The Great Arab Conquests (42 page)
Read The Great Arab Conquests Online
Authors: Hugh Kennedy
The fall of Carthage was a major event because it meant the final, irretrievable end of Roman power in Africa. In military terms, it seems to have been more a peaceful occupation than a major siege. The city, on a wonderful seaside site overlooking the Gulf of Tunis, had been the pivot of Roman power on the North African coast for almost eight hundred years. At one stage it had been graced by numerous monumental buildings, and in late antiquity these had been supplemented by magnificent churches. In the second century AD it is thought to have had half a million inhabitants, and the Antonine Baths, of which fragments still remain, were the largest in the Roman world. The Arab chronicler Ibn Idhārī says that in his day (
c
. 1300) the city was still distinguished by its impressive remains, vast buildings and huge standing columns, which showed its importance to the people of the past. He adds that the inhabitants of nearby Tunis, just like modern tourists, still visited the site to contemplate the wonders and monuments that had survived the ravages of time.
32
The Carthage of 698 was a mere shadow of the great city that had existed since long before the Roman conquest. According to Ibn Abd al-Hakam there were only a few feeble inhabitants.
33
The city seems to have been largely deserted, and there had been no significant new building for at least half a century. With the collapse of Mediterranean commerce, the city had lost its
raison d’être
, with only a few inhabitants and a small garrison now living among the vast ruins.
c
. 1300) the city was still distinguished by its impressive remains, vast buildings and huge standing columns, which showed its importance to the people of the past. He adds that the inhabitants of nearby Tunis, just like modern tourists, still visited the site to contemplate the wonders and monuments that had survived the ravages of time.
32
The Carthage of 698 was a mere shadow of the great city that had existed since long before the Roman conquest. According to Ibn Abd al-Hakam there were only a few feeble inhabitants.
33
The city seems to have been largely deserted, and there had been no significant new building for at least half a century. With the collapse of Mediterranean commerce, the city had lost its
raison d’être
, with only a few inhabitants and a small garrison now living among the vast ruins.
Not surprisingly, the city seems to have put up little resistance. According to some sources, inhabitants had already packed their possessions into ships and sailed away at night so that the city was actually deserted when the Arab armies entered.
34
We have no accounts of any formal siege and no accounts of the booty seized after the conquest, a further indication that the city may have been almost abandoned before the Arab conquest. After the Muslims were firmly in control, they made no effort to establish a garrison in the city or build a mosque. In fact, the centre of population moved from seaside Carthage to inland Qayrawān, just as in Egypt it shifted from seaside Alexandria to inland Fustāt.
34
We have no accounts of any formal siege and no accounts of the booty seized after the conquest, a further indication that the city may have been almost abandoned before the Arab conquest. After the Muslims were firmly in control, they made no effort to establish a garrison in the city or build a mosque. In fact, the centre of population moved from seaside Carthage to inland Qayrawān, just as in Egypt it shifted from seaside Alexandria to inland Fustāt.
The fall of Carthage may have marked the end of the Byzantine presence in North Africa but many Berber tribes remained defiant. The leadership of the Berber resistance was now seized by the mysterious figure of Kāhina (‘the Sorceress’). The reputation of this Berber Boudicca, with her wild, long hair and ecstatic prophecies, has survived through the centuries in history and legend as a symbol of resistance to Arab conquest and the norms of conventional Muslim life. Contemporary cultures hail her variously as champion of female emancipation and power, a heroine of Berber resistance and independence, a Jewish princess ‘who never abandoned her faith’ and a great African queen. She was certainly a Berber from a branch of the great Zanāta tribe, but is said to have married a Byzantine and to have been either Jewish or Christian by religion.
The traditional view of Kāhina was summed up in eighteenth-century English prose by Edward Gibbon, the breadth of whose learning never ceases to amaze. He describes how the ‘disorderly’ Berbers were united:
Under the standard of their queen Cahina the independent tribes acquired some degree of union and discipline; and as the Moors respected in their females the character of a prophetess, they attacked the invaders with an enthusiasm similar to their own. The veteran bands of Hassān were inadequate to the defence of Africa; the conquests of an age were lost in a single day; the Arabian chief [Hassān], overwhelmed by the torrent, retired to the confines of Egypt, and expected, for five years, the promised succours of the caliph.
He then goes on to tell how Kāhina was determined to discourage the Arabs from returning:
The victorious prophetess assembled the Moorish chiefs, and recommended a measure of strange and savage policy. ‘Our cities,’ she said, ‘and the gold and silver which they contain, perpetually attract the arms of the Arabs. These vile metals are not the objects of our ambition; we content ourselves with the simple productions of the earth. Let us destroy these cities; let us bury in their ruins those pernicious treasures; and when the avarice of our foes shall be destitute of temptation, perhaps they will cease to disturb the tranquillity of a warlike people.’The proposal was accepted with unanimous applause. From Tangier to Tripoli the buildings, or at least the fortifications, were demolished, the fruit trees were cut down, a fertile and populous garden was changed into a desert and the historians of a more recent age could discern the frequent traces of prosperity and the devastation on their ancestors. Such is the tale of the modern Arabians.
