IT WOULD BE MISLEADING to imagine that there was. complete breach between the Berbers of the central and eastern Maghrib and the new Muslim governors. Historical texts give examples of Berbers in the employ of Arabs, notably the 12,000 Berbers who accompanied Tariq ibn Ziyād's conquest of Spain. and show them being accepted in the central mosque of the capital, al-Qayrawān. Berber opposition, which culminated in. decade of simmering revolt in the 740s, should not be seen as including the entire indigenous population, but only certain groups of Berbers. It has been suggested earlier that there were some who revolted on account of persistent slaving by Arab generals. These same discontented people could also have drawn on an earlier Donatist tradition of opposition.

Another factor agitating the eighth-century Maghrib was tribalism. Like other causes, such as pre-Islamic Christianity and resistance to enslavement, tribalism as. focus of unrest is difficult to clarify in detail. Given the tribal environment of the Arab east, it is not surprising that the greatest chronicler of Berber tribes, Ibn Khaldūn, credited the principal Berber tribes with genealogies based on Ḥimyarite origins,i.e., with impeccable Arab credentials. While this seems unlikely. it does lead to questions regarding other assumptions about Berber tribes, such as the genealogical labyrinth connecting obscure groups to larger better-known ones.