Yahya ibn al-Hakam
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Yahya ibn al-Hakam | |
|---|---|
| Governor of Medina | |
| In office 694–695 | |
| Monarch | Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705) |
| Preceded by | Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf |
| Succeeded by | Aban ibn Uthman |
| Personal details | |
| Died | Before 700 |
| Spouses |
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| Relations | Umayyad (paternal tribe) Murra (maternal tribe) |
| Children |
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| Parent | Al-Hakam ibn Abi al-As |
Yahya ibn al-Hakam ibn Abi al-As (Arabic: يَحْيَى بْنِ الْحَكَم بْنِ أَبِي الْعَاص, romanized: Yaḥyā ibn al-Ḥakam ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ; died before 700) was an Umayyad statesman during the caliphate of his nephew, Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705). He fought against Caliph Ali (r. 656–661) at the Battle of the Camel and later moved to Damascus where he was a courtier of the Umayyad caliphs Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680) and Yazid I (r. 680–683). He was appointed governor of Palestine by Abd al-Malik and is credited in an inscription for building part of a road connecting Damascus to Jerusalem in 692. He served as governor of Medina for a year in 694/95 and afterward led a series of expeditions against the Byzantine Empire along the northern frontier of Syria.
Yahya was a son of al-Hakam ibn Abi al-As and a younger half-brother of Caliph Marwan I (r. 684–685).[1][2] His mother hailed from the Banu Murra tribe of Ghatafan.[1] He fought alongside Marwan and their brother Abd al-Rahman and other senior leaders of the Quraysh against Caliph Ali (r. 656–661) at the Battle of the Camel in 656.[1][2] Ali was victorious and Yahya, wounded, found safety with a member of the large Banu Tamim tribe in Basra.[1] This tribesman escorted him to the headquarters of his distant cousin, the governor of Syria, Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, in Damascus.[1] He stayed in the city through the course of Mu'awiya's caliphate (661–680) and that of his son and successor, Yazid I (r. 680–683).[1] Yahya publicly condemned the slaying of Ali's son and the Islamic prophet Muhammad's grandson, Husayn, by Yazid's army at the Battle of Karbala in 680.[1]
At some point between 685 and 694, Yahya's nephew, the caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (r. 685–705), appointed him the governor of Palestine.[1][3] Yahya was mentioned in an inscription on a milestone found near Samakh that credited him for supervising the construction of a road through the Fiq pass in the Golan Heights on behalf of Abd al-Malik.[4][5] The inscription dates to May/June 692,[6] making it the oldest known Islamic inscription about the foundation of a road.[7]
In 694/95, Yahya was appointed governor of Medina.[8] He was recalled to Damascus in the following year,[1] during which he led a summer campaign against the Byzantines in the general vicinity of Malatya and al-Massisa. In 697/98, he led a campaign against the Byzantine fortress at Marj al-Shahm.[9] This may have occurred in 698/699.[1] Yahya died prior to 700.[1] His tombstone was found in Katzrin in the Golan Heights. The epitaph, in Kufic Arabic script, reads "May my Lord have mercy on Yahya ibn al-Hakam and forgive him".[10]