An Umayyad politician and military leader who is considered a controversial figure in his life and after his death and until the present time, he shed blood for the slightest suspicion, but some say that he preserved the cohesion of the Islamic state.
Al-Hajjaj bin Yusuf al-Thaqafi was born in Taif, the home of his Thaqif clan, with the birth of the Umayyad dynasty.
And when the pilgrims were at the age of 24, Abdullah bin Al-Zubayr declared himself caliph in Mecca, ruled the Hijaz, and sent his brother Musab to Iraq, so he ruled it, and there was nothing left for the Umayyads except the Levant and Egypt.
After a few years, a strong man, Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, assumed the caliphate in the Levant.
Al-Hajjaj left education and traveled to the Levant and joined the police of Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, and became a political leader.
Among the stories that tell about him is that he once saw his men eating at an untimely meal and invited him to their food, but he burned their tent and punished them, so his leader complained to the caliph who made peace between them, but he realized that among his men he had a strong heart.
Abd al-Malik bin Marwan went to Iraq to fight Musab bin al-Zubayr and accompanied the pilgrims, killing Musab and returning Iraq to the fold of the Umayyad state, but Abdullah bin al-Zubayr remained in Mecca calling for the caliphate in the Hijaz.
Al-Hajjaj fights the Kharijites
Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan al-Hajjaj sent a large army to Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr.
The latter took refuge in the Grand Mosque in Mecca, so the pilgrims struck the Kaaba with catapults and besieged the sanctuary until he eliminated Ibn Al-Zubayr, killed him and crucified him.
He did not care about Ibn al-Zubayr's kinship with the Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace, or that his mother was Asma bint Abi Bakr al-Siddiq.
Al-Hajjaj is considered a controversial figure, as some of them curse him, and some of them refrain from doing so, on the pretext that the man eliminated the split in the Islamic state and prevented the double caliphate.
It is narrated that Abd al-Malik bin Marwan said to al-Hajjaj in an hour of serenity: Describe yourself to me, and he replied to him, saying, “I am spiteful, envious, and I do not know a man more daring than me in bloodshed.”
After the Umayyad caliphate was established, Abd al-Malik al-Hajjaj sent a governor to Iraq, and he began his reign in Kufa, where he delivered his famous sermon, threatening people and forcing them to use the sword to go out with him to fight the Kharijites who were causing concern in Iraq.
After the death of Abd al-Malik, his son al-Walid assumed the caliphate, who became increasingly attached to the pilgrims, who died at the age of 55.