Abu 'Amr 'Uthman

Abu 'Amr 'Uthman
Caliph of Ifriqiya
Reign	1435–1488
Predecessor	Muhammad III
Successor	Abu Zakariya Yahya II
Born	(1419-02-00)February 1419
Died	September 1488(1488-09-00) (aged 69)
Names Abu Amr Uthman ibn Abu al-Hasan Muhammad
House	Hafsid

Abu 'Amr 'Uthman (reigned 1435–1488), his caliphal title was al-Mutawakkil 'Ala Allah, was an Hafsid caliph of Ifriqiya. His rule marked the zenith of the Hafsid kingdom.

Biography

Uthman was born on early February 1419, he was only sixteen and a half when he ascended the throne. He took up the caliphal title "al-Mutawakkil ʽalà Allāh" ("he who relies on God"). He successfully brought on his grandfather Abu Faris Abd al-Aziz's politics but in the long run he could avoid neither power struggles inside the Hafsid family nor the revolt of the southern Berber tribes.

Initially he chose his provincial governors among freed slaves but when they attempted to gain some degree of independence he replaced them with members of his own family. Although some of the latter would later break out in open rebellion, yet he was able to keep the Abdalwadid Kingdom of Tlemcen under his control and also to extend Hafsid sphere of influence over the Kingdom of Fez for a brief period of time, thus making Ifriqiya the most powerful state of the Maghreb.

Bibliography

• Brunschvig, Robert (1940). La Berbérie Orientale sous les Hafsides, des origines à la fin du XVe siècle. Paris: La librairie d'Amérique et d'Orient Adrien Maisonneuve.
• Fossier, Robert; Jacques Verger; Robert Mantran; Catherine Asdracha; Charles de La Roncière (1987). Storia del medioevo III: Il tempo delle crisi (1250–1520). Giulio Einaudi editore. p. 368. ISBN 88-06-58404-9.