Emirate of Nekor إمارة بني صالح | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 710–1015 | |||||||||
.gif) The Emirate of Nekor (yellow) at the time of the Idrisid dynasty. | |||||||||
| Status | Client state of theUmayyad Caliphate (710–750) | ||||||||
| Capital | Tamsāmān (710–760) Nekor (760–1015) | ||||||||
| Common languages | Arabic Berber | ||||||||
| Religion | Sunni Islam (Maliki) | ||||||||
| Government | Emirate | ||||||||
| Emir | |||||||||
• 710–749 | Şālih I ibn Mansūr | ||||||||
• 947–970 | Jurthum ibn Ahmad | ||||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages | ||||||||
• Established | 710 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 1015 | ||||||||
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TheEmirate of Nekor orŞālihid Emirate (Arabic:إمارة بني صالح,romanized: ʾImārat Banī Ṣāliḥ) was an Arabemirate centered in theRīf area of present-dayMorocco. Its capital was initially located atTamsāmān, and then moved toNekor. The rulingdynasty was as ofHimyariteArab descent.[1][2] The emirate was founded in 710 CE byŞālih ibn Mansūr through aCaliphate grant. Under his guidance, the localBerber (Amazigh) tribes adoptedIslam, but later deposed him in favor of one Dāwūd al-Rundī (unlikely to have been a native of Ronda) from the Nafza tribe. They subsequently changed their mind and reappointed Şālih ibn Mansūr.[3] His dynasty, the Banū Şālih, thereafter ruled the region until about 1015.
Several successive political entities controlled the Rīf In the period between the 8th and 14th centuries. The Emirate of Nekor, established at the beginning of the 8th century, ended with the destruction of its capital city Nekor in 1080. The area was integrated subsequently into the dominions of theAlmoravids, and then those of theAlmohads and theMarīnids.[4]
The Emirate of Nekor (orNakūr) was the first autonomous state in theMaghreb and the only one that adhered toSunni Islam exclusively, specifically theMaliki school.[5] Not much is known about the town of Nekor's archaeology outside the field survey and minor excavations conducted in the 1980s. The town has what may have been a mosque, a possiblehammam, or public bathhouse, and two substantial walls. Ceramics excavated there include local productions and others that show its connections withIfrīqya and al-Andalus.[6]
The Arab conquest of North Africa began in 648, bringing Islam, thereafter the predominant religion of the region.'Uqba ibn Nāfi (662–683) was the leader of theMuslim conquest of the Maghreb. When his troops attacked local mountain Berber tribes, Arab reinforcements appeared in the Rīf to join them. One of these groups was led by aSouth Arabian calledŞālih ibn Mansūr al-Himyari, who founded the Banū Şālih dynasty in 710, ruling until 749. His putative south Arabian origin is disputed byal-Ya'ķūbi, who associates him with the Nafzī Berber tribe in hisKitāb al-Buldān (Book of Countries).[3] The Şālih family founded the Emirate of Nekor and ruled it for more than three hundred years. Located beside the river Nekor, east of al-Husaima (al-Hoceima), it prospered through trade and commerce.[7]
According to Rīfian tradition, Şālih ibn Mansūr, ancestor of the Şālihids, established himself at Tamsāmān on the coast, where he converted the local Berber groups, theGhumāra and theŞanhādja, to Islam. The new converts soon became apostate and unseated Şālih, and took as their leader a certain Dāwūd al-Rundī al-Nafzī. Şālih was nonetheless restored to the throne and upon his death, his son al-Mu'taşim succeeded him. Later, his grandson Sa'id ibn Idris ibn Şālih founded in 760 or 761 the town of Nekor to serve as capital of the small state.[3] The Madinat al-Nakur was situated on the banks of the river Nekor in analluvial valley of the Rīf Mountains, 25 km inland from the Mediterranean coast. UnderIndrisid rule it controlled productive agricultural territory that reached the coastal plain near modern-day al-Hoceima. The city flourished as it was on established trade routes and served as anentrepôt for goods shipped from Fes and Sijilmāsa in the south of the Rīf.[8]
In 859, a major long-distance Viking expedition set out for Spain. They tried to land atGalicia and were driven off. Then they sailed down the west coast of the peninsula and up the riverGuadalquivir to Išbīliya (Seville), where they burned the mosque but were repelled by a large Muslim force there before entering the Mediterranean through the Straits of Gibraltar and burning the mosque at al-Jazīrah (Algeciras),[9] following which they headed south toNekor, plundered the city for eight days,[10] and defeated a Muslim force that attempted to stop them.[9]
