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194-591: The Kutama played a pivotal role in establishing the Fatimid Caliphate (909–1171), forming the bulk of the Fatimid army which eventually overthrew the Aghlabids who controlled Ifriqiya , and which then went on to conquer Egypt , Sudan , Hijaz and the southern Levant in 969–975. The Kutama remained one of the mainstays of the Fatimid army until well into the 11th century. The Kutama are attested in

388-890: A Buyid refugee who had fled an unsuccessful rebellion in Baghdad with his own contingent of Turkish soldiers, became the protector of Damascus. He allied with the Qarmatis and with Arab Bedouin tribes in Syria and invaded Palestine in the spring of 977. Jawhar, once again called into action, repelled their invasion and besieged Damascus. However he suffered a rout during the winter and was forced to hold out in Ascalon against Aftakin. When his Kutama soldiers mutinied in April 978, Caliph al-Aziz himself led an army to relieve him. Instead of returning to Damascus, Aftakin and his Turkish ghilman joined

582-683: A jurist of Palestinian origin, took and kept the office of vizier from 1050 to 1058. In the 1040s (possibly in 1041 or 1044), the Zirids declared their independence from the Fatimids and recognized the Sunni Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad, which led the Fatimids to launch the devastating Banū Hilal invasions of North Africa. Fatimid suzerainty over Sicily also faded as the Muslim polity there fragmented and external attacks increased. By 1060, when

776-540: A "hegemony of the Kutama", particularly of the four sub-tribes of Jimala, Lahisa, Malusa, and Ijjana. In 948, Caliph al-Mansur publicly remarked that God had granted them pre-eminence among all other peoples, since they had first seen and accepted the truth. On the other hand, this dominion of the semi-civilized Kutama was greatly resented, not only by the other Berber tribes, but chiefly by the Arab and Arabicized inhabitants of

970-565: A Kutama general, Salman, to take Damascus, the Turkish ghulām Bultakīn finally succeeded in occupying the city for the Fatimids in 983, demonstrating the value of this new force. Another ghulām , Bajkūr, who appointed governor of Damascus at this time. That same year he tried and failed to take Aleppo, but he was soon able to conquer Raqqa and Rahba in the Euphrates valley (present-day northeast Syria ). Cairo eventually judged him to be

1164-843: A Makhzen tribe. He founded the caïdat de Sebaou and built a bordj (fortress) of the same name, halfway between Tizi Ouzou and bordj Menaïel , in 1720–21, then four years later, bordj-Boghni among the Guechtoula. Ali Khodja had defeated the Iboukhtouchen and their allies in Draâ Ben Khedda and among the Aït Frawsen. The caïdat du Sebaou included the Aït Khalfun, the Iflissen Umellil, the Beni Thur,

1358-483: A Turkish commander, with a force that defeated them in 1029 at the Battle of Uqḥuwāna near Lake Tiberias. In 1030 the new Byzantine emperor Romanos III broke a truce to invade northern Syria and forced Aleppo to recognize his suzerainty. His death in 1034 changed the situation again and in 1036 peace was restored. In 1038 Aleppo was directly annexed by the Fatimids state for the first time. Al-Zahir died in 1036 and

1552-427: A counter-offensive to secure coastal cities, such as Gaza and Ascalon, and later Tyre , Sidon , and Byblos further north in 1089. Badr made major reforms to the state, updating and simplifying the administration of Egypt. As he was of Armenian background, his term also saw a large influx of Armenian immigrants, both Christian and Muslim, into Egypt. The Armenian church , patronised by Badr, established itself in

1746-500: A final invasion of Kairouan. The remaining Aghlabid army, led by an Aghlabid prince named Ibrahim Ibn Abi al-Aghlab, met them near al-Aribus on 18 March. The battle lasted until the afternoon, when a contingent of Kutama horsemen managed to outflank the Aghlabid army and finally caused a rout. When news of the defeat reached Raqqada, Ziyadat Allah III packed his valuable treasures and fled towards Egypt. The population of Kairouan looted

1940-512: A former finance official, at their head. Fatimid control in Syria was threatened during the 1020s. In Aleppo, Fatāk, who had declared his independence, was killed and replaced in 1022, but this opened the way for a coalition of Bedouin chiefs from the Banu Kilab, Jarrahids, and Banu Kalb led by Salih ibn Mirdas to take the city in 1024 or 1025 and to begin imposing their control on the rest of Syria. Al-Jarjarā'ī sent Anushtakin al-Dizbari ,

2134-509: A formidable militia. Under the orders of Abu Abdallah, they took Sétif in 904, Belezma in 905, then Béja , against superior armies in both number and armament. In 907/8 they attacked the core of Ifriqiya . After the capitulation of Meskiana and Tébessa , they captured Constantine. Abu Abdallah defeated the army of Ziyadat Allah III at al-Urbus (ancient Laribus ); the Aghlabids, defeated on all sides, abandoned by their followers, fled to

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2328-669: A great uprising in Syria . The large-scale Abbasid reaction it precipitated and the attention it brought on him, forced Abdallah to abandon Salamiya for Palestine, Egypt, and finally for the Maghreb , where the dā'ī Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i had made great headway in converting the Kutama Berbers to the Isma'ili cause. Unable to join his dā'ī directly, Abdallah instead settled at Sijilmasa sometime between 904 and 905. Prior to

2522-868: A literate and educated family, which had been well established in Bejaia , and had long served the Hafsid sultans. In Spanish documents, the Kingdom of Kuku was often referred to as "Reino de Azuagos " , meaning the Kingdom of the Zwawa. But the French anthropologist, Émile Masqueray supports the idea that the Aït Ulqadi reigned only over the valley of Wad Sebaou and part of eastern Great Kabylia. Émile Masqueray says about Sidi Ahmed el-Kadi: "The precise witnesses of

2716-461: A little too popular as governor of Damascus and he was forced to move to Raqqa while Munir, a eunuch in the caliph's household (like Jawhar before him), took direct control in Damascus on behalf of the caliph. Further north, Aleppo remained out of reach and under Hamdanid control. The incorporation of the Turkish troops into the Fatimid army had long-term consequences. On the one hand, they were

2910-634: A necessary addition to the military in order for the Fatimids to compete militarily with other powers in the region. The Fatimids began to recruit ghilmān much as the Abbasids had done before them. They were soon joined by recruited Daylamis (footmen from the Buyid homeland in Iran ). Black Africans from the Sudan (upper Nile valley) were also recruited afterward. In the short term the Kutama warriors remained

3104-513: A one-year truce with the caliph, which the Fatimids used to recruit and build new ships for their fleet. In 996 many of the ships were destroyed by a fire at al-Maqs, the port on the Nile near Fustat, further delaying the expedition. Finally, in August 996 al-Aziz died and the objective of Aleppo became secondary to other concerns. Before leaving for Egypt, al-Mu'izz had installed Buluggin ibn Ziri ,

3298-580: A siege when local notables arranged to have the gates opened to them in May or June 907. This opened a hole in the wider defensive system of Ifriqiya and created panic in Raqqada. Ziyadat Allah III stepped up anti-Fatimid propaganda, recruited volunteers, and took measures to defend the weakly-fortified city of Kairouan. He spent the winter of 907–908 with his army in al-Aribus ( Roman -era Laribus, between present-day El Kef and Maktar ), expecting an attack from

3492-618: A single united confederation, even if they speak the same language, have the same culture, and the same religion, and despite this, they were often allies to deal with foreign invasions, as in 1849 against the French, but also in 1830, 1857, and 1871 against the same enemy. While the Spaniards had control over some ports in the Maghreb, the Turks and the Kabyles supported each other against

3686-725: A strong response in Cairo. A major military campaign was prepared to impose Fatimid control over all of Syria. Along the way, Munir was arrested in Damascus and sent back to Cairo. Circumstances were favourable to the Fatimids as the Byzantine emperor Basil II was campaigning far away in the Balkans and the Hamdanid ruler Sa'd al-Dawla died in late 991. Manjūtakīn, the Turkish Fatimid commander, advanced methodically north along

3880-519: A succession conflict between Ali, the legitimate heir to the throne, and his brother, Ourkho. Both were sons of Sidi Ahmed el-Tunsi. Here are the allegiances of the Kabyle tribes: Ourkho disappeared from history, and his brother, Ali, emerged victorious. At the beginning of the 18th century, a certain caïd, Ali Khodja, asserted his authority over the Amrawa, a powerful Kabyle tribe which would become

4074-488: A third expedition to try and subdue the Kutama. They based themselves in Constantine and in the fall of 905, after receiving further reinforcements, set out to march against Abu Abdallah. However, they were surprised by Kutama forces on the first day of their march, which caused a panic and scattered their army. The Aghlabid general fled and the Kutama captured a large booty. Another Aghlabid military expedition organized

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4268-592: A widespread messianic tradition in Islam concerning the appearance of a mahdī ("the Rightly Guided One") or qāʾim ("He Who Arises"), who would restore true Islamic government and justice and usher in the end times . This figure was widely expected – not just among the Shi'a – to be a descendant of Ali. Among Shi'a, however, this belief became a core tenet of their faith, and

4462-630: Is Artana, which may refer to the Aït Iraten confederation. The third is Benicassim. The Zwawa were always traditional allies of the Kutama , perhaps even because they are themselves Kutama as Ibn Hazm and Ibn Khaldun claimed, even though they were mentioned separately in the historical records. In the tenth century, the tribes of the Baranis group of modern central Algeria, such as the Sanhaja ,

4656-400: Is known about the Kutama for the rest of the eighth century, after the advent of the Aghlabids at Kairouan in 789. The Kutama contented themselves with ignoring the Aghlabid authorities and welcoming the rebel soldiers in their inaccessible mountains. Their large population and the isolation in their mountains caused them not to suffer any oppression on the part of this dynasty. At the end of

