The history of the Sulaymānid dynasty is poorly understood[2] and historians have few chronological benchmarks.[3] It begins according to Ibn Khaldūn with the flight of Sulaymān Ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Kāmil towards the Maghreb after the Battle of Fakhkh in 786, then its takeover of Tlemcen then in the hand of the Zenata, (in the northwest of present-day Algeria).[4] But not all Arab chroniclers agree that this brother of Idrīs I survived the massacre or that he does not owe him the governorate of the city.[3]
According to Ibn Khaldun, Sulayman I reached Tlemcen after the assassination of his brother Idris I in 791 and took control of it.[4] But according to Ibn Idhari and Al-Bakri, he settled in Tlemcen while his brother was alive and probably with his approval.[5]
It seems better supported[according to whom?] that Idrīs II, the son of Idrīs I, conquered around 814 Tlemcen, a city then probably with a strong Christian population, a meeting point of the Berber populations and a meeting place of the markets, by putting on the run its Maghrawa ruler, Muḥammad Ibn H̱azar. He would then have handed the city over to his cousin Muḥammad, the son of Sulaymān, who thereby founded the Sulaymānid dynasty.[6][a] In 828, Muḥammad Ibn Idrīs II erected the government of Muḥammad Ibn Sulaymān as a viceroyalty.[3]
According to historian Gilbert Meynier, Mūḥāmmād Ibn Sūlāymān created in the region of Tlemcen the "Sulaymanid kingdom", a state which seemed to control only the cities, coexisting with the neighboring tribes which preserved their Kharidjite heterodoxy.[8] Tlemcen (then called Agadir[9]) became a distinguished city, in growing connection with the Arab culture of Al-Andalus. In 931, the Fatimids took the city and put an end to the power of the Sulaymanids, who took refuge in Al-Andalus.[8]
According to Ibn Khaldūn in his appendix IV,[10] Sūlāymān I (Sīd Sūlāymān Ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Kāmīl) escaped towards the Maghreb during the early Abbasid period, arriving at Tiaret after the death of his brother Idris I, and wanted to take power. However, the Berbers resisted threats from Sūlāymān and the Banu Tamim of the Arab Aghlabid dynasty ordered his arrest. Sūlāymān went to Tlemcen and became master of all the Zeneta tribes of this locality. His son Mūhāmmād Ibn Sūlāymān succeeded him and his children shared all of the central Maghreb after the death of Sūlāymān.
The sons of Mūhāmmād Ibn Sūlaymān shared all of the central Maghreb (present-day Algeria) after the death of their father. The government of Tlemcen was under the responsibility of Aḥmād, son of Mūḥāmmād, then of Mūḥāmmād, son of Aḥmād, and then of his son Al-Qassim. ‘Ayssā, son of Mūhāmmād, obtained the town of Arshgul (town and island at Tafna, a river eight leagues from Tlemcen) and joined forces with the Fatimids. ‘Aysā's brother Idris became ruler of the territories of the Dejrawa. His son Abû'l ‘Aysh Ibn Aysā succeeded him. After the death of Abu'l ‘Aysh Ayssā, Al Hasen b. Abu'l ‘Aysh took power among the Dejrawas. After that, it was Ibrahim's turn and then that of his sons: Yahya, Ibrahim and Idris. Idris received Arshgul, on the other hand, his brother Yahya joined forces with the Umayyads of Cordoba in the time of Abd al-Rahman III. This provoked the Fatimids in 935. Yahya was be arrested by general Mansur.[clarification needed]
The city of the Dejrawas sheltered Al-Hāsān Ibn Abû'l ‘Aysh and was besieged and taken by Ibn Abû'l‘ Afya, representative of the Umayyads in the central Maghreb. Al-Hāsān then escaped to join his cousin Idris, son of Ibrahim, chief of Arshgul. Al-Buri, son of Mūsā Ibn Abû'l ‘Afya later took the city.
Ténès (in present-day Chlef Province in Algeria) was the seat of Ibrahim, son of Mūḥāmmād, then came into the hands of his son Mūḥāmmād, of the same name, then to Ibrahim (again of the same name), then to Yahya and Ali. The latter was defeated by the Zirids during the reign of Ziri ibn Manad in 953. Ali then took refuge with the Maghrawas. Al Kheyr Ibn Mūhāmmād Ibn Khazer of the Maghrawa helped Hamza and Yahya, son of Ali, to cross to the Iberian Peninsula.
