"Abu al-Mughira Ziyad ibn Abihi (Arabic: أبو المغيرة زياد بن أبيه, romanized: Abū al-Mughīra Ziyād ibn Abīhi; c. 622 – 673), also known as Ziyad ibn Abi Sufyan (Arabic: زياد بن أبي سفيان, romanized: Ziyād ibn Abī Sufyān), was an administrator and statesman of the successive Rashidun and Umayyad caliphates in the mid-7th century. He served as the governor of Basra in 665–670 and ultimately the first governor of Iraq and virtual viceroy of the eastern Caliphate between 670 and his death.
Ziyad's parentage is obscure, but he was raised among the Banu Thaqif in Ta'if and arrived with his adoptive tribesmen in Basra upon its foundation in 636 as the Muslim Arabs' springboard for the conquest of the Sasanian Empire. He was initially employed by the city's first governor, Utba ibn Ghazwan al-Mazini, and was kept on as a scribe or secretary by his successors. Caliph Ali (r. 656–661) appointed Ziyad to Fars to suppress a local rebellion and he maintained his loyalty to Ali's caliphate after the latter's assassination in 661 and the subsequent rule of Ali's enemy, Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680). The latter ultimately overcame Ziyad's opposition, formally recognized him as his own paternal half-brother and appointed him governor of Basra. Ziyad's inaugural speech, in which he announced his carrot-and-stick policies to the city's turbulent population, is celebrated in Arab history for its eloquence. After the death of Kufa's governor, Ziyad's mentor al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba, Mu'awiya made Ziyad the first governor of a unified Iraqi province. He administratively reorganized the garrison cities and minted Sasanian-style silver dirhams in his own name. He firmly established Arab power and recommenced conquests in the Caliphate's easternmost province of Khurasan by relocating there 50,000 Arab soldiers and their families from Iraq and dispatching expeditionary forces against Tukharistan, Balkh and Quhistan. Though the mass resettlement improved Iraq's economic and political conditions by siphoning off Arab tribal soldiers from the overcrowded garrisons and creating new opportunities for war spoils, the move had major ramifications for the Caliphate as the descendants of these Khurasani Arab troops formed the army that toppled the Umayyads in 750. " - (en.wikipedia.org 12.08.2021)
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