Thabit ibn Nasr

Who is Thabit ibn Nasr?

Thabit ibn Nasr ibn Malik al-Khuza'i was an Abbasid general and governor of the Cilician frontier zone with the Byzantine Empire in 808–813.

Thabit was a native of Khorasan, and the grandson of Malik ibn al-Haytham al-Khuza'i, an early Abbasid follower and military leader. He was appointed as governor of the Syrian thughur in the last year of the reign of Harun al-Rashid. He organized a prisoner exchange with the Byzantines at Podandos in 808, but also led a series of raiding expeditions against them. In one of these however, in August 812, he suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Leo the Armenian, losing 2,000 men.

From ca. 810, with the outbreak of a civil war between al-Amin and his brother al-Ma'mun, Thabit, like many other provincial governors and magnates, was able to assume virtually independent control of his province. He died or was killed shortly after the final victory of Ma'mun in 813, according to some accounts poisoned by his cousin Nasr ibn Hamza ibn Malik.