Battle of the Nobles

Part of Berber Revolt

Date	c. 740
Location	Shalaf Valley, near Tangier
Result	Berber victory

Belligerents

Umayyad Caliphate

Berber rebels

Commanders and leaders

Khalid ibn Abi Habib al-Fihri †

Khalid ibn Hamid al-Zanati

Casualties and losses

10,000 killed

Unknown

The Battle of the Nobles (Arabic: غزوة الأشراف‎‎, Ghazwat al-Ashraf) was an important confrontation in the Berber Revolt in c. 740 CE. It resulted in a major Berber victory over the Arabs near Tangier. During the battle, numerous Arab aristocrats were slaughtered, which led to the conflict being called the "Battle of the Nobles". Zenata Berber chieftain Khalid ibn Hamid al-Zanati led the revolting Berber soldiers.

The Maghreb in the early eighth century was under Umayyad rule. The Berber Revolt broke out in early 740 in western Morocco, in response to the oppressive, unfair (and, by Islamic law, illegal) tax-collection and slave-tribute policies imposed upon Muslim Berbers by the governor Ubayd Allah ibn al-Habhab of Kairouan, governor of Ifriqiya and overlord of the Maghreb and al-Andalus. The Berber rebellion was inspired by Kharijite activists of the Sufrite sect, who held out the promise of a new puritan Islamic order, without ethnic or tribal discrimination, a prospect appealing to the long-suffering Berbers.

The revolt began under the leadership of the Berber chieftain (alleged water-carrier) Maysara al-Matghari. The Berber rebels successfully seized Tangiers and much of the western Morocco by the late summer of 740.

The Berbers had timed their uprising carefully. The bulk of the Ifriqiyan army, under the command of the general Habib ibn Abi Obeida al-Fihri, was at that moment overseas, on an expedition to conquer Sicily. The governor Obeid Allah ibn el-Habhab immediately dispatched instructions ordering Habib to break off the expedition and ship the army back to Africa. But this would take time. So, in the meantime, Obeid Allah assembled a cavalry-heavy column composed of much of the aristocratic elite of Kairouan, and placed it under the command of Khalid ibn Abi Habib al-Fihri (probably Habib's brother). This column was dispatched immediately on Tangiers and instructed to serve as the vanguard, to keep the Berber rebels in check, until the Sicilian expeditionary force disembarked and caught up with them. A second, smaller reserve army, under Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Mughira al-Adhari, was sent to Tlemcen, and instructed to hold there, in case the Berber army should break through to Ifriqiya.

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