Hafs ibn al-Walid ibn Yusuf al-Hadrami () was a 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 the mid-8th century. Hafs was a member of a well-connected family from the original Arab settler community in Egypt, the "''

jund Under the early Caliphates, a ''jund'' ( ar, جند; plural ''ajnad'', اجناد) was a military division, which became applied to Arab military colonies in the conquered lands and, most notably, to the provinces into which Greater Syria (the Le ...

''",Kennedy (1998), p. 75 chiefly resident at the capital of

Fustat Fusṭāṭ ( ar, الفُسطاط ''al-Fusṭāṭ''), also Al-Fusṭāṭ and Fosṭāṭ, was the first capital of Egypt under Muslim rule, and the historical centre of modern Cairo. It was built adjacent to what is now known as Old Cairo by ...

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

'' (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 ( ar, هشام بن عبد الملك, Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik; 691 – 6 February 743) was the tenth Umayyad caliph, ruling from 724 until his death in 743. Early life Hisham was born in Damascus, the administra ...

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

civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same 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 ...

—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 ( ar, قيس عيلان), often referred to simply as Qays (''Kais'' or ''Ḳays'') were an Arab tribal confederation that branched from the Mudar group. The tribe does not appear to have functioned as a unit in the pre-Islamic er ...

Syrians Syrians ( ar, سُورِيُّون, ''Sūriyyīn'') are an Eastern Mediterranean ethnic group indigenous to the Levant. They share common Levantine Semitic roots. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend of both indi ...

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 ( ar, مَوْلَى, 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 ...

''"). When the pro-Qays

Marwan II Marwan ibn Muhammad ibn Marwan ibn al-Hakam ( ar, مروان بن محمد بن مروان بن الحكم, Marwān ibn Muḥammad ibn Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam; – 6 August 750), commonly known as Marwan II, was the fourteenth and last caliph of ...

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 Ḥawthara ibn Suhayl al-Bāhilī () (died 750) was a Bedouin Arab administrator and military leader in the final years of the Umayyad Caliphate. The philosopher al-Kindī describes him as famous for his eloquence. Ḥawthara was appointed ''w� ...

, 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

References

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