Abd al-Malik ibn Rifa'a al-Fahmi () 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 Medit ...

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 715–717 and 727. Abd al-Malik was a member of the Arab settler community in Egypt. In 710, he succeeded his uncle at the post of head of security (''

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 ...

'') for the governor Qurra ibn Sharik al-Absi. When Qurra died in office in 715, he was promoted in his stead, the first governor chosen from the local Arabs after several decades where the post had been filled by various grandees of the

Umayyad 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 the ...

family and their court. His period of office was a continuation of Qurra's, and according to the Coptic sources was marked by increasing fiscal oppression, combined with the efforts of the government to clamp down on avoidance of taxation and

corvée Corvée () is a form of unpaid, forced labour, that is intermittent in nature lasting for limited periods of time: typically for only a certain number of days' work each year. Statute labour is a corvée imposed by a state for the purposes of ...

labour. This included such measures as restricting their ability to travel through the issue of passports, which greatly impeded trade in the province. In 727 Abd al-Malik was again made governor of Egypt, but he died of an illness after only a few weeks in office and was succeeded by his brother al-Walid ibn Rifa'a al-Fahmi instead.; .

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* * * {{s-end 7th-century births 727 deaths 8th-century Umayyad governors of Egypt Umayyad governors of Egypt 7th-century Arabs 8th-century Arabs