Ahmed, son of Sulayman, son of Ibrahim, was a ruler of the central Maghreb. Among the descendants of Mūhāmmād, son of Sulayman, was Ituwish, son of Hatesh, son of Al Hassan, son of Muhammed, son of Sulayman, and Hammad, son of Ali, son of Mūhāmmād, son of Sulayman.
Ibn Khaldun noted that, according to Ibn Hazm, Souk Hamza at Bougie did not bear the name of an Idrisid but of a Sulaymanid. He adds that Jawhar al-Siqilli, the Fatimid general, took Hamza's sons to Kairouan in present-day Tunisia.
Coins of the Sulaymanids minted at Souk Ibrahim and Ténès have been found. Until recently the coins of Mūḥāmmād Ibn Sūlāymān, the founder of the line and his great grandson Aḥmād Ibn ‘Isā were known only. The signatures struck « Mādīnāt Ībrāhīm Ibn Mūḥāmmād », « Mādīnāt ‘Isā Ibn Ibrāhīm and Mādīnāt al-Qāssīm Ibn ‘Isā » are all honorary titles of Suq Ibrahim, while Burjayn, a typing of Yahya Ibn Muhammad, could well be the pseudonym of Ténès.
^Historian Daniel Eustache raised the possibility that Sulaymān and his son Muḥammad were already in Tlemcen and recognized by the Maghrāwa Berbers when Idris II reached the city in 814.[3] This account, described by historical chroniclers Ibn Idhari and Al-Bakri,[5] is repeated by historians Philippe Sénac et Patrice Cressier, who state that Sulaymān was governor of Tlemcen between 786 and 813.[7]
^Eustache, D. (2012). "Idrīsids". In Bearman, P.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C.E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W.P. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Brill.
^Meis Al-Kaisi, "The Development of Politico-Religious Movements: A General Overview", Arabic Heritage in the Post-Abbasid Period, ed. Imed Nsiri, (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019), 124. Ludwig W. Adamec, The Historical Dictionary of Islam, page 145, "Idrisid Dynasty (788-985). First Shi'ite dynasty in Islamic history, founded by Idris ibn Abdullah....". C.E. BosworthThe New Islamic Dynasties, page 25, "The Idrisids were the first dynasty who attempted to introduce the doctrines of Shi'ism, albeit in a very attenuated form, into the Maghrib...". Ignác Goldziher and Bernard Lewis, Introduction to Islamic theology and law, Princeton University Press (1981), p. 218 Mara A. Leichtman, Shi'i Cosmopolitanisms in Africa: Lebanese Migration and Religious Conversion in Senegal, page 216;"Senegalese Shi'a also refer to the spread of Shi'i Islam to Senegal through the Idrisid dynasty and evidence of Shi'i roots in Morocco through 'Alaouis (Hydarah 2008:132-135). Cornell writes that Moulay Idris and his successors, descendants of the Prophet's grandson Hasan, brought with them to Morocco from the Arabian Peninsula "a form of archaic Shi'ism that was similar in many respects to Zaydism" (1998:200)."
^A History of the Maghrib in the Islamic Period, (J. Abun-Nasr, 1987), p.50
^Al-Bayan Al-Maghreb (Ibn Idhari al-Marrakushi, 13th century), Vol.1, p.118 (Arabic - Dr. Bashar A. Marouf & Mahmoud B. Awad, 2013)
^Mara A. Leichtman, Shi'i Cosmopolitanisms in Africa: Lebanese Migration and Religious Conversion in Senegal, page 216;"Senegalese Shi'a also refer to the spread of Shi'i Islam to Senegal through the Idrisid dynasty and evidence of Shi'i roots in Morocco through 'Alaouis (Hydarah 2008:132-135). Cornell writes that Moulay Idris and his successors, descendants of the Prophet's grandson Hasan, brought with them to Morocco from the Arabian Peninsula "a form of archaic Shi'ism that was similar in many respects to Zaydism" (1998:200)."
^Tarikh al-Tabari (Al-Tabari, 9th century) – English translation: The History of al-Tabari vol.26, p.37-38
Garcia-Arenal, Mercedes; Moreno, Eduardo Manzano (1998). "Légitimité et villes idrissides". In Cressier, Patrice; Garcia-Arenal, Mercedes (eds.). Genèse de la ville islamique en al-Andalus et au Maghreb occidental (in French). Casa de Velázquez; Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC). pp. 257–284. ISBN978-84-00-07766-2.
