Yusuf ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri

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Yusuf ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri was the Umayyad governor of Narbonne in Septimania and later governor of al-Andalus from 747 to 756, ruling independently following the collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate in 750. Between 716 and 756, al-Andalus was ruled by governors sent from Damascus or appointed on the recommendation of emirs of Ifriqiya to which it administratively belonged.[1]

After becoming ruler, al-Fihri conducted a census,[2] as part of which Bishop Hostegesis prepared a list of tax and jizya payers. The bishop then made annual visits to makes sure the taxes were collected properly.[3]

He led a campaign against the Basques of Pamplona in 755 but was defeated[4] and is said to have horrified tribal sensibilities by raping two of Abd ar-Rahman's slaves, thus contributing to the factional conflicts in al-Andalus at that time.[5]

Yusuf al-Fihri was defeated at the Battle of Musarah[6] just outside Córdoba in March 756 by Abd ar-Rahman I, who, having fled Syria in 755 to escape from the Abbasids, became the first Emir of Córdoba.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Abun-Nasr, Jamil M. (1987). A History of the Maghrib in the Islamic Period. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-33767-4, p. 71.
  2. ^ Wolf, Kenneth Baxter (2000). Conquerors and Chroniclers of Early Medieval Spain. Liverpool University Press, ISBN 0-85323-554-6, p. 156.
  3. ^ Imamuddin, S. M. (1981). Muslim Spain - 711-1492 A.D: A Sociological Study. Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 90-04-06131-2, p. 58.
  4. ^ Trask, R. Larry (1996). The History of Basque. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-13116-2, p. 12.
  5. ^ Scales, Peter C. (1994). The Fall of the Caliphate of Cordoba: Berbers and Andalusis in Conflict. Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 90-04-09868-2, p. 66.
  6. ^ Al-Sulami, Mishal Fahm (2004). The West and Islam: Western Liberal Democracy Versus the System of Shura. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-31634-0, p. 207.
Preceded by
Abd ar-Ramnan ibn Kathir al-Lakhmi		 Governor of Al-Andalus
747–756		 Succeeded by
Abd ar-Rahman I succeeds as Emir