The Great
Berber Revolt of 740-43 A.D. (122-25 A.H. in the Muslim calendar) took place during the reign of the Umayyad Caliph
Hisham ibn Abd al-MalikHisham ibn Abd al-Malik 10th Umayyad caliph who ruled from 723 until his death in 743. When he was born in 691 his mother named him after her father....
and marked the first successful secession from the Arab caliphate (ruled from Damascus). The revolt began in Tangier in 740, and was led initially by Maysara al-Madghari, a member of the caliphal army.
By 740 Hisham's armies had been defeated by the
ByzantinesThe Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on the capital of Constantinople, and ruled by Emperors in direct and de jure succession to the ancient Roman Emperors...
at the
Battle of AkroinonThe Battle of Akroinon was fought at Akroinon in Phrygia, on the western edge of the Anatolian plateau, in 739 between an Umayyad Arab army of Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik, led by his brother Sulayman, and Byzantine forces led by Leo III the Isaurian and his son, the future Constantine V...
; expeditions into
GaulGaul is a historical name used in the context of the Roman Empire in references to the region of Western Europe approximating present day France and Belgium, but also sometimes including the Po Valley, western Switzerland, and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the River...
during the period 732-737 had been repulsed by the
FranksThe Franks or Frankish people were a West Germanic tribal confederation first attested in the 3rd century as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul...
under
Charles MartelCharles Martel , called Charles the Hammer, was a Frankish military and political leader, who served as Mayor of the Palace under the Merovingian kings and ruled de facto during an interregnum at the end of his life, using the title Duke and Prince of the Franks. In 739 he was offered the title...
, and the strategic city of
NarbonneThe Battle of Narbonne was fought in 737 between the forces of Yusuf ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri, Umayyad governor of Narbonne, and a Frankish army led by Charles Martel....
was threatened; the Caucasian front was at a standstill and Gujarat had been lost. Against this series of reversals, the revolt of the Berbers in
IfriqiyaIn medieval history, Ifriqiya or Ifriqiyah was the area comprising the coastal regions of what are today western Libya, Tunisia, and eastern Algeria. This area included what had been the Roman province of Africa....
marked the crowning blow and largest military catastrophe of Hisham's reign.
The main causes of the revolt were the harsh policies of the governor of North Africa, 'Ubayd Allah bin al-Habhab (which required that Berber slaves be delivered as part of the tribute paid by Berber tribes) and discrimination against Berber units of the caliphal army as compared to Arab units, the former frequently being exposed to dangers that commanders spared the latter.
The army of the Berber rebels, most of whom belonged to the radical
KharijiteKharijites is a general term embracing various Muslims who, while initially supporting the caliphate of the fourth and final "Rightly Guided" caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib, later rejected him...
sect, swept through the
MaghrebThe Maghreb , also rendered Maghrib , meaning "place of sunset" or "western" in Arabic, is a region in North Africa. The term is generally applied to all of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, but in older Arabic usage pertained only to the area of the three countries between the high ranges of the...
slaughtering most the Arab aristocracy at the
Battle of the NoblesThe Battle of the Nobles was a decisive confrontation in the Berber Revolt in c. 740 CE. It resulted in a major Berber victory over the Arabs near Tangier. During the battle, numerous Arab aristocrats were slaughtered, which led the conflict being called the "Battle of the Nobles"...
in 741. In 743 a force sent from
DamascusDamascus is the capital and largest city of Syria. It is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world and its current population is estimated at about 1,669,000...
under the command of Kulthum finally brought the revolt to an end at the Battle of
KairouanKairouan Kairouan (Arabic القيروان) Kairouan (Arabic القيروان) (also known as Kirwan, Al Qayrawan, it is the capital of the Kairouan Governorate in Tunisia. It was founded by the Arabs in around 670 in the period of Caliph Mu'awiya and the original name was derived from Arabic kairuwân, from...
.