35
The reality behind the legend is difficult to assess. Kāhina’s power was centred on the Aurès mountain area. The Aurès are a massif in western Algeria rising to 2,300 metres at the highest point. The heart of the mountains is no more than 100 kilometres from west to east and 50 from north to south. To the north lies the fertile plateau; to the south the land slopes steeply to the fringes of the Sahara. The mountains are rugged and rocky and the deep valleys shelter isolated villages and palm groves. They were in an important strategic position. Although wild and inaccessible, they were only a few days’ march from the plains of Tunisia and the centres of Arab power. The massif also commanded the route from Tunisia to the rest of Algeria and Morocco: until the Aurès were subdued, or at least friendly, no Arab armies could safely operate in those areas. It was a perfect stronghold for those who wanted to resist invaders from outside, and it was always a centre of Berber resistance; the first shots of the Algerian rebellion against French rule were fired in the Aurès in 1954.
Our fullest account of Kāhina comes from the work of Ibn Idhārī. When Hassān entered Qayrawān he asked who was the most important king still surviving in Ifrīqīya, and he was told it was Kāhina in the Aurès mountains and that all the Romans went in fear of her and all the Berbers obeyed her. They added that if he killed her the whole Maghreb would fall into his hands. He set off to confront her. She reached the town of Bāghāya before him, driving out the Romans and destroying the city because she was afraid that Hassān wanted to go there and use it as a fortified base. He approached the mountains and set up camp in the Wadi Maskiyāna, and it was here that Kāhina came to meet him. He was encamped at the top of the wadi while her forces were lower down. The horsemen of both sides made contact one evening but Hassān refused to do battle that day and both armies spent the night in the saddle. The next day there was a long hard fight but in the end Hassān’s forces were put to flight. Kāhina pursued him, killing many, taking prisoners and driving him beyond Gābis. It seems that he took refuge in Cyrenaica, whence he wrote to the caliph, asking for reinforcements and explaining that the nations of the Maghreb had no political progamme or objective but were like freely grazing flocks. The caliph replied, telling him to remain where he was. The castles he and his men settled in near Barqa were still known in Ibn Idhārī’s day, six centuries later, as ‘Qusūr Hassān’ - Hassān’s palaces.
Our author then goes on to report a speech allegedly made by Kāhina which was to form the basis of Gibbon’s account. According to this she addressed the Berbers in the following words:
‘The Arabs only want Ifrīqīya for its cities and gold and silver while we only want agriculture and flocks. The only solution is the destruction
[kharb
] of the whole of Ifrīqīya so that the Arabs lose interest in it and they never return again!’ Her audience approved, so they went away to cut down their trees and destroy their fortresses. It has been said that Africa was shaded from Tripoli to Tangier, villages were continuous and there were cities everywhere, to the extent that no area of the world was more prosperous, or favoured: no area had more cities and fortresses [
husn
] than Africa and the Maghreb and it went on for two thousand miles like it. The Kāhina destroyed all of that. Many of the Christians and Africans left seeking to escape from what the Kāhina had done, going to Andalus [Spain] and the other islands in the sea.
The account is interesting. It shows a clear recognition in a medieval Arabic source of the environmental and urban degradation of the area which has struck modern archaeologists and other commentators. As such it is most unusual. Of course, as Gibbon noted, the account concertinas the changes of two or three centuries into as many years. It does, however, point to some fundamental truths. The sixth and seventh centuries certainly did see a decline in urban life and settled agriculture in the area, combined with a growth in pastoralism. The narrative also puts the Arab conquests in an unfamiliar light. Here it is the Arabs who appear as preservers of urban life and civilization, not, as often in modern literature, as its destroyers.
It seemed that Kāhina’s triumph was complete, and Hassān effectively abandoned Ifrīqīya. He soon received more troops from the caliph. He also attracted large numbers of Berbers who were, presumably, unwilling to accept Kāhina’s authority. It is said that 12,000 of them joined in the
jihād
. With these he marched to the region of Gābis where he defeated her forces. He then pursued her to her stronghold of the Aures. The final battle occurred north of the modern town of Tobna, probably in 698. We have very few details about the battle in which Hassān defeated and killed Kāhina, except that she is said to have foreseen the catastrophe that was to come upon her. With flowing hair, she uttered wild prophecies of disaster while, at the same time, sending her sons under safe conduct to the Arab camp.
