Musa ibn Nusair

Abu Abd ar-Rahman Musa ibn Nusayr ibn Abd ar-Rahman Zayd al-Bakri al-Lajmi or Musa ibn Nusair (Arabic: أبوعبد الرحمن موسى بن نصير بن عبد الرحمن زيد اللخمي‎), called Muza or Musa in the Spanish tradition, was a Yemeni Muslim warlord under Egyptian governor Abd al-Azir. (He was from the Lajmids, known as the southern or Yemeni tribe), governor and general of the Umayyad Damascene Caliphate (640–716 / 718) in North Africa (Ifriquiya, present-day Tunisia). At the age of 71, he participated in the Muslim invasion of the Iberian Peninsula, according to the traditionally accepted historiography, based on Arab chronicles from the 10th and 11th centuries, and was the first wali or vali of al-Andalus, ruling between the years 712 and 714.

Biography

In North Africa, the pacification that would later allow the territorial advance was not exempt from difficulties that came mainly from the resistance of the Berbers (submission is achieved by taking hostages from the sons of notables and chiefs) and from the Maghrebi Christian zone (whose leaders end up choosing to accept agreements that confirm them in their domains, such as Don Julián, Lord of Ceuta).

In 698 Caliph Al-Walid appointed him governor or wali of Ifriquiya (Tunisia) in North Africa, and he was in charge of putting an end to a rebellion by the Berbers. When he took North Africa with his troops, many of the Berbers settled there were Christians, also thinking that almost all of them were also devotees of Judaism, rooted in that area since the I. Judaism also took possession of those lands when the first Jewish Diaspora arose around the VI century BCE. C., when the Babylonians expelled their people from Israel. In various chronicles, everything points to the fact that, with the arrival of the Muslims, the natives of the Maghreb decided to convert to Islam, albeit slowly, spanning centuries, since their customs were highly internalized. Finally this conquest would end with the capture of Tangier in the year 708.

In the same way, during those years he had to fight the attacks of the Byzantine navy and built a naval force that would sack the islands of Ibiza, Majorca and Menorca in the year 707.

At that point, Visigothic Hispania was immersed in tremendous confusion, with two rival kings, Agila II and Rodrigo, who controlled different areas of the peninsula; and one of them also (Rodrigo, elected thanks to the support of most of the Visigothic aristocracy) faced the opposition of a minority group, perhaps supporters of the descendants of his predecessor King Witiza, where Oppas and sisbert. Perhaps this group was the one that requested the help of Musa ibn Nusair, through Don Julián, governor of Ceuta or perhaps (less likely) of Tangier, although in this period it is almost impossible to know the real facts, much later embellished with legends.. Be that as it may, the fact is that Musa sent his lieutenant Táriq ibn Ziyad, who landed on the rock that was later called Gibraltar by him, on April 30, 711, at the head of 7,000 Berbers. Táriq defeated Rodrigo at the Battle of Guadalete in 711 and quickly advanced through the peninsular territory.

The result of this battle led to a greater arrival of Berber troops and the consequent expansion to the north, facing the last surviving Visigoth contingents from Guadalete in Écija.

In 712 Musa, accompanied by his son Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa and with an army of 18,000 men, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and proceeded to consolidate conquests made by his men and to conquer the remaining Visigothic territory. He occupied Medina Sidonia, Carmona and Seville and then attacked Mérida, laying siege to the city that resisted for a year (June 30, 713). From Mérida, Musa went to Toledo, where he met Tariq.

In 714 Musa and Táriq took Zaragoza and advanced towards Lérida. Called to Damascus, both invaders separated and Musa headed for Asturias to take León, Astorga and Zamora, and reach Lugo. Other of these many incursions will be expeditions that were far from the military and conquering field and will be based to a large extent on the politics of pacts, highlighting the Pact of Teodomiro in the year 713, one of the best known of this time.

Upon his return to Seville, Musa was called back to Damascus by the new Caliph Suleiman I to render an account. Before leaving, as if they were his own property instead of belonging to the Islamic community, Musa distributed the government of the different territories that he administered among his sons: Abd al-Aziz, his fourth son, as governor from Al-Andalus; Abd al-Málik (also called Marwan) ibn Musa, who was the second, from Ceuta and Tangier and Abd Allah ibn Musa, who was the eldest, from Ifriqiya. His third son, Marwan ibn Musa, accompanied Tariq ibn Ziyad on the first offensive in 711. They were children of their marriage ca. 678 with Amina bint Marwan (born 664?), daughter of Marwan I and Ruqayya bint Umar, daughter of Umar ibn al-Khattab and Umm Kulthum bint Ali, daughter of Ali ibn Abi Talib and Fatima az-Zahra, daughter of Muhammad and Khadijah.

Back in Damascus, Suleiman sentenced Musa to death for the recurring crime of embezzlement. His sentence was commuted by the payment of a considerable sum, but he was not allowed to return to Al-Andalus. Shortly after he was assassinated, under strange circumstances, in a mosque in Damascus, around the year 716, although some sources also state that around 718.

Arabs and Berbers

It seems that Musa ibn Nusayr established the relatively strong power that had been forged in the West, a power that would seriously wreak the caliphate, not only on the Arabs and the Mawali who must have belonged mainly to the Lajmid Arab group —tribe of the South Arabs or Yemenis to which Musa himself belonged—but also on Berber elements.