Al-Mu’tamid ibn Abbad, the dean of the kings of the sects in Andalusia, and the ruler of the widest geographical area in it, a descendant of a family that played a role in politics, presidency and judiciary in the Umayyad state in Andalusia, and one of its great poets, and one of its illustrious names in the field of war.

He was born in the west of the Andalusian island in 432 AH/1041 AD, and died captive to the Almoravids in Agmat in Morocco in 488 AH/1095AD.

Birth and upbringing

Al-Mu’tamid Abu al-Qasim Muhammad ibn Abbad was born in 432 AH/1041 AD in the city of Beja, southern Portugal, and knew politics and war at a young age. He performed many difficult tasks when he was less than fifteen years old, and when his father died, he was the governor of the city of Shaleb (the far south of Portugal), which was controlled by Banu Abbad in 455 AH.

His grandfather’s father, Ismail bin Abbad, had been heading the judiciary in Seville since the days of Al-Mansur bin Abi Amer (d. 392 AH), and he also took over the police department during the era of Hisham Al-Mu’ayyad Billah (died: 403 AH). He is distinguished by the knowledge and wisdom of the descendant of a high-ranking Arab family in Andalusia, attributed to the Lakhmids, the kings of Al-Hira in the pre-Islamic era.

And when chaos erupted in Andalusia as a result of the dispute between the hajib Abd al-Rahman al-Amiri and the Umayyad house in the year 399 AH, and the ensuing strife that ignited in and around Cordoba, Judge Ibn Abbad hastened to control matters in Seville and maintain order in it, and he was able to gather people around him and mobilize them to support him. This confirmed the consolidation of his political position, as well as the moral and scientific position that he occupied.

Andalusian historian Ibn Hayyan al-Qurtubi (d.: 469 AH) described him as "the man of the West (meaning the entirety of Andalusia)."

Abu al-Qasim Muhammad ibn Abbad (the grandfather of al-Mu’tamid) succeeded his father, Judge Ismail, in the judiciary and leadership. Abu al-Qasim was considered the first king of Bani Abbad and the founder of their state. From his rivals, he was also able patiently and deliberately to expand his kingdom east and west, but it did not reach what it reached at the hands of his son Abbad bin Muhammad Abi Amr, nicknamed Al-Mu'tad Billah (father of Al-Mu'tamid bin Abbad).

Many historians have praised the qualities of Al-Mu'tadid and mentioned what he has through strength and dominance, as well as his poeticism, which was characteristic of many members of this house and its leaders.

Ibn Hayyan - a contemporary of him - said of him that he was "the leader of the group of princes of Andalusia in his time, the lion of kings, the herald of sedition, the refute of shame, and the healer of strings...", but Ibn Bassam - who lived close to his time (T.: 542 AH) - was more severe. He was harsh in his description when he mentioned him in his book Al-Thakhira, but he alluded to that defect of strength, power and intelligence. He said, "The pole of sedition, and the ultimate end of the ordeal... Enough of his peers who are not one, and he controlled his affair between standing and sitting, until his hand lengthened, and his country expanded. and many in number.”

As Ibn Bassam said, the state of Bani Abbad expanded in about 20 years of the rule of Al-Mutadhid until it included the southern triangle of the Andalusian peninsula up to the shores of the River Wadi al-Kabir in the north, extending to the bend of the valley in the west until southern Portugal and the Atlantic coast, and with this expansion it became the widest state of the sects , and the richest resources, and the greatest military power.

However, this strength did not spare him the position of weakness and subservience in front of the King of Castile, Fernando I (d.: 458 AH), who saw in the rupture of the sect kings and their fighting the opportunity to pounce on them one by one until they submit to his authority, and pay him the tribute by hand while she is humiliated, so it was that he invaded Badajoz and Seville in 445 AH, which forced Ibn Abbad to ask for peace and pledge to pay the tribute, as did his neighbors from the kings of the sects.

His fierceness and love for the king and the sultan pushed him to make Seville a base for lavish palaces and lush gardens. Among the palaces of this city were: the "Emirate" palace, which is the palace from which he administers the rule, and the "Al-Zahi" palace, which he took as a place for the fun and the promiscuity for which he was famous. Likewise, the club in which poets and writers were commanded and named for them with the high literature, circumstance and poetics that his son Al-Mu’tamid inherited from him, and he also inherited from him other qualities that made him the dean of the kings of all sects.

political experience

On the day he took power after the death of his father, Muhammad ibn Abbad was a young man in his thirties, and he was like his father in good stature and youthful vigor, except that he was different from him in strictness and violence, inclined to tolerance and leniency, and he was fond of wine, immersed in pleasures for what Historians mentioned his qualities.

