- Yazīd ibn al-Muhallab ibn Abī Ṣufrah, Abū Khālid al-Azdī—the military commander, Abū Khālid al-Azdī.
He governed the eastern provinces after his father, then Sulayman ibn ʿAbd al-Malik put him in charge of Basra. ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz later removed him in favor of ʿAdī ibn Arṭāʾah, pursued him, and imprisoned him (1).
Those who transmitted reports from him include his son ʿAbd al-Raḥmān and Abū Isḥāq al-Sabiʿī.
He was born during the caliphate of Muʿāwiyah, in 53 AH. Al-Ḥajjāj had once deposed and tortured him, whereupon Yazīd asked that the beating be lightened in return for paying one hundred thousand dirhams each day.
The poet al-Akḥṭal visited him and composed panegyric verses; Yazīd rewarded him with one hundred thousand dirhams. Al-Ḥajjāj was astonished at such generosity in those straits, pardoned him, but confined him again—until Yazīd escaped from prison.
Many accounts praise his liberality and courage. Al-Ḥajjāj had married Yazīd’s sister and would supplicate, “O Allah, if the household of al-Muhallab is innocent, then do not give me power over them, and grant them deliverance.”
It is said that after fleeing prison Yazīd set out for ʿAbd al-Malik. Passing by some Bedouin at ʿUrayb in the wilderness he told his servant, “Ask them for some milk.” They served it, and he ordered, “Give them a thousand.” The servant objected, “These people do not know who you are.” He replied, “But I know who I am.” (2)
Another report says that Sulayman ibn ʿAbd al-Malik fined the governor ʿUmar ibn Hubayrah one million dirhams. A group went to Yazīd ibn al-Muhallab, who paid it on his behalf; Sulayman had already made Yazīd governor of Iraq and Khurasan.
He said, “ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz took leave of me and said, ‘Yā Yazīd, fear…’”}