4850-651: Is no longer used in Algerian Arabic either, except in western Algeria, where Kabyles are still called Zwawa. Zwawa was also a personal name. In the 9th century, one of the chiefs of the Huwwara Berber tribe, who took part in the Muslim conquest of Sicily , was called Zwawa ibn Neam al-Half, who assisted in the triumph of the Muslim armies against the Byzantines. Ibn Hawqal in the 10th century,

5044-490: Is now northern Morocco occurred in 917 and 921 and were primarily aimed at the Principality of Nakur , which they subjugated on both occasions. Fez and Sijilmasa were also captured in 921. These two expeditions were led by Masala ibn Habus, who had been made governor of Tahert . Thereafter, the weakened Idrisids and various local Zenata and Sanhaja leaders acted as proxies whose formal allegiances oscillated between

5238-401: Is uncertain whether an agreement was reached but it seems that the parties expected to reach a conclusion in Cairo. Al-Afdal took then advantage of the crusader victory at Antioch to reconquer Jerusalem in August 1098, possibly to be in a better position in the negotiations with the crusaders. The next time both parties met was at Arqah in April 1099 where an impasse was reached in regard to

5432-672: The Awliya' Allah ('Friends of God'), and to initiate them into Isma'ili doctrine. In 902, while the Aghlabid emir Ibrahim II was away on campaign in Sicily , Abu Abdallah struck the first significant blow against Aghlabid authority in North Africa by attacking and capturing the city of Mila for the first time. This news triggered a serious response from the Aghlabids, who sent a punitive expedition of 12,000 men from Tunis in October of

5626-1164: The Aït Iraten (Aït Akerma, the Aït Irdjen, the Agwacha, the Aït Umalu and the Aït Ussammer) and the Zwawa proper, that is to say the Aït Betroun ( Aït Yenni , Aït Wasif , Aït Boudrar , the Aït Bou-Akkach, and the Aït Oubelkacem) and the Aït Mengellat (the Aït Mengellat proper, the Aqbil , the Aït Bou-Yousef , and the Aït Attaf ), remained rebellious and were completely independent; they themselves appointed their leaders and paid no taxes to

5820-644: The Bavares tribal confederation, which gave a hard time to the Roman power, both in Mauretania Caesarean, then Sitifian after 303, and in Numidia . This political and military opposition did not prevent a certain romanization , at least punctually, thus the creation of the milestone respublica Vahartanensium , probably linked to the need for a road crossing of the massif which is hardly attested until

6014-1078: The Beni Yenni , the Beni Bou-Ghardan, the Beni Ituragh , the Beni Bu Yusef , the Beni Chayb, the Beni Aissi, the Beni Sedqa, the Beni Ghubrin and the Beni Gechtoula." The Aït Iraten and the Aït Frawsen, Zwawian tribes, were also mentioned on the same page, but not in this list. Moreover, Ibn Khaldun mentioned the Ait Yenni separately from the Ait Betrun, while they belong to the latter. Same thing for

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6208-436: The Collo Massif , part of the chain of Bibans, the mountains of Ferjioua, the numidic chain. This region has an extremely rugged terrain, with a steep coast, bordered by wooded mountains of very difficult access, the gaps being extremely rare, with mountains reaching almost 2000 m. The villages are perched on peaks and ridges that are difficult to access. The region presents itself as an almost impenetrable natural fortress. Later

6402-491: The Dar al-'Ilm ("House of Knowledge"), a library for the study of the sciences, which was in line with al-Aziz's previous policy of cultivating this knowledge. For the general population, he was noted for being more accessible and willing to receive petitions in person, as well as for riding out in person among the people in the streets of Fustat. On the other hand, he was also known for his capricious decrees aimed at curbing what he saw as public improprieties. He also unsettled

6596-404: The Fatimid Empire , was a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries CE under the rule of the Fatimids , an Isma'ili Shia dynasty. Spanning a large area of North Africa and West Asia , it ranged from the western Mediterranean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The Fatimids trace their ancestry to the Islamic prophet Muhammad 's daughter Fatima and her husband Ali ,

6790-416: The Fatimid dynasty , is strong evidence in favor of this opinion. The Kutama , including the Zwawa, like all the other Berber tribes, participated in the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula . There are also several toponyms in Spain that derive their origins from Berber tribes settled in the region, such as Atzueva (At Zwawa), which can even mean that the Berber language was spoken there, because of

6984-476: The Hafsids of Tunis , confronted the Ottomans for the first time in the Battle of Issers, on the territory of the Aït Aicha tribe (province of Boumerdès ). The Kabyles inflicted heavy losses on the Ottomans and emerged victorious. The way for Algiers became open, they seized the city the following year and Sidi Ahmed Ulkadi became Master of Kuku and Algiers , and therefore controlled the Mitidja . Khayr ad-Din took refuge in Jijel after his defeat against

7178-543: The Italo-Norman Roger I began his conquest of the island (completed in 1091), the Kalbid dynasty, along with any Fatimid authority, were already gone. There was more success in the east, however. In 1047 the Fatimid dā'ī Ali Muhammad al-Ṣulayḥi in Yemen built a fortress and recruited tribes with which he was able to capture San'a in 1048. In 1060 he began a campaign to conquer all of Yemen, capturing Aden and Zabid . In 1062 he marched on Mecca, where Shukr ibn Abi al-Futuh 's death in 1061 provided an excuse. Along

7372-418: The Kabyle "th" with "z". During the time of the Regency of Algiers , the Kabyles were considered such excellent infantrymen that the name "Zwawi" became synonymous with "infantryman". The various factions of the Titteri tribes provided a certain number of infantrymen who at times guarded Algiers and especially the surrounding bordjs (plural of fortress). They were only paid during active service. It

7566-405: The Kabyles and the Ottomans was not always good. The relationship between Sidi Ahmed Ulkadi and the Barberossa brothers ( Aruj and Khayr ad-Din ) deteriorated because of the assassination of Salim at-Tumi, leader of the Thaaliba who controlled Algiers , by the Barberossa brothers in 1516 for their own interest. Perhaps it is for this reason that Sidi Ahmed Ulkadi had abandoned Aruj Barbarossa

7760-420: The Kabyles , and he had captured Bona , Collo and Constantine and received the allegiance of many tribes in the region, although he failed to liberate all of Algeria. After five or even seven years, but more likely five, Sidi Ahmed Ulkadi was assassinated, and Khayr ad-Din had recaptured Algiers . The history of the Kingdom of Kuku did not end there, although the kingdom was weakened. Sidi Ahmed el-Kadi

7954-407: The Kingdom of Tlemcen . One of his sons, Abu Abdulrahman Ya'qub, fled, was arrested and died shortly thereafter. After this event, a butcher from the Sultan's kitchen, who looked a lot like Abu Abdulrahman Yacoub, went to the Aït Iraten. When he reached the tribe's territory, Chimsi, a woman of the noble family of the Abd al-Samed, hastened to grant him protection and urged the whole tribe to recognize

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8148-411: The Kutama , and the Zwawa, played a fundamental role in the creation of the Fatimid Caliphate by constituting the Army of the empire that had conquered most of the Maghreb , Sicily , Egypt , the Levant , and the Hejaz . The Zwawa participated in several battles for the Fatimid Caliphate , alongside their neighbors and blood brothers, notably in the siege of the fortress of Kiana (in the vicinity of

8342-440: The Levant (including Transjordan), the Red Sea coast of Africa, Tihamah , Hejaz , Yemen , with its most remote territorial reach being Multan (in modern-day Pakistan) . Egypt flourished, and the Fatimids developed an extensive trade network both in the Mediterranean and in the Indian Ocean. Their trade and diplomatic ties, extending all the way to China under the Song Dynasty ( r.  960–1279 ), eventually determined

8536-409: The Marinids , Zenata from the same branch as the Zayyanids (Beni Wasin), and they controlled Al-Maghrib al-Aqsa ("The extreme Maghreb", i.e. Morocco ), and had Fez as their capital. The Zwawa were part of the territory controlled by the government of Bejaia , and therefore of the Hafsid Sultanate . Ibn Khaldun , who was the only historian of the Middle Ages to give important information about

8730-418: The Mustansirite Hardship . Viziers came and went in flurry, the bureaucracy broke down, and the caliph was unable or unwilling to assume responsibilities in their absence. Declining resources accelerated the problems among the different ethnic factions, and outright civil war began, primarily between the Turks under Nasir al-Dawla ibn Hamdan , a scion of the Hamdanids of Aleppo, and Black African troops, while

8924-401: The Nizaris or Assassins , though the truth of this is unconfirmed. Igawawen Igawawen or Gawawa , mostly known as Zwawa (in Kabyle : Igawawen , in Arabic : زواوة , and in Latin : Jubaleni ) were a group of Kabyle tribes inhabiting the Djurdjura mountains, Greater Kabylia , in Algeria . The Zouaoua are a branch of the Kutama tribe of the Baranis Berbers . In

9118-403: The Odjak of Algiers , serving as regular infantry. By 1828 about 2,000 Algerian men, mainly from the Zwawa tribes served as Janissairies. In 1830 during the Invasion of Algiers by France, many Algerian troops were of Zwawa origins. Their heavy resistance and fighting capability during the Battle of Staouéli impressed the French, whom created a unit called the Zouaves to recruit Zwawas into

9312-452: The Qalaa of the Beni Hammad ) against Abu Yazid , in which the Fatimids succeeded in taking the fortress and defeating the Zenati Kharijites and Nekkarites . In the year 972, the Zwawa came under the control of the Zirids , Sanhaja Berbers whose ancestor was Ziri Ibn Menad al-Sanhaji , who ruled over "Al-Maghrib al-Awsat" (central Maghreb, modern Algeria ) and Ifriqya , also called "Al-Maghrib al-Adna" ("he closest Maghreb" to

