Muhammad ibn Abd Allah al-Ashja'i ( ar, محمد بن عبد الله الأشجعي, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ashdjaʿī) was the eleventh

governor of al-Andalus The southern part of the Iberian peninsula was under Islamic rule for seven hundred years. In Middle Ages, medieval history, "al-Andalus" ( ar, الأندلس) was the name given to the parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by A ...

under the

Umayyad Caliphate The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by th ...

in AD 730 ( AH 111–112). He was one of a series of Arabs from

Ifriqiya Ifriqiya ( '), also known as al-Maghrib al-Adna ( ar, المغرب الأدنى), was a medieval historical region comprising today's Tunisia and eastern Algeria, and Tripolitania (today's western Libya). It included all of what had previously ...

who served as governors in al-Andalus from 721 to 731. After ten months in office, Muhammad's predecessor,

al-Haytham Ḥasan Ibn al-Haytham, Latinized as Alhazen (; full name ; ), was a medieval mathematician, astronomer, and physicist of the Islamic Golden Age from present-day Iraq.For the description of his main fields, see e.g. ("He is one of the prin ...

, was confronted by an attempted ''coup d'état'' in early 730. He arrested the conspirators, but their relatives in turn complained about his heavy-handedness to his superior, the governor of Ifriqiya. According to the ''

Chronicle of 754 The ''Chronicle of 754'' (also called the ''Mozarabic Chronicle'' or ''Continuatio Hispana'') is a Latin-language history in 95 sections, written by an anonymous Mozarab (Christian) chronicler in Al-Andalus. The ''Chronicle'' contains the earlie ...

'', the earliest source, al-Haytham was arrested and brought to Ifriqiya, but because his intended replacement, al-Qhafiqi, could not be found, Muhammad was appointed to replace him instead. His formal appointment took place, according to the ''Chronicle'', one month after al-Haytham had been removed.In . According to the ''

Prophetic Chronicle The ''Chronica Prophetica'' ("Prophetic Chronicle") is an anonymous medieval Latin chronicle written by a Christian in April 883 at or near the court of Alfonso III of Asturias in Oviedo. It uses the dating system of the Spanish Era and is esse ...

'', written in 883, he only governed for one month.

Al-Maqqari Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Maqqarī al-Tilmisānī (or al-Maḳḳarī) (), (1577-1632) was an Algerian scholar, biographer and historian who is best known for his , a compendium of the history of Al-Andalus which provided a basis for the scholar ...

, a very late source, puts his term of office in March–May 731, a year later than the earlier chronicles indicate, but right before the generally accepted date for when al-Ghafiqi finally took up office.

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