Tha'laba ibn Salama al-Amili

Tha'laba ibn Salama al-Amili (?-?) was a military commander in North Africa and Spain, and briefly ruler of al-Andalus from August 742 to May 743.

Thalaba ibn Salama went to North Africa with the 'Syrian' expedition of 741, led by Kulthum ibn Iyad al-Qasi and his nephew Balj ibn Bishr al-Qushayri, to crush the Great Berber Revolt in the Maghreb. By explicit grant of Caliph Hisham, Thalaba was designated as second successor, should Kulthum or his first successor, Balj, fall in battle.

The Syrian army was defeated by Berber rebels at the Battle of Bagdoura in October 741. Balj ibn Bishr took what remained of the Syrian regiments (junds), some 8,000 men, to Ceuta and, after protracted negotiations with the Andalusian governor Abd al-Malik ibn Qatan al-Fihri, finally managed to ferry the Syrian forces over to al-Andalus in early 742.

After defeating the Berber rebel armies in Spain, relations between the Andalusian governor and the Syrian commanders broke down. The Syrian commander Balj ibn Bishr deposed and executed the old governor and declared himself the new ruler of al-Andalus.

But rallied by the late governor, the Andalusian Arabs (now calling themselves baladiyun or baladis) took up arms against the Syrian junds (known as Shamiyun). Although the Syrians crushed the Andalusians at the Battle of Aqua Portora outside of Cordoba in August, 742, their commander Balj ibn Bishr died the next day from battlefield wounds. His lieutenant and designated successor, Thalaba ibn Salama al-Amili was immmediately acclaimed by the Syrian troops as their head, and consequently governor of al-Andalus.

Thalaba's authority did not extend much beyond Cordoba, where the Syrian regiments had hunkered down. Andalusian forces (now bolstered with Berbers) regrouped around Merida. Thalaba defeated the Andalusians again in several more encounters, but was unable to break the resistance. It is reported that Thalaba even took to selling high-ranking Andalusian captives as discount-price slaves, (rather than ransoming them back), in an effort to terrorize the Andalusians into submission.

But with neither party making much of a headway against the other, both the Andalusians and Syrians looked for a resolution. Abd al-Rahman ibn Habib al-Fihri, an Ifriqiyan of illustrious lineage who had tagged along with the Syrians after Bagdoura, offered himself up as the ideal compromise candidate, but he was turned down. Instead, appeals were made to Handhala ibn Safwan al-Kalbi, the new governor in Ifriqiya, to settle the matter.

In early 743, Handhala dispatched his deputy, Abu al-Khattar al-Husam ibn Darar al-Kalbi to resolve the quarrel. Being of the same Arab tribal stock as the Andalusians but with a background in the noble circles of Damascus, Abu al-Khattar was expected to play an even-handed role in the Syrian-Andalusian dispute. Thalaba voluntarily stepped aside to allow Abu al-Khattar to manage the settlement.