But his indulgence in amusement was not to distract him from the approach that his ancestors drew in expanding the kingdom of Bani Abbad and pursuing their policy in eliminating the neighboring kingdoms, especially the barbarian kingdoms in the south of the Andalusian island, which - due to its supervision of the sea - was a channel of communication with the Far Morocco, from which supplies come from it Military and weapons.

In the midst of his struggle with his opponents in the Kingdom of Granada and Malaga, who sought the assistance of the King of Castile Alfonso VI, the Mu'tamid sent his minister, poet Abu Bakr bin Ammar (d.: 477 AH) to the King of Castile as well, and he concluded a peace agreement with him, according to which he paid 50 thousand dinars, to help him in controlling the Granada, and in this policy he was following his father's approach in seeking help from the Christians in the north of the island to expand the circle of his kingdom and his authority at the expense of his Muslim neighbors.

And this alliance between the kings of Castile and Seville was not on a single pace of truce and subservience. It happened on the day that Alfonso’s messenger was harsh on the leaders of the commissioner and refused to receive the tribute claiming that it was from false gold, so the trusted rose up to him and crucified him and threw his knights in prison, forcing the king of Castile to He returned to the authorized a fortress near Cordoba, and the effect of this was that Alfonso initiated once again the siege of Seville and the sabotage of its crops and lands.

Al-Mu’tamid did not wake up from his ecstasy created by his overwhelming ambition to control and dominate, except to the news of the fall of the city of Toledo in the hands of Alfonso in the year 478 AH / 1085 AD, and he was the one who was providing him with money and aid to eliminate the kingdoms of his brothers from the kings of the sects as they were doing, and he felt at that time that this fall Foreshadowing the imminent danger that threatens his kingdom, and even threatens the king of all Muslims of the Iberian Peninsula.

When Al-Mu’tamid realized the danger of the policy that he followed in acquiescing to Castile, he wrote to the Almoravid king Yusuf bin Tashfin in the enemy of Morocco, telling him what had happened to the Andalusian island situation, and seeking his help to defend the Muslims who were exposed to the Christians as a result of the policies of their rulers from the kings of the sects.

Most of the leaders of Andalusia gathered around this idea, so they sent the embassy to Ibn Tashfin, who in turn responded to the advocacy, so he sent his forces to Andalusia, and they settled in the Green Island, which was under the control of the Commissioner in accordance with the agreement between the two parties in the year 479 AH/1086 AD.

And when Alfonso heard the news of the arrival of the Almoravids on the island, he mobilized his forces, which were scattered in its far places, and the Christian princes cried in the north and beyond the Bernese Mountains (the separator between Spain and France), who flocked to him from a large number of their knights, so he marched with them to the land of his enemies so that they would not dare to attack His land was defeated, and they numbered about 80,000 fighters, while the number of Muslim fighters reached half of this number.

On Friday, Rajab 12 479 AH, corresponding to October 23, 1086 AD, the Christians under the leadership of Alfonso, King of Castile, launched the attack on the camp of the Muslims led by al-Mu’tamid ibn Abbad and a number of kings of the sects, with the great support of the Almoravid king Yusuf ibn Tashfin in what was known as the Battle of Zalqa.

The battle between the two parties was an argument, and the first victory was for the Castilians, as they attacked the Muslim camp with violent strikes that led to the disruption of their ranks and their retreat to Badajoz, western Spain, and the circle almost revolved on them, until Ibn Tashfin pushed his forces to them from the rear of the army, and the Muslims prevailed.

Alfonso's armies were surrounded and seriously wounded, so he realized that they would face death and victory if they continued the battle, so he and those with him held a nearby hill, then withdrew in the cover of darkness to their bases, dragging the tails of disappointment and defeat.

The news of victory spread throughout the Islamic world, and with it the heroism of the Almoravids and their emir, who was called the Emir of the Muslims. However, Ibn Abbad’s heroism was no less than that. Rather, Ibn Tashfin himself praised him in his message that he sent to his base in Morocco, saying, “It was not proven who The leaders of Andalusia, except for their leader Ibn Abbad.”

Two years later, the Andalusians summoned Ibn Tashfin again, seeking his victory over the Christians, but the second time, he had changed the leaders of the island after seeing with his own eyes their division and the severity of each other, and touched a kind of secret communication between some of them and the King of Castile, so he resolved on the occasion The third in which he reached Andalusia to end the rule of the sects forever.

