Isa ibn Musa was born in AH 103 (721/2 CE). In summer 750, immediately after the end of the Abbasid Revolution, Isa was appointed by his uncle as-Saffah as governor of Kufa, the first seat of the Abbasid government. He would retain the post for fifteen years—according to Hugh N. Kennedy, the second longest tenure in the Abbasid period after that of Dawud ibn Yazid al-Muhallabi in the early 9th century.