Thursday, October 6, 2022

2022: Muhammad, Kaba - Muhasibi

 

Muhammad Kaba
Muhammad Kaba.  African born slave who, around 1825, was settled on a plantation located in Manchester Parish, Jamaica.  As a leader of an Islamic group in the area, he received an official letter sent by the African king Abu Bakr, a prominent imam, exhorting the Muslim community to be true and faithful if they wished to go to Heaven.
Kaba, Muhammad see Muhammad Kaba.


Muhammad Kati
Muhammad Kati (1468-1593?).  Chronicler of the Sudanic empires.  He was a Soninke (Serekole) Muslim judge in Timbuktu during the reign of the Songhay king Askia Muhammad Ture whom he is said to have accompanied on a pilgrimage to Mecca.  He has long been considered the primary author of Ta’rikh al-Fattash, an important chronicle of the Sudanic empires up to 1599, which emphasized the history of Songhay.  His sons continued the chronicle, and it was completed by a grandson, Ibn al-Mukhtar, around 1665.  Modern scholarship has challenged both Muhammad Kati’s death date of 1593 -- which would have made him 125 -- and his contribution to the Ta’rikh.
Kati, Muhammad see Muhammad Kati


Muhammad Murtada
Muhammad Murtada (1732-1791).  Arabic lexicographer.  He owes his fame to commentaries on al-Firuzabadi’s dictionary and on al-Ghazali’s The Revival of Religious Sciences.
Murtada, Muhammad see Muhammad Murtada

Muhammad Omar 
Muhammad (Mohammad) Omar, also called Mullah Omar   (born c. 1950, near Kandahār, Afghanistan—died April, 2013, Pakistan), Afghan militant and leader of the Taliban (Pashto: Ṭālebān [“Students”]) who was the emir of Afghanistan (1996–2001). Mullah Omar’s refusal to extradite al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden prompted the United States invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 that overthrew the Taliban government there.

Biographical details about Mullah Omar are sparse and conflicting. He was an ethnic Pashtun of the Ghilzay branch who, reportedly, was born near Kandahar, Afghanistan. He is believed to have been illiterate and — aside from his madrasah studies — to have had minimal schooling. He fought with the mujahideen against the Soviets during the Afghan War (1978–92), and during that time he suffered the loss of his right eye in an explosion.

After the Soviet withdrawal, Mullah Omar established and taught at a small village madrasah in the province of Kandahār. The end of the war did not bring calm, however, and political and ethnic violence escalated thereafter. Claiming to have had a vision instructing him to restore peace, Mullah Omar led a group of madrasah students in the takeover of cities throughout the mid-1990s, including Kandahar, Herat, Kabul and Mazar-e Sharif. In 1996 a shura (council) recognized Mullah Omar as amīr al-muʾminīn(“commander of the faithful”), a deeply significant title in the Muslim world that had been in disuse since the abolition of the caliphate in 1924. That designation also made him emir of Afghanistan, which from October 1997 until the fall of the Taliban was known as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Mullah Omar marked the occasion by removing what was held to be the cloak of the Prophet Muhammad from the mosque in Kandahār where it was housed and donning the relic, effectively symbolizing himself as Muhammad’s successor. The swift takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban under Mullah Omar is believed to have been funded at least in part by bin Laden, who had moved his base to Afghanistan after his expulsion from Sudan in the mid-1990s.

Under Mullah Omar’s leadership, Pashtun social codes were paramount, and strict Islamic principles were enforced. Education and employment for women all but ceased; capital punishment was enacted for transgressions such as adultery and conversion away from Islam; and music, television, and other forms of popular entertainment were prohibited. Among his most-infamous decisions was an order to demolish the colossal Buddha statues at Bamiyan, culturally significant relics of Afghanistan’s pre-Islamic history. To the outspoken regret of the international community, they were destroyed in 2001.

