Abd al-Malik ibn Salih

He distinguished himself in several raids against the Byzantine Empire, but his great influence and authority in Syria resulted in Caliph Harun al-Rashid imprisoning him in 803.

[4] From this position, he led expeditions into Byzantine Asia Minor in 790/791 and possibly also in 792/793, when his son Abd al-Rahman captured the fortress of Thebasa.

[2][5] In 792, after the death of Ibrahim, Abd al-Malik became the head of his clan, and in 794 he was appointed as governor of the Jund Dimashq (a Syrian district which included Damascus), with his brother Abdallah succeeding him in governing the borderlands with the Byzantine Empire.

[4] During the next couple of years, he also served brief stints as governor of Medina and Egypt,[2] but he was soon back on the Byzantine frontier: in late 797 he led raids into Cappadocia and Galatia, moving as far as Ancyra where he received an embassy from Empress Irene of Athens (r. 797–802) which asked for a peace agreement, but which he rebuffed.

The actual reason remains unclear, although most sources agree that his own son, Abd ar-Rahman, informed the Caliph that he was allegedly planning to overthrow him.