Ya'qub ibn Ishaq al-Tamimi () was a pirate in

Fatimid The Fatimid Caliphate (; ), also known as the Fatimid Empire, was a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries CE under the rule of the Fatimid dynasty, Fatimids, an Isma'ili Shi'a dynasty. Spanning a large area of North Africa ...

service who led a major raid against the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

coasts,

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...

and

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in 934–935.

Naval expedition

Ya'qub was dispatched by Caliph al-Qa'im with a fleet of 20 vessels (according to the 15th-century

Isma'ili Ismailism () is a branch of Shia Islam. The Isma'ili () get their name from their acceptance of Imam Isma'il ibn Jafar as the appointed spiritual successor (Imamate in Nizari doctrine, imām) to Ja'far al-Sadiq, wherein they differ from the ...

historian Imadaddin Idris;

Sunni Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Mu ...

sources report 30 ships) on 22 June 934 from al-Mahdiyya. Sailing from a western direction, he encountered some Christian merchant vessels, which he plundered and whose crews he took captive. The Fatimid fleet then captured Genoa by assault and plundered the city. During his return journey, he was attacked by

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

ships who had mobilized on the news of the sack of Genoa, but defeated them. He also raided

and

before returning in triumph to al-Mahdiyya with some 8,000 prisoners. Imadaddin places his return on 29 August 935, while there is some confusion on the expedition's dating in the Sunni sources— Ibn al-Athir reports two expeditions on consecutive years, the '' Cambridge Chronicle'', Ibn Idari, al-Nuwayri, and

Abu'l-Fida Ismāʿīl bin ʿAlī bin Maḥmūd bin Muḥammad bin ʿUmar bin Shāhanshāh bin Ayyūb bin Shādī bin Marwān (), better known as Abū al-Fidāʾ or Abulfeda (; November 127327 October 1331), was a Mamluk Sultanate, Mamluk-era Kurds, Kurdish ...

all place the expedition in 935, and

Ibn Khaldun Ibn Khaldun (27 May 1332 – 17 March 1406, 732–808 Hijri year, AH) was an Arabs, Arab Islamic scholar, historian, philosopher and sociologist. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest social scientists of the Middle Ages, and cons ...

reports that the expedition was sent by al-Qa'im's predecessor,

al-Mahdi Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Manṣūr (; 744 or 745 – 785), better known by his regnal name al-Mahdī (, "He who is guided by God"), was the third Abbasid Caliph who reigned from 775 to his death in 785. He succeeded his ...

. Imadaddin's account is generally considered the most accurate.

Family

His brother Khalil was a senior commander in Fatimid service, in charge of the Arab '' jund'' of

Kairouan Kairouan (, ), also spelled El Qayrawān or Kairwan ( , ), is the capital of the Kairouan Governorate in Tunisia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city was founded by the Umayyads around 670, in the period of Caliph Mu'awiya (reigned 661� ...

from at least 913 to his death in 944.

References

Sources

* * * {{Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit , volume = online 10th-century Arab people 10th-century people from the Fatimid Caliphate Admirals of the Fatimid Caliphate Fatimid people of the Arab–Byzantine wars History of Genoa Banu Tamim