Emirate of Tlemcen

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Not to be confused with Kingdom of Tlemcen.
Emirate of Tlemcen
c. 757–790[1][2]
StatusEmirate
CapitalTlemcen
Common languagesBerber, Arabic
Religion
Sufri Islam
GovernmentEmirate, tribal confederacy
• Until 790
Abu Qurra
History 
• Establishment
c. 757
• Annexed by the Rustamids and Idrisids
790[1][2]
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Ummayad Caliphate
Rustamid dynasty
Idrisid dynasty
Today part ofAlgeria
Part of a series on the
History of Algeria
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Prehistory
Antiquity
Middle Ages
Modern times
Contemporary era
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The Ifranid Emirate of Tlemcen[3] or Ifranid Kingdom of Tlemcen,[4][5][6] was a Kharijite state,[7][5] founded by Berbers of the Banu Ifran in the eighth century,[8] with its capital at Tlemcen in modern Algeria.[8]

Background[]

After the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb, there were a number of Berber revolts against the Umayyad caliphate. These mid-eighth century revolts were associated with Kharijite teachings, which won over a good part of the Maghreb with their puritanism and egalitarian message.[9] As a result of one of these, the Rustamid dynasty founded a kingdom at Tahert.

Foundation of the Emirate[]

Around the same time, a revolt of the Zenata tribe of the Banu Ifran broke out. The rebels proclaimed their leader Abu Qurra to be the Caliph, and he established a Sufri state in Tlemcen.[9][10] Although the founding of this city is sometimes attributed to the Ifranides, the site had already been occupied by the Roman city of Pomaria.[8] Little is known of the internal affairs of the new state, but it was of considerable military significance.[4]

Expansion[]

Between 767 and 776 Abu Qurra began to lead expeditions against the Abbasids whom they became the most important enemies of. Abu Qurra hunted down the Abbasid governor after reaching Tobna, Omar ibn Hafç-Hazarmard, who had hid in Kairouan which Abu Qurra then besieged and subdued after defeating the Abbasid army.[11][12][13][10] Back in Tlemcen, he allied himself with the Maghrawa and had to confront the expansionist aims of the Idrisides.[9][10] The Abbasids sent a strong army under the new governor, Yazid ibn Hatim al-Muhallabi, who defied the Kharijites in Ifriqiya, but the rest of the Maghreb escaped his authority.[9][4]

In the 10th century the Ifranids were enemies with the Fatimid Caliphate, aligning themselves with the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba. Led by Abu Yazid, they surged east and attacked Kairouan in 945. Another leader named captured Oran and built a new capital, Ifgan, near Mascara. Their general Jawhar had supposedly killed in battle in 954.[14] The Fatimids struck back and destroyed Ifgan, and consequently, the Banu Ifran briefly reverted to being scattered nomads in competition with their Sanhaja neighbours. Some of them settled in regions of Spain, such as Málaga. Others, led by Hammama, managed to gain control of Tadla. Later, led by Abu al-Kamāl, they established a new capital at Salé on the Atlantic coast, however this then caused conflicts with the Barghawata tribes. The Banu Ifran had also founded Tadla and Sale where Tamim ibn Ziri built the Great Mosque of Sale.[15][16][17]

During the 11th century the Ifranids competed with the Maghrawa tribe for the control of Morocco after the fall of the Idrisid dynasty. Ya'la's son Yaddū took Fes by surprise in January 993 and held it for a few months until the Maghrawa ruler Ziri ibn Atiyya and reconquered the region after returning from Spain.

Fes was conquered by Ya'la's grandson Tamīm in 1033. Following the conquest of Fez he began a persecution of the Jews,[18] it is said that in Fez they raped, pillaged and had massacred 6000 or more men while confiscating their wealth and women, but Ibn Khaldoun says the persecution occurred without killing.[19] It was described to have been a bloodbath and the women were reduced to slavery while the men were massacred.[20][21] Sometime in the period 1038-1040 the Maghrawa tribe retook Fes, forcing Tamīm to flee to Salé.