In the wake of al-Qaeda’s, September 11, 2001, attacks on New York City and Washington, D. C., Mullah Omar’s refusal to extradite bin Laden prompted the United States to launch a series of military operations in Afghanistan. The Taliban government was overthrown, and Mullah Omar fled; his location was undetermined.

Mullah Omar was long notoriously reclusive. Meetings with non-Muslims or with Westerners were almost never granted, and it was unclear whether any of the photographs that purportedly depict him were authentic—circumstances that made the pursuit of him even more difficult. At the end of the first decade of the 21st century, it was believed that Mullah Omar continued to direct Taliban operations from the sanctuary of Pakistan, although the Taliban denied that supposition.

On July 29, 2015, the Afghan government announced that its intelligence service had learned that Mullah Omar had died in April 2013 in Pakistan. The report of Mullah Omar’s death was confirmed by a Taliban representative the next day, and his deputy, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, was announced as his successor.

Muhammad, Prince
Muhammad, Prince (Prince Muhammed).  Khwarizm-Shah leader who was defeated by Jenghiz Khan.
Prince Muhammad see Muhammad, Prince
Prince Muhammed see Muhammad, Prince
Muhammed, Prince see Muhammad, Prince


Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi
Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi  (Muhammad Rida Shah Pahlavi) (Muhammad Riza Pahlavi) (Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi) (b. October 26, 1919, Tehran, Iran – d. July 27, 1980, Cairo, Egypt). Second and last shah of the Pahlavi dynasty in Iran (r.1941-1979). 

Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi was the shah of Iran from 1941 to 1979 known for maintaining a pro-Western foreign policy and fostering economic development in Iran.

Mohammad Reza was the eldest son of Reza Shah Pahlavi, an army officer who became the ruler of Iran and founder of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1925. Mohammad Reza was educated in Switzerland and returned to Iran in 1935. In 1941 the Soviet Union and Great Britain, fearing that the shah would cooperate with Nazi Germany to rid himself of their tutelage, occupied Iran and forced Reza Shah into exile. Mohammad Reza then replaced his father on the throne (September 16, 1941).

In the early 1950s a struggle for control of the Iranian government developed between the shah and Mohammad Mosaddeq, a zealous Iranian nationalist. In March 1951, Mosaddeq secured passage of a bill in the Majles (parliament) to nationalize the vast British petroleum interests in Iran. Mosaddeq’s power grew rapidly, and by the end of April Mohammad Reza had been forced to appoint Mosaddeq premier. A two-year period of tension and conflict followed. In August 1953, the shah tried to dismiss Mosaddeq but was himself forced to leave the country by Mosaddeq’s supporters. Several days later, however, Mosaddeq’s opponents, with the covert support and assistance of the United States, restored Mohammad Reza to power.

The shah reversed Mosaddeq’s nationalization. With United States assistance, he then proceeded to carry out a national development program, called the White Revolution, that included construction of an expanded road, rail, and air network, a number of dam and irrigation projects, the eradication of diseases such as malaria, the encouragement and support of industrial growth, and land reform. He also established a literacy corps and a health corps for the large but isolated rural population. In the 1960s and ’70s the shah sought to develop a more independent foreign policy and established working relationships with the Soviet Union and eastern European nations.

The White Revolution solidified domestic support for the shah, but he faced continuing political criticism from those who felt that the reforms did not move far or fast enough and religious criticism from those who believed westernization to be antithetical to Islam. Opposition to the shah himself was based upon his autocratic rule, corruption in his government, the unequal distribution of oil wealth, forced westernization, and the activities of Savak (the secret police) in suppressing dissent and opposition to his rule. These negative aspects of the shah’s rule became markedly accentuated after Iran began to reap greater revenues from its petroleum exports beginning in 1973. Widespread dissatisfaction among the lower classes, the Shīʿite clergy, the bazaar merchants, and students led in 1978 to the growth of support for the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a Shīʿite religious leader living in exile in Paris. Rioting and turmoil in Iran’s major cities brought down four successive governments. On January 16, 1979, the shah left the country, and Khomeini assumed control. Although the shah did not abdicate, a referendum resulted in the declaration on April 1, 1979, of an Islamic republic in Iran. The shah traveled to Egypt, Morocco, the Bahamas, and Mexico before entering the United States on October 22, 1979, for medical treatment of lymphatic cancer. Two weeks later Iranian militants seized the U.S. embassy in Tehrān and took hostage more than 50 Americans, demanding the extradition of the shah in return for the hostages’ release. Extradition was refused, but the shah later left for Panama and then Cairo, where he was granted asylum by President Anwar el-Sadat.

