Abu Abd Allah al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba ibn Abi Amir ibn Mas'ud al-Thaqafi (); –671), was a prominent companion of the Islamic prophet

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

and was known as one of the four 'shrewds of the Arabs' (''duhat al-Arab''). He belonged to the tribe of Thaqif of

Ta'if Taif (, ) is a city and governorate in Mecca Province in Saudi Arabia. Located at an elevation of in the slopes of the Hijaz Mountains, which themselves are part of the Sarawat Mountains, Sarat Mountains, the city has a population of 563,282 pe ...

, who were part of the early Islamic elite. He served as governor of

Kufa Kufa ( ), also spelled Kufah, is a city in Iraq, about south of Baghdad, and northeast of Najaf. It is located on the banks of the Euphrates, Euphrates River. The estimated population in 2003 was 110,000. Along with Samarra, Karbala, Kadhimiya ...

, one of the two principal Arab garrisons and administrative centers of Iraq, under Caliph

Umar Umar ibn al-Khattab (; ), also spelled Omar, was the second Rashidun caliph, ruling from August 634 until his assassination in 644. He succeeded Abu Bakr () and is regarded as a senior companion and father-in-law of the Islamic prophet Mu ...

in 642–645. In his old age, al-Mughira was again made governor of Kufa, serving under the

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

Mu'awiya I Mu'awiya I (–April 680) was the founder and first caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, ruling from 661 until his death. He became caliph less than thirty years after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and immediately after the four Rashid ...

from 661 until his death in 671. During his second governorship, he ruled with virtual independence from the caliph.

Life

Early life

Al-Mughira was the son of Shu'ba ibn Abi Amir and belonged to the Banu Mu'attib clan of the Banu Thaqif tribe of

.Lammens 1993, p. 347. His clan were the traditional protectors of the shrine of al-Lat, one of many Arabian polytheistic deities worshiped in the pre-Islamic period. His uncle was

Urwah ibn Mas'ud Urwa or Urwah is a feminine Muslim name of Arabic origin meaning "strong support." People * Urwa ibn al-Ward (555–607), pre-Islamic poet * Urwah ibn Mas'ud, semi-legendary chieftain of Taif * Urwah ibn Zubayr (died 713), tabi'i Muslim historia ...

, a companion of the

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

ic prophet

. Al-Mughira offered his services to the latter in

Medina Medina, officially al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (, ), also known as Taybah () and known in pre-Islamic times as Yathrib (), is the capital of Medina Province (Saudi Arabia), Medina Province in the Hejaz region of western Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ...

after being exiled from Ta'if for assaulting and robbing his associates in their sleep while they were travelling together. Muhammad and the nascent Muslim community had taken refuge in Medina as a result of their exile from

Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...

. Muhammad with the help of al-Mughira persuaded the Thaqif to embrace Islam. He participated in the Muslims' attempted pilgrimage to Mecca, which was halted by the

Quraysh The Quraysh () are an Tribes of Arabia, Arab tribe who controlled Mecca before the rise of Islam. Their members were divided into ten main clans, most notably including the Banu Hashim, into which Islam's founding prophet Muhammad was born. By ...

at Hudaybiyya in April 628. Later, when Ta'if submitted to Muslim rule in 630, al-Mughira was tasked with overseeing the demolition of the al-Lat shrine.

Service under the Rashidun caliphs

Muhammad passed away in 632 and leadership of the emergent Muslim state passed to

Abu Bakr Abd Allah ibn Abi Quhafa (23 August 634), better known by his ''Kunya (Arabic), kunya'' Abu Bakr, was a senior Sahaba, companion, the closest friend, and father-in-law of Muhammad. He served as the first caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, ruli ...

(), who kept al-Mughira in some administrative capacity. Most high-ranking government posts went to members of the Quraysh, the tribe to which Muhammad and Abu Bakr belonged. At the Battle of Yarmouk in August 636, al-Mughira lost sight in one of his eyes.Morony 1987, p. 96. Caliph

() appointed him governor of

Basra Basra () is a port city in Iraq, southern Iraq. It is the capital of the eponymous Basra Governorate, as well as the List of largest cities of Iraq, third largest city in Iraq overall, behind Baghdad and Mosul. Located near the Iran–Iraq bor ...

, a garrison town founded by the Arabs which was used as the springboard for the

Muslim conquest of Persia As part of the early Muslim conquests, which were initiated by Muhammad in 622, the Rashidun Caliphate conquered the Sasanian Empire between 632 and 654. This event led to the decline of Zoroastrianism, which had been the official religion of ...

In 642, Umar appointed al-Mughira governor of

, the other Arab garrison town of Iraq. Two years later, a former slave of al-Mughira, known as Abu Lu'lu'a, assassinated Umar while the latter was praying in Medina. Umar's successor, Caliph

Uthman Uthman ibn Affan (17 June 656) was the third caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, ruling from 644 until his assassination in 656. Uthman, a second cousin, son-in-law, and notable companion of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, played a major role ...

