Al-Hajjaj bin Yousef

Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf
Seal of al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf
Born	Early June 661 CE Ta'if, the Hejaz (modern-day Saudi Arabia)
Died	714 (aged 53) Wasit
Title	Governor of Iraq

Abū Muhammad al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf ibn al-Ḥakam ibn ʿAqīl al-Thaqafī (Arabic: أبو محمد الحجاج بن يوسف بن الحكم بن عقيل الثقفي‎‎; Ta'if 661 – Wasit, 714), known simply as al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf (Arabic: الحجاج بن يوسف‎‎ / ALA: al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf (or otherwise transliterated), was perhaps the most notable governor who served the Umayyad Caliphate. An extremely capable though ruthless statesman, a strict in character, but also a harsh and demanding master, he was widely feared by his contemporaries and 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.

Al-Hajjaj was born in ca. 661 in the city of Ta'if in the Hijaz, in modern-day Saudi Arabia. His ancestry was not particularly distinguished: he came of a poor family, whose members had worked as stone carriers and builders. His mother, al-Fari'a, had married, and been divorced by, al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba, appointed governor of Kufa by the first Umayyad caliph, Mu'awiya (r. 661–680). As a boy, al-Hajjaj acquired the nickname Kulayb ("little dog"), with which he was later derisively referred to. His early life is obscure, except for his having been a schoolmaster in his home town—another source of derision to his enemies. He participated in the Second Fitna, fighting in the battles of Harra near Medina (682) and of al-Rabadha (684), but apparently without particular distinction. His first public post, as governor of Tabala in the Tihama region, was also unremarkable.