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- Died:
- 784
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ʿIsā ibn Mūsā
Islamic military leader
ʿIsā ibn Mūsā (died 784) was the nephew of the first two ʿAbbāsid caliphs, a military leader, and at one time the presumptive heir to the caliphate.
The caliph as-Saffāḥ nominated his brother al-Manṣūr and, after him, ʿIsā, as heirs. On the accession of al-Manṣūr, ʿIsā was governor of Kūfah. The new caliph sent him to lead an army against an ʿAlid revolt in Medina, apparently with the hope that he might be killed. In a series of battles, ʿIsā secured al-Manṣūr’s rule but was forced by intimidation to renounce his rights of succession to al-Manṣūr’s son Muḥammad al-Mahdī. On al-Manṣūr’s death, ʿIsā again pressed his claim and was defeated in favor of al-Mahdī’s son Mūsā al-Hādī.
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