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Umar ibn Hubayra

عمر بن هبيرة

Umar ibn Hubayra al-Fazari; Yazid ibn Abd al-Malik's governor of Iraq — ordered to survey the grants and seize their surplus, he measured till a landowner answered 'we inherited them from truthful fathers' and the outcry stopped him; the Mahallaban estate is known in the diwan as 'Umar ibn Hubayra's qati'a', granted him when Yazid seized the Muhallabids' wealth.

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Umayyad Period
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Overview

Umar ibn Hubayra al-Fazari, governor of Iraq for Yazid ibn Abd al-Malik 1.

In al-Mas'udi

In the year 103 AH he sent for al-Hasan al-Basri, al-Sha'bi and Ibn Sirin. al-Mas'udi reports that Ibn Sirin and al-Sha'bi spoke words with an element of caution, and that al-Hasan admonished him and ordered him to fear God. Then he gave them all gifts, and he reduced al-Hasan's gift 1.

In al-Baladhuri and al-Salabi

al-Baladhuri mentions the bridge of Kufa that was built in his governorship. al-Salabi's book reports that he was given charge of al-Jazira in the year 100 AH, and raided the Byzantines from the side of Armenia. Then he was appointed over Iraq and Khurasan, and then Hisham dismissed him and imprisoned him. He fled and sought the protection of Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik, and died around 107 AH 2 3.

Connections

Explore the connections

Participated in
al-Hajjaj's Mint and Coinage· Umar ibn Hubayra's Survey of the Grants

People and things also explored

Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan· al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf al-Thaqafi· Khalid ibn Abdallah al-Qasri· Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr· Yusuf ibn Umar al-Thaqafi· Basra· al-Hajjaj's Mint and Coinage· Umar ibn Hubayra's Survey of the Grants

Sources

  1. Muruj al-Dhahab — al-Masʼudi , p.190
  2. The Umayyad State: Factors of Prosperity and Consequences of Collapse — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi (Part Two, 2005) , p.386
  3. The Umayyad State: Factors of Prosperity and Consequences of Collapse — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi (Part Two, 2005) , p.435
  • Futuh al-Buldan — al-Baladhuri (Mu'assasat al-Ma'arif edition)
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Umar ibn Hubayra”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/umar-ibn-hubayra/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-16.

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People

Prophets, companions, scholars, rulers, scientists, poets, travelers: women and men who shaped the story. Related

Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan

Caliph of the Umayyads; al-Hajjaj was his governor, and the companions of Ibn al-Ash'ath deposed him, saying that deposing al-Hajjaj meant deposing Abd al-Malik. He died in 86. According to al-Mas'udi, he was given the oath of allegiance on the night of Sunday, the first of Ramadan 65, and died at Damascus on Saturday, fourteen days into Shawwal 86, aged sixty-six. He loved poetry, boasting and panegyric; avarice predominated in him, and he was ready to shed blood. When he kept company with al-Sha'bi, he said to him: 'Do not help me in what is ugly, and do not correct my error in my assembly. Show me your understanding through your glance and your hearing, and know that the rightness of listening is greater than the rightness of speech'. He killed Amr ibn Sa'id al-Ashdaq in 70, after letters had passed between them seeking power. The chamberlain shut the door on Amr, leaving his companions outside; Abu al-Za'za'a was ordered to strike his neck, and his head was thrown to his companions, who scattered. It is also said that a chain was put on him, and then he ordered his brother Abd al-Aziz to slaughter him; Amr said to him: 'Betray, O son of al-Zarqa'!' and he threw dinars among the people, who busied themselves with them and stopped fighting. He wrote to al-Hajjaj asking him to describe the strife to him. Al-Hajjaj wrote that strife is kindled by secret talk, reaped by complaint and produced by sermons. He wrote back that he had hit the mark and described it well; if he wanted his subjects to be straight with him, he should subdue them with unity, give them the gifts of division, and attach need to them. When news of Ibn al-Ash'ath's deposition reached him, he went up the pulpit and said: 'O God, do not give us power over one better than us, nor give those better than us power over us. O God, unleash the sword of the people of Syria against the people of Iraq until it reaches Your pleasure; and when it reaches it, do not pass beyond Your wrath with it'. In one of his years of pilgrimage he ordered gifts distributed to the people; a purse was brought out, inscribed 'from the alms', and the people of Medina refused to accept it, saying that their gift came from the fay'. He struck them on the pulpit with the parable of the serpent guarding its treasure, and said: 'O assembly of Quraysh, you had Umar as your governor; he was harsh and rough, and you listened to him and obeyed. Then you had Uthman, who was gentle and mild, and you attacked him and killed him. Then we sent Muslim ibn Uqba against you on the day of al-Harra, and you killed him. We know that you will never love us, and you remember the day of al-Harra, and we will never love you, and we remember the killing of Uthman'. The book mentions that he was the first to set aside a day for examining grievances, set four hundred dinars as the upper limit for dowries, and ordered that the judgments of Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr be enforced without reversing them. The book also says that he urged his commanders to beware of night raids and sent spies ahead of every army; that he consulted people before sending an army to the land of the Romans; that in his advice to his sons he told them to act on the opinion of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz and consult him; and that he advised al-Walid to honour al-Hajjaj, because he had paved the way for him. It also says that he died in Damascus in 86 AH; al-Walid led the funeral prayer over him, and he was buried between Bab al-Jabiya and Bab al-Saghir.