Anbasa ibn Suhaym Al-Kalbi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anbasa ibn Suhaym al-Kalbi (Arabic : عنبسةبنسحيمالكلب) was the Muslim wali (governor) of al-Andalus, also known as Moorish Hispania, from 721 to 726 CE.

Named in August of 721 to be the successor to Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abd Allah al-Gafiqi, Anbasa, during the following three years, dispatched several military expeditions into Septimania, but he was unable to subdue Carcasonne or Nimes since his soldiers were more concerned with looting the easy targets of the countryside than in mounting sieges against amply-defended walled cities.

Immediately after his appointment, Anbasa doubled taxes on the Christians and confiscated Jewish property. These actions, of course, caused widespread displeasure, scattered acts of disobedience, as well as some open revolts. In 722, a Visigothic nobleman, Pelayo, publicly defied the Muslim attempt to extract taxes and tribute and retreated into the mountains of Asturias where he gathered a band of rebellious followers. A Muslim patrol was sent to search for Pelayo and his men, and it was ambushed at the Battle of Covadonga at great loss of life.

Word of a great victory (and a rumor that the victory had been the result of divine intervention) spread throughout occupied Spain. This rallied more and more disaffected Christians and Jews to the cause of the rebels in the mountains. Duke Pedro, who governed Cantabria as a vassal of the Muslims, changed sides in 722; the following year, the Basques revolted, and, in 724, Aragón joined the cause as well. In retrospect, these events are viewed as the beginning of the Reconquista, the 770-year effort to wrest control of Spain from the Muslim invaders.

Coincidentally, a dynastic struggle arose among the Muslims. It was sparked by the death of Caliph Yazid II and the succession of his brother, Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik. Finally, in 725, Anbasa assumed personal control in Spain, asserting his independence of the caliph, and he resumed his campaigns in Septimania, conquering Narbonne, Carcasonne, and Nimes. Thousands of refugees spilled into the Kingdom of the Franks.

In 726, Anbasa returned to attack the Franks, but he died in combat. He was succeeded as wali by Udrra ben Abd Allah al-Fihrí, who, after a few months, was replaced by Yahya ben Salama al-Kalbí. Yahya recognized the injustices of the policies of Anbasa, especially with respect to the collection of taxes and the confiscation of property, so he reverted the tax rates to the levels existing in 722 and undertook a restitution of illegally-seized property.



Preceded by
Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abd Allah al-Gafiqi
Wali of al-Andalus
721–726
Succeeded by
Udrra ben Abd Allah al-Fihrí
Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.