Qurra ibn Sharīk ibn Marthad ibn Ḥazīm al-Absi al-Ghaṭafānī () () was a statesman of 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 ...

, most notable for his governorship of

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

under Caliph

al-Walid I Al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan ( ar, الوليد بن عبد الملك بن مروان, al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān; ), commonly known as al-Walid I ( ar, الوليد الأول), was the sixth Umayyad Caliphate, Umayyad ca ...

between 709 and his death in 715.

Life

Information about Qurra's early career is obscure. According to interpretations of Michael the Syrian's chronicle, he served as governor of his native province,

Jund Qinnasrin ''Jund Qinnasrīn'' ( ar, جُـنْـد قِـنَّـسْـرِيْـن, "military district of Qinnasrin") was one of five sub-provinces of Syria under the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates, organized soon after the Muslim conquest of Syria in th ...

(northern

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

) or possibly

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

during the last years of Caliph Abd al-Malik ().Crone (1980), p. 125. He later became the ''katib'' (secretary) of Caliph

, who appointed him governor of

in 709.Bosworth (1986), p. 500.Crone (1980), p. 125. He was a ''sharīf'' (tribal noble) of the

Banu Abs ) , type = Ghatafan, Qays, Adnanite , image = Antarah ibn Shaddad & Abla.jpg , image_size = , alt = , caption = , nisba = Al-ʿAbsī , location = Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Eritrea, Kuwait, Jordan, Unite ...

tribe, part of the larger

Qays Qays ʿAylān ( ar, قيس عيلان), often referred to simply as Qays (''Kais'' or ''Ḳays'') were an Arab tribal confederation that branched from the Mudar group. The tribe does not appear to have functioned as a unit in the pre-Islamic e ...

i group resident in northern Syria and

Upper Mesopotamia Upper Mesopotamia is the name used for the uplands and great outwash plain of northwestern Iraq, northeastern Syria and southeastern Turkey, in the northern Middle East. Since the early Muslim conquests of the mid-7th century, the region has been ...

from the

early Muslim conquests The early Muslim conquests or early Islamic conquests ( ar, الْفُتُوحَاتُ الإسْلَامِيَّة, ), also referred to as the Arab conquests, were initiated in the 7th century by Muhammad, the main Islamic prophet. He estab ...

of the 630s. His administrative experience, coupled with the tribal origins he shared with the mother of Caliph

(), likely propelled his career during that caliph's rule. Al-Walid appointed Qurra governor of Egypt in place of his own brother Abd Allah, whose corruption was blamed for famine in the province. Qurra's governance was effective, and the chronicler

al-Kindi Abū Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn ʼIsḥāq aṣ-Ṣabbāḥ al-Kindī (; ar, أبو يوسف يعقوب بن إسحاق الصبّاح الكندي; la, Alkindus; c. 801–873 AD) was an Arab Muslim philosopher, polymath, mathematician, physician ...

reports that he "reorganized the ''dīwān''" (the army registers, with the names of those entitled to ''ʿatāʾ'', government salary), rebuilt the mosque of

Fustat Fusṭāṭ ( ar, الفُسطاط ''al-Fusṭāṭ''), also Al-Fusṭāṭ and Fosṭāṭ, was the first capital of Egypt under Muslim rule, and the historical centre of modern Cairo. It was built adjacent to what is now known as Old Cairo by t ...

and began irrigation works in the desert. According to

Hugh N. Kennedy Hugh Nigel Kennedy (born 22 October 1947) is a British medieval historian and academic. He specialises in the history of the early Islamic Middle East, Muslim Iberia and the Crusades. From 1997 to 2007, he was Professor of Middle Eastern Histor ...

, "in some ways Qurra is the best-known of all the Umayyad governors of Egypt", since "it is from his period of office that the richest collection of administrative papyri survive". His letters to the pagarch of Aphrodito are especially useful to understand judicial administration in Egypt at that time. He died in office in 715.

References

Sources

* * * {{s-end 7th-century births 715 deaths 8th-century Umayyad governors of Egypt Umayyad governors of Qinnasrin Ghatafan 7th-century Arabs 8th-century Arabs