Taifa of Valencia | |||||||||||||||
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| 1010–1238 | |||||||||||||||
 Taifa Kingdom of Valencia, c. 1037 | |||||||||||||||
| Capital | Valencia | ||||||||||||||
| Common languages | Arabic,Mozarabic,Berber | ||||||||||||||
| Religion | Islam (official),Christianity (Roman Catholicism),Judaism | ||||||||||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||||||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages | ||||||||||||||
• Established | 1010 | ||||||||||||||
• Annexed byTaifa of Toledo | 1065 | ||||||||||||||
• Conquered byEl Cid | 1094 | ||||||||||||||
• Annexed by theAlmoravids | 1102 | ||||||||||||||
• Independence from the Almoravids | 1145 | ||||||||||||||
• Annexed by theAlmohads | 1172 | ||||||||||||||
• Independence from the Almohads | 1228/9 | ||||||||||||||
• Conquered byAragon | 1238 | ||||||||||||||
| Currency | Dirham andDinar | ||||||||||||||
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| Today part of | Spain | ||||||||||||||
TheTaifa of Valencia was a medieval Muslim kingdom which existed in and aroundValencia, Spain. It gained independence from theCaliphate of Córdoba circa 1010 and became its own small kingdom, orTaifa, for most of the 11th century.It was absorbed by theTaifa of Toledo in 1065, which in turn fell toAlfonso VI of León and Castile in 1085. From 1094 to 1099, the kingdom was ruled directly by the Castilian military commander known asEl Cid, then by his wifeJimena after his death, until being annexed by theAlmoravids in 1102.
Following the collapse of Almoravid power, Valencia became independent again in 1145. From 1147 to 1172, it was under the control ofIbn Mardanish, after which it was annexed by theAlmohads. When the Almohads retreated from al-Andalus, Valencia became independent once again from around 1229 to 1238 under the rule ofZayyan ibn Mardanish. It was finally conquered by theCrown of Aragon in 1238.
Valencia was one of many cities inal-Andalus (in present-day Spain and Portugal) that became independent during theFitna, a destructive civil war after 1008 that ended theCaliphate of Córdoba. As centralized authority collapsed in the caliphate's provinces, local rulers formed their own small states or principalities known to historians asTaifas (fromArabic:طائفة,romanized: ṭā'ifa,lit. 'faction').[1] Valencia had already enjoyed urban and economic growth since the second half of the 10th century and during theTaifas period of the 11th century it became a major city and political center for the first time sinceMuslim rule began in 711.[2]
Twoṣaqāliba (former slaves) from theAmirid household, calledMubarak and Muzaffar, established the effective independence of Valencia in 1010–1011. They had previously been appointed here as officials in charge of irrigation.[3] Their co-rule ended in 1017–1018,[4] when Mubarak died and Muzaffar was expelled.[3] The people of the city chose anotherṣaqlabī,Labib, as ruler. He accepted the suzerainty of theCount of Barcelona in return for protection.[3]
In around 1021, the kingdom was taken over by'Abd al-'Aziz, a grandson of the Amirid and formerde facto ruler of the caliphate,Ibn Abi Amir al-Mansur (also known as Almanzor). He reigned for 40 years until his death in 1061.[3][5] During this long period of stability, Valencia enjoyed relative peace and prosperity. 'Abd al-'Aziz employed the samelaqab (royal name) as his grandfather and was thus known as al-Mansur.[3]
After his death, he was succeeded by his son'Abd al-Malik, who took thelaqab of al-Muzaffar. Due to his young age, hisvizier Ibn 'Abd al-Aziz served asregent.[3] Not long after his accession,Ferdinand I ofLeón andCastile attacked Valencia and defeated an army of its defenders, nearly capturing the city. 'Abd al-Malik turned for aid toal-Ma'mun, the ruler of theTaifa of Toledo, but the latter took the opportunity to seize control of Valencia for himself in 1065. Al-Ma'mun installed his own vizier, Abu Bakr ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz, as governor of the city.[3]
After al-Ma'mun's death in 1075, his less capable sonYahya al-Qadir became ruler of Toledo. Under his rule, Valencia began to slip from Toledo's control and his own kingdom became so troubled that he had to rely onAlfonso VI of Castile and Léon for support.[3] Eventually, the lattertook control of Toledo altogether in 1085 and then installed al-Qadir in Valencia as his vassal in 1086.[6]
