Abu al-Mughira Ziyad ibn Abihi (; ), also known as Ziyad ibn Abi Sufyan (), was an administrator and statesman of the successive Rashidun and Umayyad caliphates in the mid-7th century. He served as the governor of Basra in 665–670 and ultimately the first governor of Iraq and practical viceroy of the eastern Caliphate between 670 and his death.
Ziyad's parentage is obscure, but he was raised among the Banu Thaqif in Ta'if, near Mecca. He arrived with his adoptive tribesmen in Basra upon its foundation in 636 as the Muslim Arabs' springboard for the conquest of the Sasanian Empire. He was initially employed by the city's first governor, Utba ibn Ghazwan al-Mazini, and was kept on as a scribe or secretary by his successors. Caliph Ali () appointed Ziyad governor of Fars to suppress a local rebellion and he maintained his loyalty to Ali's caliphate after the latter's assassination in 661 and the subsequent rule of Ali's opponent, Mu'awiya I (). The latter overcame Ziyad's opposition, formally recognized him as his own paternal half-brother and appointed him governor of Basra. Ziyad's inaugural speech, in which he announced his carrot-and-stick approach to governing the city's turbulent population, is celebrated in Arab history for its eloquence.
After the death of Kufa's governor, Ziyad's mentor al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba, Mu'awiya made Ziyad the first governor of a unified Iraqi province. He administratively reorganized the garrison cities and minted Sasanian-style silver dirhams in his own name. He firmly established Arab power and recommenced conquests in the Caliphate's easternmost province of Khurasan by relocating there 50,000 Arab soldiers and their families from Iraq and dispatching expeditionary forces against Tukharistan, Balkh and Quhistan. Although the mass resettlement improved Iraq's economic and political conditions by siphoning off Arab tribal soldiers from the overcrowded garrisons and creating new opportunities for war spoils, the move had major ramifications for the Caliphate as the descendants of these Khurasani Arab troops formed the army that toppled the Umayyads in 750.
Ziyad died near Kufa in 673, but his sons Ubayd Allah, Abd al-Rahman, Salm, Abbad and Yazid went on to hold posts as governors or deputy governors of Iraq, Khurasan and Sijistan. Ziyad was the subject of early Arabic biographies and is remembered in Arab history as one of the four great genius Arab men of his era and as a highly skilled administrator and orator. His administration in Iraq served as a model for his successors.
Origins Ziyad was likely born in Ta'if in 622 or 623/24. He was commonly known in the sources as Ziyād ibn Abīhi ("Ziyad son of his father"). He was the illegitimate son of a certain Sumayya, his father likely being Abu Sufyan. The origins of Sumayya are obscure. The 9th-century historians al-Baladhuri and Awana ibn al-Hakam both relate that she had been a slave living in Kashkar, though the former asserts she belonged to a member of the Banu Yashkur, a branch of the Arab tribe of Banu Bakr, and the latter states she belonged to a Persian dehqan (landowning magnate). In the narrative of al-Baladhuri, Sumayya's Yashkuri owner embarked on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca seeking to cure his illness and was subsequently treated in Ta'if by al-Harith ibn Kalada, a physician from the Thaqif clan resident in the city; as a reward for his services, Ibn Kalada was gifted Sumayya. In Awana's narrative, Sumayya was given to Ibn Kalada by the Persian dehqan after he treated him. In any case, she was ultimately given to Ubayd, a Greek or Syrian slave belonging to Ibn Kalada's wife. Though Ziyad is said to have alluded to his reported Persian origins in a poem, his family claimed that Sumayya was not a slave, but the daughter of a certain al-A'war from the Zayd Manat clan of the Arab tribe of Banu Tamim.
Early career in Basra
During the reign of Caliph Abu Bakr (), Ziyad embraced Islam, which "opened the world to him", according to historian Julius Wellhausen. He later became one of the first settlers of the Arab garrison town of Basra. Before the city's founding in 638, the Muslim troops fighting on the Iraqi front used as their military camp the ruined Persian village on the site. Ziyad arrived there with the sons of Ibn Kalada, Nafi and Abu Bakra Nufay. The latter's family gained preeminence in the city, having acquired large landholdings there. Abu Bakra's brother-in-law Utba ibn Ghazwan al-Mazini had established the initial camp at Basra in 635 and was the founder and first governor of the city. The administrative skills of Ziyad became apparent from the time of his adolescence and Utba charged him with minor tasks in the Basran dīwān (bureaucracy) during the reign of Caliph Umar (). In 635, Utba tasked him with distributing to the Arab troops the war spoils from the capture of al-Ubulla (Apologos), a town immediately east of Basra. According to the modern historian Isaac Hasson, Ziyad "distinguished himself as an intelligent and open-minded secretary, who was devoted to his master and to public service ... he showed an unusual aptitude for accounting and had an excellent command of epistolary art". His skills and his assignment by Basra's military governor Abu Musa al-Ash'ari as his acting replacement while he was on a military campaign gained the attention of Caliph Umar. He brought Ziyad to Medina, the center of the nascent Muslim state, where he further tested his skills; Ziyad's performance earned him a reward of 1,000 silver dirhams by Umar, which he used to purchase the freedom of his mother or his stepfather Ubayd. Soon after his return to Basra, Ziyad was made Utba's kātib (scribe or secretary).
