Allah ibn al-Habhab had begun leaning more heavily on the Berbers under his jurisdiction to make up for the financial shortfalls. Contravening Islamic law and the 718 edicts of the Caliph Umar II, Ubayd Allah reinstated some of the extraordinary dhimmi taxation (the jizyah and kharaj) and slave-tributes on the Muslim Berber population, provoking immense opposition. Similar policies were implemented by his deputies Uqba ibn al-Saluli in al-Andalus and (with particular zeal) Omar ibn el-Moradi in Morocco. But Ubayd Allah went above and beyond his duties. Seeking to satisfy the luxurious tastes of the nobles of Damascus, Ubayd Allah sent his officials in the relentless pursuit of the highly prized wool of unborn Merino lambs, seizing (and destroying) entire flocks—the livelihoods of many Berber communities—just to gather the handful he could dispatch back to Syria. Berber girls and women were also highly prized as concubines by Damascus lords. Ubayd Allah, eager to please as always, ordered them seized and kidnapped in great numbers, not stopping even at the wives and daughters of loyal Berber chieftains. Berber patience finally broke in 740, in what became known as the Great Berber Revolt. It began with an uprising in Tangiers against Ubayd Allah's tax-collectors and raiders. Fired up by Sufrite (Kharijite) activists, the Berber tribes of western Morocco (the Ghomara, Miknasa and Berghwata) formed a coalition and acclaimed the Berber chieftain Maysara al-Matghari as 'caliph'. Tangiers fell into the hands of the Berber rebels hands, and soon enough the entire length of Morocco, from the Straits down to the Sous. Ubayd Allah's own son, Ismail, then a governor in the Sous, was killed by the rebels. Ubayd Allah immediately dispatched orders to Habib ibn Abi Ubayda al-Fihri to break off the Sicilian invasion and return the Ifriqiyan army to Africa. In the meantime, he dispatched a vanguard cavalry force, composed of the aristocratic Arab elite of Kairouan under the command of Khalid ibn Abi Habib al-Fihri, to hold the line against the Berber rebels while awaiting the Sicilian expeditionary force. After a few skirmishes with the Arab vanguard in the outskirts of Tangiers, the Berber rebels decided to depose Maysara and reorganize their forces under the Zenata chieftain Khalid ibn Hamid al-Zanati. Khalid ordered an immediate attack and destroyed the Ifriqiyan vanguard at the Battle of the Nobles in October 740, cutting down the cream of the Ifriqyan Arab nobility. The main Ifriqiyan