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138-630: The first documented member of the Banu Gómez was Diego Muñoz, Count in Saldaña. Two competing theories have been proposed for his parentage. Diego's patronymic, indicating his father's name was Munio, along with the family's holding of lands around Liébana led Castilian historian Justo Pérez de Urbel to suggest that his parents were the Munio Diaz and wife Gulatrudia, who appear in the documentation of San Martin de Liébana (later Santo Toribio) from

276-425: A Diego nor a Fernando, though he did have brothers Diego and Fernando Ansúrez, while the same names appear elsewhere among the Banu Gómez as younger sons of count Gómez Díaz. Men named Diego and Fernando González appear together in contemporary records, but there is no indication they were linked to Carrión and the Banu Gómez. The infantes are best viewed as literary constructs, composite characters intended to embody

414-413: A captivity might explain the later alliance between the Banu Gómez and Córdoba. Others dismiss this hypothesis, and instead identify Abolmundar Albo with a count Rodrigo Díaz, known to have had a son Diego. Diego Muñoz is the first well-documented member of the Banu Gómez, and it is under him that the family first are reported by Al-Andalus chroniclers. This was in reporting a rebellion launched in 932 by

552-491: A count by 1115. In 1120, he defected to Queen Urraca's son, the future king Alfonso VII of León , and was imprisoned, but he was one of the more powerful Galician counts after Alfonso succeeded his mother in 1126. Munio married Lupa Pérez de Traba daughter of count Pedro Fróilaz de Traba . Munio is last seen in 1042. He and Lupa had three daughters, Elvira, Aldonza and Teresa Muňoz, wife of Fernando Odoáriz, and sons Fernando, Pedro and Bernardo. This Pedro Muñoz never achieved

690-440: A daughter, countess Sancha Muñiz, achieved similar prominence. Following the death of her first husband, Pedro Fernández, in 1028, and subsequently that of their only daughter, Elvira, Sancha controlled significant properties. She was patron of the monastery of San Antolín, and she contributed significant funds to the construction of León Cathedral . She had two subsequent marriages, to counts Pelayo Muñiz and Rodrigo Galíndez. She

828-500: A different family member, perhaps his cousin, Fáfila Fernández or Sancho Gómez. He is last seen in 1015, and died within the next few years, the last 'great count' of the family. The possessions seem to have been dispersed among his brother, Munio Gómez, who held Liébana, having a childless marriage to a Banu Gómez kinswoman Elvira Fáfilaz, and her uncles, Munio Fernández, count in Astorga, and Diego Fernández, whose descendants would lead

966-449: A forest to be eaten by wolves. They are rescued, and El Cid demands the return of their dowry, two famous battle swords, and obtains an annulment of the marriages, and sees them instead married to a prince of Navarre and a prince of Aragón. The Infantes de Carrión themselves are not historical figures. They bear a patronymic suggesting they were sons of Gonzalo Ansúrez, brother of count Pedro. However, this Gonzalo's sons included neither

1104-420: A further provocation leads to cycles of escalating retribution. His role in a second legend is more substantial. La condesa traidora (The treasonous countess) tells of García's wife who is enticed by Almanzor , ruler of Córdoba , to aspire to become his wife rather than that of a less powerful count. She plots her husband's death, by providing his horse poor feed. When the animal collapses in battle, García

1242-571: A major influence on the intellectual life of medieval Europe. Muslims and non-Muslims often came from abroad to study at the libraries and universities of al-Andalus, and after the reconquest of Toledo, several translation institutions such as the Toledo School of Translators were established for translating books and texts from Arabic into Latin. The most noted figures in this being Gerard of Cremona and Michael Scot , who took these works to Italy. The transmission of ideas significantly affected

1380-471: A member of the high nobility, he seems to have no connection with the infantes . Instead, Salazar y Acha proposes that the Castilian count was the son of Ordoño Fafílaz, of the junior branch of the Banu Gómez. García Ordóñez was father of count García Garcés de Aza , and likely also was father of Fernando García de Hita , founder of the powerful House of Castro that contested control of the country with

1518-636: A military campaign against León, the army passed through Banu Gómez lands unmolested, and perhaps even launched an attack on the capitol from Gómez's county of Carrión itself, an apparent indication of a Banu Gómez/Córdoba alliance. Gómez is last seen the next year acting with his brother Osorio Díaz, and it thought to have died in 987. He was succeeded by his son, García Gómez, having further children, counts Velasco, Sancho and Munio Gómez, queen Sancha, wife of Ramiro II, and apparently Urraca, wife of Sancho García of Castile . Count García Gómez appears as count during his father's life, and came into his patrimony as

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1656-456: A new marriage to the daughter of the Count of Castile, García Fernández, leading to a new rebellion headed by her kin. Her sister was wife of Gonzalo Vermúdez and mother-in-law of García, and these two, along with count Pelayo Rodríguez and a junior member of the Banu Gómez, Munio Fernández would again force Bermudo to abandon León by 992, but the next year he again was able to return and suppress

1794-533: A powerful and well-established state that had become one of the most powerful in the Mediterranean. Abd al Rahman was succeeded by Muhammad I of Córdoba , who according to legend had to wear women's clothing to sneak into the imperial palace and be crowned, since he was not the heir apparent. His reign marked a decline in the emirate, which was ended by Abd al-Rahman III . His reign was marked by multiple rebellions, which were dealt with poorly and weakened

1932-547: A pre-Roman substrate. During the caliphate of the Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid I , the commander Tariq ibn-Ziyad led an army of 7,000 that landed at Gibraltar on April 30, 711, ostensibly to intervene in a Visigothic civil war. After a decisive victory over King Roderic at the Battle of Guadalete on July 19, 711, Tariq, accompanied by his mawla , governor Musa ibn Nusayr of Ifriqiya , brought most of

2070-649: A punitive expedition against Seville that reached all the way to Tarifa at the southern tip of al-Andalus. In 1085, he annexed Toledo , a turning point which galvanized the remaining taifa leaders into seeking outside help. After the fall of Toledo, most of the major taifa rulers agreed to request the intervention of the Almoravids, a Berber empire based in Marrakesh that had conquered much of northwest Africa. The Almoravid leader, Yusuf Ibn Tashfin , led several campaigns into al-Andalus, initially in defense of

2208-692: A punitive expedition targeting the Castilian counts in the lands around Carrión who had not turned up to fight. Among those he brought back in chains were Abolmundar Albo and his son Diego. Medievalist Margarita Torres Sevilla proposed the identification of this Diego with the future count of Saldaña, and thus Abolmundar Albo with Munio Gómez, and the use of the Arabic kunya Abu al-Mundhir ( Arabic : أبو المنذر , father of 'the warner') for this man suggests that he may have spent time in Córdoba, perhaps following capture in battle. She further suggests that such

2346-471: A resurgence of the family late in the century. The eventual heads of the family in succession to the senior line descended from count Fernando Díaz, a younger son of Diego Muñoz and Tegridia, who obtained lands in the Tierra de Campos through a marriage to Mansuara Fáfilaz, daughter of count Fáfila Oláliz. Some of these lands around Sahagún were reclaimed from his son Diego by king Alfonso V of León following

