Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf

Al-Hajjāj ibn Yūsuf (Arabic: الحجاج بن يوسف, also known as Hajjāj ibn Yūsuf ath-Thaqafī), born in early June 661 in aţ-Ţā’if and died 714 in Wasit, Iraq, was an important Arab administrator during the Umayyad Caliphate. His given name was "Kulayb" "Little Dog" but he changed it to "al-Hajjaj" before being appointed Governor of Iraq.

Hajjaj bin Yusuf's period saw the Arabs on their zenith and he played an important part in it. He is also credited for introducing the diacritic points to the Arabic script and for the first time Al-Hajjaj convinced the caliph to adopt a special currency for the Muslim world. This led to war with the Byzantine Empire under Justinian II. The Byzantines were led by Leontios at the Battle of Sebastopolis in 692 in Asia Minor and were decisively defeated by the Caliph after the defection of a large contingent of Slavs. The Islamic currency was then made the only currency exchange in the Muslim world. Also, many reforms happened in his time as regards agriculture and commerce.

The administrative language of Iraq officially changed from Middle Persian (Pahlavi) to Arabic during his governorship. The records of administrative documents ("diwans") of Iraq transferred from Pahlavi to Arabic.

Beginnings

Al-Hajjāj ibn Yūsuf served as governor of Iraq during the reigns of ‘Abdu l-Malik ibn Marwan and al-Walid ibn ‘Abdi l-Malik of the Umayyad. Al-Hajjāj first came to notice in the early years of the reign of ‘Abdu l-Malik when he set out from aṭ-Ṭā’if to Damascus to serve in the "shurta" "police force" under Rawh ibn Zinba' al-Judhami, vizier of the Caliph. He attracted the attention of ‘Abd al-Malik because he rapidly restored discipline among the mutinous troops with whom the Caliph was about to set out for Iraq against Mus’ab ibn al-Zubayr.

During the campaign against Mus'ab, al-Hajjāj seems to have led the rearguard and to have distinguished himself by some feats of valour. After the victory over Mus’ab at Maskin on the Dujayl (Little Tigris River) in 72/691, on the Caliph's orders he set out from Kufa in the same month at the head of about 2000 Syrians against ‘Abdu l-Lāh ibn az-Zubayr, the anti-caliph of Mecca. He advanced unopposed as far as his native aṭ-Ṭā’if, which he took without any fighting and used as a base.

The Caliph had charged al-Hajjāj first to negotiate with ibn al-Zubayr and to assure him of freedom from punishment if he capitulated but, if the opposition continued, to starve him out by siege, but on no account to let the affair result in bloodshed in Mecca. Since the negotiations failed and al-Hajjāj lost patience, he sent a courier to ask ‘Abdu l-Malik for reinforcements and also for permission to take the city by force.

Al-Hajjāj received both. Angered at being prevented by Ibn al-Zubayr from performing Hajj, al-Hajjāj bombarded Mecca, going so far as to target the Ka’bah and its pilgrims during the Hajj.

After the siege had lasted seven months and 10,000 men (among them two of ibn az-Zubayr's sons) had gone over to al-Hajjāj, the anti-caliph and a few loyal followers, including his youngest son, were killed in the fighting around the Ka’bah on Jumadah I 73/October 692 [A. Dietrich, Encyclopaedia of Islam CD-ROM Edition v. 1.0] . Al-Hajjāj's siege of the Hijaz resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent inhabitants. While subsequently governing the Hijaz, al-Hajjāj was known for his severe rule.

Al-Hajjāj was sent to govern Iraq. He continued to be viewed as cruel and his reputation was not helped when he fought and eventually crushed a Kharijite rebellion under ‘Abdu r-Rahmān ibn Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath from 699-701.

For his considerable successes, al-Hajjāj was also made governor of some provinces in Persia, where he was again tasked with putting down rebellions. However, his severe tactics led him to make many enemies, who would come to power after his death.

With the ascent of al-Walid, Hajjāj's reputation grew due to the selection and deployment of numerous successful generals who expanded the empire. He was given these powers due to his high status in the Umayyad government and he exhibited a lot of control over the provinces that he governed.

Among these generals was the teenaged Muhammad ibn-Qasīm, who in 712 was sent to Sindh in Pakistan Qutayba ibn Muslim was sent to conquer Turkestan, which he did, even penetrating the borders of China and obtaining jizya (tribute payment) from the Chinese emperor.

Al-Hajjāj's most successful general was Mūsā ibn Nusayr, who consolidated control over North Africa and sent Tariq ibn Ziyād to invade Spain.

The year after al-Hajjāj died, al-Walid died as well, and his brother Sulayman ibn ‘Abdi l-Malik came to power. Sulayman was indebted to many opponents of al-Hajjāj for their political support in getting him elected Caliph, so he recalled all of al-Hajjāj's generals and had them tortured to death in prison.

The relationship between al-Hajjāj ibn Yūsuf and Muhammad ibn Qasīm has always been one of great debate. Many classical accounts list al-Hajjāj as being his uncle or father-in-law. However, this is debatable; it seems more likely that they were distant cousins.

al-Hajjaj and Iranians

Al-Hajjāj was not happy with the prevalence of the Persian language in the dīwān and ordered the official language of the conquered lands to be replaced by Arabic. [Cambridge History of Iran, by Richard Nelson Frye, Abdolhosein Zarrinkoub, et al. Section on The Arab Conquest of Iran and . Vol 4, 1975. London. p.46] Quote|When Qutaibah bin Muslim under the command of Al-Hajjaj bin Yousef was sent to Khwarazmia with a military expedition and conquered it for the second time, he swiftly killed whomever wrote the Khwarazmian native language that knew of the Khwarazmian heritage, history, and culture. He then killed all their Zoroastrian priests and burned and wasted their books, until gradually the illiterate only remained, who knew nothing of writing, and hence their history was mostly forgotten. [Biruni.الآثار الباقية عن القرون الخالية, p.35,36,48: وقتی قتبیه بن مسلم سردار حجاج، بار دوم بخوارزم رفت و آن را باز گشود هرکس را که خط خوارزمی می نوشت و از تاریخ و علوم و اخبار گذشته آگاهی داشت از دم تیغ بی دریغ درگذاشت و موبدان و هیربدان قوم را یکسر هلاک نمود و کتابهاشان همه بسوزانید و تباه کرد تا آنکه رفته رفته مردم امی ماندند و از خط و کتابت بی بهره گشتند و اخبار آنها اکثر فراموش شد و از میان رفت] Quote|It is written that Al-Hajjaj bin Yousef once entered a city. There was an elder cleric whose prayers were widely believed to bring blessings. He asked the cleric to recite a prayer for him. The cleric prayed: "Oh Allah, take his life away!" Hajjaj startled burst out: "Old man, what kind of prayer is this that you recite for me?!" The old man replied: "It is for your own good and the benefit of the people." [Recounted in Sa'di's Golestan]

Footnotes

References

*E. Browne, "Islamic Medicine," 2002, p. 16, ISBN 81-87570-19-9
*Dennett, Daniel Clement. "Conversion and the poll tax in early Islam," p. 38.
*Richard Nelson Frye, "Cambridge History of Iran," p. 42, 460