Auteur: Aures
Date: 2011-06-03 16:16:20
Kusayla
J’avais déjà mis en ligne DEUX excellentes contributions de M. Talbi in EI2, à savoir « Al-Kahina » et « Ifrikiya ». En voici une autre étude, du même auteur, dédiée à l’un des plus illustrés héros de la lutte des Amazighs pour leur indépendance, soit KUSAYLA
Un article dans lequel M. Talbi résume plusieurs aspects de la vie de cette figure historique Amazgh, à savoir
-sa tribu,
-sa conversion à l’Islam,
-son humiliation par le tyran Oqba,
-sa vengeance,
-sa politique comme gouverneur de la Tamazgha,
-sa dernière bataille
-etc
C’est en quelque sorte une « bibliographie condensée », à laquelle il ne manque que la partie onomastique, l’étymologie du nom Kusayla. Une tentative, relativement à ce point, sera postée prochainement, en même temps que la version française de ce même article.
Bonne lecture
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KUSAYLA B. LAMZAM, or KASĪLA was, in the tradition of the Massinissa and of Jugurtha, one of the most eminent figures in the struggle of the Berbers to preserve their independence.
(Kusayla: sa tribu et sa conversion à l’Islam)
In 55/674, at the time when the mawlā Abu 'l-Muhād̲j̲īr Dīnār came from Egypt to replace ʿUḳba b. Nafiʿ as governor of the recently-conquered province of the Mag̲h̲rib, Kusayla was certainly "king" of the Awraba, a broad alliance of tribes of the Barānis group, for the most part sedentary. The territory of the Awraba was centred at that time on the region of Tlemcen, called Pomaria in antiquity, and it probably stretched from west of the Aurès range to Walila (= Volubilis) to the north of Fez. It may be recalled that Idr̲īs [q.v.] was brought to power by the Awraba of Walila. At the time of the conquest, the majority of the latter were no doubt Christianised. In fact, according to al-Bakri their capital Tlemcen maintained, along with the features of its ancient civilisation, a large Christian population until the 5th / 11th century.
It was at Tlemcen that Abu 'l-Muhād̲j̲īr was confronted by Kusayla. The new governor, preferring a policy of conciliation to one of force, took the opportunity of making an ally of the "king" of the Awraba. Kusayla became converted to Islam and henceforward lived with Abu 'l-Muhād̲j̲īr at Takerwān which had replaced the capital founded by ʿUḳba b. Nafiʿ, and the name of which, by its prefix, symbolised a full scheme of Arab- Berber agreement.
(Le retour du tyran Oqba en Tamazgha)
The death of the founder of the Umayyad dynasty, Muʿawiva, led to a change of policy. In 62/681 ʿUḳba set out once again for Ifrīḳiya, dreaming only of vengeance and a great d̲jihād. With him, the policy of subjugating the Berbers by force took on a new lease of life. His first act was to put Abu 'l-Muhād̲j̲īr in irons, to take Kusayla prisoner, and to re-instate as the capital, with its former name, the place which he had initially selected for the purpose during his first term of authority. Subsequently, forcing Abu 'l-Muhād̲j̲īr and Kusayla to accompany him, he embarked on the major expedition which was supposed to lake him - there is no serious reason to doubt it - as far as the Atlantic. On the way, in spite of the warning of Abu 'l-Muhād̲j̲īr, he went out of his way to humiliate the Berber "king". We are familiar with the typical scene, described in all the sources where ʿUḳba, as a means of humiliating Kusayla, forces him to skin a sheep in his presence.
(La vengeance de Kusyla - La mort de Oqba)
In the early stage, the lightning campaign that he initiated, the more unexpected in that it followed the policy of peace and conciliation of his predecessor, seems to have had the advantage of surprise, which explains, in part at least, his initial decisive success. But resistance soon became orgarised. In fact, ʿUḳba made no major conquest. The Barānis, the most romanised of the Berbers, allied themselves with the Byzantines. The Awraba secretly made contact with Kusayla, their chief. He - it is not known from where - escaped from detention under ʿUḳba and assumed leadership of the resistance.
Over-confident in his successes, did ʿUḳba for his part, as all the sources assert, commit the foolish error of sending the bulk of his troops towards al- ḳayrawān, keeping with him only a handful of men, some of three hundred horsemen? Was there an over-riding need to relieve the capital threatened by the Byzantines? Or was this more simply a question of an act of indiscipline on the part of soldiers exhausted by a long and tedious campaign? Whatever the case may have been, to the south of Biskra, at Tahūda (=Thabudeos), ʿUḳba found himself confronted by Kusayla at the head of powerful Barānis and Byzantine contingents. Here he found, along with all his men, including Abu 'l-Muhād̲j̲īr, the epic and spectacular death of which he dreamed and which perpetuated his legend. A mausoleum, that of Sīdī ʿUḳba, was erected on the site of the battlefield and became a centre for pilgrimage which is still revered today.