2484-533: A role in two legends regarding medieval Castile. These are set during his rule and incorporate aspects of authentic history, but are mostly fictional in nature. In the Cantar de los Siete Infantes de Lara , Count García plays a minor role, trying unsuccessfully to impose a rapprochement between the two antagonistic families, those of Ruy Velázquez and his wife Doña Lambra, said to be a cousin of García, and Gonzalo Gustoz and his wife Sancha. This proves unsuccessful when

2622-700: A series of conquests Western historiography has traditionally characterized as the Reconquista , eventually shrinking to the south and finally to the Emirate of Granada . As a political domain, it successively constituted a province of the Umayyad Caliphate , initiated by the Caliph al-Walid I (711–750); the Emirate of Córdoba ( c.  750 –929); the Caliphate of Córdoba (929–1031);

2760-404: A sole daughter, Elvira. She died without issue. The last counts of the family of the Banu Gómez were the sons and grandsons of Gómez Díaz and Teresa Peláez. Of their children, García Gómez was educated by his maternal uncles and appears frequently at the court of Alfonso VI. He was probably killed at the Battle of Uclés in 1108. Another brother, Fernando, rarely appears, and died in 1083. It

2898-416: A truce that would have allowed Abd al-Rahman to marry al-Fihri's daughter. After decisively defeating Yūsuf al-Fihri's army, Abd al-Rahman was able to conquer Córdoba, where he proclaimed himself emir in 756. The rest of Iberia was easily conquered, and Abd al-Rahman soon had control of all of Iberia. Abd al Rahman's rule was stable in the years after his conquest – he built major public works, most famously

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3036-458: Is al-Zahrawi, who is considered by many to be "probably the greatest physician in the entire history of Western Islam." Around the year 1000 C.E, he wrote a book with a title that roughly translates to The Arrangement of Medical Knowledge for One Who is Not Able to Compile a Book for Himself ( Kitab al-tasrif li-man 'ajiza 'an al-ta'alif )—a comprehensive medical encyclopedia with the goal of summarizing all existing medical knowledge and eliminating

3174-457: Is ambivalent, in that his resistance to the foreign Carolingian armies is viewed as heroic, yet this is tempered by this traitorous collaboration with the Muslims. The epic appears to combine two distinct narratives, an Old French tale related to The Song of Roland (a variant related then dismissed by one of the earliest surviving versions instead makes Bernardo a nephew of Charlemagne , like

3312-480: Is given the rank of count, but he died not long thereafter, in 1038, leaving children who were all dead without issue by 1060. His younger brother, Ansur Díaz, would be in the service of the Navarrese Count of Castile who succeeded as Ferdinand I of León . He appears as count from 1042, and died 30 September 1047, leaving sons Pedro, Diego, Gonzalo and Fernando, Pedro being born to a first wife whose identity

3450-778: Is perhaps best known for the illustration of her murder, by a nephew, that is illustrated in the Libro de las Estampas , and for her memorial tomb in León Cathedral. Of her sibling, eldest brother Pedro Muñiz began to appear in documents in 1002. He had a single son, Nuño Pérez, apparently the nephew implicated in Sancha's murder. Other children of Munio Fernández were daughters Teresa, successively wife of Godesteo Díaz and Pedro Fróilaz, count of Bierzo, and María, as well as an additional son, Juan Muñiz. Juan in turn had sons Juan, Alfonso, Munia, wife of Osorio Osóriz, and Munio Johannes, who

3588-511: Is seen as the golden age of al-Andalus. Córdoba under the Caliphate, with a population of more than half a million, eventually overtook Constantinople as the largest and most prosperous city in Europe. Al-Andalus became a centre for the arts, medicine, science, music, literature and philosophy. The work of its most important philosophers and scientists, such as Abulcasis and Averroes , had

3726-574: Is the family sometimes referred to as The Alfonso, descendants of nobleman Alfonso Díaz from the Tierra de Campos at the end of the 10th and early 11th century. He married an heiress of the Banu Mirel clan, and his family became major landholders in the region over the next several generations, until each of the branches ended in the male line. The heiresses they engendered would provide major landholdings to their spouses and descendants, among whom were

3864-446: Is unknown, and at least Diego to a second wife, Justa Fernández, daughter of count Fernando Flaínez . The youngest son of Diego Fernández, Gómez Díaz, likewise appears as count in 1042, and succeeded in reacquiring most of the dispersed lands once held by the senior line of the family, receiving Liébana and Carrión following the death of his brother Fernando, and wresting Saldaña from the family of Alfonso Díaz, to whom it had passed with

4002-607: The Battle of Bagdoura (in Morocco). Heartened by the victories of their North African brethren, the Berbers of al-Andalus quickly raised their own revolt. Berber garrisons in the north of the Iberian Peninsula mutinied, deposed their Arab commanders, and organized a large rebel army to march against the strongholds of Toledo, Córdoba, and Algeciras. In 741, Balj b. Bishr led a detachment of some 10,000 Arab troops across

4140-536: The Battle of Río Salado in 1340. After this, they ceased to play a major role. The subsequent internal turmoil within Castile, however, helped Nasrid Granada to enjoy a period of relative external peace and internal prosperity until the end of the 14th century, under the reigns of Yusuf I ( r.  1333–1354 ) and Muhammad V ( r.  1354–1359, 1362–1391 ). Important cultural figures, such as Ibn al-Khatib , Ibn Zamrak , and Ibn Khaldun all served in

4278-589: The Book of Foods ( Kitab al-Aghdhiya )—a manual on foods and regimen which contains guidelines for a healthy life; and the Kitab al-Taysir —a book written to act as a compendium to Ibn Rushd's Colliget . In Kitab al-Taysir he provides one of the earliest clinical descriptions of the scabies mite. Three of the most notable Andalusi astronomers were Ibn Tufail (d. 1185), Ibn Rushd (Averroes; d. 1198), and Nur ad-Din al-Bitruji (Alpetragius; d. 1204). All lived around

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4416-639: The County of Barcelona . During the eleventh century several centres of power existed among the taifas, and the political situation shifted rapidly. Before the rise of the Almoravids from Africa or the Christians from the north, the Abbadid -ruled Taifa of Seville succeeded in conquering a dozen lesser kingdoms, becoming the most powerful and renowned of the taifas, such that it could have laid claim to be

4554-609: The Frankish leader Charles Martel for assistance, offering to place himself under Carolingian sovereignty. At the Battle of Poitiers in 732, the al-Andalus raiding army was defeated by Charles Martel and Al Ghafiqi was killed. In 734, the Andalusi launched raids to the east, capturing Avignon and Arles and overran much of Provence . In 737, they traveled up the Rhône valley, reaching as far north as Burgundy . Charles Martel of

