Uqba ibn Nafi (also referred to as Uqba bin Nafe, Uqba Ibn al Nafia, or Akbah) (622–683) was an
ArabArab people or Arabs are an ethnic group whose members identify along linguistic, cultural or genealogical grounds...
general under the
UmayyadThe Umayyad Caliphate was the second of the four Islamic caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. It was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty, whose name derives from Umayya ibn Abd Shams, the great-grandfather of the first Umayyad caliph. Although the Umayyad family originally came from the...
dynasty,in Amir Muavia and Yazid periods, who began the
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
ic conquest of 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...
, including present-day western
AlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country on the Mediterranean sea, the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area.It is bordered by Tunisia in...
and
MoroccoMorocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 32 million and an area just under . Its capital is Rabat, and its largest city is Casablanca. Morocco has a coast on the Atlantic Ocean that reaches past the Strait of Gibraltar into the...
in
North AfricaNorth Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa.Geopolitically, the UN definition of Northern Africa includes the following seven countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia,Mauritania, and...
. He was also the nephew of 'Amr ibn al-'As.
Uqba accompanied Al-‘As in his initial raids and capture of cities in North Africa starting with
BarcaBarce was an ancient Greek colony and later Roman, Byzantine, city in North Africa. It occupied the coastal area of what is modern day Libya. As a Greek city it was part of the Cyrenaican Pentapolis along with the city of Cyrene itself...
, then proceeding to
TripolitaniaTripolitania or Tripolitana is a historic region and former province of Libya, situated alongside Cyrenaica and Fezzan...
in 644 AD. In 670 now the emir or commander, Uqba led an Arab army to North Africa, crossing the
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
ian deserts, and setting up military posts at regular intervals along his route. In a region of what is now
TunisiaTunisia , officially the Tunisian Republic , is a country located in North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and Libya to the southeast. Tunisia is located southwest of the island of Sicily and south of Sardinia. Its size is almost 165,000 km² with an estimated population of just...
, he established the town now called
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...
(Kairwan or al Qayrawan, meaning "camp" or "
caravanseraiA caravanserai was a roadside inn where travelers could rest and recover from the day's journey...
" in
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
) about 160 kilometres south of present-day
TunisTunis is the capital of the Tunisian Republic and also the Tunis Governorate, with a population of 1,200,000 in 2008 and over 3,980,500 in the greater Tunis area...
, which he used as a base for further operations.
According to one legend, one of Uqba's soldiers stumbled across a golden goblet buried in the sands. It was recognized as one that had disappeared from
MeccaMecca , sometimes spelled Makkah is the holiest meeting site of the Islamic religion. The city is modern, cosmopolitan and whilst being closed to non-Muslims is nonetheless ethnically diverse.Islamic tradition attributes the beginning of Mecca to Ishmael's descendants...
some years before, and when it was dug out of the sand a spring appeared, with waters said to come from the same source as those of the sacred
Zamzam WellThe Well of Zamzam is a well located within the Masjid al Haram in Mecca, 20 meters east of the Kaaba, the holiest place in Islam...
in Mecca. This story led to Kairouan becoming a place of
pilgrimageIn religion and spirituality, a pilgrimage is a long journey or search of great moral significance. Sometimes, it is a journey to a shrine of importance to a person's beliefs and faith. Members of many major religions participate in pilgrimages...
, and then a holy city (the Mecca of the Maghreb) and the most important city in North Africa.
Uqba aside from cunning and brave, was also a fierce and sometimes brutal emir towards the enemies of
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
and carried out war and collected the poll tax against them. He was rumored to cut off body parts and taken people as slaves in his operations "in order to show them a lesson". He was thoroughly convinced of Arab superiority, demonstrated by the favor
AllahAllah is the standard Arabic word for God. While the term is best known in the West for its use by Muslims as a reference to God, it is used by Arabic-speakers of all Abrahamic faiths, including Christians and Jews, in reference to "God"...
had shown his kinsmen in their conquests. He was replaced in chains by
Abu al-Muhajir DinarAbu al-Muhajir Dinar , amir of Ifriqiya under the Umayyads.His biography is complicated by the existence of two versions of the history of the Umayyad conquest of North Africa....
who would become Uqba's successor. This ignited a fire in him to be returned to his post, which sometime later was granted to him by the
CaliphThe Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the leader of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transliterated version of the Arabic word which means "successor" or "representative"...
.
In 683 Uqba was ambushed and killed near
BiskraBiskra is the capital city of Biskra province, Algeria. In 2007, its population was recorded as 207,987.As of 1935, Biskra was an inland town, the principal settlement of a Saharan oasis watered by the intermittent Oued Biskra. It is in the southern part of the Algerian rail system, and a...
by
KusailaKusaila was a 7th century chief of the Awraba tribe of the Berber people and head of the Sanhadja confederation...
. Ironically he died beside his hated rival Abu al-Muhajir Dinar, during the battle with Kusaila's troops. His armies evacuated Kairouan and withdrew to
BarqaBarce was an ancient Greek colony and later Roman, Byzantine, city in North Africa. It occupied the coastal area of what is modern day Libya. As a Greek city it was part of the Cyrenaican Pentapolis along with the city of Cyrene itself...
(though Kairouan was soon recaptured). His descendants can be found in the area stretching from the
Lake ChadLake Chad is a historically large, shallow lake in Africa, whose size has varied greatly over the centuries. It is economically very important, providing water to more than 20 million people living in the four countries which surround it: Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria. It is located mainly in...
region to Mauritania's coast. The trans-sahel Arab tribe of "Kounta" traces its origins to Uqba, in Algeria, Tunisia and Libya some of his descendants are known as Ouled Sidi Ukba.
