But this would take time, and the rebels had, in the meantime, taken Tangiers and seized the whole length of Morocco. To keep the Berber rebels in check until the Sicilian expedition army returned, Obeid Allah assembled a cavalry-heavy column composed largely of the aristocratic Arab elite of Kairouan, and placed it under the command of Khalid ibn Abi Habib. This column was dispatched immediately to Tangiers and instructed to serve as the vanguard until the Sicilian expeditionary force under Habib disembarked and caught up with them.[1]