Taifa of Dénia
Dénia (Arabic: daniya ) was one of the Moorish Taifa kingdoms that emerged after the fall of the Caliphate of Córdoba in the 11th century. Its territory included not only the located on the Gulf of Valencia eponymous town of Dénia and the archipelago of the Balearic Islands. In al -Andalus, as the Muslim -dominated part of the Iberian Peninsula has been called the Taifa of Dénia was famous for its wealth and the brilliant court of their rulers. Militarily, however, they could not compete with its neighbors in the long run and eventually went in the realm of Hudiden of Zaragoza on.
History
The disintegration of the Caliphate of Córdoba took Mujahid (DMG: Muǧāhid ), a freed Saqlab ( Arabic term for predominantly light-skinned slaves, translated: " Slav " ) Almansor († 1002), the first minister and commander of the caliph Hisham II († 1013 ) to bring to 1010-1014 in the possession of the area of Denia and the Balearic Islands. Mujahid, a gifted ruler who extended his sphere of influence to the short time also belonged to Valencia, from a wealthy and powerful territory. His fleet gained a dominant position in the western Mediterranean, and multiplied by the wealth of piracy Taifa of Dénia.
1015 undertook a large-scale experiment Mujahid, Sardinia incorporate its sphere of influence. As the Arab historian Ibn al - Khatib ( 1313-74 ) reported that he landed with 120 ships, which also had 1,000 riders on board, on the "Eight days' journey large [n ], of four kings reigned ... [n ] island. " He hit one of the four island kings, " conquered a considerable area " and made it so many prisoners that at the slave market " the head prices have decreased significantly. "That it was at mujahids fleet companies to Sardinia by more than a mere raid, goes also from the fact that he soon began the construction of a new residence, in which he had to meet his family.
Pope Benedict VIII (r. 1012-24 ) finally mustered an alliance of the maritime cities of Genoa and Pisa to drive the Muslims back from the island. Mujahid wanted to retire to the Balearic Islands of impending danger, the fleet of allied maritime cities, but the way it cut off and brought him in 1016 in a catastrophic defeat. Ibn al - Khatib writes that by mujahids fleet " only five ships and four boats spared " had remained. His entire family, including Ali, his then only son were taken prisoner. After payment of a corresponding ransom most family members were released relatively quickly, but Ali remained until 1032/33 in captivity as the required ransom exceeded the means of the father.
After mujahids death, his son Iqbal al - Dawla Ali ( Iqbal al-Dawla ʿ Alī ) was in 1045, his successor. At the very beginning of his reign it came to dealing with his brother Hasan, the Mujahedeen during Ali's absence had still provided as a successor. Hasan conspired with the Abbadids of Seville, helping with the assassination promised to him to which he planned to his brother. The plot failed, however, and Hasan was forced to flee from Dénia.
Under Ali's reign, Dénia could peacefully develop and achieve high economic bloom. Ibn al - Khatib particularly praises Ali's " the people's welfare enhancing, successful tax and fiscal policy. " But this prosperity was the envy of Hudiden in Zaragoza. Ali's brother al - Muktadir (reigned 1046-1081 ), the ruler of Saragossa, occupied Dénia 1076 and joined Ali at his residence in. This eventually had to give with his son and was brought to Zaragoza, where he died. After the mainland part of the Taifa of Dénia had been annexed by the Hudiden, made himself the governor of the Balearic Islands, Abdallah al - Murtada, and founded his own independent Taifa. This came in 1114, after the conquest of Ibiza and Mallorca by an Allied Pisan- Catalan army, in the dependence of the North African Almoravids and eventually went on in their kingdom.
Culture
Dénia was known in the 11th century because of its wealth and its cultural level throughout al -Andalus. Mujahid, an avid collector of books, gathered scholars, most notably Koran readers to sign up and to have been a gifted philologist. With philology he had dealt in considerable detail in order to study the sciences of the Qur'an can. At his court, for example, had the astronomer al- Saffar († 1035 ), who left to posterity significant astronomical tables, and the lexicographer Ibn Sida ( 1007-1066 ). Ibn al - Khatib, according to the teachings of numerous scholars to mujahids court were " ' so much the common property that they even became popular among his male and female slaves. ' "