Muhammad al-Mutamid
Abu l-Qasim al-Mu'tamid 'alà Allah Muhammad ibn 'Abbad (Arabic: أبو القاسم المعتمد على الله محمد بن عباد) (Beja, 1040 – Agmat, 1095) or simply al-Mutámid was the king of the Taifa of Seville (1069-1090) and the last abbot king, son and successor of al-Mutádid (1042-1069).
Biography
Second son of al-Mutádid, he became heir when his older brother was executed by his father for alleged treason. At the age of twelve, his father sent him to Silves, in the Algarve, to be educated by the poet Abu Bakr ibn Ammar (Ibn Ammar of Silves, the Abenamar of the Christians), who would later become a favorite of he.
In the second year of his reign, al-Mutamid annexed the taifa of Córdoba, at whose head he placed one of his sons. This annexation posed a threat to the taifa of Toledo, whose king, al-Mamún, supported an adventurer, Ibn Ukkasha, who in 1075 seized the city and executed the young prince. Al-Mamún de Toledo took possession of the city, where he died six months later. For three years al-Mutámid tried to reconquer Córdoba, which he achieved in 1078, at the same time that all the possessions of the Taifa of Toledo located between the Guadalquivir and the Guadiana became part of the kingdom of Seville.
Upon his accession to the throne, al-Mutamid appointed his friend and former mentor Ibn Ammar as vizier. Their relationship was excellent during the first years of his reign. For example, it is attributed to his skill that an expedition led by Alfonso VI of León against Seville ended peacefully by accepting the payment of a double tribute (1078).
In any case, Ibn Ammar fell out of favor as a result of his disastrous management of the taifa's annexation of Murcia. In 1078 Ibn Ammar went to Ramón Berenguer II, Count of Barcelona, and asked for his help to conquer Murcia by paying ten thousand dinars. As a pledge of payment of the tribute, a son of al-Mutamid, al-Rashid, would serve as a hostage, apparently without his father's knowledge. When al-Mutámid discovered the pact, he wanted to recover his son, which he could only achieve by paying three times as much. Once the taifa of Murcia had been conquered, Ibn Ammar was appointed governor, but soon after he conspired to become independent from the taifa of Seville. Discovered his claims, he had to flee Murcia. Taking refuge in Zaragoza, he tried to help the Tujibids in an expedition against the Segura fortress, but was finally taken prisoner and handed over to al-Mutamid, who, despite the ties of friendship that had united them for a long time, killed him with his own hands.
Feeling threatened by León after the conquest of Toledo by Alfonso VI (1085), he decided to ask the Almoravids for help, who landed in Algeciras on July 30, 1086. The troops of the Sevillian taifa helped, along with troops of the taifas of Granada and Badajoz, to defeat the Christians at Zalaca (1086). However, the Almoravid emir Yúsuf ibn Tasufín, wanted in Africa, returned to his kingdom. The absence of the Almoravids contributed to the fact that the Muslim kings continued to be involved in their dissensions, so that they could not prevent new Christian attacks. King Alfonso VI took the castle of Aledo (in Murcia) in 1087, blocking the routes between Seville and the eastern provinces of al-Andalus. Al-Mutámid himself went back to Marrakech to ask Yúsuf to come to the aid of the Muslims in al-Andalus. The Almoravids returned to the peninsula (1088), but this time they not only fought the Christians, but also conquered all the Taifa kingdoms one by one. Al-Mutamid was deposed by the Almoravid emir in 1090 and banished to Africa, where he died in 1095 (in Agmat, near Marrakech).
Poet
Al-Mutámid was a notable poet and, during his reign, culture flourished in Seville. In his court, poets and writers enjoyed favor, such as the Sicilian Ibn Hamdís, Ibn al-Labbana of Denia, Ibn Zaydún or the vizier and poet Ibn Ammar of Silves (1031-1086).
It was also visited by intellectuals such as Ibn Hazm (994-1063), one of the central figures of Andalusian culture, the geographer al-Bakrí and the astronomer Azarquiel (al-Zarkali).
Work
- Poetry.
- The Zoco without buyers. Poetry of al-Andalus XI-XIII Centurys Modest Solans, Granada. Bilingual Edition, Muret 2018. ISBN 978-84-09-00204-7
Legends
The game of chess
During the siege of Seville in 1078, al-Mutamid sent Ibn Ammar to stop the advance of Alfonso VI of León, and when he found him in his tent, because they were both fond of chess, the king he invited to play a game to complete his mission, betting a grain of wheat for the first square, and double in each square that followed, achieving victory, so he was finally able to convince him not to invade Seville.
Al-Rumaikiyya
Walking one day along the banks of the Guadalquivir with his friend Ibn Ammar, they played at improvising poems, an extremely popular entertainment in Andalusian society at the time. As a light breeze rose over the river, al-Mutamid said:
- "The wind weaving lorigas in the waters".
To which he waited for his partner's response. However, Ibn Ammar did not have time to reply, as they both heard a female voice completing the rhyme:
- "What a tie if they smelt!".
(Translation by Miguel José Hagerty in Al Mu'tamid: Poetry. Translation and commentary, Bosch, Barcelona, 1979; and Al-Mutamid of Seville. Complete poetry Translation and commentary, Granada, Comares, 2007.)
The voice was that of a girl hidden behind the reeds. She was a beautiful young woman named Rumaikiyya, a slave to a muleteer. Al-Mutamid immediately fell in love with her, took her to her palace and made her his wife, taking the name Itimad. When al-Mutamid was deposed, Rumaikiyya went into exile with him, along with other members of her family.
The relationship between al-Mutámid and Rumaikiyya was the source of numerous stories, such as the one that appears in the Book of Examples of Count Lucanor and Patronio, story XXX, Of the that happened to King Abenabed of Seville with his wife, Ramaiquía, the work of Don Juan Manuel.
In literature
The life of al-Mutámid inspired the work of Blas Infante Motamid, last king of Seville.
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