Yahya ibn al-Hakam

Yahya ibn al-Hakam ibn Abi al-As was an Umayyad statesman during the caliphate of his nephew, Abd al-Malik. He fought against Caliph Ali at the Battle of the Camel and later moved to Damascus where he was a courtier of the Umayyad caliphs Mu'awiya I and Yazid I. He was appointed governor of Palestine by Abd al-Malik and is credited in an inscription for building part of a road connecting Damascus to Jerusalem in 692. He served as governor of Medina for a year in 694/95 and afterward led a series of expeditions against the Byzantine Empire along the northern frontier of Syria.