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Ubayd Allah ibn al-Habhab al-Saluli (Arabic:عبيد الله بن الحبحاب السلولي) was an importantUmayyad official inEgypt from 724 to 734, and subsequently Umayyad governor ofKairouan,Ifriqiya from 734 to 741. It was under his rule that theGreat Berber Revolt broke out in theMaghreb (North Africa) andal-Andalus (Iberian Peninsula).
Ubayd Allah ibn al-Habhab was an Arab official of theBanu Makhzum, a clan of theQuraysh. Although exceptionally educated and remarkably competent and well-respected, Ubayd Allah was the grandson of a manumitted slave.[1] That humble origin may have embarrassed him and left him with a sense of personal insecurity among the high-bloods that packed the Umayyad circles.[citation needed] Throughout his career, Ubayd Allah seemed to have been overly obsequious, a little too eager to please the whims of the well-born lords ofDamascus, while simultaneously exhibiting a harsh and almost vicious disdain of those below him, particularly non-Arabs.[2] Both those character traits would have significant consequences.[citation needed]
In 724, theUmayyad CaliphHisham ibn Abd al-Malik appointed Ubayd Allah assahib al-kharaj, or head of taxation inEgypt. As Egyptian governors proved ineffective, Ubayd Allah became Hisham's point man and effective ruler of Egypt. Ubayd Allah secured the dismissal of Egyptian governoral-Hurr ibn Yusuf in 727, and again his successorHafs ibn al-Walid ibn Yusuf al-Hadrami, after they challenged his administrative powers.[3]
To expand fiscal revenues, in 725, Ubayd Allah raised thekharaj by an eighth and appointed Arab officials (rather than local Egyptians) as tax-collectors. This provoked a revolt by EgyptianCopts in 725–26. Leaderless and disorganized, the Coptic revolt went nowhere and was quashed by the Arab authorities under the direction of Ubayd Allah, with quite some bloodshed.[citation needed]
It became evident that the Arabs needed to expand their presence in Egypt. At Ubayd Allah's suggestion, in 726, the Caliph Hisham began dispatching Arab regiments drawn from theQaysid (or 'Nejdi') tribes of central Arabia, partly in order to get the more troublesome Qaysid regiments out of the vicinity of Damascus, partly to counterbalance the local Arab soldiers already inFustat andAlexandria (drawn fromKalbid or 'Yemenite' stock of south Arabian tribes) lest they be used as a power base for ambitious local nobles against the central Umayyad government. To prevent quarrels, the Qaysid soldiers, some 5,000 who arrived during the time of Ubayd Allah, were settled in the easternHawf and forbidden from entering Fustat.[citation needed]
In late 732,Ubayda ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami, governor ofIfriqiya had been swiftly dismissed by Caliph Hisham following a personal quarrel.[citation needed][why?] TheKairouan government was placed in the temporary hands of the lieutenant-governor Uqba ibn Qudama and theqadi Abd Allah ibn al-Mughira ibn Burda. Inal-Andalus (Iberian Peninsula),Abd al-Malik ibn Katan al-Fihri of the illustriousFihrid clan, was acclaimed by the Andalusian Arabs as ruler after the death of waliAbd al-Rahman ibn Abd Allah al-Ghafiqi at theBattle of Tours in October 732.[citation needed]
Seeking to restore order in the west, in April 734, the Umayyad CaliphHisham appointed his old Egyptian hand Ubayd Allah ibn al-Habhab as governor of Kairouan, Ifriqiya, with supervisory authority over all theMaghreb (North Africa west of Egypt) and al-Andalus.[citation needed]
Ubayd Allah ibn al-Habhab found the westerly domains of the Caliphate in disorder and the treasury thin following the mismanagement and reverses of the preceding years. Over Andalusian opposition, Ubayd Allah dispatchedUqba ibn al-Hajjaj as his deputy inCórdoba (al-Andalus), replacing the popular governor Abd al-Malik ibn Qatan al-Fihri. Around this time, Ubayd Allah appointed Umar ibn Abd Allah al-Muradi as his deputy inTangier (al-Udwa).[citation needed]
