Banu Ifran

The Banu Ifran (Arabic: بنو يفرن, Banu Yafran) or Ifranids,[1] were a Zenata Berber tribe prominent in the history of pre-Islamic and early Islamic North Africa. In the 8th century, they established a kingdom in the central Maghreb, with Tlemcen as its capital.

Prior to the 8th century, the Banu Ifran resisted or revolted against foreign occupiers—Romans, Vandals, and Byzantines—of their territory in Africa. In the seventh century, they sided with Kahina in her resistance against the Muslim Umayyad invaders. In the eighth century they mobilized around the Sufri dogma, revolting against the Arab Umayyads and Abbasids.

In the 10th century they founded a dynasty opposed to the Fatimids, the Zirids, the Umayyads, the Hammadids and the Maghraoua. The Banu Ifran were defeated by the Almoravids and the invading Arabs (the Banu Hilal and the Banu Sulaym)[2] at the end of the 11th century. The Ifranid dynasty[3] was recognized as the only dynasty that defended the indigenous people of the Maghreb, by the Romans referred to as the Africani.[4] In 11th century Iberia, the Ifranids founded a Taifa of Ronda in 1039[5] at Ronda in Andalusia and governed from Cordoba for several centuries.[6]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference :052 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Histoireg des BerbYres et des dynasties musulmanes de l'Afrique ... – ʻAbd al-Raḥman b. Muḥammad Ibn Khaldчn – Google Livres. 1856. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
  3. ^ Histoire politique du Maroc: pouvoir, légitimités, et institutions, ʻAbd al-Laṭīf Aknūsh, Abdelatif Agnouche, p.85, Afrique Orient, 1987 book on line
  4. ^ Compleḿent de l'Encycloped́ie moderne: dictionnaire abreǵe ́ des sciences, des ... – Noel̈ Desverges, Lжon Renier, Edouard Carteron, Firmin Didot (Firm). – Google Livres. 1857. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
  5. ^ Histoire Des Musulmans D'espagne, Reinhart Pieter et Anne Dozy, p.238 Book on line
  6. ^ Rachel Arié (199O). Études sur la civilisation de l'Espagne musulmane [Studies on the Civilization of Muslim Spain]. Leiden: E.J. Brill. p. 154. ISBN 90-04-09116-5 – via Google Books.