| Battle of Badajoz (1134) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Reconquista | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Almoravid dynasty |  Kingdom of Castile | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Tashfin ibn Ali | Unknown | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Unknown | Thousands | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | Few survived | ||||||
The Battle of Badajoz was a military engagement between the Almoravids and the raiding party from Castile. The Castilians were soundly defeated.
The nobles of Salamanca, motivated by the victory of Rodrigo González de Lara over the Almoravids at the battle of al-Sharafe, [a] made the decision to raid the area around Badajoz. [1] They raised a sizable army with thousands of soldiers, including champions from Castile. As soon as they arrived, they started destroying everything, carrying out massacres, and capturing livestock and people. [2] [3] [4] When Tasfin bin Ali, the governor of Cordoba, learned of the raid, he organized his army to confront them. [5] [6] [7]
After leaving Seville, Tashfin sent his scouts to find the enemy and pursued them; they eventually met the Castilians east of Badajoz, close to the Sagrajas hills, where Tashfin's grandfather had defeated the Castilians. Tashfin started organizing his troops; he had Zenata berbers in the front, Andalusian forces on the flanks, and Almoravid troops in the center. [8] [9]
Many of the nobility made the decision to flee the battlefield the night before the fight. The fight started early the following day. Following a fierce battle, the Castilians were soundly defeated. Only a small number of the Castilians survived the massacre. [10] The Almoravids took control of the Castilian camp, liberated the prisoners, [b] and took the previously taken loot. [11] [12] March 1134 was the month of the battle. [13]
Tashfin returned to Cordoba victorious, then to Granada, where he was well received. [14] [15] The Castilians attempted to raid Badajoz in October and June 1136, but both were defeated. [16]
The Almoravid dynasty was an imperial Berber Muslim dynasty centered in the territory of present-day Morocco. It established an empire in the 11th century that stretched over the western Maghreb and Al-Andalus, starting in the 1050s and lasting until its fall to the Almohads in 1147. The dynasty emerged from a coalition of the Lamtuna, Gudala, and Massufa, nomadic Berber tribes living in what is now Mauritania and the Western Sahara, traversing the territory between the Draa, the Niger, and the Senegal rivers. During their expansion into the Maghreb, the Almoravids founded the city of Marrakesh as a capital, c. 1070.
The Abbadid dynasty or Abbadids was an Arab dynasty from the tribe of Banu Lakhm of al-Hirah, which ruled the Taifa of Seville in al-Andalus following the downfall of the Caliphate of Cordoba in 1031. After the collapse, they were the most powerful Taifa and before long absorbed most of the others. Abbadid rule lasted from about 1023 until 1091, but during the short period of its existence it exhibited singular energy and typified its time.
Al-Andalus was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The term is used by modern historians for the former Islamic states in modern Spain, Portugal, and France. The name describes the different Muslim states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most of the peninsula and part of present-day southern France (Septimania) under Umayyad rule. These boundaries changed constantly through a series of conquests Western historiography has traditionally characterized as the Reconquista, eventually shrinking to the south and finally to the Emirate of Granada.
The taifas were the independent Muslim principalities and kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula, referred to by Muslims as al-Andalus, that emerged from the decline and fall of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba between 1009 and 1031. They were a recurring feature of al-Andalus history.
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Yusuf ibn Tashfin, also Tashafin, Teshufin, was leader of the Berber Almoravid empire. He co-founded the city of Marrakesh and led the Muslim forces in the Battle of Sagrajas. Yusuf ibn Tashfin came to Al-Andalus from the Maghreb to help the Muslims fight against Alfonso VI, eventually achieving victory in Sagrajas and promoting an Islamic system in the region. In 1061 he took the title “Amir al-Muslimeen” recognising the suzerainty of the Abbasid Caliphate. He was married to Zaynab an-Nafzawiyyah, whom he reportedly trusted in political matters.
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The Taifa of Seville was an Arab kingdom which was ruled by the Abbadid dynasty. It was established in 1023 and lasted until 1091, in what is today southern Spain and Portugal. It gained independence from the Caliphate of Cordoba and it expanded the territory it ruled in the mid-11th century. The emerging power of Castile led Seville to ask military assistance from the Almoravids, who then occupied Seville.
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