Zayyanid dynasty

The Zayyanid dynasty (Arabic: زيانيون‎, Ziyānyūn) or Abd al-Wadids (Arabic: بنو عبد الواد‎, Bānu ʿabd āl-Wād) was a Berber Zenata[1][2][3] dynasty that ruled the Kingdom of Tlemcen, an area of northwestern Algeria, centered on Tlemcen. The territory stretched from Tlemcen to the Chelif bend and Algiers. At its zenith, the kingdom reached the Moulouya river to the west, Sijilmasa to the south, and the Soummam river to the east.[4][5] The Zayyanid dynasty's rule lasted from 1235 to 1556.[6]

Zayyanid dynasty
Parent houseKingdom of Tlemcen
CountryAlgeria
Founded1236
FounderYaghmurasen Ibn Zyan
Final rulerHassan ibn Abdallah II
TitlesSultan of Tlemcen
Dissolution1556
Deposition1556
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History
Main article: Kingdom of Tlemcen

On the collapse of the Almohad Caliphate's rule around 1236,[7] the kingdom of Tlemcen became independent under the rule of the Zayyanids, and Yaghmurasen Ibn Zyan.[7][8] Ibn Zyan was able to maintain control over the rival Berber groups, and when faced with the outside threat of the Marinids, he formed an alliance with the Sultan of Granada and the King of Castile, Alfonso X.[7]

After ibn Zyan's death, the Marinid sultan besieged Tlemcen for eight years and finally captured it in 1337–48, with Abu al-Hasan 'Ali as the new ruler. After a period of self-rule, it was governed again by the Marinid dynasty from 1352–59 under Abu Inan Faris.[7] The Marinids reoccupied it periodically, particularly in 1360 and 1370.[9] In both cases, the Marinids found that they were unable to hold the region against local resistance.[10] but these episodes appear to have marked the beginning of the end of the Zayyanid dynasty.

In the 15th century, expansion eastward was attempted, but proved disastrous, as consequences of these incursions they were so weakened that over the following two centuries, the Zayyanid kingdom was intermittently a vassal of Hafsid Ifriqiya, Marinid Morocco, or Aragon.[10] When the Spanish took the city of Oran from the kingdom in 1509, continuous pressure from the Berbers prompted the Spanish to attempt a counterattack against the city of Tlemcen (1543), which was deemed by the Papacy to be a crusade. The Spanish failed to take the city in the first attack, although the strategic vulnerability of Tlemcen caused the kingdom's weight to shift toward the safer and more heavily fortified corsair base at Algiers.

In 1554, the Kingdom of Tlemcen became a protectorate of the Ottoman Empire, which later deposed the Zayyanid dynasty and annexed the country to the Regency of Algiers.

The failure of this kingdom from ever being a formidable foe can be linked to a number of reasons. First, they had no geographical or cultural unity. They also constantly faced internal issues, and they did not have fixed frontiers, and finally most important was the fact that they depended on Arab nomads for their military.[7]

List of rulers

First Marinid conquest (1337–1348) (Marinid ruler was Abu al-Hasan Ali)

  • Abu Said Uthman II (1348–1352) (son of Abu Tashufin I)
  • Abu Thabid I (associate) (1348–1352) (brother of Abu Said Uthman II)

Second Marinid conquest (1352–1359) (Marinid ruler was Abu Inan)

  • Abu Hammu II Musa, ruled in 1359–1360, 1360–1370, 1372–1383, 1384–1387, 1387–1389 (brother of Abu Said Uthman II). Expedition to Bugia defeated, 1366
  • Abu Zayyan Muhammad II ibn Uthman, ruled in 1360, 1370–1372, 1383–1384 and 1387 during times when Abu Hammu II was forced from power.
  • Abu Tashufin II (1389–1393) (son of Abu Hammu I)
  • Abu Thabid II (1393) (son of Abu Tashufin I)
  • Abul Hadjdjadj I (1393–1394) (brother of the previous)
  • Abu Zayyan II (1394–1399) (brother of the previous)
  • Abu Muh I (1399–1401) (brother of the previous)
  • Abu Abdallah I (1401–1411) (brother of the previous)
  • Abd er Rahman I bin Abu Muh (1411) (son of Abu Muh I)
  • Said I bin Abu Tashufin (1411) (brother of Abu Muh I)
  • Abu Malek I (1411–1423) (brother of Said I)
  • Abu Abdallah II (1423–1427) (son of Abd er Rahman I)

Civil War (1427–1429)

  • Abu Abdallah II (second time) (1429–1430)
  • Abu Abbas Ahmad I (1430–1461) (son of Abu Thabit II)
  • Abu Abdallah III (1461–1468) (son of the previous)
  • Abu Tashufin III (1468) (son of the previous)
  • Abu Abdallah IV (1468–1504) (brother of the previous)
  • Abu Abdallah V (1504–1517) (son of the previous)
  • Abu Hammu III (1517–1527) (son of Abu Abbas Ahmad)
  • Abu Muh II (1527–1540) (brother of the previous)
  • Abu Abdallah VI (1540) (son of the previous)
  • Abu Zayyan III (1540–1543) (brother of the previous)

Saadi conquest (1543–1544)

  • Abu Zayyan III (second time) (1544–1550)
  • Al Hassan ben Abu Muh (1550–1556) (brother of the previous)

See also

References
  1. "Algeria - Zayanids". countrystudies.us. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  2. "Abd al-Wadid Dynasty | Berber dynasty". Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  3. Appiah, Anthony; Gates, Henry Louis (1 January 2010). Encyclopedia of Africa. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195337709.
  4. The Abdelwadids (1236–1554), on qantara-med.org
  5. Simon, Jacques (1 August 2017). L'Algérie au passé lointain: de Carthage à la régence d'Alger. Harmattan. ISBN 9782296139640 – via Google Books.
  6. Phillip Chiviges Naylor, North Africa: a history from antiquity to the present, (University of Texas Press, 2009), 98.
  7. "'Abd al-Wadid". Encyclopædia Britannica. I: A-Ak - Bayes (15th ed.). Chicago, Illinois: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 2010. pp. 16. ISBN 978-1-59339-837-8.
  8. Delfina S. Ruano (2006), Hafsids, in Josef W Meri (ed.), Medieval Islamic Civilization: an Encyclopedia. Routledge., p. 309.
  9. http://www.qantara-med.org/qantara4/public/show_document.php?do_id=603&lang=en
  10. I. Hrbek (1997), The disintegration of political unity in the Maghrib, in Joseph Ki-Zerbo & Djibril T Niane (eds.) (1997), General History of Africa, vol. IV: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century (abridged ed.) UNESCO, James Curry Ltd., and Univ. Calif. Press., pp. 34–43.

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