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 () was the

Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate or Umayyad Empire (, ; ) was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty. Uthman ibn Affan, the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a membe ...

governor of

Basra Basra () is a port city in Iraq, southern Iraq. It is the capital of the eponymous Basra Governorate, as well as the List of largest cities of Iraq, third largest city in Iraq overall, behind Baghdad and Mosul. Located near the Iran–Iraq bor ...

for four months in early 665 under Caliph

Mu'awiya I Mu'awiya I (–April 680) was the founder and first caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, ruling from 661 until his death. He became caliph less than thirty years after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and immediately after the four Rashid ...

(). Later, he served as the governor of his home territory of

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

and/or the commander of Palestine's troops in the mid-670s.

Life

He was a tribesman of the

Azd The Azd (Arabic: أَزْد), or Al-Azd (Arabic: ٱلْأَزْد), is an ancient Tribes of Arabia, Arabian tribe. The lands of Azd occupied an area west of Bisha and Al Bahah in what is today Saudi Arabia. Land of Azd Pre-Islamic Arabia Pre- ...

from

, where the Azd made up a significant proportion of the district's Arab population. In the spring of 665 Mu'awiya appointed al-Harith as governor of

in place of Abd Allah ibn Amir. Al-Harith made Abd Allah ibn Amr ibn Ghaylan the head of his ''

shurta ''Shurṭa'' () is the common Arabic term for police. Its literal meaning is that of a "picked" or elite force. The ''shurṭa'' or police force were established in the early days of the Caliphate, perhaps as early as the caliphate of Uthman (644 ...

'' (select troops). According to

al-Tabari Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr ibn Yazīd al-Ṭabarī (; 839–923 CE / 224–310 AH), commonly known as al-Ṭabarī (), was a Sunni Muslim scholar, polymath, historian, exegete, jurist, and theologian from Amol, Tabaristan, present- ...

(d. 923), al-Harith had been appointed by Mu'awiya as a placeholder to make way for

Ziyad ibn Abihi Abu al-Mughira Ziyad ibn Abihi (; ), also known as Ziyad ibn Abi Sufyan (), was an administrator and statesman of the successive Rashidun and Umayyad caliphates in the mid-7th century. He served as the governor of Basra in 665–670 and ultimat ...

, who became governor four months after al-Harith. The historians

Patricia Crone Patricia Crone (28 March 1945 – 11 July 2015) was a Danish historian specialising in early Islamic history. Crone was a member of the revisionist school of Islamic studies and questioned the historicity of the Islamic traditions about the be ...

and

Moshe Gil Moshe Gil (; February 8, 1921 – January 23, 2014) was an Israeli historian. Academic career Moshe Gil specialized in the historical interaction between Islam and the Jews, including the history of Palestine under Islamic rule, the institution ...

identified him as the "Harith ibn Abd" mentioned as the governor of Palestine under the Umayyad caliph

() in the Arabic and Greek papyri of Nitzana, dated to October 674–February 677. The traditional Muslim sources mention him as the commander of the troops of Palestine under Mu'awiya.

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Harith ibn Abd Allah 7th-century Arab people Azd Umayyad governors of Basra Umayyad governors of Palestine