Hassan ibn al-Nu'man al-Ghassani ( ar, حسان بن النعمان الغساني, Hassān ibn al-Nuʿmān al-Ghassānī) was an
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
general of the
Umayyad Caliphate
The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by th ...
who led the final Muslim conquest of
Ifriqiya
Ifriqiya ( '), also known as al-Maghrib al-Adna ( ar, المغرب الأدنى), was a medieval historical region comprising today's Tunisia and eastern Algeria, and Tripolitania (today's western Libya). It included all of what had previously ...
, firmly establishing Islamic rule in the region. Appointed by Caliph
Abd al-Malik (), Hassan launched a series of campaigns during the closing years of the 7th century, during which he defeated the
Byzantines and the
Berbers
, image = File:Berber_flag.svg
, caption = The Berber ethnic flag
, population = 36 million
, region1 = Morocco
, pop1 = 14 million to 18 million
, region2 = Algeria
, pop2 ...
led by
al-Kahina
Al-Kahina ( ar, الكاهنة, , the diviner), also known as Dihya, was a Berber queen of the Aurès and a religious and military leader who led indigenous resistance to the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb, the region then known as Numidia nota ...
. The Byzantine capital of
Carthage
Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classi ...
was destroyed in 698 and the nearby city of
Tunis
''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois
, population_note =
, population_urban =
, population_metro = 2658816
, population_density_km2 =
, timezone1 = CET
, utc_offset1 ...
was founded in the following year. In
Kairouan
Kairouan (, ), also spelled El Qayrawān or Kairwan ( ar, ٱلْقَيْرَوَان, al-Qayrawān , aeb, script=Latn, Qeirwān ), is the capital of the Kairouan Governorate in Tunisia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city was founded by th ...
, Hassan set up a Muslim administration for the province to collect taxes from its Christian inhabitants and pay the troops. He enrolled thousands of Berbers into the army, which proved critical to later Muslim military successes in the
Maghreb
The Maghreb (; ar, الْمَغْرِب, al-Maghrib, lit=the west), also known as the Arab Maghreb ( ar, المغرب العربي) and Northwest Africa, is the western part of North Africa and the Arab world. The region includes Algeria, ...
and the
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula (),
**
* Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica''
**
**
* french: Péninsule Ibérique
* mwl, Península Eibérica
* eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...
. He was ultimately ousted from his post by the governor of Egypt,
Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan
Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan ibn al-Hakam ( ar, عبد العزيز بن مروان بن الحكم, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam; died 12 May 705) was the Umayyad governor and ''de facto'' viceroy of Egypt between 685 and his death. He w ...
, due to a power struggle for influence over Ifriqiya.
Origins
Hassan ibn al-Nu'man hailed from the
Ghassanid
The Ghassanids ( ar, الغساسنة, translit=al-Ġasāsina, also Banu Ghassān (, romanized as: ), also called the Jafnids, were an Arab tribe which founded a kingdom. They emigrated from southern Arabia in the early 3rd century to the Levan ...
tribe, which militarily led the
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
tribal confederates of the
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
in
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
in the century preceding the
Muslim conquest of the region in the 630s. Part of the tribe remained Christian following the conquest and migrated to the remaining territories of the Byzantine Empire, but some tribesmen remained in Syria and formed part of the Syrian army, the core of the
Umayyad
The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...
military.
Reconquest of North Africa
First campaign
Hassan was appointed by the Umayyad caliph
Abd al-Malik to lead the Arab reconquest of
Ifriqiya
Ifriqiya ( '), also known as al-Maghrib al-Adna ( ar, المغرب الأدنى), was a medieval historical region comprising today's Tunisia and eastern Algeria, and Tripolitania (today's western Libya). It included all of what had previously ...
(modern-day
Tunisia
)
, image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa
, image_map2 =
, capital = Tunis
, largest_city = capital
, ...
) in North Africa. The chronology of Hassan's campaign and those of his immediate predecessors is uncertain as a result of the different dates provided by the medieval sources. The historian
Mohamed Talbi
Mohamed Talbi ( ar, محمد الطالبي), (16 September 1921 – 1 May 2017) was a Tunisian historian and professor. He was the author of many books about Islam.
