazid I. In 684, he revolted against the Umayyads, took control of Palestine and gave his allegiance to Caliph Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr. He joined the latter in Mecca after pro-Zubayrid forces were routed at the Battle of Marj Rahit. He may have renewed his rebellion in Palestine in 685/86 and was slain during the hostilities.

Life edit

Natil ibn Qays was a chieftain of the Banu Judham, an Arab tribe resident in Palestine, specifically its dominant clan, the Banu Sa'd.[1] His father, Qays ibn Zayd, was a member of a delegation of Judham tribesmen to the Islamic prophet Muhammad; upon their meeting, the delegates converted to Islam and Qays was declared the chief of the Banu Sa'd.[1] Natil is listed by the 9th-century historian al-Baladhuri as being among the Arab chiefs who assembled in Jerusalem with their respective tribesmen to give the oath of allegiance to Mu'awiya I as caliph in 660.[2] Specifically, he is described as the leader of the Judham and Lakhm tribes of Jund Filastin (military district of Palestine).[2] Throughout the reigns of Mu'awiya I and Yazid I, between 661 and 683, he was "evidently omnipotent in Palestine and dominated its financial administration".[3]

After the deaths of Yazid and his son and successor Mu'awiya II in 684, the Qays tribes of northern Syria led by Zufar ibn al-Harith al-Kilabi and Homs under Nu'man ibn Bashir al-Ansari declared allegiance for the Mecca-based, anti-Umayyad caliph Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr. In Palestine, the staunchly pro-Umayyad governor and a chieftain of the Banu Kalb, Ibn Bahdal, left to rally loyalist tribes in the Jordan district against Ibn al-Zubayr, and left Rawh ibn Zinba as his acting governor. The latter was Natil's rival for leadership of the Judham. Not long after, Natil launched a revolt, expelled Rawh and declared himself governor in allegiance with Ibn al-Zubayr.[4][5]

Natil contributed troops from Palestine to support the pro-Zubayrid governor of Damascus, al-Dahhak ibn Qays al-Fihri, and the Qaysi tribes at the Battle of Marj Rahit against the Umayyad caliph Marwan I and his tribal allies, dominated by the Kalb.[6] The pro-Zubayrid forces were routed and Natil consequently fled Palestine to seek safe haven with Ibn al-Zubayr in Mecca.[7] According to the 9th-century historians, al-Ya'qubi and al-Mas'udi, Natil staged a revolt in Palestine against Marwan's son and successor, Abd al-Malik, though the historian Julius Wellhausen writes that this event may be erroneous.[8] According to this account, Natil was slain in the revolt in 685/86 fighting Umayyad loyalist tribes.[3]

References edit

  1. ^ a b Hasson 1993, p. 98.
  2. ^ a b Gil 1997, p. 76.
  3. ^ a b Gil 1997, p. 77.
  4. ^ Hawting 1989, pp. 49–50.
  5. ^ Wellhausen 1927, p. 171.
  6. ^ Hawting 1989, p. 56.
  7. ^ Wellhausen 1927, p. 176.
  8. ^ Wellhausen 1927, p. 187.

Bibliography edit

  • Gil, Moshe (1997) [1983]. A History of Palestine, 634–1099. Translated by Ethel Broido. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-59984-9.
  • Hasson, Isaac (1993). "Le chef judhāmite Rawḥ ibn Zinbāʿ". Studia Islamica (in French) (77): 95–122. JSTOR 1595791.
  • Hawting, G. R., ed. (1989). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XX: The Collapse of Sufyānid Authority and the Coming of the Marwānids: The Caliphates of Muʿāwiyah II and Marwān I and the Beginning of the Caliphate of ʿAbd al-Malik, A.D. 683–685/A.H. 64–66. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-88706-855-3.
  • Wellhausen, Julius (1927). The Arab Kingdom and Its Fall. Translated by Margaret Graham Weir. Calcutta: University of Calcutta. OCLC 752790641.
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