Muhammad ibn al-Hajj

Muhammad ibn al-Hajj , Arabic محمد بن الحاج, DMG muḥammad ibn al-ḥāǧǧ , was an Almoravid governor in Valencia , Lerida and Saragossa , who ruled over the Saragossa taifa between 1110 and 1115 .

Life

Armed conflicts

The career of Muhammad ibn al-Hajj began in the army of the Almoravids under Yusuf ibn Tashfin . As commanding general, he defeated Alfonso VI's troops in the Battle of Consuegra in 1097 . in flight.

From 1102 the Almoravids had ousted El Cid from Valencia and then installed Muhammad ibn al-Hajj there as governor. After the death of Sulaiman Sayyid ad-Daula , he then conquered and occupied the Taifa of Lérida and regained Balaguer .

He finally gave in to calls for help from Saragossa , which was occupied from 1110, and so the city was recaptured by the Almoravids on May 31, 1110 after the Battle of Valtierra . Muhammad ibn al-Hajj first acted as Wālī and then from 1115 as emir in the Taifa of Saragossa .

Muhammad ibn al-Hajj proceeded purposefully against Alfonso I , who threatened from the suburb of Juslibol from Saragossa, but which he was then able to throw back as far as Ejea de los Caballeros . Otherwise distracted by attacks by the Castilians and his own marital problems, Alfonso I finally had to relieve the pressure he had on the Zaragoza typhoon.

The deposed Hudid ruler in Saragossa, Abd al-Malik Imad ad-Daula , had withdrawn with his son to his fortress Rueda de Jalón , from where he undertook military campaigns against Muhammad al-Hajj, which had almost no effect.

Muhammad ibn al-Hajj was a warlike governor. So he led in 1114 together with the governor of Murcia Muhammad ibn Aischa an enterprise against the county of Barcelona . Together they besieged the city, but were then routed at the Congost de Martorell pass during the Battle of Martorell and thus had to break off the siege of Barcelona.

Muhammad ibn al-Hajj died a little later in 1115 (or 508 of the Islamic calendar ).

economy

As for the civil sector, Muhammad ibn al-Hajj reorganized the administration of the Saragossa Taifa and made the Almoravid dinar ( Arabic دينار, DMG Dīnār ) as the official currency. This enabled him to regain the trust of traders and merchants, who had been terrified in recent years by the Hudid's deficit policy due to excessive tribute payments (pariah).

swell

• José Cervera Fras: El reino de Saraqusta . CAI, Saragossa 1999, ISBN 84-88305-93-1 .
• JL Corral Lafuente: Zaragoza musulmana (714-1118) . In: coll. “Historia de Zaragoza” (no 5) . 1998, ISBN 84-8069-155-7 .
• Alberto Montaner Frutos: “Introducción histórica” to the chapter “El palacio musulmán” . In: Bernabé Cabañero Subiza et al. (Ed.): La Aljafería . vol. I. Cortes de Aragón, Saragossa 1998, ISBN 84-86794-97-8 , p. 35-65 .
• Maria Jesús Viguera Molins: Aragón musulmán . Mira editores, Saragossa 1988, ISBN 84-86778-06-9 .
• Maria Jesús Viguera Molins: El islam en Aragón . CAI, (Mariano de Pano in Ruata, 9), Saragossa 1995.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Sancho i Planas, Marta: Catalunya any zero: El paper de l'islam en els nostres orígens . Editorial UOC, 2011, p. 77 .
2. ↑ Álvarez Palenzuela, Vicente Ángel: Edad Media: Historia de España . Ed .: Vicente Ángel Álvarez Palenzuela. 2005, ISBN 84-344-6793-3 , pp. 329 .

predecessor	Office	successor
Abd al-Malik Imad ad-Daula	Emir of Saragossa 1110–1115	Abu-Bakr ibn Ibrahim ibn Tifilwit as-Sahrawi