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CHAPTER III

The Conquest of Barḳah and Zawîlah

Barḳah makes terms. Muḥammad ibn-Saʿd from ʿAbdallâh ibn-Hubairah:—After reducing Alexandria, ʿAmr ibn-al-ʿÂṣi led his army intent upon the conquest of al-Maghrib [Mauritania] until he arrived in Barḳah, the chief city of Anṭâbulus,^[1] whose inhabitants made terms on a poll-tax of 13,000 dînârs to be raised as the price of those of their children whom they desired to sell.^[2]

Bakr ibn-al-Haitham from ʿAbdallâh ibn-Hubairah:—After investing and fighting the people of Anṭâbulus and its city, Barḳah,^[3] which lay between Egypt and Ifrîḳiyah [Africa == Tunis], ʿAmr ibn-al-ʿÂṣi made terms with them, stipulating that they pay a poll-tax which might include the price of those of their children whom they desired to sell. ʿAmr wrote a statement to that effect.

Muḥammad ibn-Saʿd from Isḥâḳ ibn-ʿAbdallâh ibn-abi-Farwah:—The inhabitants of Barḳah used to send their kharâj to the governor of Egypt without having anyone come to urge them for it.^[4] Their land was the most fertile land of al-Maghrib, and it never saw an insurrection.

Al-Wâḳidi states that ʿAbdallâh ibn-ʿAmr ibn-al-ʿÂṣi used to say, " Had it not been for my possessions in al-

 

1. Pentapolis. Khurdâdhbih, p. 91. Cf. Caetani, vol. iv, p. 534.
2. Caetani in vol. iv, p. 533, nota, thinks it must have meant the right to offer to the Moslems their children as slaves according to a fixed price.
3. Barca. Butler, p. 429.
4. As-Suyûṭi, Ḥusn al-Muḥâḍarah, vol. i, p. 86.

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