9506-416: The Sublime Porte . In the 17th-18th century the Zwawas served as highly trained mercenaries in the armies of Algiers. Zwawas were always a part of the Algerian army. Even in cases where some tribes were in rebellion, many other ones were still serving under the Dey of Algiers. Because of this, the relationship between the Deylikal government in Algiers, and the Zwawas was very much complicated. During

9700-406: The Sulayhid dynasty which continued to rule Yemen as nominal vassals of the Fatimids after this. Events degenerated in Egypt and Syria, however. Starting in 1060, various local leaders began to break away or challenge Fatimid dominion in Syria. While the ethnic-based army was generally successful on the battlefield, it had begun to have negative effects on Fatimid internal politics. Traditionally

9894-406: The Taifa of Alpuente . 3 of the 47 clan toponyms identified in the Balearic Islands , which were conquered by Muslims in the 10th century, 12th century and 13th centuries, refer to tribes belonging to the Zwawa, these three toponyms are : Beniatron, which is a variant of the name of the Aït Betrun confederation. Ibn Khaldun had mentioned the Aït Betrun in the same form. The second toponym

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10088-399: The Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates, whom they considered usurpers. Instead, they believed in the exclusive right of the descendants of Ali through Muhammad's daughter Fatima , to lead the Muslim community. This manifested itself in a line of imams , descendants of Ali via al-Husayn , whom their followers considered as the true representatives of God on earth. At the same time, there was

10282-403: The Zagwe dynasty ) as vassals to the Fatimid state. The Juyushi Mosque ( Arabic : الجامع الجيوشي , lit.   'the Mosque of the Armies'), was commissioned by Badr and completed in 1085 under the patronage of the caliph. The mosque, identified as a mashhad , was also a victory monument commemorating vizier Badr's restoration of order for al-Mustansir. Between 1087 and 1092,

10476-423: The Zenata Berbers, the uprising spread through Ifriqiya, taking Kairouan and blockading al-Qa'im at al-Mahdiyya, which was besieged in January–September 945. Al-Qa'im died during the siege, but this was kept secret by his son and successor, Isma'il, until he had defeated Abu Yazid; he then announced his father's death and proclaimed himself imam and caliph as al-Mansur . While al-Mansur was campaigning to suppress

10670-441: The caïd of Sebaou, Mohammed Ben Ali, nicknamed "ed-Debbah" (meaning the slaughterer), was about to launch a campaign against the Aït Aïssi , the Ait Sedqa, and the Guechtula. Mohammed married the daughter of Si Ammar ou-Boukhetouch to conclude an alliance with his family and keep the tribes under their influence, like the Aït Iraten and the Aït Frawsen, neutral. In 1710, the Deylik of Algiers became De facto independent from

10864-458: The palaces of the caliph and the official state mosque, Al-Azhar Mosque . In 988 the mosque also became an academic institution that was central in the dissemination of Isma'ili teachings. Until the last years of the Fatimid Caliphate, the economic centre of Egypt remained Fustat, where most of the general population lived and traded. Under the Fatimids, Egypt became the centre of an empire that included at its peak parts of North Africa, Sicily,

11058-414: The political quietism of their leadership and the recent disappearance of the twelfth imam. Missionaries ( dā'ī s) such as Hamdan Qarmat and Ibn Hawshab spread the network of agents to the area round Kufa in the late 870s, and from there to Yemen (882) and thence India (884), Bahrayn (899), Persia , and the Maghreb (893). In 899, Abdallah al-Akbar's great-grandson, Abdallah , became

11252-423: The 950s, until the Fatimid general Jawhar , on behalf of Caliph Al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah , led another major expedition to Morocco in 958 and spent two years subjugating most of northern Morocco. He was accompanied by Ziri ibn Manad , the leader of the Zirids . Jawhar took Sijilmasa in September or October 958 and then, with the help of Ziri, his forces took Fez in November 959. He was unable, however, to dislodge

11446-437: The 9th century, in Mecca in 893/4 some Kutama notables met the Isma'ili da'i Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i , who attracted them to Isma'ili Shi'ism , and accompanied them on their return. In Ikjan, their chief town, the da'i managed to win the sympathy of the population. It was probably around this time that their geographic expansion began. The territory that the Kutama occupied from this time seems much more extensive than it

11640-427: The Aghlabid province of Sicily , which the Aghlabids had gradually conquered from the Byzantine Empire starting in 827. The conquest was generally completed when the last Christian stronghold, Taormina , was conquered by Ibrahim II in 902. However, some Christian or Byzantine resistance continued in some spots in the northeast of Sicily until 967, and the Byzantines still held territories in southern Italy, where

11834-464: The Aghlabid state's apparatus and allowed its former officials to continue working for the new regime. He established a new, Isma'ili Shi'a regime on behalf of his absent, and for the moment unnamed, master. He then led his army west to Sijilmasa, whence he led Abdallah in triumph to Raqqada, which he entered on 15 January 910. There Abdallah publicly proclaimed himself as caliph with the regnal name of al-Mahdī , and presented his son and heir, with

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12028-413: The Aghlabids had also campaigned. This ongoing confrontation with the traditional foe of the Islamic world provided the Fatimids with a prime opportunity for propaganda, in a setting where geography gave them the advantage. Sicily itself proved troublesome, and only after a rebellion under Ibn Qurhub was subdued, was Fatimid authority on the island consolidated. For a large part of the tenth century

12222-452: The Ait Betrun (Ait Yenni, At Wasif , Ait Budrar , Ait Bu Akkash), and the Ait Mengellet ( Ait Mengellet proper , Ait Aqbil , Ait Attaf , Ait Bu Yusef ), and used as pars pro toto by the Kabyles of Lesser Kabylia to refer to Greater Kabylia. They were named after the mountain they occupy, the Agawa mountain, the most densely populated, in the north of Djurdjura . Kabyles do not refer to themselves in their language as Zwawa, and

12416-399: The Ait Bu Yusef, who were mentioned separately from the Aït Mengellat, while they are part of the latter. However, some tribes considered as Zwawa, in the less restricted sense, were not mentioned here, such as the Aït Yahya , the Illilten and the Aït Khelili . Here is what Ibn Khaldun said about the Zwawa: "The territory of the Zwawa is located in the province of Bejaia and separates

12610-437: The Andalusian genealogist Ibn Hazm , the Zwawa are a branch of the great Berber tribe of the Kutama ( Ucutamanii of antiquity), which itself is a branch of the Berber group of Baranis (also called Branes), like the Adjisa, the Masmuda , and the Sanhaja . Ibn Khaldun agrees with Ibn Hazm . The proximity of the Zwawa territory to that of the Kutama , and their cooperation with them to support Ubayd-Allah , founder of

12804-562: The Aït Frawsen, and in 1610 when they had reached their capital, Kuku. Amar had been replaced by his brother, Mohammed. Amar's wife, who was pregnant, took refuge with her parents' family, the Hafsid family in Tunis , and gave birth to a boy, Ahmed. Ahmed was nicknamed "Boukhtouch", meaning the man with the javelin, and his full name was Sidi Ahmed et-Tunsi. In the 1630s, Sidi Ahmed returned to Kabylia with Hafsid troops from Tunis , then avenged his father's death, and took control of Great Kabylia . Sidi Ahmed had left Kuku, and returned to

12998-413: The Aït Mengellat; Omar Ibn 'Ali from the Aït Melikesh ; Abu el-'Abbas from the Aït Ghubri, and many other scholars from various Zwawian tribes. The French historian, Robert Brunschvig (1901 - 1990), had said in his book, La Berbérie Orientale sous les Hafsides , volume 1, that the nisbas formed on Meshedalla , Melikesh , Mengellat, Ghubri(n) are numerous in the texts from the Hafsid period. After

13192-446: The Berber stock of al-Abter , are the children of Semgan, son of Yahya (or Yedder), son of Dari, son of Zeddjik (or Zahhik), son of Madghis al-Abter . Of all the Berber tribes, their closest relatives are the Zenata , since Djana, the ancestor of this people, was Semgan's brother and Yahya's (Yedder's) son. It is for this reason that the Zwawa and the Zwagha consider themselves related to the Zenata by blood." However, according to

13386-407: The Berbers shifted alliance between the two sides. The Turkish faction under Nasir al-Dawla seized partial control of Cairo but their leader was not given any official title. In 1067–1068 they plundered the state treasury and then looted any treasures they could find in the palaces. The Turks turned against Nasir al-Dawla in 1069, but he managed to rally Bedouin tribes to his side, took over most of

13580-420: The Bey of Titteri, and the appointed caïds (chiefs) were all foreign to the tribe. The Guechtula confederation was forced to pay taxes. The Aït Sedqa (except the Aït Ahmed; Awqdal), part of the Aït Abdelmumen (Aït Aissi confederation) and the south of the Maatka tribe were part of it after their defeat against the Algerines years later. In 1696, Great Kabylia had been divided into two çofs (parties) during

13774-417: The Christian invaders, especially in the attempt to retake Béjaïa in 1512, where the Kabyles numbered 20,000 in the battlefield, but failed to retake the city. In 1555, there will be a new attempt, in which a large force of the Zwawa had participated to retake the city in the capture of Bejaia , which ultimately ended in success, and the Spanish were driven out of the city. However, the relationship between

13968-678: The East, modern day Tunisia ), in the name of the Fatimids after their departure for Cairo . After the split of the Zirid dynasty into two branches in the beginning of the 11st century, the Badicids (descendants of Badis , son of al-Mansur , son of Buluggin , son of Ziri ) reigned over Ifriqya from Kairouan , and the Hammadites (descendants of Hammad , son of Buluggin ) who reigned over

