Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī, ʿAbd Allāh b. Qays (d. 52/672), was a Companion of the Prophet who was originally from Yemen and was descended from the Yemeni tribe of al-Ashʿar, which was itself a branch of the tribe of the Qaḥṭān (Ibn Saʿd, 4/105; Khalīfa, al-Ṭabaqāt, 1/428; Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, 4/1762). His mother, Ẓabiya, who was from ʿAdnān, later converted to Islam and died in Medina (Ibn Saʿd, 4/1762).

There is some degree of contradiction in the sources and reports as regards the exact date of Abū Mūsā's conversion to Islam. According to some accounts he went to Mecca, where he became a confederate (ḥa…