(), kept al-Mughira as governor for another year until replacing him with

Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas ibn Wuhayb al-Zuhri () was an Arabs, Arab Muslims, Muslim commander. He was the founder of Kufa and served as its governor under Umar, Umar ibn al-Khattab. He played a leading role in the Muslim conquest of Persia and was a cl ...

. Al-Mughira retired from public life and returned to Ta'if upon the accession of Caliph Ali () following Uthman's assassination in 656. From his hometown, he observed the chaotic events of the First Muslim Civil War between the supporters of Ali, who made Kufa his capital, and the bulk of the Quraysh, who opposed Ali's caliphate. When Ali and Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, the governor of

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

who had taken up the cause of avenging the death of his

kinsman Uthman, decided to settle the

Battle of Siffin The Battle of Siffin () was fought in 657 CE (37 Islamic calendar, AH) between the fourth Rashidun caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib and the rebellious governor of Syria (region), Syria Muawiyah I, Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan. The battle is named after its ...

by arbitration in 657, al-Mughira, without invitation by either side, attended the talks at Adhruh.

Umayyad governor of Kufa

During the chaos that ensued in the aftermath of Ali's assassination in 661, al-Mughira apparently forged a letter by Mu'awiya, who had since claimed the caliphate, giving al-Mughira responsibility of leading the annual

Hajj Hajj (; ; also spelled Hadj, Haj or Haji) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for capable Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetim ...

pilgrimage to the

Ka'aba The Kaaba (), also spelled Kaba, Kabah or Kabah, sometimes referred to as al-Kaba al-Musharrafa (), is a stone building at the center of Islam's most important mosque and holiest site, the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is consi ...

in Mecca. According to the orientalist Henri Lammens, al-Mughira's "shocking morals", lack of attachment to the

Alids The Alids are those who claim descent from Ali ibn Abi Talib (; 600–661 CE), the fourth Rashidun caliph () and the first imam in Shia Islam. Ali was also the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The main branches are th ...

(kinsmen and partisans of Ali), non-involvement in the "jealousies of the Quraysh '' ic', as well as the narrow-mindedness of the Ansar" (another faction of the Muslim elite), and membership of the "intelligent and enterprising tribe of Thaqif '' ic'", all gained the attention of Mu'awiya, who reappointed him governor of Kufa in 661. Al-Mughira was known in the tradition as one of the principal "shrewds" of his era "who could get himself out of the most hopeless difficulty". Indeed, he was able to maintain relatively cordial relations with the influential Alids of Kufa and utilized them to counter their enemies, the

Kharijites The Kharijites (, singular ) were an Islamic sect which emerged during the First Fitna (656–661). The first Kharijites were supporters of Ali who rebelled against his acceptance of arbitration talks to settle the conflict with his challeng ...

. The latter were composed of Ali's erstwhile supporters who defected from him as a result of the arbitration with Mu'awiya, assassinated him and continued to rebel against the authorities in Iraq. According to Lammens, "by setting them lids and Kharijitesagainst one another he rendered harmless the most dangerous elements of disorder in his province". Moreover, by "combination of mildness and astuteness, and by knowing when to shut his eyes, al-Mughira succeeded in avoiding desperate measures" against the politically turbulent factions of Iraq and was able to maintain his governorship.

Al-Baladhuri ʾAḥmad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Jābir al-Balādhurī () was a 9th-century West Asian historian. One of the eminent Middle Eastern historians of his age, he spent most of his life in Baghdad and enjoyed great influence at the court of the caliph al ...

mentions in his Genealogies of the Nobles (Arabic: أنساب الأشراف; Ansab al-Ashraf), that Mughira ibn Shu'ba used to say, "Allah, curse so-and-so (meaning ' Ali) for he disobeyed what is in Your Book and abandoned the sunnah of Your Prophet, divided unity, shed blood and was slain as an oppressor." He is also said to have proposed to Mu'awiya to nominate his son Yazid as his caliphal successor.

Death

Al-Mughira died of the plague sometime between 668 and 671 at the age of 70. According to the historians al-Waqidi (d. 823) and

al-Mada'ini Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Abi Sayf al-Qurashi (; 752/753–843), commonly known by his al-Mada'ini (), was a scholar of Iranian descent who wrote in Arabic and was active under the early Abbasids in Iraq in the first half ...

(d. 843), al-Mughira died in August or September 670. He was succeeded by Ziyad ibn Abih, whom he had groomed as his successor. Upon becoming the governor of Iraq in 694, al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf appointed al-Mughira's sons al-Mutarrif, Urwa and Hamza his deputy governors in al-Mada'in, Kufa and Hamadhan, respectively, on account of their shared Thaqafi descent.Rowson 1989, p. 128.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mughira Companions of the Prophet 600 births 701 deaths Banu Thaqif People from Taif Rashidun governors of Kufa Umayyad governors of Kufa 7th-century people from the Umayyad Caliphate 7th-century deaths from plague (disease) Rashidun governors of Basra Rashidun governors of Arminiya