Black Musa was born in
Crete in 1880. He was originally from Sudan. Upon his father's death, who he was living with in Crete, he moved to
Cairo with his grandfather, who was an
Ottoman enthusiast, and grew up in a neighborhood with
Turks. Musa became
fluent in
Turkish while living in this neighborhood. He voluntarily participated in the
Italo-Turkish War with his grandfather in 1911. While in
Tripolitania, he met
Kuşçubaşı Eşref, who came to Libya to galvanize the local people against the Italians, and became his
amir. After the Italo-Turkish War, he participated in the
Balkan Wars, the
Sinai-Palestine Campaign, the
Campaign in South Arabia during
World War I, the
Gallipoli campaign, and the
Raid on the Suez Canal. According to
Kurdish–
Turkish historian
Cemal Kutay, during the
occupation of Istanbul, a
British Army general,
Charles Harington, offered gold to lure Musa to the side of the
British, but Musa did not accept it. He carried out both armed struggles and intelligence activities in the wars he participated in. He died of
tuberculosis in 1919 while living in
Üsküdar Şeyh Ata Efendi's
Özbekler Lodge. His body was buried in the cemetery next to the
Özbekler Lodge. Since the burial place still remains undiscovered, an
epitaph was built in his memory in a designated place in the cemetery. == In popular culture ==