Al-Mu'tamid ibn Abbad III, emir of Seville

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ibn_Abbad_Al_Mutamid [multilingual available]

al-Mu'tamid Muhammad ibn Abbad al-Lakhmi (Arabic: المعتمد محمد ابن عباد بن اسماعيل اللخمي; reigned c. 1069–1091, lived 1040–1095),[1] also known as Abbad III, was the third and last ruler of the Taifa of Seville in Al-Andalus, as well as a renowned poet. He was the final ruler of the Abbadid dynasty of Seville, being overthrown by the Almoravids in 1091.

1. Early life
2. Reign
3. Legacy :

Al-Mu'tamid, one of the most eminent men of 11th-century al-Andalus, was highly regarded as a writer of poetry in Arabic.[9] He was the father-in-law or father of Zaida of Seville, a concubine of Alfonso VI of Castile, possibly identical to his later wife, Queen Isabella.[10][11] Iberian Muslim sources say that Zaida of Seville was the wife of Al-Mu'tamid 's son Abu Nasr al-Fath al-Ma'mūn, Emir of the Taifa of Córdoba.[12][13][14][15][16]

Bishop Pelayo of Oviedo asserted that Zaida was the daughter of Abenath (Al-Mu'tamid ibn Abbad), a claim repeated by later Iberian Christian chroniclers that persisted in written histories for hundreds of years.

However, the Islamic chroniclers are considered more reliable,[12][14][15][16] and the general consensus among scholars now is that Zaida was Al-Mu'tamid 's daughter-in-law.

• http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/MOORISH%20SPAIN.htm#AbuQasimMohamme...

ABU al-QASIM MOHAMMED al-Mutamid, son of MOHAMMED al-Mutadid (Beja [Nov/Dec] 1039-Aghmat 16 Oct or 11 Dec 1095). Ibn Khallikan´s 13th century Biographical Dictionary records "Al-Motamid ala ´Illah Abu ´l-Kasim Muhammad, the son of al-Motadid billah Abu Amr Abbad, the son of az-Zafir al-Muwaiyad billah Abu ´l-Kasim Muhammad, kadi of Seville, the son of Abu ´l-Walid Ismail…", his birth "in the month of the first Rabi…in Bajja" A.H. 431 (Nov/Dec 1039), and his death "in prison at Aghmat 11th Shawwal some say, of Zu ´l-Hijja" A.H. 448 (16 Oct or 11 Dec 1095)[606]. Abd el-Wahid Merrakechi records that "son fils Abou l-Kasim Mohammed b. Abbad b, Mohammed b. Ismail b. Abbad", aged 37, succeeded in Seville after the death of "Motadid" and added "à son surnom de Motamid ala Illah celui de Zafir bi-hawl allah"[607]. Emir of Seville. Abd el-Wahid Merrakechi records that Córdoba was "une dependence de Séville" after it was conquered by "Motamid"[608]. He recovered Córdoba 1076/7, and conquered Valencia 1078. After the fall of Toledo, he and his allies, Abd Allah of Granada and al-Mutawwakil of Badajoz, defeated Alfonso VI King of Castile and León at Sagrajas, north east of Badajoz 23 Oct 1086. He was unable to sustain the momentum, after unsuccessfully besieging Aledo in 1088. Faced with the increasing power of the Almoravids under Ibn Tashfin and his nephew Sir bin Abi Bakr, he allied himself with King Alfonso but was obliged to surrender Seville Sep 1091. Abd el-Wahid Merrakechi records that "Motamid" was deprived of his kingdom "en redjab 484"[609]. He was deported to Morocco, where he lived at Aghmat near Marrakesh.

 Abu al-Qasim had three children:

Muhammad Ibn Abbad Al Mutamid (1040 - 1095), was the third and last ruler (reigned 1069–1091) of Sevilla in Al-Andalus from Abbadid dynasty.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Mu%27tamid_ibn_Abbad

After the death of his father Abbad II al-Mu'tadid he inherited his kingdom and became Muslim ruler of Sevilla in 1069. In 1071, he attempted to seize the surrounding area and kingdom called Córdoba. He lost Córdoba in 1075 but regained it in 1078.

