Isa ibn al-Shaykh al-Shaybani

Abu Musa Isa ibn al-Shaykh ibn al-Salil al-Dhuhli al-Shaybani (died 882/83) was an Arab leader of the Shayban tribe. Taking advantage of the domestic turmoil of the Abbasid Caliphate, he created a semi-independent bedouin state in Palestine and southern Syria in ca. 867–870, before an Abbasid army forced him to exchange his domains with the governorship of Armenia and Diyar Bakr. In Armenia, he struggled to contain the rising power of the Christian princes, but after failing to suppress the revolt of one of his own subordinates, he abandoned the country and returned to his native Jazira. There he spent his last years until his death in a struggle with a rival strongman, the ruler of Mosul Ishaq ibn Kundajiq.

Isa's early life is obscure. He was a member of the Shayban tribe from the Jazira, but otherwise not even the exact name of his father is known, it being variously given as al-Shaykh, Ahmad or Abd al-Razzak. Isa first appears in 848, in the ranks of the Abbasid army under Bugha al-Sharabi that was sent against the rebel Muhammad ibn al-Ba'ith in his stronghold of Marand. Muhammad and most of his followers belonged to the Rabi'a tribal group, the same that the Shayban were part of. Consequently Bugha employed Isa as an envoy to the rebels, and Isa managed to convince several among them to surrender.

It has been suggested that Isa served as governor of Damascus in 861, but according to Marius Canard this is a confusion with Isa ibn Muhammad al-Nawshari. In 865, according to al-Tabari, he defeated and captured a Kharijite rebel named al-Muwaffaq. At the time, he held a post in Syria, since al-Tabari records him asking for aid from the Caliph al-Mutawakkil in preparing a raid against Byzantium, including four ships to be set ready in Tyre. He was probably already governor of Jund Filastin (Palestine) district at the time, a post which he seems to have held, according to Ya'qubi, at the time of the deposition of Caliph al-Musta'in in January 866. According to Ya'qubi, Isa was one of the governors who refused to immediately acknowledge the new Caliph, al-Mu'tazz, perhaps because his old patron Bugha still remained loyal to al-Musta'in. This led al-Nawshari to campaign against him, and the two armies clashed by the Jordan River. Al-Nawshari's son was killed, but Isa was defeated and fled to Egypt with what wealth he could gather, while al-Nawshari occupied the capital of Palestine, Ramla. In Egypt, Isa finally conceded the oath of loyalty (bay'ah) to al-Mu'tazz, while al-Nawshari in his turn fell out with the Caliph, who had not sanctioned his seizure of Ramla and dispatched an army under Muhammad ibn al-Muwallad to drive him out. Isa then returned to Palestine, bringing with him money, supplies, and possibly troops recruited in Egypt, and built a fortress called al-Husami, situated between Ramla and Ludd. From this base, he managed to withstand the repeated attacks of Ibn al-Muwallad, until—probably after a truce was agreed—both returned to the caliphal capital, Samarra.

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