Sulayman ibn Yaqzan al-Kalbi (al-A'rabi meaning the Bedouin; full name in ar, سليمان بن يقظان الكلبي الأعرابي) 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, ...
Wali (governor) of
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
and
Girona
Girona (officially and in Catalan , Spanish: ''Gerona'' ) is a city in northern Catalonia, Spain, at the confluence of the Ter, Onyar, Galligants, and Güell rivers. The city had an official population of 103,369 in 2020. Girona is the capit ...
in the year 777.
For the history of al-Arabi, we must rely on the Muslim historian Abu al-Hassan Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad (1160-1233), also known as
Ali ‘izz ad-Din ibn al-Athir al-Jazari (ibn al-Athir), who wrote four centuries after the fact.
When the
Abbasid
The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Mutta ...
governor
Abd al-Rahman ibn Habib al-Siqlabi landed near
Murcia sometime before 777, he sent an invitation to al-Arabi to join him, but the governor of Barcelona refused. Al-Siqlabi then marched on Barcelona, but was defeated near
Valencia
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...
.
[Roger Collins, ''The Arab Conquest of Spain, 710–797'' (Basil Blackwell, 1989), pp. 174–177.]
According to ibn al-Athir, threatened by
Abd ar-Rahman I, 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 ...
emir of Córdoba, al-Arabi sent a delegation to
Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first E ...
at the
diet in
Paderborn
Paderborn (; Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pader and ''Born'', an old German term for t ...
, offering his submission, together with the allegiance of
Husayn of Zaragoza and
Abu Taur of Huesca in return for military aid. As a result, Charlemagne marched across the
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...
toward
Zaragoza
Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Province of Zaragoza, Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Ara ...
in 778, joined by troops led by Sulayman.
Husayn of Zaragoza, however, refused to surrender the city, claiming that he had never promised Charlemagne his allegiance. After a month of siege Charlemagne decided to return to his kingdom, taking some hostages from his Muslim allies including Sulayman.
On his retreat, Charlemagne suffered an attack from the
Basques
The Basques ( or ; eu, euskaldunak ; es, vascos ; french: basques ) are a Southwestern European ethnic group, characterised by the Basque language, a common culture and shared genetic ancestry to the ancient Vascones and Aquitanians. Ba ...
in central
Navarra
Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spa ...
. As a reprisal he attacked
Pamplona
Pamplona (; eu, Iruña or ), historically also known as Pampeluna in English, is the capital city of the Chartered Community of Navarre, in Spain. It is also the third-largest city in the greater Basque cultural region.
Lying at near above ...
, conquering it. However, on his retreat north his baggage train was ambushed at the
battle of Roncevaux Pass
The Battle of Roncevaux Pass ( French and English spelling, ''Roncesvalles'' in Spanish, ''Orreaga'' in Basque) in 778 saw a large force of Basques ambush a part of Charlemagne's army in Roncevaux Pass, a high mountain pass in the Pyrenees on ...
August 15, 778. The children of Sulayman,
Aysun al-Arabi and
Matruh al-Arabi collaborated with the Basques in the assault which resulted in the release of their father.
Sulayman returned to Zaragoza where, in 780, he was killed by his former friend and ally Husayn of Zaragoza.
These historical events are assumed to be part of the factual nucleus around which was eventually formed, by centuries of oral tradition on the Christian side,
The Song of Roland
''The Song of Roland'' (french: La Chanson de Roland) is an 11th-century '' chanson de geste'' based on the Frankish military leader Roland at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in 778 AD, during the reign of the Carolingian king Charlemagne. It i ...
, which was to have an immense importance in the Medieval culture of France and the whole of Christian Western Europe. It did not, however, make a comparable deep and lasting impression on the Muslim side.
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sulayman Al-Arabi
Walis of Barcelona
8th-century Al-Andalus people
780 deaths
8th-century Arabs
Year of birth unknown