4692-536: The Languedoc-Roussillon area of Occitania . The small army Tariq led in the initial conquest consisted mostly of Berbers, while Musa's largely Arab force of over 12,000 soldiers was accompanied by a group of mawālī (Arabic, موالي), that is, non-Arab Muslims, who were clients of the Arabs. The Berber soldiers accompanying Tariq were garrisoned in the centre and the north of the peninsula, as well as in

4830-658: The Mosque of Córdoba , and helped urbanize the emirate while defending it from invaders, including the quashing of numerous rebellions, and decisively repelling the invasion by Charlemagne (which would later inspire the epic, Chanson de Roland ). By far the most important of these invasions was the attempted reconquest by the Abbasid Caliphate . In 763 Caliph Al-Mansur of the Abbasids installed al-Ala ibn-Mugith as governor of Africa (whose title gave him dominion over

4968-453: The Osorio , Lara , and Castro families. Likewise, the heiress of one branch, Elo Alfonso, would bring her branch's share to her husband Pedro Ansúrez, and thus contributed to the resurgence of the junior line of the Banu Gómez. The patronymic of founder Alfonso Díaz, his apparent origin in the region of Liébana, and his appearance in close proximity to the Banu Gómez in documents have led to

5106-629: The Poema del Mio Cid . He would marry Urraca Bermúdez, daughter of count Bermudo Ovéquiz , and by her had children Pedro, Rodrigo, Cristina, and Sancha, who married count Fernando Pérez de Traba . Gonzalo died between 1120 and 1124. His half-brother, count Diego Ansúrez, inherited from his mother lands in Asturias, and would be active in the Astorga region in the 1070s, before dying in the early 1080s (perhaps 1081), leaving by his wife Tezguenza Rodríguez

5244-521: The Roland of The Song ) that would be merged with a native Iberian story involving the rebellion of the counts of Saldaña, while also drawing from the 13th century internecine disputes between the Kingdoms of León and Castile . Pick points to several parallels, geographic and thematic, between this legendary tale of a count of Saldaña and the historical fractious relationship between the senior line of

5382-580: The Visigothic Kingdom under Muslim rule in a seven-year campaign. They crossed the Pyrenees and occupied Visigothic Septimania in southern France. Most of the Iberian peninsula became part of the expanding Umayyad Empire , under the name of al-Andalus . It was organized as a province subordinate to Ifriqiya , so, for the first few decades, the governors of al-Andalus were appointed by

5520-565: The straits . The Arab governor of al-Andalus, joined by this force, crushed the Berber rebels in a series of ferocious battles in 742. However, a quarrel immediately erupted between the Syrian commanders and the Andalusi, the so-called "original Arabs" of the earlier contingents. The Syrians defeated them at the hard-fought Battle of Aqua Portora in August 742 but were too few to impose themselves on

5658-633: The suzerainty of the Kingdom of León , even though he was practically autonomous. In order to expand his frontiers at the expense of the Moors , in 974 he expanded the social base of the nobility by promulgating decrees stating that any villein of Castrojeriz who equipped a knight for battle would enter the ranks of the nobility. He was succeeded by his son, Sancho I of Castile . Around 960, Garcia married Ava de Ribagorza , daughter of Raymond II, count of Ribagorza . They had seven children: García plays

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5796-455: The taifa kingdoms. At the Battle of Sagrajas (or Battle of Zallaqa in Arabic), a Muslim army led by the Almoravids soundly defeated Alfonso VI. By 1090, however, Yusuf ibn Tashfin was disillusioned with the disunity of the taifa leaders and he returned on a campaign to conquer al-Andalus instead. Most of the taifas , except for Zaragoza, were annexed by 1094. Valencia, which had come under

5934-751: The taifas were generally too weak to defend themselves against repeated raids and demands for tribute from the Christian states to the north and west, which were known to the Muslims as "the Galician nations", and which had spread from their initial strongholds in Galicia , Asturias , Cantabria , the Basque country, and the Carolingian Marca Hispanica to become the Kingdoms of Navarre , León , Portugal , Castile and Aragon , and

6072-482: The 1260s. Only the region of Granada remained unconquered. From the mid 13th to the late 15th century, the only remaining domain of al-Andalus was the Emirate of Granada , the last Muslim stronghold in the Iberian Peninsula. The emirate was established by Muhammad ibn al-Ahmar in 1230 and was ruled by the Nasrid dynasty , the longest reigning dynasty in the history of al-Andalus. Although surrounded by Castilian lands,

6210-574: The 15th century in terms of population. The most visible legacy of the Nasrids is the Alhambra , their fortified palace complex, partly preserved today. The independent Nasrid kingdom was also a trade hub between the Atlantic and Mediterranean, and was frequented especially by Genoese merchants. The Marinids intervened in the south of the Iberian Peninsula multiple times up until their defeat at

6348-518: The 720s, the al-Andalus governors launched several sa'ifa raids into Aquitaine but were decisively defeated by Duke Odo the Great of Aquitaine at the Battle of Toulouse (721) . However, after crushing Odo's Berber ally Uthman ibn Naissa on the eastern Pyrenees, Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi led an expedition north across the western Pyrenees and defeated the Aquitanian duke, who in turn appealed to

6486-639: The Abbasid government in North Africa, and declared themselves a caliphate. Inspired by this action, Abd al Rahman joined the rebellion and declared himself caliph in 929. For nearly 100 years under the Córdoban Umayyad period, from the 9th century to the 10th, al-Andalus also extended its presence from Fraxinetum into the Alps with a series of organized raids. The period of the Caliphate

6624-521: The Banu Gómez and Banu Ansur , supporting the deposed former-king Alfonso against his incumbent brother, Ramiro II . Though not explicitly named, the Banu Gómez leader would have been Diego Muñoz, joining the Count of Castile, Fernando Ansúrez in a raid into the Leonese plains, where they defeated the king's army, but the rebellion came to naught, as Ramiro was able to capture and blind Alfonso and other rivals. Diego had returned to loyalty by 934, when

6762-582: The Banu Gómez and the Leonese kings. The second legendary representation of the Banu Gómez builds on the historical antagonism between Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, El Cid , and the family of count Pedro Ansúrez . The Cantar de Mio Cid tells of the marriage of the two daughters of El Cid, Elvira and Sol, to the Infantes de Carrión , Diego and Fernando González. The brothers respond to the humiliating failure of their plot to assassinate one of El Cid's allies by binding and beating their wives, and abandoning them in

6900-626: The Banu Gómez are said to have joined Ramiro in supporting the new Castilian count, Fernán González , against a campaign by Abd ar-Rahman III , and in 936 Diego and apparent brother Osorio Muñoz witnessed one of Ramiro's diplomas. The Banu Gómez again appear with the Banu Ansur in 941, joining the royal accord between Ramiro II and his allies, and Abd ar-Rahman III. Diego Muñoz again rebelled. He disappears from royal diplomas from 940, and in 944 he and Fernán were imprisoned and deprived of their counties, but were released after swearing allegiance to

7038-512: The Castilian Ordoño seem to be distinct from the landholdings of the infantes , but that the earliest accounts of the family of the two infantes give them no son named Ordoño. It was only much later, in the 13th century, when chroniclers begin to assign to them a son named Ordoño, which Salazar y Acha attributes to the misreading of earlier sources. He thought that though the career of the Castilian count demonstrates he must have been