Ibn Tashfin had consulted some of the most prominent Muslim scholars, led by Hajj al-Islam al-Ghazali (d. 505 AH), Abu Bakr al-Tartushi (d. 520 AH) and other scholars of the East and West, who issued a fatwa in an attempt to end the suffering of the Muslims of Andalusia from their rulers.

It has been reported to Ibn Tashfin that a number of the kings of the sects have returned to contact with the Castilians and made alliances with them to get rid of him and expel him from the island. The king resorted him to Alfonso again.

The Almoravids seized the bases of the Kingdom of Seville one by one, until they besieged its capital - in which Ibn Abbad was fortified with the help of Alfonso, who sent a number of his knights to it - for about 4 months during which Ibn Abbad was brave to defend it with a rare valor, until they were able to furrow its walls in a furrow, and they stormed it in 22 Rajab 484 AH corresponding to September 7, 1091 AD, and they entered the city, plundered its palaces, destroyed its building, captured its wounded king, al-Mu'tamid, and killed a number of his sons and his knights, and sent him to their emir Ibn Tashfin in the enemy of Morocco.

Poetic and literary experience

Ibn Abbad was endowed with a great deal of literature and a great ability in composing poetry, and it is no wonder;

He was the scion of a family known for its love of literature and Qarayd, and the brilliant poets and writers gathered around it in their state, which included Cordoba, the capital of the Islamic West at the time, and the capital of science and literature.

Poets Ibn Hamdis (t. 527 AH), Ibn Zaydoun (t. 463 AH), the owner of the famous potty, and Abu Bakr al-Dani, known as Ibn al-Labbana (t. 507 AH), flocked to the court of Bani al-Abad.

The closest Andalusian poets to Al-Mu'tamid and the most loyal to him was Abu Bakr bin Ammar, his vizier who was angry with him and killed him, then regretted it the most.

And from the poetry of the accredited who protected and continued after the catastrophe and families came to him, he said:


The hand of the engagement was asked for me, so I was removed from my nostrilful, and the nation was stripped


of the hands of the engagement, but it was struck by the


nicknames of the nursing. our palm

And from him likewise:


For myself to find a pigeon, we will see.. someone else likes to live on the leg of a cable


. May God not protect the cat in its chicks.. for my chicks have been betrayed by the water and the meadow.

He says he is pleading with his chains, sending a message to Ibn Tashfin, whose heart did not please him:


“My chains did you not teach me as a Muslim


.

And the most famous of his poetry was what he said in his imprisonment with grief in Morocco when he saw his daughters in their torn clothes spinning for people, using that for their needs and they were smeared with mud.

فيما مَضى كُنتَ بِالأَعيادِ مَسرورا .. فَساءَكَ العيدُ في أَغماتَ مَأسورا


تَرى بَناتكَ في الأَطمارِ جائِعَةً .. يَغزِلنَ لِلناسِ ما يَملِكنَ قَطميرا


بَرَزنَ نَحوَكَ لِلتَسليمِ خاشِعَةً .. أَبصارُهُنَّ حَسيراتٍ مَكاسيرا


يَطأنَ في الطين وَالأَقدامُ حافيَةٌ .. كَأَنَّها لَم تَطأ مِسكا وَكافورا


لا خَدَّ إِلّا تَشكّى الجَدبَ ظاهِرهُ .. وَلَيسَ إِلّا مَعَ الأَنفاسِ مَمطورا أَفطَرتَ


في العيدِ لا عادَت إِساءَتُهُ .. فَكانَ فِطرُكَ لِلأكبادِ تَفطيرا قَد كانَ دَهرُكَ إِن تأمُرهُ مُمتَثِلاً


.. فَرَدّكَ الدَهرُ مَنهيّاً وَمأمورا


مَن باتَ بَعدَكَ في مُلكٍ يُسرُّ بِهِ .. فَإِنَّما باتَ بِالأَحلامِ مَغرورا

And he has a book printed by Hamed Abdel-Majid and Ahmed Badawy.

his death

Ibn Tashfin al-Mu’tamid sent Ibn Abbad, his wife, daughters, and one of his sons into the mists south of Marrakesh, and he did not treat them with dignity as he did with some of the leaders of other sects, but kept him in shackles, and his life was narrow for him until he and his wife forced him to work to suffice himself. His pampered wife, Etimad Al-Ramiqiah, who was the most beloved of his women to him, had derived his nickname "Al-Mu'tamad" from the letters of her name, and she died shortly after their arrival in their prison.

On 11 Shawwal 488 AH, Al-Mu’tamid Ali Muhammad bin Abbad died in shackles after an arrest that lasted about 4 years, and he was 57 years old at the time. He was buried next to his wife, Etimad, in Agmat in Morocco.