Abu'l-Qasim Samgu ibn Wasul al-Miknasi (died 784/5) was a

Miknasa The Miknasa (Berber: ''Imeknasen'') was a Zenata Berber tribe of the Maghreb. History The Miknasa Berbers historically populated the Aurès and are part of the Dharisa tribe belonging to Botr who descended from Madghis, coming from the Aures m ...

Berber Berber or Berbers may refer to: Ethnic group * Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa * Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages Places * Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile People with the surname * Ady Berber (1913–196 ...

leader who according to tradition founded the oasis town of

Sijilmasa Sijilmasa (; also transliterated Sijilmassa, Sidjilmasa, Sidjilmassa and Sigilmassa) was a medieval Moroccan city and trade entrepôt at the northern edge of the Sahara in Morocco. The ruins of the town extend for five miles along the River Ziz ...

and became its second ruler. According to the traditional account, as narrated by the medieval sources (chiefly the 11th-century geographer

al-Bakri Abū ʿUbayd ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad ibn Ayyūb ibn ʿAmr al-Bakrī (), or simply al-Bakrī (c. 1040–1094) was an Arab Andalusian historian and a geographer of the Muslim West. Life Al-Bakri was born in Huelva, the ...

), Samgu (or Samgun) was a

who adopted

Sufri The Sufris ( ''aṣ-Ṣufriyya'') were Khariji Muslims in the seventh and eighth centuries. They established the Midrarid state at Sijilmassa, now in Morocco. In Tlemcen, Algeria, the Banu Ifran were Sufri Berbers who opposed rule by the Uma ...

Kharijism, and was a student of the famous Berber Khariji missionary Ikrimah Mawla Ibn Abbas. He chose the site of Sijilmasa, which he used as pasture for his flocks, and with 40 followers established a town there in 757/8. The establishment of the town was part of a larger westward movement of Sufri Kharijites in the

Maghreb The Maghreb (; ), also known as the Arab Maghreb () and Northwest Africa, is the western part of the Arab world. The region comprises western and central North Africa, including Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. The Maghreb al ...

, fleeing the westward expansion of

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 C ...

power in

Ifriqiya Ifriqiya ( '), also known as al-Maghrib al-Adna (), was a medieval historical region comprising today's Tunisia, eastern Algeria, and Tripolitania (roughly western Libya). It included all of what had previously been the Byzantine province of ...

, and the establishment of the rival

Ibadi Ibadism (, ) is a school of Islam concentrated in Oman established from within the Kharijites. The followers of the Ibadi sect are known as the Ibadis or, as they call themselves, The People of Truth and Integrity (). Ibadism emerged around 6 ...

Kharijite

Rustamid The Rustamid dynasty () (or ''Rustumids'', ''Rostemids'') was an Ibadi dynasty of Persian origin which ruled a state that was centered in present-day Algeria. The dynasty governed as a Muslim theocracy for a century and a half from its capital Ta ...

emirate of

Tahert Tiaret () or Tahert () is a major city in northwestern Algeria that gives its name to the wider farming region of Tiaret Province. Both the town and region lie south-west of the capital of Algiers in the western region of the Hautes Plaines, i ...

. Somewhat surprisingly, as

Charles Pellat Charles Pellat (28 September 1914, in Souk Ahras – 28 October 1992, in Bourg-la-Reine) was a French Algerian academic, historian, translator, and scholar of Oriental studies, specialized in Arab studies and Islamic studies. He was an editor of ...

comments, the community chose a

black African Black is a racial classification of people, usually a Politics, political and Human skin color, skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid- to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin and ofte ...

Isa ibn Mazyad al-Aswad Isa ibn Mazyad al-Aswad (died 772) was the first ruler of the oasis town of Sijilmasa, in what is now southeastern Morocco. According to the traditional account, as narrated by the medieval sources (chiefly the 11th-century geographer al-Bakri), ...

as its leader, but he was deposed and left to die, tied to a tree, in 772, with Samgu succeeding him. Modern historians have suggested this episode as the result of ethnic or tribal rivalries, namely, that the election of Isa was due to an initial predominance of black Africans in the region, and his deposition and replacement as the result of the growth of the Kharijite Berber population over time. According to the medieval sources, Samgu reigned for 13 years and died in 784/5. He was succeeded by his son, Abu'l-Wazir al-Yas, who was deposed in 790/1 by his brother Abu'l-Muntasir al-Yasa.

References

Sources

* * {{s-end 780s deaths 8th-century monarchs in Africa Kharijites Miknasa Berber monarchs 8th-century Berber people