Murcia (Almohad)

Who holds it

Name

Not pinned for 1 January 1200

Title

Governor (wali) of Murcia, normally a sayyid of Abd al-Mumin's house

Since

Not pinned

Confidence

low

After Ibn Mardanish died in 1172, his son Hilal negotiated the surrender and was left as governor of the city (Spanish Wikipedia, Taifa de Murcia); how long he stayed is not given. No governor of Murcia for about 1200 was found. The later sayyid Abu Muhammad Abd Allah (al-Adil), son of al-Mansur, governed Murcia in 1224, but that is a generation later.

Overlord

Caliph Muhammad al-Nasir

Wealth

The irrigated huerta of the Segura with its great canals; silk and fine textiles, ceramics, esparto; the ports of Cartagena and Alicante; the road from Valencia to Granada and Almería passing through Murcia and Lorca.

Military

Almohad garrisons and Andalusi levies; the governor of Murcia commands the frontier castles towards Castile. No numbers.

Threats

• Castile, once the truce of 1197 lapses: the militias of Cuenca and Huete and the Order of Santiago
• Raids across the La Mancha belt
• Banu Ghaniya corsairs on the coast

Cities

• Murcia (seat)
• Orihuela
• Alicante
• Elche
• Guardamar
• Cartagena
• Lorca
• Aledo
• Mula
• Cieza (Siyasa)
• Ricote
• Caravaca
• Moratalla
• Jumilla
• Yecla
• Villena
• Hellín
• Chinchilla
• Almansa
• Jorquera
• Alcalá del Júcar
• Alcaraz
• Segura de la Sierra

Garrisons

No figures. Frontier commands on 1 January 1200: Alcaraz, the great Almohad fortress facing La Mancha (taken by Alfonso VIII only in May 1213); Chinchilla (Castilian in 1242); the Júcar castles of Jorquera and Alcalá del Júcar; Segura de la Sierra in the mountains; Villena and Almansa on the road to Valencia. Inner castles: the alcazaba of Murcia and the Monteagudo castle, Orihuela, Lorca, Aledo, Mula, Alicante.

Frontier

North-west against Castile: the Castilian line runs through Cuenca, Alarcón (since 1184) and the Order of Santiago's Uclés; the plains between are a raiding belt (see La Mancha frontier). The 1197 truce between Alfonso VIII and the Almohads holds on 1 January 1200. To the south-west Lorca faces the province of Almería; to the east the sea.

Families

The Banu Mardanish, now in Almohad service (see Valencia). The Banu Hud, descendants of the kings of Zaragoza, live in the province; their Muhammad ibn Yusuf ibn Hud raises the revolt of 1228 in the Ricote valley (his position in 1200 is not pinned). The Sufi master Ibn Arabi was born in Murcia in 1165 and has left for the Maghreb by 1200.

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. Under the truce of 1197, through 1200No Castilian campaign against Murcia's frontier is expected while Alfonso VIII is busy with Álava, Guipúzcoa and Navarre.Depends on: The truce holding on both sides. Stopped by: A break of the truce by the frontier militias or orders.
2. 23 May 1213 (far beyond 1200)Alfonso VIII takes Alcaraz after the victory of Las Navas.Depends on: The Navas campaign and Almohad collapse in the north. Stopped by: Any change to the 1212 campaign.

Places of note

• Alcaraz: Almohad frontier fortress facing Castile's La Mancha; Castilian from 1213.
• Chinchilla: Frontier castle on the La Mancha plateau; Castilian from 1242.
• Segura de la Sierra: Mountain castle at the head of the Segura; later Castilian (Order of Santiago).
• Villena: Castle on the road from Murcia to Valencia.
• Lorca: Castle facing the province of Almería.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The castles and later conquest dates are firm; the governor and officials of 1200 were not found.

On the map: Andalusi provinces had no surveyed borders. The attribution of Alcaraz and Segura de la Sierra to Murcia rather than to Jaén is not pinned.

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.