Al-Mu'tamid supported the Almoravid ruler Yusuf ibn Tashfin against the Castilian King Alfonso VI in battle of az-Zallaqah (1086). In 1091 his kingdom was overthrown by the Almoravids and he was deposed.

Al-Mu'tamid was the beloved, as well as the patron of the Andalusi Arabic poet Ibn Ammar. His father came to disapprove of the relation with the commoner and exiled the poet in order to separate them. On his succession, al-Mu'tamid granted Ibn Ammar great political and military power. Their relationship was stormy, and came to an end when Al Mutamid killed the poet with his own hands, only to bury him with great honors.[1] He is also considered, in his own right, one of the greatest of the Andalusi poets. Also the Sicilian Arabic poet Ibn Hamdis was guest and friend of him.

Al-Mu'tamid was also the father-in-law, through his son, Fath al-Mamun, (d. 1091), of Zaida, mistress, and possibly wife, of Alfonso VI of Castile.

Differently from what some said, Zaida (Isabella) was daughter of Al-Mutamid and not wife of the son, as is said by the Arab scholars in Morocco and such information is inscribed in her grave, Zaida daughter of Abu Abbad King of Sevilla.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ibn_Abbad_Al_Mutamid

Descent from Muhammad:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_to_Edward_III

Muhammad Ibn Abbad Al Mutamid

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the Andalusi Arabic poet who was also the Abbadid king of Seville. For the Abbasid Caliph al-Mu'tamid, see Al-Mu'tamid.

Muhammad Ibn Abbad Al Mutamid (1040 - 1095), was the third and last ruler (reigned 1069–1091) of Sevilla in Al-Andalus from Abbadid dynasty.

After the death of his father Abbad II al-Mu'tadid he inherited his kingdom and became Muslim ruler of Sevilla in 1069. In 1071, he attempted to seize the surrounding area and kingdom called Córdoba. He lost Córdoba in 1075 but regained it in 1078.

Al-Mu'tamid supported the Almoravid ruler Yusuf ibn Tashfin against the Castilian King Alfonso VI in battle of az-Zallaqah (1086). In 1091 his kingdom was overthrown by the Almoravids and he was deposed.

Al-Mu'tamid was the beloved, as well as the patron of the Andalusi Arabic poet Ibn Ammar. Their relationship was stormy, and came to an end when Al Mutamid killed the poet with his own hands, only to bury him with great honors.[1] He is also considered, in his own right, one of the greatest of the Andalusi poets. Also the Sicilian Arabic poet Ibn Hamdis was guest and friend of him.

Al-Mu'tamid was also the father-in-law, through his son, Fath al-Mamun, (d. 1091), of Zaida, mistress, and possibly wife, of Alfonso VI of Castile.

See more information in Abbadid dynasty page.

Differently from what some said, Zaida (Isabella) was daughter of Al-Mutamid and not wife of the son, as is said by the Arab scholars in Morocco and such information is iscribed in her grave, zaida daughter of Abu Abbad King of Siville.

References

^ Louis Crompton, Homosexuality and Civilization, p.167

Souissi, Ridha (1977). Al Mutamid Ibn Abbad et son oeuvre poétique : étude des thèmes. Université de Tunis.

Scheindlin, Raymond P. (1974). Form and structure in the poetry of Al-Mutamid Ibn Abbad. Leiden: Brill.

Hagerty ed., Miguel José (1979). Poesia / Al-Mutamid. Barcelona: Antoni Bosch.

Rubiera Mata ed., María Jesús (1982). Poesías / Al Mutamid Ibn Abbad. Madrid: Universidad de Sevilla.

Abbadid

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 (Redirected from Abbadid dynasty)

In 1080, Al-Mu'tamid brought down upon himself the vengeance of Alfonso VI of Castile. He had endeavoured to pay part of his tribute to the Christian king with false money, but a Jew, one of the envoys of Alfonso, detected the fraud. Abbad, in a moment of folly and rage, crucified the Jew and imprisoned the Christian members of the mission. Alfonso retaliated with a destructive raid.

