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Al-Walid I
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==Early life== Al-Walid was born in [[Medina]] in {{circa|674}}, during the rule of [[Mu'awiya I]] ({{reign|661|680}}), the founder and first [[caliph]] of the [[Umayyad Caliphate]].{{sfn|Kennedy|2002|p=127}} His father, [[Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan]], was a member of the [[Umayyad dynasty]].{{sfn|Kennedy|2002|p=127}} While Mu'awiya belonged to the Umayyads' [[Abu Sufyan|Sufyanid]] branch, resident in [[Bilad al-Sham|Syria]], al-Walid's family was part of the larger [[Abu al-As ibn Umayya|Abu al-As]] line in the [[Hejaz]] (western [[Arabian Peninsula|Arabia]], where [[Mecca]] and Medina are located). His mother, Wallada bint al-Abbas ibn al-Jaz, was a descendant of [[Zuhayr ibn Jadhima]], a famous 6th-century chief of the [[Banu Abs]] tribe.{{sfn|Kennedy|2002|p=127}}{{sfn|Hinds|1990|p=118}} In 684, after Umayyad rule collapsed amid the [[Second Muslim Civil War]], the Umayyads of the Hejaz were expelled by a rival claimant to the caliphate, [[Ibn al-Zubayr]], and relocated to Syria. There al-Walid's grandfather, the elder statesman [[Marwan I]] ({{reign|684|685}}), was recognized as caliph by pro-Umayyad Arab tribes. With the tribes' support, he restored the dynasty's rule in Syria and [[Egypt in the Middle Ages|Egypt]] by the end of his reign.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|pp=92–93}} Abd al-Malik succeeded Marwan and conquered the rest of the caliphate, namely [[History of Iraq#Middle Ages|Iraq]], [[History of Iran#Medieval period|Iran]], and Arabia. With the key assistance of his viceroy of Iraq, [[al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf]], Abd al-Malik instituted several centralization measures, which consolidated Umayyad territorial gains.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|pp=98–99}} [[File:Qasr Burqu 2014.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.1|alt=A ruined basalt fortified structure in the desert of modern Jordan|The ruins of [[Qasr Burqu']], a fortified outpost in the [[Syrian Desert]] built or expanded by al-Walid while he was still a prince in 700/01 CE]] The [[Arab–Byzantine wars|war]] with the [[Byzantine Empire]], which dated to the [[Muslim conquest of Syria]] in the 630s, resumed in 692 after the collapse of the truce that had been reached three years earlier. Annual campaigns were thereafter launched by the Umayyads in the [[al-Awasim|Arab–Byzantine frontier zone]] and beyond. During his father's caliphate, al-Walid led the campaigns in 696, 697, 698 and 699.{{sfn|Marsham|2009|p=125}} In his summer 696 campaign, he raided the area between [[Malatya]] (Melitene) and [[Mopsuestia|al-Massisa]] (Mopsuestia), while in the following year, he targeted a place known in Arabic sources as 'Atmar', located at some point north of Malatya.{{sfn|Rowson|1989|p=176, note 639}} He also led the annual [[Hajj]] pilgrimage in Mecca in 698.{{sfn|Marsham|2009|p=125}} In 700 or 701, al-Walid patronized the construction or expansion of [[Qasr Burqu']], a fortified [[Syrian Desert]] outpost on the route connecting [[Palmyra]] in the north with the [[Azraq, Jordan|Azraq]] oasis and [[Wadi Sirhan]] basin in the south, ultimately leading to Mecca and Medina.{{sfn|Bacharach|1996|p=31}} His patronage is attested by an inscription naming him as "the emir al-Walid, son of the [[commander of the faithful]]".{{sfn|Marsham|2009|pp=126–127}} According to the historian [[Jere L. Bacharach]], al-Walid built the nearby site of [[Jabal Says]], likely as a [[Bedouin]] summer encampment between his base of operations in [[al-Qaryatayn]] and Qasr Burqu'.{{sfn|Bacharach|1996|pp=31–32}} Bacharach speculates that al-Walid used the sites, located in the territory of Arab tribes, to reaffirm their loyalty, which had been critical to the Umayyads during the civil war.{{sfn|Bacharach|1996|p=32}}
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