Yazid ibn Abi Kabsha al-Saksaki

Yazid ibn Abi Kabsha al-Saksaki (Arabic: يزيد بن أبي كبشة السكسكي) was an Arab military commander and provincial governor for the Umayyad Caliphate.

He was the son of Haywil ibn Yasar, surnamed Abu Kabsha, a member of the Syrian tribal nobility and an adherent of the Umayyads during the Second Fitna.^[1] Yazid served as sahib al-shurta for Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (r. 685–705), campaigned against the Kharijites in Iraq in 698, and was appointed by the governor of Iraq, al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, as head of his shurta in Wasit.^[2] In 712/3 he led a campaign against the Byzantine Empire, and after the death of Hajjaj in 714, he succeeded him briefly as governor of Iraq.^[2] Caliph Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik (r. 715–717) then sent him to Sind, where he dismissed and imprisoned the incumbent governor, Muhammad ibn Qasim. Yazid died in Sind shortly after his arrival there.^[2]

He had a brother Ziyad, of whom nothing is known, but his nephew Sari ibn Ziyad was among the pro-Yemeni leaders during the Third Fitna.^[2]

• Crone, Patricia (1980). Slaves on horses: the evolution of the Islamic polity. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-52940-9.