musa

Musa is a masculine given name of Arabic origin, meaning Moses. It is widely used in the Muslim world and among Arabic-speaking populations, with variant spellings such as Mousa and Moussa. It can also be a surname. In Islamic tradition, Musa is the Prophet Moses, a central figure in the Qur'an, the Hebrew Bible, and the Christian Old Testament.

Musa also refers to the genus Musa, a group of large herbaceous flowering plants in the banana family Musaceae. The genus includes the edible bananas and plantains. Most cultivated varieties are parthenocarpic and sterile, propagated vegetatively. Musa species are native to tropical regions of Southeast Asia; today they are widely grown in tropical regions around the world, especially in South and Central America, Africa, and South Asia. Plants have large pseudostems and produce hanging fruit clusters after flowering.

Notable people with the name include Musa al-Kadhim, the seventh Shia imam, and Mansa Musa (Musa I of Mali), the 14th-century emperor famed for wealth and pilgrimage to Mecca. The name continues to be common across many cultures and languages.