Musa al-Mubarqa'

Mūsā ibn Muḥammad al-Mubarqaʿ (Arabic: موسى بن محمد المبرقع) was a descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Musa was the son of Muhammad al-Jawad (d. 835) and the younger brother of Ali al-Hadi (d. 868), the ninth and tenth Imams in Twelver Shia. He is known to be a common ancestor of the Ridawi sayyids, who descended from the Islamic prophet Muhammad through Ali al-Rida (d. 818), the eighth Imam in Twelver Shia and Musa's grandfather. He was known by the title al-Mubarqaʿ (Arabic: المبرقع) probably because he covered his face with a burqa' (Arabic: بُرقَع, lit. 'veil') to remain anonymous in public. Traditions narrated by him are cited by some Twelver scholars, including al-Kulayni and al-Mufid.

Musa al-Mubarqa'
موسى المبرقع
Born	829 CE Medina, Arabia
Died	909 CE (aged 80) Qom, modern-day Iran
Resting place	Qom
Known for	Ancestor of Ridawi sayyids
Parents	Muhammad al-Jawad (father) Samana (mother)
Relatives	Ali al-Hadi (brother) Hakima (sister)

Biography

Musa al-Mubarqa' was the younger son of Muhammad al-Jawad (d. 835), the ninth Imam in Twelver Shia.^[1][2][3] His elder brother Ali al-Hadi (d. 868) succeeded their father al-Jawad as the tenth Imam.^[3] Musa had two or four sisters, named variously in the sources.^[1] The Twelver theologian al-Mufid (d. 1022) names them as Fatima and Amama, while the biographical source Dala'il al-imama lists them as Khadija, Hakima, and Umm Kulthum. This book is attributed to al-Tabari al-Saghir, the eleventh-century Twelver scholar. The Sunni historian Fakhr Razi (d. 1209) adds Behjat and Barihe to these names, saying that none of them left any descendants.^[4] The children of al-Jawad were all born to Samana,^[4] a freed slave (umm walad) of Moroccan origin.^[5] It is through Ali and Musa that the lineage of al-Jawad continued.^[4] In particular, the Ridawi line of sayyids leads to Musa. These are the descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad through Ali al-Rida (d. 818), the eighth Imam in Twelver Shia and Musa's grandfather.^[6]

Musa was a small child when his father al-Jawad died in 835 CE at the age of about twenty-five, probably poisoned at the instigation of the Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tasim (r. 833–842).^[7][1][8] The will attributed to al-Jawad stipulates that his elder son Ali would inherit from him and be responsible for his younger brother Musa and his sisters. This will can be found in Kitab al-Kafi, a collection of Shia traditions compiled by the prominent Twelver traditionist al-Kulayni (d. 941).^[2][3] There was also an oral designation (nass) of Ali as the next Imam, delivered to a close confidant by al-Jawad.^[9][9] After his death, this testimony was corroborated by a small assembly of Shia notables,^[10] and the majority of his followers thus accepted the imamate of Ali,^[7][11] who is commonly known by the titles al-Hadi (lit. 'the guide') and al-Naqi (lit. 'the distinguished').^[5] A small group also gathered around Musa but soon returned to his brother Ali after the former dissociated himself from them.^[3][11] Musa later settled in Qom,^[6] a rising Shia center in the modern-day Iran.^[12][5] Traditions narrated by him are cited by some Twelver scholars, including al-Kulayni in his al-Kafi, al-Mufid in his al-Ikhtisas, and Shaykh Tusi (d. 1067) in his Tahdhib al-osul.^[6] Musa was known by the title al-Mubarqa' (Arabic: المبرقع) probably because he covered his face with a burqa' (Arabic: بُرقَع, lit. 'veil') to remain unidentified in public. He died in Qom in 909 CE and the construction of his current shrine was sponsored by the Safavid king Tahmasp I (r. 1524–1576).^[6]

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  The shrine of Musa al-Mubarqa' in Chehel Akhtaran, Qom, Iran
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  The zarih that holds his grave
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  Mirror-work inside the shrine
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Footnotes

1. Medoff 2016.
2. Wardrop 1988, p. 16.
3. Madelung 2011.
4. Baghestani 2014.
5. Momen 1985, p. 43.
6. Wiki Shia contributors 2023.
7. Daftary 2013, p. 62.
8. Madelung 2012.
9. Modarressi 1993, p. 64.
10. Wardrop 1988, pp. 16, 217.
11. Hussain 1986, p. 48.
12. Drechsler 2009.

References

• Baghestani, Esmail (2014). "جواد امام" [Jawad, Imam]. Encyclopaedia of the World of Islam (in Persian). Vol. 11. Encyclopaedia Islamica Foundation. ISBN 9789644470127.
• Daftary, Farhad (2013). A History of Shi'i Islam. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 9780755608669.
• Drechsler, Andreas (2009). "QOM i. History to the Safavid Period". Encyclopaedia Iranica (Online ed.). ISSN 2330-4804.
• Hussain, Jassim M. (1986). Occultation of the Twelfth Imam: A Historical Background (PDF). Routledge Kegan & Paul. ISBN 9780710301581.
• Madelung, W. (2012). "Muḥammad b. 'Alī al-Riḍā". In Bearman, P.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C.E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W.P. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (Second ed.). doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_5343. ISBN 9789004161214.
• Madelung, W (2011). "'Alī al-Hādī". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Vol. I/8. pp. 861–2. ISSN 2330-4804.
• Medoff, Louis (2016). "Moḥammad al-Jawād, Abu Ja'far". Encyclopaedia Iranica (Online ed.). ISSN 2330-4804.
• Modarressi, Hossein (1993). Crisis and Consolidation in the Formative Period of Shi'ite Islam: Abu Ja'Far Ibn Qiba Al-Razi and His Contribution to Imamite Shi'Ite Thought. Darwin Press. ISBN 0878500952.
• Momen, Moojan (1985). An Introduction to Shi'i Islam. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300034998.
• Wardrop, S.F. (1988). Lives of the Imams, Muhammad al-Jawad and 'Ali al-Hadi and the Development of the Shi'ite Organisation (PhD thesis). University of Edinburgh.
• Wiki Shia contributors (2023). "موسی مبرقع" [Musa Mubarraqa]. Wiki Shia (in Persian).