Revolt in the Maghreb The zeal of the Umayyad tax-collectors finally broke Berber patience. It is reported that following Ubayd Allah ibn al-Habhab's instructions to extract more revenues from the Berbers, Omar ibn al-Moradi, his deputy governor in Tangiers, decided to declare the Berbers in his jurisdiction a "conquered people" and consequently set about seizing Berber property and enslaving persons, as per the rules of conquest, the "
caliphal fifth" was still owed to the Umayyad state (alternative accounts report he simply doubled their tribute). This was the last straw. Inspired by the
Sufrite preachers, the North African
Berber tribes of western Morocco – initially, the
Ghomara,
Berghwata and
Miknasa – decided to break openly into revolt against their Arab overlords. As their leader, they chose
Maysara al-Matghari, alleged by some Arab chroniclers to be a lowly water-carrier (but more probably a high
Matghara Berber chieftain). The only question was timing. The opportunity arose sometime in early 740 (122 AH), when the powerful Ifriqiyan general
Habib ibn Abi Ubayda al-Fihri, who had recently been imposing his authority on the
Sous valley of southern Morocco, received instructions from the Kairouan governor Ubayd Allah to lead a large expedition across the sea against
Byzantine Sicily. Gathering his forces, Habib ibn Abi Obeida marched the bulk of the Ifriqiyan army out of Morocco. As soon as the mighty Habib was safely gone, Maysara assembled his coalition of Berber armies, heads shaven in the Sufri
Kharijite fashion and with
Qura'nic inscriptures tied to their lances and spears, and brought them bearing down on
Tangier. The city soon fell into rebel hands and the hated governor Omar al-Moradi was killed. It was at this point that Maysara is said to have taken up the title and pretences of ''
amir al-mu'minin'' ("Commander of the Faithful", or "Caliph"). Leaving a Berber garrison in Tangier under the command of Christian convert, Abd al-Allah al-Hodeij al-Ifriqi, Maysara's army proceeded to sweep down western Morocco, swelling its ranks with new adherents, overwhelming Umayyad garrisons clear from the
Strait of Gibraltar down to the
Sous. One of the local governors killed by the Berbers was Ismail ibn Ubayd Allah, the very son of the Kairouan emir. The Berber revolt surprised the Umayyad governor in Kairouan, Ubayd Allah ibn al-Habhab, who had very few troops at his disposal. He immediately dispatched messengers to his general Habib ibn Abi Obeida al-Fihri in Sicily instructing him to break off the expedition and urgently ship the Ifriqiyan army back to Africa. In the meantime, Ubayd Allah assembled a cavalry-heavy column, composed of the aristocratic Arab elite of Kairouan. He placed the nobles under the command of
Khalid ibn Abi Habib al-Fihri, and dispatched it to Tangiers, to keep the Berber rebels contained, while awaiting Habib's return from Sicily. A smaller reserve army was placed under Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Mughira al-Abdari and instructed to hold
Tlemcen, in case the Berber rebel army should break through the column and try to drive towards Kairouan. Maysara's Berber forces encountered the vanguard Ifrqiyan column of Khalid ibn Abi Habib somewhere in the outskirts of Tangiers After a brief skirmish with the Arab column, Maysara abruptly ordered the Berber armies to fall back to Tangier. The Arab cavalry commander Khalid ibn Abi Habiba did not give pursuit, but just held his line south of Tangier, blockading the Berber-held city, while awaiting the reinforcements from Habib's Sicilian expedition. In this breathing space, the Berber rebels got reorganized and undertook an internal coup. The Berber tribal leaders swiftly deposed (and executed) Maysara and elected the
Zenata Berber chieftain,
Khalid ibn Hamid al-Zanati as the new Berber "caliph". The reasons for Maysara's fall remain obscure. Possibly the sudden cowardice shown before the Arab cavalry column proved him military unfit, possibly because the puritan Sufrite preachers found a flaw in the piety of his character, or maybe simply because the