14162-718: The East. The victors entered Kairouan , parading in Raqqada in March 909. The da'i proclaimed an amnesty, but distributed the spoils among his forces. Assured of the victory, he revealed the name of his master, Abdallah al-Mahdi Billah , and went to Sijilmasa , where he was held, to escort him to Kairouan. On the way, the Kutama army conquered the Rustamid imamate and drove the Ibadis from Tiaret , who went to take refuge in Sadrata,

14356-468: The Egyptian population to adopt its religious beliefs. After the reigns of al-'Aziz and al-Hakim , the long reign of al-Mustansir entrenched a regime in which the caliph remained aloof from state affairs and viziers took on greater importance. Political and ethnic factionalism within the army led to a civil war in the 1060s, which threatened the empire's survival. After a period of revival during

14550-600: The Fatimid army and became a useful instrument in the Syrian effort. After Ibn Killis became vizier in 979, the Fatimids changed tactics. Ibn Killis was able to subjugate most of Palestine and southern Syria (the former Ikhshidid territories) by paying off the Qarmatis with an annual tribute and making alliances with local tribes and dynasties, such as the Jarrahids and the Banu Kilab . Following another failed attempt by

14744-541: The Fatimid rise to power, a large part of the Maghreb including Ifriqiya was under the control of the Aghlabids , an Arab dynasty who ruled nominally on behalf the Abbasids but were de facto independent. In 893 the dā'ī Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i first settled among the Banu Saktan tribe (part of the larger Kutama tribe) in Ikjan , near the city of Mila (in northwestern Algeria today). However, due to hostility from

14938-515: The Fatimids also engaged in a rivalry with the Umayyads of Cordoba —who ruled Al-Andalus and were hostile to the Fatimids' pretensions—in an effort to establish domination over the western Maghreb. In 911, Tahert , which had been briefly captured by Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i in 909, had to be retaken by the Fatimid general Masala ibn Habus of the Miknasa tribe. The first Fatimid expeditions to what

15132-422: The Fatimids began incorporating ethnic groups, notably the Turks and Daylamites , from the eastern Islamic lands into their army. In combination with the increasing difficulty of renewing their pool of Kutama recruits after c.  987/88 , these events challenged the position of the Kutama in the army. Thereafter, a fierce rivalry developed between the Kutama and the "Easterners" ( Mashāriqa ). In 996, on

15326-557: The Fatimids faced a new external threat: the First Crusade . Although initially both sides intended to reach an agreement and an alliance against the Seljuk Turks, these negotiations would eventually break down. First contact seems to have been established by the crusaders who sent in May or June 1097, on suggestion of Byzantine Emperor Alexios Komnenos , an embassy to al-Afdal. In return the Fatimids dispatched an embassy to

15520-400: The Kutama element of the army had the strongest sway over political affairs, but as the Turkish element grew more powerful, it began to challenge this. In 1062, the tentative balance between the different ethnic groups within the Fatimid army collapsed and they quarreled constantly or fought each other in the streets. At the same time, Egypt suffered a 7-year period of drought and famine known as

15714-464: The Kutama rebels, but he ended the expedition prematurely due to troubles at home arising from disputes over his succession. On 27 July 903 he was assassinated and his son Ziyadat Allah III took power in Tunis. These internal Aghlabid troubles gave Abu Abdallah the opportunity to recapture Mila and then go on to capture Setif, another fortified city, by October or November 904. In 905 the Aghlabids sent

15908-399: The Kutama were established further south in the plains. This extension suggests that, taking advantage of the weaknesses of the central government, the Kutama had reconstituted under their own name the old Bavares confederation and had extended to the south by reclaiming the fringe of the high plains bordering the southern flank of their mountains (Mila, Sétif regions, etc), an area favorable to

16102-485: The Nile Delta region, and blocked supplies and food from reaching the capital from this region. Things degenerated further for the general population, especially in the capital, which relied on the countryside for food. Historical sources of this period report extreme hunger and hardship in the city, even to the point of cannibalism . The depredations in the Nile Delta may have also been a turning point that accelerated

16296-427: The Nile Delta region, which gave Jawhar time to organize a defense of Fustat and Cairo. The Qarmati advance was halted just north of the city and eventually routed. A Kalbid relief force arriving by sea secured the expulsion of the Qarmatis from Egypt. Ramla , the capital of Palestine , was retaken by the Fatimids in May 972, but otherwise the progress in Syria had been lost. Once Egypt was sufficiently pacified and

16490-497: The Orontes valley. He took Homs and Hama in 992 and defeated a combined force from Hamdanid Aleppo and Byzantine-held Antioch. In 993 he took Shayzar and in 994 he began the siege of Aleppo. In May 995, however, Basil II unexpectedly arrived in the region after a forced march with his army through Anatolia, forcing Manjūtakīn to lift the siege and return to Damascus. Before another Fatimid expedition could be sent, Basil II negotiated

16684-689: The Ottomans. Thomas Shaw , a British traveller, had lived twelve years in the Regency of Algiers , from 1720 until 1732. Thomas Shaw mentioned the Zwawa as the most numerous and wealthy of the Berbers . They lived in Djurdjura , which is the highest mountain in Barbary . It is, from one end to the other, a chain of craggy rocks which serve as asylum for various Berber tribes, and preserve them from

16878-515: The Sultan with a deputation made up of some of her sons and several notables of her tribe. The Marinid monarch, Abu al-Hassan Ibn Uthman, gave her the most honorable welcome, and having showered her with gifts and those who had accompanied her. The Abd al-Samed family still retained command of the tribe. During the Almohad period, and especially Hafsid, there were many mentions of great scholars from

17072-605: The Sunni anti-caliph, but the latter's death in 1013 led to their surrender. Despite his policies against Christians and his demolition of the church in Jerusalem, al-Hakim maintained a ten-year truce with the Byzantines that began in 1001. For most of his reign, Aleppo remained a buffer state that paid tribute to Constantinople. This lasted until 1017, when the Fatimid Armenian general Fatāk finally occupied Aleppo at

17266-588: The Umayyad garrisons in Sala , Sebta (present-day Ceuta) and Tangier , and this marked the only time that the Fatimid army was present at the Strait of Gibraltar . Jawhar and Ziri returned to al-Mansuriyya in 960. The subjugated parts of Morocco, including Fez and Sijilmasa, were left under the control of local vassals while most of the central Maghreb (Algeria), including Tahert, was given to Ziri ibn Manad to govern on

17460-557: The Umayyads or the Fatimids depending on the circumstances. As a result of the political instability in the western Maghreb, effective Fatimid control did not extend much beyond the former territory of the Aghlabids. Masala's successor, Musa ibn Abi'l-Afiya , captured Fez from the Idrisids again, but in 932 defected to the Umayyads, taking the western Maghreb with him. The Umayyads gained the upper hand again in northern Morocco during

17654-816: The Wad Sahel ( Soummam ), the Beni Koufi of the Guechtoula, and finally, the Mesheddala , neighbors of the Aït Betrun. The Beni Koufi belong to the Guechtoula, but apparently, they were mentioned separately in the list. Here are the tribes of the second list cited by Ibn Khaldun  : "Today, the most prominent Zwawa tribes are the Beni Idjer, the Beni Mengellet, the Beni Itrun (Beni Betrun),

17848-721: The Zeglawa and the Beni Merana. Some people say, and perhaps rightly, that the Melikech belong to the race of the Sanhaja ." In this list, most of the mentioned tribes are not known to anyone, they probably disappeared or were absorbed by other tribes due to various reasons, including civil wars, as was the case with two tribes, the Isemmadien who once belonged to the Aït Iraten , and the Aït U-Belqasem tribe, which

18042-906: The Zwawa, lived in this period, and precisely in the 14th century. He mentioned the Zwawa as a numerous Berber people, and he gave a list of the tribes belonging to the Zwawa: "According to Berber genealogists, the Zwawa are divided into several branches such as the Medjesta, the Melikesh , the Beni Koufi, the Mesheddala , the Beni Zericof, the Beni Guzit, the Keresfina, the Uzeldja, the Mudja,

18236-681: The Zwawa, such as Abu Zakariya Yahya ez-Zwawi , better known under the name of Ibn Mu'ṭi, philologist from the Hesnawa tribe, confederation of the Ait Aissi, author of the first versified grammatical work, the Alfiyya . He also wrote several works on various subjects; Abu Ali Nacer ed-Din ez-Zwawi, from the Meshedalla , great doctor of Bejaia; Amrane al-Medhedalli, also from the Meshedalla , professor of law; Abu r-Ruḥ 'Isa al-Mengellati, from

18430-400: The abandoned palaces of Raqqada and resisted Ibn Abi al-Aghlab's calls to organise a last-ditch resistance. Upon hearing of the looting, Abu Abdallah sent an advance force of Kutama horsemen who secured Raqqada on 24 March. On 25 March 909 (Saturday, 1 Rajab 296), Abu Abdallah himself entered Raqqada and took up residence here. Upon assuming power in Raqqada, Abu Abdallah inherited much of

18624-446: The accession of al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah , the Kutama refused to acknowledge the new caliph unless the Kutama leader al-Hasan ibn Ammar was appointed as vizier . This was done, but Ibn Ammar's blatantly pro-Berber regime quickly alienated other members of the elite, and he was overthrown a year later. Finally, when al-Hakim assumed the reins of government in 1000, he launched a purge of the Fatimid elites, during which Ibn Ammar and many of

18818-749: The administration as a tribe subject to tax ( kharadj )." In the 14th century, the Marinid Berbers launched an expedition into the territory of the Abdelwadids of Tlemcen and the Hafsids of Tunis with the aim of unifying the Maghreb, as their predecessors, the Almohads, did. In the year 1338 (or 1339), the 10th Marinid Sultan, Abu al-Hassan , had camped with his army in Mitidja , not far from Algiers , after his successful military campaign against

