Mūsá ibn ʻUqbah

Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah ibn Abī ʿAyyāsh al-Asadi al-Miṭraqī (Arabic: موسى بن عقبة بن أبي عياش الأسدي المطرفي; d. 758/759 CE), commonly known with his honorific as Mūsā ibn ʿUqba ([/ˈmuː.saː ʔibn ʕuq.ba/]), was an early Medinan historian, jurist and traditionalist, a freedman of the family of al-Zubayr, as well as a pupil of Urwa ibn al-Zubayr and al-Zuhri. Imam Malik studied under him and held him in high esteem. Musa was also an expert on maghāzī, the accounts of the Prophet’s military expeditions within on the Sīrah. He composed a maghāzī work long thought became extinct sometime around the 15th to 17th century, but a manuscript containing two-thirds of the book was rediscovered in 2021.

Biography

Family background Mūsā appears not to have established his affiliations arbitrarily, but rather in connection with the Banū Asad, of whom he was a mawlā (client). His Zubayrid allegiance, a walāʾ ʿitāqah (allegiance by emancipation), was inherited through both his paternal and maternal lines. She was also the only female Companion whom Mūsā is recorded to have met, and the only Companion from whom he directly transmitted ḥadīth.

From his mother’s side, she was the daughter of Abū Ḥabībah, the mawlā (freedman) of al-Zubayr and ḥājib (chamberlain) of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr, as well as his emissary to ʿUthmān during the siege before Uthman's Assassination. Mūsā met him and transmitted from him as well. whereas Yāqūt al-Ḥamawī gives it as Muṭriq. Al-Rushātī , citing al-Ḥamdānī , notes that Miṭraq was a locality in Yemen. According to Yāqūt , however, it referred to a mountainous region in ʿĀriḍ, al-Yamāmah, extending three days’ journey, corresponding roughly to the area of modern-day Riyadh. The former identification is the stronger view.

He himself related that he once travelled to al-Ruṣāfah, Iraq, as a young man, where he met the poet Jarīr . Introducing himself, he asked Jarīr’s opinion on who was the greater poet, Kuthayyir ʿAzzah or ʿAdī ibn al-Ruqāʿ. Jarīr engaged him in conversation and found him eloquent and agreeable.

He would have customarily studied the Qurʾān, for he is later mentioned among the al-qurrāʾ (Qur'anic reciters). Afterwards, he attended the ḥalqāt (circles of knowledge) in the Prophet’s Mosque. When his family took him along on a pilgrimage, he encountered some of the remaining Companions, as he himself related that he had seen Ibn ʿUmar and Sahl ibn Saʿd al-Sād . He later also met Anas ibn Mālik .

His two brothers, Ibrāhīm and Muḥammad, the elder of the two, the latter having died earlier, shared with him in study and narration. This joint pursuit of learning eventually led them to hold their own ḥalqat teaching circles in the Prophet’s Mosque.

His Kunya was Abu Muhammad, and he also used to issue Fatwas. 202 Hadith are narrated from him in the books of Kutub al-Sittah. He is also recorded to have heard hadith from Ibn Muḥayrīz in Al-Ramla, Palestine.

Khalifa ibn Khayyat , in one of his two statements, and Ibn Hibban placed his death earlier in the year 135 AH / 752–753 CE. However, Ibn Ḥibbān later revised his view, aligning with the majority opinion that it occurred in 141 AH / 758–759 CE.

Ibn Asakir transmitted from Nūḥ ibn Ḥabīb the report that Mūsā died in 142 AH / 759–760 CE; however, the report was deemed Shādh (anomalous) by Dhahabi.

He composed one of the earliest Sīrah books, Kitāb al-maghāzī or better known as Maghazi Musa Ibn Uqba. It was praised by early Muslims, including Malik ibn Anas, Al-Shafi'i, Yahya ibn Ma'in, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, as well as later Muslims such as Al-Bayhaqi, Al-Dhahabi and Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, who heavily relied upon and quoted his work.

The Maghāzī of Mūsā ibn ʿUqba was transmitted through two principal narrators: his nephew Ismā'īl ibn Ibrāhīm ibn 'Uqba and his student Muḥammad ibn Fulayḥ ibn Sulaymān al-Aslamī.

However, the entire work became extinct sometime during the 15th century to the 17th century. identifies Al-Sakhawi as the last verifiable individual to have access to the Maghazi. According to Marsden Jones, historian also had access to it, though the claim is disputed. Recently, Muḥammad al-Ṭabarānī claimed that the hadith scholar Muhammad al-Rudani represents the final known link in its transmission.

In 1992, the work was re-edited by Mashhūr ibn Ḥasan Āl Salmān; however, it was erroneously attributed to one of its transmitters, al-Jamāl Yūsuf ibn al-Shams Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn Qāḍī Shuhbah . This misattribution subsequently became widespread among later researchers.

In September 2021, the book was rediscovered when a manuscript was found in the National Library of Tunisia, according to the transmission of Ismā'īl ibn Ibrāhīm ibn 'Uqba. It contains approximately two-thirds of the book, beginning from change in the Qibla to the Farewell Pilgrimage. The rest of the work still remains lost.