Al-Muthanna ibn Haritha

Al-Muthanna ibn Haritha al-Shaybani (Arabic: المثنى بن حارثة الشيباني) was a Muslim Arab general in the army of the Rashidun Caliphate.

Career

Al-Muthanna was a commander of the Muslim Arabs in al-Hira, from which they were conducting raids in the plains of Sasanian Mesopotamia. He asked Abu Bakr for reinforcements against the Sasanians, as they started fighting back. As Umar became caliph, he dispatched a force under Abu Ubayd al-Thaqafi, who took over command from al-Muthanna for the second time. In the upcoming battle at the coast of the Euphrates river, known as the Battle of the Bridge, Abu Ubayd was killed and the Arab Muslims were defeated, but al-Muthanna, although wounded, survived with 3,000 soldiers who deserted to Medina and elsewhere in the Arabian desert.¹²³⁴ In 634, al-Muthanna led his army to defeat the Persians in Battle of Buwaib.

He was among the commanders at the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah in 636.⁵ In the same year, after the capture of Persian territory in Iraq by Muslim Arab forces and the departure of Khalid ibn al-Walid, al-Muthanna was put in charge of the Muslim Arab occupied territories of Iraq.⁶ Al-Muthanna relied on his tribe, the along with other powerful Arab tribes including the and the to maintain control over the territories.