Hafs ibn al-Walid ibn Yusuf al-Hadrami () was a governor of

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

for the

Umayyad Caliphate 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 member o ...

in the mid-8th century. Hafs was a member of a well-connected family from the original Arab settler community in Egypt, the "'' jund''",Kennedy (1998), p. 75 chiefly resident at the capital of

Fustat Fustat (), also Fostat, was the first capital of Egypt under Muslim rule, though it has been integrated into Cairo. It was built adjacent to what is now known as Old Cairo by the Rashidun Muslim general 'Amr ibn al-'As immediately after the Mus ...

, which had traditionally dominated the province's administration. He had served as ''sahib al-

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 ...

'' (chief of police) prior to his rise to the governorship. With the death of Caliph

Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (; 6 February 743) was the tenth Umayyad caliph, ruling from 724 until his death in 743. Early life Hisham was born in Damascus, the administrative capital of the Umayyad Caliphate, in AH 72 (691–692 CE). Hi ...

in 743, the Umayyad regime entered a period of instability—that eventually culminated in

civil war A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

—and Hafs sought to use the weakness of the Umayyad government to re-affirm the predominance of the ''jund'' in Egyptian affairs against the

Qays Qays ʿAylān (), often referred to simply as Qays (''Kais'' or ''Ḳays'') were an Arab tribal confederation that branched from the Mudar group. The tribe may not have functioned as a unit in pre-Islamic Arabia (before 630). However, by the ea ...

Syrians Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine Arabic, Levantine and Mesopotamian Arabic, Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The culture of Syria, cultural ...

who had come to Egypt with Umayyad backing over the previous years. The Syrians were forcibly expelled from Fustat, and Hafs set about recruiting a force of 30,000 men, named ''Hafsiya'' after him, from among the native non-Arab converts ("''maqamisa''" and "''

mawali ''Mawlā'' (, plural ''mawālī'' ), is a polysemous Arabic word, whose meaning varied in different periods and contexts.A.J. Wensinck, Encyclopedia of Islam 2nd ed, Brill. "Mawlā", vol. 6, p. 874. Before the Islamic prophet Muhammad, the te ...

''"). When the pro-Qays

Marwan II Marwan ibn Muhammad ibn Marwan (; – 6 August 750), commonly known as Marwan II, was the fourteenth and last caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, ruling from 744 until his death. His reign was dominated by a Third Fitna, civil war, and he was the l ...

rose to the throne in 744, Hafs resigned and the new Caliph ordered his replacement with Hasan ibn Atahiya and the disbandment of the ''Hafsiya''.Kennedy (2001), p. 48 The ''Hafsiya'', however, refused to accept the order to disband and mutinied, besieging the new governor in his residence until he and his ''sahib al-shurta'' both were forced to leave Egypt. Hafs, though unwilling, was restored by the mutinous troops as governor. In the next year, 745, Marwan dispatched a new governor, Hawthara ibn Suhayl al-Bahili, at the head of a large Syrian army. Despite his supporters' eagerness to resist, Hafs proved willing to surrender his position. Hawthara took Fustat without opposition, but immediately launched a purge, to which Hafs and several ''Hafsiya'' leaders fell victim.Kennedy (1998), pp. 75–76

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hafs ibn al-Walid ibn Yusuf al-Hadrami 745 deaths 8th-century executions by the Umayyad Caliphate 8th-century Umayyad governors of Egypt Year of birth unknown People of the Third Fitna 8th-century Arab people