Abu Yazid

Who was Abu Yazid?

Abū Yazīd Mukhallad ibn Kayrād al-Nukkari, nicknamed Ṣāhib al-Himār "Possessor of the donkey", was a Kharijite Berber of the Banu Ifran tribe who led a rebellion against the Fatimid Caliphate in Ifriqiya starting in 944. Abū Yazīd conquered Kairouan for a time, but was eventually driven back and defeated by the Fatimid Caliph al-Mansur.

Abū Yazīd's father Kayrād was a trans-Saharan trader born in Qastiliyya; he grew up in Tozeur. After he grew up, he went to Tiaret, the Rustamid dynastic capital and the main center of Ibadi Kharijism in the Maghreb and took up teaching. The Nakkariyyah branch of Sufri Kharijism was named after him.

However, in 909 the Ismaili Shī‘ī Fatimids conquered the Rustamids and soon after the Sufri state of Sijilmasa to the west. Abū Yazīd moved to Tiqyus and began agitating against Fatimid rule in 928. When the Fatimid al-Mahdi died in 944, Abū Yazīd launched a rebellion in the Aurès Mountains and declared himself Shaykh al-Mu'minīn "Elder of the Believers", seeking aid from the Umayyad Caliphate in al-Andalus.

Early in his rebellion, Abū Yazīd was given a gray donkey which he used to ride, for which he received the nickname "Possessor of the donkey". Abū Yazīd also habitually wore a short woolen jubba and with his conspicuous frugality, he recalled the Kharijite imams of Tiaret and Sijilmasa.