Raja ibn Haywah

Raja Ibn Haywah al-Kindi was a leading Islamic jurist and Arabic calligraphist who is probably best known as the likely artist responsible for the detailed inscriptions on the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, which was completed in 692.

Career Under the Ummayads

Between 687 and 691, the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (r.685-705) instructed two Arab architects, Raja ibn Haywah Al-Kindi and Yazid Ibn Sallam to construct a dome with the best materials available to them. [Report by Ahmad al-Wasiti in "Fada'il al-bayt al-muqaddas" Jerusalem, 1979: 80-81] He was at the beginning of his career during the reign of `Abd al-Malik. However, although Raja may have functioned as a secretary under the caliphs Sulayman (r.715-717) and Umar II (r.717-720), there is no evidence that he was ever a copyist, adhering to a specific set of stylizations of the sort visible at the Dome of the Rock, or that a group of such copyists flourished in Palestine in the time of `Abd al-Malik. [C. E. Bosworth, "Raja' ibn Haywa al-Kindi and the Umayyad Caliphs", Islamic Quarterly 16 1972: 43 and n. 5, the sources vary]

He was also accused of being particularly loyal to the Umayyad caliph's; Sheikh Sa'id ibn Jubayr (d.714) has said, "Raja ibn Haywah used to be regarded as the most knowledgeable "faqih" in Syria, but if you provoke him, you will find him Syrian in his views quoting Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan saying such-and-such." ["Tabaqat al-Fuqaha", in the biography of Sa`id ibn Jubayr]

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