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7176-485: The Castilian kings. Along with this political status, its favorable geographic location, with the Sierra Nevada as a natural barrier, helped to prolong Nasrid rule. Granada also accommodated a large number of Muslim refugees fleeing the Reconquista or expelled from Christian-controlled territories, which grew the city and the emirate's population. The city even became one of the largest in Europe throughout

7314-529: The Christian advance captured new cities and fortresses until the last Nasrid ruler, Muhammad XII (known as Boabdil to the Christians), formally surrendered Granada to the Catholic Monarchs on 2 January 1492. By this time Muslims in Castile numbered half a million. After the fall, "100,000 had died or been enslaved, 200,000 emigrated, and 200,000 remained as the residual population. Many of

7452-556: The Christian kingdoms expanded southward again. From 1146 onward, the Almohads intervened and took control of al-Andalus. One of Abd al-Mu'min's successors, Ya'qub al-Mansur , won a major victory over the Castilian Alfonso VIII at the Battle of Alarcos in 1195. In 1212, a coalition of Christian kings under the leadership of Alfonso VIII defeated the Almohads at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa . Almohad rule

7590-592: The Emirate of Granada, that was to become a tributary state of the Crown of Castile, as the remaining Muslim state on the Iberian Peninsula, and was surrendered in 1492 to the Catholic Monarchs . The toponym al-Andalus is first attested by inscriptions on coins minted in 716 by the new Muslim government of Iberia. These coins, called dinars , were inscribed in both Latin and Arabic . The etymology of

7728-653: The Franks, with the assistance of Liutprand of the Lombards , invaded Burgundy and Provence and expelled the raiders by 739. In 740, a Berber Revolt erupted in the Maghreb (North Africa). To put down the rebellion, the Umayyad Caliph Hisham dispatched a large Arab army, composed of regiments ( Junds ) of Bilad Ash-Sham , to North Africa. But the great Umayyad army was crushed by the Berber rebels at

7866-698: The Islamic south. Between this frontier and its heartland in the south, the al-Andalus state had three large march territories ( thughur ): the Lower March (capital initially at Mérida , later Badajoz ), the Middle March (centred at Toledo), and the Upper March (centred at Zaragoza ). These disturbances and disorder also allowed the Franks, now under the leadership of Pepin the Short , to invade

8004-488: The Islamic world. Achievements that advanced Islamic and Western science came from al-Andalus, including major advances in trigonometry ( Jabir ibn Aflah ), astronomy ( Al-Zarqali ), surgery ( Al-Zahrawi ), pharmacology ( Ibn Zuhr ), and agronomy ( Ibn Bassal and Abū l-Khayr al-Ishbīlī ). Al-Andalus became a conduit for cultural and scientific exchange between the Islamic and Christian worlds. For much of its history, al-Andalus existed in conflict with Christian kingdoms to

8142-511: The Laras during the tumultuous minority of Alfonso VIII of Castile . An indication of the power and historical impact of the Banu Gómez is seen through their roles in two medieval epics of the Iberian peninsula. The tale of Bernardo del Carpio first appears in the 13th century, and relates the saga of the son of a legendary Sancho Díaz, count of Saldaña. The father had been blinded and imprisoned over his love for, and perhaps marriage to, Jimena,

8280-425: The Leonese king's guardian, count Menendo González , would claim the title 'count of León', implying another rebellion. In 1009, the Banu Gómez would support another son of Almanzor, Sanchuelo , in an unsuccessful attempt to reinstate him, and a member of the Banu Gómez would be killed with Sanchuelo in Córdoba. Historically, this has been identified with García, yet he appears in later documents so it must have been

8418-453: The Moriscos ). The last mass prosecution against Moriscos for crypto-Islamic practices occurred in Granada in 1727, with most of those convicted receiving relatively light sentences. The Morisco community including these final convicts kept their identity alive at least through the late eighteenth century. There was much scientific activity in Al-Andalus, especially in the fields of medicine , astronomy , mathematics , and agronomy . At

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8556-427: The Muslim elite, including Muhammad XII, who had been given the area of the Alpujarras mountains as a principality, found life under Christian rule intolerable and passed over into North Africa." Under the conditions of the Capitulations of 1492, the Muslims in Granada were to be allowed to continue to practice their religion. Mass forced conversions of Muslims in 1499 led to a revolt that spread to Alpujarras and

8694-500: The Nasrid court during this period. In 1468, Isabella , the only child of Henry IV of Castile , married Ferdinand , the son of John II of Aragon , and by 1479 they were rulers of a united Castile and Aragon. This development meant that Granada could no longer exploit divisions between the two kingdoms and the new royal couple, also known as the Catholic Monarchs , were united in their intention to conquer it. The final war to conquer Granada began in earnest in 1482. Year by year,

8832-417: The Pyrenees, while the Berber colonists who followed settled in all parts of the country – north, east, south and west. Visigothic lords who agreed to recognize Muslim suzerainty were allowed to retain their fiefs (notably, in Murcia, Galicia, and the Ebro valley). Resistant Visigoths took refuge in the Cantabrian highlands, where they carved out a rump state, the Kingdom of Asturias . In

8970-401: The Pérez de Urbel theory, the Liébana and Saldaña men named Diego Muñoz appear to be distinct. A second theory is now more generally accepted. It is based in part on the reasoning that for the family to be called Banu Gómez (descendants of Gómez) in Al-Andalus sources, there must have been a Gómez in their immediate ancestry when Diego's 932 rebellion attracted notice in Córdoba. This led to

9108-426: The Qinnasrin jund in Jaén . The Egypt jund was divided between Beja ( Alentejo ) in the west and Tudmir ( Murcia ) in the east. The arrival of the Syrians substantially increased the Arab element in the Iberian peninsula and helped strengthen the Muslim hold on the south. However, at the same time, unwilling to be governed, the Syrian junds carried on an existence of autonomous feudal anarchy, severely destabilizing

9246-415: The Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres five centuries later. Along with other astronomers, he undertook extensive work to edit the Toledan Zij astronomical tables. He also accurately calculated the motion of the solar apogee to be 12.04 seconds per year, which is relatively close to today's calculation of 11.8 seconds per year. Garc%C3%ADa Fern%C3%A1ndez of Castile García Fernández , called of

9384-483: The Umayyad Caliphs distracted by the challenge of the Abbasids in the east, the western provinces of the Maghreb and al-Andalus spun out of their control. From around 745, the Fihrids , an illustrious local Arab clan descended from Oqba ibn Nafi al-Fihri , seized power in the western provinces and ruled them almost as a private family empire of their own – Abd al-Rahman ibn Habib al-Fihri in Ifriqiya and Yūsuf al-Fihri in al-Andalus. The Fihrids welcomed

