Abd al - Rahman ibn Habib al - Fihri Abd al - Rahman ibn Habib al - Fihri ( died 755 ) was an Arab noble of the Oqbid or Fihrid family , and ruler of Ifriqiya ( North Africa ) from 745 through 755 AD . Background . Abd al - Rahman ibn Habib was a great - grandson of Oqba ibn Nafi al - Fihri ( Muslim Arab conqueror of North Africa ) . His family , the al - Fihri s , were among the leading Arab families of the Maghreb . In 740 , he joined his father Habib ibn Abi Obeida in an Arab expedition across the water to Sicily in what was possibly the first attempt at a full - scale invasion of the island ( rather than a mere raid ) . They had a successful landing and laid a brief siege to Syracuse , securing its submission to tribute . But the break - out of the Great Berber Revolt in the Maghreb forced the al - Fihris to cancel the invasion of Sicily and ship their army quickly back to Africa to help quell the uprising . The Arabs were defeated by the Berbers the Battle of Bagdoura ( near the Sebou ) ( 741 ) . His father killed in the field , Abd al - Rahman ibn Habib narrowly escaped himself and fled across the straits to Spain with the remnant of the Arab army . While in Spain , Ibn Habib intrigued in the conflict which immediately erupted between the commanders of the defeated army ( the ' Syrian ' regiments ( " junds " ) ) , and the resident governor , Abd al - Malik ibn Qatan al - Fihri , When the Syrian commander Balj ibn Bishr al - Qushayri tortured and executed the elderly Ibn Qatan , a Fihrid relative , Abd al - Rahman ibn Habib openly broke with the Syrians and joined the Andalusian ( " baladi " ) party . He participated in the Battle of Aqua Portora in August 740 , and is claimed by at least one chronicler ( Ibn al - Khatam ) of seeking out and fatally wounding Balj in the heat of battle ( although here he is likely confused with another Abd al - Rahman , Ibn al - Qama al - Lakhmi , the governor of Narbonne and commander of the Andalusians ) . In the aftermath , Abd al - Rahman ibn Habib tried to forward himself as a candidate to replace the governor , but gave up his ambitions with the arrival of Abu al - Khattar ibn Dirar al - Kalbi as Andalusian governor in 743 , who set about pacifying the situation . In 743 , or soon after , Ibn Habib left Spain and returned to Ifriqiya ( although , apparently , he may have left his son , Yusuf behind ) . Ibn Habib may have served briefly under the Kairouan governor Handhala ibn Safwan al - Kalbi in a variety of military capacities , including command of the Tunis garrison . Tunisian Coup . In late 744 , in the turmoil following the death of the Umayyad caliph Hisham , Abd al - Rahman ibn Habib assembled a small force in Tunis and declared himself emir of Ifriqiya . Although urged to quash the usurper , the Ifriqiyan governor Handhala ibn Safwan al - Kalbi decided it was best to avoid bloodshed and consented to return to Damascus in February 745 , rather than put up a fight . Nonetheless , at his departure , Handhala ibn Safwan laid a curse on the usurper : " Oh God , do not permit Abd al - Rahman ibn Habib to enjoy his usurped authority ! Let his partisans derive no profit from this attempt , may they shed each other ' s blood ! Send against them , O Lord , the most evil of all the men You have created ! " Handhala extended the curse to Ifriqiya itself , the land and its ungrateful people , invoking upon them famine , pestilence and war . As it turned out , save from some brief seasonal interruptions , Ifriqiya was indeed gripped by pestilence for the next seven years . Ruler in Ifriqiya . Abd al - Rahman ibn Habib had come to power essentially as the figurehead of the local Arab high military caste , a group much despised and feared by the common population . Their appetites and aspirations had long been kept in check by the Umayyad governors . But with the cord to Damascus now cut , the high nobles fully expected to be allowed free rein by ' their ' emir . But they were soon to be disappointed . Ibn Habib wanted a country to govern , and was not prepared to see it fragmented and handed over to the anarchic ways of a feudal nobility . Ibn Habib consequently faced the prospect of revolts whatever he did - should the nobles be let loose , the people will revolt ; hold the reins tight , the nobles would turn against him . Ibn Habib consequently turned to his greatest asset - his family , the illustrious Fihrid brood - to assert himself on the bewildered country . No sooner had Ibn Habib installed himself in Kairouan , than revolts , both by Arabs and Berbers , began erupting all over the country . Tunis was raised to revolt by a certain Orwa ibn ez - Zobeir es - Sadefi , Tabinas by Ibn Attaf el - Azdi , Béja was taken by the Sanhaja Berber rebel Thabit al - Sanhaji , and many more . The tireless Ibn Habib patiently ( and ruthlessly ) crushed the revolts one by one . The most serious threat came from Tripolitana , then governed by Ibn Habib ' s brother Ilyas ibn Habib al - Fihri . In 747 , Ilyas tried to crack down on the fledgling Ibadi tes , a puritanical Kharijite sect , that was