Ahmad I. al-Muqtadir
Ahmad I. al-Muqtadir was the second emir of the dynasty of Banu Hud , the 1046 to 1081 over the Taifa of Saragossa prevailed.
Ahmad I al-Muqtadir - not to be confused with the Abbasid caliph of the same name , al-Muqtadir - succeeded in bringing the lands of his father, al-Mstain I , under his control after his death. He led the Zaragoza Taifa to its political and cultural climax. He was an excellent patron interested in science, philosophy and art. In Saragossa he had the Aljafería built, where he gathered important intellectuals from al-Andalus around him.
etymology
The name addition al-Muqtadir - Arabic المقتدر- means the mighty .
Life
Youth and Succession
Ahmad I. al-Muqtadir or Ahmad ibn Sulaiman , with full name Abu-Jafar Ahmad ibn Sulaiman ibn Hud al-Muqtadir - Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn Sulaimān ibn Hūd al-Muqtadir - Arabic أبو جعفر أحمد بن سليمان بن هود المقتدر-, had four brothers Yusuf al-Muzaffar, Lubb, Mundir and Muhammad. Before his death, their father Al-Musta'in I had divided his territory among his sons as follows: Yusuf al Muzaffar got Lérida , Lubb Huesca , Mundir Tudela , Muhammad Calatayud and Ahmad Saragossa. They all declared themselves kings in 1047 and minted coins as a sign of their independence.
Difficult start
Ahmad I al-Muqtadir did not hesitate and immediately began to launch campaigns against his brothers. So he was able to subjugate his brothers Mundir and Muhammad in 1051, whereas Yusuf offered resistance in Lérida. Lubb had renounced his claims very early on. Yusuf had entered into an alliance with rulers in Catalonia such as Raimund Berengar I to resist his brother , which, however, cost him high tribute payments (pariah) and loss of territory. In order to undermine this alliance, al-Muqtadir for his part had to accept even higher tributes to the Christian rulers.
In 1058, he tried to make peace with his brother Yusuf - a far better solution than continuing to pay high tributes to the Count of Barcelona and other Catalan territorial rulers, but also to the Count of Urgell Ermengol III. , to the King of Aragon Ramiro I and to the King of Pamplona García III. to be paid. The attempt failed, however, because both brothers did not trust each other.
In the same year 1058, Raimund Berengar I of Barcelona and Ermengol III closed. von Urgell formed an alliance to attack the emirate of Saragossa and together with Arnau Mir de Tost conquered Pilzà and Estanya . Ferdinand I now also turned against the Taifa of Saragossa and wrested the castles of San Esteban de Gormaz , Berlanga , Vadorrey , Santamara and others one after the other and thus brought the old Roman road from Saragossa and Toledo under his control.
In order to achieve an alliance with the king of Castile Ferdinand I in 1060, Ahmad I al-Muqtadir had to pay extremely high pariah.
Conquest of Tortosa
However, the year 1060 turned out to be quite advantageous for al-Muqtadir because of a rather unexpected event. It was uncertain Nabil , the heir of the former Taifa of Tortosa Muqatil fled to him because at home he could no longer hold on his throne (Muquatil died in 1053, he was succeeded Ya'la and 1057 Nabil or labile). In the following year 1061, al-Muqtadir conquered Tortosa and thus gained access to the Mediterranean .
Battle with the Kingdom of Aragon
Al-Muqtadir was now under pressure from Ramiro I of Aragon, who tried to expand his kingdom to the south. This had advanced in 1062 in the valley of the Cinca and had taken Benabarre and the villages between the rivers Guart and Noguera . In the following year 1063 he even began to siege the strong fortress in Graus . Al-Muqtadir intervened personally and placed himself at the head of his troops, which included a contingent from Castile, led by the son of the Castilian king Sancho II and a young knight named Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar (El Cid). At first al-Muqtadir suffered setbacks and lost the towns of Torreciudad and Fantova north of Barbastro .
On May 8, 1062, however, al-Muqtadir and his allies met the Aragonese army before Graus and were able to repel them. In the course of the battle, the king of Aragon Ramiro I died, who was killed by a Muslim soldier named Sadaro . This spoke Romansh, thereby approaching the king and piercing him with a lance.
From now on, al-Muqtadir was dealing with Sancho I , the son of Ramiro I. Sancho I found the support of Pope Alexander II , who called for a crusade in 1063. Knights and noblemen from France followed this call. They provided a contingent from Aquitaine , which was led by William VIII , the Duke of Aquitaine. The papal contingent was under the direction of the Norman Guillaume de Montreuil . Sancho I led the Spanish contingent, which was composed of Aragonese and Catalans, including Ermengol III. The aim of the enterprise was to conquer Barbastro, which was besieged in 1064. Barbastro was then taken and then by Ermengol III. in command. A year later, Sancho I conquered Alquézar in 1065 .
Al-Muqtadir responded immediately. For his part, he declared jihad and called on the Muslims of Al-Andalus for help. On April 17, 1065 he recaptured the city of Graus. After this victory he took on the honorary title of al-Muqtadir bi-llah , the mighty thanks to God .
