Mūsā ibn Nusair

Mūsā ibn Nusair ( Arabic موسى بن نصير, DMG Mūsā ibn Nuṣair ; * 640 ; † 715 ) was an Arab military leader and governor in Ifrīqīya (703-714).

Mūsā ibn Nuṣair initially worked in the administration of Basra , but was charged with embezzling public funds. He fled to Egypt , where a brother of the caliph 'Abd al-Malik interceded for Mūsā. He was now even appointed governor in Ifrīqīya in 703 and entrusted with the subjugation of the Maghreb . At first he was subordinate to the governor in Egypt as governor of Ifrīqīya. Not until 705 reached Mūsā ibn Nuṣair the independence of the Ifrīqīya province and the direct subordination to the caliphs .

By 709 he succeeded in subjugating the entire Maghreb. Since the Berbers quickly converted to Islam , Mūsā ibn Nuṣair began to hire Berbers as auxiliary troops for his campaigns.

In July 710, Tarif ibn Malik undertook the first successful raid into the Visigoth Empire . Thereupon Mūsā sent in 711 Ṭāriq ibn Ziyād , the governor of Tangier , to a campaign against the Visigothic Empire in Spain . Contrary to Mūsā's orders, he defeated the Visigoths in the battle of the Guadalete and conquered their capital, Toledo .

It was not until June 712 that Mūsā was able to land in Spain with an army (18,000 men) consisting primarily of Arabs and conquer Medina-Sidonia , Carmona and Seville . Although Ṭāriq was punished for disobeying orders at the meeting in Talavera, both continued the submission of the Visigoths. When they had conquered Zaragoza and Navarre in 714 and wanted to advance across the Pyrenees to Septimania , they were ordered to Damascus by Caliph al-Walīd . Before he left the country, Mūsā installed his son 'Abd al-'Azīz as governor in Andalusia . Further sons were appointed as governors in Tangier / Morocco and Ifrīqīya.

In Damascus he fell out of favor with al-Walīd I and lost all of his fortune. Mūsā ibn Nuṣair died in 715 as a beggar in Syria .

literature

• Stephan and Nandy Ronart: Lexicon of the Arab World . Artemis, Zurich 1972, ISBN 3-7608-0138-2 .

predecessor	Office	successor
-	Governor of Al-Andalus 712–714	Abd al-Aziz