al-Muʿtamid (Abbadids)

Representation of Muhámmad al-Mutámid by Khalil Gibran

Column of al-Mutamid in the Alcazar garden of Seville

Muhammad al-Mu'tamid ibn Abbad ( Spanish Muhámmad al-Mutámid , Arabic محمد المعتمد بن عباد, DMG Muḥammad al-Muʿtamid bin ʿAbbād ; * 1040 in Beja , Portugal ; † 1095 in Aghmat , Morocco ) was the son of the Taifa king Abbad II of Seville and a well-known poet. From 1063 he administered the Moorish Taifa emirate of Silves in what is now Portugal , conquered by his father, as governor. After his father's death in 1069, he became the third and last ruler of the Emirate of Seville from the Abbadid dynasty. Under his rule, Seville was initially the most powerful of the Taifa empires in al-Andalus , only to be conquered by the Almoravids like the other remaining emirates and merged into their empire.

Ibn Ammar

Al-Mu'tamid was no less notable than his nefarious father, but far more sociable than him. Like Abbad II, al-Mu'tamid was a friend and patron of the sciences and especially poetry , but he was also one of the best and most famous poets of al-Andalus. His enthusiasm for poetry even led him to raise his bosom friend, the poet Ibn Ammar , to the highest state offices. Ibn Ammar had come to Seville as a young and destitute poet and adventurer. The young prince al-Mu'tamid was deeply impressed by his elaborate verses, and the two became close friends who shared their amusement and joy in poetry. When the prince became governor of Silves at the age of 23, he made Ibn Ammar his vizier , and when he succeeded his father as ruler in Seville he also made him grand vizier . The relationship between the two was turbulent, however, and ended in 1078, when the vanity, arrogance, and corruption and deceit of Ibn Ammar were no longer acceptable to al-Mu'tamid. Al-Mu'tamid killed him with his own hands and then buried him with great honors.

ar-Rumaikiyya

As a result, al-Mu'tamid fell even more than before under the influence of his favorite wife I'timad, better known under the name ar-Rumaikiyya ("slave of Rumaik"). He had seen and heard her as a young man when he and Ibn Ammar went forging verses on the banks of the Guadalquivir and the beautiful laundress, so the legend goes, surprised them both with a verse of their own. Al-Mu'tamid bought her from her owner and made her his wife. Her capricorns and the extravagance with which al-Mu'tamid spoiled her have been described many times. B. in the story "De lo que aconteció al rey Abenabed de Sevilla con su mujer, Ramaiquía" in Don Juan Manuel's famous book Libro de los ejemplos del Conde Lucanor y de Patronio, which was purchased between 1330 and 1350 . During his reign in Seville, al-Mu'tamid's poems dealt with the expansion of his empire, with rule and war, with his love for Rumaikiyya and with their life together at court.

At the same time, al-Mutamid had a male harem .

Domination

Initial successes

Even under Abbad II, Seville had become the most powerful empire in al-Andalus, and al-Mu'tamid continued his father's wars of conquest against the neighboring Berber Emirates. The costly wars and lavish court rulings put such a strain on his state finances that he had to burden his subjects with oppressive taxes. In 1070 he conquered the emirate of Córdoba from the Dhun Nunids , who had only driven the Jahwarids from there the previous year . Although he lost Córdoba again in 1075, he was finally able to incorporate it into his kingdom in 1078. In 1078/79 he also brought under his control the parts of the Taifa Emirate of Toledo and its branches south of the Guadiana , as far as the borders of the Emirate of Murcia . In these endeavors, al-Mu'tamid proved to be just as capable and unscrupulous as his father.

Fight against Castile

Taifa Empire of Seville under Abu l-Qasim (Abbad I) (dark green), Abbad II. Al-Mu'tadid (green) and Muhammad al-Mu'tamid (light green)

In 1080 there was the first serious collision with Alfonso VI. of Castile , to which al-Mu'tamid and his father owed tribute since 1063. Al-Mu'tamid tried to pay part of the tribute in counterfeit money, but one of the Castilian envoy, a Jew, noticed the fraud. In anger, al-Mu'tamid had him crucified and the Christian members of the legation imprisoned. Alfons immediately punished this act with a devastating raid and in this way took his toll.

The permanent feuds among the Moorish petty kings made it possible for Alfonso VI. on May 25, 1085, to conquer Toledo. Thereupon al-Mu'tamid and the Taifa emirs of Badajoz , Granada and Almería allied and called the Maghreb Almoravids under Yusuf ibn Tashfin for help. Yusuf led his army across the Strait of Gibraltar and added the Castilians on 23 October 1086 in the Battle of Sagrajas (Arab. Az-Zallaqa), a few kilometers north of Badajoz, a heavy defeat, but came back to Morocco to deal with difficulties in one's own realm.