9522-478: The Umayyads in Damascus and were slaughtering members of that family, and then he spent four years in exile in North Africa, assessing the political situation in al-Andalus across the Straits of Gibraltar, before he landed at Almuñécar . News of his arrival spread across al-Andalus, and when word reached its governor, Yūsuf al-Fihri , he was not pleased. During this time, Abd al-Rahman and his supporters quickly conquered Málaga and then Seville , finally besieging

9660-416: The Umayyads, the sons and grandsons of caliphs, had a more legitimate claim to rule than the Fihrids themselves. Rebellious-minded local lords, disenchanted with the autocratic rule of the Fihrids, conspired with the arriving Umayyad exiles. In 755, the exiled Umayyad prince Abd al-Rahman I (also called al-Dākhil , the 'Immigrant') arrived on the coast of Spain. He had fled the Abbasids, who had overthrown

9798-496: The White Hands ( Spanish : el de las Manos Blancas ) ( Burgos , c.  938  – Córdoba , 995), was the count of Castile and Alava from 970 to 995. In May 995, he was captured by a raiding party while out hunting. Wounded in the encounter, he was sent to Cordoba as a trophy, but died at Medinaceli in June 995. The son of Count Fernán González and Queen Sancha Sánchez of Pamplona, in 970 he succeeded his father as Count of Castile. He continued to recognise

9936-462: The authority of the governor of al-Andalus. A second significant consequence of the revolt was the expansion of the Kingdom of the Asturias , hitherto confined to enclaves in the Cantabrian highlands. After the rebellious Berber garrisons evacuated the northern frontier fortresses, the Christian king Alfonso I of Asturias set about immediately seizing the empty forts for himself, quickly adding

10074-426: The bureaucracy's loyalty towards him. Around this time several local Arab lords began to revolt, including one Kurayb ibn Khaldun, who was able to conquer Seville. Some loyalists tried to quell the rebellion, but without proper material support, their efforts were in vain. He declared that the next emir would be his grandson Abd al-Rahman III , ignoring the claims of his four living children. Abdullah died in 912, and

10212-451: The capital of al-Andalus, Córdoba . Abd al-Rahman's army was exhausted after their conquest, meanwhile Governor Yūsuf al-Fihri had returned from quashing another rebellion with his army. The siege of Córdoba began, and noticing the starving state of Abd al-Rahman's army, al-Fihri began throwing lavish feasts every day as the siege went on, to tempt Abd al Rahman's supporters to defect to his side. However, Abd al-Rahman persisted, even rejecting

10350-537: The control of El Cid at the end of its taifa period , was eventually occupied in 1102, after El Cid's death. Zaragoza was annexed in 1110. Modern scholarship has sometimes admitted originality in North African architecture, but according to Yasser Tabbaa, historian of Islamic art and architecture, the Iberocentric viewpoint is anachronistic when considering the political and cultural environment during

10488-527: The court intrigues surrounding the sons-in-law of Alfonso VI of León and Castile , and was exiled, by 1105 appearing in the County of Urgell , where as guardian of his young grandson, count Ermengol VI , he allied the county with the Kingdom of Aragón and County of Barcelona in their joint campaign against the Almoravids . He and his brother Gonzalo appear to have been deprived of their lands in León at this time. He returned to León in 1109 and for negotiating

10626-404: The daughter Elvira, who married count Fernando Bermúdez of Cea, they would be grandparents of queen Jimena Fernández, wife of García Sánchez II of Pamplona . Three sons married the daughters of counts, illustrating the social standing of the family. Diego was succeeded in the county of Saldaña by his brother Gómez Muñoz, who is seen as count in 959 and 960, and on his death, his nephew Gómez Díaz,

10764-449: The death of García Gómez. In addition to eldest son Diego, they were parents of Fáfila, Osorio and Munio. Count Fáfila Fernández was father of two known children, a daughter, Elvira, married to the last of the senior line of the family, Munio Gómez, and a poorly-documented son, Ordoño Fáfilaz. Munio Fernández would inherit the lands of his brother Osorio, and became count in Astorga, and a rebel collaborator of García Gómez. Diego Fernández

10902-509: The embalmed head of al-Ala ibn-Mugith, it is said Al Mansur exclaimed "Praise be to God who has put the sea between me and this devil!". Abd al Rahman I died in 788 after a lengthy and prosperous reign. He was succeeded by his son, Hisham I , who secured power by exiling his brother who had tried to rebel against him. Hisham enjoyed a stable reign of eight years and was succeeded by his son Al-Hakam I . The next few decades were relatively uneventful, with only occasional minor rebellions, and saw

11040-540: The emir of Kairouan , rather than the Caliph in Damascus . The regional capital was set at Córdoba , and the first influx of Muslim settlers was widely distributed. Following the Muslim conquest of Spain, al-Andalus, then at its greatest extent, was divided into five administrative units, corresponding roughly to: modern Andalusia ; Castile and León ; Navarre , Aragon , and Catalonia ; Portugal and Galicia ; and

11178-594: The emirate was wealthy through being tightly integrated in Mediterranean trade networks and enjoyed a period of considerable cultural and economic prosperity. Despite internal conflicts, the Nasrids of Granada were able to survive in part by playing the Christian kingdoms of the north against each other, while at other times soliciting aid from the Marinids , a new Berber dynasty ruling in North Africa from their capital in Fez . For much of its existence, Granada paid tribute to

11316-411: The emirate, most disastrously following the rebellion of Umar ibn Hafsun . When Muhammad died, he was succeeded by emir Abdullah ibn Muhammad al-Umawi whose power barely reached outside of the city of Córdoba. As Ibn Hafsun ravaged the south, Abdullah did almost nothing, and slowly became more and more isolated, barely speaking to anyone. Abdullah purged his administration of his brothers, which lessened

11454-529: The extinction of the senior line of Banu Gómez. His status was further amplified by his marriage to Teresa Peláez, daughter of count Pelayo Fróilaz and Aldonza Ordóñez, a granddaughter of both of the rival kings, Ramiro III and Bermudo II. By her he had sons Fernando, Pelayo and García, and daughters María, Sancha, Aldonza (Eslonza) and Elvira. On his death, control of the family lands would pass to his eldest nephew, Pedro Ansúrez and his own branch would be briefly eclipsed. Pedro, son of Ansur Díaz, would reclaim

11592-661: The fall of the Umayyads in the east, in 750, and sought to reach an understanding with the Abbasids , hoping they might be allowed to continue their autonomous existence. But when the Abbasids rejected the offer and demanded submission, the Fihrids declared independence and, probably out of spite, invited the deposed remnants of the Umayyad clan to take refuge in their dominions. It was a fateful decision that they soon regretted, for

11730-675: The first taifa kingdoms (1009–1110); the Almoravid Empire (1085–1145); the second taifa period (1140–1203); the Almohad Caliphate (1147–1238); the third taifa period (1232–1287); and ultimately the Nasrid Emirate of Granada (1238–1492). Under the Caliphate of Córdoba, the city of Córdoba became one of the leading cultural and economic centres throughout the Mediterranean Basin , Europe, and