Despite his victory, he behaved very reluctantly towards the power of Aragon, which continued to threaten the northern borders of his empire. However, he resigned from his vassal status Léon-Castile. In 1069 and 1073 he negotiated with Sancho IV , King of Pamplona, and paid him tribute. It seems that al-Muqtadir was dissatisfied with the alliance and would have preferred to negotiate with Raimund, Sancho's brother. Raimund and his brother Ermesinda murdered Sancho IV in 1076 in Peñalén . This attack caused a serious succession crisis. The King of Léon and Castile Alfonso VI benefited from this . who was able to gain the Rioja . The nobility of Navarre refused to accept the fratricide who fled to Saragossa and chose Sancho I to be king in his place.
Conquests in the Levant
In the Taifa of Dénia its last independent ruler, Ali ibn Mujahid , who had married a sister of al-Muqtadir, was captured by the king of Toledo , al-Mamun and poisoned in 1075. At the head of a large army, al-Muqtadir then moved to Dénia , which was defended by a governor ( vizier ) named Ibn al-Royólo . Ibn al-Royólo, however, spoke out in favor of al-Muqtadir among the population of Dénias, so that they gained the entire territory of the old Taifa of Dénia, which extended to today's Murcia , without having to fight .
Al-Muqtadir then returned to Saragossa. Since he now wanted to establish a continuity of his possessions, which was interrupted by the Taifa of Valencia , he had to incorporate the Taifa of Valencia. So he went to Valencia with his army . Abu Bakr , the king of Valencia, was a vassal of the king of Toledo, who in turn was allied with the Castilian king Alfonso IV. When the troops of al-Muqtadir arrived, Abu Bakr declared himself his vassal in order to be able to keep the Taifa of Valencia. Al-Muqtadir accepted this suggestion, fearing that he would arouse the wrath of the other taifas and the king of Castile by conquering too far.
In the years that followed, Al-Muqtadir sought to subjugate the Lérida Taifa , which was still ruled by his brother Yusuf al-Muzzafar. In 1078 he succeeded in capturing Yusuf and imprisoning him at the fortress Rueda , whereupon he renounced his claims to Lérida in 1079 and al-Muqtadir moved into the Taifa of Lérida.
Succession and Death
Just as his father had divided the kingdom between his five sons before him, al-Muqtadir divided his kingdom between his two sons: Yusuf al-Mutaman received the western part with Saragossa, while Al-Mundir received Lérida, Tortosa and Dénia has been. At the end of 1081, the seriously ill king finally handed over power to his two sons. Ahmad I. al-Muqtadir died the following year, 1082. Shortly before his death, el Cid had even offered him his services.
Construction activity
In addition to his political talent, al-Muqtadir was a wise king who had great artistic and cultural ambitions. Its most important building was undoubtedly a palace fortress near Almozara outside of Saragossa. Military parades, festivals and equestrian performances took place here beforehand. The fortress named after al-Muqtadir became known as Aljafería (or al-Yaffariyya), which means (the palace) al-Jafars .
Culture
The royal court met in the Aljafería of Zaragoza and, on the initiative of the king, was transformed into a cultural center. Intellectuals and artists from all over Al-Andalus came to Saragossa because, in contrast to the rigorous Almoravids, they found a cosmopolitan and tolerant patron here. Poets, musicians, historians and mystics were represented at court. He also developed one of the most brilliant schools of philosophy in Islam, which, building on the work of Avicenna , incorporated the Aristotelian philosophy into Arab-Muslim thought. Avempace , born around 1080 in Saragossa, was the fruit of this intellectual “foaming” in the capital of the Taifa empire of Saragossa, in whose footsteps Averroes and the Jewish Maimonides were to follow.
Family and offspring
Two sons are known of Ahmad I. al-Muqtadir:
- Yusuf (? - 1085), who as Taifa King of Saragossa carried the honorary name al-Mutaman and
- al Mundir (? - 1090), who as the Taifa king of Lérida carried the honorary title Imad ad-Dawla .
literature
- María José Cervera Fras: El reino de Saraqusta . CAI, Saragossa 1999, ISBN 84-88305-93-1 .
- José Luis Corral: Historia de Zaragoza. Zaragoza musulmana (714-1118) . Ayto. de Zaragoza and CAI, Saragossa 1998, ISBN 84-8069-155-7 .
- Montaner Frutos, Alberto: "Introducción histórica" to the chapter "El palacio musulmán" . Ed .: Bernabé Cabañero Subiza et al., La Aljafería. Saragossa, Cortes de Aragón 1998, ISBN 84-86794-97-8 , p. 35-65 .
- María Jesús Viguera Molins: Aragón musulmán . Mira editores, 1988, ISBN 84-86778-06-9 .
- María Jesús Viguera Molins: El islam en Aragón . In: coll. "Mariano de Pano y Ruata" . nº 9. CAI, Saragossa 1995, ISBN 84-88305-27-3 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Fletcher, Richard: La España Mora (Castellan) . Nerea, 2000, ISBN 84-89569-40-1 , pp. 118 .
- ^ Mora Giné, Xavier: Un poble del comtat d'Urgell: Alberola . Universitat de Lleida, ISBN 84-8409-341-7 , p. 26 .
- ↑ Fletcher, Richard: El Cid (Castellan) . Editorial NEREA, 1999, ISBN 84-89569-29-0 , p. 150 .
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Sulayman ben Hud al Musta'in |
Emir of Saragossa 1046-1081 |
Yusuf al-Mutaman |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ahmad I. al-Muqtadir |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Abu-Jafar Ahmad ibn Sulaiman al-Muqtadir Billah |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Saragossa Taifa |
| DATE OF BIRTH | before 1046 |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1082 |