Maslama ibn ʿAbd al-Malik (1) ibn Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ ibn Umayyah, the Qurashī Umayyad, known by the kunyas Abū Saʿīd and Abū al-Aṣbagh, of Damascus.

Ibn ʿAsākir (2) said: His house in Damascus stood in the Quarter of the Qibāb, by the qibli (southern) gate of the Congregational Mosque. During the reign of his brother al-Walīd he supervised the pilgrimage; he led numerous expeditions against the Byzantines and laid siege to Constantinople. His brother Yazīd appointed him governor of the two Iraqs, then removed him, after which he was made governor of Armenia.

He transmitted hadith from ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. Those who narrated from him include ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Abī ʿUthmān, ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Quzaʿah, ʿUyaynah—the father of Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah ibn Abī ʿImrān (3)—Muʿāwiyah ibn Ḥudayj (4), and Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā al-Ghassānī.

Al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār said: Maslama was one of the outstanding men of the Banū Umayyah and was nicknamed “al-Jarādah al-Ṣafrāʾ” (the Yellow Locust). He left many monuments, fought numerous battles, and inflicted heavy losses on the Byzantines.

I say: He captured a large number of their fortresses. When he was appointed over Armenia he campaigned against the Turks, reached Bāb al-Abwāb, razed the city there, and rebuilt it nine years later. In 98 AH he campaigned against Constantinople, besieged it, took the city of the Ṣaqālibah, defeated the king of the Burjān (5), and then resumed the siege of Constantinople.

Al-Awzāʿī relates: While he was campaigning against them he was seized by a severe headache. The Byzantine emperor sent him a skullcap with the message, “Put it on your head and the headache will leave you.” Fearing a ruse, he first placed it on the head of a beast of burden and saw no harm, then on the head of one of his companions and again saw no harm. He then put it on his own head and the headache disappeared. When he split it open he found seventy lines containing nothing but this verse, repeated over and over:

“Indeed, Allah holds the heavens and the earth lest they cease to exist; and if they should cease, none could hold them after Him. Truly, He is All-Forbearing, All-Forgiving.” (Fāṭir 41)

Ibn ʿAsākir narrated this (6).

Maslama endured tremendous hardship during the siege of Constantinople, and the Muslims with him suffered extreme hunger. When ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz became caliph he dispatched a courier ordering them to withdraw, but Maslama swore that he would not lift the siege until they built for him