Al-Harith ibn Abd Allah al-Azdi

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Al-Harith ibn Abd Allah al-Azdi, also referred to in sources as al-Harith ibn Abd, al-Harith ibn Amr or al-Harith ibn Abd Amr (fl. 665–677) was the Umayyad governor of Basra for four months in early 665 under Caliph Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680). Later, he served as the governor of his home territory of Palestine and/or the commander of Palestine's troops in the mid-670s.

Life[edit]

He was a tribesman of the Azd from Palestine,[1] where the Azd made up a significant proportion of the district's Arab population.[2]

In the spring of 665 Mu'awiya appointed al-Harith as governor of Basra in place of Abd Allah ibn Amir. Al-Harith made Abd Allah ibn Amr ibn Ghaylan the head of his shurta (select troops). According to al-Tabari (d. 923), al-Harith had been appointed by Mu'awiya as a placeholder to make way for Ziyad ibn Abihi, who became governor four months after al-Harith.[3]

The historians Patricia Crone and Moshe Gil identified him as the "Harith ibn Abd" mentioned as the governor of Palestine under the Umayyad caliph Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680) in the Arabic and Greek papyri of Nitzana, dated to October 674–February 677.[1][4] The traditional Muslim sources mention him as the commander of the troops of Palestine under Mu'awiya.[5]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Crone 1980, p. 227, note 235.
  2. ^ Crone 1994, p. 26.
  3. ^ Morony 1987, p. 76.
  4. ^ Gil 1997, p. 76, note 1.
  5. ^ Gil 1997, p. 76.

Bibliography[edit]

  • Crone, Patricia (1980). Slaves on Horses: The Evolution of the Islamic Polity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-52940-9.
  • Crone, Patricia (1994). "Were the Qays and Yemen of the Umayyad Period Political Parties?". Der Islam. 71: 1–57. doi:10.1515/islm.1994.71.1.1. S2CID 154370527.
  • Gil, Moshe (1997) [1983]. A History of Palestine, 634–1099. Translated by Ethel Broido. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-59984-9.
  • Morony, Michael G., ed. (1987). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XVIII: Between Civil Wars: The Caliphate of Muʿāwiyah, 661–680 A.D./A.H. 40–60. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-87395-933-9.
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