11868-568: The following centuries, though certain fields and subjects thrived more depending on the period. Scholars often worked in many different and overlapping subjects, so it is difficult to place those discussed here into a single scientific field each. There were many notable surgeons, physicians, and medical scholars from al-Andalus including Ibn al-Baytar (d. 1248), Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (Albucasis; d. 1013), Muhammad al-Shafrah (d. 1360), Abu Marwan 'Abd al-Malik ibn Habib (d. 853), and Abu Marwan ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar; d. 1162). And of particular note

12006-573: The formation of the European Renaissance . The Caliphate of Córdoba also had extensive trade with other parts of the Mediterranean, including Christian parts. Trade goods included luxury items (silk, ceramics, gold), essential foodstuffs (grain, olive oil, wine), and containers (such as ceramics for storing perishables). In the tenth century, Amalfitans were already trading Fatimid and Byzantine silks in Córdoba. Later references to Amalfitan merchants were sometimes used to emphasize

12144-483: The hypothesis that Diego's father was the Munio Gómez (Munio, son of Gómez), who held land near San Román (Santibáñez de la Peña), one of the centers of power of Diego Muñoz and his descendants. This Munio Gómez also witnessed charters of the monastery of Sahagún in 915, while count Diego Muñoz would give lands to Sahagún in 922. Following a 920 campaign of Abd-ar-Rahman III against León, king Ordoño II launched

12282-478: The important Book of the Medicine of the Arabs , Ibn Habib also wrote the Book on Stars ( Kirab fi l-nujim ). This book included important "teachings on the lunar mansions, the signs of the zodiac, [and] the division of the seasons." In these teachings, Ibn-Habib calculated the phases of the moon and dates of the annual solstices and equinoxes with relative accuracy. Another important astronomer from al-Andalus

12420-433: The king, and he again appears as witness of royal grants, and he would be restored to his lands, appearing in 950 as Didacus Monnioz, come Saldanie (Diego Muñoz, count of Saldaña), and given a place of prominence, second only to Fernán González. He seems to have died in 951 or early 952. By his wife Tegridia, Diego had been father of sons Munio, Gómez, Osorio and Fernando Díaz, and daughters Elvira and Gontroda Díaz. Through

12558-555: The lands around Valladolid , of which Pedro served as governor. He and Eylo had sons Peter, who died as a child, and Fernando, who was a minor land tenant near Entrepeñas, while they had three daughters, Mayor, married to count Álvar Fáñez , María, married to Ermengol V, Count of Urgell , and Urraca. With his death, power in the family passed back to the family of his uncle and predecessor, Gómez Díaz, rather than Pedro's children or brother. The latter, Gonzalo Ansúrez first appeared as count in 1075 at Liébana, and he figures prominently in

12696-549: The latter died. He married Elvira Fróilaz, daughter of count Fruela Vela. Like his cousin, count García Gómez, he was a leader of the rebellion in 922, instigated when king Bermudo II repudiated his wife, Velasquita, to establish a new marital alliance with the counts of Castile. In alliance with Córdoba, the rebels briefly forced the king to abandon the capitol, but on his recovery of the kingdom, Bermudo deprived Munio and his co-conspirators of many of their lands. He seems to have been rehabilitated by 997, when he appears as count and

12834-423: The lines of the family that controlled Saldaña and Carrión, a branch of the family was briefly prominent in the late 10th and early 11th century is the area of Astorga, represented by count Munio Fernández. A younger son of count Fernando Díaz, he was a prominent landholder on the Tierra de Campos, due not only to lands that came from his mother, Mansuara Fáfilaz, but also having inherited from his brother Osorio when

12972-546: The marriage of the dead king's heiress Urraca to Alfonso the Battler , he was restored to much of his land and his comital dignity in 1109 and would remain closely associated with Queen Urraca during subsequent years. To this he added Melgar de Arriba , Simancas , Cabezón and Torremormojón . He died in 1118. He had married Eylo Alfonso, of the Alfonsos of the Tierra de Campos, and they were tasked with moving settlers to

13110-490: The medical uses of over 1400 plants and other types of medicine—and ibn Habib's Book of the Medicine of the Arabs ( Kitab tibb al-'arab )—a historical summary of Arabic medicine until the 9th century. Ibn Habib's work is significant because it is one of the oldest known writings in the field of prophetic medicine , which uses hadiths to create Islamic-based medicinal guidelines. His book is also significant because it uses principles of Galenic medicine , such as humorism and

13248-436: The mountains of Ronda ; after this uprising the capitulations were revoked. In 1502 the Catholic Monarchs decreed the forced conversion of all Muslims living under the rule of the Crown of Castile, although in the kingdoms of Aragon and Valencia (both now part of Spain) the open practice of Islam was allowed until 1526. Descendants of the Muslims were subject to expulsions from Spain between 1609 and 1614 (see Expulsion of

13386-611: The name al-Andalus has traditionally been derived from the name of the Vandals ( vándalos in Spanish, vândalos in Portuguese). Since the 1980s, several alternative etymologies have challenged this tradition. In 1986, Joaquín Vallvé proposed that al-Andalus was a corruption of the name Atlantis . Heinz Halm in 1989 derived the name from a Gothic term, *landahlauts , and in 2002, Georg Bossong suggested its derivation from

13524-427: The need for students and practitioners to rely on multiple medical texts. The book is renowned for its chapter on surgery which included important illustrations of surgical instruments, as well as sections "on cauterization , on incisions, venesection and wounds, and on bone-setting." For hundreds of years after its publication it was one of the most widely used medical texts for students and medical practitioners and

13662-547: The new king, Bermudo II, struggled to hold onto his crown in the face of rebellious nobility in the east and attacks from the Caliphate of Córdoba to the south. The year after his father's death, García initiated the first of his rebellions, calling himself elaborately proconsul dux eninentor in a 988 document, before being suppressed in early 989. He had married Muniadomna González, daughter of count Gonzalo Vermúdez, and when Almanzor again marched on León in 990, García and Gonzalo, and García's uncle Osorio Díaz joined him. Bermudo

13800-618: The next century and a half, al-Andalus became a province of the Muslim empires of the Almoravids and their successors, the Almohads , both based in Marrakesh . Ultimately, the northern Christian kingdoms overpowered the Muslim states to the south. In the 13th century, most of the south quickly fell under Christian rule, with Gharb al-Andalus , the Guadalquivir Valley and Eastern al-Andalus  [ es ] falling to Portuguese, Castilian, and Aragonese conquests. This left

13938-562: The north. After the fall of the Umayyad caliphate, al-Andalus was fragmented into taifa states and principalities, some of which (such as the Taifa of Toledo , the Taifa of Zaragoza , the Taifa of Seville and the Taifa of Badajoz ) reached considerable territorial extent. After the Christian capture of Toledo in 1085, the Almoravid empire intervened and repelled attacks on the region, then brought al-Andalus under direct Almoravid rule. For

14076-584: The northwestern provinces of Galicia and León to his fledgling kingdom. The Asturians evacuated the Christian populations from the towns and villages of the Galician-Leonese lowlands, creating an empty buffer zone in the Douro River valley (the " Desert of the Duero "). This newly emptied frontier remained roughly in place for the next few centuries as the boundary between the Christian north and

