At the end of the fourth century AH, the control imposed by Al-Mansur bin Abi Amer over Andalusia ended under the shadow of the Umayyad caliphate, and his son Shanjul Abdul Rahman, who was known for his recklessness and political stupidity, came to increase the strife in Andalusia, and declare himself a caliph, thus ending the era of the Umayyads, and we have seen in a report. The Fitna of Shanjul" How did the remnants of the Umayyad family allied with the Berbers from the south to eliminate this teenage boy who did not account for the consequences like his father Al-Mansur Ibn Abi Amer, who did not dare - with his tyrannical power - to end the rule of the Umayyads in Andalusia.
The killing of Shanjul was the beginning of the great strife that lasted twenty years in Andalusia, which witnessed bloodshed and the rise of weak caliphs from the descendants of the Umayyads. Our report "Blood in Cordoba" The impact of the differences between these groups on the political and social conditions in Cordoba and throughout Andalusia.
Al-Mu'tamid, King of Seville
The announcement of the end of the Umayyad rule in Andalusia in 422 AH was the beginning of a new phase known in Andalusian history as "the history of the kings of the sects", and they are the princes who declared their political independence from Cordoba after the fall of the Umayyads. And the Andalusian West during that strife that engulfed Cordoba, thanks to its knowledge and cunning, was keen to impose calm, and the neutrality of the city of Seville during that terrible conflict, and the people of Seville knew him this credit and this prestige.
That is why the historian of that era Ibn Hayyan describes him as “a man of the West (meaning western Andalusia) as a whole, who is connected to leadership in the community and sedition.” He never collected a dirham from the sultan’s money or his servants.”[1]
The rule of the Abbad family settled in Seville, and the turn came to the rebellious son, Abu Amr Abbad bin Muhammad bin Ismail, who was able to expand the territory of the Kingdom of Seville in the west to include the cities of Liblah, Leba, Shatrash Island, and others. Al-Mu'tadid lived a life of war and politics in this way, in conflict with his opponents, the kings of the other sects.
Al-Mu'tamid bin Abbad Palace - Seville (communication sites)
Although he loved literature and loved it, Al-Humaidi said: "Abu Amr bin Abbad, the owner of Seville, was one of the people of good literature, wonderful poetry, and love for people with knowledge. I saw him a small travel in about sixty sheets of his own poetry."[2]
Ibn al-Qattan said: “The people of literature had a hypocritical market with him, and he had a high determination in that. He composed for him the most knowledgeable writer of his time, and the linguist of his time, explaining the six poems, and explaining enthusiasm, and he composed other books and collections for him that did not come out to people.”[3]
Al-Mu'tadid ibn Abbad died in Jumada al-Akhirah in the year 461 AH/1069 CE, after a twenty-eight-year rule of the Kingdom of Seville, which expanded in his time, and became one of the most important and powerful emirates of the sects in Andalusia. , and relying on God, and this last title is the one that beat him and was famous for it throughout his life. Al-Mu'tamid, on the day he was seated on the throne of the Kingdom of Seville, was a boy in his thirties, and he was born in the city of Beja in the year 431 AH / 1040 AD. He was like his father, in good stature, splendid appearance, and youthful vigor[4].
Ibn al-Abar tells us in describing al-Mu’tamid that: “He was one of the virtuous kings, the brave, the wise, the generous, the trustworthy, the chaste of the sword and the tail, dissenting from his father in oppression and shedding, and taking the slightest striving. , except that he was fond of wine, immersed in pleasures, engaged in idleness, and perpetuated rest, and that was the cause of his weakness and the root of his doom.”[5]
Like his father, al-Mu’tamid fought a long series of wars and events, and fluctuated in the midst of courtships and grandfathers, and his reign was the era of decisiveness in the history of the countries of the sects, and in the history of Andalusia as a whole. But he was not famous in the field of war and politics, as much as he was famous in the field of literature, poetry, equestrianism, and generosity, and whatever aspects of personal weakness he was involved in, such as drinking and indulging in the fields of entertainment and luxury, and whatever were his grave political mistakes, which resulted in The ordeal of Andalusia, and then its own ordeal: Whatever be of these dark qualities, the personality of Al-Mu’tamid bin Abbad emerges to us through this immersion. , with the character of an influential martyrdom [6].
