Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf

Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf
Seal of al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf
Umayyad governor of the Hejaz
In office 692–694
Monarch	Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705)
Preceded by	Tariq ibn Amr
Succeeded by	Yahya ibn al-Hakam
Umayyad governor of Iraq
In office 694–714
Monarchs	Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705) Al-Walid I (r. 705–715)
Preceded by	Bishr ibn Marwan
Succeeded by	Yazid ibn Abi Kabsha al-Saksaki
Personal details
Born	c. 661 CE Ta'if, Hejaz, Umayyad Caliphate
Died	c. 714 (aged 53) Wasit, Iraq, Umayyad Caliphate
Spouses	Umm Aban bint Nu'man ibn Bashir al-Ansariyya Hamida bint Nu'man ibn Bashir al-Ansariyya Umm Kulthum bint Abd Allah ibn Ja'far ibn Abi Talib Umm al-Julas bint Abd Allah ibn Khalid ibn Asid Hind bint al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra Umm al-Banin bint al-Mughira ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Makhzumiyya
Relations	Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Thaqafi (brother)
Children	Muhammad Aban Abd al-Malik Sulayman (or al-Walid) Abd Allah
Parent(s)	Yusuf ibn al-Hakam al-Thaqafi (father) Al-Fari'a bint Hammam ibn Urwa al-Thaqafi (mother)
Tribe	Banu Thaqif

Abu Muhammad al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf ibn al-Hakam ibn Abi Aqil al-Thaqafi (Arabic: أبو محمد الحجاج بن يوسف بن الحكم بن أبي عقيل الثقفي, romanized: Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf ibn al-Ḥakam ibn Abī ʿAqīl al-Thaqafī; c. 661–714), known simply as al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf (Arabic: الحجاج بن يوسف, romanized: al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf), was the most notable governor who served the Umayyad Caliphate. He began his service under Caliph Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705), who successively promoted him as the head of the Caliph's shurta (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 (r. 705–715), whose decision-making was heavily influenced by al-Hajjaj, until his death in 714.

As 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 diwan (tax registers) of Iraq from Persian to Arabic; and the introduction of a uniform version of the Quran. 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 jizya (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 statesman, 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.