After Abd al-Malik was secure in Damascus, he had fighting men to spare. Foreign expeditions rewarded soldiers with booty, so he offered his men the opportunity to launch another invasion of North Africa. The general this time would be Hassan ibn Numan al-Ghassani, a descendent of the formerly Christian Ghassanid Arabs in Syria. Hassan ibn Numan was able in every way, like his Caliph. The invasion began with an expeditionary force of 40,000, the largest force sent to North Africa yet.
In the previous invasion of North Africa, the Muslims had steered around the Roman-held city of Carthage. In 698, Carthage was a shadow of its former self. It had been the Phoenician capital for 700 years, then famously defeated and plundered by Rome in 146 BC. It had been a regional capital run by Romans since then, so another 700 years. Some of its buildings were ruined or disused but still impressive. By 698, its population had dwindled, perhaps because the Mediterranean Sea had much less commerce in the early Muslim years. Eventually, commercial trade built up again, but the loss of the sea as a “Roman lake” at first drove trade down and prices up.
It wasn’t hard to conquer Carthage. The remaining Romans may have taken a few ships out when they saw the army coming. The Muslims basically just walked into Carthage. They didn’t set up a garrison or even build a mosque, because their garrison city Kairouan, which had been retaken a few years before, was their real focus. Arabs did hold the city until the Roman navy took it back briefly in 697, but when Hassan ibn Numan reconquered it in 698, he ordered its value as a city and harbor to be destroyed.
The next major resistance leader was a Berber woman. Her real name was Dihya or Damya, but in Arabic she is known as Kahina, “the Priestess” or “Prophetess.” She was a leader of the Zanata Berbers, a Christian or perhaps even a convert to Judaism (this idea comes from Ibn Khaldun, the later North African historian). Her people lived in the Aures Mountains of Algeria, where it was hard for the horseback Arabs to prevail. Apparently, rebellion against French colonialism also began in the Aures Mountains.
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Hassan’s army met her in the foothills, where the Berbers defeated and chased the Arabs. Hassan had to withdraw to the coastal city of Cyrenaica. At least according to legend, Kahina advised the Berbers to destroy the civilized parts of North Africa, so that the Arabs would not want it. And so they did: they burned vineyards and orchards and tore down city walls. The nomadic Berbers of the mountains didn’t care about these things, but the farming people of the coastal plain were shocked to see their heritage destroyed. So it probably wasn’t good advice, since the Zanata Berbers might otherwise have unified the region to stand against the Arabs.
The Christian farmers abandoned the area, going to Spain or Sicily, and the region’s increasing depopulation made it all the simpler for the Arabs to conquer on their next try. Here we see also a reason why Christianity in North Africa disappeared so thoroughly, while in nearby Egypt, it didn’t. It was based along the coast and in the cities, while Egypt’s Christianity reached up the Nile and into rural farming towns.
Some time around the turn of century (history accounting was still very uncertain), Hassan ibn Numan had received more troops to replace those killed by Berbers. Some other Berber tribes allied with the Muslims and joined them. They invaded the Aures Mountains, and this time Kahina was defeated. She died in battle, and her sons who survived became Muslims. Libya and Algeria were effectively conquered for Islam.
Hassan founded the town of Tunis near the ruins of Carthage, and he sent for Coptic artisans to come from Egypt and help build and settle it. Abd al-Malik’s brother, Abd al-Aziz, was governor of Egypt. He was happy to send Egyptians to build this new garrison city (misr), but he wanted it to be under his rule. His own right-hand man, named Musa, came to Tunis to take over.
Meanwhile, Abd al-Malik died, and although his son took over smoothly, any change in power structure makes it easier for other changes to go forward. The new man, Musa ibn Nusayr, began the nuts and bolts stage of conquering Libya and Algeria. He conquered the major Berber tribes: the Kutama, Zanata, and Huwwara. He focused on captives who were sent off as slaves. The numbers may be greatly exaggerated, but as recorded, they were on the order of tens and even hundreds of thousands. 60,000 were sent to the governor of Egypt alone.
Musa conquered the city of Tangier, installing Berber converts as new governor and garrison. Some Arabs were placed among them to instruct them in the Quran. It was probably a pretty good plan, since these Berbers owed all of their importance to Musa and the new religion. He built up Tangier with new Muslims, instructing them to build a larger settlement. Tangier was across from Spain; Musa’s son successfully invaded the Balearic Islands.
Musa crossed into Morocco, taking hostages and captives. He was probably finished with this by 708, when he returned to Kairouan. Inland areas of Morocco and Algeria were unconquered, but the Muslim hold on the coast and cities was permanent.
- Great Arab Conquests, by Hugh Kennedy
- The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa and Asia—and How it Died, by John Philip Jenkins