Historical accounts
Most of the accounts which describe Arab conquests of North Africa in general and Uqba's conquests in particular date back to at least two centuries after the conquests have happened.
One of the earliest reports come from the
AndalucianAl-Andalus was the Arabic name given to the parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Arab and North African Muslims , at various times in the period between 711 and 1492....
chronicler
Ibn Idhari Al-MarrakushiAbū al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Idhāri al-Marrākushi who lived in the late 13th and the early 14th century, was the author of an important medieval text on the history of the Maghreb and Iberia written in 1312.Little is known about the life of this author, who was born in Al-Andalus and...
in his
Al-Bayan al-Mughrib fi akhbar al-AndalusKitāb al-bayān al-mughrib fī ākhbār mulūk al-andalus wa'l-maghrib is an important medieval text on the history of the Maghreb and Iberia, written in Arabic in Marrakech in about the year 1312 by Ibn Idhari...
. In it, Ibn Idhari describes the moment when Uqba reached the
Atlantic coastThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres , it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface and about one-quarter of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek...
saying "Oh God, if the sea had not prevented me, I would have galloped on for ever like Alexander the Great, upholding your faith and fighting the unbelievebers!."
Edward GibbonEdward Gibbon was an English historian and Member of Parliament. His most important work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, was published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788...
, referring to Uqba ibn Nafi as
Akbah, gives him the title "conqueror of Africa," beginning his story when he "marched 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...
at the head of ten thousand of the bravest Arabs; and the genuine force of the Moslems [sic] was enlarged by the doubtful aid and conversion of many thousand Barbarians." He then marched into North Africa. Gibbon continues: "It would be difficult, nor is it necessary, to trace the accurate line of the progress of Akbah." On the North African coast, "the well-known titles of
BugiaBugia is either:*A Spanish and Italian name of the presently Algerian port city of Bejaia*The Italian word for a candle, especially used as the name for an additional candle carried by a server standing beside a bishop at some Christian liturgical celebrations carried It is counted among the...
, and
TangierTangier or Tangiers [
pronounce] is a city of northern Morocco with a population of about 700,000...
define the more certain limits of the
SaracenSaracen was a term used by Europeans in the Middle Ages for Arabs at first, then later for all who professed the religion of Islam.-Etymology:...
victories." Gibbon then tells the story of Akbah's conquest of the
Roman provinceIn Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of the Italian peninsula...
of
Mauretania TingitanaMauretania Tingitana was a Roman province located in northwestern Africa, coinciding roughly with the northern part of modern Morocco and Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla. The province extended from the northern peninsula, opposite Gibraltar, to Chellah and Volubilis to the south, and as far...
.
- "The fearless Akbah plunged into the heart of the country, traversed the wilderness in which his successors erected the splendid capitals of Fez
Fes or Fez is the third largest city in Morocco, after Casablanca and Rabat with a population of 946,815 . It is the capital of the Fès-Boulemane region....
and Morocco, and at length penetrated to the verge of the Atlantic and the great desertThe Sahara , , "The Greatest Desert") is the world's largest hot desert. At over 9,000,000 square kilometres , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as the United States or the continent of Europe. The desert stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean...
. . . . The career, though not the zeal, of Akbah was checked by the prospect of a boundless ocean. He spurred his horse into the waves, and raising his eyes to heaven, exclaimed: Great God! if my course were not stopped by this sea, I would still go on, to the unknown kingdoms of the West, preaching the unity of thy holy name, and putting to the sword the rebellious nations who worship another gods than thee."
Yet this Islamic Alexander, who sighed for new worlds, was unable to preserve his recent conquests. By the universal defection of the Greeks and Africans he was recalled from the shores of the Atlantic, and the surrounding multitudes left him only the resource of an honourable death. The last scene was dignified by an example of national virtue. An ambitious chief, who had disputed the command and failed in the attempt, was led about as a prisoner in the camp of the Arabian general. The insurgents had trusted to his discontent and revenge; he disdained their offers and revealed their designs. In the hour of danger, the grateful Akbah unlocked his fetters, and advised him to retire; he chose to die under the banner of his rival. Embracing as friends and martyrs, they unsheathed their scimeters, broke their scabbards, and maintained an obstinate combat, till they fell by each other’s side on the last of their slaughtered countrymen."
It should be pointed out that although much scholarship on the life and conquests of ibn Nafi are available, most have not been translated from their original Arabic into English or French.
See also
- Umayyad conquest of North Africa
The Umayyad conquest of North Africa continued the century of rapid Arab Muslim expansion following the death of Muhammad in 632 CE. By 640 the Arabs controlled Mesopotamia, had invaded Armenia, and were concluding their conquest of Byzantine Syria. Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad caliphate....
- Medieval Muslim Algeria
Medieval Muslim Algeria spans from the 600s to the 1600s. Unlike the invasions of previous religions and cultures, the coming of Islam, which was spread by Arabs, was to have pervasive and long-lasting effects on North Africa...
- Berbers and Islam
The Berbers are an ethnic group that had, until recently, few links to the Arabs. They have existed in ancient Mauretania, Numidia, Ifriqiya and Tripolitania, for thousands of years...
- Kusaila
Kusaila was a 7th century chief of the Awraba tribe of the Berber people and head of the Sanhadja confederation...
- Muslim conquests
Muslim conquests , also referred to as the Islamic conquests or Arab conquests, began after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad...
External links