Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
mired Berber women for their beauty, but this wasn't necessarily advantageous; many
were conscripted into Umayyad harems.
Even the Berbers who converted to Islam were forced to pay tribute to their Arab over-
lords. A dissident school of Islamic thought called Kharijism critiqued the abuses of
power of the Umayyads as a corruption of the faith, and called for a new moral leadership.
In the mid-8th century, insurrections erupted across North Africa. Armed only with slings,
a special force of Berbers defeated the elite Umayyad guard. The Umayyads were soon
cut off from Spain and Morocco, and local leaders took over an increasingly lucrative
trade in silver from the Western Sahara, gold from Ghana and slaves from West Africa.
