Hayb and Labid (Barqa)

Who he is

Name

Not known for 1200

Title

Shaykhs of the Sulaym of Barqa

Since

Not applicable

Born

Not applicable

Family

Ibn Khaldun (vol. 1, pp. 160, 262-263) describes the Hayb in his own time: they hold Barqa from its western edge to the Little Aqaba near Alexandria; the Banu Ahmad round Ajdabiya are their first western branch and the Shammakh their leading house, holding the fertile plain of al-Marj; east of the Shammakh the numerous Banu Labid often fight them; further east the Muharib and others follow the Azza family, with the Hawwara Metha'ina, Berbers who have lost their tongue, camping alongside. Allied groups: the Rawaha, Nasira and Umayra. How much of this held in 1200 is not pinned.

Confidence

low

Ibn Khaldun's tribal survey (fourteenth century); al-Idrisi and the Kitab al-Istibsar (about 1191) for the towns.

Overlord

None. Ayyubid Egypt claims nothing west of the Mariout in practice that winter.

What it holds

• The plains of Barqa round al-Marj and Barniq
• The Jabal Akhdar's grazing and its springs
• The Marmarica coast to Tobruk and the frontier at Sollum
• Dues on the coast road and from the towns

How it was acquired

Since the 1050s.

Allies and rivals

Not engaged in the Ifriqiya war as far as the sources show; Qaraqush passed through in the 1170s. The Ka'ub who fled Qaraqush's massacre of 1190 took refuge in Barqa (Ibn Khaldun vol. 1, p. 264) and may still be there. Feud within: the Labid against the Shammakh (fourteenth-century evidence).

How things stand that morning

Masters of Barqa.

Wealth

Herds, the grain of the Jabal's edges, caravan dues.

Military

Tribal horse.

Threats

• Drought
• Egyptian or Ifriqiyan expeditions

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. 603 AH (1206-07); outside 1200Yahya ibn Ghaniya flees into the desert of Barqa after al-Nasir retakes Ifriqiya.Depends on: Yahya's defeat. Stopped by: Anything that prevents it.

Where the sources disagree

• The assignment names Hayb and Labid; we have Ibn Khaldun's later placing of them, not a 1200 attestation.

Evidence: Arab dominance of Barqa is certain; clan names for 1200 are inferred.

On the map: Tribal country; the towns are separate records.

Primary sources for Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym

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 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
• The Journey of al-Tijani, Abd Allah ibn Muhammad al-Tijani (after 1309 and before 1318, at Tunis). A Hafsid chancery official's travel book, which at each town stops to tell its history, and so preserves accounts of the Banu Ghaniya war and of Qaraqush in southern Ifriqiya and Tripolitania around 1200 (Gabès, Djerba, Tripoli, the Jarid oases) from lost Almohad-period sources. Read online
• The Pleasure of One who Longs to Cross the Horizons (the Book of Roger), al-Idrisi (Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Sharif al-Idrisi) (completed in 1154 at Palermo, for Roger II of Sicily). The fullest geography of Africa a generation before 1200: the Maghreb and Ifriqiya town by town with distances and products; the Sahara routes through Sijilmasa, Awdaghust, Ghadames and Zawila; the Sudan with Ghana, Takrur, Sila, Barisa, Kawkaw (Gao) and Kugha, and Kanem with its towns Manan and Njimi; Nubia and Dongola, the Beja and the Red Sea ports; Zeila and Berbera; and the Zanj coast with Malindi, Mombasa, Qanbalu and Sofala with its gold, the earliest systematic notice of the Swahili towns. Read online