The caliphate of Córdoba

One of the first international political problems that ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III faced was that of his juridical status vis-à-vis the ʿAbbāsid caliphate at Baghdad. As long as religious unity existed in the Islamic dominions, the Umayyads in Spain were resigned to acknowledge the religious leadership of Baghdad. However, when the heterodox caliphate of the Fāṭimids developed in Tunis after 910, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III proclaimed himself caliph and adopted the caliphal title of al-Nāṣir in 929. This new caliphate, the caliphate of Córdoba (Qurṭubah), was to rule Al-Andalus for more than a century.

Al-Nāṣir’s internal situation was already almost assured; the last bulwarks of resistance were not long in capitulating (Toledo, 933), and thereafter he was able to devote all his efforts to foreign affairs. As to Christian Spain, his successes were meagre, and, what was more serious, he suffered a severe defeat in 939 at Simancas (Shānt Mānkas). Afterwards, however, the internal debilitation of the kingdom of León enabled him to restore his predominance on the peninsula by political means. He consolidated his position through a series of embassies to Otto I, the emperor in Germany and the most powerful figure in Christian Europe, to the Christian sovereigns of the peninsula, to the pope, and to Constantinople. His sovereignty was also acclaimed by the corsair enclave in Fraxinetum (Frakhshinīṭ; modern-day La-Garde-Freinet), in southern France.

In Tunis the Fāṭimids fought the establishment of an empire that would reach as far as the Atlantic and encompass Al-Andalus. In order to forestall Fāṭimid hegemony in the Maghrib, the Islamic area of northwestern Africa, al-Nāṣir occupied the North African ports of Melilla (Malīlah) and Ceuta (931). Intense naval warfare between the two western caliphates coincided with clashes on land in the Maghrib and attempts at subversive wars in the enemy states in northwest Africa. In the latter area, al-Nāṣir nearly overthrew the Fāṭimid caliphate by supporting the rebel Abū Yazīd al-Nukkārī; the conflict between the Umayyads and the Fāṭimids dragged on and ended in 969, when the latter conquered Egypt and lost interest in the Maghrib, thus leaving a power vacuum that was rapidly filled by the Umayyads.

Al-Nāṣir was succeeded by his son al-Ḥakam II (961–976), who adopted the caliphal title of al-Mustanṣir. His peaceful reign succeeded in resolving the problem of the Maghrib, thanks to the strategic ability of General Ghālib and the policy of the intendant, Abū ʿĀmir al-Maʿāfirī, who soon became the all-powerful al-Manṣūr (Spanish: Almanzor), the Victorious One.

On al-Mustanṣir’s death, his throne was occupied by his son Hishām II al-Muʾayyad, a minor. Hishām grew up under the tutelage of his mother, Aurora, and of the prime minister, Jaʿfar al-Muṣḥafī, who before long was liquidated by al-Manṣūr. The latter succeeded in eliminating all temporal power of the caliph, whom he dominated, and acquired complete power for himself.

Al-Manṣūr won control over a great part of the Maghrib, which he transformed into the viceroyalty of Córdoba, and he halted the expansion of the Christian kings from the north through a series of raids—usually every six months—in which he sacked nearly every Christian capital on the peninsula. With the support of a professional army consisting predominantly of Imazighen, many of them recent arrivals from Africa who obeyed him blindly, he managed to dispense with the Arab aristocracy, which for the most part was pro-Umayyad, and to hold in check the influence of the slaves, whose numbers had been increasing since al-Nāṣir had placed them in posts of high responsibility. But this balancing of forces—Arab aristocracy, Imazighen, and slaves—could be sustained only by the strong hand of a ruler such as himself.

Al-Manṣūr played the role of a grand lord. A protector of poets and scholars, he concealed his rationalism under a cloak of piety and was the darling of the faqīhs (scholars versed in the traditions of Islam); he contrived to attract to himself the outstanding poets of the era. By the time of his death, he had won more than 50 raids and succeeded in leaving a robust and well-organized state for his son ʿAbd al-Malik al-Muẓaffar.

Al-Muẓaffar (1002–08) continued his father’s policies, hemming in Hishām II and fighting against the Christians. After Al-Muẓaffar’s premature death, his brother ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Sanchuelo took the reins of power, but he lacked the fortitude to maintain the structure built by his father. An uprising that sought to vindicate the political rights of Hishām II resulted in Sanchuelo’s death and brought about the beginning of the end of the Umayyad dynasty in Spain.

The ṭāʾifas

The death of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Sanchuelo in 1009 ushered in 21 years of unrest, during which the social and political unity—among “Andalusians” (Arabs, Imazighen who had settled in Al-Andalus a long time earlier, and the population that had converted to Islam), Imazighen who had arrived fairly recently, and the slaves—fell apart. The consequence of those years of anarchy was the formation of numerous independent kingdoms, or ṭāʾifas, which may be classified into the following: (1) “Andalusian” factions in the three capitals of the frontier area (Zaragoza, Toledo, and Badajoz), in the valleys of the Guadalquivir (Wadi Al-Kabīr), and in the transition zone from the Ebro to the Tagus (Tajo) valley, (2) “new” Imazighen in Granada, Málaga, and four small southern ṭāʾifas, and (3) groups of slaves in the east.

The political history of the period comprises an uninterrupted series of internecine wars. Preeminent is the confrontation between the Arab factions, under the leadership of Sevilla (Ishbīliyah) and governed by the dynasty of the Banū ʿAbbād, and the Imazighen, presided over by Granada. Little by little, Sevilla united southern Al-Andalus under its aegis, exclusive of Granada and Málaga. This state was ruled by al-Muʿtaḍid, a sovereign devoid of scruples, who pretended at first to have found the vanished Hishām II al-Muʾayyad (at most, the pretender was a mat maker from Calatrava who bore some resemblance to the old caliph), and then by al-Muʿtaḍid’s son, the poet-prince al-Muʿtamid. In the east, except for a brief period when the petty state of Denia (Dāniyah) built a powerful fleet that enabled it to stage incursions throughout the western Mediterranean as far as Sardinia, the various ṭāʾifas preserved a certain static and dynastic equilibrium; farther to the north, the various ṭāʾifas also spent their time embroiled in interminable internal quarrels.

This fragmentation facilitated the expansion of the Christian states of the north, which, lacking the demographic potential to repopulate the lands they had succeeded in occupying, wisely annexed only those that they were capable of repopulating and garrisoning. The Christian states also imposed a heavy economic burden of tribute on the ṭāʾifas. Christian armies forced the Andalusian petty kings to buy peace by paying annual tribute, the famous parias. The tribute revitalized the economy of the Christian states, but it created sharp friction between the Muslim authorities and their subjects. The ṭāʾifas constantly had to increase the yield from their imposts, and they constantly laid new and heavier tax burdens on their subjects; when cash was lacking, they devalued the currency, minting low-standard coins that were not accepted by the Christians. This in turn gave rise to new tax increases and to popular discontent, which was considerably aggravated by the legalistic party of the faqīhs. Furthermore, the extravagant luxury and lavish public outlays of the local petty courts rendered Al-Andalus ripe for the foreign intervention that came when the Castilians occupied Toledo (1085), the key to the Meseta Central and to the entire peninsula. The factional chiefs, alarmed by the Christian advance, called in the help of the Almoravids, the powerful Amazigh confederation then exercising hegemony over northwestern Africa.