Arminiya, also known as the Ostikanate of Arminiya or the Emirate of Armenia, was a political and geographic designation given by the Muslim Arabs to the lands of Greater Armenia, Caucasian Iberia, and Caucasian Albania, following their conquest of these regions in the 7th century. Though the caliphs initially permitted an Armenian prince to represent the province of Arminiya in exchange for tribute and the Armenians' loyalty during times of war, Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan introduced direct Arab rule of the region, headed by an ostikan with his capital in Dvin. According to the historian Stephen H. Rapp in the third edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam:Early Arabs followed Sāsānian, Parthian Arsacid, and ultimately Achaemenid practice by organising most of southern Caucasia into a large regional zone called Armīniya.
Dirham of the Abbasid Caliphate, minted in Arminiya province
Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan ibn al-Hakam was the fifth Umayyad caliph, ruling from April 685 until his death in October 705. A member of the first generation of born Muslims, his early life in Medina was occupied with pious pursuits. He held administrative and military posts under Caliph Mu'awiya I, founder of the Umayyad Caliphate, and his own father, Caliph Marwan I. By the time of Abd al-Malik's accession, Umayyad authority had collapsed across the Caliphate as a result of the Second Fitna and had been reconstituted in Syria and Egypt during his father's reign.
Gold dinar minted by the Umayyads in 695, which likely depicts Abd al-Malik.
The Ka'aba in Mecca (pictured in 1917) was the headquarters of Ibn al-Zubayr where he was besieged and defeated by Abd al-Malik's forces led by al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf in 692
In 698 Abd al-Malik's forces led by Hassan ibn al-Nu'man destroyed Carthage (ruins pictured in 2013), which signaled "the final, irretrievable end" of Byzantine power in North Africa.
The nearby town of Tunis (pictured in 2017) was subsequently founded on the caliph's orders and equipped with a naval arsenal.