Yusuf's victory over Alfons freed the Taifa emirs from their tribute obligations, but they were still unable to defend their empires effectively, not even against one another. The population grew tired of the overwhelming tax burden that financed the opulent lifestyles of the rulers and their endless wars, and the rulers themselves intrigued against each other, even at Yusuf's court. Alfonso VI now concentrated his attacks on the east of al-Andalus. Since al-Mu'tamid could not effectively prevent him from such raids, he himself traveled to Morocco to ask Yusuf bin Tashfin to intervene again. However, a campaign by Yusuf in 1088 failed because of insufficient support from the Taifa emirs.

Battle against the Almoravids

Two years later, Yusuf came across the Strait of Gibraltar again. This time he relied on a fatwa from his legal scholars, which asked him to drive out the emirs in the name of Islam and to incorporate al-Andalus into the Almoravid kingdom. After Granada and Málaga were conquered in 1090, al-Mu'tamid tried at the last minute for an alliance with Alfonso VI. to forge against Yusuf; he even gave the Castilian his daughter Zaida , who made her his concubine . However, this attempt failed. After Córdoba had also fallen, Yusuf's general Schir ben Abubekr appeared before Seville in 1091, stormed and sacked the city and besieged the citadel. After a heroic defense, al-Mu'tamid was finally forced to surrender. To save his life, he ordered his sons to hand over the fortresses they still held.

By 1095 the remaining Taifa emirates were also annexed by the Almoravids.

Captivity and death

Most of the dethroned Taifa emirs were executed if they had not died in battle. Al-Mu'tamid was exiled as a prisoner to Aghmat (today: Joumâa d'Aghmat) at the foot of the High Atlas , about 30 km from Marrakech , the original base of the Almoravids on the orders of Yusuf . There he spent the last years of his life in eighth and poverty. Wife and daughters had to work as spinners . He found consolation in his poems, in which he expressed his grief over the lost splendor, his executed sons and the joys of past court life.

Rumors of uprisings in al-Andalus against Almoravid rule filled him with joyful hope, but he was punished for this by being chained. Al-Mu'tamid died soon after his wife Rumaikiyya in March 1095 at the age of 55.

In 1970 a mausoleum was built in Aghmat for him, his wife and children. Shortly before his death, al-Mu'tamid wrote a verse that is now carved as an epitaph on his grave: “Grave of the stranger. You, who take the withered remains of Ibn Abbad as your own, may the wandering clouds never wet you. ”In 2014, a monument was unveiled for him in the“ Parque da Cidade ”in his hometown of Beja.

literature

• Ulrich Haarmann, Heinz Halm (Hrsg.): History of the Arab world. CH Beck, Munich, 4th edition, 2001.
• Ridha Souissi: Al Mutamid Ibn Abbad et son oeuvre poétique: étude des thèmes. Université de Tunis, 1977 (French).
• Raymond P. Scheindlin: Form and structure in the poetry of Al-Mutamid Ibn Abbad. Brill, Leiden, 1974 (English).
• Miguel José Hagerty (Ed.): Poesía: Al-Mutamid. Antoni Bosch, Barcelona, ​​1979 (Spanish).
• Miguel José Hagerty (Ed.): Al-Mutamid de Sevilla. Poesía completa. Comares, Granada, 2006 (Spanish).
• Rubiera Mata (ed.), María Jesús: Poesías: Al Mutamid Ibn Abbad. Universidad de Sevilla, Madrid, 1982 (Spanish).

Web links

• Rose M. Esber: The Poet-King of Seville. In: Saudi Aramco World. Volume 44, No. 1, January / February 1993
• List of the Taifas in al-Andalus u. a. ( Memento of September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (Website of the Centro de Estudios Moriscos de Andalucía , Spanish)
• Literature about the Taifas in the catalog of the Ibero-American Institute in Berlin

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Louis Crompton, Homosexuality and Civilization, Belknap Press / Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 2003/2006; ISBN 0-674-01197-X .
2. ↑ Hans-Heinrich Reuter (Hsg): The Count Lucanor. Translated from the Spanish by Joseph von Eichendorff, Insel Verlag, Leipzig, 1961.
3. ↑ E. Michael Gerli (ed.): Medieval Iberia: An Encyclopedia . Routeledge, 2003, p. 398 ( online in Google Book Search).
4. ^ Find a Grave .

predecessor	Office	successor
Abbad II. Al-Mu'tadid	Emir of Seville 1069-1091	-