19012-658: The advance of the Sunni-aligned Seljuk Turks who had conquered much of the Middle East and had become the guardians of the Abbasid Caliphs as well as independent Turkmen groups. Atsiz ibn Uwaq , a Turkmen of the Nawaki tribe, conquered Jerusalem in 1073 and Damascus in 1076 before attempting to invade even Egypt itself. After defeating him at a battle close to Cairo, Badr was able to start

19206-581: The agreement signed with the Turks is not surprising, because the Bel-K'adhi (Aït Ulkadi), who refused to pay this tax, only followed and respect the traditions of their country." The Spanish historian, Diego de Haëdo, in his work, History of the Kings of Algiers, which was published in 1612, wrote about the Zwawa, which he called "Azuagos" or "Mores de Kouko", and he also wrote about the Kingdom of Kuku , whose king

19400-585: The armies') who would dominate late Fatimid politics. In 1078 al-Mustansir formally abdicated responsibility for all state affairs to him. His de facto rule initiated a temporary and limited revival of the Fatimid state, although it was now faced with serious challenges. Badr reestablished Fatimid authority in the Hejaz (Mecca and Medina ) and the Sulayhids were able to hold on in Yemen. Syria, however, saw

19594-515: The arrival of an Islamic messiah . The origins of that movement and of the dynasty itself, are obscure prior to the late ninth century. The Fatimid rulers were Arab in origin, starting with its founder, the Isma'ili Shia caliph Abdallah al-Mahdi Billah . The caliphate's establishment was accomplished by Kutama Berbers from Little Kabylia , who converted to the Fatimid cause early and made up its original military forces. The Shi'a opposed

19788-474: The arrogance and exactions of the Kutama led to rebellions in the newly conquered Fatimid domains, in which the Kutama particularly were singled out and killed by the rebels. After the move of the seat of the caliphate to Egypt in 973, a large number of Kutama accompanied the dynasty east. However, the forays into the Levant in the 970s revealed the inadequacies of an army based solely on the Kutama, and from 978,

19982-485: The authority of the pretender and to assist him against the sultan. So, the latter offered considerable sums to the sons of Chimsi and to the people of the tribe, in order to have the pretender delivered. Chimsi initially rejected this proposal, but having subsequently discovered that she had supported an impostor, she withdrew her protection and sent him back to the country occupied by the Arabs . Then she went to appear before

20176-595: The caliph's behalf. All this warfare in the Maghreb and Sicily necessitated the maintenance of a strong army, and a capable fleet as well. Nevertheless, by the time of al-Mahdi's death in 934, the Fatimid Caliphate "had become a great power in the Mediterranean". The reign of the second Fatimid imam-caliph, al-Qa'im, was dominated by the Kharijite rebellion of Abu Yazid . Starting in 943/4 among

20370-523: The caliphate. At its height, the caliphate included—in addition to Egypt—varying areas of the Maghreb , Sicily , the Levant , and the Hejaz . Between 902 and 909, the foundation of the Fatimid state was realized under the leadership of da'i (missionary) Abu Abdallah , whose conquest of Aghlabid Ifriqiya with the help of Kutama forces paved the way for the establishment of the Caliphate. After

20564-459: The capital of Ouargla oasis . The Kutama were the mainstay and elite of the early Fatimid armies. Although other Berber tribes soon flocked to the Fatimid banner — notably the large Sanhaja confederation during the reign of al-Mansur bi-Nasr Allah — the Kutama continued to provide the bulk of the Fatimid armies until after the Fatimid conquest of Egypt in 969. Their role in the Fatimid state

20758-783: The capture of Bejaia by the Spanish in the year 1510, a certain Sidi Ahmed U-Lqadi, descendant of the judge of Bejaia, Abu el-'Abbas el-Ghubrini, took refuge in the village of his ancestors, Awrir (commune of Ifigha ) of the Aït Ghubri tribe, and will found a state which will include Great Kabylia, which is the Kingdom of Kuku, whose capital was his village of origin, then Koukou among the Aït Yahya in 1515, because of its strategic position and its geopolitical advantages that no other village had. Sidi Ahmed or el-Kadi came from

20952-578: The central Maghreb from the Kaala des Beni Hammad , then Bejaia . The Zwawa were forced to make their submission, and the city of Bejaia was built on their territory. The Zwawa often rebelled against the Hammadids , because they were reassured and had nothing to fear in their mountains. Bejaia was conquered by the Masmudi and Zenati Almohad Berbers , who succeeded in unifying the Maghreb under

21146-717: The chaos of the years 1062–1073, the Kutama allied themselves with the Sudān against the Turks and the Daylamites. The last remnants of the Kutama were dismissed from the Fatimid army after Badr al-Jamali came to power in 1073. In Algeria, the Kutama will give a subdivision: the Sedouikech tribes between the région of Béjaïa and Constantine . Fatimid Caliphate The Fatimid Caliphate ( / ˈ f æ t ɪ m ɪ d / ; Arabic : ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْفَاطِمِيَّة , romanized :  al-Khilāfa al-Fāṭimiyya ), also known as

21340-565: The cities. As Halm writes, the situation was similar to a scenario where, "in the early eighteenth-century North America, the Iroquois , converted to Catholicism by Jesuit missionaries, had overrun the Puritan provinces of New England , installed their chieftains as governors in Boston, Providence and Hartford, and proclaimed a European with dubious credentials as King of England". Inevitably,

21534-401: The city of Dellys , the Aït Waguenun , the Iflissen Lebhar , the Aït Djennad , the Aït Ghubri, the tribes of High Sebaou and Assif el-Hammam , the Aït Aissi , the Aït Dwala , the Aït Zmenzer , the Betruna, the Aït Khelifa and part of the Maatka . The caïdat de Sebaou was, like the caïdat of Boghni, under the authority of the Bey of Titteri. The populations of the mountain ranges of

21728-410: The conquest, Abdallah al-Mahdi Billah was retrieved from Sijilmasa and then accepted as the Imam of the movement, becoming the first Caliph and founder of the dynasty in 909. In 921, the city of al-Mahdiyya was established as the capital. In 948, they shifted their capital to al-Mansuriyya , near Kairouan . In 969, during the reign of al-Mu'izz , they conquered Egypt , and in 973, the caliphate

21922-426: The control of the Ikhshidids , another regional dynasty whose formal allegiance was to the Abbasids. Al-Mu'izz had given Jawhar specific instructions to carry out after the conquest, and one of his first actions was to found a new capital named al-Qāhira ( Cairo ) in 969. The name al-Qāhirah ( Arabic : القاهرة ), meaning "the Vanquisher" or "the Conqueror", referenced the planet Mars , "The Subduer", rising in

22116-425: The country along with a clerical hierarchy. He commanded a large contingent of Armenian troops, many (if not all) of whom were also Christian. Badr also used his relations and influence with the Coptic Church for political advantage. In particular, he enlisted Cyril II ( Coptic Pope from 1078 to 1092 ) to secure the allegiance of the Christian kingdoms of Nubia (specifically Makuria ) and Ethiopia (specifically

22310-406: The country of the Kutama from that of the Sanhaja . They live in the midst of precipices formed by mountains so high that the view is dazzled, and so wooded that a traveler cannot find his way there. This is how the Beni Ghubrin inhabit the Ziri, a mountain also called Djebel ez-Zan, because of the large quantity of zean oaks with which it is covered, and the Beni Frawen and the Beni Iraten occupy

22504-466: The countryside under his control, while the major cities remained under Aghlabid control. He established an Isma'ili theocratic state based in Tazrut, operating in a way similar to previous Isma'ili missionary networks in Mesopotamia but adapted to local Kutama tribal structures. He adopted the role of a traditional Islamic ruler at the head of this organization while remaining in frequent contact with Abdallah. He continued to preach to his followers, known as

22698-441: The crusading forces which arrived in February 1098 during their siege of Antioch , witnessing and congratulating the crusaders on their victory against the Seljuk emirs Ridwan of Aleppo and Sökmen of Jerusalem as well as stressing their friendly attitude towards Christians. The Fatimid embassy stayed for a month with the crusading forces before returning via the harbour of Latakia with gifts as well as Frankish ambassadors. It

22892-419: The cultivation of the cereals of which their ancestors had been deprived in Roman times. Abu Abdallah formed a powerful army and launched his troops against the Aghlabid fortresses in Lesser Kabylia . A first attack failed: after occupying Mila in 902, the da'i was defeated by the son of the emir Ibrahim II , who however did not succeed in pursuing him until Ikjan. The Kutama were able to adapt and constitute

23086-399: The domination of the Regency of Algiers . Thomas Shaw had cited the following Zwawi tribes (in order): the Boghni (confederation of Guechtula), the Guechtula, the Aït Kufi (confederation of Guechtula), the Aït Betrun, then the Aït Mengellat and the Aït Frawsen, and finally, the Aït Ghubri. He had cited Kuku as the most important of the Kabyle villages. In the middle of the 18th century,

23280-479: The dynasty named itself simply the 'Alid dynasty' ( al-dawla al-alawiyya ), but many hostile Sunni sources only refer to them as the Ubaydids ( Banu Ubayd ), after the diminutive form Ubayd Allah for the name of the first Fatimid caliph. The Fatimid dynasty came to power as the leaders of Isma'ilism , a revolutionary Shi'a movement "which was at the same time political and religious, philosophical and social," and which originally proclaimed nothing less than

23474-482: The east. The Qarmatis of Bahrayn, responding to the appeal of the recently defeated leaders of Damascus, had organized a large coalition of Arab tribesmen to attack him. Ja'far chose to confront them in the desert in August 971, but his army was surrounded and defeated and Ja'far himself was killed. A month later the Qarmati imam Hasan al-A'ṣam led the army, with new reinforcements from Transjordan , into Egypt, seemingly without opposition. The Qarmatis spent time occupying

