Abu Yazid

Abū Yazīd Mukhallad ibn Kayrād (; 873 - 19 August 947), nicknamed Ṣāhib al-Himār "Possessor of the donkey", was a Kharijite Berber of the Banu Ifran tribe who led a rebellion against the Fatimids in Ifriqiya (modern Tunisia and eastern Algeria) starting in 944. Abū Yazīd conquered Kairouan for a time, but was eventually driven back and defeated by the Fatimid caliph al-Mansur.

Abū Yazīd's father Kayrād was a trans-Saharan trader from Qastilia, where he was born; he grew up in Tozeur. Abū Yazīd inclined towards the Nakkariyyah branch of Sufri Kharijism. After he grew up, he went to Tahert, the Rustamid capital and the main center of (Ibadi) Kharijism in the Maghreb of the time and took up teaching.

However, in 909 the Ismaili Shī‘ī Fatimids conquered the Rustamids and soon after the Sufri state of Sijilmassa to the west. Abū Yazīd moved to Tiqyus and began agitating against Fatimid rule in 928. When the Fatimid al-Mahdi died in 944, Abū Yazīd launched a rebellion in the Aures mountains and declared himself Shaykh al-Mu'minīn "Elder of the Believers", seeking aid from the Umayyads of Andalus.

Early in his rebellion, Abū Yazīd was given a gray donkey which he used to ride, for which he received the nickname "Possessor of the donkey". Abū Yazīd also habitually wore a short woolen jubba cloak and with his conspicuous frugality, he recalled the Kharijite imams of Tahert and......
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