Kusaila

Kusaila ibn Malzam (), also known as Aksel, was a 7th-century Berber Christian ruler of the kingdom of Altava and leader of the Awraba tribe, a Christianised sedentary Berber tribe of the Aures and possibly Christian king of the Sanhaja. Under his rule his domain stretched from Volubilis in the west to the Aurès in the east and later Kairouan and the interior of Ifriqiya. Kusaila is mostly known for leading Berber forces against the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb in the 680s. He was ultimately defeated and killed in the battle of Mamma in 688.

== Etymology == According to Hadadou, the name Kusaila possibly originates from Caesilius (or its variant spellings such as Caecilian), a Roman name widely used among Christianized Berbers; however, he postulates that the more likely origin is aksil, the Berber word for "feline". The word is still attested in the dialects of Aurès, the region that Kusila was native to.