36
jihād
. With these he marched to the region of Gābis where he defeated her forces. He then pursued her to her stronghold of the Aures. The final battle occurred north of the modern town of Tobna, probably in 698. We have very few details about the battle in which Hassān defeated and killed Kāhina, except that she is said to have foreseen the catastrophe that was to come upon her. With flowing hair, she uttered wild prophecies of disaster while, at the same time, sending her sons under safe conduct to the Arab camp.
36
The rebellion over, Hassān established himself once more in Qayrawān. Here he began to establish the norms of Umayyad administration, establishing a
dīwān
for the troops and enforcing the payment of the
kharāj
on the Christians. According to some sources, he founded the new town of Tunis, near Carthage. This was to be a naval base to prevent any more raids by the Byzantines, and 1,000 Coptic artisans were transported from Egypt to work there.
37
This marks the beginning of a permanent Muslim administration in Ifrīqīya and another stage in the conversion and recruitment of Berbers into the Muslim army of Africa, a process that was to be fundamental to the Muslim conquest of Spain.
dīwān
for the troops and enforcing the payment of the
kharāj
on the Christians. According to some sources, he founded the new town of Tunis, near Carthage. This was to be a naval base to prevent any more raids by the Byzantines, and 1,000 Coptic artisans were transported from Egypt to work there.
37
This marks the beginning of a permanent Muslim administration in Ifrīqīya and another stage in the conversion and recruitment of Berbers into the Muslim army of Africa, a process that was to be fundamental to the Muslim conquest of Spain.
In 704 Hassān was dismissed from his post. The loss of his job was the result of worsening relations between the caliph Abd al-Malik in Damascus and his brother, Abd al-Azīz b. Marwān, the governor of Egypt. Abd al-Azīz wanted to assert his authority, and the authority of Egypt, over North Africa. He also wanted to appoint his own protégé to the position of governor. The man he had in mind was Mūsā b. Nusayr. His origins were humble (see above, p. 105) and he was certainly not a member of one of the great elite families of the Umayyad caliphate. He was an intelligent and forceful man who worked his way up through his own abilities and the trust of his patron. He began his career in Syria, working for the Umayyad government, and first came to Egypt in 684. It was probably while he was there that he first came to the notice of Abd al-Azīz b. Marwān who set out to promote him and advance his career. By 704 Abd al-Azīz and Mūsā had been working together for twenty years; Abd al-Azīz wanted to reward him and knew that he was the ideal man to bring the unruly but potentially lucrative province of Ifrīqīya under his control.
He arrived to find the province in some disarray. Hassān had saved Arab Africa from the Berbers and expelled the Byzantines. Arab authority stopped at what is now the Tunisia-Algeria border. The lightning raid that Uqba b. Nāfi had led to the far west more than twenty years before had not resulted in any permanent settlement. The Berbers of the Aurès mountains and points west were still in a position to resist Arab authority.
Mūsā was determined to change that. Hassān left the province and made his way back to Damascus. When he reached Egypt, Abd al-Azīz despoiled him of all his possessions, even the presents he was taking to the new caliph, Walīd I. Meanwhile, in Africa, Mūsā was planning a great push west into the Maghreb. He began with an assault on the Berber fortress of Zaghwān, only a few kilometres from Qayrawān. It was soon taken and the first prisoners brought into the capital. Prisoners were the main object of his campaigns. In accounts of the Muslim conquests of cities and lands in the Middle East, we find constant references to the amount of booty taken - goods and chattels and, above all, money. And we are told how carefully it was divided among the conquerors. In the account of Mūsā’s campaigns in the Maghreb, it is the numbers of captives acquired and sent east which dominate the accounts. The numbers are exaggerated with uninhibited enthusiasm, and the Islamic
jihād
looks uncomfortably like a giant slave raid. Almost as soon as he arrived in Qayrawān, Mūsā sent two of his sons on separate raids in the Maghreb and each came back with 100,000 prisoners. When Mūsā wrote to his patron Abd al-Azīz that he was sending 30,000 captives as the government share of the booty, Abd al-Azīz assumed that there had been a mistake in the letter because the number was impossibly large. In fact the scribe had made a mistake, but in the opposite direction: the real figure should have been 60,000.
38
jihād
looks uncomfortably like a giant slave raid. Almost as soon as he arrived in Qayrawān, Mūsā sent two of his sons on separate raids in the Maghreb and each came back with 100,000 prisoners. When Mūsā wrote to his patron Abd al-Azīz that he was sending 30,000 captives as the government share of the booty, Abd al-Azīz assumed that there had been a mistake in the letter because the number was impossibly large. In fact the scribe had made a mistake, but in the opposite direction: the real figure should have been 60,000.
38
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