Zenata tribal chieftains, being closer to the Ifriqiyan frontline, felt they should be the ones leading the rebellion. The new Berber leader Khalid ibn Hamid al-Zanati opted to immediately attack the idling Ifriqiyan column before they could be reinforced. The Berber rebels under Khalid ibn Hamid overwhelmed and annihilated the Arab cavalry of Khalid ibn Abi Habiba in an encounter known as the
Battle of the Nobles, on account of the veritable massacre of the cream of the Ifriqiyan Arab nobility. This is tentatively dated around c. October–November, 740. The immediate Arab reaction to the disaster shows just how unexpected this reversal was. Upon the first news of the defeat of the nobles, the reserve army of Ibn al-Mughira in Tlemcen fell into a panic. Seeing Sufrite preachers everywhere in the city, the Umayyad commander ordered his nervous Arab troops to conduct a series of round-ups in Tlemcen, several of which ended in indiscriminate massacres. This provoked a massive popular uprising in the hitherto-quiet city. The city's largely Berber population quickly drove out the Umayyad troops. The frontline of the Berber revolt now leaped to the middle Maghreb (
Algeria). The Sicilian expeditionary army of Habib ibn Abi Obeida arrived too late to prevent the massacre of the nobles. Realizing they were in no position to take on the Berber army by themselves, they retreated to Tlemcen, to gather the reserves, only to find that city too was now in disarray. There, Habib encountered Musa ibn Abi Khalid, an Umayyad captain who had bravely stayed behind in the vicinity of Tlemcen gathering what loyal forces he could find. The state of panic and confusion was such that Habib ibn Abi Obeida decided to blame the guiltless captain for the entire mess and cut off one of his hands and one of his legs in punishment.
Coup in al-Andalus It is sometimes reported that the Andalusian governor
Uqba ibn al-Hajjaj dispatched an Andalusian army across the straits to support the Ifriqiyan column around Tangiers, only to be similarly defeated by the Berber rebels in late 740. But this story has been discounted by modern historians, as it is sourced principally from later al-Andalus chronicles; there is nothing in contemporary accounts referencing any such expedition. Nonetheless, the news of the Berber victory in Morocco echoed through al-Andalus. Berbers heavily outnumbered Arabs in al-Andalus. Fearing the Berber garrisons in their own lands might take inspiration from their Moroccan brethren, the Andalusian Arab elite quickly deposed Obeid Allah's deputy, Uqba ibn al-Hajjaj, in January 741 and reinstated his predecessor,
Abd al-Malik ibn Qatn al-Fihri, a more popular figure among local Arabs and Berbers alike.
Syrian expedition In February, 741, the Umayyad caliph Hisham appointed
Kulthum ibn Iyad al-Qushayri to replace the disgraced Obeid Allah as governor in Ifriqiya. Kulthum was to be accompanied by a fresh Arab army of 30,000 – 27,000 raised from the regiments (
junds) of
Syria and an additional 3,000 to be picked up in
Egypt. Caliph Hisham appointed Kulthum's nephew
Balj ibn Bishr al-Qushayri as his lieutenant and designated successor, and the Jordanian commander
Tha'laba ibn Salama al-Amili as his second successor (should tragedy befall the prior two). The elite Syrian cavalry under Balj ibn Bishr, which had moved ahead of the bulk of the forces, was the first to arrive in Kairouan in the Summer of 741. Their brief stay was not a happy one. The Syrians arrived in haughty spirits and quarreled with the Kairouan city authorities, who suspicious, had given them a rather cool reception. Interpreting it as ingratitude, the Syrian barons imposed themselves on the city, billeting troops and requisitioning supplies without regard to local authorities or priorities. (It is pertinent to note that the members of the Syrian expedition were of different tribal stock than the Arabs they came to save. The early Arab colonists of Ifriqiya and al-Andalus had been drawn largely from tribes of south Arabian origin (known as
Kalbi or
Yamani tribes), whereas the Syrian
junds were mostly of north Arabian tribes (
Qaysi or
Mudari tribes). The ancient and deep pre-Islamic
tribal rivalry between the Qaysi and Yamani Arabs found itself invoked in repeated quarrels between the earlier colonists and the arriving
junds.) Moving slower with the bulk of the forces, Kulthum ibn Iyad himself did not enter Kairouan, but merely dispatched a message assigning the government of the city to Abd al-Rahman ibn Oqba al-Ghaffari, the