The Shah returned to Egypt in March 1980, where he received urgent medical treatment but nevertheless died from complications of non-Hodgkin lymphoma on July 27, 1980. Egyptian President Sadat gave the Shah a state funeral.

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi is buried in the Al Rifa'i Mosque in Cairo, a mosque of great symbolic importance. The last royal rulers of two monarchies are buried there, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi of Iran and King Farouk of Egypt, his former brother-in-law. The tombs lie off to the left of the entrance. Years earlier, his father and predecessor, Reza Shah Pahlavi had also initially been buried at the Al Rifa'i Mosque.

The shah had two marriages that ended in divorce when they failed to produce a male heir to the throne. In October 1960 a third wife, Farah Diba, gave birth to the crown prince, Reza.

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi married his third and final wife, Farah Diba (b. October 14, 1938), the only child of Sohrab Diba, Captain in the Imperial Iranian Army, and his wife, the former Farideh Ghotbi. They were married in 1959, and Queen Farah was crowned Shahbanu, or Empress, a title created especially for her in 1967. Previous royal consorts had been known as "Malakeh" (Arabic: Malika), or Queen. The couple remained together for twenty years, until the Shah's death. Farah Diba bore him four children:

   1. Reza Pahlavi, the Crown Prince (born October 31, 1960)
   2. Farahnaz Pahlavi (born March 12, 1963)
   3. Ali-Reza Pahlavi (born April 28, 1966)
   4. Leila Pahlavi (March 27, 1970 – June 10, 2001)



Muhammad Rida Shah Pahlavi see Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi
Muhammad Riza Pahlavi see Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi
Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi see Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi
Pahlavi, Muhammad Reza Shah see Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi
Pahlavi, Muhammad Rida Shah see Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi
Pahlavi, Muhammad Riza see Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi


Muhammad Rumfa
Muhammad Rumfa (d. 1499).  Ruler of the Hausa city-state of Kano (r. 1463-1499).  He is considered Kano’s greatest ruler.  He revitalized Islam, which had been introduced a century before, and developed Kano into a center of Islamic learning.  The disintegration of the old Mali Empire in the west seems to have provided Kano with many refugee scholars.  Kano also attracted some important North African scholars, notably al-Maghili (d. 1504), author of The Obligations of Princes, which Muhammad commissioned.  During Muhammad’s reign, the first of a series of wars with neighboring Katsina took place.

Muhammad Rumfa was Emir of the Hausa city-state Kano, located in modern-day Kano State, northern Nigeria. He reigned from 1463 until 1499. Among Rumfa's accomplishments were extending the city walls, building a large palace, the Gidan Rumfa, promoting slaves to governmental positions and establishing the Kurmi Market. He was also responsible for much of the Islamization of Kano, as he urged prominent residents to convert.

Rumfa, Muhammad see Muhammad Rumfa


Muhammad Said
Muhammad Said.  See Mir Jumla.
Said, Muhammad see Muhammad Said.


Muhammad Shah
Muhammad Shah (Mohammad Shah Qajar) (Mohammad Mirza) (January 5, 1808 - September 5, 1848). Shah of Persia from the Qajar dynasty (23 October 1834 - 5 September 1848).  During his reign, tribal disturbances and outbreaks of religious unrest dominated internal affairs.  Persia’s foreign relations were dominated by fear and resentment of both Russia and Britain, and Perso-Turkish relations were in a state of tension.

