Anbasa ibn Suhaym Al-Kalbi

ʿAnbasa ibn Suḥaym al-Kalbi (Arabic: عنبسة بن سحيم الكلبي‎‎) was the Muslim wali (governor) of al-Andalus, from 721 to 726.

Immediately after his appointment, Anbasa doubled taxes on the Christians and confiscated Jewish property. However, it is thought that this increase did not affect most of the recently conquered estates and towns, subdued by treaty on very specific conditions (taxes, land ownership, etc.), but lands under direct Arab rule and new towns being conquered in Septimania.

Coincidentally, a dynastic struggle arose among Muslims in the Middle East. It was sparked by the death of Caliph Yazid II and the succession of his brother, Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik in 724. On this account, Anbasa tried to please the demands imposed by the Caliph to further tax exaction on non-Muslims, with attempts being made to enforce it on non-Arab Muslims too - popular rebellion in Egypt in 725 for increase in taxation. On the other hand, this more rigorous approach may have provided legal shelter and security to ownership in al-Andalus.

These actions caused displeasure, scattered acts of disobedience, as well as some open revolts. In 722, a Visigothic nobleman of uncertain origin, Pelagius of Asturias, defied the Umayyad attempt to extract taxes in the mountains of Asturias, where he gathered a band of rebellious followers. An Umayyad patrol was sent to search for Pelagius and his men, and it was ambushed at the Battle of Covadonga at great loss of life according to heavily mythical Christian sources, a skirmish according to later Muslim chroniclers, who showed little concern for the episode.

Word of a great victory (and a rumor that the victory had been the result of divine intervention) may have spread throughout occupied Hispania. However, the Mozarabic Chronicle of 754, a Christian and only almost contemporary account of the major events taking place in Hispania doesn't mention it. Duke Peter (Pedro in Spanish historiography) who governed Cantabria may have joined Pelagius. The Basques revolted, and, in 724, Aragon joined the cause as well. In retrospect, these events are viewed by some as the beginning of the Reconquista, an effort by Christian kingdoms to wrest control of Hispania from the Muslims.

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