23668-401: The economic course of Egypt during the High Middle Ages . The Fatimid focus on agriculture further increased their riches and allowed the dynasty and the Egyptians to flourish. The use of cash crops and the propagation of the flax trade allowed Fatimids to import other items from various parts of the world. The Fatimids built upon some of the bureaucratic foundations laid by the Ikhshidids and

23862-414: The faithful, spread the word ( daʿwa , "invitation, calling"), and prepare his return. The head of this secret network was the living proof of the imam's existence, or "seal" ( ḥujja ). It is this role that the ancestors of the Fatimids are first documented. The first known ḥujja was a certain Abdallah al-Akbar ("Abdallah the Elder"), a wealthy merchant from Khuzestan , who established himself at

24056-407: The first Shia imam. The Fatimids were acknowledged as the rightful imams by different Isma'ili communities as well as by denominations in many other Muslim lands and adjacent regions. Originating during the Abbasid Caliphate , the Fatimids initially conquered Ifriqiya (roughly present-day Tunisia ). They extended their rule across the Mediterranean coast and ultimately made Egypt the center of

24250-404: The form Koidamousii , by the Greek geographer Ptolemy , whose African documentation seems to date from the years 100-110. They were then in the region of the Ampsaga river ( oued el-Kebir ) in Mauretania Caesariensis . He locates them upstream of the Khitouae tribe and downstream of the Todoukae tribe, themselves located near the sources of the river. In the second century, they formed part of

24444-438: The great Caliph, Abd al-Mumin Ibn Ali , in 1159. During the period of weakness of the Almohad Caliphate in the 13th century, three dynasties took over power: the Hafsids of the Masmuda tribe who controlled Ifriqya , from Tripoli to Bejaia , and their capital was Tunis ; the Zayyanids , also called "Abdalwadids" (or "Beni Abdelwad"), Zenata who controlled the central Maghreb and had Tlemcen as their capital; finally,

24638-414: The growing threat. He fortified Raqqada in 907. In early 907 another Aghlabid army marched eastwards again against Abu Abdallah, accompanied by Berber reinforcements from the Aurès Mountains . They were again scattered by Kutama cavalry and retreated to Baghaya , the most fortified town on the old southern Roman road between Ifriqiya and the central Maghreb. The fortress, however, fell to the Kutama without

24832-426: The harsh Abbasid persecution of the Alids, the Ismaili Imams went into hiding and neither Isma'il's nor Muhammad's lives are well known, and after Muhammad's death during the reign of Harun al-Rashid ( r.  786–809 ), the history of the early Isma'ili movement becomes obscure. While the awaited mahdī Muhammad ibn Isma'il remained hidden, however, he would need to be represented by agents, who would gather

25026-419: The help of their fleet. After 1107, a new rising star rose through the ranks of the regime in the form of Muḥammad ʿAlī bin Fatik, better known as al-Maʾmūn al-Baṭā'iḥī . He managed to carry out various administrative reforms and infrastructural projects in the later years of al-Afdal's term, including the construction of an astronomical observatory in 1119. Al-Afdal's was assassinated in 1121, an act blamed on

25220-473: The intermediary between the caliph and the large bureaucratic state that he ruled. In 975 the Byzantine emperor John Tzimisces retook most of Palestine and Syria, leaving only Tripoli in Fatimid control. He aimed to eventually capture Jerusalem , but he died in 976 on his way back to Constantinople , thus staving off the Byzantine threat to the Fatimids. Meanwhile, the Turkish ghulām (plural: ghilmān , meaning soldiers recruited as slaves) Aftakin ,

25414-423: The invitation of a local commander who had expelled the Hamdanid ghulām ruler Mansur ibn Lu'lu' . After a year or two, however, Fatāk made himself effectively independent in Aleppo. Al-Hakim also alarmed his Isma'ili followers in several ways. In 1013 he announced the designation of two great-great-grandsons of al-Mahdi as two separate heirs: one, Abd al-Raḥīm ibn Ilyās, would inherit the title of caliphate as

25608-422: The last remnants of the revolt, a new palace city was being constructed for him south of Kairouan. Construction began around 946 and it was only fully completed under al-Mansur's son and successor, al-Mu'izz. It was named al-Mansuriyya (also known as Sabra al-Mansuriyya) and became the new seat of the caliphate. In 969 Jawhar launched a carefully-prepared and successful invasion of Egypt , which had been under

25802-455: The late 18th and 19th century the Zwawas played an important role in the Algerian army, mainly as infantry. In 1817 the freshly elected Dey of Algiers, Ali Khodja signed an alliance with the Zwawas, and elevated them to high positions, including the personal guard of the Dey. He defeated a Turkish Janissary rebellion with their help. This normalized the relationship between the Zwawas and the Dey. Several Zwawa tribesmen, were also allowed into

25996-412: The local Aghlabid authorities and other Kutuma tribes, he was forced to leave Ikjan and sought the protection of another Kutama tribe, the Banu Ghashman, in Tazrut (two miles southwest of Mila). From there, he began to build support for a new movement. Shortly after, the hostile Kutama tribes and the Arab lords of the nearby cities (Mila, Setif , and Bilizma ) allied together to march against him, but he

26190-517: The long-term decline of the Coptic community in Egypt. By 1072, in a desperate attempt to save Egypt, al-Mustansir recalled general Badr al-Jamali , who was at the time the governor of Acre . Badr led his troops into Egypt, entered Cairo in January 1074, and successfully suppressed the different groups of the rebelling armies. As a result, Badr was made vizier, becoming one of the first military viziers ( Arabic : امير الجيوش , romanized :  amīr al-juyūsh , lit.   'commander of

26384-417: The military officers at the further ends of the empire became semi-independent. Badr al-Jamali died in 1094 (along with Caliph al-Mustansir that same year) and his son Al-Afdal Shahanshah succeeded him in power as vizier. After al-Mustansir, the Caliphate passed on to al-Musta'li , and after his death in 1101 it passed to the 5-year-old al-Amir . Another of al-Mustansir's sons, Nizar , attempted to take

26578-402: The most important troops of the Caliph, but resentment and rivalry eventually grew between the different ethnic components of the army. Bajkūr, based in Raqqa, made another unsuccessful attempt against Aleppo in 991 which resulted in his capture and execution. That same year, Ibn Killis died and Munir was accused of conducting treasonous correspondence with Baghdad. These difficulties triggered

26772-449: The most restricted sense, the Igawawen were a confederation ( kabyle : taqbilt , derived from arabic "قبيلة" meaning tribe) of 8 tribes split into two groups: "Zwawa" was the Arabic name of medieval Muslim historians for the tribes who inhabited the region between Bejaia and Dellys . Some say that it's a deformation of the word "Igawawen", which was the name of a Kabyle confederation made up of eight tribes organized into two groups:

26966-407: The natives limit the domination of the Lord of Kuku to the Wad Boubehir and Wad of the Amrawa. His influence undoubtedly extended much further; but, despite his musketeers and his cavalry, he was never master the mountain of Gawawa." There is also no evidence that the Aït Ulqadi levied taxes on the central tribes of Djurdjura , such as the Aït Betrun, the Aït Iraten, and the Aït Mengellat, who were

27160-437: The new capital was ready, Jawhar sent for al-Mu'izz in Ifriqiya. The caliph, his court, and his treasury, departed from al-Mansuriyya in fall 972, traveling by land but shadowed by the Fatimid navy sailing along the coast. After making triumphant stops in major cities along the way, the caliph arrived in Cairo on 10 June 973. Like other royal capitals before it, Cairo was constructed as an administrative and palatine city, housing

27354-407: The new fortified palace city, al-Mahdiyya , began in 916. The new city was officially inaugurated on 20 February 921, though construction continued after this. The new capital was removed from the Sunni stronghold of Kairouan, allowing for the establishment of a secure base for the Caliph and his Kutama forces without raising further tensions with the local population. The Fatimids also inherited

27548-421: The new head of the movement, and introduced a radical change in the doctrine: no longer was he and his forebears merely the stewards for Muhammad ibn Isma'il, but they were declared to be the rightful imams, and Abdallah himself was the awaited mahdī . Various genealogies were later put forth by the Fatimids to justify this claim by proving their descent from Isma'il ibn Ja'far, but even in pro-Isma'ili sources,

27742-419: The next year (906) failed when the soldiers mutinied. Around the same time or soon after, Abu Abdallah's forces besieged and captured the fortified cities of Tubna and Bilizma. The capture of Tubna was significant as it was the first major commercial center to come under Abu Abdallah's control. Meanwhile, Ziyadat Allah III moved his court from Tunis to Raqqada , the palace-city near Kairouan , in response to

27936-445: The nominal sphere of authority of the Abbasid Caliphate. The Fatimid dynasty claimed descent from Fatimah , the daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad . The dynasty legitimized its claim through descent from Muhammad by way of his daughter and her husband Ali , the first Shī'a Imām , hence the dynasty's name, fāṭimiyy ( Arabic : فَاطِمِيّ ), the Arabic relative adjective for "Fāṭima". Emphasizing its Alid descent,

28130-411: The north. However, Abu Abdallah's forces had been unable to capture the northerly city of Constantine and therefore they instead attacked along the southern road from Baghaya in early 908 and captured Maydara (present-day Haïdra). An indecisive battle subsequently occurred between the Aghalabid and Kutama armies near Dar Madyan (probably a site between Sbeitla and Kasserine ), with neither side gaining

