Cassius (Banu Qasi)

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Cassius (around 714), also called Count Casi (Qasi) ( Arabic قَسِىّ قُومِس Kasi kūmis or Qasi qūmis = Qasi comes), was a Visigothic or Ibero - Roman nobleman whoadministered a countyat the beginning of the 8th century, i.e. towards the end of the Visigoth Empire of Toledo , in northern Spain on the middle course of the river Ebro . After the conquest of Spain by the Saracens , he was one of the Visigoth magnates who submitted to the new masters,convertedto Islam and thus retained their position of power. Through his descendants, Count Cassius became the progenitor of the " Banu Qasi "family named after him(i.e. the sons / descendants of Qasi / Cassius), who lived in the northern march of the emirate or the later Caliphate of Córdoba until the tenth centuryplayed a leading role at times. Of paramount importance was Musa ibn Musa Banu Qasi, a great-grandson of Count Cassius, who was referred to as “the third king of Spain” because of his power.

The emirate of Banu Qasi and the allied kingdom of Pamplona in the 10th century

origin

There is no further information on the origin of Count Cassius in contemporary sources. The chronicle of King Alfonso III , written much later - around the year 911 . of Asturias (866-910), the history of the Visigoth Empire from the year 672 and that of the Kingdom of Asturias up to the time of the accession of King Alfonso III. treats him as a Goth with a Muslim faith. However, the name Qasi / Casio / Cassius could suggest that it came from or was related to a Romanized Iberian family.

Life

No contemporary sources

Due to the small number of contemporary documents, more detailed information about the life of Count Cassius can only be found in later sources, especially from the Arab polymath and historian Ibn Hazm (* 994 in Córdoba ; † 1064 at Niebla ), who himself originally came from an Arabized one Visigothic family, lived in Córdoba in the 11th century and u. a. also wrote the famous book about love " The Dove's Collar ". According to Alberto Cañada Juste, Ibn Hazm recorded in his work Risala di fadl al-Andalus that he knew a chronicle about the family of Banu Qasi, which, however, has not survived. Some information about Count Cassius can also be found in the work of the Andalusian scholar Ibn al-Qutiyya († November 8, 977) Ta'rikh iftitah al-Andalus ( History of the Conquest of al-Andalus ). It is noteworthy that this too - although of Arab origin (actual name: Muhammad ibn Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz ibn Ibrahim ibn Isa ibn Mazahim) - has a family relationship with the Visigoths . His common name Ibn al-Qutiyya means "son or descendant of the Gothic woman". He himself noted that he was descended from the Visigothic King Witiza (702-710; † 719) in the female line . This is because the granddaughter of King Witiza, Sarah the Gotin, traveled to Damascus to claim her inheritance rights threatened by an uncle with the caliph Hischam (724-743), married an Arab follower of the caliph there and left descendants in Spain, to them not only Ibn al-Qutiyya but also the Sevillian families of the Banu Maslama and the Banu Hayyay counted.

Visigothic count

These sources indicate that at the time of the conquest of Spain by the Saracens, a count named Qasi ("Qasi kumis" = Cassius comes) lived in the "Upper Mark" of al-Andalus (the part of Spain conquered by the Arabs) The area of ​​dominion was located on the middle course of the Ebro and included approximately the area of ​​the cities of Tudela , Tarazona , Borja near Saragossa and Eja de los Caballeros.

Conversion to Islam, vassal of the caliphs

As Musa ibn Nusayr (* around 640, † 716, with full name Abu Abd ar-Rahman Musa ibn Nusayr ibn Abd ar-Rahman Zayd al-Lajmi), who ruled from 703 to 714 as Umayyad governor of North Africa, at the head of the When the conquering army of the Saracens advanced into northeastern Spain, there was an encounter with Count Cassius. In view of the choice of taking on a hopeless fight or remaining a Christian, but losing his rights to rule or submitting to the caliph Al-Walid I (705–715), converting to Islam and thus maintaining his position of power, the decision was made Cassius in the autumn of 713 for the latter and was able to keep control of his territories as a vassal of the caliph in Damascus.

Other Gothic magnates also took advantage of this opportunity. So u. a. Teodemiro († 743), the lord of Baltana, Alicante, Murcia, Villena, Lorca and Ello, who on April 5, 713 with Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa , the son of Musa ibn Nusair, on April 5, 713 - in Wording received - signed a contract of surrender, which assured him that he would retain his rule.

Cassius remained in close contact with Musa ibn Nusair, although it cannot be ruled out that he was obliged to military success and thus had to take part in the governor's campaigns of conquest, through which he soon after the regional capital of Saragossa and, subsequently, the cities of León and Astorga in Asturias , Zamora and finally Lugo .

