THE LAST CHAPTER showed the Maghrib in the first century AH as. source of revenue for the state. Collecting revenue was the first objective, and propagating Islam was not. concern, except during the short reign of ‘Umar II, whose ten missionarie. never went beyond the capital, al-Qayrawān, into territories under Berber control. Islam percolated into the Maghrib according to no coherent plan. Sunnī, or what was later identified as Mālikī, Islam in North Africa was. much later development of the ninth century. In the second half of the eighth and early ninth century, several strains of Islam were present, from extreme Khawārij, like the Warfajjūma, to the Ṣufrīs and Ibāḍīs.

From the beginning, Ifrīqiya appears in medieval texts as prosper-ous. Its inhabitants lived in cities or villages. The population, while not entirely Christian, was nevertheless predominantly so in the principal towns of Roman origin whose populations spoke Latin. While many of these communities remained Christian, even to the fourteenth century, the former Christian majority was eroded by the gradual spread of Islam. How or why the indigenous peoples came to adopt Islam was not of interest to the Arab chroniclers. Many Berbers became Muslim, possibly not Muslims in. strictly religious sense, but rather in terms of throwing in their lot with Muslim leaders who seemed most likely to protect their interests. It is at any rate clear that Khārijī Islam spread like wildfire from the early eighth century, when the motivation was less spiritual than. pragmatic vigorous response to the Arabs' military invasion, political usurpation, and regular enslavement.