Hafs ibn al-Walid ibn Yusuf al-Hadrami

Hafs ibn al-Walid ibn Yusuf al-Hadrami was a governor of Egypt for the Umayyad Caliphate in the mid-8th century.

Hafs was a member of a well-connected family from the original Arab settler community in Egypt, the "jund",^[1] chiefly resident at the capital of Fustat, which had traditionally dominated the province's administration.^[2]

He had served as sahib al-shurta (chief of police) prior to his rise to the governorship.^[1] With the death of Caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik in 743, the Umayyad regime entered a period of instability—that eventually culminated in civil war—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 Syrians who had come to Egypt with Umayyad backing over the previous years.^[3] 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"). When the pro-Qays Marwan II 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.^[1][4]

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.^[5]

References

1. Kennedy (1998), p. 75
2. Kennedy (1998), pp. 64ff.
3. Kennedy (1998), pp. 74–75
4. Kennedy (2001), p. 48
5. Kennedy (1998), pp. 75–76

Sources

• Kennedy, Hugh (1998). "Egypt as a province in the Islamic caliphate, 641–868". In Petry, Carl F. Cambridge History of Egypt, Volume One: Islamic Egypt, 640–1517. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 62–85. ISBN 0-521-47137-0.
• Kennedy, Hugh N. (2001). The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-25093-5.