Abu Yazid

Abū Yazīd Makhlad ibn Kaydād Dajjal (Arabic: أبو يزيد مخلد بن كيداد;‎ c. 874 – 19 August 947), also known as the Man on the Donkey (Arabic: صاحب الحمار, romanized: Ṣāhib al-Himār), was an Ibadi Berber of the Banu Ifran tribe who led a rebellion against the Fatimid Caliphate in Ifriqiya (modern Tunisia and eastern Algeria) starting in 944.

Abu Yazid conquered Kairouan for a time, but was eventually driven back and defeated by the Fatimid caliph al-Mansur bi-Nasr Allah.

Abu Yazid's father Kaydad was a Zenata Berber from Taqyus or Tozeur in the district of Chott el Djerid, then still known by its ancient name, Qastiliya.

[1] The area had in the previous decades been converted to the Nukkari branch of Ibadi Islam, and was a major centre of the sect, with Abu Ammar as its local leader.

[6] Abu Yazid's movement was the spiritual heir to a number of tendencies endemic in the Maghreb: the Ibadi movement, with its anti-Arab and pro-Berber chauvinism and its insistence that leadership belonged to the "best Muslim", in marked contrast to the Fatimids' claims to a hereditary imamate;[9] the anti-imperial traditions of the great Berber Revolt against the Umayyad Caliphate in 740;[10] and the strong messianic traditions of the Maghreb, which had welcomed and sheltered the Alids persecuted by the Abbasid Caliphate, and which would recur throughout history, culminating in the messianic empire of the Almohads in the 12th–13th centuries.

In the subsequent battle, the Fatimids initially prevailed, until Abu Yazid, unarmed and in his usual ascetic habit, rallied his men and led them to victory.

Most of his men used a rope to escape from the back of the palace, but Khalil, the city's chief qadi, the army treasurer and thirty others were taken prisoner and led to Abu Yazid in Raqqada.

[1][21] Abu Yazid himself was not immune to the accusations: after the conquest of Kairouan he began to abandon his Spartan habits for silk clothes, and his characteristic donkey for thoroughbred horses, which estranged his more austere followers.

[1][24] The Fatimid position was difficult, as the ships bringing in grain supplies ran aground and were captured by the rebels, but Abu Yazid also faced problems.

[26] Admonished by Abu Ammar, he abandoned the luxuries he had adopted and returned to his previous austere life, leading to a resurgence in Berber support for his cause.

Some contacted the Fatimids, offering to hand him over; an assassination plot was discovered and averted; and riots erupted over the issue of the abduction of the locals' daughters and concubines by the Kharijite soldiery.

[27] During the following months, heavy fighting between Abu Yazid's and the Fatimid forces occurred at Tunis, which was captured and recaptured by both sides, and left almost completely destroyed.

Al-Hasan ibn Ali withdrew to the territories of the Kutama Berbers in Lesser Kabylia, who were the mainstay of the Fatimid regime; from there he took over the fortresses of Tijis and Baghaya, threatening Abu Yazid's rear.

After this first embassy was well received, Abu Yazid sent Ayyub to pledge allegiance to the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Rahman III, who in turn promised to send support.

To avoid giving the rebels any advantage, al-Mansur and his government hid the death of his father, a task made easier by the reclusive life al-Qa'im had led, rarely venturing out of his palace during his reign.

Already before his father's death, on 16 May, al-Mansur sent by sea weapons and supplies to Sousse, and within days launched a coordinated attack to relieve the city: on 26 May, the garrison of Sousse, assisted by Kutama Berber cavalry from the south and troops landed by sea from the north, broke the siege of the city and forced Abu Yazid to withdraw his forces inland towards Kairouan.

[1][31] Abu Yazid retreated towards Kairouan, only to find that the populace, exasperated by the exactions of his Berber supporters, had risen in revolt and shut the gates against him.

[31] In the meantime, al-Mansur issued a full amnesty to the notables of Kairouan in return for their renewed loyalty, and on 28 May, the caliph entered the city with his troops, and set up a fortified camp south of it.

[31] Abu Yazid attacked the camp on the morning of 5 June, and was only thrown back with great difficulty, after al-Mansur himself reportedly rallied the defenders.

Abu Yazid attempted to force the Fatimids to withdraw by sending his son Fadl to raid the environs of al-Mahdiya, where many of the Kutama had settled their families; but although al-Mansur sent some troops to shield them, he refused to move his main army.

[33] While al-Mansur was slowly building up his numerically inferior forces with contingents from the more remote provinces of the Fatimid empire, Abu Yazid's support began to dwindle.

As a result, the Fatimid army turned back from Biskra to Tubna, and thence marched west, along the northern shore of Chott el Hodna.

After a grueling eleven-day march in the desert he was forced to turn back, only for the heavy winter to take further toll on his army; the Fatimid caliph himself fell heavily ill due to the rigours of the campaign and was bedridden for two weeks.

In early June, the neighbouring fortresses of Shakir and Aqqar, also held by rebels, surrendered, and on 14 August 947, the final attack on Kiyana was launched.

[42][43] Abu Yazid's skin was salted and stuffed, to be paraded in public in every town the victorious caliph passed on his way back, sat on a camel and dressed in a tall heretic's cap, with specially trained monkeys pulling at his beard and giving blows to his head.

[46] On the very day of Abu Yazid's death, al-Mansur declared himself as the imam and caliph, and publicly assumed his regnal title of al-Manṣūr bi-Naṣr Allāh, "The Conqueror with the Help of God".

Following his defeat, Kharijism was confined to marginalized groups in the fringes of the settled areas—the oases of Ghardaya and Wargla, Djerba Island, and the Nafusa Mountains—mostly engaging in theological activity.

[48] One scholar argues that the Hausa culture hero Bayajidda represents a folk personification of the supporters of Abu Yazid who fled North Africa after his defeat.

The legends seem to be describing events which happened during the tenth century A.D. and Bayajida may be identical with the Ibāḍite sectary Abū Yazīd who resisted the Fāṭimids of Tunisia until he was killed by them in 947.

After some time a part of this rabble which had remained unassimilated moved south-west and interbred with the indigenous inhabitants round Daura, forming the Hausa aristocracies.