Mohammad Shah Qajar (born Mohammad Mirza, Persian: محمد شاه قاجار)‎‎ (January 5, 1808 - September 5, 1848) was Shah of Persia from the Qajar dynasty (23 October 1834 - 5 September 1848).

Mohammad Shah was son of Abbas Mirza, the crown prince and governor of Azerbaijan, who in turn was the son of Fat′h Ali Shah Qajar, the second Shah of the dynasty. At first, Abbas Mirza was the chosen heir to the Shah. However, after he died, the Shah chose Mohammad to be his heir. After the Shah's death, Ali Mirza, one of his many sons, tried to take the throne in opposition to Mohammad. His rule lasted for about 40 days. Nonetheless, he was quickly deposed at the hands of Mirza Abolghasem Ghaem Magham Farahani, a politician, scientist, and poet.

Ali was forgiven by Mohammad, who had then become Shah. Farahani was awarded the position of chancellorship of Persia by Shah Mohammad at the time of his inauguration. He was later betrayed and executed by the order of Shah in 1835, at the instigation of Hajj Mirza Aghasi, who would become the Ghaem Magham's successor and who greatly influenced the Shah's policies. One of his wives, Malek Jahan Khanom, Mahd-e Olia, later became a significant influence on his successor, who was their son.

Mohammad also tried twice to capture Herat, which was then owned by the British. To try to defeat the British, he sent an officer to the court of Louis-Philippe of France. In 1839, two French military instructors arrived at Tabriz to aid him. However, both attempts to capture the city were unsuccessful.

Shah Mohammad was known to be somewhat sickly throughout his life, and he finally died at the age of 40 of gout.

Shah Mohammad fell under the influence of Russia and attempted to make reforms to modernize and increase contact with the West. This work was continued by his successor, Nasser-al-Din Shah Qajar, who became known as a very capable leader. These efforts to modernize the country brought about a great interest in photography. Other artwork during this time includes a number of small-scale paintings on lacquer.

During Shah Mohammad's reign, the religious movement of Bábism began to flourish for the first time. Following his death, the Bab, Baha'u'llahs forerunner was executed in Tabriz. The Persian symbol of the Lion and Sun and a red, white, and green background became the flag at this time.

During his reign, Shah Mohammad had 20 children by eight wives, and four more wives with whom he had no children. Seven of his children died in infancy, but among the more notable of the children were:

    * Prince Nasser al-Din Mirza, later Nasser-al-Din Shah Qajar (July 16, 1831 - May 1, 1896)
    * Prince Abbas Mirza Molk Ara (November 27, 1839 - April 14, 1897) ancestor of Shams Molk Ara family
    * Prince Mohammad Taqi Mirza Rokn ed-Dowleh (1840 - 1901) ancestor of Rokni family
    * Prince Abdol-samad Mirza Ezz ed-Dowleh (1843 - 1929) ancestor of Saloor family
    * Princess Malkzadeh Khanom Ezzat ed-Dowleh (1827 - 1906) wife of Mirza Taqi Khan Amir Kabir

Muhammad Shah Qajar see Muhammad Shah
Qajar, Muhammad Shah see Muhammad Shah
Mohammad Mirza see Muhammad Shah
Mirza, Mohammad see Muhammad Shah
Shah, Muhammad see Muhammad Shah


Muhammad Shah ibn Jahan Shah
Muhammad Shah ibn Jahan Shah (Rawsan Akhtar) (b. 1702).  Last of the Mughal emperors in Delhi to enjoy real power (r.1719-1748).  In 1739, Nadir Shah Afshar marched from Afghanistan into India and compelled Muhammad Shah to pay an enormous idemnity, including the famous Peacock Throne of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan I.
Rawsan Akhtar see Muhammad Shah ibn Jahan Shah
Akhtar, Rawsan see Muhammad Shah ibn Jahan Shah


Muhammad Ture
Muhammad Ture (Askia al-Hajj Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr Ture).  See Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr.