growing strong in the cities of Djerba and Tripoli and among the Berbers in the surrounding districts . The Ibadites , inspired by the success of their brethren in Hadramut and Oman , revolted under the leadership of their imam al - Harith , and seized control of much of Tripolitana ( between Gabès and Sirte ) for themselves . But in 752 , Ibn Habib dispatched an Ifriqiyan army and reconquered Tripolitana from the Ibadites , driving their remnants south into the Jebel Nafusa . In Spain , Handhala ' s deputy Abu al - Khattar ibn Dirar al - Kalbi had been toppled back in 745 and civil war broke out anew between the Syrian " junds " and the Andalusian Arabs . Ibn Habib intervened , dispatching an Ifriqiyan force to help restore order . In 747 , Ibn Habib ' s kinsman ( by patronymic record , his son ) , Yusuf ibn ' Abd al - Rahman al - Fihri , was put forward as a compromise candidate and installed as governor of al - Andalus . But the western Maghreb - Morocco and eastern Algeria - remained out of his reach . Since the Berber Revolt of 740 , the region had descended into tribal anarchy , fragmented and ruled autonomously by Berber tribes . The Masmuda Berber tribes openly erected an independent state in 744 , the Berghwata confederation , with their own ' prophet ' and syncretist beliefs . Ibn Habib ' s attempts to reimpose his rule ( or any rule at all ) there failed . In 752 , perhaps feeling confident in the possession of his lands for the first time , Ibn Habib shipped an Ifriqiyan army to Sicily , perhaps hoping to resume the invasion his father had interrupted back in 740 . But finding the defenses too strong , the expedition limited itself to raiding the coasts and returned to Africa . Relations with the Caliphs . Ibn Habib also tried to repair his relations with Damascus . After repeated entreaties , he finally managed to secure confirmation in his post from the Umayyad Caliph Marwan II . It is not as if Marwan II had many options , for at that time , his resources were engaged in fending off the great Abbasid Revolution to the east . Egypt fell to the Abbasids in the middle of 750 and the last Umayyad caliph Marwan II was caught and killed . Hoping the chaos in the east would allow him to carve out an independent state for himself , Ifriqiyan governor Ibn Habib at first sought an understanding with the Abbasids but was soon disappointed by Abbasid demands for submission . Ibn Habib went into revolt and dropped the name of the Abbasid caliph from the Friday prayers , publicly burnt the official robes of state dispatched by the Abbasids and invited the fleeing members of the Umayyad clan to take refuge in his dominions . Among his guests was the Umayyad prince , Abd al - Rahman ibn Mu ’ awiya ibn Hisham , a grandson of Caliph Hisham . Two other notables , sons of the caliph Walid II , were appointed to high posts , one of them made " qadi " of Kairouan . His own brother Ilyas ibn Habib married into the Umayyad family . But not long after their arrival , the governor Ibn Habib was quick to change his mind , probably fearing the prominent Umayyad exiles might serve as a focal point for discontented Arab nobles and challenge his own usurped power . Ibn Habib expressed sufficient hostility to prompt the fugitive Umayyad prince to flee into the hinterlands of Kabylie and hide among the Nafza Berbers ( his mother ' s folk ) . In 755 , frustrated in his African hideout , Abd al - Rahman crossed the straits to Spain and went on to depose Yusuf al - Fihri and found the Umayyad emirate of Córdoba in 756 . In 755 , Ibn Habib discovered what he thought was a plot engineered by the Umayyad " qadi " , and ordered the arrest and execution of the plotters . But he didn ' t count on the revenge of his sister - in - law , the Umayyad wife of his brother Ilyas . In 755 , urged on by his wife , Ilyas assassinated his brother Abd al - Rahman ibn Habib in his personal quarters , plunging a dagger into his back while he played with his children . Ilyas ibn Habib proceeded to assume power for himself , but was himself deposed and killed by the end of the year by Abd al - Rahman ' s son , Habib ibn Abd al - Rahman al - Fihri . In 757 , the Warfajuma Berbers and their Sufri te allies swept up from southern Tunisia and captured Kairouan , killing Habib and putting an end to the Fihrid dynasty . In the meantime , the Ibadi tes that Ibn Habib had driven out of Tripoli came back : rallied by their imam Abu al - Khattab al - Ma ' afiri in Jebel Nefusa , the Ibadites recaptured Tripoli and went on to take Kairouan itself from the Berbers in 758 , establishing a Kharijite imamate over Ifriqiya . Legacy . A descendant of the great conqueror Oqba ibn Nafi , the enormously ambitious Abd al - Rahman ibn Habib failed to live up to his ancestral billing . Ibn Habib boldly attempted to turn the western half of the Islamic Caliphate into his private Fihrid empire . Instead , facing opposition at every turn , Ibn Habib ended up losing Morocco to tribal chaos , Spain to the Umayyads and Ifriqiya itself ( eventually ) to the Kharijites , leaving little for his legacy .