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Abu Zakariya Yahya

Type Figure Region Ifriqiya Time 1203–1249 Also known as Abu Zakariya Yahya I、Abu Zakariya Yahya ibn Hafs、Abu Zakariya Yahya ben Abd al-Wahid

Abu Zakariya Yahya I (1203–1249), founder and first sultan of the Hafsid dynasty, declared independence from the Almohads in 1229, conquered Tripoli …

Timeline

  1. c. 1220–1228Tunis · TunisYahya came from the Hafsid family, grandson of the Almohad general Abu Hafs Umar. Before 1228 he served successively as governor of Gabès and Tunis, accumulating military and administrative strength in Ifriqiya and laying the groundwork for later independence.
  2. 1229–1235Tunis · TunisIn 1228 Yahya overthrew his brother Abdullah, and in 1229 formally broke from the Almohads, declaring himself sultan. He then conquered Tripoli (1234), Algiers (1235), and the Chelif River valley (1236), suppressed Berber tribal revolts, and established Hafsid rule over Ifriqiya.
  3. c. 1236–1249Ifriqiya · IfriqiyaIn his later years Yahya controlled trade hubs such as Sigilmassa and signed trade agreements with merchant houses of Italy, Spain, and Provence. At his death in 1249, numerous Muslim princes of Marinid Morocco and al-Andalus paid him tribute, and the Hafsids had become the most powerful regime in the Maghreb, laying the institutional foundation for the Hafsid sultanate that endured into the 1340s and beyond.

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