Almohad governor of Tunis

Who he is

Name

Not pinned between two men: the sayyid Abu Zayd ibn Abi Hafs Umar ibn Abd al-Mu'min, the caliph's kinsman, whom Ibn Khaldun has posted to Tunis in 596 AH (22 October 1199 to 10 October 1200) and who is the governor the rebel of Mahdia besieges that year; or his predecessor the Hintati shaykh Abu Sa'id Uthman ibn Abi Hafs, governor of Ifriqiya when Mahdia revolted in mid-1199. Abu Zayd is the likelier holder.

Title

Governor (wali) of Ifriqiya for the Almohad caliph, residing in the qasba of Tunis

Since

Abu Zayd first governed Ifriqiya from 584 AH (1188), when al-Mansur left it (Zarkashi); Abu Sa'id governed in the later 1190s; Abu Zayd was posted again in 596 (month not given)

Born

Not pinned

Family

Abu Zayd is the son of the sayyid Abu Hafs Umar, brother of the caliph Yusuf, and so a grandson of Abd al-Mu'min and a great-uncle's son of al-Nasir; a son of his is captured with him in 1203. Abu Sa'id is a son of Shaykh Abu Hafs Umar Inti of the Hintata, brother of Abu Ali Yunus (the governor of Mahdia seized in 1199) and of Abu Muhammad Abd al-Wahid, the later governor (1207-1221).

Confidence

low

Ibn Khaldun vol. 2, pp. 106, 224, 292; Zarkashi (Fagnan) pp. 11-13; the Tikrit article (the siege of Tunis by the rebel in 596, held by Abu Zayd).

Overlord

The Almohad caliph Muhammad al-Nasir at Marrakesh.

What it holds

• Tunis: city, qasba, the lake port and La Goulette
• Cap Bon (Nabeul, Kelibia, Hammamet) and the plain of Tunis
• Bizerte and its lake
• The upper Tell: Le Kef (Shiqqanbariya) and al-Urbus (Laribus), Siliana country
• Through the governor of Beja: the middle Medjerda valley
• In name, not pinned: Kairouan, Sousse, Tebessa

How it was acquired

Almohad conquest of 1159-1160; reconfirmed by al-Mansur's campaign of 1187-88.

Allies and rivals

Rivals: the rebel of Mahdia (open war), Yahya ibn Ghaniya (hostile, no fighting recorded that winter). Allies: Pisan and Genoese merchants trading under treaty; the caliph's fleet.

How things stand that morning

Holds Tunis and the north; Mahdia lost; the south Yahya's. The governor's name on the morning of 1 January 1200 is not pinned (see holder).

Wealth

Customs of the port of Tunis and the Christian merchants' trade (Pisa's treaty of 1186 with the caliph names Tunis among the ports open to Pisans), the grain of the Medjerda and Cap Bon, olive oil.

Military

The Almohad garrison of Tunis (Almohad tribesmen and paid troops; the caliph's army has had Ghuzz archers since 1188, but their presence at Tunis is not attested); galleys at Tunis, able to beat off the rebel by sea in 596 and to lend two warships in 597. Numbers not known.

Threats

• The rebel of Mahdia's siege (596 AH)
• Yahya ibn Ghaniya
• Arab raids on the Medjerda and Cap Bon

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 596 AH (season not pinned)The governor (Abu Zayd) beats off the rebel of Mahdia's siege of Tunis with a sortie by land and sea.Depends on: The rebel attacking Tunis. Stopped by: The rebel turning elsewhere first.
2. 597 AHHe lends Yahya ibn Ghaniya two warships for the blockade of Mahdia.Depends on: Preferring Yahya to the rebel. Stopped by: A decision to keep clear of both.
3. 7 Rabi II 600 (15 December 1203)Yahya storms Tunis and captures Abu Zayd and his son; Abu Zayd is freed in 602 (1205) when Abd al-Wahid beats the Banu Ghaniya near Gabes.Depends on: Yahya's conquests of 1201-1203. Stopped by: An Almohad army arriving earlier.

Places of note

• The qasba of Tunis: Seat of the Almohad governor.
• La Goulette (Halq al-Wadi): The channel and anchorage of Tunis; the rebel's camp in 596.