Nekor was surrounded by a wall of coarse brick that also enclosed gardens and pomegranate and pear orchards.[3] The city had many markets and shops, as well as baths, a large mosque, and an oratory (muṣallā[11]). According to the historian Ahmed Tahiri it contains the oldest urban structure dating from the medieval period in the west of the Maghreb, built with the earliest Islamic construction methods. He considers the Viking invasion of 859 (Tahiri says 858) and the sacking of Nekor as a demarcation line in its urban evolution, and that afterwards, urban and rural architecture in the area became more defensive in orientation. The rivalry between theFäţimid and theUmayyad Caliphates spurred the development of a new architectural layout in the city.[12]
Fäţimid troops sacked the city twice, in 917 and in 934. According to J.D. Latham,'Abd al-Rahman III, the UmayyadCaliph of Qurṭuba (Córdoba), had observed with growing concern the increasing prestige and power of the Fäţimids in the Rīf, this region perilously close to al-Andalus. In 927 he began his policy of defensive expansion by occupying Malīlya (Melilla) and by 928-929, he opened negotiations with theIdrīsids. In retaliationMūsā ibn Abi'l-Afiya attacked and vanquished the Umayyad's vassal, al-Mu'ayyad, the Şālihid (Şāliņid) ruler of Nakūr, situated between Malīlya (Melilla) and Tiṭwān (Tetuan). The troops of Mūsā, a Berber chieftain of theMiknasa tribe[13] besieged, sacked, and burned Nekor in 931.[13] With a fleet of forty vessels, the Umayyads launched a naval assault fromCeuta against Nekor and its port, al-Mazamma, and attacked Nekor, devastating the city which was garrisoned by three thousand men.[12]
The relationship between the ruling family of the Şālihid (Şāliņid) Emirate of Nekor and the local Berber tribal structure made it a predominantly Berber state, one aligned with theUmayyads of al-Andalus. The Umayyad Caliphal-Walid I had obtained the territory throughiqṭāʿ, the Isamic practice oftax farming. His son'Abd al-Malik bestowed the region of Nekor as a gift to the Banū Şālih ibn Mansūr. The family settled there and intermarried with the local population of Berbers, who came to acknowledge them as their emirs.[14]
According to the ArabAndalusi geographeral-Bakrī, Şālih ibn Mansūr was renowned for converting the Berber tribes of northern Africa to Islam. All the Arab chroniclers credit Şālih ibn Mansūr and the dynasty he founded with the Islamization of the Rīf. His grandson Sa'id ibn Idris ibn Şālih ibn Mansūr built the city of Nekor in 760 or 761[15] to serve as the capital of the small state.[3] He died after reigning over it for thirty-seven years. Emir Sa'id ibn Idris had ten sons. The third one, Şālih ibn Sa'id, assumed rule of the emirate upon his father's death. According to the narrative of al-Bakrī, Şālih's reign was filled with conflicts and wars with his brothers. He imprisoned his brother Idris and had him executed. Şālih ruled for twenty-eight years. When he died his youngest son, Sa'id ibn Şālih, was elected emir.[16] The bond between the Emirate of Nekor and the Umayyads was strengthened by the fact that the Banū Şālih professed the same Islamic creed as the Umayyad caliphs, that of theMaliki school.[17]
Al-Bakrī says several ports of the Moroccan Rīf in the Emirate of Nekor – including Badia, Buquya, and Bālish,[18] the port of theṢanhāja (Aẓnag) Berber confederation – were controlled by Berber tribes. These coastal communities developed with mixed populations of Berber, Arab, and Andalusi (converted orMozarab) descent. The Berbers were taxed by the Şāliņid emirs, and paid their taxes with the income they earned by exploitingmarine resources on the coast and consequently controlling its maritime activity.[19]
The Şālihids ruled over Nakur and the Berber tribes around it until about 1015, when Ya'la ibn al-Fatuh of the Azdaja tribe, now extinct, gained control of the emirate. His descendants defended the city and maintained their rule until the city was destroyed in 1080–1081 for the fourth and last time by the Almoravid leaderYūsuf ibn Tāshfīn. With the destruction of the city by the Almoravids, the iqta' or fief of Nakur, created in 710 for Şālih ibn Mansūr byal-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, ceased to exist.[20]
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