Biography
Professor Emeritus at University of Tunis, Mohamed Talbi was a Tunisi ...
asserts that the accounts of the two earliest sources,
Ibn Abd al-Hakam
Abu'l Qāsim ʿAbd ar-Raḥman bin ʿAbdullah bin ʿAbd al-Ḥakam (Arabic: أبو القاسم عبد الرحمن بن عبد الله بن عبد الحكم), generally known simply as Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam (Arabic: ابن عبد الحكم) (801 ...
(d. 871) and
Ibn Qutayba
Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muslim ibn Qutayba al-Dīnawarī al-Marwazī better known simply as Ibn Qutaybah ( ar-at, ابن قتيبة, Ibn Qutaybah; c. 828 – 13 November 889 CE / 213 – 15 Rajab 276 AH) was an Islamic scholar of Persian ...
(d. 889), confirmed by
Ibn Asakir
Ibn Asakir ( ar-at, ابن عساكر, Ibn ‘Asākir; 1105–c. 1176) was a Syrian Sunni Islamic scholar, who was one of the most renowned experts on Hadith and Islamic history in the medieval era. and a disciple of the Sufi mystic Abu al-Najib S ...
(d. 1175), are the "most probable ... agrees with the logical sequence of events and makes it possible to avoid inconsistencies". Prior to Hassan's appointment, Ifriqiya had fallen to the
Berbers
, image = File:Berber_flag.svg
, caption = The Berber ethnic flag
, population = 36 million
, region1 = Morocco
, pop1 = 14 million to 18 million
, region2 = Algeria
, pop2 ...
under
Kasila and the Byzantines at the
Battle of Vescera
The Battle of Vescera (modern Biskra in Algeria) was fought in 682 or 683 between the Berbers of King Caecilius and their Byzantine allies from the Exarchate of Carthage against an Umayyad Arab army under Uqba ibn Nafi (the founder of Kairouan) ...
in 682. An initially successful attempt by
Zuhayr ibn Qays al-Balawi
Zuhayr ibn Qays al-Balawī () (died 688) was a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and an Arab commander who fought in the service of the Rashidun, Umayyad and Zubayrid caliphs. He played a key role in the early Muslim conquests of Egypt ...
to reconquer the region ultimately ended with Zuhayr's slaying and the Byzantines' capture of
Barce in
Cyrenaica
Cyrenaica ( ) or Kyrenaika ( ar, برقة, Barqah, grc-koi, Κυρηναϊκή παρχίαKurēnaïkḗ parkhíā}, after the city of Cyrene), is the eastern region of Libya. Cyrenaica includes all of the eastern part of Libya between ...
in . Abd al-Malik, having consolidated his control over the Caliphate in the
Second Muslim Civil War
The Second Fitna was a period of general political and military disorder and civil war in the Islamic community during the early Umayyad Caliphate., meaning trial or temptation) occurs in the Qur'an in the sense of test of faith of the believer ...
and resumed
hostilities with Byzantium in 692, had troops to spare and equipped Hassan with 40,000 men. The deployment of an Arab force of this size to North Africa was unprecedented.
Marching along the North African coast, Hassan likely entered Ifriqiya in 692/93, 693/94, or 695.
He first captured and plundered the port city of
Carthage
Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classi ...
, the Byzantines' fortified capital in the province. Carthage had retained its Byzantine garrison and population through the first Muslim conquest of Ifriqiya in 670, but had long lost its former power and prosperity by the time Hassan entered the city. Nonetheless, it was still deemed a threat by the Arab general, as demonstrated by its fleet's attack on Cyrenaica in 688. The city was apparently deserted before the Arabs' entry, its inhabitants having fled to
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
, and there is neither an account of a siege or serious resistance nor any details about the captured spoils. Hassan continued northward and defeated the Byzantines and the Berbers at
Bizerte
Bizerte or Bizerta ( ar, بنزرت, translit=Binzart , it, Biserta, french: link=no, Bizérte) the classical Hippo, is a city of Bizerte Governorate in Tunisia. It is the northernmost city in Africa, located 65 km (40mil) north of the cap ...
