Abū al-Ṭufayl said: “A special audience hall was constructed for ʿAbd al-Malik—the place where he was given the oath of allegiance (1). A domed chamber had already been built there for him, and when he entered it he remarked, ‘Ibn Ḥantamah al-Aḥwazī (2)—meaning ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb—used to regard this as unlawful for himself.’ It is also said that when he removed the muṣḥaf from his lap he declared, ‘This is the last pact between me and you.’

[ʿAbd al-Malik was quick to shed blood, yet he was resolute, intelligent, astute, and adept at governing worldly affairs, never leaving the business of his realm to anyone else. His mother was ʿĀʾishah bint Muʿāwiyah ibn al-Mughīrah ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ, whose father Muʿāwiyah was the man who mutilated the nose of Hamzah, the Prophet’s uncle, on the Day of Uḥud] (3).

Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related: “When ʿAbd al-Malik marched to Iraq to confront Muṣʿab ibn al-Zubayr, Yazīd ibn al-Aswad al-Jurashī accompanied him. When the two armies met he prayed, ‘O Allah, set a barrier between these two mountains and grant authority to whichever of them is dearer to You.’ We have already described how he killed Muṣʿab, entered Kūfah, and placed Muṣʿab’s head before him—although Muṣʿab had been among those dearest and most beloved to him.

He (Saʿīd) also said: “When ʿAbd al-Malik received the oath of allegiance as caliph, ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb wrote to him:

In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Compassionate. From ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar to ʿAbd al-Malik, Commander of the Faithful. Peace be upon you. I praise Allah to you—there is no god but He. To proceed: you are a shepherd, and every shepherd will be questioned about his flock. ‘Allah—there is no deity but Him—will surely gather you all on the Day of Resurrection, about which there is no doubt; and who is truer in word than Allah?’ (87) [al-Nisāʾ: 87]. No one. Peace.

He dispatched the letter with Salām. Some objected that he had placed his own name before that of the Commander of the Faithful, but when they examined his earlier correspondence with Muʿāwiyah they found it written in the same manner, so they overlooked the matter (4).

Al-Wāqidī said: Ibn Abī Sabrah (5) narrated to me, from Abū Mūsā al-Ḥannāṭ, from Ibn Kaʿb, who said: I heard ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān proclaim, ‘People of Madinah, I am the one most entitled to adhere to the original practice. A flood of ḥadith has reached us from the East which we do not recognize—our knowledge of them extends only to the recitation of the Quran. Therefore, hold fast to the muṣḥaf upon which your wronged Imām united you (6), and to the obligatory duties that your wronged Imām established for you—may Allah have mercy on him—for in that matter he sought the counsel of Zayd ibn Thābit, and what an excellent counselor he was for Islam—may Allah have mercy on him. Thus the two of them confirmed what they confirmed and omitted whatever fell outside their standard (7).’

Ibn Jurayj reported from his father: “ʿAbd al-Malik performed the Hajj with us in the year 75—two years after the death of Ibn al-Zubayr.”