Battle of the Nobles The Battle of the Nobles ( , " Ghazwat al - Ashraf " ) was an important confrontation in the Berber Revolt in c . 740 CE . It resulted in a major Berber victory over the Arabs near Tangier . During the battle , numerous Arab aristocrats were slaughtered , which led to the conflict being called the " Battle of the Nobles " . Zenata Berber chieftain Khalid ibn Hamid al - Zanati led the revolting Berber soldiers . Background . The Maghreb in the early eighth century was under Umayyad rule . The Berber Revolt broke out in early 740 in western Morocco , in response to the oppressive , unfair ( and , by Islamic law , illegal ) tax - collection and slave - tribute policies imposed upon Muslim Berbers by the governor Ubayd Allah ibn al - Habhab of Kairouan , governor of Ifriqiya and overlord of the Maghreb and al - Andalus . The Berber rebellion was inspired by Kharijite activists of the Sufri te sect , who held out the promise of a new puritan Islamic order , without ethnic or tribal discrimination , a prospect appealing to the long - suffering Berbers . The revolt began under the leadership of the Berber chieftain ( alleged water - carrier ) Maysara al - Matghari . The Berber rebels successfully seized Tangiers and much of the western Morocco by the late summer of 740 . The Berbers had timed their uprising carefully . The bulk of the Ifriqiyan army , under the command of the general Habib ibn Abi Obeida al - Fihri , was at that moment overseas , on an expedition to conquer Sicily . The governor Obeid Allah ibn el - Habhab immediately dispatched instructions ordering Habib to break off the expedition and ship the army back to Africa . But this would take time . So , in the meantime , Obeid Allah assembled a cavalry - heavy column composed of much of the aristocratic elite of Kairouan , and placed it under the command of Khalid ibn Abi Habib al - Fihri ( probably Habib ' s brother ) . This column was dispatched immediately on Tangiers and instructed to serve as the vanguard , to keep the Berber rebels in check , until the Sicilian expeditionary force disembarked and caught up with them . A second , smaller reserve army , under Abd al - Rahman ibn al - Mughira al - Adhari , was sent to Tlemcen , and instructed to hold there , in case the Berber army should break through to Ifriqiya . First Encounter . Maysara ' s Berber forces encountered the vanguard Ifrqiyan column of Khalid ibn Abi Habib somewhere in the outskirts of Tangiers . After a brief skirmish , Maysara ordered the Berber armies to fall back . Rather than give pursuit , the Arab cavalry commander Khalid ibn Abi Habib held the line just south of Tangiers , blockading the Berber - held city while awaiting the reinforcements from the Sicilian expedition . Regrouping after these skirmishes , the Berber rebels deposed and killed their leader , Maysara al - Matghari and elected the Zenata Berber chieftain , Khalid ibn Hamid al - Zanati as the new Berber commander . The reasons for Maysara ' s fall are not altogether clear - possibly because his sudden cowardice shown before the Arab cavalry column proved him military unfit , possibly because the puritan Sufri te preachers found a flaw in the piety of his character , or simply because the Zenata tribal chieftains , being closer to the Ifriqiyan frontline , felt they should be the ones leading the rebellion . The chronicler Ibn Khaldun claims Khalid ibn Abi Obeida ' s encountered the Berber forces and held his position at the ' Shalif ' river , which many commentators have taken to be the well - known Chelif river ( " Wadi ash - Shalif " ) in central Algeria . However , it is highly improbable that the Berber rebel army would have been that far east by then . Modern historians have suggested Ibn Khaldun or his transcribers made a mistake here . Julien ( 1961 : p . 30 ) suggests Ibn Khaldun actually meant to say the Sebou river , whose upper reaches would indeed appropriately place the Ifriqiyan column close to Tangiers . The chronicler En - Nuweri indeed reports the skirmish was outside the walls of Tangiers . The battle . Khalid ibn Hamid al - Zanati opted to immediately attack the Ifriqiyan army mulling around the ' Shalif ' ( or the outskirts of Tangiers ) before the arrival of the reinforcements from Sicily . The Berber rebels under Khalid ibn Hamid overwhelmed and completely defeated the army of Khalid ibn Abi Habib , massacring the cream of the Ifriqiyan Arab nobility . Aftermath . News of the slaughter of the Ifriqiyan nobles spread like a shock - wave . The reserve army of Ibn al - Mughira in Tlemcen fell into a panic . Seeing Sufri te preachers everywhere around the city , the troops launched a series of indiscriminate massacres , provoking a massive uprising in the hitherto - quiet city . The Sicilian expeditionary army of Habib ibn Abi Obeida arrived too late to prevent the massacre of the nobles . Realizing they were in no position to take on the Berbers by themselves , they retreated to Tlemcen to gather the reserves , only to find that that city too was now in disarray and the troops killed or scattered . Habib ibn Abi Obeida entrenched what remained of the Ifriqiyan army in the vicinity of Tlemcen ( perhaps as far back as Tahert ) , and called upon Kairouan for reinforcements . The request was forwarded to Damascus . Hearing of the defeat of the nobles , Caliph Hisham is said to have exclaimed " By God , I will most certainly rage against them with an Arab rage , and I will send against them an army whose beginning is where they are and whose end is where I am ! " . In February , 741 , the Umayyad Caliph Hisham appointed Kulthum ibn Iyad al - Qasi to replace the disgraced Obeid Allah as governor in Ifriqiya . Kulthum was to be accompanied by fresh Arab army of 30 , 000 raised from the Syrian regiments ( " junds " ) of the east . This would set up the even more momentous Battle of Bagdoura in late 741 .