Yahya ibn al-Hakam
Yahya ibn al-Hakam | |
|---|---|
| Governor of Medina | |
| In office 694–695 | |
| Monarch | Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705) |
| Preceded by | Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf |
| Succeeded by | Aban ibn Uthman |
| Personal details | |
| Died | Before 700 |
| Spouses |
|
| Relations | Umayyad (paternal tribe) (maternal tribe)Murra |
| Children |
|
| Parent | Al-Hakam ibn Abi al-As |
Yahya ibn al-Hakam ibn Abi al-As (
Arabic: يَحْيَى بْنِ الْحَكَم بْنِ أَبِي الْعَاص, romanized: Yaḥyā 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.
Life
Yahya was a son of
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
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
One of Yahya's wives during his governorship of Medina was Umm al-Qasim al-Sughra, a daughter of a leading companion of Muhammad,
Emirate of Cordoba
in modern-day Spain in 756.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Sharon 1966, p. 371.
- ^ a b Madelung 1997, p. 190, note 225.
- ^ Crone 1980, p. 125.
- ^ Gil 1997, p. 109.
- ^ Sharon 1966, pp. 370–371.
- ^ Sharon 1966, p. 370.
- ^ Sharon 1966, p. 368.
- ^ Rowson 1989, p. 12.
- ^ Rowson 1989, pp. 176, 181.
- ^ Sharon 2004, pp. 230–232.
- ^ a b Ahmed 2010, p. 78.
- ^ Robinson 2004, pp. 152–153.
- ^ Robinson 2004, p. 153.
- ^ Museum Notes 1974, p. 178, note 53.
- ^ Hillenbrand 1989, p. 90, notes 455 and 456.
- ^ Blankinship 1989, p. 65.
- ^ Intagliata 2018, p. 141.
- ^ Hillenbrand 1989, p. 90.
- ^ Judd 2008, p. 453.
Bibliography
- Ahmed, Asad Q. (2010). The Religious Elite of the Early Islamic Ḥijāz: Five Prosopographical Case Studies. Oxford: University of Oxford Linacre College Unit for Prosopographical Research. ISBN 978-1-900934-13-8.
- ISBN 0-521-52940-9.
- ISBN 0-521-59984-9.
- ISBN 978-0-88706-569-9.
- ISBN 978-0-88706-810-2.
- Intagliata, Emanuele E. (2018) [1950]. Palmyra after Zenobia AD 273-750: An Archaeological and Historical Reappraisal. Oxford: Oxbow Books. ISBN 978-1-78570-942-5.
- Judd, Steven (July–September 2008). "Reinterpreting al-Walīd b. Yazīd". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 128 (3): 439–458. JSTOR 25608405.
- ISBN 0-511-03072-X.
- ISBN 978-0-88706-975-8.
- ISBN 0-521-56181-7.
- "Museum Notes". Museum Notes. 19. New York: American Numismatic Society: 178, note 53. 1974.
- .
- ISBN 90-04-13197-3.