Handhala ibn Safwan al-Kalbi

Handhala ibn Safwan al-Kalbi (or Hanzala ibn Safwan) (?–?) was an Umayyad governor of Egypt from 721 to 724 and again 737 to 741, and subsequently governor of Ifriqiya from 741 to 745.

Handhala ibn Safwan al-Kalbi arrived in Egypt around 720, in the company of his brother, Bishr ibn Safwan al-Kalbi, who had been appointed governor of Egypt by the Umayyad Caliph Yazid II. Hahdhala came as chief magistrate (sahib al-shurta). When Bishr was appointed to take up the government of Ifriqiya in Kairouan in 721, Handhala was designated his successor in Egypt. Handhala continued as governor of Egypt until 724, when the new caliph Hisham arose to the throne and appointed his own brother, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan as governor.

After a series of failed Egyptian governors, Caliph Hisham decided to restore Handhala ibn Safwan as governor of Egypt in 737, replacing Abd al-Rahman ibn Khalid al-Fahmi.

In October, 741, in the course of the Great Berber Revolt in the Maghreb, the Ifriqiyan army, along with a Syrian force dispatched by the caliph, was destroyed by the Berbers at the Battle of Bagdoura. The governor Kulthum ibn Iyad al-Qasi perished in the field, his nephew and successor Balj ibn Bishr al-Qushayri was holed up with the remnant of the army in Spain, leaving the whole of Ifriqiya open to the advance of the Berber rebels.

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