qadi of Ifriqiya. Collecting the Syrian vanguard, Kulthum hurried along to make junction with the remaining Ifriqiyan forces (some 40,000) of Habib ibn Abi Obeida al-Fihri holding ground in the vicinity of Tlemcen. The junction between the North African and Eastern forces did not go smoothly. News of the Syrian misbehavior in Kairouan had reached the Ifriqiyan troops, while the Syrians, incensed at the poor reception, treated their Ifriqiyan counterparts in a high-handed fashion. Habib and Balj bickered and the armies nearly came to blows. By smooth diplomacy, Kulthum ibn Iyad managed hold the armies together, but the mutual resentments would play a role in subsequent events. The Berber rebel army formed after the joining of two armies, one led by
Khalid ibn Hamid al-Zanati and one led by a certain Salim Abu Yusuf al-Azdi. Among the casualties were the new governor
Kulthum ibn Iyad al-Qushayri and the Ifriqiyan commander Habib ibn Abi Obeida al-Fihri. The Syrian regiments, now reduced to some 10,000, were pulled together by Kulthum's nephew,
Balj ibn Bishr and scrambled up towards the
Strait of Gibraltar, where they hoped to get passage across the sea to al-Andalus. A small Ifriqiyan contingent, under Habib's son
Abd al-Rahman ibn Habib al-Fihri, joined the Syrians in their flight, but the rest of the Ifriqiyan forces fled in a scattered way back to Kairouan. The bulk of the Berber rebel army set off in pursuit of the Syrians, and laid siege to them in
Ceuta.
Offensive on Kairouan The Zenata Berber leader
Khalid ibn Hamid al-Zanati who delivered the two great victories over the Arab armies disappears from the chronicles shortly after Bagdoura (741). But news of the defeat emboldened hitherto quiet Berber tribes to join the revolt. Berber uprisings erupted across the Maghreb and al-Andalus. The most immediate threat arose in southern Ifriqiya, where the Sufrite leader
Uqasha ibn Ayub al-Fezari raised a Berber army and laid sieges to
Gabès and
Gafsa. By a rapid sally south with the remnant of the Ifriqiyan army, the Kairouan
qadi Abd al-Rahman ibn Oqba al-Ghaffari managed to defeat and disperse Uqasha's forces near Gafsa in December, 741. But the qadi possessed far too few Arab troops to put up a pursuit, and Uqasha immediately set about re-assembling his forces quietly around
Tobna in the
Zab valley of western Ifriqiya. Immediately after hearing of the disaster at Bagdoura, Caliph Hisham ordered the Umayyad governor of
Egypt,
Hanzala ibn Safwan al-Kalbi, to quickly take charge of Ifriqiya. In February 742, Hanzala ibn Safwan hurried his Egyptian army westwards and reached Kairouan around April 742, just as Uqasha was returning to try his luck again. Hanzala's forces pushed Uqasha back again. When Uqasha was reassembling his forces once more in the Zab, he came across a large Berber army coming from the west, under the command of the
Hawwara Berber chieftain Abd al-Wahid ibn Yazid al-Hawwari (possibly dispatched by the Berber caliph Khalid ibn Hamid al-Zanati, although he is not mentioned in the chronicles). Abd al-Wahid's army was composed of some 300,000 Berber troops, ostensibly the largest Berber army ever seen. After a quick consultation, Uqasha and Abd al-Wahid agreed on a joint attack on Kairouan, Uqasha taking his forces along a southerly route, while Abd al-Wahid led his large army through the northern passes, converging on Kairouan from both sides. Hearing of the approach of the great Berber armies, Handhala ibn Safwan ordered Abd al-Rahman al-Ghifari to stop Abd al Wahid's advance. The two armies met at the Battle of Tubna in eastern Algeria on 21st of September 742. Abd al-Rahman was defeated and killed along with several other prominent commanders, while his surviving troops fled to Handhala in
Kairouan. After this, Abd al-Wahid stopped to take Tubna and possibly other places. Hearing of the defeat. Hanzala sent out yet another army under Thabit ibn Khaytham, a Syrian commander from
Jordan with previous North African experience. Thabit met Abd al-Wahid at the Battle of Baja in northwest Tunisia on the 4th of September 742. Ibn Khaytham was also defeated and killed resulting in the loss of many men as well as twenty thousand horses because of the lack of fodder. The surviving army consisting of twenty thousand men retreated to
