Province of al-andalus · The Almohad caliphate of Muhammad al-Nasir · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Calatrava

The Almohads' forward command in the centre, won back on the morrow of Alarcos (18 July 1195), when Calatrava, Caracuel, Malagon, Benavente and the tower of Guadalferza (Guadalerzas) surrendered or were abandoned and the unfinished Castilian town of Alarcos was given up after a negotiated surrender.

Calatrava la Vieja, the river fortress on the Guadiana with its moat and water towers, is the seat; the plain around it (the Campo de Calatrava) is largely empty, a raiding ground between the Almohad castles and the Castilian ones at Consuegra and Toledo. Inside it, on the edge of the Sierra Morena, the Order of Calatrava has held the castle of Salvatierra since 1198: a Castilian enclave that the command cannot ignore.

Who holds it

Name
Not pinned for 1 January 1200
Title
Commander (qaid) of Calatrava
Since
not pinned
Family
Nearest attested: Abu l-Hajjaj Yusuf ibn Qadis, 1212.
Confidence
low

No commander of Calatrava is attested for 1200 in the sources reached. In 1212 the commander was the Andalusi Abu l-Hajjaj Yusuf ibn Qadis, who surrendered the fortress to the crusade army on 1 July 1212 and was executed on al-Nasir's orders (general literature on Las Navas; not checked against a primary source here).

Overlord

Caliph Muhammad al-Nasir (through the governor of Cordoba or Jaen, not pinned)

What it holds

  • Calatrava la Vieja (Qalat Rabah): walled river fortress, Almohad since 1195; the Almohads rebuilt its water defences and an albarrana tower
  • Alarcos: the unfinished Castilian town and castle, given up in 1195, in ruins
  • Caracuel, Piedrabuena, Benavente, Malagon and the tower of Guadalerzas, lost by Castile in 1195
  • Almodovar del Campo and the roads south to the Sierra Morena passes
  • Not held: the castle of Salvatierra, held by the Order of Calatrava since 1198

How things stand that morning

Held by garrisons under the truce. The Calatravans at Salvatierra are supplied across the raided plain.

Wealth

Little: pasture, the Guadiana crossings, tolls on the Toledo-Cordoba road. The mercury mines of Almaden lie to the south-west.

Military

The main Almohad base facing Toledo. It falls on 1 July 1212, a fortnight before Las Navas.

Threats

  • Salvatierra's knights
  • A Castilian advance from Toledo and Consuegra if the truce breaks
  • Supply across empty country

Garrisons and commands

Garrisons at Calatrava, Caracuel, Malagon and Guadalerzas; the command faces the Hospitallers at Consuegra, the Calatravans at Salvatierra and the Montes de Toledo.

Qadi and families

None known: a military command over a thinly peopled plain.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

  1. Through 1200The command holds under the truce; the Almohads besiege and take Salvatierra only in 1211 (September).Depends on: The truce with Castile. Stopped by: Either side treating raids around Salvatierra as a breach.

Places of note

  • Alarcos: Unfinished Castilian town given up after the battle of 18 July 1195; in ruins
  • Caracuel: Castle lost by Castile in 1195
  • Malagon: Castle lost by Castile in 1195; retaken in June 1212
  • Castle of Salvatierra (not held): Order of Calatrava's castle since 1198; a Castilian enclave

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The 1195 losses and the 1198 seizure of Salvatierra are well attested (en.wikipedia, Alarcos; OMNIA Church research on the Order of Calatrava). Treated as a province because Calatrava was the Almohads' frontier command in the centre; its subordination to Cordoba or Jaen is not pinned.

On the map: The command held castles, not a bounded district; the seeds give the area the garrisons watched.

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.

Sources and studies

  1. Battle of Alarcos (en.wikipedia)
  2. Calatrava la Vieja (es.wikipedia)
  3. Guadalerzas castle (castles.nl)
  4. Guerra hispano-musulmana de 1172-1212 (es.wikipedia)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.