[164] THREE OF AL-ZUHRĪS STUDENTS are known to us as the authors of books on the Maghāzī. Mūsā ibn ‘Uqba, Ma‘mar ibn Rāshid and Muḥammad ibn Isḥaq, who all three sprang not from the Islamic noblesse but from the stratum of the mawālī (bondmen).

Mūsā ibn ‘Uqba ibn Abī Ayyāshwas a mawlā of the family of al-Zubayr ibn Awwām, or more precisely of al-Zubayr’s wife, Umm Khālid.His grandfather on the mother’s side was likewise a mawlā of Ibn al-Zubayr,with whose family his was also closely associated. The year of his birth is uncertain; a chronological indication is provided, however, in the answer that ‘Uqba gave to the question whether he had ever seen one of the Companions of the Prophet: “I undertook the pilgrimage at the time when ‘Abd Allāh ibn ‘Umar was in Mecca; that was the same year in which Najda, the Hārurī,was present there.”Al-Ṭabarī has preserved for us a report concerning this presence of Najda and his horde in Mecca. He relates: “In the year 68four pennons waved in ‘Arafat: that of Ibn al-Ḥanafīya, that of Ibn al-Zubayr, that of Najda behind them, and that of the Umayyads to the left of them.”Al-Ṭabarī then adds: “Ibn ‘Umar began his agitation as Ibn al-Zubayr broke up;”thus there can be no doubt but that the pilgrimage of Musa ibn ‘Uqba took place in the year AH 68; he would [165] therefore have been born anyhow not much later than AH 55.