Kairouan. After these series of disasters, Hanzala wrote to al-Mustanir ibn al Harith al-Harashi, the sub governor of Tunis, which was the Muslim naval base against Sicily, telling him to evacuate the city and come to Kairouan if he thought he could not hold out. And indeed he didn't feel he could and moved his troops and their families to Kairouan. At this point, Hanzala seems to have held little except al-Qayrawan. But he did not appeal for more troops, as he must have known none would come. 'Abd al-Wahid now occupied Tunis, flushed with his victories, He appears to have proclaimed himself caliph in rivalry to Ibn Hamid in Tangier. Meanwhile, Hanzala mobilized all the forces he could find. He even armed noncombatants and women and also dug a trench around the city. Hanzala threw the bulk of his forces south, crushing Uqasha in the bloody
Battle of al-Qarn and taking him prisoner. But Hanzala had taken a lot of losses himself and now faced the unhappy prospect of Abd al-Wahid's gigantic army. Hurrying back, Hanzala is said to have put the entire population of Kairouan under arms to bolster his ranks, before setting out again. In perhaps the bloodiest encounter in the Berber wars, Hanzala ibn Safwan defeated the great Berber army of Abd al-Wahid ibn Yazid at the
Battle of al-Asnam around May 742 (perhaps a little later), just three miles outside of Kairouan. Some 120,000-180,000 Berbers, including Abd al-Wahid, fell in the field of battle in that single encounter. Uqasha was executed shortly after. According to historian
Khalid Yahya Blankinship the number of Berber losses at al-Asnam is an exaggeration not to be trusted even in a vague way, as it may have been invented by the caliphal tradition to counterbalance the earlier record of utter failure in the Berber war. Although Kairouan was saved for the caliphate, and with it the core of Ifriqiya, Hanzala ibn Safwan now faced the unenviable task of dragging the more westerly provinces, still under Berber sway, back into the fold. He would not have the chance to accomplish this.
Revolt in al-Andalus The coup installing
Abd al-Malik ibn Qatn al-Fihri as ruler in al-Andalus in early 741 had been a failsafe device. But once the news of the disaster at Bagdoura spread, a general Berber uprising in al-Andalus could no longer be prevented. In October 741, Berber garrisons north of the
Douro River mutinied. They discarded their Arab commanders and took to the field, abandoning their garrison posts to assemble their own Berber rebel army around the center and march against the Andalusian Arabs in the south. Although their leaders' names have escaped us, the Andalusian Berber rebel army was organized into three columns – one to take
Toledo (the main garrison city of the
Central March), another to aim for
Córdoba (the Umayyad capital), and the third to take
Algeciras, where the rebels hoped to seize the Andalusian fleet to ferry additional Berber troops from North Africa. With the frontier garrisons in the northwest suddenly evacuated, the Christian king
Alfonso I of Asturias could hardly believe his luck and set about dispatching Asturian troops to seize the empty forts. With remarkable swiftness and ease
the northwest was captured, and the banks of the upper Ebro were raided by Alfonso and permanently lost to al-Andalus. The Asturians devastated several towns and villages on the banks of the
Douro River, and carried off local populations from the towns and villages in the Galician-Leonese lowlands back to the mountains, creating an empty buffer zone in the
Douro River valley (the
Desert of the Duero) between the Asturias in the north and al-Andalus in the south. This newly emptied frontier would remain in place for the next few centuries. It is alleged that pastoral Berber mountaineers remained behind in the highlands around
Astorga and
León. These trapped Berber communities were called "
Maragatos" by the local Christian Leonese (etymology uncertain, possibly from
mauri capti, "captive Moors"). Although eventually converted to Christianity, the
Maragatos retained their distinctive dress, customs and lifestyle of Berber origin down to the early modern era.
