Ibn Ghaniya's seizure of Béjaïa (580 AH)
ملك ابن غانية بجاية
c. November 1184 CE · Shawwal 580 AH
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.
At a glance
- Era
- The Crusades, Ayyubids and Mamluks
- Region
- Maghreb
- Review
- Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it
In time
In space
Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph
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
- Had participant
- علي بن غانية
- Occurred at
- Béjaïa
People and things also explored
ملك علي بن غانية بلاد إفريقية· The Mahdiyya revolt (594–595 AH)· Muhammad ibn Abd al-Karim· علي بن غانية· Béjaïa· دخول أبي مسلم مرو وانقضاض شيعته على مضر· The Akhlat fitna and massacre (604 AH)· نكث شروط غرناطة وثورة البشرات
Sources
- 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. Accessed 2026-10-17.