Raja ibn Haywa

[7] The family likely hailed from or settled in an area inhabited by their Kindite tribal kin or patrons, whose prominence in Syria had grown under Mu'awiya and further still under Caliph Marwan I (r. 684–685).

[7] It was likely through the patronage of the Kindites in the caliphs' courts in Syria that Raja gained favor with the Umayyads, particularly Marwan's son and successor, Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705).

[9] Raja's role in its construction is described in the earliest known Muslim literary work specifically dedicated to the merits of Jerusalem, the Faḍāʿil al-Bayt al-Muqaddas written by the Jerusalemite preacher Ahmad al-Wasiti before 1019.

[11] In an account recorded by the 15th-century Palestine-based historian Mujir ad-Din al-Ulaymi, Raja and Yazid informed Abd al-Malik that after the Dome of the Rock's completion there remained a surplus of 100,000 gold dinars in the construction budget.

[8] The caliph offered them the sum as an additional reward for their efforts, but both men refused; as a result, Abd al-Malik ordered that the coins be melted to gild the building's dome.

[12] The historian Nasser Rabbat speculates Raja played a greater role in the founding of the Dome of the Rock, beyond fiscally managing its construction.

He proposes that Raja advised Abd al-Malik to choose the site of the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount and formulated the Qur'anic inscriptions which decorate the structure's interior and exterior.

[14] According to al-Baladhuri, Raja later interceded with Abd al-Malik to pardon the rebels who had participated in the mass anti-Umayyad, Iraqi rebellion of Ibn al-Ash'ath, a prominent Kufa-based Kindite, in 700–701.

[15] By the time Sulayman acceded to the caliphate in 715, Raja had gained a reputation as the ascetic of the Umayyads and the "outstanding man of religion of his age for Syria", according to Bosworth.

[20] Abd al-Malik had formally designated al-Walid and Sulayman as his successors, but did not specify anyone beyond them; nonetheless, his intention that the office of the caliphate remain in the hands of his direct descendants was common knowledge in the ruling family.

[16] According to the medieval Persian historian Abu Nu'aym al-Isfahani (d. 1038), he refused to accompany Umar's successor, Caliph Yazid II (r. 720–724) on the latter's visit to Jerusalem.