Musa ibn Mus'ab al-Khath'ami () (died 785) was a provincial governor for the

Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 CE), from whom the dynasty takes ...

, serving at various times over the

Jazira Jazira, al-Jazira, Jazeera, al-Jazeera, etc. are all transcriptions of Arabic language, Arabic meaning "the island" or "the peninsula". The term may refer to: Business *Jazeera Airways, an airlines company based in Kuwait Locations * Al-Jazir ...

Mosul Mosul ( ; , , ; ; ; ) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. It is the second largest city in Iraq overall after the capital Baghdad. Situated on the banks of Tigris, the city encloses the ruins of the ...

, and

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

Career

Described as a ''

mawla ''Mawlā'' (, plural ''mawālī'' ), is a polysemous Arabic word, whose meaning varied in different periods and contexts.A.J. Wensinck, Encyclopedia of Islam 2nd ed, Brill. "Mawlā", vol. 6, p. 874. Before the Islamic prophet Muhammad, the te ...

'' of the tribe of Khath'am, Musa was the son of Mus'ab ibn Rabi', a secretary to the last

Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate or Umayyad Empire (, ; ) was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty. Uthman ibn Affan, the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a membe ...

caliph

Marwan II Marwan ibn Muhammad ibn Marwan (; – 6 August 750), commonly known as Marwan II, was the fourteenth and last caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, ruling from 744 until his death. His reign was dominated by a Third Fitna, civil war, and he was the l ...

who later submitted to the Abbasids during the Abbasid Revolution. He himself appears to have enjoyed close relations with the Abbasid ruling family, having reportedly been a

milk brother Milk kinship, formed during nursing by a non-biological mother, was a form of fostering allegiance with fellow community members. This particular form of kinship did not exclude particular groups, such that class and other hierarchal systems did ...

to the third caliph

al-Mahdi Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Manṣūr (; 744 or 745 – 785), better known by his regnal name al-Mahdī (, "He who is guided by God"), was the third Abbasid Caliph who reigned from 775 to his death in 785. He succeeded his ...

at Humayma. During the reign of

al-Mansur Abū Jaʿfar ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Manṣūr (; ‎; 714 – 6 October 775) usually known simply as by his laqab al-Manṣūr () was the second Abbasid caliph, reigning from 754 to 775 succeeding his brother al-Saffah (). He is known ...

(), Musa was appointed on multiple occasions as governor of the Jazira and Mosul. While there he enacted severe taxation policies which led to widespread unrest and earned a lengthy condemnation of his activities in the Chronicle of Pseudo-Dionysius of Tell-Mahre. Al-Mahdi nevertheless returned him to the same post in 783–784, during which he carried out the caliph's plans to construct an enlargement of the

Friday mosque A congregational mosque or Friday mosque (, ''masjid jāmi‘'', or simply: , ''jāmi‘''; ), or sometimes great mosque or grand mosque (, ''jāmi‘ kabir''; ), is a mosque for hosting the Friday noon prayers known as ''jumu'ah''.See: * * * * ...

in Mosul. In 784 Musa was appointed governor of Egypt with jurisdiction over both its military and taxation affairs, and with the task of quelling the ongoing rebellion of Dihyah ibn Mus'ab in

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ', shortened to , , locally: ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the Nile River valley south of the delta and the 30th parallel North. It thus consists of the entire Nile River valley from Cairo south to Lake N ...

. Within a short time of his arrival he seriously alienated a large segment of the population with his large tax increases, including a doubling of the tax on the '' faddan'' and imposing levies on the markets and beasts of burden, and his standing was further harmed after he was accused of accepting bribes. In response, the

Qays Qays ʿAylān (), often referred to simply as Qays (''Kais'' or ''Ḳays'') were an Arab tribal confederation that branched from the Mudar group. The tribe may not have functioned as a unit in pre-Islamic Arabia (before 630). However, by the ea ...

and

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

Arabs of the

Hawf Hawf (), officially known as the Hawf District (), is a district of the Al Mahrah Governorate in south-eastern Yemen. As of the 2004 Yemeni census, the district had a population of 5,143 inhabitants. The Hawf Area was nominated as a natural UNESCO ...

district united against him and proclaimed a war of resistance, while the infuriated members of the

Fustat Fustat (), also Fostat, was the first capital of Egypt under Muslim rule, though it has been integrated into Cairo. It was built adjacent to what is now known as Old Cairo by the Rashidun Muslim general 'Amr ibn al-'As immediately after the Mus ...

'' jund'' for their part formed a secret pact with the Hawfis to not fight against them. In the spring of 785 Musa led his armies out against the Hawfis, but in the resulting encounter he was defeated, abandoned by his men and killed by the rebels.; ; ; ; ; .

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * * * * {{Governor of Egypt during Abbasid Caliphate, state=expanded 785 deaths 8th-century Abbasid governors of Egypt 8th-century Arab people Abbasid governors of Mosul