Where the sources disagree

• The brief suggests the sayyid Abu Zayd for 1 January 1200: Ibn Khaldun has him posted to Tunis in 596, and the Hintati Abu Sa'id governing in 595; so the governor that morning is not pinned, with Abu Zayd likelier.
• Ibn Khaldun's Hafsid chapter (p. 292) says al-Mansur gave Ifriqiya to Abu Sa'id 'early in his reign'; the Zarkashi chronicle has Abu Zayd governor from 1188. Both may be true for different years.

Evidence: The Almohad hold on Tunis is certain; the governor's name for the day is not.

On the map: The governor's writ outside the walled towns depends on the Arab tribes; the outline follows the Tell, where the towns were Almohad until 1203.

Primary sources for Almohads

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• History of the Two Dynasties, the Almohad and the Hafsid, al-Zarkashi (Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Lu'lu'i al-Zarkashi) (about 1490 to 1495, at Tunis). A short Hafsid-era chronicle whose Almohad opening gives, in a few lines a reign, the succession of al-Mansur and al-Nasir, the Banu Ghaniya's seizure of Ifriqiya and its recovery, and the sending of Abd al-Wahid ibn Abi Hafs to Tunis, which the Hafsids counted as the start of their house. Read online
• The Complete History: the passages on the Maghreb and al-Andalus, Ibn al-Athir (about 1220 to 1231, at Mosul). The year entries for 595 to 597 of the Hijra (late 1198 to 1201) record the death of Yaqub al-Mansur, the accession of al-Nasir and the opening of Yahya ibn Ghaniya's war in Ifriqiya; the following years follow Yahya and the Ghuzz captain Qaraqush through Tripoli, Gabès and Mahdia to al-Nasir's reconquest in 1206, with the best eastern account of Qaraqush's career. Read online
• The Garden of Pages: a History of the Kings of the Maghreb and of the City of Fez, Ibn Abi Zar al-Fasi (completed in 1326 at Fez, for the Marinid sultan Abu Said Uthman). The Almohad chapters give a brisk dated narrative of al-Mansur's death and burial, al-Nasir's accession and the Banu Ghaniya troubles, with the kind of detail (coinage, public works at Fez and Rabat, prices, plagues) that a Fez compiler cared about, and the annals of Fez supply the city's governors and markets. Read online
• The Wondrous Account of the History of al-Andalus and the Maghreb, Ibn Idhari al-Marrakushi (about 1312, at Marrakesh). The Almohad section is the fullest year-by-year narrative of the caliphate around 1200: the last campaigns and the death of Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur in January 1199, the accession of his son Muhammad al-Nasir, the renewed war of the Banu Ghaniya in Ifriqiya under Yahya ibn Ishaq and his ally Qaraqush, the Almohad losses of Mahdia and Tunis a few years later, and al-Nasir's reconquest of Ifriqiya in 1205 to 1206 followed by the appointment of Abd al-Wahid ibn Abi Hafs as governor. Read online
• Historical Monuments of Portugal: Writers (Annals of King Afonso, Chronicon Conimbricense, Chronica Gothorum and others) (12th to 15th centuries). The Portuguese annals in one volume. Read online
• Latin Chronicle of the Kings of Castile, Anonymous, probably Juan of Osma, chancellor of Castile (about 1223 to 1239). The chancellor's chronicle of Alfonso VIII's reign, detailed from the 1190s. Read online
• The Complete History, Izz al-Din Ibn al-Athir (about 1200 to 1231, at Mosul). The widest Muslim narrative for the years 596 to 597 AH (1199 to 1201): al-Adil's entry into Cairo and his taking of the sultanate from his nephew al-Mansur Muhammad early in 1200, the quarrels of the Ayyubid princes at Damascus, Aleppo and Hama, the Nile failure and the great famine of Egypt, Mosul under Nur al-Din Arslan Shah and the Jazira under Gokbori and the Artuqids, Baghdad under the caliph al-Nasir, the Khwarazmshah Tekish's death in 1200 and Muhammad's accession, the Ghurid wars in Khurasan, the Eldiguzids and Georgia, the Almohads in the west, and the Seljuks of Rum in passing. Read online
• Memoirs of the Mahdi Ibn Tumart and the Beginnings of the Almohad State, Abu Bakr ibn Ali al-Sanhaji, called al-Baydhaq (about 1150 to 1165). Nothing for the year itself: al-Baydhaq's memoir ends in Abd al-Mu'min's early reign.

17 more in the sources library for The Maghreb and the Sahara.