Valencia (Almohad)

Who holds it

Name

Not pinned for 1 January 1200

Title

Governor (wali) of Valencia, normally a sayyid, that is a descendant of the first caliph Abd al-Mumin

Since

Not pinned

Confidence

low

The governors of Valencia between 1186 and about 1210 are not settled in the sources reached. Yusuf ibn Mardanish (Abu al-Hajjaj), brother of the Rey Lobo, governed Valencia for the Almohads from the surrender of 1172 until his death in 1186 (Spanish Wikipedia, Taifa de Valencia). The same list puts the sayyid Abu Abd Allah Muhammad, a grandson of Abd al-Mumin and father of the later governor Abu Zayd, in Valencia from 1190 to 1213, but the article on Abu Zayd dates his father's governorship from 1210/11.

Abu Yahya ibn Abi Imran al-Tinmalli is said to have left the Valencia post for Majorca in 1208-09 (Roser Nebot 2018, after Ibn Amira). Any of these lines could lead to the man of 1200; none is pinned.

Overlord

Caliph Muhammad al-Nasir (Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Yaqub), proclaimed at Marrakesh on his father's death in January 1199

Wealth

The irrigated huerta of the Turia with its canals (acequias), the Albufera lagoon, the farms of the Plana, the river and coastal trade, and textiles. The paper of Xàtiva and the shipyards of Dénia lie in the neighbouring governorships.

Military

Almohad (Masmuda) garrison troops alongside Andalusi levies and the city's men, under the governor, who also commands the frontier castles. No numbers.

Threats

• Peter II of Aragon (king since 1196) and the lords and orders of the Teruel and Maestrazgo frontier
• Castile, if the truce of 1197 lapses (the militia of Cuenca, the Order of Santiago at Uclés)
• Banu Ghaniya corsairs from Majorca raiding the coast
• The Treaty of Cazola (1179), which marks the whole province out for Aragon

Cities

• Valencia (seat)
• Murviedro (Sagunto)
• Burriana
• Onda
• Segorbe
• Jérica
• Llíria
• Alpuente
• Chelva
• Alzira (Jazirat Shuqr)
• Cullera
• Peñíscola
• Morella
• Culla
• Ares
• Requena
• Ademuz
• Castielfabib

Garrisons

No figures. The castles that matter on 1 January 1200: Morella, Peñíscola, Culla and Ares in the north; Rubielos, the Muslim castle facing Aragonese Mora; Ademuz and Castielfabib on the upper Turia; Requena on the Castilian road; Murviedro, Onda, Segorbe and Jérica on the inner line; the alcazaba of Valencia.

Frontier

North and north-west against the Crown of Aragon: the Aragonese hold Teruel (since 1171), Alcañiz (Order of Calatrava), Castellote and Alfambra (Templars since 1196), Cantavieja, Alcalá de la Selva, and Mora, which Peter II gave to Pedro Ladrón in 1198 as the most advanced Christian post; the Catalans hold Tortosa and Ulldecona (a Montcada castle under Hospitaller lordship since 1191). West against the independent lordship of Albarracín and against Castile (Cuenca, Cañete, Alarcón); Moya, between Requena and Cuenca, is not settled by Castile until 1210. Rubielos falls to Aragon in 1204, Ademuz and Castielfabib in 1210, Morella in 1232, Peñíscola and Burriana in 1233, Valencia itself in 1238.

Families

The Banu Mardanish, house of Muhammad ibn Mardanish (the Rey Lobo, died 1172), were taken into the Almohad elite: his brother Yusuf governed Valencia until 1186 and the family kept standing in the city (Zayyan ibn Mardanish, of this line, seizes Valencia in 1228-29). The scholar and secretary Ibn al-Abbar was born in Valencia in 1199 and is a baby on 1 January 1200. The historian Ibn Amira al-Makhzumi was born at Alzira in 1186.

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.

In 1200

1. 1200 (month not pinned)Sancho VII of Navarre, living on Almohad money and on rents from the lands of Valencia, goes home to face the Castilian conquest of Álava and Guipúzcoa.Depends on: News of the Castilian and Aragonese attacks reaching him and the caliph letting him go. Stopped by: The caliph keeping him for a campaign, or Sancho choosing to stay.

Later, on the likely course

1. 1204Aragon takes Rubielos, the next castle south of Mora, opening the upper Mijares.Depends on: Peter II or his frontier lords (Pedro Ladrón at Mora) pushing south while the Almohads look to the Balearics and Ifriqiya. Stopped by: A reinforced Almohad garrison line, or Aragon busy in Occitania or Navarre.
2. 1210Peter II takes Ademuz, Castielfabib and the nearby castles of the upper Turia.Depends on: A breach of the truce and a royal campaign from Teruel. Stopped by: A renewed truce or a strong garrison.

Places of note

• Morella castle: Key of the Els Ports, Almohad until 1232.
• Peñíscola castle: Sea castle on its rock, Almohad until 1233.
• Ademuz and Castielfabib: Upper Turia castles facing Albarracín and Teruel; taken by Peter II in 1210.
• Requena castle: On the road from Cuenca to Valencia; Castilian only in 1238-39.
• Murviedro (Sagunto) castle: Hill castle on the Roman acropolis guarding the coast road north of Valencia.

Where the sources disagree

• The Spanish Wikipedia list of governors (Abu Abd Allah Muhammad 1190-1213) conflicts with the article on his son Abu Zayd (father governor from 1210/11) and with Roser Nebot (Abu Yahya ibn Abi Imran in Valencia before 1208-09). Left not pinned.
• The campaign notes on the Church say nothing about Muslim Valencia.

Evidence: The province's shape, the Cazola partition and the later conquest dates are firm; the governor, qadi and garrisons for 1200 are not attested in the sources reached.

On the map: Andalusi provinces had no surveyed borders: this is a seeds sharing between the main towns of each governorship. The northern edge (Morella, Rubielos, Ademuz) is a frontier of castles, not a line.

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.