Al-Walid ibn Utba ibn Abi Sufyan

Al-Walid ibn Utba ibn Abi Sufyan (died 684) was a statesman and member of the Umayyad ruling family during the reigns of the Umayyad caliphs Mu'awiya I and Yazid I . He served two stints as the governor of Medina in 677/78–680 and 681–682. He was dismissed during his first term for failing to secure oaths of allegiance from Husayn ibn Ali and other senior Muslim figures who opposed Yazid's accession. After his relocation to Damascus during the Second Fitna, he was imprisoned in 684 for proclaiming his support for continued Umayyad rule and condemning the anti-Umayyad caliph Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr. He was freed shortly after by his kinsman Khalid ibn Yazid and the pro-Umayyad Banu Kalb tribe.

Life Genealogical tree of the Sufyanids, the ruling family of the Umayyad Caliphate, to which al-Walid belonged.

Al-Walid ibn Utba belonged to the Umayyad clan and was a son of Utba ibn Abi Sufyan and thus a paternal nephew of Caliph Mu'awiya I , founder of the Umayyad Caliphate centered in Syria. He may have led the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in October 676. According to the early Muslim historian al-Waqidi (died 823), Mu'awiya appointed al-Walid governor of Medina in September/October 677, while according to another 8th-century historian Abu Mash'ar, he was appointed in August/September 678. He replaced his Umayyad cousin, Marwan ibn al-Hakam. He led the Hajj again in September 678. According to the accounts of the early Muslim historian al-Baladhuri (died 892), al-Walid had a reputation for drinking and was involved in intra-dynastic disputes over power in the caliphate from the beginning of his career. Accordingly, al-Walid invited Husayn and Ibn al-Zubayr to the governor's palace in Medina, which aroused both of their suspicions; Ibn al-Zubayr fled to Mecca, while Husayn agreed to meet al-Walid accompanied by his retinue of clansmen and mawali (non-Arab clients or freedmen). Meanwhile, al-Walid had sent horsemen to pursue Ibn al-Zubayr, but they were unable to reach him. Al-Walid's lax approach led to his dismissal by Yazid in June 680 and replacement by another Umayyad, Amr ibn Sa'id ibn al-As.

Al-Walid was reappointed governor of Medina at the beginning of the Hajj on 21 August 681. He led the Hajj that year and the next year, in August 682. Al-Walid was unsuccessful in his efforts to subdue Ibn al-Zubayr, who had launched a revolt against the Umayyads from his base in Mecca. While al-Walid led the Hajj on behalf of the Umayyad authorities in 682, Ibn al-Zubayr led his own followers, as did the Kharijite leader Najda ibn 'Amir al-Hanafi. Al-Walid had led the funeral prayers for Mu'awiya II. The Umayyads' governor in Damascus, al-Dahhak ibn Qays al-Fihri, secretly supported Ibn al-Zubayr's suzerainty, but withheld openly recognizing him due to the strong presence of the Umayyads and their supporters in the city and vicinity of Damascus. The eldest surviving Sufyanid, al-Walid may have intended to claim the mantle of succession, but died, possibly of plague, in 684.