14214-620: The power the family previously had, becoming the most prominent Leonese nobleman of his time. He was majordomo to Alfonso VI in 1067 and first appears as count the next year. He and his brothers, Gonzalo and Fernando, are said to have accompanied Alfonso VI during his brief exile in Toledo . In 1074 was governing Santa Maria de Carrión (from which he is usually called Count of Carrión), and added San Román de Entrepeñas and probably Saldaña in 1077. In 1084 he controlled Zamora , Toro , and Tordesillas , in 1101 he added Liébana. He fell afoul of

14352-437: The previous golden age of Córdoba. Fatimid Egypt was a supplier of many luxury goods, including elephant tusks, and raw or carved crystals. The Fatimids were traditionally thought to be the only supplier of such goods, and control over these trade routes would be a cause for conflict between the Umayyads and Fatimids. The Caliphate of Córdoba effectively collapsed during a ruinous civil war between 1009 and 1013, although it

14490-470: The province of al-Andalus). He planned to invade and destroy the Emirate of Córdoba, so in response Abd al Rahman fortified himself within the fortress of Carmona with a tenth as many soldiers as al-Ala ibn-Mugith. After a long siege, it appeared that Abd al Rahman would be defeated, but in a last stand Abd al Rahman with his outnumbered forces opened the gates of the fortress and charged at the resting Abbasid army, and decisively defeated them. After being sent

14628-902: The province. The quarrel was settled in 743 when Abū l-Khaṭṭār al-Ḥusām , the new governor of al-Andalus, assigned the Syrians to regimental fiefs across al-Andalus  – the Damascus jund was established in Elvira ( Granada ), the Jordan jund in Rayyu ( Málaga and Archidona ), the Jund Filastin in Medina-Sidonia and Jerez , the Emesa (Hims) jund in Seville and Niebla , and

14766-467: The rebellion. Almanzor again attacked León in 995, but this time his army also sacked Carrión in retaliation for the withdrawal of García Gómez from an agreement to supply troops to the Córdoban army. García would again be at odds with Córdoba in 1000, when he and his brother-in-law Sancho García of Castile fought the Battle of Cervera against Almanzor. There a brother, apparently count Velasco Gómez,

14904-524: The reign of Bermudo III of León . Of these, Fernando Díaz would marry Elvira Sánchez, heiress of Banu Gómez senior-line member, count Sancho Gómez, and through her apparently gained control of the family's holdings in Liébana that had been held by Sancho's widow, Toda García, who was aunt to the Pamplona queen, Muniadona of Castile . Following the death of Sancho III of Pamplona , he appears at court and

15042-479: The reign of king Ramiro III of León , the boy king who would be married to another child of Gómez, his daughter Sancha Gómez. By 977 he would be ruling in Liébana, and apparently also in Carrión, in addition to Saldaña, and the same year, he sent an embassy to Caliph Al-Hakam II at Córdoba. He likely fought in the disastrous Battle of San Esteban de Gormaz , where a coalition of Christian forces organized by Elvira

15180-468: The reign of king Alfonso VI who as tutor of the king's son was killed along with the prince at the Battle of Uclés in 1108. He is known to have been son of the Castilian count Ordoño Ordóñez, whom tradition identifies with the son of the infantes Ordoño Ramírez and Cristina Bermúdez , both children of kings of León. However, Jaime de Salazar y Acha points out that not only does the geographical sphere of

15318-560: The rise of the emirate. In 822 Al Hakam died and was succeeded by Abd al-Rahman II , the first great emir of Córdoba. He rose to power with no opposition and sought to reform the emirate. He quickly reorganized the bureaucracy to be more efficient and built many mosques across the emirate. During his reign science and art flourished, as many scholars fled the Abbasid caliphate due to the disastrous Fourth Fitna . The scholar Abbas ibn Firnas made an attempt to fly, though accounts vary on his success. In 852 Abd al Rahman II died, leaving behind him

15456-588: The rivalry and antagonism between El Cid and the Banu Gómez. Al-Andalus Al-Andalus ( Arabic : الأَنْدَلُس ) 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

15594-399: The rule of the Almoravid dynasty. The rise and fall of the Almoravids is sometimes seen as an expression of Ibn Khaldun 's asabiyyah paradigm. By 1147, the Almoravids were overthrown in North Africa by the Almohads , another Berber dynasty, under the leadership of Abd al-Mu'min . As Almoravid rule collapsed, another brief period of taifa kingdoms followed in al-Andalus, during which

15732-466: The same time and focused their astronomical works on critiquing and revising Ptolemaic astronomy and the problem of the equant in his astronomical model. Instead, they accepted Aristotle 's model and promoted the theory of homocentric spheres. Al-Bitruji is believed to have studied under Ibn Tufail and Bitruji's Book on Cosmology ( Kitab fi al-hay'a ) built on Ibn Tufail's work, as well as that of Ibn Rushd, Ibn Bajja, and Maimonides. The book's goal

15870-401: The same time, Andalusi scholars were also highly active in philosophy (see below), especially in the field of logic . The earliest evidence of such activities in al-Andalus dates to the reign of Abd ar-Rahman II ( r.  822–852 ), when developments were spurred by exposure to older works translated from, Greek, Persian and other languages. Scientific studies continued to be pursued in

16008-634: The sister of king Alfonso II of Asturias . Their son, Bernardo is raised by Alfonso as heir, but his attempts to get the king to release his father come to naught, and he eventually turns to rebellion and revenge. At Roncevaux he defeats a Carolingian army sent to support the Asturian monarch in exchange for Alfonso naming the Frankish king his successor. Bernardo forms an alliance with the Moors to attack León and Astorga . The presentation of Bernardo

16146-411: The son of Diego, followed. Gómez Díaz first appears with his parents in 940, and in 946 he married Muniadomna, daughter of his father's ally, Fernán González of Castile. Like his father, he would be a close ally of the counts of Castile, and would marry two of his children to the children of count García Fernández of Castile . He likewise allied himself with the regent, Elvira Ramírez of León , during

16284-455: The status of count, and seems mostly have been closely tied to his property at Aranga. He married Teresa Rodríguez, and had children identified in a genealogy of the patrons of Santa Maria de Ferreira de Pallares. These were a son García, otherwise unknown, and a daughter Aldonza, whose marriage to Rodrigo Fernández de Toroño, alférez to the king, produced heiresses who married Gonzalo Rodríguez Girón and Martín Gómez de Silva. In addition to

16422-544: The strategic strip of Septimania in 752, hoping to deprive al-Andalus of an easy launching pad for raids into Francia . After a lengthy siege, the last Arab stronghold, the citadel of Narbonne , finally fell to the Franks in 759 . Al-Andalus was sealed off at the Pyrenees. The third consequence of the Berber revolt was the collapse of the authority of the Damascus Caliphate over the western provinces. With

