Musa ibn Nusayr
Arab military commander provincial governor (640-716)
Musa ibn Nusayr (Arabic: موسى بن نصير, Mūsā ibn Nuṣayr; c. 640 – c. 716) was an Arab Muslim military commander, statesman, and governor of the Umayyad Caliphate who served under the caliphs Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan and Al-Walid I. As governor of Ifriqiya, he completed the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb, consolidated Umayyad authority across North Africa, and oversaw the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, one of the most significant expansions in early Islamic history. Under his leadership and that of his generals, most notably Tariq ibn Ziyad, Muslim forces conquered the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania, establishing Umayyad rule over much of the Iberian Peninsula and extending Islamic influence into parts of southern Gaul (Septimania).
Background
Various suggestions have been made as to his ancestry. Some say his father belonged to the Lakhmid clan of semi-nomads who lived east of the Euphrates and were allies of the Sassanians, while others claim he belonged to the Banu Bakr confederation. The most detailed account is that of al-Tabari, who stated that Musa's father was taken captive after the fall of the Mesopotamian city of Ayn al-Tamr (633). According to this account, he was an Arab Christian from Banu Yashkur who was one of a number being held hostage there. However, al-Baladhuri, relating the same events, states he was an Arab of the Balī tribe, from Jabal al-Jalīl in Palestine.
As a slave, Musa's father entered the service of Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan (governor of Egypt and son of the caliph Marwan I) who gave him his freedom.
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This entry incorporates text from “Musa ibn Nusayr” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.