Abu Abd Allah al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba ibn Abi Amir ibn Mas'ud al-Thaqafi (); –671), was a prominent Sahaba of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was known as one of the four 'shrewds of the Arabs' ( duhat al-Arab). He belonged to the tribe of Thaqif of Ta'if, who were part of the early Islamic elite. He served as governor of Kufa, one of the two principal amsar and administrative centers of Iraq, under Caliph Umar in 642–645. In his old age, al-Mughira was again made governor of Kufa, serving under the Umayyad caliph Mu'awiya I from 661 until his death in 671. During his second governorship, he ruled with virtual independence from the caliph.
Life
Early life
Al-Mughira was the son of Shu'ba ibn Abi Amir and belonged to the Banu Mu'attib clan of the
Banu Thaqif tribe of Ta'if.
[Lammens 1993, p. 347.] His clan were the traditional protectors of the shrine of
al-Lat, one of many Arabian polytheistic deities worshiped in the pre-Islamic period.
His uncle was Urwah ibn Mas'ud, a companion of the
prophet
Muhammad.
Al-Mughira offered his services to the latter in
Medina after being exiled from Ta'if for assaulting and robbing his associates in their sleep while they were travelling together.
Muhammad and the nascent Muslim community had taken refuge in Medina as a result of their exile from
Mecca. Muhammad with the help of al-Mughira persuaded the Thaqif to embrace Islam.
He participated in the Muslims' attempted pilgrimage to Mecca, which was halted by the
Quraysh at Hudaybiyya in April 628.
[Landau-Tasseron 1998, p. 38.] Later, when Ta'if submitted to Muslim rule in 630, al-Mughira was tasked with overseeing the demolition of the al-Lat shrine.
Service under the Rashidun caliphs
Muhammad passed away in 632 and leadership of the emergent Muslim state passed to
Abu Bakr (), who kept al-Mughira in some administrative capacity.
Most high-ranking government posts went to members of the Quraysh, the tribe to which Muhammad and Abu Bakr belonged.
At the Battle of Yarmouk in August 636, al-Mughira lost sight in one of his eyes.
[Morony 1987, p. 96.] Caliph
Umar () appointed him governor of
Basra,
a garrison town founded by the Arabs which was used as the springboard for the Muslim conquest of Persia
In 642, Umar appointed al-Mughira governor of Kufa, the other Arab garrison town of Iraq.[Humphreys 1990, pp. 5, 15.] Al-Mughira retired from public life and returned to Ta'if upon the accession of Caliph Ali () following Uthman's assassination in 656.
Umayyad governor of Kufa
During the chaos that ensued in the aftermath of Ali's assassination in 661, al-Mughira apparently forged a letter by Mu'awiya, who had since claimed the caliphate, giving al-Mughira responsibility of leading the annual
Hajj pilgrimage to the Ka'aba in Mecca.
According to the orientalist
Henri Lammens, al-Mughira's "shocking morals", lack of attachment to the
Alids (kinsmen and partisans of Ali), non-involvement in the "jealousies of the Quraysh
sic, as well as the narrow-mindedness of the Ansar" (another faction of the Muslim elite), and membership of the "intelligent and enterprising tribe of Thaqif
sic", all gained the attention of Mu'awiya, who reappointed him governor of Kufa in 661.
Al-Mughira was known in the tradition as one of the principal "shrewds" of his era "who could get himself out of the most hopeless difficulty".
Indeed, he was able to maintain relatively cordial relations with the influential Alids of Kufa and utilized them to counter their enemies, the
Kharijites.
The latter were composed of Ali's erstwhile supporters who defected from him as a result of the arbitration with Mu'awiya, assassinated him and continued to rebel against the authorities in Iraq. According to Lammens, "by setting them Alids against one another he rendered harmless the most dangerous elements of disorder in his province".
Moreover, by "combination of mildness and astuteness, and by knowing when to shut his eyes, al-Mughira succeeded in avoiding desperate measures" against the politically turbulent factions of Iraq and was able to maintain his governorship.
mentions in his Genealogies of the Nobles (Arabic: أنساب الأشراف; Ansab al-Ashraf), that Mughira ibn Shu'ba used to say, "Allah, curse so-and-so (meaning '
Ali) for he disobeyed what is in Your Book and abandoned the sunnah of Your Prophet, divided unity, shed blood and was slain as an oppressor."
He is also said to have proposed to Mu'awiya to nominate his son
Yazid I as his caliphal successor.
Death
Al-Mughira died of the plague sometime between 668 and 671 at the age of 70.
According to the historians
al-Waqidi (d. 823) and al-Mada'ini (d. 843), al-Mughira died in August or September 670.
He was succeeded by Ziyad ibn Abih, whom he had groomed as his successor.
Upon becoming the governor of Iraq in 694, al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf appointed al-Mughira's sons al-Mutarrif, Urwa and Hamza his deputy governors in al-Mada'in, Kufa and
Hamadhan, respectively, on account of their shared Thaqafi descent.
[Rowson 1989, p. 128.]
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