Personal submission in Damascus

What is certain, however, is that - when Musa ibn Nusair was summoned by the caliph to report - Cassius accompanied him on his journey to Damascus in 714, in order to submit himself there personally to the caliph al-Walid. Ibn Hazm confirms that Count Qasi (Cassius) became the progenitor of the (named after him) family of the Banu Qasi, the vassals ("mawali") of the Umayyad dynasty and in the internal power struggles in Spain regularly the party of the North Arabs against the the Yemenis supported. The time of his formal submission to the caliphate of Damascus can be narrowed down fairly precisely using the known key data. It took place after the troops of the governor of the caliphs in North Africa, Musa ibn Nusair, had conquered the city of Mérida on June 30, 713 and in autumn 713 advanced into the middle basin of the Ebro , where the lands of Count Cassius were. It took place at the latest at the beginning of the year 715, since the caliph al-Walid died on February 25, 715 in Damascus and thus probably in the year 714, following the journey of Musa ibn Nusair to Damascus, the Goths and prisoners of a whole army journeyed to the capital of the caliphate laden with immeasurable booty.

Marriage and offspring

No data are known about the wife of Count Cassius. The reason for the naming of his sons - only the first has a Christian name, the others of Islamic origin - can be explained by the fact that Fortún was born before the conversion to Islam, but the other sons were given names of the newly adopted religion afterwards. It remains to be seen whether this also suggests that these sons come from a later or second marriage of the count to a woman of Muslim religion after the conversion. Children: The historian Ibn Hazm (* 994, † 1064) names 5 sons of the count, but not the daughters who are probably also present:

  • Fortún Banu Qasi (* around 710) was "Vali" ( Arabic والي wālī , d. H. Governor) of the Umayyads of Saragossa and the closer progenitor of the family of the « Banu Qasi »
  • Abu Tawr Banu Qasi, according to Philippe Sénac, this was probably identical with the 777 historically verifiable Abu Thawr, who as Vali (governor) of the city of Huesca was one of the Muslim regional rulers who tried to gain independence from the Emirate of Córdoba through an alliance with the Christian To secure neighbors and therefore caused Charlemagne (* 742, † 814) in 778 to his - unsuccessful - campaign against Saragossa.
  • Abu Salama Banu Qasi, according to Alberto Cañada Juste, was probably the progenitor of the Banu Salama family, whose name lives on in that of the Guatizalema river (Wadi-Salama) near Huesca.
  • Yunus Banu Qasi
  • Yahia Banu Qasi

literature

  • Alberto Cañada Juste: Los Banu Qasi (714-924) . (PDF) In: Príncipe de Viana , año 41, 1980, núm. 158-159, ISSN  0032-8472 .
  • Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz: L'Espagne musulmane , OPI / PUBLISUD1985, ISBN 2-86600-225-3 .
  • Thomas F. Glick (Ed.): Islamic and Christian Spain in the Early Middle Ages . Brill, 2005, ISBN 90-04-14771-3 .
  • Philippe Sénac: Les Carolingiens et al-Andalus (VIIIe -IXe siécles) , Maisonneuve et Larose 2002, ISBN 2-7068-1659-7 .
  • F. La Granja: La Marca Superior VIII (1967).

Web links

On the history of the Banu Qasi:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Évariste Lévi-Provençal : La Conquête et l'Émirat hispano-umiayade (710-912) (1944), Volume 1 of the Histoire de l'Espagne musulmane , Paris, 1950, pp. 154-155.
  2. ↑ a b c Alberto Cañada Juste: Los Banu Qasi (714-924) . In: Principe de Viana , Volume 41, 1980, p. 6.
  3. ↑ Ann Christys: Christians in Al-Andalus, 711-1000 . Routledge, 2002.
  4. ^ Warwick Ball: Out of Arabia: Phoenicians, Arabs, and the discovery of Europe . East & West Publishing. 2009, ISBN 978-1-907318-00-9 , pp. 117-122.
  5. ↑ See wiki article “Musa ibn Nusair” in Spanish.
  6. ↑ Anwar G. Chejne: Historia de Espana musulmana . Editiones Cátedra, Madrid 1980, ISBN 84-376-0225-4 , p. 30.
  7. ^ Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz: L'Espagne musulmane . OPI / PUBLISUD1985, ISBN 2-86600-225-3 , p. 19.
  8. ^ Philippe Sénac: Les Carolingiens et al-Andalus (VIIIe – IXe siècles) . Maisonneuve et Larose, 2002, ISBN 2-7068-1659-7 , p. 52.
  9. ^ Alberto Cañada Juste: Los Banu Qasi (714-924) . In: Principe de Viana , Volume 41, 1980, p. 7.
personal data
SURNAME Cassius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Qasi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Visigothic count, follower of the Umayyad Empire (from 713)
DATE OF BIRTH 7th century
DATE OF DEATH after 714