Al-Qadir's unpopular rule in Valencia was supported by a Castilian garrison headed byRodrigo Díaz de Vivar, a Castilian noble and mercenary better known today as El Cid. In October 1092, when El Cid was away from the city, there was an insurrection andcoup d'état led by theqadi (judge)Abu Ahmad Ja'far Ibn Jahhaf. The latter called for help from theAlmoravids, who had recently capturedMurcia to the south. They sent a small group of warriors to the city, forcing the Castilian garrison to leave. Al-Qadir was captured and executed.[7][8]
However, the Almoravids did not send enough forces to oppose El Cid's return and Ibn Jahhaf undermined his popular support by proceeding to install himself as ruler, acting like yet anotherTaifa king.[8][7] El Cid began along siege of the city, completely surrounding it, burning nearby villages, and confiscating the crops of the surrounding countryside. Ibn Jahhaf agreed at one point to pay tribute to El Cid in order to end the siege, which resulted in the Almoravids in the city being escorted out by El Cid's men.[9] For reasons that remain unclear, an Almoravid relief army approached Valencia in September 1093 but then retreated without engaging El Cid.[8] Ibn Jahhaf continued negotiations. In the end, he refused to pay El Cid's tribute and the siege continued.[8] By April 1094, the city was starving and he decided to surrender it shortly after. El Cid re-entered Valencia on 15 June 1094, after 20 months of siege. Rather than ruling through a puppet, as he had done with al-Qadir, he now took direct control as king.[10]
The Almoravids returned their attention to Valencia later that year.[8][10] They arrived outside the city walls in October 1094 and began a siege. The siege ended when El Cid launched a two-sided attack: he sent a sortie from one city gate that posed as his main force, occupying the Almoravid troops, while he personally led another force from a different city gate and attacked their undefended camp.[11] After his victory, El Cid executed Ibn Jahhaf by burning him alive in public, perhaps in retaliation for treachery.[8]
El Cid fortified his new kingdom by building fortresses along the southern approaches to the city to defend against future Almoravid attacks.[11] In late 1096, an Almoravid army of 30,000 men besieged the strongest of these fortresses, Peña Cadiella (just south ofXativa).[11] El Cid confronted them and called onAragon for reinforcements. When the reinforcements approached, the Almoravids lifted the siege, but laid a trap for El Cid's forces as they marched back to Valencia. They successfully ambushed the Christians in a narrow pass located between the mountains and the sea, but El Cid managed to rally his troops and repel the Almoravids yet again.[12] In 1097, the Almoravid governor of Xativa, Ali ibn al-Hajj,[8] led another incursion into Valencian territory but was quickly defeated and pursued toAlmenara, which El Cid then captured after a three-month siege.[12]
In 1097, the Almoravid ruler himself,Yusuf Ibn Tashfin, led another army into al-Andalus. Setting out fromCordoba with Muhammad ibn al-Hajj as his field commander, he marched against Alfonso VI, who was in Toledo at the time. The Castilians were routed at theBattle of Consuegra. El Cid was not involved, but his son, Diego, was killed in the battle.[13] Soon after, the Castilian commanderAlvar Fañez was also defeated nearCuenca in battle with another Almoravid army, who followed up this victory by ravaging the lands around Valencia and defeating another army sent by El Cid.[13] Despite these victories in the field, the Almoravids did not capture any major new towns or fortresses.[14]
El Cid attempted to Christianize Valencia during his rule, converting its main mosque into a church and establishing abishopric, but ultimately failed to attract many new Christian settlers to the city.[13] He died on 10 July 1099, leaving his wife,Jimena Díaz, in charge of the kingdom. She was unable to hold off Almoravid pressures, which culminated in a siege of the city by the veteran Almoravid commander,Mazdali, in the early spring of 1102. In April–May, Jimena and the Christians who wished to leave the city were evacuated with the help of Alfonso VI. The Almoravids occupied the city after them.[13][14]
