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The taifa of Toledo was a Muslim medieval kingdom located in what is now central Spain. It existed from 1035 until the Christian conquest in 1085.
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History
Toledo had been the capital of the Visigothic Kingdom smashed by the Islamic conquest of Iberia in the 8th century. Despite the capital of Al Andalus being moved to Córdoba, in succeeding centuries Toledo kept a strategic importance as capital of the "Middle March", maintaining a relative autonomy under the Umayyad caliphate of Córdoba in spite of repeated rebellion. After the beginning of the latter's dissolution and the ensuinig civil wars of the early 11th century, Toledo streghtened its autonomy, the power falling in the hands of powerful local people, including Abu Bala Ya'is ibn Mubammad, Ibn Masarra, Abd al-Rahman and Abd al-Malik ibn Matiyo. Most likely the Toledans, discontented with the latter's government, offered the city to the lord of Santaver, Abd al-Rahman ibn Dul-Nun, who, around 1035, who sent his son Ismail al-Zahir to Toledo to take possession of it.
The Banu Dil-Nun were a family of the Berber tribe Hawwara, that had arrived in the peninsula during the Islamic conquest. They settled in the area of Santabariyya or Santaver in the process of Arabization of the 8th to the 10th centuries. Throughout that time Banu Dil-Nun kept on rising up against the Emirate. They regained their autonomy with the decline of the Caliphate during the first decade of the eleventh century: then, possibly, Abd al-Rahman Bin-Nun Dil was made the lord of Santaver, Huete, Uclés and Cuencaobtained by Caliph Sulayman al-Hakam (1009-10 and 1013-16), carrying the title of "Nasir al-Dawla". Abd al-Rahman entrusted his son Ismail with government of Uclés in 1018.
The territory of the taifa of Toledo included what are now the provinces of Toledo, Ciudad Real, the northern part of that of Albacete, Cáceres, Guadalajara (up to the frontier with the taifa of Zaragoza in Medinaceli), and that of Madrid (up to the Sierra de Guadarrama), and Cuenca.
Ismail al-Zahir held the throne until 1043, fighting for his independence against Córdoba. He was succeeded by Al-Mamun, who asked Ferdinand I of León and Castile for assistance against Al-Mustain I of Zaragoza; twenty years later Toledo was attacked by Ferdinand himself, and was forced to pay tribute to escape the menace. When in 1061 Abd al-Malik ben Abd al-Aziz al-Mansur, ruler of Valencia, was attacked by Ferdinand, he sued for support from Al-Mamun, but the latter took advantage of the situation to annex Valencia (1064) with the approval of the Christian king.
Both the taifas of Toledo and Seville aimed to annex the former capital of Córdoba to their lands; this ended with the city captured by Seville in 1070. The new King of León, Alfonso VI, pursued a policy of playing the Muslim rulers against each other for his benefit. With the help of al-Mu'tamid of Seville he defeated Abd'Allah ibn Buluggin of Granada, but at the same time helped Al-Mamun of Toledo in conquering the taifa of Córdoba in 1075. At this point Al-Mamun was the most powerful lord of southern Iberia, his lands including Toledo, Córdoba and Valencia, but he was poisoned the same year, being succeeded by his grandchild Al-Qadir.
The latter, feeling himself strong enough, expelled the exponents of the pro-Castillan party from Toledo. This however caused a revolt in Valencia, which proclaimed its independence. The Cordoban lands were lost in 1077, as well as the southermost provinces of the kingdom, and Al-Qadir also found himself attacked by Al-Mutawakkil of the taifa of Badajoz. He was therefore forced to ask again for help from Castile, in this way losing the support of many of his subjects. Al-Mutawakkil occupied Toledo in 1080, while Al-Qadir took refuge in Cuenca. He was able to regain the throne the following year, the agreement including the acquisition of Toledo by the Castillan kingdom, while al-Qadir would keep ruling Valencia. Much of the population, tired by the endless series of wars, accepted Alfonso's entrance into Toledo (though with a simulated siege in order to escape a loss of prestige in the Muslim world), but a faction solicitated an allience between Al-Muqtadir of Zaragoza, Al-Mu'tamid of Seville and Al-Mutawakkil of Badajoz against Alfonso. The latter responded by attacking his enemies and, and after four years of "siege", Toledo officially and peacefully fell in Christian hands on 6 May 1085.
List of Emirs/Kings
Ya'isid dynasty
- Muhammad ibn Ya'is - c. 1010-?
Masarrid dynasty
- Ibn Masarra
Banu Qantir dynasty
- Sa'id ibn Qantir
- Abu 'Umar Ahmad ibn Sa'id
Matiyid dynasty
- 'Abd ar-Rahman - c. 1020-1028
- 'Abd al-Malik - c. 1028
Ya'isid dynasty
- Abu Bakr Ya'is ibn Muhammad - ?-1031
Dhunnunid dynasty
- Isma'il al-Zahir - c. 1032-1043/4
- Yahya I al-Ma'mun - 1043/4-1075
- Yahya II al-Qadir (in Valencia 1086-1092) - 1075-1080 d. 1092
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- To Badajoz - 1080-1081
- Yahya II al-Qadir (restored) - 1081-1085 d. 1092
See also
External links
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