Sa'id ibn Yazid ibn Alqama al-Azdi ( ar, سعيد بن يزيد بن علقمة الأزدي) was the governor of

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

for the

Umayyad Caliphate The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by th ...

in 682–684. An Arab from

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

, Sa'id ibn Yazid was appointed by Caliph

Yazid I Yazid ibn Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan ( ar, يزيد بن معاوية بن أبي سفيان, Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiya ibn ʾAbī Sufyān; 64611 November 683), commonly known as Yazid I, was the second caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate. He ruled from ...

to succeed

Maslama ibn Mukhallad al-Ansari Maslama ibn Mukhallad ibn Samit al-Ansari () to whom the tecnonymics Abu Ma'n or Sa'id or Umar are ascribed, was one of the companions of the Prophet and active in Egypt in the decades after its conquest by the Muslims. Biography He was born ...

as governor of Egypt after the latter's death in early 682. Although he tried to present an image of continuity by keeping Maslama's ''

sahib al-shurta ''Shurṭa'' ( ar, شرطة) is the common Arabic term for police, although its precise meaning is that of a "picked" or elite force. Bodies termed ''shurṭa'' were established in the early days of the Caliphate, perhaps as early as the caliphate ...

'' (head of security and ''de facto'' deputy), 'Abis ibn Sa'id al-Muradi, the local Arab settler community (''wujuh'') were opposed to him as an outsider. In 683, the

Second Fitna The Second Fitna was a period of general political and military disorder and civil war in the Islamic community during the early Umayyad Caliphate., meaning trial or temptation) occurs in the Qur'an in the sense of test of faith of the believer ...

broke out, and soon after

's death in November,

Ibn al-Zubayr Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam ( ar, عبد الله ابن الزبير ابن العوام, ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām; May 624 CE – October/November 692), was the leader of a caliphate based in Mecca that rivaled the ...

was acknowledged as Caliph at

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red ...

. Ibn al-Zubayr gained the support of the

Kharijites The Kharijites (, singular ), also called al-Shurat (), were an Islamic sect which emerged during the First Fitna (656–661). The first Kharijites were supporters of Ali who rebelled against his acceptance of arbitration talks to settle the ...

in Egypt and sent a governor of his own,

Abd al-Rahman ibn Utba al-Fihri Abd al-Rahman ibn Utba al-Fihri, also known as Ibn Jahdam, was the governor of Egypt for the rival caliph Ibn al-Zubayr in 684, during the Second Fitna. Egypt's Kharijites proclaimed themselves for Ibn al-Zubayr when he proclaimed himself Caliph ...

, to the province. Sa'id ibn Yazid chose not to offer resistance and simply retired. The Kharijite-supported Zubayrid regime was even more unpopular with the ''wujuh'', and lasted for less than a year before the ''wujuh'' leaders called upon the Umayyad Caliph

Marwan I Marwan ibn al-Hakam ibn Abi al-As ibn Umayya ( ar, links=no, مروان بن الحكم بن أبي العاص بن أمية, Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ ibn Umayya), commonly known as MarwanI (623 or 626April/May 685), was the fo ...

for aid, who reconquered the province in December 684.

References

Sources

* {{s-end 7th-century Arabs 7th-century Umayyad governors of Egypt Azd