Zaida

Zaida (c.1063 or 1071- c.1101 or 1107) was a Muslim princess of al-Andalus, daughter-in-law of Muhámmad ibn 'Abbad al-Mu'támid and concubine or wife of Alfonso VI of León, with whom he had Sancho Alfónsez, who died in the battle of Uclés in 1108.

Early Years

Zaida was born in al-Andalus, and her birth must have taken place between 1063 and 1071. The Cronicón de Cardeña says that she was "niece of Auenalfage", a character whom Menéndez Pidal, in La España del Cid, identifies with Alháyib, king of Lleida and Denia (1081-1090). The most accurate information about Zaida's life is provided by the Arabic chronicle Al-bayan al-mugrib by Ibn Idari, translated in the XX century by E. Lévi-Provençal. This chronicle, written in the year 1306, and found at the beginning of the XX century in the al-Karawiyin mosque in Fez, She is said to have married Abu Nasr al-Fath al-Ma'mun, king of the taifa of Córdoba, son of the Sevillian king Muhámmad ibn 'Abbad al-Mu'támid (1040-1095).

Her origin and her love affairs with King Alfonso VI of León have been the subject of various contradictory interpretations, starting with describing her as the daughter of King Muhámmad ibn 'Abbad al-Mu'támid of Seville in instead of as her daughter-in-law, and continuing with the supposed dowry that she brought with her for her marriage to Alfonso VI, all of which historiography has subsequently shown to be false.

The taking of Toledo and the coming of the Almoravids

Alfonso VI conquered Toledo in 1085. Alarmed, the Andalusians, who saw their kingdoms in danger, made the decision, not without great reservations, to call in their aid some seasoned warriors, Berber nomads —especially lamtunas— from the other side of the strait called Almoravids.

Medieval miniature representing King Alfonso VI de León.

The Sevillian king al-Mu'támid asks him for help in these terms: «He [Alfonso VI] has come asking us for pulpits, minarets, mihrabs and mosques to erect crosses in them and that they be governed by his monks [...] God has granted you a kingdom as a reward for your Holy War and the defense of His rights, for your work [...] and now you have many soldiers of God who, fighting, will win paradise in life».

Yúsuf crossed the strait five times. The first time he defeated Alfonso VI in the battle of Sagrajas on October 23, 1086. The second time the siege of the castle of Aledo took place in 1088, which he had to raise without being able to capture it. In the third incursion (1090) he brought the firm decision to dismiss all the taifa kings and proclaim himself emir of all al-Andalus. Málaga and Granada fell and seeing the turn that events had taken, King al-Mu'támid asked his son al-Ma'mún, who had been left in charge of Córdoba, to maintain the position of the city, since it would be unthinkable that after the fall of this fortress that of Seville could be maintained. The Almoravids approached Córdoba and al-Ma'mún, foreseeing a fatal outcome, saved his wife, Zaida, and their children by sending them with seventy knights, family members included, to the castle of Almodóvar del Río that previously it had fortified and supplied.

The dispersion of the Cordoba neighborhoods and the collusion of their inhabitants had a decisive influence so that the capital fell on March 26, 1091. Says Abbad in his letters: Fath al-Ma'mun tried to cut his way with his sword through the enemies and traitors but succumbed to the number. He cut off his head, which they put on the tip of a pike and walked around in triumph.

In the summer of 1091 Alfonso VI, who received the pariahs of the Seville taifa, tried to fulfill his obligations as protector by sending, under the command of Álvar Fáñez, a relief army to Almodóvar del Río. After a hard battle in the open field against the Almoravids, in which both parties suffered heavy casualties, Álvar Fáñez withdrew towards Castile. Zaida arrived at the court of Toledo (probably with the troops of Álvar Fáñez), where she was welcomed by Alfonso VI, with whom she would eventually start a relationship.

Birth of Sancho

Much has been debated about the birth of Sancho, since the chronicles are contradictory, it is most likely that he was born in the second half of 1093 or in the first half of 1094.

At that time Alfonso VI was already of mature age, and after three marriages (Inés, Constanza and Berta) and one concubinage (Jimena), he had no male child to succeed him. From the moment Sancho Alfónsez was born, the king recognized him as his direct descendant, being called to govern León, the Kingdom of Castile, Galicia with Portugal and the rest of the counties. In El chirógrafo de la moneda the news is given that his father had named him governor of Toledo in 1107.

Possible marriage

It is not clear from the sources if Zaida was a concubine, a wife, or both, first a concubine and then a wife. In the chronicle De rebus Hispaniae , by the Archbishop of Toledo Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, she is counted among the wives of Alfonso VI. But the Crónica najerense and the Chronicon mundi indicate that Zaida was a concubine and not the wife of Alfonso VI. The hypothesis that Alfonso VI had married Zaida has already been also rejected by Menéndez Pidal and by Lévi-Provençal.

Other sources say that Zaida settled in at the Leonese court, renounced Islam, and was baptized in Burgos under the name of Isabel. However, she not only kept all her customs but spread them and introduced new and fresh cultural airs to Muslim society. The Arabist Ángel González Palencia writes that the court of Alfonso VI, married to Zaida (sic), resembled a Muslim court: «Muslim scholars and writers walked next to the king, the coin was minted in types similar to those of the Arabs, the Christians dressed In the Moorish style and even the Mozarabic clergymen of Toledo spoke Arabic familiarly and knew very little Latin, judging by the marginal annotations on many of their breviaries".