28324-404: The old Abbasid imperial order. The office of the wazīr ( vizier ), which existed under the Ikhshidids, was soon revived under the Fatimids. The first to be appointed to this position was the Jewish convert Ya'qub ibn Killis , who was elevated to this office in 979 by al-Mu'izz's successor al-Aziz . The office of the vizier became progressively more important over the years, as the vizier became

28518-412: The one located between Bejaia and Dellys . This last mountain is one of their most difficult retreats to tackle and the easiest to defend; from there they brave the power of the government (of Bejaia), and they pay tax only when it suits them. they stand on this lofty peak and challenge the forces of the Sultan, although they still recognize its authority. Their name is even registered in the registers of

28712-471: The other prominent Kutama were executed. Thereafter the position of the Kutama steadily declined, so that in November 1025, during an official review, the once numerous and proud Kutama were reduced to demanding bread to sate their hunger. Shortly after, they were unable to mobilize even 100 horsemen at short notice. On the other hand, the Persian traveller Nasir Khusraw mentions that there were 20,000 Kutama horsemen during his visit to Egypt in 1047. During

28906-519: The palace. In 1021, while wandering the desert outside Cairo on one of his nightly excursions, he disappeared. He was purportedly murdered, but his body was never found. After al-Hakim's death his two designated heirs were killed, putting an end to his succession scheme, and his sister Sitt al-Mulk arranged to have his 15-year-old son Ali installed on the throne as al-Zahir . She served as his regent until her death in 1023, at which point an alliance of courtiers and officials ruled, with al-Jarjarā'ī ,

29100-438: The plurality of Egyptian society by imposing new restrictions on Christians and Jews, particularly on the way they dressed or behaved in public. He ordered or sanctioned the destruction of a number of churches and monasteries (mostly Coptic or Melkite ), which was unprecedented, and in 1009, for reasons that remain unclear, he ordered the demolition of the Church of the Holy Sephulchre in Jerusalem. Al-Hakim greatly expanded

29294-427: The preservation of the Berber prefix for the parentage "Ath" instead of the Arabic "Beni". There are other toponyms too, such as Azuébar (Assuévar in Catalan ), which comes from Zwawa. Without forgetting Algatocin (Atouch, confederation of Aït Waguenun) and Benicàssim, which may have been an extinct fraction of the Zwawa. These Beni Qasim even founded a taifa after the collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate of Cordoba ,

29488-399: The question of ownership over Jerusalem. Following this, the crusaders crossed into Fatimid territory and captured Jerusalem in July 1099 while al-Afdal was leading a relief army trying to reach the city. The two forces finally clashed in the Battle of Ascalon in which al-Afdal was defeated. Nevertheless, the initial negotiations were held against the Fatimids and Ibn al-Athir wrote that it

29682-428: The real power base of Fatimids in Ifriqiya was quite narrow, resting on the Kutama soldiery, later extended by the Sanhaja Berber tribes as well. The historian Heinz Halm describes the early Fatimid state as being, in essence, "a hegemony of the Kutama and Sanhaja Berbers over the eastern and central Maghrib". In 912, al-Mahdi began looking for the site of a new capital along the Mediterranean shore. Construction of

29876-418: The real target was Baghdad , the capital of the Fatimids' Abbasid rivals. The ambition to carry the revolution eastward had to be postponed after the failure of two successive invasions of Egypt, led by al-Qa'im, in 914–915 and 919–921 . In addition, the Fatimid regime was as yet unstable. The local population were mostly adherents of Maliki Sunnism and various Kharijite sects such as Ibadism , so that

30070-425: The recruitment of Black Africans into the army, who subsequently became another powerful faction to balance against the Kutama, Turks, and Daylamis. In 1005, during his early reign, a dangerous uprising led by Abu Rakwa was successfully put down but had come within striking distance of Cairo. In 1012 the leaders of the Arab Tayyi tribe occupied Ramla and proclaimed the sharif of Mecca , al-Ḥasan ibn Ja'far , as

30264-436: The region temporarily, until a final decisive Umayyad intervention in 984–985 put an end to further efforts. In 978 the caliph also gave Tripolitania to Buluggin to govern, though Zirid authority there was later replaced by the local Banu Khazrun dynasty in 1001. In 988 Buluggin's son and successor al-Mansur moved the Zirid dynasty's base from Ashir (central Algeria) to the former Fatimid capital al-Mansuriyya, cementing

30458-523: The regnal name of al-Qa'im . Al-Mahdi quickly fell out with Abu Abdallah: not only was the dā'ī over-powerful, but he demanded proof that the new caliph was the true mahdī . The elimination of Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i and his brother led to an uprising among the Kutama, led by a child- mahdī , which was suppressed. At the same time, al-Mahdi repudiated the millenarian hopes of his followers and curtailed their antinomian tendencies. The new regime regarded its presence in Ifriqiya as only temporary:

30652-459: The reign of Hadrian . In 411, their chief town Ceramusa or Ceramudensis plebsis is attested as the seat of a bishopric. The same episcopal seat was occupied by a certain Montanus of Cedamusa during the Vandal era . In the 6th century, during the Byzantine rule, the Kutama are attested by a Christian inscription, where a king of the Ucutumani —the Berber prefix u- is indicating parentage—is said in Latin Dei servus (slave of God). This inscription

30846-404: The role of political ruler, and the other, Abbās ibn Shu'ayb, would inherit the imamate or religious leadership. This was a serious departure from a central purpose of the Fatimid Imam-Caliphs, which was to combine these two functions in one person. In 1015 he also suddenly halted the Isma'ili doctrinal lectures of the majālis al-ḥikma ("sessions of wisdom") which had taken place regularly inside

31040-495: The same year. Abu Abdallah's forces were unable to resist this counterattack and after two defeats they evacuated Tazrut (which was largely unfortified) and fled to Ikjan, leaving Mila to be retaken. Ikjan became the new center of the Fatimid movement and the dā'ī reestablished his network of missionaries and spies. Ibrahim II died in October 902 while in southern Italy and was succeeded by Abdallah II . In early 903 Abdallah II set out on another expedition to destroy Ikjan and

31234-406: The sky at the time when the construction of the city started. The city was located several miles northeast of Fusṭāt , the older regional capital founded by the Arab conquerors in the seventh century. Control of Egypt was secured with relative ease and soon afterward, in 970, Jawhar sent a force to invade Syria and remove the remaining Ikhshidids who had fled there from Egypt. This Fatimid force

31428-489: The small town of Salamiya on the western edge of the Syrian Desert . Salamiya became the centre of the Isma'ili daʿwa , with Abdallah al-Akbar being succeeded by his son and grandson as the secret "grand masters" of the movement. In the last third of the ninth century, the Isma'ili daʿwa spread widely, profiting from the collapse of Abbasid power in the Anarchy at Samarra and the subsequent Zanj Revolt , as well as from dissatisfaction among Twelver adherents with

31622-536: The son of Ziri bn Manad (who died in 971), as his viceroy in the Maghreb. This established a dynasty of viceroys, with the title of "amir", who ruled the region on behalf of the Fatimids. Their authority remained disputed in the western Maghreb, where the rivalry with the Umayyads and with local Zenata leaders continued. After Jawhar's successful western expedition, the Umayyads returned to northern Morocco in 973 to reassert their authority. Buluggin launched one last expedition in 979–980 that reestablished his authority in

31816-484: The status of the Zirids as more or less de facto independent rulers of Ifriqiya, while still officially maintaining their allegiance to the Fatimid caliphs. Caliph al-Aziz accepted this situation for pragmatic reasons to maintain his own formal status as universal ruler. Both dynasties exchanged gifts and the succession of new Zirid rulers to the throne was officially sanctioned by the caliph in Cairo. After al-Aziz's unexpected death, his young son al-Mansur, 11 years old,

32010-442: The strongest of the Zwawa in numbers, both weapons and manpower. According to Pierre Boyer, the territory of Kuku included the tribes of maritime Kabylia , and also those of the Aït Iraten and the Zwawa proper (the Aït Betrun and the Aït Mengellat), but these last were rather allies than submitted tribes. It should not be forgotten that the Zwawa, in the less restrictive sense of the term, are various confederations and tribes, and not

32204-467: The succession and names of imams differ, while Sunni and Twelver sources of course reject any Fatimid descent from the Alids altogether and consider them impostors. Abdallah's claim caused a rift in the Isma'ili movement, as Hamdan Qarmat and other leaders denounced this change and held onto the original doctrine, becoming known as the " Qarmatians ", while other communities remained loyal to Salamiya. Shortly after, in 902–903, pro-Fatimid loyalists began

32398-421: The succession was left open. Most of his followers followed al-Sadiq's son Musa al-Kazim down to a twelfth and final imam who supposedly went into occultation in 874 and would one day return as the mahdī . This branch is hence known as the "Twelvers". Others followed other sons, or even refused to believe that al-Sadiq had died, and expected his return as the mahdī . Another branch believed that Ja'far

32592-438: The tenure of the vizier Badr al-Jamali , the Fatimid caliphate declined rapidly during the late eleventh and twelfth centuries. In addition to internal difficulties, the caliphate was weakened by the encroachment of the Seljuk Turks into Syria in the 1070s and the arrival of the Crusaders in the Levant in 1097. In 1171, Saladin abolished the dynasty's rule and founded the Ayyubid dynasty , which incorporated Egypt back into

32786-432: The throne after his father's death and organized a rebellion in 1095, but he was defeated and executed that same year. Al-Afdal arranged for his sister to marry al-Musta'li and later for his daughter to marry al-Amir, hoping in this way to merge his family with that of the caliphs. He also attempted to secure the succession of his son to the vizierate as well, but this ultimately failed. During al-Afdal's tenure (1094–1121)

32980-413: The time. Among other things, al-Hakim was known for executing his officials when unsatisfied with them, seemingly without warning, rather than dismissing them from their posts as had been traditional practice. Many of the executions were members of the financial administration, which may mean that this was al-Hakim's way of trying to impose discipline in an institution rife with corruption. He also opened

