Taifa of Granada

The Taifa of Granada (Arabic: طائفة غرناطة, Ta'ifat Gharnata, Spanish: Taifa de Granada) or Zirid Kingdom of Granada was a Berber Muslim[1] kingdom ruled by the Zirids which was formed in al-Andalus in 1013, following the deposition of Caliph Hisham II in 1009. Four kings succeeded each other during its 80 years of existence, all of them from the Zirid dynasty, a Sanhadja Berber clan arrived from current-day Tunisia,[2] originating in present-day Algeria.[3] They were considered to be the wealthiest out of all of the taifa kingdoms.[4]

This article is about the Zirid emirate lasting from 1013 to 1090. For the later Nasrid emirate (1230–1492), see Emirate of Granada.
Taifa Kingdom of Granada
طائفة غرناطة
1013–1090
Taifa Kingdom of Granada, c. 1037.
CapitalGranada
Common languagesArabic, Berber, Mozarabic, Hebrew
Religion
Islam, Christianity, Judaism
GovernmentEmirate
Malik (King) 
• 1013–1019/20
Zawi ibn Ziri
• 1019/20–1038
Habbus al-Muzaffar
• 1038–1073
Badis ben Habus
• 1073–1090
Abdallah ibn Buluggin
Historical eraMiddle Ages
• Move of the Zirids to Granada
1013
• Annexation by the Almoravids
1090
CurrencyDirham and Dinar
Preceded by		Succeeded by
Caliphate of Cordoba
Almoravid empire

History

In the wake of the fragmentation of the Caliphate of Córdoba in the early 11th century, the fitna of al-Andalus, the Zirids settled in the kūra of Ilbira by 1013, moving soon after the capital from Madinat Ilbira to Granada,[5] a hitherto small settlement near the Darro right bank,[6][n. 1] hereby founding a new madina (Madinat Garnata) and creating an independent polity that lasted 77 years. The Zirids were a Berber Sanhaja clan led by Zawi ben Ziri who had arrived to the Iberian Peninsula from Ifriqiya as mercenaries in the early years of the century.[8]

In 1018 the Umayyad pretender Abd al-Rahman IV laid siege to Granada but was defeated by a furious counterattack and later assassinated near Guadix.

The Zirid King Badis ibn Habus annexed the Taifa of Malaga and from 1073 to 1090, Tamim ibn Buluggin, a brother of Abdallah ibn Buluggin, ruled the taifa of Málaga.[9]

The Taifa of Granada was conquered by the Berber Almoravids in September 1090.[10]

Role of the Jews

"The peak of Sephardic Judaism as a political as well as cultural reality is found in eleventh-century Granada. The Zirid state that existed for half a century was a Jewish kingdom in everything but name. The Muslim ruler was a powerless figurehead."[11] Jews did not hold the foreigner (dhimmi) status typical of Islamic rule. A Jew, the rabbi, scholar, and poet Samuel ha-Nagid, commanded an army, something not seen again until the modern state of Israel.[11] It has been said that the power and status of the Granadan Jews was not only unique in al-Andalus, but in the entire Islamic world.[12]: 170 

Architecture

The architecture of the Zirids in al-Andalus seems to have been influenced by the architecture of the Hammadids.[13]: 83  Several structures in southern Spain today have been dated, or tentatively dated, to the time of the Zirid Taifa kingdom. In Granada, the Bañuelo, a public baths complex originally known as the Hammam al-Yawza, is traditionally dated to the time of the Zirids in the 11th century, during the reign of Badis ibn Habus or Abdallah, based on an early study by Leopoldo Torres Balbás.[14][15]: 127  (Although more recent studies have argued that the building dates from the 12th century or later.[14]) The Alcazaba of Granada, a fortress on the Sabika hill, was first built under the Zirids. Although it was later rebuilt and incorporated into the Alhambra of the Nasrids, traces of the original Zirid fortress remain.[15]: 127 [16]: 127  The original palace of the Zirids, the al-Qasaba al-Qadima, was located on the hill that is now the Albaicin neighborhood, but it has not been preserved.[15]: 127  Nearby, however, the inner northern walls of the city, which run along the top of the Albaicin today, still date from this period.[15]: 115  Also in the same area, the bell tower of what is now the Church of San José was originally a minaret and is traditionally dated to the Zirid period. It belonged to a mosque known as the al-Murābiṭīn Mosque (the Mosque of the Marabouts or "Almoravid" Mosque).[17]: 329 [18][19][20] The Zirids are also believed to have constructed the Great Mosque (congregational Mosque) of Granada, whose site is now occupied by the present-day Cathedral.[21][22] One Arabic historical text records that its minbar was completed in the year 1055.[22]

