Al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah al-Hakami

al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah al-Hakami
Nickname(s)	"Hero of Islam", "Cavalier of the Syrians"
Died	9 December 730 Ardabil
Service/branch	Umayyad Caliphate
Years of service	before 696 – 730
Wars	Arab–Khazar wars

Abu ʿUqba al-Jarrah ibn ʿAbdallah al-Hakami (Arabic: أبو عقبة الجراح بن عبد الله الحكمي‎‎) was an Arab nobleman and general of the Hakami tribe. During the course of the early 8th century, he was at various times governor of Basra, Sistan and Khurasan, Armenia and Azerbaijan. A legendary warrior already during his lifetime, he is best known for his campaigns against the Khazars on the Caucasus front, culminating in his death in the Battle of Marj Ardabil in 730.

According to Baladhuri, al-Jarrah was born in Jordan, and probably followed Sufyan ibn al-Abrad al-Kalbi and Abd al-Rahman ibn Habib al-Hakami to Iraq in 696. In 701, he fought against the rebellion of Ibn al-Ash'ath.

In 706 or a few years later he was appointed as governor of Basra under the governor of Iraq, al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, and remained in the post until al-Hajjaj's replacement by Yazid ibn al-Muhallab in 715. Yazid in turn named al-Jarrah as his deputy for Iraq, before he himself left for Khurasan, and in 717, Caliph Umar II (r. 717–720) appointed al-Jarraj as Yazid's successor in the governorship of Khurasan and Sistan. Al-Jarrah remained in Khurasan until March/April 719, when he was dismissed after 17 months in office due to complaints of his mistreatment of the native converts to Islam (mawali), who, despite their conversion, were still obliged to pay the poll-tax (jizya). He was replaced by his deputy, Abd al-Rahman ibn Nu'aym al-Ghamidi. The most notable event of his tenure was the beginning of the covert missionary activity (da'wah) by the agents of the Abbasids in Khurasan. After his return to Iraq, in 720, he seems to have fought alongside Maslamah ibn Abd al-Malik in the suppression of the rebellion of Yazid ibn al-Muhallab.

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