Al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra

Al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra al-Azdi
Sasanian-style silver dirham minted in Bishapur in the name of al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra, 694/5
Zubayrid governor of Fars
In office 685–686
Monarch	Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr (r. 683–692)
Zubayrid governor of Mosul[a]
In office 687–688
Monarch	Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr (r. 683–692)
Preceded by	Ibrahim ibn al-Ashtar
Succeeded by	Ibrahim ibn al-Ashtar
Umayyad governor of Khurasan[b]
In office 698–702
Monarch	Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (r. 685–705)
Preceded by	Umayya ibn Abdallah ibn Khalid ibn Asid
Succeeded by	Yazid ibn al-Muhallab
Personal details
Born	c. 632 Dibba Al-Fujairah, Rashidun Caliphate (present-day UAE)
Died	702 Marw al-Rudh, Umayyad Caliphate
Spouse(s)	Khayra al-Qushayriyya Bahla
Children	Abd al-Malik Habib Marwan Mudrik Al-Mufaddal Muhammad Al-Mughira Qabisa Yazid Ziyad Abu Uyayna Hind
Parent	Abu Sufra al-Azdī

Abū Saʿīd al-Muhallab ibn Abī Ṣufra al-Azdī (Arabic: أَبْو سَعِيْد ٱلْمُهَلَّب ابْن أَبِي صُفْرَة ٱلْأَزْدِي; c. 632  – 702) was an Arab general from the Azd tribe who fought in the service of the Rashidun, Umayyad and Zubayrid caliphs between the mid-640s and his death. He served successive terms as the governor of Fars (685–686), Mosul, Arminiya and Adharbayjan (687–688) and Khurasan (698–702). Al-Muhallab's descendants, known as the Muhallabids, became a highly influential family, many of whose members held high office under various Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs, or became well-known scholars.

Throughout his early military career, he participated in the Arab campaigns against the Persians in Fars, Ahwaz, Sistan and Khurasan during the successive reigns of caliphs Umar (r. 634–644), Uthman (r. 644–656), Ali (r. 656–661) and Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680). By 680, his tribe, the Azd of Oman, had become a major army faction in the Arabs' Basra garrison, the launchpad for the Persian conquest. Following the collapse of Umayyad rule in Iraq and Khurasan in 683–684, during the Second Muslim Civil War, al-Muhallab was pressed by the Basran troops to lead the campaign against the Azariqa, a Kharijite faction which had taken over Ahwaz and threatened Basra. Al-Muhallab landed them a severe blow and drove them into Fars in 685. He was rewarded with the governorship of that province by the anti-Umayyad caliph Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr (r. 683–692), whose suzerainty had been recognized in Basra in the wake of the Umayyads' ouster. Al-Muhallab later held a command role in the successful Zubayrid campaign to eliminate the Kufa-based ruler al-Mukhtar al-Thaqafi in 686/87. After this victory, he was transferred to the governorship of Mosul, where he was charged with protecting Iraq from a potential invasion from Umayyad-controlled Syria.

The resurgence of the Azariqa in Ahwaz in 688/89 saw him transferred once again to that front by the Zubayrids. When the latter were ousted from Iraq by the Umayyads in 691, al-Muhallab switched allegiance to the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705), who kept him in command of the war against the Azariqa. With the key support of the powerful Umayyad governor of Iraq, al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, al-Muhallab decisively defeated the Kharijites in 698. Throughout the thirteen-year conflict with the Kharijites, al-Muhallab was consistently viewed as indispensable by the Basrans and their Zubayrid and Umayyad rulers. Al-Hajjaj made al-Muhallab governor of Khurasan in 698. From there, he recommenced the Arab conquests in Transoxiana, leading a two-year-long siege of the fortress of Kish. He was ultimately compelled to withdraw to his capital in Merv and died on the way there. He was succeeded by his son Yazid.

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