Abu ʿAbdullah al-Thaqafī. [And ʿUrwah ibn Masʿūd al-Thaqafī] ⦗1⦘ his father’s uncle.
Al-Mughīrah was counted among the Arabs’ master tacticians and men of sound judgment. He embraced Islam in the year of the Trench, after he had killed thirteen men from Thaqīf on their return from al-Muqawqis ⦗2⦘ and had taken their wealth; ʿUrwah ibn Masʿūd therefore paid their blood money. He was present at al-Ḥudaybiyah and, on the day the treaty was concluded, stood over the Messenger of Allah ﷺ with his sword unsheathed. Once the people of Ṭāʾif had accepted Islam, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ dispatched him together with Abū Sufyān ibn Ḥarb, and they demolished al-Lāt, as we have already described. Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq later sent him to Bahrain. He fought at al-Yamāmah and Yarmūk, where he lost an eye; some maintain that he looked at the sun during an eclipse and thereby lost his sight. He also took part in al-Qādisiyyah.
ʿUmar put him in charge of many campaigns, including those of Hamadhān and Maysān. Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ then sent him to Rustam, and he addressed him in eloquent, forceful speech. ʿUmar appointed him governor of Basra, but when testimony of adultery was brought against him—though it could not be proven ⦗3⦘—he removed him and placed him over Kūfa instead. ʿUthmān kept him in office for a while, then dismissed him. He remained without a post until the affair of the two arbiters, after which he joined Muʿāwiyah. When ʿAlī was killed, Muʿāwiyah reached a settlement with al-Ḥasan and entered Kūfa, appointing al-Mughīrah its governor; he remained in that post until he died in this year, according to the most widely held view. So reported Muḥammad ibn Saʿd ⦗4⦘ and others.
Al-Khaṭīb ⦗5⦘ said: Everyone concurs on this, and that his death occurred in Ramaḍān of that year, at the age of seventy. Abū ʿUbayd held that he died in 49 AH; Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr ⦗6⦘ said it was 51 AH; others said 58 AH; while a report placing it in 36 AH is erroneous.
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd also said: Al-Mughīrah had very reddish hair, a light complexion, thin lips, a gap between his front teeth ⦗7⦘, a large head, stout arms, and broad shoulders, and he used to part his hair into four plaits ⦗8⦘.
Al-Shaʿbī said: The judges are four—Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, Ibn Masʿūd, and Abū Mūsā; and the strategists are four—Muʿāwiyah, ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, al-Mughīrah, [and Ziyād. Al-Zuhrī said: The master tacticians during the civil strife are five: Muʿāwiyah, ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, al-Mughīrah] ⦗9⦘ ibn