Caliph Hisham, shocked at the news of…
September 741 CE
Caliph Hisham, shocked at the news of the defeat, had dismissed Ubayd Allah in February 741 and had begun preparations to dispatch a large eastern Arab army under a new governor, Kulthum ibn Iyad al-Qasi to crush the Berber rebellion.
The disgraced Ubayd Allah leaves Ifriqiya in April 741, and returns to the east.
Kulthum is to be accompanied by fresh Arab army of thirty thousand raised from the Syrian regiments (junds) of the east—specifically, Damascus, Jordan, Qinnasrin, Emesa (Hims), Palestine and Egypt.
The military command of this elite 'Syrian' army is given to Kulthum's nephew and designated successor Balj ibn Bishr al-Qushayri and the vice-command to the designated second successor, Thalaba ibn Salama al-Amili (should tragedy befall the prior two).
The elite Syrian cavalry under Balj ibn Bishr, which had moved ahead of the bulk of the forces, is the first to arrive in Kairouan in the summer of 741.
Their brief stay is not a happy one.
The Syrians had arrived in haughty spirits and quarreled with the Kairouan city authorities, who, suspicious, had given them a rather cool reception.
Interpreting it as ingratitude, the Syrian barons had imposed themselves on the city, billeting troops and requisitioning supplies without regard to local authorities or priorities.
(The members of the Syrian expedition are of different tribal stock than the Arabs they came to save.
The early Arab colonists of Ifriqiya and al-Andalus had been drawn largely from tribes of south Arabian origin (known as Kalbid or 'Yemenite' tribes), whereas the Syrian junds were mostly of north Arabian tribes (Qaysid or Mudharite tribes).
The ancient and deep pre-Islamic tribal rivalry between Qaysid and Yemenite finds itself invoked in repeated quarrels between the earlier colonists and the arriving junds.
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