Tellīs

The Banu Talis were a Hawwara Berber dynasty who ruled the emirate of Bani Walid in the Tripolitanian interior. Their founder, the Kairouan scholar Sheikh Ahmad ibn Talis, arrived in the Wadi Bani Walid in 1228, either fleeing a dispute in Kairouan or sent by the Hafsids.

Local Hawwara Berbers and Hilali Arabs gathered around him. He built the Ibn Talis Palace, dug three to four hundred wells and founded zawiyas, and Bani Walid flourished through trade, agriculture and pottery.

The emirate repelled a Spanish attack on Masalata in 1510, but the Ottomans proved too strong. The last prince, Ali II, resisted for twenty-six years until an Ottoman army of ten thousand, backed by local tribes, stormed Qasr Bin Talis in 1603, burned Bani Walid and killed most of the ruling family, ending the emirate.