Muhammadu Bello
Muhammadu Bello (Muhammad Bello) (1781-1837). West African “Commander of the Believers” of the Sokoto Caliphate in northwestern Nigeria (r.1817-1837). 

Muhammadu was the son of the Shaykh ‘Uthman dan Fodio (Usman dan Fodio), who commenced the Fula revolution against the Hausa.  In 1804, when he was only about twenty-three years old, he became commander of one of ‘Uthman’s armies, and proved a highly competent field commander.  In 1812, with most of the fighting over, ‘Uthman divided the conquered territories between his brother ‘Abdullah and Muhammadu, and retired from day-to-day administration of the empire.  Emirs were appointed to rule the provinces. 

Muhammadu constructed the new capital for the caliphate at Sokoto.  His father died in 1817 without naming a successor, since, according to Islamic law, leaders were to be elected.  ‘Abdullah was away from Sokoto at the time, and returned to find himself barred by Muhammadu’s supporters from entering the city.  Muhammadu assumed power without a violent struggle, however, and in later years he and his uncle ‘Abdullah, were reconciled.

Muhammadu took the title Sultan of Sokoto.  His main concerns were external threats and internal revolts.  He led his army in battle some forty times.  To protect the new empire, he constructed a border defence network.  Until the mid-1820s, the primary external threat was the empire of Bornu to the east.  Bornu had been save from Fula conquest al-Kanemi, who afterwards began to counterattack Sokoto.  The Fula eventually settled for control of western Bornu.  It was because of these wars that Muhammadu Bello restricted the itinerary of British explorer Hugh Clapperton who visited Sokoto in 1824 and again in 1827, dying there.

Muhammadu Bello proved to be as capable an administrator as he was a soldier.  Emphasizing equal education and impartial justice, he reduced some of the tension between Hausa and Fula.  Like his father, he was a scholar, and wrote a number of books including a history of the Sudan.  He was an early ally and father-in-law of the Tukolor jihad leader, ‘al-Hajj ‘Umar.  At his death, he was succeeded by his brother, Abubakar Atiku (r. 1837-1842).

Muhammadu Bello is also remembered for writing a considerable number of works in Arabic, among them a history of Sokoto.

One of Bello's daughters married future Toucouleur jihadist El Hadj Umar Tall.





Bello, Muhammadu see Muhammadu Bello
Muhammad Bello see Muhammadu Bello
Bello, Muhammad see Muhammadu Bello


Muhammad, Wallace Deen
Muhammad, Wallace Deen (Wallace Deen Muhammad) (Warith Deen Muhammad) (Warith Deen Mohammed) (October 30, 1933 - September 9, 2008).  Self-taught spiritual leader of the Muslim American Society.  He was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Elijah and Clara Muhammad.  He succeeded his father as the Leader of the Nation of Islam and is credited with working to reform the group and bringing thousands of African Americans into mainstream Islam.  Unlike his father, Wallace Muhammad became a highly respected leader in both Muslim and non-Muslim communities.  His effort to create dialogue between Christians, Jews, and Muslims afforded him national and international recognition.  In 1992, Wallace Muhammad became the first Muslim to deliver an invocation at the United States Senate.  He is the author of several books such as Prayer and Al-Islam, Islam’s Climate for Business Success, and Al-Islam, Unity and Leadership.

Wallace Deen Muhammad was born in Detroit and was said to be his father's favorite of his seven children.  He was named after Wallace D. Fard, who according to Black Muslim lore had predicted his birth and his eventual succession to leadership.  Wallace Deen Muhammad grew up on the South Side of Chicago, where he attended religious school taught by immigrants from places like Jordan and Egypt.  He learned to read Arabic and later studied English, history and the social sciences at two Chicago area junior colleges.

In 1961, Wallace Deen Muhammad refused the military draft and was sentenced to three years in prison.  While incarcerated, he began to notice contradictions in Nation of Islam theology.  That led to the ideological rift with his father. 

