Abu Muhammad al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf ibn al-Hakam ibn Abi Aqil al-Thaqafi (), known simply as al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, was a governor who served the Umayyad Caliphate. He began his service under Caliph Abd al-Malik (), who successively promoted him as the head of the Caliph's (select troops), the governor of the Hejaz (western Arabia) in 692–694, and the practical viceroy of a unified Iraqi province and the eastern parts of the Caliphate in 694. Al-Hajjaj retained the last post under Abd al-Malik's son and successor al-Walid I (), whose decision-making was heavily influenced by al-Hajjaj, until his death in 714.
As the governor of Iraq and the east, al-Hajjaj instituted key reforms. Among these were the minting of silver dirhams with strictly Muslim religious formulas instead of the coins' traditional, pre-Islamic Sasanian design; changing the language of the (tax registers) of Iraq from Persian to Arabic. To revive agricultural production and increase tax revenue, al-Hajjaj expelled non-Arab, Muslim converts from the garrison cities of Kufa and Basra to their villages of origin and collected from them the (poll tax) nominally reserved for non-Muslim subjects, and oversaw large-scale canal digging projects. In 701, al-Hajjaj, with reinforcements from Syria, crushed a mass rebellion led by the Kufan Arab nobleman Ibn al-Ash'ath whose ranks spanned the Arab troops, Muslim converts and religious elites of Iraq. Consequently, al-Hajjaj further tightened control over the province, founding the city of Wasit to house the loyalist Syrian troops whom he thereafter relied on to enforce his rule.
Al-Hajjaj was a highly capable though ruthless governor, strict in character, and a harsh and demanding master. Widely feared by his contemporaries, he became a deeply controversial figure and an object of deep-seated enmity among later, pro-Abbasid writers, who ascribed to him persecutions and mass executions.
Ancestry Al-Hajjaj was born in in the city of Ta'if in the Hejaz (western Arabia, where Mecca and Medina are located). He belonged to the family of Abu Aqil, called after al-Hajjaj's paternal great-grandfather. The family was part of the Banu Awf branch of the Thaqif tribe. Members of the Thaqif attained high military and administrative ranks in the nascent Caliphate and played important command and economic roles during and after the early Muslim conquests, particularly in Iraq. The tribe's political influence continued to grow with the advent of the Umayyad Caliphate in 661. Al-Hajjaj's ancestry was not particularly distinguished: the Abu Aqil family was poor and its members had worked as stone carriers and builders. His mother, al-Fari'a, was the granddaughter of the companion of Muhammad, Urwah ibn Masʽud, and had been married and divorced by al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba, her cousin and a member of the Thaqif who was appointed governor of Kufa by the first Umayyad caliph, Mu'awiya I ().
Early life and career As a boy, al-Hajjaj acquired the nickname ('little dog'), with which he was later derisively referred to. His early life is obscure, except for his having been a schoolmaster in his hometown, which was another source of derision to his enemies, where he taught his pupils to copy and recite the Quran. His father Yusuf ibn al-Hakam and elder brother Muhammad were also teachers in Ta'if.
After a short, undetermined period, al-Hajjaj and his father left their teaching jobs and took up military service under caliph Yazid I (), who was facing increasing opposition to his rule in the Hejaz. He participated in the Second Fitna, fighting in the battles of al-Harra (682) and of al-Rabadha (684), both near Medina, but without distinction. At al-Harra, where a Syrian army dispatched by Yazid defeated the local defenders of Medina who had discarded the Caliph's authority, al-Hajjaj fought in the brigade of Hubaysh ibn Dulja al-Qayni. He fled the field in that engagement. According to verses compiled in the 10th-century (Book of songs), al-Hajjaj acknowledged: "I took to flight, but later I made good my fault by renewing the attack. For a sheikh takes to flight only once". He and his father were among the few to survive the battle at al-Rabadha, where Hubaysh, the commander of the expedition, was slain fighting forces loyal to the Mecca-based anti-Umayyad caliph Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr. Al-Hajjaj's first public post, as governor of Tabala in the Tihama region south of Ta'if, was unremarkable. Al-Hajjaj abandoned the post, considering it beneath his ambition. An Arabic proverb later developed out of this anecdote: ("as insignificant as Tabala is to al-Hajjaj").
Soon after Abd al-Malik () acceded to the caliphate, al-Hajjaj left his hometown and went to the Umayyad capital, Damascus, where he entered the (select troops) of the Caliph. However, according to a different account, by Ibn Qutayba (d. 889), al-Hajjaj started his career in the of Aban ibn Marwan, Abd al-Malik's half-brother and one-time governor of Palestine. The commander of the , the Caliph's main adviser Rawh ibn Zinba al-Judhami, was impressed with al-Hajjaj's military capabilities and thinking. Upon Rawh's recommendation, Abd al-Malik appointed al-Hajjaj to enforce the Caliph's authority over a large army he mobilized for an expedition against the Zubayrid ruler of Iraq, Ibn al-Zubayr's brother Mus'ab, in 689/90. The Caliph was satisfied by the rapidity and efficiency with which al-Hajjaj restored discipline during a mutiny by the troops. During Abd al-Malik's siege of the rebel leader of the Qays tribes of the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia), Zufar ibn al-Harith al-Kilabi, in al-Qariqisiya in the summer of 691, al-Hajjaj was sent as an emissary of the Caliph alongside the theologian Raja ibn Haywa to negotiate a peace with Zufar and the Qaysis.
