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Fihrids

The Fihrids (Arabic: الفهريون), also known as Banu Fihr (Arabic: بنو فهر), were an Arab family and clan, prominent in North Africa and Al-Andalus in the 8th century.

Fihrids
الفهريون
Parent familyQuraysh
CountryIfriqiya (745–757)
Al-Andalus (747–756)
Place of originMecca, Arabia
Founded745
FounderAbd al-Rahman ibn Habib
Final rulerHabib ibn Abd al-Rahman
SeatAl-Qayrawan, Ifriqiya
Qurtubah, Al-Andalus
TitlesEmir
Dissolution757

The Fihrids were from the Arabian clan of Banu Fihr, part of the Quraysh,[1] the tribe of the Prophet. Probably the most illustrious of the Fihrids was Uqba ibn Nafi al-Fihri, the Arab Muslim conqueror of North Africa in 670-680s, and founder of al-Qayrawan. Several of his sons and grandsons participated in the subsequent conquest of Hispania in 712.

As spearheads of the western conquest, the al-Fihris were probably the leading aristocratic Arab family of Ifriqiya and Al-Andalus in the first half of the 8th century. They produced several governors and military leaders of those provinces. After the Berber Revolt of 740-41, the west fell into a period of anarchy and disorder. The Umayyad Caliph in Damascus, facing revolts in Persia, did not have the resources to re-impose their authority in the west. In the vacuum, the Fihrids, the pre-eminent local Arab family, seized power in the west. Abd al-Rahman ibn Habib al-Fihri in Ifriqiya (745–755) and Yusuf ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri in Al-Andalus (747–756) ruled their dominions virtually independently of the Caliphate.

For a moment, it seemed as if the Fihrids might succeed in turning the western half of the Islamic world into a private family empire. The Fihrids greeted the fall of the Umayyads in 749-50 with delight, and sought to reach an accommodation with the new Abbasid Caliphs of the east to allow them to continue. But when the Abbasids rejected their offer of nominal vassalship and demanded full submission, the Fihrids broke with the Abbasids and declared independence.

In a decision that would prove fatal, Abd al-Rahman ibn Habib invited the remnants of the fugitive Umayyad clan to take refuge in his dominions. He soon regretted his decision. The arriving Umayyad princes, as the sons and grandsons of caliphs, were of more noble blood than the Fihrids themselves, and became a focal point of conspiracies among the Arab nobles of al-Qayrawan, resentful of Ibn Habib's autocracy. Ibn Habib set about persecuting the exiles. One of them, the young Abd al-Rahman, would flee to Al-Andalus, depose the Fihrids there and erect the Umayyad Emirate of Qurtubah in 756.

While the Andalusi branch was eclipsed by the Umayyads, the Ifriqiyan branch of the Fihrids descended into a bloody family quarrel in 755, that threw Ifriqiya into chaos, and ended with them being overrun and extinguished in a Kharijite Berber uprising in 757–758.

The al-Fihri name continued to have a magical effect in Al-Andalus, and pretenders drawn from that family continued to challenge Umayyad rule until the end of the century. The descendants of this family are found in Fez, Morocco under the name of al-Fassi al-Fihri, and some are found in Tunisia.[2]

The genealogy of the Fihrids:[3]

References

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  1. ^ Kennedy, Hugh (2010-12-09). The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live In. Orion. p. 448. ISBN 978-0-297-86559-9.
  2. ^ Mouna Hachim, Dictionnaire des noms de famille marocains, Casablanca, Le Fennec, 2012, p. 584.
  3. ^ H. Fournel, 1857, Étude sur la conquête de l'Afrique par les Arabes, Paris, Impermerie Imperiale, p.95
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