Qaraqush and his Ghuzz

Who rules

Name

Sharaf al-Din Qaraqush al-Armani al-Muzaffari al-Nasiri, called al-Taqawi and al-Ghuzzi

Title

Amir (commander) of the Ghuzz; he called himself the mamluk of al-Muzaffar (Taqi al-Din) and had the Friday sermon said for Saladin when he took a town

Since

In Africa since 568 AH (1172-73); in the desert since his defeat by Yahya ibn Ghaniya in the 1190s (date not pinned)

Born

Not pinned. Of Armenian origin according to al-Tijani and Ibn Khaldun; a Turk according to the eastern writers.

Family

A son, whose name is not given, survives him and is made commander of the Ghuzz by the caliph Yusuf al-Mustansir (1213-1224); Ibn Khaldun says this son later fled to Waddan and was killed there in 666 (1258) by agents of the king of Kanem. Another son was killed before his eyes at Waddan in 1212. His family was taken to Marrakesh after the defeat of 1187.

Confidence

low

TDV (Ongul 2001) and Ibn Khaldun (vol. 2, pp. 100-105) give his career; where he is on 1 January 1200 is not stated. After his defeat by Yahya he 'fled to the mountains and then to the desert, settling in Waddan', where he was killed in 609 (1212).

Overlord

None in practice. He began as a captain of Saladin's nephew Taqi al-Din and had the khutba said for Saladin; he submitted to the Almohads twice (after 1187, and in 586/1190 at Tunis) and broke with them each time.

What the realm holds

• Waddan and the Jufra oases (Hun and Sokna): his refuge and base on the road from Tripoli to the Fezzan (most likely held that winter; not pinned)
• Claimed: Tripoli and its province (he is still called lord of Tripoli in one passage of Ibn Khaldun) and Gabes
• Claimed by his conquest of 1176-77: the Fezzan with Zawila; real control in 1200 not pinned

How it was acquired

Sent west from Alexandria in 568 (1172-73) in place of Taqi al-Din; took Siwa, Awjila and Zella in 569-570 (1174-75), Tripoli with the help of the Riyahi chief Mas'ud ibn Zimam and the Arabs, the Fezzan in 572 (1176-77), and with Ibrahim ibn Qaratakin, Ghadames without a fight in 573 (1177-78); Gabes, the Nafzawa and much of southern Ifriqiya in 576-581 (1180-85). Lost most of it to al-Mansur in 1187; regained Gabes and Tripoli by treachery in 586 (1190); lost them to Yahya ibn Ghaniya in the 1190s.

Allies and rivals

Rivals: Yahya ibn Ghaniya and above all the Dabbab and Ka'ub, whose chiefs he murdered; the Almohads, whom he has betrayed twice. Allies: his Ghuzz; perhaps some Arab or Berber groups of the Jufra and the Jabal (not pinned). The Ayyubid tie is dead: Saladin is gone and Egypt is in civil war that winter.

The realm that morning

A beaten condottiere with a following of Ghuzz, holding at most the desert oases of the Jufra (Waddan, Hun, Sokna) and perhaps some claim on the Fezzan, while Yahya holds Tripoli and Gabes. Where he is that morning is not pinned.

Wealth

Raiding, the dates of the Jufra, tolls on the caravans between Tripoli, the Fezzan and Egypt, and the slave trade of the Fezzan road.

Military

A band of Ghuzz Turkish horse-archers (he came west in 1179 with 400 Turkish horsemen according to TDV; no figure for 1200); the fortified oasis town of Waddan, which held out until 1212. Officers: his freedman Yaqut, who held Tripoli for him and has been a prisoner in Majorca since Yahya took the city (he is released only by the Almohad conquest of the island in 1203); Ibrahim ibn Qaratakin, the sword-bearer (silahdar) called al-Mu'azzami, who came west in 1177-78, shared his conquests (Ghadames, the road to the Sudan), fought and beat him and then divided the conquests with him (his fate by 1200 not pinned). Many Ghuzz who came with him have passed into Almohad service since 1188 (Ibn Khaldun, p.

265, after al-Marrakushi).

Threats

• Yahya ibn Ghaniya and the Dabbab's blood feud
• Hunger and thirst in the oases
• The defection of his Ghuzz to Yahya or the Almohads

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. 609 AH (1212-13); outside 1200Yahya and the Dabbab besiege Waddan; Qaraqush surrenders when food and water fail and is killed after seeing his son killed.Depends on: Yahya's expulsion from Ifriqiya and the Dabbab's feud. Stopped by: Anything that changes either.

Later, on the likely course

1. About 1201-1202 (not pinned)Yahya ibn Ghaniya beats 'Qaraqush the Ghuzz, lord of Tripoli' again (Ibn Khaldun's Almohad chapter, p. 227).Depends on: Qaraqush coming out of the desert to contest Tripoli. Stopped by: Qaraqush staying in the Jufra, or an alliance with the Almohads.

Places of note

• Waddan, his last fortress: Fortified oasis town of the Jufra; stormed by Yahya in 1212.

Where the sources disagree

• Ibn Khaldun's Banu Ghaniya chapter dates his capture of Santariyya (Siwa) to 586 in the OCR read; TDV gives 569-570 (1174-75), which fits his career. The 586 reading is probably an OCR or translation error.
• Whether he reached Waddan before 1200 is not pinned; Ibn Khaldun compresses the years between his defeat and his death.

Evidence: His career to 1190 is well attested; his position in the late 1190s is not, beyond his flight to the mountains and the desert.

On the map: Drawn on the oases where he was in the 1200s; on 1 January 1200 he may still be in the Jabal Nafusa or the Jabal Demmer.

Primary sources for this realm

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 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