Munuza

Munuza, named Uthman bin Naissa (Arabic: عثمان بن نيساء‎), was a Muslim governor of the north of Hispania. Using the Albeldense Chronicle (prepared around 881) as a source, he is portrayed facing Don Pelayo in Asturias, placing him at the genesis of the Reconquista. He should not be confused with another Munuza, with more specific and detailed data, who appears located in Cerdanya around 730 as portrayed in the Mozarabic Chronicle of 754, and who rebelled in the time of the vali Abd al-Rahman al-Gafikí.

Munuza in Asturias

Muslim Berber, "companion of Táriq", who participated from the beginning of the occupation of the Visigoth Kingdom in the year 711, in the advance of Musa ibn Nusair through the East, from Caesaraugusta, towards the North, along the Roman road towards Asturica Augusta, and reaching Lucus Augustum.

In 714, when Musa ibn Nusair and Tariq ibn Ziyad were claimed from Damascus by the caliph al-Walid, Munuza remained as vali of the northwestern third of Hispania, with headquarters, alternatively, in Asturica Augusta, Lucus Asturum and Gijón.< sup>[citation required]

In 717, he sent various personalities from the area as hostage guests, including Don Pelayo, to Ishbiliya within the policy of cooptation and tutelage of the ruling elites, who, although they lost political power, retained social power. According to some sources, Pelayo would have been entrusted with the transfer of taxes from the area.

The legend of Ermesinda

Legend, not historical sources, wants to see in the infatuation of Munuza de Ermesinda (or, also, Ormesinda or Adosinda), Pelayo's sister, the explanation and trigger of the Christian insurgency.

In effect, to have the field free, Munuza would send Pelayo, his sister's tutor, to Seville with the tributes of his governorship of 717.^{[citation required]}

On his return, in 718, Pelayo, who would have arranged Ermesinda's marriage with Don Alonso, flew into a rage, attacking Munuza on the day of the wedding, although the governor's guard rejected him, having to flee towards the Peaks of Europe.

A variant reports that Ermesinda only agrees to the wedding to avoid the death of her fiancé Don Alonso, imprisoned by order of Munuza. When Pelayo returns, he prepares to kill his sister, to "wash his honor." stained by the broken engagement with Alonso and the marriage with the unfaithful man, facing the dilemma of what to do with Alonso. At the wedding, Pelayo asks to speak to her sister, who tells him that she had poisoned herself just before dying in Pelayo's arms. Munuza, enraged, attacks Pelayo, but is killed by him, who with Alonso takes Ermesinda's body to Covadonga.

The personal historical motives can be speculated, but Pelayo may very well have tried immediately - as other contemporary magnates would agree - to secure an alliance with the new power in the area as other Asturian-Leonese monarchs and magnates would later carry out with others. Navarrese magnates or monarchs of Álava or Pamplona and all the dynasties would at some point do with the Caliphate of Córdoba, to guarantee preferential treaties over other nobles in the area and alliances perhaps in counterbalance to the power and nominal submission to Duke Pedro of Cantabria.

The survival of the Asturian rebels: causes

For whatever reasons, Pelayo later appears leading a group of Asturians, made up of fiscal insurgents and other fugitives, but without causing too much inconvenience to Munuza, who still informs the emir of al-Andalus.^{[ citation required]}

The reasons for the survival of the revolt, after all a minor annoyance, lie in two fundamental reasons:

• The precarious organization of the territories had not been conquered.
• The main focus of Muslim interest is expansion into the Franco Kingdom.

In 720–721, Caliph Umar II sent as-Samh ibn Malik al-Jawlani as ruler, who reorganized the administration of al-Andalus, the collection of tributes and the distribution of lands among the men who came with Tariq and Musa ibn Nusair.

At the same time, an army was organized, which attacked the rest of the Visigoth territory not yet subdued, the Septimania, conquering Narbonne in 721.

The Muslim advance continues against the Duchy of Aquitaine, but in the assault on Toulouse, Duke Odo the Great defeats the Muslims on July 21, 721, with as-Samh himself losing his life. The Muslims retreat to Narbonne and al-Andalus under the command of al-Gafiqi.

Covadonga

In August 721, Anbasa, the new vali, arrived and immediately reorganized the troops. In order to warm them up and give them morale, he decides to carry out a raid, for which he chooses the rebels of Asturias as a target, entrusting the operation to the Berber Al Qama, who reoccupies the territory, which the Pelayians are evacuating in the face of the manifest numerical and organizational superiority of the Christian troops (led by Bishop Oppas of Seville) and the Muslims commanded by Al Qama.^{[citation required]}

Thus, for the year 722, Munuza proceeded, from Gijón, to the administration of the territory and the collection of taxes.

The pursuit of the Pelayian fugitives leads the troops to the valley where the Cova Dominica opens, where the vanguard would be ambushed and massacred, in a confrontation called the Battle of Covadonga, considered by traditional Spanish Historiography the start of the Reconquista. leading to the withdrawal of the rest of the troops due to the impossibility of deploying adequately in the narrowness of the valley. An argayo (rock and earth slide) on Mount Subiedes (Cantabria), suffered by the retreating troops, would finish the task, causing Munuza to withdraw from Gijón towards his base in León.

"Then those of the Saracen hosts who had survived the sword, when a mountain collapsed in Liébana, were buried by the judgment of God." Albeldense Chronicle, year 883.

The end of Munuza

There are several versions regarding Munuza's disappearance from History, mutually exclusive:

• He would have died at Pelayo's hands on the wedding day with his sister.
• He would have died in the battle of Covadonga, even at the hands of Pelayo himself.
• In the escape of Gijón he would have died in Olalles, place of uncertain location, given the multiple possibilities, since the name is identified with Eulalia, Olaya, Santa Eulalia, Santaolaya,... The Asturian Chronicles place it in several places: Santa Eulalia de Manzaneda, Santa Olaya de Abamia, Tudela de Asturias, in the valley of Proaza, San Vicente de Olalle in the vicinity of Trubia, and in an area near Lugones. Author P. Flórez ensures that it was in the valley of Santa Olalla, which, according to other data, can be Santa Eulalia de Turiellos (formerly called La Felguera). According to Ambrosio Morales in Crónica and loving himself in Father Risco, it was also here the place of defeat; the same is the historian P. Mariana. The arabist Saavedra also coincides with such a Langrean location.
• He would have retired on the banks of Guadalquivir with Ermesinda (or Adosinda).
• He would have stayed in Gijón with Ermesinda (or Adosinda), once reconciled with Pelayo.

Munuza in Cerdanya

However, another chronicle, almost contemporary and more contrasted, places him quite safely in charge of the Berber troops in the border areas and of the same mountainous geography in the eastern Pyrenees. The Berber commander would have established a treaty and links with the Aquitanian duke Odo the Great, which would lead him to marry the duke's daughter. Perhaps seeking to create a niche of power in the strategic point of the Pyrenees and driven by the atmosphere of rebellion among the discontented Berber forces, he would have thus broken ties with the Umayyad Arabs of Córdoba, killing at the same time the bishop of La Seo. of Urgel.

In 731 the new governor of al-Andalus, Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abd Allah al-Gafiqi, then led a campaign of punishment, attacked the city of Llivia in Cerdanya, defeated the rebels and ended the life of Munuza. This event immediately precedes al-Gafiqi's campaign towards Aquitaine and the subsequent Battle of Poitiers (732) (or 733, according to other sources).