. Afterward, the Byzantines withdrew and reinforced their position in
Vaga
VAGA is an artists collective dedicated to improving mental health and fighting cognitive decline through art therapy. The organisation brings together artists, clinicians and academic psychologists to foster research collaboration and the develop ...
(modern
Béja
Béja ( ar, باجة ') is a city in Tunisia. It is the capital of the Béja Governorate. It is located from Tunis, between the Medjerdah River and the Mediterranean, against the foothills of the Khroumire, the town of Béja is situated on the ...
), while the Berbers fled eastward to
Bône
Annaba ( ar, عنّابة, "Place of the Jujubes"; ber, Aânavaen), formerly known as Bon, Bona and Bône, is a seaport city in the northeastern corner of Algeria, close to the border with Tunisia. Annaba is near the small Seybouse River ...
(modern Annaba).
In 697, the Byzantine emperor
Leontios
Leontius ( el, Λεόντιος, Leóntios; – 15 February 706), was Byzantine emperor from 695 to 698. Little is known of his early life, other than that he was born in Isauria in Asia Minor. He was given the title of ''patrikios'', and ma ...
() dispatched a strong fleet, which retook Carthage, which resulted in the city's Arab forces fleeing to
Kairouan
Kairouan (, ), also spelled El Qayrawān or Kairwan ( ar, ٱلْقَيْرَوَان, al-Qayrawān , aeb, script=Latn, Qeirwān ), is the capital of the Kairouan Governorate in Tunisia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city was founded by th ...
, which had been established by the Arabs in 670 as their capital in Ifriqiya. In 698, Hassan forces
recaptured Carthage, which was destroyed, its walls torn down, its water supply cut off, and its harbors made unusable. Afterwards, Hassan moved against the Berbers led by their warrior queen,
al-Kahina
Al-Kahina ( ar, الكاهنة, , the diviner), also known as Dihya, was a Berber queen of the Aurès and a religious and military leader who led indigenous resistance to the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb, the region then known as Numidia nota ...
. Though information about her is difficult to disentangle from legend, it is apparent that she
ruled the Aurès, a rugged massif a few days' distance from Arab possessions in Ifriqiya and strategically located between Ifriqiya and the western half of North Africa (the
Maghreb
The Maghreb (; ar, الْمَغْرِب, al-Maghrib, lit=the west), also known as the Arab Maghreb ( ar, المغرب العربي) and Northwest Africa, is the western part of North Africa and the Arab world. The region includes Algeria, ...
, i.e. modern-day
Algeria
)
, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
and
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
). According to the 13th-century historian
Ibn Idhari
Abū al-ʽAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʽIḏārī al-Marrākushī ( ar, أبو العباس أحمد ابن عذاري المراكشي) was a Moroccan historian of the late-13th/early-14th century, and author of the famous '' Al-Bayan al- ...
, who provides the fullest known account of al-Kahina, Hassan, upon entering Kairouan, inquired about the strongest king left in Ifriqiya and was informed that al-Kahina commanded the loyalty of the Berber tribes and if she should be eliminated, the Maghreb would fall to Hassan. Skipping over the Byzantine fortress of
Baghaya
Baghai is a town and commune in Khenchela Province, Algeria. It is located at 35°30'59.99" N 7°06'60.00" E. According to the 1998 census it has a population of 6,414.
Geography
Baghai is located between the Aurès mountains in the south and ...
(al-Majjana), which al-Kahina had preemptively captured and destroyed to prevent its utilization by the Arabs, Hassan met the Berbers at the
Battle of Meskiana
The Battle of Meskiana occurred in North Africa in 698 between the Umayyad forces of Hassan ibn al-Nu'man and Queen Dihya.
According to the historian Ibn Idhari
Abū al-ʽAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʽIḏārī al-Marrākushī ( ar, أب ...
. There, he was dealt a heavy blow by al-Kahina, forcing him to retreat first to the vicinity of
Gabes before evacuating Ifriqiya altogether. Many of his troops were killed or captured by the Berbers as they fled. He stopped at an area containing several forts, later collectively called "Qusur Hassan" after him, about four-days march to the east of
Tripoli
Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to:
Cities and other geographic units Greece
*Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece
* Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece
* Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...