Soon after that time, the Almoravids began their rise to power and effectively conquered the territories of both the Banu Ifran and the Maghrawa.

Ceramics from the Taifa of Ronda

Legacy[]

The kingdom did not last long: in accordance with the strict rules of Sufrites, Abu Qurra would not allow his descendants to found a dynasty.[22] He welcomed Idris I, recognizing his kingdom and breaking with the Rustamids. Idris I negotiated the surrender of Tlemcen with the Maghrawa. One of his descendants, Muhammed Sulayman, established the "Sulaymanid kingdom" in the region, a state that dominated the cities and lasted until the time of the Fatimids in 931.[23] Tlemcen became a distinguished city, growing in connection with the Sunni Arab culture of Al-Andalus; in the countryside however, the Ifranides retained their heterodox faith. In 955 their leader  [fr] revolted against the Fatimids.[23]

Dynasty[]

The dynasty of the Ifrinids, Ibn Khaldoun, Histoire des Berbères, section Banou Ifran
  • Abou Qurra, Emir of Tlemcen (736 to 790)
    • Abou Yazid (873) to (947)
      • Abd-Allah-Ibn-Bekkar
        • Yala Ibn Mohamed (950-958)
          • Yeddou (958-993)
            • Habbous (993-1029)
              • Tamim Ibn Ziri (1029-1035)
                • Abou Kamal (1036-1054)
                  • Youcef (1055-1056)
                    • Hammad (1056-1066)
                      • Mohamed (1066-1066)

See also[]

Bibliography[]

  • Gilbert Meynier (2010). L'Algérie, cœur du Maghreb classique: De l'ouverture islamo-arabe au repli (698-1518) (in French). Paris: La Découverte. ISBN 9782707152312.
  • Philippe Sénac (21 September 2011). Le monde musulman: des origines au Xe siècle (in French). Armand Colin. ISBN 9782200274139.

References[]

