Abd al-Rahman ibn Umm al-Hakam al-Thaqafi

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Umm al-Ḥakam al-Thaqafī
عبد الرحمن بن عبد الله بن عثمان بن عبد الله بن ربيعة الثقفي
Umayyad governor of Kufa
In office 678–679
Monarch	Muʿāwiya I
Preceded by	al-Ḍaḥḥak ibn Qays
Succeeded by	al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr
Personal details
Children	Al-Ḥurr ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Thaqafī
Parent(s)	ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUthmān al-Thaqafi (father) Umm al-Ḥakam bint Abī Sufyān (mother)

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUthmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rabīʿa al-Thaqafī (Arabic: عبد الرحمن بن عبد الله بن عثمان بن عبد الله بن ربيعة الثقفي), called Ibn Umm al-Ḥakam (Arabic: إبن أم الحكم), was a governor and military leader in the early Umayyad Caliphate. He was a nephew of the Caliph Muʿāwiya I through the latter's sister, Umm al-Ḥakam, and her Thaqafī husband.[1]

According to al-Ṭabarī, Ibn Umm al-Ḥakam campaigned in Byzantine territory in 673.[2] In 678, his uncle appointed him governor of Kūfa in place of al-Ḍaḥḥak ibn Qays. According to Ibn Khayyāt, however, this took place a year earlier. According to al-Ṭabarī, he governed for two years. He dealt with a Kharijite rebellion, but his rule was considered oppressive and he was forced out by the Kūfans.[3] In 679, he was replaced by al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr.[4]

Having been ousted from Kūfa, Ibn Umm al-Ḥakam was appointed governor of Egypt by his uncle. According to al-Ṭabarī, he was prevented from taking up his office by Muʿāwiya ibn Ḥudayj al-Sakūnī, who reportedly said, "by my life, you shall not treat us the way you treated our Kūfan brothers".[3] This story is also found in Ibn Taghrībardī and Ibn al-Athīr, but it al-Sakūnī is known to have died in 672. The cause of the discrepancy in the accounts is unclear.[5]

According to al-Balādhurī, Ibn Umm al-Ḥakam also served as governor of the Jazīra and Mosul. The Caliph ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān (685–705) appointed him governor of Damascus.[6]

The prominent Andalusian leaders Tammām ibn ʿAlḳama al-Thaqafī and Tammām ibn ʿAlḳama al-Wazīr were descended from a mawlā (freedman) of Ibn Umm al-Ḥakam and took their nisba from him.[7]

Notes

1. Morony 1987, pp. 192–193.
2. Morony 1987, p. 166.
3. Morony 1987, pp. 192–196.
4. Morony 1987, p. 199.
5. Pellat 1993.
6. Crone 1980, pp. 124–125.
7. James 2012, pp. 26–27.

Bibliography

• Crone, Patricia (1980). Slaves on Horses: The Evolution of the Islamic Polity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-52940-9.
• James, David, ed. (2012). A History of Early al-Andalus: The Akhbār majmūʿa: A Study of the Unique Arabic Manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, with a Translation, Notes and Comments. London and New York: Routledge.
• 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.
• Pellat, Charles (1993). "Muʿāwiya b. Ḥudaydj". In Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W. P. & Pellat, Ch. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume VII: Mif–Naz. Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 269. ISBN 978-90-04-09419-2.