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Abdallah ibn al-Musayyab ibn Zuhayr al-Dabbi (Arabic: عبد الله بن المسيب بن زهير الضبي) was a governor of Egypt for the Abbasid Caliphate, from 792 to 793.

Career

He was a son of al-Musayyab ibn Zuhayr, a participant of the Abbasid Revolution who later served as a provincial governor and security chief. In 792 he was appointed as governor (wali) of Egypt by the caliph Harun al-Rashid, as a replacement for the deceased Ibrahim ibn Salih. During his governorship he is reported to have been engaged in hostilities with the people of the Hawf district, and to have received a request from the emir of Córdoba Hashim I for reinforcements in support of his raids against the Franks. After remaining in office for a little under a year, he was dismissed and replaced with Ishaq ibn Sulayman al-Hashimi.

In 795 Abdallah was again put in charge of affairs in Egypt, this time as resident deputy (khalifah) for the absentee governor Abd al-Malik ibn Salih, and he stayed in that position until Abd al-Malik's successor Ubaydallah ibn al-Mahdi arrived to replace him in the middle of that year.

According to Ibn Qutaybah, he was also a governor of Fars and the Jazirah.

Notes

1. Crone 1980, pp. 186–87; Kennedy 1990, p. 165.
2. Al-Kindi 1912, p. 135 (who is silent on details of his governorship); Ibn Taghribirdi 1930, pp. 85–86.
3. Al-Kindi 1912, p. 137; Ibn Taghribirdi 1930, pp. 85, 90. Khalifah ibn Khayyat 1985, p. 463, does not note this appointment, but instead claims that "Ibn al-Musayyab ibn Zuhayr" was an earlier deputy governor for Ja'far ibn Yahya al-Barmaki.
4. Ibn Qutaybah n.d., p. 413.

References

• Crone, Patricia (1980). Slaves on Horses: The Evolution of the Islamic Polity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-52940-9.
• Ibn Qutaybah, Abu Muhammad Abdallah ibn Muslim (n.d.). Ukashah, Tharwat (ed.). Al-Ma'arif (4th ed.). Cairo: al-Dar Ma'arif.
• Ibn Taghribirdi, Jamal al-Din Abu al-Mahasin Yusuf (1930). Nujum al-zahira fi muluk Misr wa'l-Qahira, Volume II (in Arabic). Cairo: Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya.
• Kennedy, Hugh, ed. (1990). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XXIX: Al-Mansūr and al-Mahdī, A.D. 763–786/A.H. 146–169. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-0142-2.
• Khalifah ibn Khayyat (1985). al-Umari, Akram Diya' (ed.). Tarikh Khalifah ibn Khayyat, 3rd ed (in Arabic). Al-Riyadh: Dar Taybah.
• Al-Kindi, Muhammad ibn Yusuf (1912). Guest, Rhuvon (ed.). The Governors and Judges of Egypt (in Arabic). Leyden and London: E. J. Brill.

• 8th-century Abbasid governors of Egypt
• 8th-century Arab people