Al-Mu’tamid was during the life of his father Al-Mu’tadid, the governor of the city of Shalab, and its guardian after the takeover of it by Bani Abbad in the year 455 AH (1063 AD), and he was assisted during that period in managing the state of Shalab by his minister or trustee Abu Bakr bin Ammar, who later assumed his ministry in Seville. He became famous for his mention, and assumed the most dangerous political and military tasks for him.
One of the features of that era was that every prince made his will the law to which he belonged, and every prince was waiting for his neighbors from the circles of princes, looking for opportunities to pounce on them and remove their property or to cut off part of their property and annex it to his property, and he saw no harm in that from resorting to deceit and deception. And the contract of the squatting enemy to entrap all the princes, and most of the princes of this age were distracted by trivial and minor matters from important matters, and their whims and whims from observing accidents, preparing to meet them, trying to remedy the difficult situation, fixing bad conditions, and cooperating in that with his neighbors and his strikes of kings and princes [7]. ].
Extravagance and well-being!
Al-Mu’tamid is considered the pole of the mill in the events of that era, as his kingdom expanded to include Seville, Cordoba, the base of the ancient caliphate, the Green Island and Murcia. The defects that were fascist in his time, and his extravagance in spending on his regrets and poets, and his persistence in seeking pleasure, had a bad impact on the hearts of his flock, the widest scope for a lot of gossip [8].
The poets praised al-Mu’tamid for the abundant blessings he gave them, and the flowing grants that he established for them. Among those who acknowledged his grace was the poet Abu al-Hajjaj Yusuf bin Issa, who addresses al-Mu’tamid bin Abbad, praising him and saying:
O You who possess me in word and deed...
How is the praise, when you have failed me with grace... I have never been able to thank you for it before.
You have raised well-known flags for generosity... Your door is eternity, from which is the Amer of the paths[9]
Among the stallions of Andalusian poets who came to al-Mu’tamid and invaded his courtyard, Abd al-Jalil ibn Wahbon, and he was from the people of the city of Murcia, and one day in the hands of al-Mu’tamid, some of those present sang two houses for Abd al-Jalil.
Say loyalty, so it is not received in anyone *** and does not pass a creature on the mind
And they had a strange phoenix *** or like what they said about a thousand Mithqal
Al-Mu’tamid was impressed with them and said: Who are these two houses for? They said to him: They belong to Abd al-Jalil ibn Wahbon, one of our master’s servants! Then al-Mu’tamid said at that: This, by God, is purely mean, a man of our servants and those who are cut off from us. He says: Or like what they said about a thousand Mithqal!
Is anyone talking about it worse than this latest?
And he commanded him to give him a thousand weights of gold, and when he entered upon him to thank him, al-Mu’tamid said to him: O Abu Muhammad, is the news public again?! Then Ibn Wahbon said: Yes, by God, my master!
He called for him to stay long [10]!
Al-Mu’tamid was a lover of luxury and amusement, spending endlessly on praised poets. He once sat in a council in which he celebrated extravagantly, and brought some royal anecdotes and anecdotes, and among those anecdotes was the statue of a camel made of crystal, with two ruby eyes, and it was adorned with precious things. Al-Durr, and the poet Abu al-Arab al-Siqali was present at this assembly. Al-Mu’tamid: “Take this camel, for it is a heavy loader.” So Abu Al-Arab improvised, saying:
You gave me a camel, Jonah, and I interceded for it *** a lamb of white silver, if it were a lamb
The result of your generosity in honorable gifts *** is not a matter of prevention or reasoning
He was astonished by my affair, and my whole affair was astonishing *** You comforted me, and I carried the lamb and the camel[11]
And what the Andalusian historian Ibn Bassam mentioned on the authority of the extravagance of Al-Mu’tamid is that he ordered the formation of a deer and a crescent of gold, so they were formulated, and their weight came to seven hundred shekels.
We sent the deer to the deer... and to the sun shining with a crescent[12]
Approved yarn!
Al-Mu’tamid bin Abbad, this luxurious king, was not only a connoisseur of poetry, listening to him.
Spinning was the most important purpose of al-Mu'tamid's poetry, during the era of the emirate and the king, and it is a real spinning in which he talked about his emotions in the case of contentment, anger, proximity and distance, and he showed what it contained that he did not stand on only one, but exceeded his spinning to his concubines and wives, and if they were famous for adopting the ramikis or Spring, but in his poetry we knew a gem and a charm, Wedad and a moon.
