Balj ibn Bishr al-Qushayri

Who is Balj ibn Bishr al-Qushayri?

Balj ibn Bishr al-Qushayri; was a Syrian Arab military commander in North Africa and Iberia, and briefly ruler of al-Andalus in 742.

Balj ibn Bishr was the nephew of Kulthum ibn Iyad al-Qasi, who had been appointed by Caliph Hisham as governor of Ifriqiya in 741 and charged with crushing the Great Berber Revolt in North Africa. Kulthum was dispatched with a fresh Arab army of 30,000, raised from the regiments of the east - specifically, Damascus, Jordan, Qinnasrin, Emesa, Palestine and Egypt. Despite its significant Egyptian contingent, historians frequently refer to them collectively as the 'Syrian' junds. Balj ibn Bishr came as his uncle's lieutenant and, by grant of Caliph Hisham, his designated successor. Balj was given military command of the elite Syrian cavalry.

Balj ibn Bishr led the vanguard that arrived in Kairouan in the Summer of 741. In haughty spirits, Balj and his fellow Syrian commanders alienated their Ifriqiyan hosts by billeting troops, requisitioning supplies, and paying little or no respect to local authorities. Balj's behavior hardly improved when the Syrian expedition made junction with the remnant of the Ifriqiyan army near Tlemcen. His high-handed manner provoked a quarrel with the Ifriqiyan commander Habib ibn Abi Obeida al-Fihri that nearly led to blows between the two armies, before his uncle arrived and defused the situation.