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682-697] the Berbers against 'Uḳba and fled on the earliest opportunity from his camp. 'Uḳba therefore proceeded westwards under much less favourable conditions than Dīnār, and though he advanced beyond Tlemcen to Tangier and appears after crossing the Atlas to have even penetrated right to the Atlantic Ocean, yet on the return journey both he and his prisoner Dīnār were cut down by mutinous Berbers. They could not have been surprised if he had not fancied the whole of the west already conquered, and therefore divided up his army into small detachments. Or it may be that he was no longer able to keep together the troops, who were laden with booty. And thus at Tahūdha, not far from Biskra, he suffered the martyr's death (683). This was the signal for a general rising of the Berbers and the renewal of their co-operation with the Byzantines. The Arabs were compelled to relinquish Africa, and Zubair ibn Ḳais, the commandant of Ḳairawān, led the troops back. Kusaila was enabled to wander unpunished with his bands throughout all Africa. Thus at the time of the death of the Caliph Yazīd the whole of Africa beyond Barḳa was again lost. This fact further confirms our judgment of the vastly too much celebrated 'Uḳba.

'Abd-al-Malik attempted as early as 688-689, if we may believe the unanimous opinion of the Arabs, to restore the Caliph's authority in Africa. He did not wait, as might have been expected, until after the conclusion of the civil war against the opposition Caliph, 'Abdallāh ibn Zubair. This new expedition however, commanded by the same Zubair, did not proceed against the Byzantines, but against Kusaila, for in all these wars the Byzantine towns managed in a masterly way to make use of the Berbers as a bulwark. First of all Ḳairawān which had drifted under Berber rule was freed, and then a further advance was made against the Mons Aurasius, Kusaila's base. Kusaila was defeated in a bloody battle and fell, whilst Zubair's troops penetrated as far as Sicca Veneria, the present Kef, and it may be even further. The energy of the Arabs was however then exhausted. On the return march a fate similar to 'Uḳba overtook Zubair, and from similar causes. The Byzantines had in fact taken advantage of his absence to attack Barḳa. Zubair with a few faithful followers was cut down by them.

Ḳairawān however remained in the hands of the Arabs and now began from this point outwards the work of the real pacificator, Ḥassān ibn an-Nu'mān, though we do not quite know when the arrangement of the conditions was placed in his hands. As the first Syrian Amīr on African soil he thoroughly understood how to combine severe discipline with astute diplomacy. In all material points he adopted Dīnār's policy. Like Dīnār he recognised in the first instance the Byzantines as his main enemy. As soon as the arrival of the auxiliary troops sent by the Caliph permitted him to do so, he advanced against the still unvanquished Carthage, and conquered it in the summer of 697. Following this up he defeated the united Byzantines and Berbers at