He says in Wedad:
I drink the cup in your friend and your father *** and remember it when you are alone
The moon missed your eyelids *** a mirror and dwelled in the blackness of your heart!
He says, flirting with the adoption of Al-Rumaykiyyah, the mother of his son Al-Rabi`:
You think that the mother of the spring is poisonous *** Wouldn't the Most Merciful forgive a sin that you have committed?
I desert a stag in my heart as a scavenger *** and full moon my eyelids read
And the garden of goodness that I acquired and it was cold *** from injustice, its laws did not occur to me
This flirtation, which is not limited to a woman or one of his female slaves, indicates that his owner was fond of beauty and admired him wherever he was. The desertion of the slave-girl Dalal ends with a connection, and a quarrel that peace soon follows, and parting if it is today, then tomorrow is meeting and connection, and he often depicted in his poetry flirtations that took place between him and the one he loves, and perhaps the most delicate of them is the one that he photographed and he and his slave girl were a jewel of blame, so he wrote to her He appeased her, so she answered her with a patch that she did not address by her name. He said:
You haven't described it to me yet, otherwise I wouldn't see a jewel in its title
She knew that I was in love with her name *** and she did not want to be angry to mention it
She said: If I see him again *** kiss him, and by God I do not see him.”[13]
Al-Mu’tamid ibn Abbad used to frequently visit Wadi al-Talh with his rams, and he took care of him and his joy. It is a valley in the honor of Seville, wrapped in trees, with many birds singing, and in it Nur al-Din Ibn Sa’id says:
A liquid in the valley of al-Aleh, the wind of youth... Have you mocked me since my youth?
She was a messenger between us... We will not be safe from the Messengers and we will not write
O God killer of people, if... they did not believe in them they betrayed, how amazing they are
Would they take heed that we trusted them... and we did not adopt a doctrine from them?
O killer of God who did not repent...from their treachery after they were tempted
And the mother does not know what it tastes like...except the one who is sufficient to drink
Leave me from mentioning the informants...I still think of them in flames
And I remember the valley of Al-Talh as a covenant for us... To God, what is sweeter and what is better
Beside kindness, and the branches are inclined, and the blossom broadcasts youth
And the bird kept between its melodies... and it is nothing but an admirer and a singer [14].
The road to the slide!
Politics in the era of cult kings was a dirty game. These kings allied against each other with the Crusaders kings in Castile and Leon. The great disaster was when Al-Mu’tamid ibn Abbad acquiesced to the King of Castile Alfonso when he wanted to seize Toledo in 478 AH/1081 AD, and he feared that his king would disappear; As he saw that Alfonso’s power had increased, and that he had conquered all the kingdoms of the sects adjacent to his kingdom, he feared that the tide of conquest would flow into his lands, and he saw that the truce and peace agreement with the King of Castile is the best guarantee to guard against his evil and the safety of his kingdom[15].
So he sent his brilliant minister, Ibn Ammar, to Lyon to negotiate with the King of Castile, and Ibn Ammar concluded that he concluded a treaty with him, in which the King of Castile pledges to help Ibn Abbad with the mercenary soldiers against all his enemies from the Muslim princes, and Ibn Abbad pledges in return that he will lead to the King of Castile a large tribute. And he undertakes, in particular, what is most important, which is to leave him free in his actions against the Kingdom of Toledo and its seizure, and not to interfere with his project to seize it. Perhaps there was in the letter sent by the Mu'tamid later to Alfonso VI what supported this narration, as the Mu'tamid expresses his remorse for the peace of the King of Castile, and his refusal to support his brothers [16].
This shameful agreement was a strong reason for the seizure of the city of Toledo by Alfonso VI, the King of Castile, for the first time in the history of Islamic Andalusia. Abbad is the most prominent reason for this heavy loss of Andalusia by his agreement with Alfonso, and his inaction to support his Muslim neighbors in Toledo, and he is the most important and most powerful king of the sects, and the kings of the sects did not find a solution to this calamity except to seek the help of the Almoravids in Morocco.
The Almoravids were a force to be reckoned with in the politics of the kings of the sects, as there was a discussion among them that the coming of the Almoravids to Andalusia means the elimination of their political influence, and perhaps Ibn Abbad’s word in this context was and still is an example when he said: “Shepherding camels is better than herding pigs. By this he means that it is better for him to become a captive to the ruler of the Muslims tending his camels, than to become a captive to the Christian king of Castile [17].
