al-Malik, the Hashimite Abbasid, uncle of al-Mansur, and one of the renowned champions.
He is the one who conquered Egypt and was commissioned to fight Marwan al-Himar (1). He mustered an army in pursuit of him and caught up with him at Busir—a village in the Egyptian province—surprised him by night, and the wretch fought until he was killed.
Salih later served as deputy governor of Damascus, and he had several distinguished sons.
He transmitted hadith from his father, and his own reports were related by his two sons, Ismaʿil and ʿAbd al-Malik.
He also took the field (2) against the Byzantines at Dabiq, where their tyrant Constantine son of Aleyon led one hundred thousand men. Salih routed them, killing, capturing, taking spoils, and he founded the frontier city of Adana (3).
After him his son al-Fadl assumed the governorship of Syria.
He died in 151 or 152 AH, at roughly sixty years of age.
(1) Marwan b. Muhammad b. Marwan b. al-Hakam, Abu Abd al-Malik—also nicknamed al-Jaʿdi and al-Himar—was the last Umayyad caliph in Syria. A seasoned commander, he ascended the Marwanid throne in 127 AH/744 CE. During his reign the Abbasid movement gained strength. After his army was defeated by Qahtaba b. Shabib al-Taʾi at the Zab River between Mosul and Irbil, he fled but was overtaken at Busir in Upper Egypt and killed there in 132 AH/750 CE. The sobriquet al-Himar (the “Donkey,” or “Donkey of al-Jazira”) refers to his audacity in warfare, whereas al-Jaʿdi derives from his tutor Jaʿd b. Dirham. Main sources: Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil, 5:424-429; al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-Islam, 5:32 (Annals of 127 AH and after); Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa-l-nihaya, 10:22-25, 11:42-48; al-Suyuti, Tarikh al-khulafaʾ, 254-255; Ibn al-Imad, Shadharat al-dhahab, 1:153.
(2) al-Masaf (pl. masaf, with a doubled f) denotes the battlefield itself—the place where the battle lines are drawn up.
(3) Adhana (pronounced like ḥasana) is a well-known frontier town near al-Masisah. It produced many scholars and attracted others. According to Ahmad b. Yahya b. Jabir, the town was founded in 141 or 142 AH/758-60 CE when Khurasani troops camped there on the orders of Salih b. Ali b. Abd Allah b. Abbas. In 165 AH/781 CE, the caliph Harun al-Rashid built a palace nearby, close to the bridge over the Sayhan River. Later, in 193 AH/809 CE, Abu Sulaym Faraj al-Khādim rebuilt and fortified Adhana, settling troops from Khurasan there on the orders of the caliph Muhammad al-Amin b. al-Rashid (see Yaqut, Muʿjam al-buldan).