After Utba's death, Ziyad continued his service as kātib under his successors Abu Musa al-Ash'ari and al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba, a member of the Thaqif who became Ziyad's mentor. When al-Mughira was recalled by Umar to Medina in 638 due to charges of adultery by three accusers, including Abu Bakra Nufay and a certain Shibl ibn Ma'bad al-Bajali, both of whom were Ziyad's maternal half-brothers, Ziyad was also recalled to give his own testimony. His statement was partial toward al-Mughira and as a result, the charges were dismissed and the accusers were flogged. During the reign of Caliph Uthman (), Ziyad served the caliph's appointee to Basra, Abd Allah ibn Amir.
During the outbreak of the First Fitna, the initial Islamic civil war triggered by the assassination of Uthman and the contested accession of his successor Ali (), opposition to Ali crystallized around the Uthmaniyya, partisans demanding vengeance for the slain caliph led by Aisha, Talha, and Zubayr. This opposition culminated in the Battle of the Camel at Basra in 656. During the conflict, Ziyad remained neutral and stayed hidden in the house of Nafi ibn al-Harith, refusing to take part. Following the battle, once his whereabouts were disclosed to Ali, Ziyad met with the caliph, cleared the air regarding his neutral stance, and successfully made his apologies. Ali then appointed Abd Allah ibn Abbas governor of Basra and entrusted Ziyad with collection of the province's kharāj (land tax) and supervision of the treasury. According to Hasson, "Ali's appreciation of Ziyad's talents were so great" that he mandated Ibn Abbas heed Ziyad's counsel. When Ibn Abbas left Basra in 657 to accompany Ali at the Battle of Siffin against the governor of Syria, Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, he left Ziyad as his acting governor. During this period, he stamped out a pro-Umayyad uprising led by Abd Allah ibn Amr al-Hadrami, who was backed by the Banu Tamim, a major military tribal faction in the city, relying on critical assistance from a rival Basran faction, the Azd.
After Ali returned from Siffin, his appointee to the district of Fars, Sahl ibn Hunayf, was ousted by its inhabitants, after which he dispatched Ziyad. The people of Fars were satisfied with Ziyad's leadership and he was able to collect the district's kharāj. He remained in Fars through the remainder of Ali's rule, which ended with the caliph's assassination in 661 and the foundation of the Umayyad Caliphate under Mu'awiya. Afterward, he remained headquartered in a fortress in the vicinity of Istakhr. Of Ali's appointees, he held out the longest from recognizing Mu'awiya's caliphate. Mu'awiya's agent, Busr ibn Abi Artat, pressured Ziyad by capturing and threatening to kill three of his sons in Basra. Ziyad's half-brother Abu Bakra interceded with Mu'awiya and Ziyad's sons were released. He finally surrendered to Mu'awiya's rule in 662/63 after the intercession of al-Mughira, who Mu'awiya had appointed governor of Kufa, the other main Arab garrison town of Iraq. In the deal reached, the revenues from Fars owed to the caliphal treasury were split between Ziyad and al-Mughira, which Mu'awiya ignored. Ziyad moved to Kufa and maintained intimate ties with al-Mughira and his family.
Governor of Basra
Mu'awiya formally recognized Ziyad as a son of his father Abu Sufyan. The motion was initiated when Ziyad sought clarification from the caliph about rumors of Abu Sufyan's biological paternity. According to Wellhausen, Mu'awiya summoned Ziyad to Damascus and recognized him as his paternal half-brother, "so as to bind him in this way absolutely to himself and to his family". The decision was seen as scandalous by the Umayyad ruling family. Mu'awiya's son Yazid and members from other branches of the clan, namely the extended family of Marwan ibn al-Hakam in Medina and Abd Allah ibn Amir, the governor of Basra, protested or threatened action against the decision. Ibn Amir and the Marwanids were silenced as a result of threats of force or bribes. Yazid's relations with Ziyad remained strained and satirical poetic verses about the event were spread by Marwan's brother Abd al-Rahman. Muslim scholars generally viewed the episode as one of Mu'awiya's most disreputable actions.
Realizing that Ziyad "had both the abilities and the all-important local connections to be his right-hand man in Basra", Mu'awiya appointed him governor of the province, according to the historian Hugh N. Kennedy. He entered office in June or July 665, issuing an inaugural carrot-and-stick speech to Basra's restless population. According to Hasson it was "considered a masterpiece of eloquence". Wellhausen describes it as "celebrated" and the one which was called a "[speech] without a preface" because it skipped the traditional introductions praising God and blessing the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The speech is translated as follows: Ye are putting relationship before religion, ye are excusing and sheltering your criminals, and tearing down the protecting laws sanctified by Islam. Beware of prowling by night; I will kill every one who is found at night in the streets. Beware of the arbitrary summons of relationship; I will cut out the tongue of every one who raises the cry. Whoever pushes anyone into the water, whoever sets fire to another's house, whoever breaks into a house, whoever opens a grave, him will I punish for it. I make every family responsible for those belonging to it. Hatred towards myself I do not punish, but only crime. Many who are terrified at my coming will be glad of my presence, and many who are building their hopes upon it will be undeceived. I rule you with the authority of God and care for your maintenance out of the wealth of God. From you I demand obedience, and ye can demand from me justice. In whatsoever I fall short, three things there are in which I shall not be lacking: at any time I shall be ready to listen to anyone; I shall pay you your pension at the proper time, and I shall not send you to war too far away or keep you in the field overlong. Do not let yourselves be carried away by your hatred and wrath against me; it would go ill with you if ye did. Many heads do I see tottering; let each man see to it that his own remains on his shoulders!