Syrians in Al-Andalus Through much of the winter of 741–42, the remnant of the Syrian expedition, some 10,000 men, under
Balj ibn Bishr, remained trapped in
Ceuta, besieged by the Berber rebels. The Andalusian ruler
Abd al-Malik ibn Qatn al-Fihri, wary that the presence of the Syrians in Al-Andalus would only aggravate matters, denied them entry. But news soon reached the Andalusian governor that the Berber rebel armies from the northwest had been organized and were now barreling south in three columns, towards Toledo, Córdoba and Algeciras. Not having enough Arab forces at hand, the Andalusian governor Abd al-Malik realized he had little choice but to make use of the stranded Syrian force to defeat the Berber armies. In a carefully negotiated treaty, Abd al-Malik granted the Syrians permission to cross over, on the condition that they promise to return to North Africa within a year of the settlement of the Berber matter in Al-Andalus. Hostages were taken to secure Syrian compliance. The Syrian junds under
Balj ibn Bishr crossed the straits in early 742 and immediately headed to the environs of
Medina-Sidonia, where they intercepted and disposed of the Berber column aiming for Algeciras. The Syrians then joined the Andalusian Arabs in crushing the main Berber rebel army in a ferocious battle outside of
Córdoba in the Spring of 742. Shortly after, they proceeded to defeat the third Berber army, then laying siege to
Toledo. The Berber rebellion was quashed in Al-Andalus, but the Syrians showed no signs of intending to leave. When the Andalusian governor Abd al-Malik ibn Qatan ibn Fihri pressed the point, Balj ibn Bishr decided to simply depose him and proclaim himself governor, invoking his credentials as designated successor to his uncle, the late Ifriqiyan governor
Kulthum ibn Iyad al-Qushayri. In revenge for the merchant of Ceuta, Balj ordered the elderly Ibn Qatan tortured to death. A civil war was not short in happening. Rallied by Qatan and Umayya, the sons of the late
Fihrid governor, Andalusian Arabs took up arms against the Syrian
junds. The Syrians delivered a decisive defeat upon the Andalusian at the
Battle of Aqua Portora outside of Córdoba in August 742, but Balj ibn Bishr was mortally wounded in the field. Command of the Syrian armies devolved to
Tha'laba ibn Salama al-Amili, and for the next few months, the Syrians remained bunkered down, while the Andalusians (soon joined by what remained of the Berber rebels), assembled in
Mérida. Much of the next few months was spent in an internecine Arab civil war, the Berber question relegated to a secondary concern. Eventually, tiring of war, the parties appealed to the Ifriqiyan emir
Hanzala ibn Safwan al-Kalbi to resolve the matter. Hanzala dispatched his cousin
Abu'l-Khattar al-Husam ibn Darar al-Kalbi as the new governor for al-Andalus. Abu al-Khattar arrived in May 743 and immediately set about restoring peace in Al-Andalus, liberating prisoners (Arab and Berber) and figuring a resolution to the displaced Syrian troops. He decided to distribute the various Syrian junds across Al-Andalus, carving out regimental fiefs in hitherto thinly-held areas: the Damascus jund was established in Elvira (
Granada), the Jordan jund in Rayyu (
Málaga and
Archidona), the Palestine jund in
Medina-Sidonia and
Jerez, the Emesa (Hims) jund in
Seville and
Niebla and the Qinnasrin jund in
Jaén. The Egypt jund was divided between
Beja (Algarve) in the west and Tudmir (
Murcia) in the east. (Al-Maqqari refers to an additional
jund from
Wasit (Iraq) that was settled in
Cabra, but this
jund is not recorded in other sources). The Syrian junds were allocated a third of the tax revenues collected in their regions, and given responsibilities of tax-collection and military service to the Andalusian governor. The arrival of the Syrian
junds would have tremendous implications for subsequent Andalusian history. They substantially increased the Arab element on the
Iberian Peninsula, and, as such, were instrumental in deepening the Muslim hold on the south, what would become the heart of al-Andalus. But they also brought trouble. Unwilling to be governed, the Syrian
junds carried on an existence of autonomous feudal anarchy, severely destabilizing the power of the governor of al-Andalus. ==Aftermath==