The father of Wallace Deen Muhammad, Elijah Muhammad, was the leader of the Nation of Islam -- the Black Muslims --, an organization that advocated a form of Black nationalism.  Elijah Muhammad led the Nation of Islam from 1934 until his death on February 26, 1975.  After his death, Wallace Deen Muhammad was accepted by the Nation of Islam as its leader. 

Wallace Deen Muhammad emerged from the cauldron of religious politics and internal rivalry that characterized the Black Muslims, as the Nation of Islam members were called, in the 1960s and 1970s.  Following Malcolm X, who was drifting away from black separatism toward traditional Islam when he was assassinated in 1965, Warith Deen Mohammed increasingly favored a non-racial approach to religion, without categorizing Europeans and European Americans as devils, as Elijah Muhammad had.  Indeed, Elijah Muhammad ex-communicated Wallace Deen Muhammad several times for his dissidence.

Nevertheless, Wallace Deen Muhammad was unanimously elected supreme minister of the Nation of Islam after his father's death in 1975.  He subsequently pushed his followers toward a more orthodox faith, emphasizing study of the Qur'an and the five duties of a Muslim: faith, charity, prayer five times a day, fasting during Ramadan and pilgrimage to Mecca.  A major change was rejecting the divinity of the founder of the Nation of Islam, Wallace D. Fard; a lesser one was relaxing the religion's strict dress code.

He introduced many reforms intended to bring the organization closer to traditional Islam, and renamed it a number of times.  He rejected literal interpretations of his father's theology and Black-separatist views.  On the basis of his lifelong study of the Qur'an and the life of the Prophet Muhammad, he accepted Europeans and European Americans as fellow worshipers and attempted to forge closer ties with mainstream Muslim communities, including Latino Muslims.  He also changed the spelling of his own name from Wallace Deen Muhammad to Warith Deen Mohammed.

In 1976, Warith Deen Mohammed dropped the Nation of Islam name in favor of the World Community of al-Islam in the West.  Warith Deen Mohammed also adopted the title of imam.

Two years later, Imam Mohammed changed the name of his organization to the American Muslim Mission.  Later, he encouraged each mosque to be independent under the leadership of the Muslim American Society, or the Ministry of Warith Deen Mohammed.

A number of dissident groups resisted the changes in the Nation of Islam, most notably those who followed Louis Farrakhan in breaking ranks with Wallace and reviving the name "Nation of Islam" in 1981. 

Warith Deen Mohammed continued to move decisively toward the religious mainstream.  In 1992, he gave the first ever invocation by a Muslim in the United States Senate.  In 1993, he gave an Islamic prayer during the first Inaugural Interfaith Prayer Service of President Bill Clinton, and again in 1997 at the second Inaugural Interfaith Prayer Service.  He addressed a conference of Muslims and Reform Jews in 1995, and participated in several major interfaith dialogues with Roman Catholic cardinals.  He met with the pope in 1996 and 1999.

Imam Mohammed worked to bring American Muslims into the world's largest Islamic orthodoxy, the Sunni branch.  He met privately with Arab leaders like President Anwar el-Sadat of Egypt and received a contribution of $16 million from a sultan in the United Arab Emirates. 

Marking 70 years since the founding of the Nation of Islam, in 2000, Warith Deen Mohammed and Louis Farrakhan publicly embraced, and declared unity and reconciliation, at the annual Savior's Day convention. 

Imam Mohammed continued the business enterprises long favored by Black Muslims, including importing clothing, real estate development and developing skin care products.  He also kept social services like improving access to health care and helping convicts after their release.
 
Warith Deen Mohammed died on September 9, 2008 in Chicago, Illinois.
Wallace Deen Muhammad see Muhammad, Wallace Deen
Warith Deen Muhammad see Muhammad, Wallace Deen
Mohammed, Warith Deen see Muhammad, Wallace Deen
Warith Deen Mohammed see Muhammad, Wallace Deen
Imam Mohammed see Muhammad, Wallace Deen


Muhammed Abduh
Muhammed Abduh.  See Muhammad Abduh.


