Badajoz

Who holds it

Name

Not pinned for 1 January 1200

Title

Governor (wali or sahib), normally a sayyid of the caliph's family with an Almohad shaykh at his side

Since

not pinned

Confidence

low

No governor of this province is securely attested for 1199-1200 in the sources reached (es/en/pt.wikipedia, Alvira Cabrer 1996). Huici Miranda's Historia politica del imperio almohade and Ibn Idhari's Bayan are where the name would be found.

Overlord

Caliph Muhammad al-Nasir

What it holds

• Badajoz (Batalyaws): the alcazaba rebuilt by Abu Yaqub Yusuf after 1169, the Espantaperros tower
• Merida (Marida): the alcazaba of 835 and the Roman bridge over the Guadiana; Alange
• Caceres: Almohad since 1174; Montanchez, Trujillo and Santa Cruz de la Sierra: Almohad since 1196
• Medellin and the castles of La Serena (Magacela, Benquerencia, Capilla)
• Alcantara and Valencia de Alcantara on the Tagus and Sever; Elvas and Juromenha toward Portugal
• Hornachos, Reina, Jerez de los Caballeros, Fregenal in the south

How things stand that morning

Held, with a wide raided belt to the north between the Tagus and the line Caceres-Trujillo (Extremadura belt). Quiet under the truce with Castile; terms with Leon not pinned.

Wealth

Grain of the Guadiana valley and the Tierra de Barros; sheep and cattle on the open ranges; the Merida-Seville road.

Military

Garrisons in strong Almohad fortresses of rammed earth (tapial) and stone; the region was the scene of al-Mansur's 1196 campaign.

Threats

• Leonese attempts on Caceres (Alfonso IX fails in 1213 and later, and takes it on 23 April 1229)
• Castilian and Leonese military orders seeking to retake Trujillo and Montanchez
• Portuguese raids from Evora on Elvas and Juromenha

Garrisons and commands

Badajoz is the main base of the west; frontier garrisons at Alcantara, Caceres, Montanchez, Trujillo and Santa Cruz face Leon and Castile, and at Elvas and Juromenha face Portugal. The Vía de la Plata runs north from Merida through Caceres toward Leonese territory.

Places of note

• Alcantara: Roman bridge over the Tagus; Almohad frontier town
• Elvas: Frontier town facing Portugal; holder in 1200 not securely pinned
• Juromenha: Castle over the Guadiana; Almohad from 1191 to about 1230
• Alange (Hisn al-Hanash): Castle south of Merida

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The frontier towns and their dates are well attested in es.wikipedia (Trujillo, Montanchez, Caceres, Alcazaba de Badajoz); governor not pinned. Elvas's status in 1200 is not securely pinned (pt.wikipedia gives a Portuguese capture about 1166 and a final one in 1226-1229).

On the map: Bounds drawn by nearest seed; the northern and western edges are raided frontier, not lines.

Primary sources for Almohads

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• History of the Two Dynasties, the Almohad and the Hafsid, al-Zarkashi (Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Lu'lu'i al-Zarkashi) (about 1490 to 1495, at Tunis). A short Hafsid-era chronicle whose Almohad opening gives, in a few lines a reign, the succession of al-Mansur and al-Nasir, the Banu Ghaniya's seizure of Ifriqiya and its recovery, and the sending of Abd al-Wahid ibn Abi Hafs to Tunis, which the Hafsids counted as the start of their house. Read online
• The Complete History: the passages on the Maghreb and al-Andalus, Ibn al-Athir (about 1220 to 1231, at Mosul). The year entries for 595 to 597 of the Hijra (late 1198 to 1201) record the death of Yaqub al-Mansur, the accession of al-Nasir and the opening of Yahya ibn Ghaniya's war in Ifriqiya; the following years follow Yahya and the Ghuzz captain Qaraqush through Tripoli, Gabès and Mahdia to al-Nasir's reconquest in 1206, with the best eastern account of Qaraqush's career. Read online
• The Garden of Pages: a History of the Kings of the Maghreb and of the City of Fez, Ibn Abi Zar al-Fasi (completed in 1326 at Fez, for the Marinid sultan Abu Said Uthman). The Almohad chapters give a brisk dated narrative of al-Mansur's death and burial, al-Nasir's accession and the Banu Ghaniya troubles, with the kind of detail (coinage, public works at Fez and Rabat, prices, plagues) that a Fez compiler cared about, and the annals of Fez supply the city's governors and markets. Read online
• The Wondrous Account of the History of al-Andalus and the Maghreb, Ibn Idhari al-Marrakushi (about 1312, at Marrakesh). The Almohad section is the fullest year-by-year narrative of the caliphate around 1200: the last campaigns and the death of Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur in January 1199, the accession of his son Muhammad al-Nasir, the renewed war of the Banu Ghaniya in Ifriqiya under Yahya ibn Ishaq and his ally Qaraqush, the Almohad losses of Mahdia and Tunis a few years later, and al-Nasir's reconquest of Ifriqiya in 1205 to 1206 followed by the appointment of Abd al-Wahid ibn Abi Hafs as governor. Read online
• Historical Monuments of Portugal: Writers (Annals of King Afonso, Chronicon Conimbricense, Chronica Gothorum and others) (12th to 15th centuries). The Portuguese annals in one volume. Read online
• Latin Chronicle of the Kings of Castile, Anonymous, probably Juan of Osma, chancellor of Castile (about 1223 to 1239). The chancellor's chronicle of Alfonso VIII's reign, detailed from the 1190s. Read online
• The Complete History, Izz al-Din Ibn al-Athir (about 1200 to 1231, at Mosul). The widest Muslim narrative for the years 596 to 597 AH (1199 to 1201): al-Adil's entry into Cairo and his taking of the sultanate from his nephew al-Mansur Muhammad early in 1200, the quarrels of the Ayyubid princes at Damascus, Aleppo and Hama, the Nile failure and the great famine of Egypt, Mosul under Nur al-Din Arslan Shah and the Jazira under Gokbori and the Artuqids, Baghdad under the caliph al-Nasir, the Khwarazmshah Tekish's death in 1200 and Muhammad's accession, the Ghurid wars in Khurasan, the Eldiguzids and Georgia, the Almohads in the west, and the Seljuks of Rum in passing. Read online
• Memoirs of the Mahdi Ibn Tumart and the Beginnings of the Almohad State, Abu Bakr ibn Ali al-Sanhaji, called al-Baydhaq (about 1150 to 1165). Nothing for the year itself: al-Baydhaq's memoir ends in Abd al-Mu'min's early reign.

17 more in the sources library for The Maghreb and the Sahara.