Among these were the minting of silver dirhams with strictly Muslim religious formulas instead of the coins' traditional, pre-Islamic Sasanian design; changing the language of the diwan (tax registers) of Iraq from Persian to Arabic; and the introduction of a uniform version of the Quran.

Widely feared by his contemporaries, he became a deeply controversial figure and an object of deep-seated enmity among later, pro-Abbasid writers, who ascribed to him persecutions and mass executions.

[2] Members of the Thaqif attained high military and administrative ranks in the nascent Caliphate and played important command and economic roles during and after the early Muslim conquests, particularly in Iraq.

His mother, al-Fari'a, had been married and divorced by al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba, a member of the Thaqif who was appointed governor of Kufa by the first Umayyad caliph, Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680).

[6] After a short, undetermined period, al-Hajjaj and his father left their teaching jobs and took up military service under Caliph Yazid I (r. 680–683), who was facing increasing opposition to his rule in the Hejaz.

[5] At al-Harra, where a Syrian army dispatched by Yazid defeated the local defenders of Medina who had discarded the Caliph's authority, al-Hajjaj fought in the brigade of Hubaysh ibn Dulja al-Qayni.

[8] He and his father were among the few to survive the battle at al-Rabadha, where Hubaysh, the commander of the expedition, was slain fighting forces loyal to the Mecca-based anti-Umayyad caliph Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr.

[11][12] The commander of the shurta, the Caliph's main adviser Rawh ibn Zinba al-Judhami, was impressed with al-Hajjaj's military capabilities and thinking.

[13] Upon Rawh's recommendation, Abd al-Malik appointed al-Hajjaj to enforce the Caliph's authority over a large army he mobilized for an expedition against the Zubayrid ruler of Iraq, Ibn al-Zubayr's brother Mus'ab, in 689/90.

[5] He achieved further feats of valour, so that after the defeat of Mus'ab at the Battle of Maskin, Abd al-Malik entrusted him to subdue Ibn al-Zubayr in Mecca.

[5] After taking over Ta'if unopposed, he halted there as Abd al-Malik had charged him to try to secure Ibn al-Zubayr's capitulation by diplomatic means if possible, and to avoid the shedding of blood in Mecca.

[5] The Umayyad troops bombarded the city with catapults from Mount Abu Qubays, not letting up even during the Hajj pilgrimage; the Ka'aba was also targeted, despite the presence of the assembled pilgrims.

Finally, in October 692, after seven months of siege and the defection of several thousand of his supporters, including two of his sons, Ibn al-Zubayr was killed alongside his last remaining loyal followers, fighting around the Ka'aba.

As governor, al-Hajjaj led the Hajj in person in the years 73 and 74 AH (693 and 694 CE), and restored the Ka'aba to the shape and dimensions it had originally, rejecting the alterations made by Ibn al-Zubayr following the first Umayyad siege in 683.

[5][16] He remained in this post until his death in 714, and throughout this period, encompassing the remainder of Abd al-Malik's reign and most of that of his successor al-Walid I (r. 705–715), he would be "the dominant feature in the sources" (G. R.

The troops of Basra and Kufa, ostensibly garrisoned at Ramhurmuz under al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra had instead, upon the death of Bishr, left the camp and were idling in the cities.

In order to restore discipline, al-Hajjaj announced that any man who did not within three days return to the camp would be put to death and his property be left open to plunder.

[27][5][28] Ibn al-Ash'ath led his army to Sistan, and, as Dietrich writes, "at first carried out his campaign carefully and according to orders; he pacified each territory as it was conquered, ensured supplies and accustomed his troops gradually to the different climatic conditions".

Al-Hajjaj's harsh tone and unreasonable demands, as well as the army's evident reluctance to continue such a protracted and arduous campaign so far from their homes, provoked a widespread mutiny, led by Ibn al-Ash'ath.

Reinforced with Syrian troops, al-Hajjaj managed to score a minor victory, after which the bulk of the rebel army left Basra for their natural stronghold, Kufa.

Ibn al-Ash'ath's progress had sufficiently alarmed the Umayyad court that they sought a negotiated settlement, even though they kept sending Syrian reinforcements to al-Hajjaj.

Ibn al-Ash'ath was inclined to accept, but the more radical of his followers, especially the scholars known as qurrāʾ, refused, believing that the offered terms revealed the government's weakness, and pushed for outright victory.

Henceforth, Iraq passed under virtual Syrian occupation, and the Iraqis, regardless of social status, were deprived of any real power in the governance of the region.

The new coins contained the name of Allah, and hence were initially opposed by many theologians who argued that they would also be used by non-muslims, but they quickly became a success and "helped to promote the circulation of money and the stabilization of economic conditions" (Dietrich).

[20] Following his victory over the Iraqis, al-Hajjaj began a series of reforms aimed at restoring tranquility and prosperity to the troubled province after almost twenty years of civil war and rebellions.

According to the 9th-century historian al-Baladhuri, he spared no expense to repair embankments when they broke, awarded uncultivated lands to deserving Arabs, and took measures to reverse the flow of the rural population to the cities, especially the new converts (mawali).

[40] One of the Christian sources was a letter reported by the 8th-century Armenian priest Levond to have been written by the Byzantine emperor Leo III addressed to Caliph Umar II.

[39][38] Neal Robinson argues that even if the letter was authentic, the activity of al-Hajjaj would have been limited to destroying sectarian writings and early codices which preserved the suras (Quranic chapters) in a different order.

[50] Though he was criticized in the early Muslim sources for his bombardment of Mecca and the Ka'aba during his siege of Ibn al-Zubayr, "other shameful deeds" al-Hajjaj was held responsible for are the "inventions and fabrications of the hatred of his enemies".

[51] Al-Hajjaj's first wife was Umm Aban, a daughter of Nu'man ibn Bashir al-Ansari, an aide of Caliph Mu'awiya and onetime governor of Kufa.