Elsewhere, the Alcazaba of Malaga was also built during the Taifa period in the 11th century, though it was significantly remodeled under the later Nasrids.[23]: 152  The limited elements that have survived from the 11th century were likely built by both the Zirids and by the Hammudids from whom they conquered the city.[24]: 52 

List of Emirs

Zirid dynasty

See also

References
Informational notes
  1. Pre-Zirid Granada had a Ḥiṣn (fortification), which had acquired a growing importance in the wake of the period of instability in the Umayyad Emirate of Córdoba in the second half of the 9th century.[7]
Citations
  1. Shoham, Shlomo (2008-12-18). Ark in the Authentic Domain. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 45. ISBN 9781443802673.
  2. Viguera Molins, María Jesús (2013). "La taifa de los Ziríes, primer reino de Granada. Constitución, dimensiones políticas de este Estado del siglo XI" (PDF). Andalucía en la Historia (in Spanish) (40): 8–11. ISSN 1695-1956. La taifa de Granada fue regida por los Ziríes —beréberes Sinhaya llegados desde Ifriqiya (actual Túnez) a principios del siglo XI— como mercenarios
  3. Dhina, Amar (1986). Cités musulmanes d'Orient et d'Occident (in French). Entreprise nationale du livre. What makes Gharnata a famous Muslim metropolis is that it was the political capital of two Muslim dynasties: the Algerian Zirids, then the Banú al-Ahmar or Nasrids.
  4. The Art of Medieval Spain, A.D. 500-1200. Jerrilynn D. Dodds, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.). Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  5. Sarr Marroco, Bilal (2007). "La granada zirí: una aproximación a través de las fuentes escritas, arqueológicas e historiográficas" (PDF). @rqueología y Territorio (4): 167.
  6. Viguera Molins 2013, p. 8.
  7. Sarr, Bilal (2010). "La Granada prezirí (siglos viii-xi): ¿madīna, hiṣn o ǫal 'a ?". Villa 3. Histoire et archéologie des sociétés de la Vallée de L'Èbre. Méridiennes. Presses universitaires du Midi. pp. 381–40. ISBN 9782810709885.
  8. Viguera Molins 2013, pp. 8–9.
  9. Viguera Molins 2013, pp. 10–11.
  10. Viguera Molins 2013, p. 11.
  11. Eisenberg, Daniel (1999). "'La escondida senda': Homosexuality in Spanish history and Culture". In Foster, David William (ed.). Spanish Writers on Gay and Lesbian Themes. A Bio-Critical Sourcebook. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood. pp. 1–21. ISBN 0313284792.
  12. García Sanjuán, Alejandro (2004). "Violencia contra los judíos: el pogromo de Granada del año 459 H/1066". In Fierro, Maribel (ed.). De muerte violenta: política, religión y violencia en al-Andalus. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. pp. 167–206. ISBN 8400082680.
  13. Dodds, Jerrilynn D. (1993). The Art of Medieval Spain, A.D. 500-1200. Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-0-8109-6433-4.
  14. "El Bañuelo". Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife. Retrieved 2020-10-05.
  15. Barrucand, Marianne; Bednorz, Achim (1992). Moorish architecture in Andalusia. Taschen. ISBN 3822876348.
  16. Dodds, Jerrilynn D., ed. (1992). Al-Andalus: The Art of Islamic Spain. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 0870996371.
  17. Marçais, Georges (1954). L'architecture musulmane d'Occident. Paris: Arts et métiers graphiques.
  18. Rozúa, Juan Manuel Barrios (2002). Granada, historia urbana (in Spanish). Editorial Comares. ISBN 978-84-8444-539-5.
  19. Bush, Olga (2013). "Granada art and architecture". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam, Three. The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Brill. ISSN 1873-9830.
  20. Coleman, David (2013). Creating Christian Granada: Society and Religious Culture in an Old-World Frontier City, 1492–1600. Cornell University Press. p. 97. ISBN 978-0-8014-6876-6.
  21. Historia de España: Rachel Arié. España musulmana: siglos VIII a XV (in Spanish). Labor. 1980. ISBN 978-84-335-9423-5.
  22. Orihuela, Antonio (2021). "From the Private to the Public Space: Domestic and Urban Architecture of Islamic Granada". In Boloix-Gallardo, Bárbara (ed.). A Companion to Islamic Granada. Brill. p. 418. ISBN 978-90-04-42581-1.
  23. Arnold, Felix (2017). Islamic Palace Architecture in the Western Mediterranean: A History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190624552.
  24. Dodds, Jerrilynn D., ed. (1992). Al-Andalus: The Art of Islamic Spain. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 0870996371.

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