7th century Umayyad governor and commander
Al-Harith ibn Abd Allah al-Azdi, also referred to in sources as al-Harith ibn Abd, al-Harith ibn Amr or al-Harith ibn Abd Amr (fl. 665–677) was the Umayyad governor of Basra for four months in early 665 under Caliph Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680). Later, he served as the governor of his home territory of Palestine and/or the commander of Palestine's troops in the mid-670s.
Life
He was a tribesman of the Azd from Palestine, where the Azd made up a significant proportion of the district's Arab population.
In the spring of 665 Mu'awiya appointed al-Harith as governor of Basra in place of Abd Allah ibn Amir. Al-Harith made Abd Allah ibn Amr ibn Ghaylan the head of his shurta (select troops). According to al-Tabari (d. 923), al-Harith had been appointed by Mu'awiya as a placeholder to make way for Ziyad ibn Abihi, who became governor four months after al-Harith.
The historians Patricia Crone and Moshe Gil identified him as the "Harith ibn Abd" mentioned as the governor of Palestine under the Umayyad caliph Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680) in the Arabic and Greek papyri of Nitzana, dated to October 674–February 677. The traditional Muslim sources mention him as the commander of the troops of Palestine under Mu'awiya.
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