from entering Fustat. Governor in Ifriqiya In late 732, Ubayda ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami, governor of Ifriqiya had been swiftly dismissed by Caliph Hisham following a personal quarrel. The Kairouan government was placed in the temporary hands of the lieutenant-governor Uqba ibn Qudama and the qadi Abd Allah ibn Mughir ibn Barda. In al-Andalus (Iberian Peninsula), Abd al-Malik ibn Katan al-Fihri of the illustrious Fihrid clan, was acclaimed by the Andalusian Arabs as ruler after the death of wali Abd al-Rahman ibn Abd Allah al-Ghafiqi at the Battle of Tours in October 732. Seeking to restore order in the west, in April 734, the Umayyad Caliph Hisham appointed his old Egyptian hand Ubayd Allah ibn al-Habhab as governor of Kairouan, Ifriqiya, with supervisory authority over all the Maghreb (North Africa west of Egypt) and al-Andalus. Ubayd Allah ibn al-Habhab found the westerly domains of the Caliphate in disorder and the treasury thin following the mismanagement and reverses of the preceding years. Over Andalusian opposition, Ubayd Allah dispatched Uqba ibn al-Hajjaj as his deputy in Córdoba (al-Andalus), replacing the popular governor Abd al-Malik ibn Qatan al-Fihri. Around this time, Ubayd Allah appointed Omar ibn Abd Allah el-Moradi as his deputy in Tangier (al-Udwa). Ubayd Allah ibn al-Habhab immediately set about dynamizing his fiscal resources by ordering new raids. In 734, an expedition was set out against Byzantine-ruled Sicily (the seventh in as many years), but it proved to be a failure. In 735, Ubayd Allah dispatched an Ifriqiyan army under commander Habib ibn Abi Ubayda al-Fihri to conquer Sous and the southerly regions of Morocco, acquiring substantial booty to replenish the treasury and bringing the region within the Umayyad caliphate. In 735, an amphibian Arab expedition was launched upon Provence, capturing Arles and Avignon and the lower Rhone valley. But the expeditionary force was expelled from Provence in 737–38 in a joint operation by Charles Martel of the Franks and Liutprand of the Lombards. In 740, Ubayd Allah dispatched Habib ibn Abi Ubayda al-Fihri at the head of an Arab expedition across the water to Sicily in what was possibly the first attempt at a full-scale invasion of the island (rather than a mere raid). Habib had a successful landing and laid a brief siege to Syracuse, securing its submission to tribute, before events in Africa forced them to break off the invasion. The Berber Revolt In the late 730s, Ubayd