Yusuf ibn Umar al-Thaqafi

Yusuf ibn Umar al-Thaqafi was a senior provincial governor for the Umayyad Caliphate. His policies during his tenure as governor of Iraq in 738–744 deepened the Qays–Yaman rivalry and were one of the main factors in the outbreak of the civil war of the Third Fitna, during which he was executed.

A member of the Thaqif tribe, he was related to the powerful governor of Iraq, al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf al-Thaqafi, who was a first cousin of his father. In 725–738 he served as governor of the Yemen, where he suppressed a Kharijite rebellion in, killing its leader, Abbad al-Ru'yani. According to one tradition, he was responsible for the death of the traditionist Wahb ibn Munabbih during his tenure there. His brother Qasim also served as governor of the Yemen in the 740s.

In 738, Caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik (r. 724–743) appointed Yusuf to the governorship of Iraq, replacing the longtime governor, Khalid al-Qasri. The reasons behind this move are obscure; Khalid certainly was taken by surprise by the arrival of his replacement, and Yusuf immediately imprisoned Khalid and his sons, and tortured his predecessor to extract his wealth, a practice common during hand-overs of governorships at the time. Khalid was released after 18 months, but when Caliph Hisham died in 743 and was replaced by al-Walid II (r. 743–744), the latter sold Khalid back to Yusuf for 50 million dirhams. Yusuf again tortured him until Khalid died in late 743. Yusuf was also responsible for confronting and suppressing the rebellion of the Alid Zayd ibn Ali in 740 at Kufa. Not coincidentally, Yusuf's residence during this tenure was al-Hira rather than Kufa, which was until then the usual residence of the governor.

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