Banu Ifran

[1] The oldest mentions concerning the Banu Ifran situate the bulk of their people in the western region of Mauretania Caesariensis.

[7] The Banu Ifran were one of the four major tribes of the Zenata or Gaetulia[8] confederation in the Aurès Mountains, and were known as expert cavalrymen.

According to Ibn Khaldun, "Ifrinides" or "Ait Ifren" successfully resisted Romans, Vandals and Byzantines who sought to occupy North Africa before the arrival of the Muslim armies.

According to Corippus in his Iohannis,[9] during the reign of Justinian I between 547 and 550, the Banu Ifran challenged the Byzantine armies under John Troglita to war.

Under the leadership of their able general Jawhar, who killed Ya'la, in battle in 954,[14] the Fatimids struck back and destroyed Ifgan, and for some time afterward the Banu Ifran reverted to being scattered nomads in perpetual competition with their Sanhaja neighbours.

Later, led by Abu al-Kamāl, they established a new capital at Salé on the Atlantic coast, though this brought them into conflict with the Barghawata tribes on the seaboard.

[15][16][17] the Ifrenid emirate fell in 1058, after a Hilalian invasion on western Algeria, in which the Banu Ifren led by Abu Soda collaborated with the Hammadids but were defeated nevertheless, and Abu Soda was killed[18][19] however, their capitultion was not caused by the Arab invasion, as after suffering defeat, Hammadid leader Buluggin ibn Muhammad expediated to Tlemcen in the same year, sacking it and disperising the Banu Ifren into many different tribes[20] it was not until 1066 that the Almoravids led by Ibn Tashfin finished off the tribes by capturing Tlemcen and effectivly ending the Banu Ifren.

[21][22] During the 11th century, the Banu Ifran contested with the Maghrawa tribe for the control of the Maghreb al-Aqsa (present-day Morocco) after the fall of the Idrisid dynasty.

Ya'la's son Yaddū took Fes by surprise in January 993 and held it for some months until the Maghrawa ruler Ziri ibn Atiyya returned from Spain and reconquered the region.

Dihya, usually referred to as the Kahina, was the Jarawa Berber queen, prophetess, and leader of the non-Muslim response to the advancing Arab armies.