Salih ibn Ali

Salih ibn Ali ibn Abdallah ibn al-Abbas (Arabic: صالح بن علي بن عبدالله بن العباس‎) (711–769 CE) was a member of the Banu Abbas who served as general and governor in Syria and Egypt.

Abu al-Fadl Salih ibn Ali صالح بن علي
Abbasid Governor of Egypt
In office 750–751
Monarch	al-Saffah
Preceded by	Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan ibn Musa ibn Nusayr (Umayyad governor)
Succeeded by	Abu Awn Abd al-Malik ibn Yazid
Abbasid Governor of Egypt
In office 753–755
Monarch	al-Saffah, al-Mansur
Preceded by	Abu Awn Abd al-Malik ibn Yazid
Succeeded by	Abu Awn Abd al-Malīk ibn Yazīd
Abbasid Governor of al-Sham (Syria)
In office 754 – 754 (Less than a year)
Monarch	al-Saffah, al-Mansur
Preceded by	Abdallah ibn Ali al-Hashimi
Succeeded by	Abd al-Wahhab ibn Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al-Abbasi (754–764)
Personal details
Born	711 CE Umayyad Caliphate
Died	769 CE al-Sham, Abbasid Caliphate
Cause of death	illness
Relations	Abbasid dynasty
Children	Al-Fadl ibn Salih, Ibrahim ibn Salih, Isma'il ibn Salih, Abd al-Malik ibn Salih
Father	Ali ibn Abdallah ibn al-Abbas al-Hashimi
Relatives	Abdallah ibn Ali (brother)
Military career
Allegiance	Abbasid Caliphate
Service/branch	Abbasid Army
Rank	General
Battles/wars	Arab–Byzantine wars

Life

Salih and his brother Abdallah were among the van of the Abbasid forces which overthrew the Umayyads in 750. The brothers besieged and took the Caliphate's capital, Damascus, and then pursued the last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II, to Egypt where he was captured and killed.[1][2]

Salih was named as the first Abbasid governor of Egypt on 9 August 750. He kept the post for less than a year, being named governor of the Jund Filastin (Palestine) in March 751. In this capacity, he sent Sa'id ibn Abdallah in the first raiding expedition of the Abbasid era against Byzantine Anatolia.[1] On 8 October 753 he was appointed again as governor of Egypt, a post he held until 21 February 755.[1] At the death of the Caliph al-Saffah, Salih's nephew, in 754, Salih's brother Abdallah launched a revolt in Syria against the new Caliph al-Mansur, claiming to have been named by the dying Saffah as his successor. Salih refused to join his brother's revolt and even led troops into Syria to help suppress it. He clashed with and defeated Abdallah's governor of Palestine, al-Hakam ibn Da'ban, while Abdallah was defeated by Abu Muslim and forced to submit to Mansur.[3]

Despite Abdallah's rebellion, Salih and his family were established as the paramount Abbasid potentates in Syria, a position they held for the next half-century, as Salih's sons al-Fadl, Ibrahim and Abd al-Malik all held governorships in Syria and Egypt.[1][4] Salih also appropriated most of the Umayyad dynasty's extensive properties in the area for himself. In addition, he played an important role in the strengthening of the Abbasid-Byzantine frontier, the thughur, re-occupying and rebuilding the former Byzantine cities of Melitene (Malatya), Germanikeia (Mar'ash) and Mopsuestia (al-Massisa). He died in Syria in 769.[1]

See also

• Ishaq ibn Sulayman al-Hashimi

References

1. Grohmann & Kennedy (1995), p. 985
2. Cobb (2001), p. 27
3. Cobb (2001), pp. 23–27
4. Cobb (2001), pp. 27–28

Sources

• Cobb, Paul M. (2001). White banners: contention in ‘Abbāsid Syria, 750–880. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-4880-0.
• Grohmann, Adolph & Kennedy, Hugh (1995). "Ṣāliḥ b. ʿAlī". In Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W. P. & Lecomte, G. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition, Volume VIII: Ned–Sam. Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 985. ISBN 978-90-04-09834-3.