| Siege of Toledo (1090) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Reconquista | |||||||
 Statue of Alfonso VI of León and Castile in Toledo | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Kingdom of Castile |  Almoravid dynasty | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Unknown | Yusuf ibn Tashfin | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
The siege of Toledo in 1090 was an Almoravid attempt to conquer the city, which in 1085 fell into Castilian hands.
In 1086, the Taifa of Seville, Al-Mu'tamid ibn Abbad, who had launched a series of aggressive attacks on neighboring kingdoms arising from the disintegration of the Caliphate of Córdoba, saw his domains threatened by Alfonso VI of Castile and Leon, who had conquered Toledo in 1085 and saw the introduction of parias, which strengthened the economy of the Christian kingdom. [2] He asked for help from the Almoravids, who landed commanded by Yusuf ibn Tashfin at Algeciras to defeat the Christians in the Battle of Sagrajas, but Yusuf had to return to Africa because of the death of his son. [3]
A second call for help in 1088 makes Yusuf ibn Tashfin win the siege of Aledo and perceive the weakness of the Taifas, undecided between the alliance with the Almoravids or the Christians. His position of strength enables him to settle in al-Andalus in the third expedition he sends, this time without being required. [4]
Yusuf ibn Tashfin disembarked on June 10, 1090 and went directly to Toledo, as the first movement for the conquest of all Muslim territories. The Taifas, aware of the intentions of the Almoravid, did not support him in this campaign [5] and negotiations had already begun with Alfonso VI of Castile and Leon. [6]
The defenses of the city were prepared to withstand a long siege, and the garrison well prepared, and nearer were the Castles of Oreja and Maqueda. In the middle of July, Yusuf ibn Tashfin learned that a Castilian and Navarrese contingent led by Alfonso VI and Sancho I of Aragon were coming to the city, so he lifted the siege in August. [7]
After verifying the lack of support he received from the Taifas, Yusuf ibn Tashfin attacked them, gaining control of the various Muslim kingdoms. [8] Thus, he deposes the ruler of Granada and places his cousin in his place as governor of the conquered Andalusian territories, with the mission of attacking and annexing new Taifas. [4] In 1090, the Almoravids took Malaga and Granada; in 1091, Almeria, Córdoba and Seville, Badajoz in 1094 and Valencia in 1102. [9]
The Almoravid dynasty was a Berber Muslim dynasty centered in the territory of present-day Morocco. It established an empire that stretched over the western Maghreb and Al-Andalus, starting in the 1050s and lasting until its fall to the Almohads in 1147.
Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar was a Castilian knight and ruler in medieval Spain. Fighting both with Christian and Muslim armies during his lifetime, he earned the Arabic honorific as-Sayyid, which would evolve into El Çid, and the Spanish honorific El Campeador. He was born in Vivar, a village near the city of Burgos.
Alfonso VI, nicknamed the Brave or the Valiant, was king of León (1065–1109), Galicia (1071–1109), and Castile (1072–1109).
Al-Andalus was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. 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 as well as 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.
Al-Mu'tamid Muhammad ibn Abbad al-Lakhmi, 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 Arab Abbadid dynasty of Seville, before being deposed by the Almoravids in 1091.
Yusuf ibn Tashfin, also Tashafin, Teshufin, was a Sanhaja leader of the Almoravid Empire. He cofounded the city of Marrakesh and led the Muslim forces in the Battle of Sagrajas.
The Battle of Consuegra took place during the Spanish Reconquista on 15 August 1097 near the village of Consuegra in the province of Castile-La Mancha between the Castilian and Leonese army of Alfonso VI and the Almoravids under Yusuf ibn Tashfin.
This is a timeline of notable events during the period of Muslim presence in Iberia, starting with the Umayyad conquest in the 8th century.
This is a historical timeline of Portugal.
The Battle of Sagrajas, also called Zalaca or Zallaqah, was conflict fought between the Almoravid army, led by their king, Yusuf ibn Tashfin, and the forces of King Alfonso VI of Castile. The Almoravids were called into battle by the taifas, Muslim principalities in Al-Andalus that often fought amongst themselves but united against the expanding Christian kingdoms to the north. In addition to the Almoravid forces, the Taifas and Takrur, the latter contributing 4,000 Black Moorish troops, bolstered the Muslim side, tilting the battle in their favor. The battlefield became known as az-Zallaqah due to the immense bloodshed that made the terrain treacherous, giving rise to its name in Arabic.
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.
The Taifa of Granada or Zirid Kingdom of Granada was a Muslim kingdom that was formed in al-Andalus in 1013 following the deposition of Caliph Hisham II in 1009. The kingdom was centered on Granada, its capital, and it also extended its control to Málaga for a period. Four kings succeeded each other during its nearly 80 years of existence, all of them belonging to an offshoot of the Zirid dynasty of North Africa, a Sanhaja Berber clan. The Taifa of Granada was considered to be the wealthiest out of all of the taifa kingdoms. It was eventually conquered by the Almoravids in 1090, putting an end to Zirid rule in Granada.
The taifa of Zaragoza was an independent Arab Muslim state in the east of Al-Andalus with its capital in Saraqusta (Zaragoza) city. It was established in the early 11th century as one of the many Taifa kingdoms that followed the collapse of the Caliphate of Córdoba around this time. It survived until 1110, when it was annexed by the Almoravids.
The Taifa of Toledo was an islamic polity (taifa) located in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula in the high middle ages. It was ruled by the Dhulnunids, a Hawwara Berber clan. It emerged after 1018 upon the fracturing of the Caliphate of Córdoba, when the Dhulnunids, already strong in the lands of Santaver, Cuenca, Huete and Uclés, seized control over the city of Toledo, the capital of the Middle March of Al-Andalus. Upon later territorial conquest, the taifa also expanded to the land of Calatrava. It lasted until the Christian conquest of Toledo in 1085.
The Taifa of Valencia was a medieval Muslim kingdom which existed in and around Valencia, Spain. It gained independence from the Caliphate of Córdoba circa 1010 and became its own small kingdom, or Taifa, for most of the 11th century. It was absorbed by the Taifa of Toledo in 1065, which in turn fell to Alfonso VI of León and Castile in 1085. From 1094 to 1099, the kingdom was ruled directly by the Castilian military commander known as El Cid, then by his wife Jimena after his death, until being annexed by the Almoravids in 1102.
Abu Muhammad Mazdali ibn Tilankan was a Berber military commander and diplomat for the Almoravid empire. Once Yusuf ibn Tashfin decided to become independent, he chose Mazdali, his second cousin and made him one of his most effective collaborators, to subdue and pacify the Maghrib and al-Andalus.
The siege of Toledo was Alfonso VI of León and Castile's siege and conquest of Toledo, capital of the Taifa of Toledo, from Yahya al-Qadir of the Dhulnunid dynasty in Muharram 478 / May 1085. The Castilian conquest of the former Visigothic capital was achieved through a strategy of attrition warfare developed by Castile in the preceding years. As it represented a shift in power on the Iberian peninsula, the siege of Toledo was the most significant event in the taifa period.
The siege of Aledo was one of the many battles in the conflict between the Almoravids and the Taifa kingdoms on one side, and the Kingdom of Castile on the other, in the Andalusian region.
The siege of Valencia (1092–1094) or El Cid's conquest of Valencia was fought between the Kingdom of Castile and the Taifa of Valencia. The Castilian victory established the Lordship of Valencia.