.
Second campaign
Hassan requested reinforcements from Abd al-Malik and informed him of the Berbers' indefatigability and seeming anarchism. He was ordered by the caliph to hold his position, and Hassan remained in
Tripolitania
Tripolitania ( ar, طرابلس '; ber, Ṭrables, script=Latn; from Vulgar Latin: , from la, Regio Tripolitana, from grc-gre, Τριπολιτάνια), historically known as the Tripoli region, is a historic region and former province o ...
for about three to five year. Meanwhile, al-Kahina, according to Ibn Idhari, engaged in a massive scorched earth campaign against the cities and orchards of the Maghreb "from Tripoli to
Tangier
Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the cap ...
", leading to a mass flight of the affected areas' inhabitants to the
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula (),
**
* Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica''
**
**
* french: Péninsule Ibérique
* mwl, Península Eibérica
* eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...
and various
Mediterranean islands
The following is a list of islands in the Mediterranean Sea. The two main island countries in the region are Malta and Cyprus, while other countries with islands in the Mediterranean Sea include Italy, France, Greece, Spain, Tunisia, Croatia, ...
. By attacking the Maghreb's civilized wealth, i.e. potential war booty for the Arabs, her aim was to disinterest the Arabs from future invasions of the region, while not disturbing the Berbers' agricultural and pastoral livelihood. Though Ibn Idhari's account reduces the centuries-long process of the Maghreb's "environmental and urban degradation" to the span of a few years, the historian
Hugh N. Kennedy
Hugh Nigel Kennedy (born 22 October 1947) is a British medieval historian and academic. He specialises in the history of the early Islamic Middle East, Muslim Iberia and the Crusades. From 1997 to 2007, he was Professor of Middle Eastern Histor ...
points out that it nonetheless offers a clue about the region's urban and agricultural decline in the 6th–7th centuries, but here the Arabs are portrayed as the "preservers of urban life and civilization", not its "destroyers" as they are often depicted in modern sources.
Hassan ultimately received more troops from the caliph and gained the defections of some 12,000 Berbers disillusioned by al-Kahina's policies. With this new army, he recommenced his campaign most likely by 701, 702 or 703, scoring a victory against al-Kahina at Gabes, before pursuing her into the
Aures, where he
defeated
Defeated may refer to:
*Defeated (Breaking Benjamin song), "Defeated" (Breaking Benjamin song)
*Defeated (Anastacia song), "Defeated" (Anastacia song)
*"Defeated", a song by Snoop Dogg from the album ''Bible of Love''
*Defeated, Tennessee, an unin ...
and killed her near the modern-day town of
Tobna
Tobna (), also known by the ancient names of Tubunae or Thubunae, is a ruined former city in Batna Province of Algeria, located just south of the modern city of Barika. From this position, it once controlled the eastern part of the Hodna region, w ...
. There is scant information about the battle except that al-Kahina portended her defeat and sent away her sons to be protected by the Arab troops. Hassan then turned his attention to Byzantine-held Carthage; upon his approach, the city was abandoned and he ordered its destruction in 698 to prevent future reuse by the Byzantine navy.
Administration of Ifriqiya
Along the lines of the Umayyads' centralization efforts elsewhere in the Caliphate, Hassan attempted establishing an efficient administration for Ifriqiya from Kairouan. To that end, he inaugurated a central ''
diwan'' (government agency) to register and pay the troops and collect the ''
kharaj
Kharāj ( ar, خراج) is a type of individual Islamic tax on agricultural land and its produce, developed under Islamic law.
With the first Muslim conquests in the 7th century, the ''kharaj'' initially denoted a lump-sum duty levied upon the ...
'' (poll tax) from local Christians. To ensure the loyalty and collaboration of the new Berber Muslim converts, he enrolled them in the ''diwan'' and offered them a stake in the distribution of income-producing lands. Hassan is also credited with restoring with stronger building material the
Great Mosque of Kairouan
The Great Mosque of Kairouan ( ar, جامع القيروان الأكبر), also known as the Mosque of Uqba (), is a mosque situated in the UNESCO World Heritage town of Kairouan, Tunisia and is one of the most impressive and largest Islamic mo ...