So Yusuf bin Tashfin came with the forces of the Almoravids to Andalusia, and they met the forces of the kings of the sects, headed by Al-Mu’tamid bin Abbad, and soon everyone united the ranks and met the forces of Alfonso in the famous battle of Zallaqa on Friday 12 Rajab 479 AH, and victory was written for the Muslims, and the heavy defeat of the Crusader forces.
Captive Prince!
Youssef bin Tashfin returned to Marrakesh after this victory and left a Almoravid garrison estimated at three thousand fighters, although he decided to return in 483 AH when he saw the great problems, religious and social, military and political weakness, and the return of some sect kings to the alliance with Alfonso against the Almoravids themselves, "So what Evidence arose against him, and his messengers confirmed it on that day, that Al-Mu’tamid bin Abbad, Abdullah bin Balqin, Prince of Granada and other princes of the sects, had concluded secret agreements with the King of Castile, in which they pledged to refrain from aiding the Almoravids with money and supplies, and to align themselves with Alfonso’s banner and protect him. ].
Yusuf bin Tashfin decided to eliminate these kings and annex Andalusia to the Almoravid state after a referendum of the opinion of the nation’s senior scholars at the time, such as Imam Al-Ghazali and others, and it was done for him, so Granada, then Seville, the Green Island and the rest of the Andalusian cities fell after a failed attempt to recover Toledo, and he was able to capture a number of these kings and on Their head was al-Mu'tamid ibn Abbad, who was sent down by Yusuf ibn Tashfin as a punishment of exile to the city of Aghmat near Marrakesh in the Far Maghreb.
It is narrated that when Al-Mu’tamid was deposed and Yusuf bin Tashfin exiled to Al-Adwa, he reached a place in it and the people of the country were leaving for dropsy, so he chanted saying:
They went out to get some rain, so I said to them... My tears are for you from times of distress
They said the truth in your tears is convincing... but they are mixed with blood[19]
In the dark, the trusted lived an ascetic life, amusing himself with patience and reckoning over what had passed. He made a will for himself and for every anxious person who remembers his ancient past and weeps over a lost king, he says[20]:
Be content with your luck in this world as long as they are *** and honor yourself if you leave our homelands
In God, from every missing person, a replacement has passed, so I feel solace and faith in the heart
Whenever you make a happy memory for it *** your tears flooded your cheeks as a flood
Have you not heard of an authority similar to you, who has been dressed by the blacks of eternity as authority?
Be at home against hate and watch its aftermath please *** and ask God’s forgiveness and you will gain from him forgiveness
Tomb of Al-Mu'tamid bin Abbad and his wife, Etimad Al-Ramiqiah - Agmat, Morocco (social networking sites)
Al-Mu’tamid bin Abbad died in exile five years after the deportation in the year 488 AH/1095 AD at the age of four or fifty-five years old. Adeeb, the emirate was wrested from him in the blink of an eye, then he lived the rest of his life as a powerless captive.
And he visited the tomb of al-Mu’tamid, the writer of Andalusia, Lisan al-Din Ibn al-Khatib in the eighth century AH on his journey to Morocco three centuries after his death. In a cemetery of clouds in the nozzles of the earth, surrounded by Sidra, and next to it is the tomb of Etimad, and on them the appearance of alienation and the suffering of idleness after the king, the eye does not have the ability to tears when seeing it, so I immediately sang:
I voluntarily visited your grave with sorrows... I saw that as one of my first missions
Why don't I visit you, O Anda of kings, hand in hand... and O lamp of the dark nights
And you are the one who, if time crossed his death... into my life, my verses would have been serious about him
I stoop to your grave in a hill that distinguishes it... and you leave it with little regards
You have been honored, living and dead, and you are well known… You are the ruler of the living and the dead.”[21]
Thus, we see in the biography of al-Mu’tamid ibn Abbad a life of amusement, luxury, conspiracies and a return to the Avenue, that life that characterized the era of sect kings who saw the fall of a large part of the north and center of Andalusia and its base, Toledo, in the hands of the Castilians, and they did not move a finger, in one of the most serious defeats in the history of Andalusia. Rather, they did not stop at this point. Despite the defeat of the Castilians in Zalqa thanks to the strength of the Almoravids, they returned again to the secret alliance with the Castilian enemy to limit the strength of the Almoravids and expel them from Andalusia altogether. Thus, we learned from the biography of Al-Mu’tamid bin Abbad that the policy of playing on ropes will lead to a tragic defeat.