THE ARAB CONQUEST 167then backed another revolt led by 'Abd al-Ghaffar in the early 770s.
This was part of a growing division between 'Abd al-RaQrniin and
some of his earliest supporters, members of the 'Yemeni' faction.
Loss of their loyalty was probably related to attempts being made at
this time· by members of the Yamaniyya in Syria and Iraq to collabor-
ate more closely with the victorious 'Abbiisid rulers and thus to dis-
tance themselves from their former Umayyad connections. As with
some of the other most significant episodes of the reign, different
sources offer conflicting dates for the decisive battle on the river
Bembezar, which saw the defeat of 'Abd al-Ghaffar and the Yamaniyya,
ranging from 771 to 774.
Essentially, the period from 756 to the early 770s saw 'Abd al-
RaQrniin establishing control over the south and the centre of the
peninsula, and surviving various threats from both outside Al-Andalus
and within the ranks of his own former supporters. Little is known of
other regions, but they may have looked to their own affairs under
the direction oflocal potentates. One such was a Berber leader called
Shaqya, who claimed to be a descendant through his mother ofFiitima,
the Prophet's daughter and wife of the caliph 'All (656-661). This
claim related to the most significant rift in the fabric of early Islam.
Supporters of 'Ali, who had been denied the caliphate for a quarter
of a century after Mul)ammad's death and had then been murdered
after a short reign, developed the doctrines of Shi'ism, which saw in
'Ali and various of his descendants a succession of Imams, divinely
chosen leaders of the Islamic community, whose lives and teaching
would supplement the revelations of the Qu'riin. Proclaiming himself
such an Imam, of the Fiitimid line, Shaqya was thus seeking more
than temporal authority. He and his Berber followers gained control
of large swathes of the upland regions of the centre of the peninsula,
notably around Coria and Santaver, where they were able to use
guerrilla tactics to defy those armies sent against them by 'Abd al-
RaJ:tman. Eventually Shaqya was murdered in 777, by some of his own
supporters, opening the way for the advance of Umayyad authority
north-eastwards from Toledo towards the Ebro valleyY
Little enough is known of what had been happening in this area
for most of the eighth century. The region possessed a number of
important towns, notably Zaragoza and Huesca, as well as the coastal
settlements of Barcelona and Tarragona. Communication by land
with the south of the peninsula depended upon a series of valleys
linking the middle Ebro with the more open country west of Toledo