Al-Hakam ibn Amr al-Ghifari

Resting place of al-Ghifari alongside Buraydah al-Aslami, Merv, Turkmenistan

Al-Hakam ibn Amr was a son of Amr ibn Mujaddah ibn Hidhyam ibn al-Harith ibn Nu'ayla of the Banu Ghifar, a clan of the Kinana tribe.[1][2] Al-Hakam was a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and one of his banner bearers in battle.[3][4] He settled in Basra, the Arab garrison town and springboard of the Muslim conquests of the Sasanian Empire established in 636.[5][6] There was a sparse presence of Ghifar tribesmen in Basra.[7] His brother Rafi was a transmitter of hadith from Muhammad.[2]

According to al-Tabari and al-Baladhuri, in 665 Ziyad ibn Abihi, the practical viceroy of Iraq and the eastern Umayyad Caliphate, centralized the vast region of Khurasan (east of Iran and west of the Oxus) into a single provincial administration based in Merv under the governorship of al-Hakam.[8][1][9] According to an anecdote cited by both historians, Ziyad had intended to appoint the veteran commander al-Hakam ibn Abi al-As al-Thaqafi to the post, but when his chamberlain mistakenly brought al-Hakam ibn Amr to his court he appointed him instead, remarking that al-Hakam was a companion of Muhammad and "an upright fellow" or "a man of nobility".[1][10] Another traditional Muslim report holds that al-Hakam was appointed by Ziyad in 664.[11] Al-Tabari notes that Ziyad also assigned six deputies under al-Hakam charged with the collection of the kharaj (land tax and/or possibly poll tax). [4][12]

Al-Hakam died and was buried in Merv. His appointed successor Anas ibn Abi Unas, who was promptly dismissed by Ziyad, led his funeral prayers.[13] His grave was mentioned by the sources as late as the reign of the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun (r. 813–833).[5]

• Crone, Patricia (1980). Slaves on Horses: The Evolution of the Islamic Polity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-52940-9.
• Fariq, K. A. (1966). Ziyād b. Abīh. London: Asia Publishing House. OCLC 581630755.
• Gibb, H. A. R. (1923). The Arab Conquests in Central Asia. London: The Royal Asiatic Society. OCLC 499987512.
• Hasan, S. A. (1970). "A Survey of the Expansion of Islam into Central Asia during the Umayyad Caliphate". Islamic Culture. 44 (1): 165–176.
• Landau-Tasseron, Ella, ed. (1998). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XXXIX: Biographies of the Prophet's Companions and their Successors: al-Ṭabarī's Supplement to his History. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-2819-1.
• Lecker, Michael (2000). "On the Burial of Martyrs in Islam". In Hiroyuki, Yanagihashi (ed.). The Concept of Territory in Islamic Law and Thought. London: Kegan Paul International. pp. 37–50. ISBN 0-7103-0725X.
• Murgotten, Francis Clark (1924). The Origins of the Islamic State, Being a Translation from the Arabic, Accompanied with Annotations, Geographic and Historic Notes of the Kitâb Fitûh al-Buldân of al-Imâm Abu-l Abbâs Ahmad Ibn-Jâbir al-Balâdhuri, Part 2. New York and London: Columbia University & Longman, Green & Co.
• Morony, Michael G., ed. (1987). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XVIII: Between Civil Wars: The Caliphate of Muʿāwiyah, 661–680 A.D./A.H. 40–60. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-87395-933-9.
• Rtveladze, Edward V. (2000). "Migration of Peoples in Central Asia". JCAS Symposium Series (9): 1–20.