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Ibn Ghaniya's seizure of Béjaïa (580 AH)

ملك ابن غانية بجاية

c. November 1184 CE · Shawwal 580 AH

Béjaïa

Sha'ban 580: hearing of Yusuf ibn Abd al-Mu'min's death, Ali 'Ibn Ghaniya' of Majorca sailed twenty vessels into Béjaïa's roadstead — two hundred mounted Mulaththamun and four thousand foot took the governor-less city without a fight; the Banu Hammad remnant flocked in, the returning governor's own thousand Arabs defected at first contact, and only Constantine held out until an Almohad army of twenty thousand horse and a great fleet lifted it in Safar 581, driving the brothers to Ifriqiya 1.

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Crusades, Ayyubids and Mamluks
Region
Maghreb
Review
Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it

In time

1170118011901200 c.
The Buyid, Fatimid and Seljuk Era · The Crusades, Ayyubids and Mamluks

In space

Béjaïa

Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph

Civil wars and revolts

Overview

In Sha'ban 580 AH Ali ibn Ishaq, known as Ibn Ghaniya, lord of Majorca, took the city of Bejaia, as Ibn al-Athir relates. 1

Entering the city

He heard of the death of Yusuf ibn Abd al-Mu'min, so he equipped a fleet of twenty vessels and anchored on the coast of Bejaia. About two hundred horsemen and four thousand foot of the Mulaththamun went out. He entered the city without fighting, because its governor had gone to Marrakesh and left no army. 1

The governor's return

A group of what remained of the Banu Hammad state joined him. The governor returned with three hundred Almohad horsemen and about a thousand Arabs. When they met, those who were with the governor joined al-Mulaththam, and the governor fled to Marrakesh. 1

Constantine

Ibn Ghaniya obeyed the districts of Bejaia except Constantine, and he besieged it until an Almohad army came by land and sea in Safar 581 AH. His two brothers Yahya and Abd Allah went out of it fleeing, and he withdrew from it to Ifriqiya. 1

Connections

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Had participant
علي بن غانية
Occurred at
Béjaïa

People and things also explored

Ali ibn Ghaniya takes Ifriqiya· The Mahdiyya revolt (594–595 AH)· Muhammad ibn Abd al-Karim· علي بن غانية· Béjaïa· Abu Muslim Enters Marw and His Partisans Fall upon Mudar· The Akhlat fitna and massacre (604 AH)· Ali declines to keep Muawiya in office

Sources

  1. al-Kamil fi'l-Tarikh of Ibn al-Athir , p. 128-129
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Ibn Ghaniya's seizure of Béjaïa (580 AH)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/event/ibn-ghaniya-takes-bejaia-580/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-16.

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Ali ibn Ghaniya takes Ifriqiya

In the year 581, Ali ibn Ishaq al-Mulaththam ibn Ghaniya marched to Ifriqiya. Sulaym, Riyah and other Arab groups gathered to him there, and Turks who had entered from Egypt with Sharaf al-Din Qaraqush joined them. They gave him the title Amir al-Muslimin and together took all of Ifriqiya, east and west, except Tunis and Mahdiya, where the Muwahhidun remained in fear and hardship. They ravaged the lands, fortresses and villages, violated sanctities and cut down trees. They made for the island of Bashrawhi near Tunis, whose people were granted safety, but then the army plundered its wealth until people were stripped of their clothes. They then made for Tunis, where the poor went begging until the winter cold and disease destroyed them; the dead were counted at 12,000 from a single place. Al-Mulaththam ended the khutba for the sons of Abd al-Mu'min, proclaimed the Abbasid caliph al-Nasir li-Din Allah, and sent to him asking for robes of investiture and black banners.