When Alfonso took Toledo in 1085, Abbad called in Yusuf ibn Tashfin, the Almoravid ruler. During the six years which preceded his deposition in 1091, Abbad behaved with valour on the field, but with much meanness and political folly. He endeavoured to curry favour with Yusuf by betraying the other Muslim princes to him, and intrigued to secure the alliance of Alfonso against the Almoravids. Probably during this period he surrendered his beautiful daughter-in-law Zaida to the Christian king, who made her his concubine—some authorities suggest he married her after she bore him a son, Sancho.

The vacillations and submissions of Abbad did not save him from the fate which overtook his fellow-princes. Their scepticism and extortion had tired their subjects, and the mullahs gave Yusuf a fatwa authorizing him to remove them in the interest of religion.

In 1091, the Almoravids stormed Seville. Muhammad, who had fought bravely, weakly ordered his sons to surrender the fortresses they still held, in order to save his own life. He died in prison in Africa in 1095.

From:The Poet-King of Seville

Written by Rose M. Esber

Poetry flourished exuberantly in 11th century al-Andalus. Verse was the common expression of the day, an arabesque of words and meaning the language of love, diplomacy and satire. Andalusians loved poetry and virtually everyone composed it.

No poet so embodied the spirit of this brilliant poetical age as did al-Mu'tamid, the poet-king of Seville, who lived from 1040 to 1095. Al-Mu'tamid is considered one of the most outstanding Andalusian poets of his age. "He left," wrote literary histo rian Ibn Bassam, "some pieces of verse as beautiful as the bud when it opens to disclose the flower."

The dramatic twists of al-Mu'tamid's life, which took him to triumphant kingship in Seville and then to the bitterness of African exile, are legendary, and they remain a poignant metaphor for the spectacular rise and fall of al-Andalus. The histo rian al-Marrakushi wrote of al-Mu'tamid, "If one wanted to list all the examples of beauty produced by al-Ahdalus from the time of the conquest to the present day, then al-Mu'tamid would be one of them, if not the greatest of all...."

The collapse of the Andalusian Umayyad caliphate in 1031 diminished the illustrious capital city of Córdoba to a mere provincial town, and splintered al-Andalus into some 23 petty principal ities and locally ruled kingdoms. The disarray left by this disintegration unified the feuding Christian states of Galicia, León, Castile, Navarre, Aragón and Barcelona with visions of reconquest. This period became known as the era of the "party kings" or petty monarchs - muluk al-tawa'if in Arabic, reyes de taifas in Spanish.

Once-glorious Córdoba was soon eclipsed by the flourishing dynasties of Seville, Badajoz, Granada and Toledo. Yet apart from brief coalitions against their common Spanish-Christian enemy, the kingdoms were constantly dividing and realigning themselves through feuds and treaties, their rulers vying not only for political dominance, but also attract the greatest poets and scholars of the day their respective courts.

Of all these rival kingdoms, the most formidable militarily and the most scintillating artistically was undeniably the kingdom of Seville, ruled by the 'Abbadids. Al-Mu'tamid inherited not only the reins of power from his ancestors but their poetical talent as well.

Al-Mu'tamid's grandfather Abu al-Quasim Muhammad ibn Isma'il ibn Abbad, the founder of the ‘Abbadid dynasty, was renowned for his justice and wise rule, while his son al-Mu’tadid, al-Mu’tamid’s father, was feared for his tyranny and fierce cruelty. Nonetheless, poets and scholars gravitated to al-Mu’tadid’s court, for he was also known as a great patron of literature and the arts, as well as a poet in his own right.

Abu al-Qasim Muhammad II ibn ‘Abbad al-Mu’tamid was the third and last of the ‘Abbadid dynasty. His reputation as an enlightened, benevolent ruler and gifted poet soon surpassed that of his forebears. The biographer Ibn Khallikan described al-Mu’tamid as “the most liberal, hospitable, munificent and powerful of all the princes ruling Spain. His court was the haling place of travelers, the rendezvous of poets, the point to which all hopes were directed and the haunt of men of talent.”