33174-411: The upper hand. During the winter of 908–909 Abu Abdallah campaigned in the region around Chott el-Jerid , capturing the towns of Tuzur (Tozeur) , Nafta , and Qafsa (Gafsa) and taking control of the region. The Aghlabids responded by besieging Baghaya soon afterward in the same winter, but they were quickly repelled. On 25 February 909, Abu Abdallah set out from Ikjan with an army of 200,000 men for

33368-400: The village of his ancestors, Awrir NAït Ghubri, then moved to Tifilkut among the Illilten tribe. This marked the end of Kuku as a political capital. However, the ruling family remained the same, but under a different name: Aït Boukhtouch, or Iboukhtouchen. In the year 1659, the Algerine founded the caïdat (chiefdom) of bled Guechtula (or Boghni). The caïdat was under the authority of

33562-420: The vizier also replaced the mudbrick walls of Cairo with new stone walls and slightly expanded the city. Three of its monumental gates still survive today: Bab Zuweila , Bab al-Futuh , and Bab al-Nasr . As the military viziers effectively became heads of state, the Caliph himself was reduced to the role of a figurehead. The reliance on the Iqta system also ate into Fatimid central authority, as more and more

33756-510: The way he forced the Zaydi Imam in Sa'da into submission. Upon arriving in Mecca, he installed Abu Hashim Muhammad ibn Ja'far as the new sharif and custodian of the holy sites under the suzerainty of the Fatimids. He returned to San'a where he established his family as rulers on behalf of the Fatimid caliphs. His brother founded the city of Ta'izz , while the city of Aden became an important hub of trade between Egypt and India , which brought Egypt further wealth. His rise to power established

33950-432: The year 1000, Barjawan was assassinated by al-Hakim, who now took direct and autocratic control of the state. His reign, which lasted until his mysterious disappearance in 1021, is the most controversial in Fatimid history. Traditional narratives have described him as either eccentric or outright insane, but more recent studies have tried to provide more measured explanations based on the political and social circumstances of

34144-405: The year after, during the battle of Tlemcen , in which the Ottomans were defeated and Ziyyanid Sultan, Abu Hammou III , had been restored on the throne as a vassal of the Spanish Empire . The regency of Algiers had therefore lost its most important kabyle allies. After this event, war with Aruj 's brother, Kheireddine Barberossa , was inevitable. The following year, the Kabyles , supported by

34338-414: Was able to move quickly and muster enough support from friendly Kutama to defeat them one by one before they were able to unite. This first victory brought Abu Abdallah and his Kutama troops valuable loot and attracted more support to the dā'ī 's cause. Over the next two years Abu Abdallah was able to win over most of the Kutama tribes in the region through either persuasion or coercion. This left much of

34532-419: Was also said about them: "The Zwawa are in front for misery, behind for pay." The Zwawa are undoubtedly Berbers , but there are no longer two hypotheses about their tribal origin. The Muslim historian Ibn Khaldun reported that Berber genealogists themselves considered the Zwawa related to the Zenata by blood. In his book, History of the Berbers he said in volume 1: "The Zwawa and the Zwagha, tribes from

34726-443: Was applied to several Shi'a leaders who were killed or died; their followers believed that they had gone into " occultation " ( ghayba ) and would return (or be resurrected) at the appointed time. These traditions manifested themselves in the succession of the sixth imam, Ja'far al-Sadiq . Al-Sadiq had appointed his son Isma'il ibn Ja'far as his successor, but Isma'il died before his father, and when al-Sadiq himself died in 765,

34920-534: Was cited as a powerful ruler. De Haëdo had said that the Zwawa were very numerous, that they only came and went back, buying weapons, roaming freely in Algiers , as if the city was theirs. In 1576, 1,000 Zwawa participated in the capture of Fez in Morocco as allies of the Regency of Algiers, in which they supported the future Saadian sultan, Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik , against his nephew, Muhammad al-Mutawakkil . The Zwawa were equipped with muskets, and they were noted to be good soldiers. Muhammad al-Mutawakkil

35114-466: Was defeated. In 1541, the Zouaoua supported Charles V in his Expedition to Algiers by sending 2000 men to his army. Hassan Pasha responded in 1542 by attacking and massacring the Zouaoua. In 1546, Amar had succeeded his father, el-Hussein, to the throne. Amar had reigned until his assassination in 1618, because of "tyranny" and his weakness against the Regency of Algiers who led two punitive expeditions, in 1607 in which they reached Jema'a n Saharij among

35308-454: Was discovered at the Fdoulès pass, south of Igilgili , at one of the last passes before the descent to Milevum . The oldest accounts of the muslim conquest of the Maghreb , Ibn Abd al-Hakam and Khalifah ibn Khayyat , do not speak of them, any more than al-Ya'qubi (d. 897) and Ibn al-Faqih (d. after 903). Their name appears for the first time among that of other Berber tribes in the al-Masālik of Ibn Khordadbeh (d. 885). The tribe

35502-422: Was followed by a seventh imam, who had gone into occultation and would one day return; hence this party is known as the "Seveners". The exact identity of that seventh imam was disputed, but by the late ninth century had commonly been identified with Muhammad , son of Isma'il and grandson of al-Sadiq. From Muhammad's father, Isma'il, the sect, which gave rise to the Fatimids, receives its name of "Isma'ili". Due to

35696-414: Was in Roman times; it then encompassed the northern mountain ranges that stretch from Bougie to around Constantine , which al-Bakri calls Jabal Kutama , "the mountains of the Kutama". This area, limited to the west by the country of Zouaoua (Kabylie of Djurdjura, Soummam valley and Bejaia region), extended south to Sétif , Mila , Constantine, Collo and Jijel . It was made up of Lesser Kabylia ,

35890-459: Was installed on the throne as al-Hakim . Hasan ibn Ammar, the leader of the Kalbid clan in Egypt, a military veteran, and one of the last remaining members of al-Mu'izz's old guard, initially became regent, but he was soon forced to flee by Barjawan, the eunuch and tutor of the young al-Hakim, who took power in his stead. Barjawan stabilized the internal affairs of the empire but refrained from pursuing al-Aziz's policy of expansion towards Aleppo. In

36084-399: Was led by a Kutama general named Ja'far ibn Falāḥ . This invasion was successful at first and many cities, including Damascus, were occupied that same year. Ja'far's next step was to attack the Byzantines, who had captured Antioch and subjugated Aleppo in 969 (around the same time as Jawhar was arriving in Egypt), but he was forced to call off the advance in order to face a new threat from

36278-403: Was moved to the newly founded Fatimid capital of Cairo . Egypt became the political, cultural, and religious centre of the empire and it developed a new and "indigenous Arabic culture". After its initial conquests, the caliphate often allowed a degree of religious tolerance towards non-Shia sects of Islam, as well as to Jews and Christians. However, its leaders made little headway in persuading

36472-441: Was not very important at that time. The Kutama probably had embraced Islam, first as Khawarij , a little before the middle of the 8th century. The fact remains that in 757-758 AD, during the capture of Kairouan by the Ibadis , Kutama were among the Kharidjite troops, allied with Abu al-Khattab al-Ma'afiri and Abd al-Rahman ibn Rustam . The latter, then governor of Kairouan, appointed one of their own, Uqayba, to head it. Little

36666-449: Was part of the Aït Betrun confederation at least before the middle of the 18th century. This shows how erroneous the claim of common ancestry is. The claim of common ancestry is very difficult to accept everywhere else, is even less acceptable in Kabylia , where the tribe is a political federation which changes over time and at the will of the confederates. The only tribes that still exist in this first list are three: The Aït Melikech of

36860-480: Was replaced by his brother, el-Hussein, and Great Kabylia had kept its independence. In the year 1529, that is to say two or four years after the capture of Algiers by Khayr ed-Din , a peace treaty was concluded by the Aït Ulkadi and the Regency of Algiers, the latter recognizing the undisputed master of the independent Great Kabylia, el-Hussein, but also imposing an annual tax, which has never been paid. Ammar Boulifa says about this: "The non-execution of this part of

37054-457: Was said that the Fatimids had invited the crusaders to invade Syria. This defeat established the Kingdom of Jerusalem as a new regional rival and although many crusaders returned to Europe, having fulfilled their vows, the remaining forces, often aided by the Italian maritime republics , overran much of the coastal Levant, with Tripoli , Beirut , and Sidon falling to them between 1109 and 1110. The Fatimids retained Tyre, Ascalon, and Gaza with

37248-405: Was so great that Ibn Khaldun counted the Fatimids among the Berber dynasties, and several historians trace the origin of the Fatimids to the Kutama Berbers of Kabylia and attribute to the Kutama Berbers the establishment of the Fatimid Caliphate after conquering Ifriqiya and installing Abdullāh al-Mahdī Billa as Caliph. According to the historian Heinz Halm , the early Fatimid state can be likened to

37442-429: Was succeeded by his son, al-Mustansir , who had the longest reign in Fatimid history, serving as caliph from 1036 to 1094. However, he remained largely uninvolved in politics and left the government in the hands of others. He was seven years old at his accession and thus al-Jarjarā'ī continued to serve as vizier and his guardian. When al-Jarjarā'ī died in 1045 a series of court figures ran the government until al-Yāzūrī ,

37636-412: Was the first Muslim traveler and geographer to mention the name in his book, ZwawaKitab al-Masâlik wa l-Mamâlik , but without giving substantial information about them. Adolphe Hanoteau  [ fr ] , a 19th-century French general, thought that the word Zwawa might be an alteration of "Ath Wawa", the regular plural of Agawa (son of Awa), used to designate a man from the Igawawen, by replacing

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