Yahya ibn al-Hakam ibn Abi al-As (Arabic: يَحْيَى بْنِ الْحَكَم بْنِ أَبِي الْعَاص, romanizedYaḥyā ibn al-Ḥakam ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ; died before 700) was an Umayyad statesman during the caliphate of his nephew, Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705). He fought against Caliph Ali (r. 656–661) at the Battle of the Camel and later moved to Damascus where he was a courtier of the Umayyad caliphs Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680) and Yazid I (r. 680–683). He was appointed governor of Palestine by Abd al-Malik and is credited in an inscription for building part of a road connecting Damascus to Jerusalem in 692. He served as governor of Medina for a year in 694/95 and afterward led a series of expeditions against the Byzantine Empire along the northern frontier of Syria.

Yahya ibn al-Hakam
Governor of Medina
In office
694–695
MonarchAbd al-Malik (r. 685–705)
Preceded byAl-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf
Succeeded byAban ibn Uthman
Personal details
DiedBefore 700
Spouses
  • Umm al-Qasim al-Sughra bint Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf
  • Zaynab bint Abd al-Rahman
RelationsUmayyad (paternal tribe)
Murra (maternal tribe)
Children
  • Yusuf
  • Amina
  • Umm Hakim
ParentAl-Hakam ibn Abi al-As

Life

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Yahya was a son of al-Hakam ibn Abi al-As and a younger half-brother of Caliph Marwan I (r. 684–685).[1][2] His mother hailed from the Banu Murra tribe of Ghatafan.[1] He fought alongside Marwan and their brother Abd al-Rahman and other senior leaders of the Quraysh against Caliph Ali (r. 656–661) at the Battle of the Camel in 656.[1][2] Ali was victorious and Yahya, wounded, found safety with a member of the large Banu Tamim tribe in Basra.[1] This tribesman escorted him to the headquarters of his distant cousin, the governor of Syria, Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, in Damascus.[1] He stayed in the city through the course of Mu'awiya's caliphate (661–680) and that of his son and successor, Yazid I (r. 680–683).[1] Yahya publicly condemned the slaying of Ali's son and the Islamic prophet Muhammad's grandson, Husayn, by Yazid's army at the Battle of Karbala in 680.[1]

At some point between 685 and 694, Yahya's nephew, the caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (r. 685–705), appointed him the governor of Palestine.[1][3] Yahya was mentioned in an inscription on a milestone found near Samakh that credited him for supervising the construction of a road through the Fiq pass in the Golan Heights on behalf of Abd al-Malik.[4][5] The inscription dates to May/June 692,[6] making it the oldest known Islamic inscription about the foundation of a road.[7]

In 694/95, Yahya was appointed governor of Medina.[8] He was recalled to Damascus in the following year,[1] during which he led a summer campaign against the Byzantines in the general vicinity of Malatya and al-Massisa. In 697/98, he led a campaign against the Byzantine fortress at Marj al-Shahm.[9] This may have occurred in 698/699.[1] Yahya died prior to 700.[1] His tombstone was found in Katzrin in the Golan Heights. The epitaph, in Kufic Arabic script, reads "May my Lord have mercy on Yahya ibn al-Hakam and forgive him".[10]

Family and descendants

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One of Yahya's wives during his governorship of Medina was Umm al-Qasim al-Sughra, a daughter of a leading companion of Muhammad, Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf.[11] A son of Yahya, Yusuf, served as governor of Mosul toward the end of Abd al-Malik's reign, and his son al-Hurr and grandson Yahya ibn al-Hurr each served terms in the province in 727–732 and 732, respectively.[12] One of Yahya's daughters, Amina, was wed to Abd al-Malik's son, the future caliph Hisham.[13] Afterward,[14] another daughter, Umm Hakim, who, like her mother Zaynab bint Abd al-Rahman, was well-known for her beauty and love for wine,[15] married Hisham and bore the latter five sons,[16] including Sulayman,[17] Maslama,[18] Yazid al-Afqam,[19] and Mu'awiya.[11] The latter's son, Abd al-Rahman I, went on to found the Umayyad Emirate of Cordoba in modern-day Spain in 756.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Sharon 1966, p. 371.
  2. ^ a b Madelung 1997, p. 190, note 225.
  3. ^ Crone 1980, p. 125.
  4. ^ Gil 1997, p. 109.
  5. ^ Sharon 1966, pp. 370–371.
  6. ^ Sharon 1966, p. 370.
  7. ^ Sharon 1966, p. 368.
  8. ^ Rowson 1989, p. 12.
  9. ^ Rowson 1989, pp. 176, 181.
  10. ^ Sharon 2004, pp. 230–232.
  11. ^ a b Ahmed 2010, p. 78.
  12. ^ Robinson 2004, pp. 152–153.
  13. ^ Robinson 2004, p. 153.
  14. ^ Museum Notes 1974, p. 178, note 53.
  15. ^ Hillenbrand 1989, p. 90, notes 455 and 456.
  16. ^ Blankinship 1989, p. 65.
  17. ^ Intagliata 2018, p. 141.
  18. ^ Hillenbrand 1989, p. 90.
  19. ^ Judd 2008, p. 453.

Bibliography

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Preceded by Governor of Medina
694–695
Succeeded by