Abu l-Khattab Abd al-A'la b. al-Samh al-Ma'afiri

Abu l-Khattab Abd al-A'la b. al-Samh al-Ma'afiri al-Himyari al-Yamani was the first imam elected by the Ibadis of the Maghrib. The encyclopaedia's entry, signed by A. de Motylinski and T. Lewicki, says that he was one of five missionaries (hamalat al-'ilm, "carriers of knowledge") sent to the Maghrib by Abu 'Ubayda al-Tamimi of Basra, the spiritual head of the sect, with the order to establish an imamate among the Ibadis of Tripolitania. ¹

The Ibadi notables of Tripolitania elected him imam in 140/757-8 at a council at Sayyad near Tripoli. The Berber Ibadi tribes of Hawwara and Nafusa, under his command, took Tripoli, which became his residence. In Safar 141/June-July 758 his army took Kairouan, then held by the Sufris, and 'Abd al-Rahman b. Rustam, later founder of the Ibadi imamate of Tahart, was made governor of the town. The article says the conquests created an Ibadi state covering Tripolitania, Tunisia and eastern Algeria, and that he had some influence over the Sufris of Sijilmasa. ¹

In Dhu l-Hijja 141/April 759 the 'Abbasid governor of Egypt sent an army under al-'Awwam b. 'Abd al-'Aziz al-Badjali, which the Ibadis defeated near Surt; another, under Abu l-Ahwas 'Umar b. al-Ahwas, was defeated at Maghmadas. Ibn al-Ash'ath then came to Ifriqiya, and deceived Abu l-Khattab by pretending to return east, so that the imam disbanded his army. At Tawurgha, a few days east of Tripoli, in Safar 144/May-June 761 Ibn al-Ash'ath met the imam's tribes in a very bloody battle in which Abu l-Khattab and twelve or fourteen thousand followers were killed. In Jumada I/August 761 Ibn al-Ash'ath reoccupied Kairouan. ¹