Yusuf ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri

Yusuf ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri (Arabic: يوسف بن عبد الرحمن الفهري‎) was Umayyad governor of Narbonne in Septimania and then from 747 to 756 governor of al-Andalus, ruling independently following the collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate in 750. He was a descendant of 'Uqbah, the founder of al-Qayrāwan.[1]

Between 716 and 756, al-Andalus was ruled by governors sent from Damascus or appointed on the recommendation of the Umayyad regional governors of Ifriqiya to which it belonged administratively .[2] Like many of his predecessors Yusuf struggled to control infighting between the majority Berber population and the Arabs and also had to deal with perennial feuding between Syrian and Yemeni Arab tribes comprising his forces.[3]

After becoming ruler, al-Fihri conducted a census,[4] 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.[5]

Al-Fihri led a campaign against the Basques of Pamplona in 755 but was defeated[6] 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.[7]

Yusuf al-Fihri was defeated at the Battle of Musarah[8] 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.

See also

References

  1. ^ Hitti, Philip Khuri (1970). History of the Arabs from the Earliest Times to the Present. Macmillan. ISBN 9780333098714, p. 504.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ Gerli, E. Michael & Armistead, Samuel G. (2003). Medieval Iberia: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. ISB 9780415939188, p. 4.
  4. ^ Wolf, Kenneth Baxter (2000). Conquerors and Chroniclers of Early Medieval Spain. Liverpool University Press, ISBN 0-85323-554-6, p. 156.
  5. ^ Imamuddin, S. M. (1981). Muslim Spain - 711-1492 A.D: A Sociological Study. Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 90-04-06131-2, p. 58.
  6. ^ Trask, R. Larry (1996). The History of Basque. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-13116-2, p. 12.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ 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 al-Rahman ibn Katir al-Lahmi		 Governor of Al-Andalus
747–756		 Succeeded by
Abd ar-Rahman I succeeds as Emir