Banu Marin

Who he is

Name

Abd al-Haqq ibn Mahyu ibn Abi Bakr ibn Hamama

Title

Shaykh (amir) of the Banu Marin

Since

1195, on the death of his father Mahyu of wounds received fighting for the caliph at Alarcos (18 July 1195)

Born

About 1157 in one modern account (unsourced); not pinned

Family

Of the Banu Hamama line of the Banu Marin, a Zenata people of the Banu Wasin. His sons Uthman (chief 1217-1240), Muhammad (1240-1244), Abu Yahya Abu Bakr (1244-1258) and Abu Yusuf Ya'qub (1258-1286) will lead the tribe after him; which were born by 1 January 1200 is not pinned (Abu Yusuf Ya'qub was born about 1210 and is not).

Confidence

high

Ibn Khaldun vol. 4 and the Rawd al-Qirtas as summarised in en.wikipedia (Abd al-Haqq I, Marinid Sultanate)

Overlord

None in practice; the Banu Marin send volunteers to the caliph's holy war and acknowledge him as Commander of the Faithful

What it holds

• Winter range: the steppe and desert edge from the Moulouya east to Figuig and south to the Guir and the approaches of Sijilmasa
• Summer pastures in the Moulouya valley and the plains of Guercif and Taza, by the governors' leave (Morocco area, not drawn here)
• Clans: the ruling Banu Hamama line, the Banu Askar (who will break with them and side with the Almohads), the Banu Wattas and others named by Ibn Khaldun (list not checked for 1200)

How it was acquired

Their ancestral ranges.

Allies and rivals

At peace with the Almohads, whose holy war they joined in 1195. Neighbours and later rivals: the Banu Abd al-Wad of the Tlemcen steppe. The Arab Riyah settled by al-Mansur in the Habt will fight them in 1217.

How things stand that morning

Independent nomads in their winter range, loyal enough to the caliph; no town of their own.

Wealth

Camels, horses and sheep; tolls on the Sijilmasa and Figuig roads; summer grain from the Tell.

Military

Tribal cavalry; a contingent fought at Alarcos (1195).

Threats

• Drought
• The Almohad governors of Taza and Fez if the tribe oversteps its summer leave

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.

In 1200

1. Spring 1200The Banu Marin move up to their summer pastures in the Moulouya and the plains of Guercif and Taza.Depends on: Rain and peace with the governors. Stopped by: A quarrel with the governor of Taza or Fez.

Later, on the likely course

1. 1213-1217After Las Navas (16 July 1212) they occupy the farmlands of north-eastern Morocco; Abd al-Haqq is killed fighting an Almohad army with Riyah allies in 1217.Depends on: Almohad weakness after 1212. Stopped by: A strong caliph in Morocco.

Where the sources disagree

• Mahyu's death: Alarcos was fought on 18 July 1195 (9 Sha'ban 591); he died of wounds, in 1195 or 1196. Abd al-Haqq's chieftainship from then fits the brief.

Evidence: Abd al-Haqq and the Marinid ranges are attested by Ibn Khaldun and the Rawd al-Qirtas, written later under Marinid rule and favourable to the dynasty.

On the map: Nomad ranges shift with the seasons; drawn is the winter and steppe range east of the Moulouya.

Primary sources for Zenata

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.

• 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
• The Book of Examples: the History of the Berbers and of the Muslim Dynasties of North Africa, Ibn Khaldun (1375 to 1379 at Qal'at Ibn Salama and Tunis, revised until 1406). Ibn Khaldun's tribal histories are the standard account of the powers that Almohad chronicles treat as background: the Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym in Ifriqiya and Tripolitania and their alliances with the Banu Ghaniya and Qaraqush; the Zenata of the central Maghreb (Banu Marin, Banu Abd al-Wad, Tujin, Maghrawa) before their rise; the Sanhaja and the veiled peoples of the Sahara; the Masmuda and the Almohad tribes. Read online
• The Book of Examination of the Wonders of the Cities (1191). The nearest geographical survey to 1200: a description of the Almohad lands written nine years earlier, town by town, from Alexandria and Barqa through Tripoli, Gabès, Mahdia, Tunis, Bougie, Tlemcen, Fez, Marrakesh and Sijilmasa, with a section on the Sahara routes and the Sudan (Ghana, Zafun, Kawkaw). Read online
• The Book of Routes and Realms: the Description of North Africa, al-Bakri (Abu Ubayd Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Bakri) (1068, at Cordoba). Old by 1200 but still the standard description of the Sahara and the Sudan that the Almohad-period writers copied: Ghana under Tunka Manin with its twin towns and its Muslim quarter, Awdaghust, Tadmakka, Kawkaw, Takrur and Sila, the gold trade and the routes from Sijilmasa and the Dar'a; the Ibadi towns of the Jarid and the Fezzan; the Berber peoples of the Maghreb. Read online