(Politique de Kusyla comme gouverneur de la Tamazgha independante, durant 5 ans) At al- ḳayrawān, there was panic, which illustrates the importance of Kusayla's victory and especially the strength of his forces. The idea of evacuating the country, proposed by Ḥanas̲h̲ al-Ṣanʿānī, finally prevailed over that of resistance, supported by Zuhayr b. ḳays al-Balawī So the army withdrew. But al- ḳayrawān did not lose the whole of its Arab and @!#$ population. It had already advanced beyond the status of a simple military camp, a fact which deserves underlining. Between the year 64-9 / 683-8, it became the capital of a huge Berber kingdom ruled by Kusayla. Ibn ʿId̲h̲ārī (Bayān, i, 31} notes that:
"Kusayla granted amān to the Muslims who bad stayed in al- ḳayrawān. He established himself there as sovereign {amir) of all the inhabitants of Ifrīḳiya and the Mag̲h̲rib, including the Muslims present in that area."
Hence no xenophobia, no persecution, no religious fanaticism.
We may underline this fact, reported by witnesses who had no cause to flatter their adversaries. Kusayla himself, we are assured, took care not to renounce Islam after his victory. These measures are sure evidence of a political programme designed to deprive the Arabs of any religious pretext for invading the Mag̲h̲rib once again.
(Conclusion)
But the wave of conquest was not yet exhausted. When the crisis which arose in the East with the revolt of Ibn al-Zubayr had abated, Zuhayr b. ḳays al - Balawi set out for Ifrīḳiya with a strong army. Kusayla, who was not sure of the conditions prevailing at his rear in al- ḳayrawān chose to go and wait for his enemy at Mams, 50 km. to the west of the capital, thus in a region where mountains could offer refuge in the event of defeat. The battle, in which he lost his life, went against him. But it should not be believed that it was as decisive as our sources claim. In fact, although victorious, Zuhayr preferred to evacuate the region again, so as not to succumb to the good things of this world, so we are told. In turn, he met hit death on the return journey, at Barḳa where the Byzantines had effected a landing. Was this supposed to be a combined operation, designed to catch the Arabs in the Ifriḳiyan trap, a plan which failed because of poor co-ordination? If Kusayla's attempt to found a great empire governed from the city founded by ʿUḳba b. Nafiʿ had succeeded, the history of the Mag̲h̲rib would certainly have taken a different turn. But were the Berbers ripe then for such a scheme? With al-Kāhina [q.v.], the torch of resistance passed subsequently to the Buṭr, but with no more lasting success.
Bibliography:
Sources (classed chronologically):
Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam, Futūḥ Ifrīḳiya wa 'l-Andalus, ed. and partial Fr. tr. A. Gateau, Algiers 1947, 70-7
Pseudo-Raḳīḳ, Taʾrīk̲h̲ , ed. M. al-Kaâbi, Tunis 1968, 46-52
Mālikī, Riyāḍ, ed. H. Monés, Cairo 1951, 21-31
Bakrī, Masālik, ed. and Fr. tr. de Slane, Paris 1965, 73-4 /149-51, 7/23 and 50/108
Ibn al-At̲h̲īr, Kāmil, ed. Beirut 1965, iii, 467, iv, 107-10, 370-2
ʿUbayd Allāh b. Ṣāliḥ b. ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm, Naṣṣ d̲j̲adid ʿan Fatḥ al-ʿArab li 'l-Mag̲h̲rib, ed. E. Lévi-Provençal, in Rev.de l'institut d'Egypt à Madrid (1954), 220 (Fr. tr. in Arabica, i, 39-40)
Ibn ʿId̲h̲ārī, Bayān, ed. G. S. Colin and E. Lévi-Provençal, Leiden 1948, i, 28-9
Nuwayrī, Nihāya ,ed. and partial Spanish tr. Gaspar Remiro, in Revista del Centro de Estudios Historicos de Granada y su Reino, ii (1916), 19-21
Ibn Ḵh̲aldūn, ʿIbar, Beirut 1959, vi, 216-8, 297-300
Ibn Tag̲h̲ribardī, Nud̲j̲ūm, Cairo 1963, i, 158-60
Ibn Abī Dīnār, Muʾnis, Tunis 1967, 31-3
Studies (classed alphabetically):
E. F. Gautier, Le Passé de l'Afrique du Nord, Paris 1952, 237, 266, 267-70
Ch.-A. Julien, Histoire de l'Afrique du Nord, Paris 1956, i, 16-20
A. Laroui, Histoire du Maghreb, Paris 1970, 78, 81
G. Marçais, Sidi ʿUqba,Abū-l-Muhājir et Kusayla, in Cahiers de Tunisie (1953), 11-17;
Saʿd Zag̲h̲lūl ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd, Taʾrīk̲h̲ al-Mag̲h̲rib al-ʿArabī, Cairo 1965, 152, 155-75
M. Talbi, Un nouveau fragment de l'Histoire de l'Occident Musulman... , in CT ,No.73-4, 19-52.
(M. Talbi)
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