Al-Mu'tamid's life story, dramatic enough in its facts, was immortalized by his verse and the intimate revelations it provided of his soul. His youthful works show his preoccupation with pleasure and friendship, and mirror the popular themes of love, nature and sensual beauty:

She stood in all her slender grace

Veiling the sun’s orb from my face:

O may her beauty ever be

So veiled from times inconstancy!

It was as if she knew, I guess,

She was a moon of loveliness;

And may aught else the bright sun veil

Except the moon's own lustre pale?

During these early years, a young, penniless, poet-adventurer was drawn to the court of Seville to prove his talent and reap his reward. Ibn 'Ammar's artful verse captured the fervent admiration of the young prince al-Mu'tamid, who aspired to model himself after the poet. Lovers of pleasure, high adventure and - above all - poetry, the two became inseparable companions. When al-Mu'tamid's father appointed him gov­ernor of Silves (in present-day Portugal) at age 23, the prince named Ibn 'Ammar his vizier, and later, when he ascended the throne, his prime minister.

The two friends often sallied forth in disguise to the banks of al-Wadi al-Kabir, now the Guadal quivir River, to amuse themselves. On such an out ing, al-Mu'tamid supposedly met his future bride. While strolling along the river's Bank where some young women were washing linen, the legend has it, al-Mu'tamid improvised a half verse, challenging Ibn 'Ammar to supply the second verse on the spot:

Sana’a ‘r-ribu min al-ma i zarad…

 [The wind has turned the water to chain mail...]

Ibn 'Ammar's brilliant wit had never failed him in this, their favorite pastime. But this time, before he could take up the rhyme, one of the linen-washers unhesitatingly replied:

Ayyu dir'in li-qitdlin law jamad!

[What armor for a battle, if it froze!]

Captivated by her beauty and cleverness, al-Mu'tamid had the young poet brought to the palace. Her name was I'timad; she was commonly known as Rumaikiyyah, the slave of Rumaik, for whom she drove mules. Al-Mu'tamid purchased I'timad's freedom and married her. It is said he adopted the public name al-Mu'tamid 'ala Allah - "He Who Relies on God" - after his wife's name I'ti mad, or "reliance."

The second period of al-Mu'tamid's poetical work is dominated by themes of war and rulership, expansion of the kingdom of Seville, his deep love for his wife and their splendid life together at court. Al-Mu'tamid expressed his feelings for I'timad in an acrostic rhapsody that he composed while sepa rated from her:

Invisible to my eyes, thou art ever presentto my heart.

Thy happiness I desire to be infinite, as are mysighs, my tears, and my sleepless nights!

Impatient of the bridle when other women seek toguide me, thou makest me submissiveto thy lightest wishes.

My desire each moment is to be at thy side.

Speedily may it be fulfilled!

Ab! my heart's darling, think of me, and forgetme not, however long my absence!

Dearest of names! I have written it, I have now traced that delicious word – I 'timad!

I'timad's extravagant whims were infamous, but al-Mu'tamid attempted to indulge her every wish and remained devoted to her throughout his life.

The story is told of a wintry February day when snowflakes gently fell on Córdoba. Watching this rare spectacle from a palace window, I'timad sud denly burst into tears. She sobbed to her husband that he was cruel not to provide her such a lovely sight every winter. In response, al-Mu'tamid ordered the Sierra of Córdoba to be planted thick with almond trees, whose delicate white blossoms each spring would simulate the snowflakes so admired by I'timad.

Although not overly concerned with state affairs, al-Mu'tamid succeeded in annexing Córdoba to the kingdom of Seville - a campaign initiated by his grandfather - and this in only the second year of his reign. The royal poet lauded his own conquest in verse:

I have won at the first onset

The hand of the lovely Córdoba;

That brave Amazon who with sword and spear

Repelled all those who sought her in marriage.