, founded by Ifriqiya's first Arab conqueror,
Uqba ibn Nafi
ʿUqba ibn Nāfiʿ ibn ʿAbd al-Qays al-Fihrī al-Qurashī ( ar, عقبة بن نافع بن عبد القيس الفهري القرشي, ʿUqba ibn Nāfiʿ ibn ʿAbd al-Qays al-Fihrī), also simply known as Uqba ibn Nafi, was an Arab general ser ...
.
Further inland of Carthage, Hassan founded the
medina of Tunis
The Medina of Tunis is the medina quarter of Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979.
The Medina contains some 700 monuments, including palaces, mosques, mausoleums, madrasas and fountains dating from t ...
in March 699, at the outskirts of an ancient site and the base of a
lake by the same name. On Abd al-Malik's orders, he set about establishing an arsenal in the new city, employing 1,000
Coptic
Coptic may refer to:
Afro-Asia
* Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya
* Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century
* Coptic alphabet ...
laborers from
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
to build warships. The caliph's intention was to establish a strong fleet to effectively combat the Byzantines by land and sea. As part of these efforts, Hassan connected the city with the
Gulf of Tunis
The Gulf of Tunis () is a large Mediterranean bay in north-eastern Tunisia, extending for from Cape Farina in the west to Cape Bon in the east. Tunis, the capital city of Tunisia, lies at the south-western edge of the Gulf, as have a series of ...
by digging a canal through the strip of water at the
Halq al-Wadi, which separates the lagoon from the gulf, to afford the new ships direct access to the Mediterranean.
Dismissal and legacy
Hassan became the target of a struggle by the governor of Egypt, the caliph's brother,
Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan
Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan ibn al-Hakam ( ar, عبد العزيز بن مروان بن الحكم, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam; died 12 May 705) was the Umayyad governor and ''de facto'' viceroy of Egypt between 685 and his death. He w ...
, to assert Egypt's control over the Arab territories of North Africa. He sought to appoint his own loyalist,
Musa ibn Nusayr
Musa ibn Nusayr ( ar, موسى بن نصير ''Mūsá bin Nuṣayr''; 640 – c. 716) served as a Umayyad governor and an Arab general under the Umayyad caliph Al-Walid I. He ruled over the Muslim provinces of North Africa (Ifriqiya), and direct ...
, to Ifriqiya, and thus effected Hassan's dismissal from the post in 704. Though Hassan had restored the Arab position in the province and expelled the Byzantines, Berber tribes still controlled the mountainous region approximately west of the modern-day
Algeria-Tunisia border and could potentially threaten Arab gains to the east—a state of affairs Musa was resolved to end. On Hassan's way to the caliph's court in Damascus, he was stopped in Egypt, where Abd al-Aziz confiscated all of his spoils from Ifriqiya, including those destined for the caliph.
The military offensive Hassan commanded was the "final consolidation of the Arab conquest" of Ifriqiya, according to Talbi. In Kennedy's assessment, Hassan "prove
an able general and reliable administrator and was, in many ways, the real founder of Muslim North Africa". His military achievements and administrative reforms also inaugurated a permanent Muslim government in Ifriqiya and set the stage for the increasing conversion of Berbers to Islam and recruitment into the Muslim army; their incorporation proved to be crucial in the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula during the reign of Caliph
al-Walid I
Al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan ( ar, الوليد بن عبد الملك بن مروان, al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān; ), commonly known as al-Walid I ( ar, الوليد الأول), was the sixth Umayyad Caliphate, Umayyad ca ...
()
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hassan ibn PNuman
700s deaths
7th-century Arabs
8th-century Arabs
City founders
Ghassanids
History of Tunis
Muslim conquest of the Maghreb
Generals of the Umayyad Caliphate
Umayyad governors of Ifriqiya
Umayyad people of the Arab–Byzantine wars
Year of birth unknown
8th-century people of Ifriqiya