Abū Ghālib Tammām ibn ʿAlqama al-Thaqafī (), also transliterated Ibn ʿAlḳama al-Thaḳafī (720×728 – 811), was an

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

military leader in

al-Andalus Al-Andalus () was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The name refers to the different Muslim states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most o ...

during the establishment of the ʿUmayyad

Emirate of Córdoba An emirate is a territory ruled by an emir, a title used by monarchs or high officeholders in the Muslim world. From a historical point of view, an emirate is a political-religious unit smaller than a caliphate. It can be considered equivalen ...

. Ibn ʿAlqama was descended from a ''

mawlā ''Mawlā'' (, plural ''mawālī'' ), is a polysemous Classical Arabic, Arabic word, whose meaning varied in different periods and contexts.A.J. Wensinck, Encyclopedia of Islam 2nd ed, Brill. "Mawlā", vol. 6, p. 874. Before the Islamic Prophet ...

'' (freedman) of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Umm al-Ḥakam, the governor of

Kūfa Kufa ( ), also spelled Kufah, is a city in Iraq, about south of Baghdad, and northeast of Najaf. It is located on the banks of the Euphrates River. The estimated population in 2003 was 110,000. Along with Samarra, Karbala, Kadhimiya and Najaf, ...

in Iraq in 678 under the first ʿUmayyad caliph,

Muʿāwiya I Mu'awiya I (–April 680) was the founder and first caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, ruling from 661 until his death. He became caliph less than thirty years after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and immediately after the four Rashid ...

. He thus belonged to the tribe of Thaqīf and the faction of Ḳays. He was born between 720 and 728. He arrived in al-Andalus in 741 in the ''ṭalīʿa'' (vanguard) of the

Syrian army The Syrian Army is the land force branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. Up until the fall of the Assad regime, the Syrian Arab Army existed as a land force branch of the Syrian Arab Armed Forces, which dominanted the military service of the fo ...

of Balj ibn Bishr. When the ʿUmayyad prince

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān I Abd al-Rahman ibn Mu'awiya ibn Hisham (; 7 March 731 – 30 September 788), commonly known as Abd al-Rahman I, was the founder and first emir of the Emirate of Córdoba, ruling from 756 to 788. He established the Umayyad dynasty in al-Andalus, ...

made his play to restore ʿUmayyad rule in al-Andalus in 755, Ibn ʿAlqama was one of the first to rally to his banner after the ʿUmayyad's agents met with in

Zaragoza Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...

. With the ''mawlā'' Badr, he rescued ʿAbd al-Raḥmān from the

Berbers Berbers, or the Berber peoples, also known as Amazigh or Imazighen, are a diverse grouping of distinct ethnic groups indigenous to North Africa who predate the arrival of Arab migrations to the Maghreb, Arabs in the Maghreb. Their main connec ...

in Africa later that year. He became ʿAbd al-Raḥmān's chief minister (''

ḥājib Hajib or hadjib (, ) was a court official, equivalent to a chamberlain, in the early Muslim world, which evolved to fulfil various functions, often serving as chief ministers or enjoying dictatorial powers. The post appeared under the Umayyad Ca ...

'') with the rank of ''

ḳāʾid Qaid ( ', "commander"; pl. ', or '), also spelled kaid or caïd, is a word meaning "commander" or "leader." It was a title in the Norman kingdom of Sicily, applied to palatine officials and members of the ''curia'', usually to those who wer ...

'' in his army. Assisted by Badr, he captured the city of

Toledo Toledo most commonly refers to: * Toledo, Spain, a city in Spain * Province of Toledo, Spain * Toledo, Ohio, a city in the United States Toledo may also refer to: Places Belize * Toledo District * Toledo Settlement Bolivia * Toledo, Or ...

in 764 and became its governor. Afterwards he was appointed governor of

Huesca Huesca (; ) is a city in north-eastern Spain, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Aragon between 1096 and 1118. It is also the capital of the Spanish Huesca (province), ...

Tortosa Tortosa (, ) is the capital of the '' comarca'' of Baix Ebre, in Catalonia, Spain. Tortosa is located at above sea level, by the Ebro river, protected on its northern side by the mountains of the Cardó Massif, of which Buinaca, one of the hi ...

and

Tarazona Tarazona is a town and municipality in the Tarazona y el Moncayo comarca, province of Zaragoza (province), Zaragoza, in Aragon, Spain. It is the capital of the Tarazona y el Moncayo Aragonese comarca. It is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Dio ...

. His son Ghālib succeeded him at Toledo, but was executed by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān's successor, Hishām I, in 788. Ibn ʿAlqama remained loyal to the dynasty, however, and rose to prominence again under

al-Ḥakam I Abu al-As al-Hakam ibn Hisham ibn Abd al-Rahman () was Umayyad Emir of Cordoba from 796 until 822 in Al-Andalus (Moorish Iberia). Biography Al-Hakam was the second son of his father, his older brother having died at an early age. When he came ...

(796–822). He died in 811 at a very advanced age. His great-great-grandson, Tammām ibn ʿAlqama al-Thaqafī, was also prominent in ʿUmayyad service. Ibn ʿAlqama is the most probable source for the account of the period 741–788 in the ''

Akhbār majmūʿa The ''Akhbār majmūʿa fī fatḥ al-Andalus'' ("Collection of Anecdotes on the Conquest of al-Andalus") is an anonymous history of al-Andalus compiled in the second decade of the 11th century and only preserved in a single manuscript, now in the ...

'', which is the earliest

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

history of al-Andalus. This section of the ''Akhbār''—which did not reach its final form until the 11th century—is sometimes called the "Syrian chronicle". He was an eyewitness to most of the most important events in this period. He must have left behind writings, since he is quoted as an eyewitness source in

Ibn ʿIdhārī Abū al-ʽAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʽIḏārī al-Marrākushī () was a Maghrebi historian of the late-13th/early-14th century, and author of the famous '' Al-Bayan al-Mughrib'', an important medieval history of the Maghreb (Morocco, No ...

's ''

al-Bayān al-mughrib ''Kitāb al-bayān al-mughrib fī ākhbār mulūk al-andalus wa'l-maghrib'' (''Book of the Amazing Story of the History of the Kings of al-Andalus and Maghreb'') by Ibn Idhāri (var. Ibn Athari) of Marrakech in the Maghreb (now Morocco ...

'' and by Aḥmad al-Rāzī.

References

{{reflist 720s births 811 deaths Banu Thaqif 8th-century people from al-Andalus 9th-century people from al-Andalus People from the Emirate of Córdoba