And now we celebrate our nuptial in her palace,

While the other monarchs, my baffled rivals,

Weep tears of rage and tremble with fear.

With good reason do ye tremble, despicable foemen!

For soon will the lion spring upon you.2

The four or five years following the conquest of Córdoba were indeed joyful for al-Mu'tamid and his family, but their joy was to be short-lived. Con stant feuding among the party kings provided an opportunity for Christian reconquest, and success ful encroachment forced some Andalusian kings to become tributaries to Christian suzerains. Mean while, Alfonso VI, King of León, Castile and Navarre, had resolved to conquer the entire penin sula. "Biding his time," the Dutch historian Reinhart Dozy wrote, "he crushed the treasuries of the Muslim kinglets as in a wine-press, till they poured forth gold."

On May 25, 1085, Alfonso VI forcibly annexed Toledo, a great center of Muslim scholarship. In a panic, the Andalusians realized that, relying on their own resources, they had but two alternatives: submit to the Christian king, or emigrate. The scholar Abu Muhammad al-'Assal sounded the alarm in verse: "Men of al-Andalus, put spurs to your horses! Delay at this time is idle folly."

Their very existence threatened by Christian ascendancy, the Andalusian kings called upon the Muslim Almoravids of North Africa for reinforce ments, despite the fact that these stern Berber nomads from the Sahara seemed more likely rivals than allies.

When al-Mu'tamid's son Rashid advised against introducing the Almoravids into Spain, al-Mu'tamid reportedly replied: "I have no desire to be branded by my descendants as the man who delivered al-Andalus as prey to the infidels. I am loath to have my name cursed in every Muslim pul pit. And, for my part, I would rather be a camel-driver in Africa than a swineherd in Castile."

Thus, the kings of Seville, Granada and Badajoz sent envoys to Yusuf ibn Tashufin, king of the Almoravids, pressing him and his army to come immediately to their aid, without, however, encroaching on their sovereignty in al-Andalus. Yusuf ibn Tashufin agreed, crossed the Strait of Gi braltar into Spain, and defeated Alfonso VI in the brilliant strategic battle of al-Zallaqah (Sagrajas), a few kilometers north of Badajoz, in 1086. Hailed as the savior of all al-Andalus, Ibn Tashufin and his piety, valor and military skill were extolled throughout Muslim Spain.

Alfonso Vl's defeat liberated the Andalusian kings from the humiliation of paying annual tribute. Yet, despite the brilliance of the victory, it was not a decisive one; the Andalusians remained incapable of defending themselves, and the Castilians began focusing their attacks on the eastern part of al-Andalus. Unable to cope with the increas ing raids in the eastern provinces of his kingdom, al-Mu'tamid himself traveled to Morocco, once again seeking the aid of Ibn Tashufin.

By this time an air of growing discontent had permeated the petty kingdoms. Their rulers were too weak to protect their subjects even from neigh boring Muslim kingdoms, much less from the Christian invaders. While citizens cried out against the kings' extortionate taxes for their opulent courts, the kings themselves bickered and denounced each other to the Almoravid ruler.

The disaffection of the Andalusian populace reached the ear of Ibn Tashufin. With the encour agement of his advisors, he again responded to the pleadings of the petty kings, this time with the intention of adding al-Andalus to the Almoravid empire, which already stretched from Senegal to Algiers.

The kingdoms of Granada and Malaga were the first to fall to the raiding Almoravid armies. Learn ing of Ibn Tashufin's betrayal, al-Mu'tamid attempt ed to forge an alliance with Alfonso VI, but it was too late. The Berbers stormed the fortifications of Seville and sacked the city. Al-Mu'tamid defended his citadel heroically, finally surrendering only to spare his family. In his grief, he wrote:

When my tears cease to flow,

And a calm steals over my troubled heart,

I hear voices crying "Yield! That is true wisdom!"

But I reply, "Poison would be a sweeter draughtto me

Than such a cup of shame!"

Though the barbarians wrest from me my realm,

And my soldiers forsake me,

My courage and my pride remain steadfast.