According to Jaime de Salazar y Acha, followed by other authors, among them, Gonzalo Martínez Díez, they married in 1100 after Alfonso was widowed by Queen Berta, legitimizing their son, who became crown prince of the Christian kingdom. For Salazar and Acha, Zaida and the king's fourth wife, Isabel, are the same person, "Despite the strenuous efforts of later historians to try to show us that Zaida was not the Moor," and would also be the mother of Elvira and Sancha Alfónsez. Another reason that the author uses is the fact that shortly after the king's wedding with Isabel, the infant Sancho began to confirm royal diplomas and if Zaida had not been the new queen, he would not have consented to the new Sancho's leading role to the detriment of his possible future children. He also cites a diploma in the cathedral of Astorga on April 14, 1107 where the king grants some privileges and acts cum uxore mea Elisabet et filio nostro Sancio. This is the only dip hill where he is cited as "our son", since in others he only appears as the king's son although Queen Elizabeth also appears. Martínez Díez is of the same opinion, who summarizes his approach as follows: «Years later, in 1100, this Moor Zaida, having embraced Christianity and being baptized with the name of Isabel, would marry King Alfonso, thus becoming Queen Isabel. Her son Sancho, legitimized by this marriage, became crown prince »

Reilly accepts, however, that there were two Isabels, the Moorish Zaida —baptized Isabel— and the other Isabel, surely French, but he argues that to strengthen Sancho Alfónsez's position, King Alfonso annulled the marriage with Isabel in March 1106 and married Zaida. On 27 March 1106, King Alfonso confirmed a donation to the Lorenzana monastery: (...) eiusdemque Helisabeth regina sub maritali copula legaliter aderente, an unusual formula confirming a legitimate marriage. Salazar and Acha y Reilly interpret this quote as proof that the king had married Zaida, thus legitimizing their son and the concubinage relationship. Gambra, however, objects and says it is «an extremely weak argument, starting with the documentary reference, barely significant. Its character is rather ornamental and literary". He died in 1107, according to his epitaph. Montaner Frutos also mentions a donation from Queen Urraca years later, in 1115, when she donated some properties to the cathedral of Toledo and only mentions one Isabel as the king's wife.

Offspring

Fruit of his relationship with King Alfonso VI was born:

• Sancho Alphonsez (c. 1093/1904-1108), his only son and heir to the throne, died in the battle of Uclés.

If Zaida and Isabel, the fourth wife of King Alfonso VI, are the same person, as some historians maintain, she would also be the mother of:

• Sancha Alfónsez (c. 1102-c. 1125), was the first wife of Rodrigo González de Lara, Count of Liébana, with whom Elvira Rodríguez de Lara, wife of Count Ermengol VI of Urgel, Urraca and possibly Sancha Rodríguez.
• Elvira Alfónsez (c. September 1103 -6 February 1135), married in 1117 with Roger II, king of Sicily and Duke of Apulia (m. 26 February 1154).

Tomb of Zaida

King Alfonso VI wanted Zaida's mortal remains to rest in the same place that he had destined for himself, his queens and children, and for this reason, certain sources indicate that she was buried in the Monastery of San Benito de Sahagún, exactly in the low choir, before reaching the lectern. Quadrado, in his Recuerdos y bellezas de España , says that "in Sahagún the king rests in a high burial mound and under a simple tombstone Isabel and the young Sancho, his son".

According to Elías Gago, the following inscription was carved on the tombstone of the Sahagún monastery that covered the remains of Zaida:

But in the Pantheon of Kings of San Isidoro de León another tombstone is preserved, whose epitaph, written in Latin terms, reads as follows:

Since you cannot be buried in two places at the same time, Henrique Flórez suggests that she was probably first buried in the place where she died and then transferred to Sahagún.

The tomb that contained the remains of Alfonso VI was destroyed in 1810, during the fire that suffered the Monastery of San Benito. The mortal remains of the king and those of several of his wives, among them those of Zaida, were collected and preserved in the abbey chamber until the year 1821, when the religious were expelled from the monastery, being then deposited by the abbot Ramón Alegrías in a box, which was placed on the southern wall of the Crucifix chapel, until, in January 1835, the remains were collected again and placed in another box, being taken to the archive, where the remains of the the sovereign's wives. The purpose was to place all the royal remains in a new sanctuary that was being built at the time. However, when the monastery of San Benito was confiscated in 1835, the religious handed over the two boxes with the royal remains to a relative of a religious, that hid them, until in 1902 they were found by the professor of the Institute of Zamora Rodrigo Fernández Núñez.

Currently, the mortal remains of Alfonso VI rest in the Monastery of Benedictinas de Sahagún, at the foot of the temple, in a smooth stone chest with a modern marble cover, and in a nearby tomb, equally smooth, lie the remains of several of the king's wives, including those attributed to Zaida.

The surviving remains of Zaida (the cranial vault, the right clavicle, the left humerus, and the distal half of the radius on that same side) state that she was 152.6 cm tall. The specialists who studied her remains came to the conclusion that at the time of her death she must have been about 30 years old, from which her date of birth can be deduced depending on the year in which she died.

According to one of the tombstones attributed to her, she died postpartum on Thursday, September 12 (the year is not read), but it must have been that of a daughter or a son who would die at a young age, since nothing is known. know of this lineage.

Tributes

Cuenca has wanted to recognize the one that in one way or another has influenced its history and thus, in the plenary session of the City Council on February 16, 1959, Bernardino Moreno Cañadas being mayor, an agreement was adopted to grant a street in the Polygon of Los Moralejos, in Cerro Pinillos, to Princess Zaida. Currently it is one of the main central streets of Cuenca.

In Madrid, Zaida also has a street, since July 14, 1950, when Count Santamarta de Babio was mayor. It runs from that of Carlos Daban to that of Oca in the district of Carabanchel.

There is also a street called Zaida in Arboleas (Almería), in the neighborhood of La Perla.

In the city of León there is also a street with the name of Reina Zaida.