  1. ^ Lewicki, T. (1960–2007). "Banu Ifran". In Bearman, P.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C.E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W.P. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Brill. ISBN 9789004161214. The Īfranid tribes which emigrated to the central Mag̲h̲rib towards the middle of the 2nd/8th century and remained under the command of Abū Ḳurra al-Īfranī al-Mag̲h̲īlī founded a Ṣufrī state, probably between 140/757-8 and 148/765-6, whose capital became the town of Tlemcen, built by the newcomers on the site of an ancient Roman town. (...) He conducted a long war with ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, probably relying mainly on the Banū Īfran; in the end he died in battle, killed by Aflaḥ, son of ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, in about 188/803-4 or shortly afterwards. At that time, the Īfranid state of Abū Ḳurra had already ceased to exist for some years. It seems moreover that control of Tlemcen, which was then inhabited by the Banū Īfran and the Mag̲h̲rāwa, had passed after the death of Abū Ḳurra into the hands of Mag̲h̲rāwa leaders belonging to the dynasty of the Banū K̲h̲azar, this dynasty being destined to play a considerable part in the history of the Mag̲h̲rib. In 173/789-90 (or according to certain historians, in 174/790-1), at the time of the conquest of that country by Idrīs I [q.v.], the founder of the dynasty of the Idrīsids, Muḥammad Ibn K̲h̲azar b. Ṣūlāt, the ruler of the town of Tlemcen, came before the conqueror and, thanks to his prompt submission, obtained security for himself and for all the Zanāta tribes of the central Mag̲h̲rib. It was Sulaymān, brother of Idrīs I and later hereditary ruler of that town, who became the Idrīsid governor of Tlemcen; it seems however that, save for this fact, conditions in the central Mag̲h̲rib were little changed. The Zanāta tribes in the country continued to recognize the supremacy of the Mag̲h̲rāwa, which had long replaced the supremacy of the Banū Īfran.CS1 maint: date format (link)
  2. ^ Abun-Nasr, Jamil (1987). A history of the Maghrib in the Islamic period. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 43. ISBN 0521337674. From the early 770s, however, they lost their leading position amongst the Kharijite tribes in Algeria. Although they retained control of Tilimsan until its conquest in 790 by the Idrisid rulers of Morocco, their authority was eclipsed by that of 'AbdulRahman b. Rustam, the leader whom the Ibadite tribes in Algeria proclaimed as their imam in 776 or 777 (A.H. 160). Thereafter the Banu Ifran, to whom 'AbdulRahman b. Rustam was related through marriage, figured more as allies of the Rustamid rulers than as a politically dominant group.
  3. ^ Philippe Sénac; Armand Colin (2011). Le monde musulman: des origines au Xe siècle [The Muslim World: From Its Origins to the 10th Century] (in French). p. 177. ISBN 9782200274139 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c Charles-André Julien (1994). Histoire de l'Afrique du Nord: Des origines à 1830 [History of North Africa: From Its Origins to 1830]. Paris: Édition Payot. pp. 365–366. ISBN 9782228887892.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b Alain Romey (1982). Histoire, mémoire et sociétés: L'exemple de N'goussa: oasis berbérophone du Sahara (Ouargala) [History, Memory and Societies: The Example of N'goussa: Berber-speaking Oasis of the Sahara (Ouargala)]. University of Tunis. ISBN 9782296271937.
  6. ^ Chems Eddine Chitour (2004). Algérie: le passé revisité [Algeria: The Past Revisited]. Casbah Editions. p. 51. ISBN 9789961644966.
  7. ^ Leïla Babès (2011). L'utopie de l'islam: La religion contre l'État [The Utopia of Islam: Religion Against the State]. Armand Colin. p. 122. ISBN 9782200276409.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b c C. Agabi (2001). Ifren (Beni). Encyclopédie berbère. 24. Edisud. pp. 3657–3659.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Gilbert Meynier (2010). L'Algérie, cœur du Maghreb classique: De l'ouverture islamo-arabe au repli (698-1518) [Algeria, Heart of the Classical Maghreb: From the Islamo-Arab Opening to the Retreat]. Paris: La Découverte. p. 25. ISBN 9782707152312.
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b c Meynier 2010, p. 27
  11. ^ Initiation à l'Algérie Jean Alazard Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1957
  12. ^ L'Algérie rebelle Jean André Faucher Éditions du Grand Damier
  13. ^ Histoire de L'Afrique: Des origines au XVIe siècle Robert Cornevin
  14. ^ So says the Rawd al-Qirtas, however according to Ibn Khaldun, died assassinated by a member of the Fatimids in 958.
  15. ^ ʻAbd al-Laṭīf Aknūsh et Abdelatif Agnouche, Histoire politique du Maroc : pouvoir, légitimités, et institutions, Afrique Orient, 1987
  16. ^ "وزارة الأوقاف و الشؤون الإسلامية" (in Arabic). Islamic Morocco. Archived from the original on 24 February 2011. Retrieved 23 November 2014.
  17. ^ Aḥmad ibn Khālid al-Salāwī, Kitāb el-istiqça li akhbār doual el-Maghrib el-Aqça : Histoire du Maroc, vol. 30-31, Paris, Librairie orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1923, p. 156.
  18. ^ Relations judéo-musulmanes au Marocperceptions et réalités, Michel Abitbol [1]
  19. ^ Ibn Khaldoun, Histoire des Berbères
  20. ^ Histoire de l'Afrique septentrionale (Berbérie) depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'a la conquête français (1830), Volume 1 Ernest Mercier Ernest Leroux,
  21. ^ ISRAEL AGAINST ALL ODDS: Anti-Semitism From Its Beginnings to the Holocaust Years Christopher H. K. Persaud Christian Publishing House,
  22. ^ Mohamed Talbi (1982). Dirasat fi tarij Ifriqiyya wa-fi al-hadara al-islamiyya fi al-'asr al-wasit (in Arabic). University of Tunis. p. 58. Retrieved January 1, 2018 – via Google Books.
  23. ^ Jump up to: a b Meynier 2010, p. 28.
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