Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf

Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf began as head of the caliph's select troops under Abd al-Malik, rose to governor of the Hejaz by 692, then became practical viceroy of Iraq and the eastern Caliphate in 694. He replaced Persian with Arabic in the tax registers, minted the first strictly Muslim silver dirhams, and tried to revive agriculture by forcing non-Arab converts back to their villages and taxing them like non-Muslims. When the Kufan nobleman Ibn al-Ash'ath led a mass rebellion in 701 — Arab troops, converts, and religious elites all rising together — al-Hajjaj brought in Syrian reinforcements and cru…