Musa Bin Nusayr - Musa in Legend

Musa in Legend

Less than 200 years after the death of Musa, he became the subject of fantastic legends. The earliest to appear were recorded by Ibn al-Faqih in the late 9th or earliest 10th century. According to these, Musa was ordered by the caliph to investigate reports of a strange city called al-Baht. Musa marched from Qayrawan to the deserts of Spain and came upon a city surrounded by walls with no entrance. Those who attempted to look over the wall became entranced and jumped, laughing deliriously. Musa then proceeded to a nearby lake which contained copper jars. When opened, a genie emerged from each one.

A more extensive version of the same legend entered the One Thousand and One Nights, wherein Musa encounters many other marvels, such as a palace filled with jewels, whose only human occupant was the embalmed corpse of a beautiful woman guarded by two robot warriors.

The 17th-century historian Ibn Abi Dinar used Musa's decline in fortune as an object lesson in the vagaries of human existence, with some exaggerations: "Musa, who had conquered half the inhabited world, who had acquired so many riches, died in poverty, begging alms from passers-by, after having been abandoned by the last of his servants. Overcome by shame and misery, he wished for death, and God gave it to him. I only mention the details of Musa's death to give my contemporaries, who are poorly read, a striking example of the vicissitudes of human life."

Probably the most extensive work to be inspired by the life of Musa is a section of the anonymous Kitāb al-imāma w'as-siyāsa, which contains a lengthy description of his deeds accompanied by many supposed speeches and sayings. Unlike many other authors, such as Ibn Abd al-Hakam, the work is entirely favourable to Musa.