When I fell upon the foe, I scorned a breastplate,

1 encountered them unarmed;

Hoping for death, I flung myself into the fray;

But alas, my hour had not yet come!2

Many of the Andalusian kings, dethroned and their cities despoiled, were assassinated. For al-Mu'tamid, Ibn Tashufin decreed deportation. A vast, grief-stricken crowd thronged the banks of the Guadalquivir to bid the royal family farewell; black barges ferried the exiles from their beloved al-Andalus across the Strait of Gibraltar to North Africa. When the barge carrying al-Mu'tamid docked in Tangier, the poets of the land sought him out, even then seeking patronage. To them, al-Mu'tamid gave the last of his money, stained with his own blood.

So began the third and final chapter of al-Mu'tamid's life. From the pinnacle of happiness and power to the depths of poverty and humiliation, al-Mu'tamid poured out his deep sorrow in poetry unparalleled in Arabic literature. En route to Meknes, encountering a procession walking to the mosque to pray for rain, he mused:

When folk who were about

To implore heaven for rain

Met me, I exclaimed,

"My tears will take the place of showers!"

"Thou sayest truth," they replied;

"Thy tears would suffice -

But they are mingled with blood!"

The poet-king was banished to the arid desert village of Aghmat, near Marrakech, situated in the most elevated and dramatic mountain range of the High Atlas. There, al-Mu'tamid dragged out a pitiful existence in utter destitution, tormented by the sight of his wife and daughters spinning wool for paltry sums.

Poetry was his only solace. The elegies written at Aghmat recall his former greatness, his massacred sons and his splendid palaces and court life. Al-Mu'tamid admitted that he had erred in summoning Ibn Tashufin to al-Andalus. "In so doing,” he said, "I dug my own grave." On his first ‘Id al-Fitr in captivity, he wrote, in abject misery:

In days gone by the festivals made thee joyous,

But sad is the festival which findeth thee a captiveat Aghmat.

Thou seest thy daughters clothed in rags and dying of hunger;

They spin for a pittance, for they are destitute.

Worn with fatigue, and with downcast eyes,they come to embrace thee.

They walk bare-footed in the mire of the streets,

Who once trod on musk and camphor!

Their hollow cheeks, furrowed with tears,attest their poverty....

Just as on the occasion of this sad festival—

God grant that thou mayest never see another! –

Thou hast broken thy fast, so has thy heart broken hers:

Thy sorrow, long restrained, bursts for afresb.

Yesterday, when thou spakest the word all menobeyed;

Now thou art at the beck of others.

Kings who glory in their greatness are dupesof a vain dream!

Al-Mu'tamid greeted rumors of insurrection in al-Andalus with hope and joy, but they earned him only the additional humiliation of chains.

Strange that these irons do not glow

And singe the hands of these villains,

For fear of him, upon whose grace

Courageous men depended, and whose sword

Sent some to heaven and some to hell.

Languishing in fetters, forgotten and ill, al-Mu'tamid was finally overwhelmed with grief after the death of his beloved I'timad. In 1095, at the age of 55, he succumbed, dying in exile at Aghmat. He was the last of the native-born Andalusian kings, and he brilliantly represented a magnificent cul ture. His chivalry, liberality and courage endeared him to succeeding generations. "Everyone loves al-Mu'tamid," wrote historian Ibn al-Abbar more than a century later, "everyone pities him, and even now he is lamented."

Abd ul-Kásim Muhammad ben Abed, (+1095, en Aghmar, Marruecos), al-Mutamid, Emir de Sevilla, (1068), conocido en el mundo cristiano de la época como ABENABEHT. Personaje grande y trágico. Poeta excelente y buen estadista, a quien el destino le hizo probar tanto las cosas más dulces de la vida como las más amargas. Fue desterrado en Marruecos por los almorávides, que desconfiaban de e´l por haber casado a su hija con el Rey cristiano. Es famoso por la belleza de la poesía que le inspiró su esposa, una ex-esclava, a quien colmó de amor y de valiosísimos regalos, llamada I'TAMID, que fue la madre de ZAIDA, su hija.