Muhammed, Murtala
Muhammed, Murtala (Murtala Muhammed) (Murtala Ramat Mohammed) (b. November 8, 1938 – d. February 13, 1976). Nigerian head of state (1975-1976).  A northerner from a family of eleven children, Muhammed was born in Kano and educated in primary schools there.  He received his school certificate at the Government College in Zaria in 1957 and joined the Nigerian army, which sent him to Sandhurst in England for officer training.  Returning to Nigeria in 1961 as a second lieutenant, he was shortly afterward posted to the United Nations peace-keeping forces in the Congo (Zaire), where he spent a year.  In 1964, he was promoted to major.

The 1966 coup that ended civilian rule in Nigeria was led largely by Ibo army officers.  The new military government attempted to restore national unity, and head of state Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi advanced Muhammed to the rank of lieutenant-colonel.  However, ethnic tensions increased, and in the same year Muhammed was among the group of northern officers who ousted Aguiyi-Ironsi in favor of Colonel Yakubu Gowon. 

During the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970) Muhammed led an infantry division against rebel Ibo forces.  He was promoted to brigadier in 1971 and three years later became federal commissioner for communications, his first non-military assignment.

Although Gowon held the Nigerian union together, his administration was unable to salvage the credibility of his government, as Nigeria’s post-war ethnic cleavages and administrative problems grew out of control.  In 1975, Muhammed joined a group of senior officers in deposing Gowon in a bloodless coup.  Muhammed was appointed head of state.

Muhammed excited the population with bold measures to combat Nigeria’s most serious problems.  Addressing government inefficiency and corruption, he forced the retirement or dismissal of some 10,000 civil servants and soldiers.  Some of Gowon’s most unpopular policies were reversed, and the overriding issue of federal organization was tackled head-on when Nigeria’s twelve states were reorganized into nineteen.  As a symbolic measure, Muhammed made plans to move the federal capital from Lagos to Abuja, in central Nigeria.  Popular elections were scheduled for 1979.  The result of these actions was a rapid and dramatic restoration of public confidence in government.

Muhammed was assassinated in an unsuccessful coup attempt in 1976.  Remembered for his courage and devotion to the national government, he became a symbol of Nigeria’s new national unity.  He was succeeded by his chief of staff, Lieutenant General Olusegun Obasanjo.




Murtala, Muhammed see Muhammed, Murtala
Murtala Ramat Mohammed see Muhammed, Murtala
Mohammed, Murtala Ramat see Muhammed, Murtala

Muhasibi, Abu ‘Abd Allah
al- Muhasibi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al- (Abu ‘Abd Allah al-Muhasibi) (Abu Abdullah Harith bin Asad al-Basri)  (781-857).  Muslim mystic.  His Book of observance of the rights of God is meant to enable believers to find the way of life in which they could render to God the service which is God’s due.  Of another work, presented as a vision of the last things, it has been said that it is a “Dies Irae” which ends up in an “In Paradisum.”

Al-Muhasibi was the founder of the Baghdad School of Islamic philosophy, and a teacher of the Sufi masters Junayd al-Baghdadi and Sari al-Saqti.

His full name is Abu Abdullah Harith bin Asad al-Basri. He was born in Basra in 781. Muhasibi means self-inspection/audit. It was his characteristic attribute. He was a founder of Sufi doctrine, and influenced many subsequent theologians, such as al-Ghazali.

He wrote many books about theology and Tasawwuf (Sufism), among them Kitab al-Khalwa and Kitab al-Ri`aya li-huquq Allah ("Guarding God's Rights").


Abu ‘Abd Allah al-Muhasibi see Muhasibi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al- Abu Abdullah Harith bin Asad al-Basri see Muhasibi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-

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