As Almoravid authority disintegrated during the 1140s, local communities in al-Andalus once again took matters into their own hands, creating a second wave ofTaifa statelets.[15] In Valencia, the Almoravid governor at this time was 'Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Ghaniya (of theBanu Ghaniya family). The localqadi, Marwan ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz, attempted to assuage growing popular hostility towards the Almoravid regime. By March 1145, popular opinion, as well as sentiment among the Andalusi soldiers in particular, was firmly set against the Almoravids and Marwan was pressured into taking leadership of the city under the title ofra'is. When he proved unable to keep paying the Andalusi soldiers, they deposed him and installed one of their own leaders,Ibd 'Iyad, as ruler.[16]
In January 1146, Ibn 'Iyad invitedSayf al-Dawla ibn Hud, son of the lastHudid ruler of the formerTaifa of Zaragoza, to take command of Valencia and Murcia. Sayf al-Dawla accepted and laid claim to acaliphal title. However, he was killed ina battle with the Christians near Albacete on 5 February.[17] Ibn 'Iyad was killed in August 1147, but before he died he managed to pass the command of Valencia's forces toMuhammad ibn Sa'd ibn Mardanish, known simply as Ibn Mardanish.[17]
Ibn Mardanish made himself ruler of the eastern part of al-Andalus (Sharq al-Andalus or theLevante). He based himself in Murcia and placed Valencia under the governorship of his brother Yusuf.[18][19] He was vulnerable to Christian forces both to the north and south, but after 1147 theAlmohads (who had replaced the Almoravids as the major power in North Africa) presented a more serious threat, having annexedSeville and western al-Andalus.[18] The last Almoravids in al-Andalus remained inGranada until 1155 and the Castilians controlledAlmeria until 1157. These two factions acted as buffers between him and the Almohads during this time, but they were eventually expelled by the latter. Ibn Mardanish managed to hold on to power after this in part by allying himself with Castile, which supplied him with military assistance against the Almohads.[18] Only after he died in 1172 did the Almohads take his kingdom, with little opposition.[18]
Although not much is known about the family and descendants of Ibn Mardanish under Almohad rule, they appear to have been integrated into the Almohad elites and maintained some influence in Valencia.[20] Almohad rule in al-Andalus began to collapse after 1212 and the Almohad caliphIdris al-Ma'mun withdrew from the region in 1228.[21] The last Almohad governor of the city,Abu Zayd, was so vulnerable that in 1226 he signed a treaty withJames I of Aragon to pay tribute. This made him unpopular and he was overthrown by a rebellion in late 1228 or early 1229. The remaining Almohads departed and it was a descendant of Ibn Mardanish,Zayyan ibn Mardanish, who took control.[22]
Zayyan ibn Mardanish formally acknowledged theAbbasid caliphs inBaghdad as suzerains and remained independent ofIbn Hud, who emerged as the most powerful leader in al-Andalus during this time, but he was unable to halt the advance of Aragonese conquests from the north.[20] As the latter closed in, occupying nearbyPuig in 1236, he made a desperate attempt to confront them at theBattle of the Puig (known as the Battle of Anisha in Arabic sources), where he was firmly defeated. James I began the finalsiege of Valencia on 23 April 1238. Zayyan sent his vizier,Ibn al-Abbar, toTunis to enlist the aid of theHafsid dynasty there, but the small fleet subsequently sent by the Hafsids was prevented from landing by Catalan ships. The city surrendered on 29 September.[23][20] Zayyan was able to retreat and he continued to operate in the region for several more years, even becoming ruler of Murcia from 1239 to 1241.[24] Valencia became part of theCrown of Aragon.
Saqlabi non-dynastic rulers:
| Amirid and Dhunnunid dynasties[25] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Following the overthrow of al-Qadir:
Valencia annexed by theAlmoravids in 1102.
Valencia annexed by theAlmohads in 1172.
Valencia annexed by theCrown of Aragon in 1238.