As a result of his success suppressing the Caliph's mutinous troops, Abd al-Malik entrusted al-Hajjaj with command of the army's rear-guard. He achieved further feats of valour, so that after the defeat of Mus'ab at the Battle of Maskin, Abd al-Malik entrusted him to subdue Ibn al-Zubayr in Mecca. In late 691 he set out from Kufa at the head of 2,000 Syrian troops. After taking over Ta'if unopposed, he halted there as Abd al-Malik had charged him to try to secure Ibn al-Zubayr's capitulation by diplomatic means if possible, and to avoid the shedding of blood in Mecca. Ibn al-Zubayr rejected the Umayyad offers, and al-Hajjaj, after receiving reinforcements and the Caliph's permission, moved to attack Mecca. The Umayyad troops bombarded the city with catapults from Mount Abu Qubays, not letting up even during the Hajj pilgrimage; the Ka'aba was also targeted, despite the presence of the assembled pilgrims. When a sudden thunderstorm broke out, which his soldiers interpreted as divine wrath, he was able to rally them and convince them that it was actually a sign of victory. Finally, in October 692, after seven months of siege and the defection of several thousand of his supporters, including two of his sons, Ibn al-Zubayr was killed alongside his last remaining loyal followers, fighting around the Ka'aba.
As a reward, Abd al-Malik gave al-Hajjaj the governorship of the Hejaz, Yemen, and al-Yamama (central Arabia). As governor, al-Hajjaj led the Hajj in person in the years 73 and 74 AH (693 and 694 CE), and restored the Ka'aba to the shape and dimensions it had originally, rejecting the alterations made by Ibn al-Zubayr following the first Umayyad siege in 683. Al-Hajjaj was able to restore peace in the Hejaz, but his severity occasioned the frequent personal intervention of the Caliph.
Viceroy of Iraq and the East
In early 694, Abd al-Malik sent al-Hajjaj to govern Iraq. This involved combining the governorships of Kufa and Basra, which had not been done since the days of Ziyad ibn Abihi twenty years earlier. The caliph had previously appointed his brother Bishr ibn Marwan governor of Kufa, but this "experiment in family rule" (Hugh N. Kennedy) had not been a success and when he died in early 694, al-Hajjaj, whose ability and loyalty had been amply demonstrated, was appointed to the crucial office. The governorship of Iraq was indeed "the most important and responsible administrative post of the Islamic state" (A. Dietrich), as it comprised not only Iraq proper, but also included the lands conquered by troops from the two 'garrison towns' () of Kufa and Basra, i.e. Persia, Khurasan and the other eastern provinces of the Caliphate. The governor of Iraq was therefore in charge of a huge super-province or vice-royalty stretching from Mesopotamia to the still expanding borders in Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, comprising half of the Caliphate's territory and producing more than half its income. In addition, the post was of particular political sensitivity due to the long history of Kharijism and political dissent in Iraq, particularly in Kufa. This discontent was driven by tribal, economic, and political factors. The population of Kufa contained people from almost all Arab tribes, but also many of those undesired elsewhere, such as the vanquished of the Ridda wars. Although it dominated the fertile lands of the Sawad, many of these were assigned by the Umayyads to princes of the dynasty, while the average Kufan was given land as a stipend for military service; but as the size of the stipend was determined by the earliness of conversion to Islam, many received only minuscule grants. Finally, the Kufans were largely left out of the spoils of conquest in the East; it was the Basrans who secured the lion's share, taking over far more extensive and richer territory like Khurasan or Sindh, while the Kufans were left with the mountains of Jibal and central Persia as their city's sole dependencies. Al-Hajjaj's purview originally excluded Khurasan and Sistan, which were governed by the largely ineffectual Umayyad prince Umayya ibn Abdallah ibn Khalid ibn Asid, but in 697/8 he received these two provinces as well, expanding his rule over the entire eastern half of the Caliphate. He remained in this post until his death in 714, and throughout this period, encompassing the remainder of Abd al-Malik's reign and most of that of his successor al-Walid I (), he would be "the dominant feature in the sources" (G. R. Hawting).
Relations with the caliphs
Al-Hajjaj was, in the words of A. Dietrich, "the most loyal servant that a dynasty could wish for", and his loyalty was reciprocated by Abd al-Malik with his full trust. The relationship was further strengthened through family ties: al-Hajjaj's daughter wed Masrur, a son of al-Walid, while the daughter of his brother Muhammad was wed to the future caliph Yazid II (); the latter named his first-born son after al-Hajjaj, who in turn named three of his sons after members of the dynasty. Abd al-Malik also named one of his sons al-Hajjaj. This close relationship is further evidenced by the many surviving letters exchanged between al-Hajjaj and Abd al-Malik. Al-Hajjaj's relationship with the latter was much different than with al-Walid, with whom correspondence was restricted to official functions. On the other hand, while Abd al-Malik restrained his over-zealous governor whenever he was "extortionate in the raising of taxes, was too liberal with public resources, or was shedding more blood than was necessary", al-Walid considered himself in al-Hajjaj's debt because he had championed the succession of al-Walid against Abd al-Malik's brother and the viceroy of Egypt Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan. Al-Walid allowed his al-Hajjaj free rein and relied heavily on his counsel even in the appointment and dismissal of officials. Though his meddling in the succession secured him the favour of al-Walid, it also caused the declared enmity of al-Walid's brother Sulayman (). Sulayman furthermore championed the cause of Yazid ibn al-Muhallab, whom al-Hajjaj had imprisoned. The possibility of Sulayman's accession so frightened al-Hajjaj that he wished not to outlive al-Walid.