Governor of Bougie

Who he is

Name

The sayyid Abu'l-Hasan ibn Abi Hafs ibn Abd al-Mu'min, most likely, but not pinned: al-Nasir replaced him during 596 (22 October 1199 to 10 October 1200), month not given

Title

Governor (wali) of Bougie (Bijaya), commanding the Almohad forces between Algiers and Bona

Since

Appointed by the caliph al-Mansur, so before January 1199; year not pinned

Born

Not known

Family

A sayyid: son of the sayyid Abu Hafs Umar, son of Abd al-Mu'min; brother of the sayyid Abu Zayd, who governs Ifriqiya from Tunis. He had governed Tlemcen in 1184-85 and strengthened its walls.

Confidence

medium

Ibn Khaldun, Histoire des Berberes (de Slane) vol. 2: p. 218 (al-Mansur gives him Bougie; he occupies Constantine against Yahya ibn Ghaniya, who storms Biskra), p. 104 (Yahya takes Biskra and beats the Almohad army under Abu'l-Hasan, brother of Abu Zayd, near Constantine, taking its camp), p. 223 (in 596 al-Nasir learns that the sayyid Abu'l-Hasan has fled from Constantine before Yahya and gives Bougie to a son of the shaykh Abu Hafs, later replaced by Abu Muhammad Abd al-Wahid, son of the same shaykh).

Searched in the 1854 edition; snippets only.

Overlord

The caliph Muhammad al-Nasir

What it holds

• Bougie, its port and arsenal (record Bougie)
• Command over Jijel, Collo, Setif and Mila (records Jijel, Collo, Setif, Mila)
• The relief of Constantine (record Constantine)
• Nominal overlordship of the Kabyle and Babor tribes

How it was acquired

Bougie fell to Abd al-Mu'min in 1152. Ali ibn Ghaniya surprised it in 1184, when the sayyid Abu'l-Rabi' was absent, and the Almohads retook it in 1185.

Allies and rivals

Allies: the sayyid Abu Zayd at Tunis, his brother; the Almohad garrison of Constantine. Enemy: Yahya ibn Ghaniya and his Arab and Ghuzz allies, masters of Biskra and the Zab.

How things stand that morning

Bougie is held. Biskra fell to Yahya ibn Ghaniya before the turn of the year (Ibn Khaldun tells it in al-Mansur's reign). The battle near Constantine in which the sayyid lost his camp and fled was reported to al-Nasir in 596, a year that runs from 22 October 1199 to 10 October 1200: it was most likely fought in 1199, but whether before or after 1 January 1200 is not pinned. On either reading the governor is in difficulty and his command is about to change hands; Constantine itself holds.

Wealth

Bougie's customs and its trade with Pisa, Genoa and Marseille, the grain of the Setif plains, the Soummam valley.

Military

The Almohad troops of the eastern central Maghreb, beaten near Constantine in 1199; the arsenal and fleet station of Bougie.

Threats

• Yahya ibn Ghaniya's next move on Constantine or Bougie itself
• The loss of Bona and the coast toward Ifriqiya

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. Early 1200, only if not already fought in 1199Yahya ibn Ghaniya defeats the sayyid Abu'l-Hasan near Constantine and takes his camp; the sayyid flees.Depends on: Yahya advancing from Biskra while the governor holds the field. Stopped by: The governor staying behind the walls of Constantine or Bougie.
2. During 596 AH (22 October 1199 to 10 October 1200), month not givenAl-Nasir removes Abu'l-Hasan and gives Bougie to a son of the shaykh Abu Hafs Umar, and some time later to Abu Muhammad Abd al-Wahid ibn Abi Hafs.Depends on: The caliph acting on the news of the defeat. Stopped by: A recovery by Abu'l-Hasan, such as the relief of Constantine or the retaking of Biskra.
3. 1200-1203, not pinnedAfter a victory near Constantine, Yahya wins over Bona and then Bizerte, Le Kef, Laribus and Kairouan (Ibn Khaldun, without dates).Depends on: No Almohad relief army. Stopped by: A strong new governor at Bougie or a caliphal army.

Places of note

• Bougie: Seat of the governor, port and arsenal

Where the sources disagree

• The p. 223 snippet of de Slane's Ibn Khaldun names the replacement as 'Abu'l-Hasan, son of the shaykh Abu Hafs', which may be an OCR or translation slip for another son of the Hintata shaykh (Abu Sa'id is a candidate); Abd al-Wahid, the later founder of Hafsid rule, followed him. The Iberia map makes Abd al-Wahid vizier from 1199: the two posts may have followed each other.
• Dating: Ibn Khaldun dates the Mahdia rising of Ibn Abd al-Karim to 595 (1198-99), his siege of Tunis to 596, Yahya's capture of Mahdia to 597 (1200-01), and the news of Abu'l-Hasan's flight from Constantine to 596. His dates are not always exact (he puts Alarcos in 594 instead of 591).
• One search snippet (p. 218) adds that after failing before Constantine Yahya laid siege to Bougie; this was not confirmed and is not used in the record.

Evidence: The sequence is Ibn Khaldun's, read in search snippets; the months are not given.

On the map: The governor's authority reaches further than the block drawn; the Kabyle mountains govern themselves.

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.