Yahya ibn al-Qasim

Yahya was the son of al-Qasim, a younger son of the second Idrisid ruler of Morocco, Idris II (r. 808–828).[1][2] The family of al-Qasim controlled northern Morocco, with the cities of Tangier, Basra and Ceuta,[2] and for a time in the 860s even the western half of the Idrisid capital, Fes.[3]

Known by the sobriquet al-Miqdam, Yahya was called upon for assistance by the inhabitants of the Qaraqiyyin quarter of Fes when the town was occupied by the Kharijite rebel Abd al-Razzaq.[2] Yahya drove the rebels away, and is traditionally accounted as the eighth Idrisid emir, until his death in 905.[4]

Modern historians on the other hand consider that his rule over Fes is unlikely to have lasted long: his uncle, Dawud, appears to have ruled the city in 877, while numismatic evidence shows that between 880 and 893 the capital was ruled by members of a different branch of the Idrisid dynasty, descending from another uncle, Isa.[2]

Yahya fell in battle in 905 against the forces of a cousin from a different branch of the dynasty, Yahya IV.[4]

• Benchekroun, Chafik T. (2018). "Idrīsids". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.). Brill Online. ISSN 1873-9830.
• Eustache, D. (1971). "Idrīsids". In Lewis, B.; Ménage, V. L.; Pellat, Ch. & Schacht, J. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Volume III: H–Iram (2nd ed.). Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 1035–1037. OCLC 495469525.