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Al-Abbās ibn Mūsā ibn ʿĪsā (Arabic: العباس بن موسى بن عيسى) (died 815) was a minor member of the Abbasid dynasty. He held various posts in the late eighth and early ninth centuries, and played a supporting role in the events of the Fourth Fitna.

Career

Al-Abbas was a grandson of Isa ibn Musa, the nephew of the first two Abbasid caliphs as-Saffah and al-Mansur and initial heir-apparent to the latter. Shortly after the accession of Harun al-Rashid in 786 he is mentioned as serving as deputy governor of Kufa for his father Musa, and later in Harun's reign he was appointed as full governor of that same city. In 805 he led the annual pilgrimage, and he also served as governor of Mecca at an unspecified date.

Following the death of Harun in 809, al-Abbas was initially employed by his successor al-Amin to act as an emissary to al-Ma'mun in Khurasan, but in the midst of the growing conflict between the two brothers he was soon persuaded to switch sides and offer his allegiance to al-Ma'mun instead. In March 812 he participated in the failed coup of al-Husayn ibn Ali ibn Isa, in which he was responsible for personally apprehending both al-Amin and his mother Zubaydah bint Ja'far, and he was subsequently selected to lead the first pilgrimages undertaken in al-Ma'mun's name, in 812, 813 and 814.

In June 814 al-Abbas was appointed as governor of Egypt by al-Ma'mun, and he deputized his son Abdallah to take control of that province in his name. Abdallah quickly developed poor relations with the local jund, however, and after less than three months in office he was overthrown by an army revolt, while the ex-governor al-Muttalib ibn Abdallah al-Khuza'i was freed from prison and restored to power in his place. Al-Abbas then responded by setting out for Egypt in an effort to intervene, but in February 815 he suddenly died at Bilbays, allegedly due to poisoning.

Notes

1. Yarshater 1985–2007, v. 30: pp. 101, 213, 304; Khalifah ibn Khayyat 1985, p. 462.
2. Yarshater 1985–2007, v. 30: p. 258; Gordon et al. 2018, v. 3: p. 1183; Khalifah ibn Khayyat 1985, p. 458; Al-Mas'udi 1877, p. 68 (in corrupted form).
3. Yarshater 1985–2007, v. 30: p. 304; Khalifah ibn Khayyat 1985, p. 461; Wüstenfeld 1861, p. 179. According to Khalifah ibn Khayyat, he appointed Talhah ibn Bilal to act as his deputy.
4. Yarshater 1985–2007, v. 31: pp. 25-27, 67-68, 73; Gordon et al. 2018, v. 1: p. 142.
5. Yarshater 1985–2007, v. 31: p. 110.
6. Yarshater 1985–2007, v. 31: pp. 128-29, 133, 172; v. 32: p. 11; Gordon et al. 2018, v. 3: p. 1203 (for 812 and 813 only); Khalifah ibn Khayyat 1985, pp. 467, 468; Al-Mas'udi 1877, p. 69 (in corrupted form).
7. Brockopp 2000, p. 41; Al-Kindi 1912, pp. 153–54; Ibn Taghribirdi 1930, pp. 161–62; Gordon et al. 2018, v. 3: p. 1206. The last adds that the mutiny was led by al-Sari ibn al-Hakam.
8. Al-Kindi 1912, p. 155; Ibn Taghribirdi 1930, p. 162; Gordon et al. 2018, v. 3: p. 1206.

References

• Brockopp, Jonathan E. (2000). Early Maliki Law: Ibn 'Abd al-Hakam and his Major Compendium of Jurisprudence. Leiden, Boston and Köln: Brill. ISBN 90-04-11628-1.
• Gordon, Matthew S.; Robinson, Chase F.; Rowson, Everett K.; et al., eds. (2018). The Works of Ibn Wadih al-Ya'qubi: An English Translation. Vol. 3 vols. Leiden and Boston: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-35621-4.
• 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.
• 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.
• Al-Mas'udi, Ali ibn al-Husain (1877). Les Prairies D'Or, Tome Neuvième (in French). Ed. and Trans. Charles Barbier de Meynard and Abel Pavet de Courteille. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale.
• Wüstenfeld, Ferdinand (1861). Die Chroniken der Stadt Mekka, Vierter Band: Geschichte der Stadt Mekka (in German). Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus.
• Yarshater, Ehsan, ed. (1985–2007). The History of al-Ṭabarī (40 vols). SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-7249-1.

• 815 deaths
• Abbasids
• Abbasid governors of Mecca
• 9th-century Abbasid governors of Egypt
• 9th-century Arab people
• 8th-century Arab people