Ubayd Allah ibn al-Habhab immediately set about dynamizing his fiscal resources by ordering new raids. In 734, an expedition was set out against Byzantine-ruledSicily (the seventh in as many years), but it proved to be a failure. In 735, Ubayd Allah dispatched an Ifriqiyan army under commanderHabib ibn Abi Ubayda al-Fihri to conquerSous and the southerly regions of Morocco, acquiring substantial booty to replenish the treasury and bringing the region within the Umayyad caliphate. In 735, an amphibian Arab expedition was launched uponProvence, capturingArles andAvignon and the lowerRhone valley. But the expeditionary force was expelled from Provence in 737–38 in a joint operation byCharles Martel of theFranks andLiutprand of theLombards.[citation needed]
In 740, Ubayd Allah dispatched Habib ibn Abi Ubayda al-Fihri at the head of an Arab expedition across the water to Sicily in what was possibly the first attempt at a full-scaleinvasion of the island (rather than a mere raid). Habib had a successful landing and laid a brief siege toSyracuse, securing its submission to tribute, before events in Africa forced them to break off the invasion.[citation needed]
In the late 730s, Ubayd Allah ibn al-Habhab had begun leaning more heavily on theBerbers under his jurisdiction to make up for the financial shortfalls. ContraveningIslamic law and the 718 edicts of the CaliphUmar II, Ubayd Allah reinstated some of the extraordinarydhimmi taxation (thejizyah andkharaj) and slave-tributes on the Muslim Berber population, provoking immense opposition. Similar policies were implemented by his deputies Uqba ibn al-Hajjaj al-Saluli in al-Andalus and (with particular zeal) Umar ibn Abd Allah al-Muradi in Morocco.[citation needed]
But Ubayd Allah went above and beyond his duties. Seeking to satisfy the luxurious tastes of the nobles of Damascus, Ubayd Allah sent his officials in the relentless pursuit of the highly prized wool of unbornMerino lambs, seizing (and destroying) entire flocks—the livelihoods of many Berber communities—just to gather the handful he could dispatch back to Syria. Berber girls and women were also highly prized as concubines by Damascus lords. Ubayd Allah, eager to please as always, ordered them seized and kidnapped in great numbers, not stopping even at the wives and daughters of loyal Berber chieftains.[4]
Berber patience finally broke in 740, in what became known as theGreat Berber Revolt. It began with an uprising inTangiers against Ubayd Allah's tax-collectors and raiders. Fired up bySufrite (Kharijite) activists, the Berber tribes of western Morocco (theGhomara,Miknasa andBerghwata) formed a coalition and acclaimed the Berber chieftainMaysara al-Matghari as 'caliph'. Tangiers fell into the hands of the Berber rebels hands, and soon enough the entire length of Morocco, from the Straits down to the Sous. Ubayd Allah's own son, Ismail, then a governor in the Sous, was killed by the rebels.[citation needed]
Ubayd Allah immediately dispatched orders to Habib ibn Abi Ubayda al-Fihri to break off the Sicilian invasion and return the Ifriqiyan army to Africa. In the meantime, he dispatched a vanguard cavalry force, composed of the aristocratic Arab elite of Kairouan under the command ofKhalid ibn Abi Habib al-Fihri, to hold the line against the Berber rebels while awaiting the Sicilian expeditionary force.[citation needed]
After a few skirmishes with the Arab vanguard in the outskirts of Tangiers, the Berber rebels decided to depose Maysara and reorganize their forces under theZenata chieftainKhalid ibn Hamid al-Zanati. Khalid ordered an immediate attack and destroyed the Ifriqiyan vanguard at theBattle of the Nobles in October 740, cutting down the cream of the Ifriqyan Arab nobility. The main Ifriqiyan force under Habib ibn Abi Ubayda arrived too late to prevent the massacre, and retreated toTlemcen, which had in the meantime itself been raised to revolt by Sufrite activists.[citation needed]
Governor Ubayd Allah ibn al-Habhab forwarded the report of the battle to Damascus and requested reinforcements. Caliph Hisham, shocked at the news, dismissed Ubayd Allah in February, 741 and began preparations to dispatch a large eastern Arab army under a new governor,Kulthum ibn Iyad al-Qushayri to crush the Berber rebellion. The disgraced Ubayd Allah left Ifriqiya in April 741, and returned to the east.[citation needed]
| Preceded by Ubayda ibn Abd al-Rahman es-Solemi(vacant after 732) | Governor of Ifriqiya 734–741 | Succeeded by |