16560-430: The supposition that he represented another son of the first Banu Gómez count, Diego Muñoz. However, he does not appear among the listed children of Diego and Tegridia in any charter, and he lived to 1024, more than 70 years after Diego's death in the early 950s, making a father-son relationship extremely unlikely. The second family proposed to be descended from the Banu Gómez is that of count García Ordóñez , prominent in

16698-445: The theory of four temperaments , as the basis of its medical recommendations. The ibn Zuhr family played a very important role in the production of Andalusi medical knowledge, as they produced five generations of medical experts, particularly in the fields of dietary sciences and medicaments . Abu Marwan ibn Zuhr (d. 1162) is particularly notable, as he wrote the Book of Moderation ( Kitab al-Iqtisad )—a treatise on general therapy;

16836-457: The throne passed to Abd al Rahman III. Through force of arms and diplomacy, he put down the rebellions that had disrupted his grandfather's reign, obliterating Ibn Hafsun and hunting down his sons. After this he led several sieges against the Christians, sacking the city of Pamplona , and restoring some prestige to the emirate. Meanwhile, across the sea the Fatimids had risen up in force, ousted

16974-510: The true heir to the Caliphate of Córdoba. The taifas were vulnerable and divided but had immense wealth. During its prominence the Taifa of Seville produced technically complex lusterware and exerted significant influence on ceramic production across al-Andalus. In the 1080s, the taifa kingdoms began to face an existential threat from the Christian kingdoms to the north, as Alfonso VI of Castile escalated attacks against them. In 1083, he led

17112-494: The year 914. Pérez de Urbel noted in particular a 929 diploma of the widowed Gulatrudia witnessed by her children, including a Diego Muñoz. However, the other named children were all daughters, conflicting with the known family of the Saldaña Diego Muñoz, which likely included two brothers. Further, Gulatrudia's son is still found in Liébana in 964, after the reported death of the count in Saldaña. Thus, contrary to

17250-437: Was Maslama al-Majriti (d. 1007), who played a role in translating and writing about Ptolemy's Planisphaerium and Almagest . He built on the work of older astronomers, like Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi , whose astronomical tables he wrote a discussion on and subsequently improved. Abu Ishaq Ibrahim al-Zarqali (d. 1087) had many influential astronomical successes, as shown by Copernicus 's recognition of him in his On

17388-461: Was "to overcome the physical difficulties inherent in the geometrical models of Ptolemy 's Almagest and to describe the cosmos in agreement with Aristotelian or Neoplatonic physics," which it succeeded in doing to an extent. Bitruji's book set a precedent of criticizing the Almagest in future works in the field of astronomy. Although Ibn Rushd originally trained and practiced as a jurist, he

17526-479: Was Pelayo Gómez who would be the next family head. He married Elvira Muñoz, half-sister of count Rodrigo Muñoz , giving him a new power-base in Galicia, including an interest on the monastery of Santa Maria de Ferreira de Pallares. He died in 1101, and was interred at San Zoilo de Carrión , where his wife, children and grandchildren would also be buried. Two known sons became counts. Munio and Gómez Peláez. Gómez

17664-401: Was a count under queen Urraca, in the 1110s, with interest in the Tierra de Campos. He died in 1118, having married Mayor García, daughter of count García Ordóñez and granddaughter of king García Sánchez III of Pamplona , having children García, Pelayo, Diego, Urraca, and Teresa. Munio Peláez first appears in the late years of Alfonso VI, in 1105. He received Monterroso in 1112, and was

17802-483: Was a relatively minor nobleman under Alfonso V. His wife Marina is thought to have been a descendant of the Banu Ansur, Counts of Monzón : they named a younger son Ansur, and appear to have split the Banu Ansur lands with the Counts of Castile. He died in 1029, leaving three sons, Fernando, Ansur and Gómez. These would all be members of the pro-Navarre faction of the Leonese nobility, and are absent from court during most of

17940-468: Was diminished in prestige and in 1228 the Almohad caliph al-Ma'mun withdrew from al-Andalus altogether. In this political vacuum, a new wave of taifa kingdoms emerged, which were progressively conquered by Portugal, Castile, and Aragon. Córdoba was conquered in 1236 and Seville was conquered in 1248 . Some Muslim city-states, such as Murcia and Niebla , survived as vassal kingdoms of Castile until

18078-542: Was exercising judicial authority in the region of Astorga, he also had acquired rights in Cimanes de la Vega . He would hold a more prestigious position under Bermudo's successor, being count of Astorga and continually appearing among the closest circle of nobles around the king. The record is silent regarding whether he joined his cousin in his later rebellion against Alfonso V, and he only appears periodically in later years, dying between 1013 and 1016. Of his children, only

18216-462: Was exposed to astronomy—possibly through Ibn Tufail—and became a renowned scientist in the field. His most popular work was his Summary of the Almagest , but he also published shorter works discussing Aristotle's planetary theories . Ibn Rushd published writings on philosophy, theology, and medicine throughout his life too, including commentaries on the works of Ibn Sina. In addition to writing

18354-399: Was father of Pedro Muñiz and Elsonza, wife of Pedro Ovéquez, in whose descendants the inheritance of this branch seems to have been vested. In addition to the well characterized branches of the family, two other prominent families in kingdom of León have been suggested to be branches of the Banu Gómez, though in neither case has the identification been universally accepted. The first of these

18492-454: Was forced to flee to Galicia. García would govern the eastern part of the kingdom, including the eponymous capitol, on Córdoba's behalf, referring to himself as 'ruling in León' in 990 ( imperantem Garceani Gomiz in Legione ). However, by mid-year the king regained the capitol and forced García to take refuge around Liébana. In 991, the king divorced his Galician wife, Velasquita, in favor of

18630-461: Was killed. The deaths of Bermudo in 1000 and Almanzor in 1002 changed the political landscape, and the Banu Gómez were, at first, on friendly terms with the new child-monarch in León, and García, along with his brother count Sancho Gómez and uncle count Fernando Díaz signed a treaty with Almanzor's son Al-Muzzafar that included an agreement to supply troops. In 1005, García would incorporate Cea and Grajal into his territories, and amidst conflict with

18768-445: Was not finally abolished until 1031 when al-Andalus broke up into a number of mostly independent mini-states and principalities called taifas . In 1013, invading Berbers sacked Córdoba , massacring its inhabitants, pillaging the city, and burning the palace complex to the ground. The largest of the taifas to emerge were Badajoz ( Batalyaws ), Toledo ( Ṭulayṭulah ), Zaragoza ( Saraqusta ), and Granada ( Ġarnāṭah ). After 1031,

18906-514: Was soundly defeated, a loss that led the Galician nobility to elevate a competitor for the throne, Ramiro's cousin Bermudo Ordóñez . The Banu Gómez remained allies of Ramiro, controlling armies from their own lands and the Tierra de Campos. As such, Gómez found himself excluded from court when in 985 the Galician candidate proved successful, supplanting Ramiro and taking the crown of León as Bermudo II. The next year, when Almanzor launched

19044-485: Was translated into Hebrew, Latin, and Castilian. This encyclopedia is also significant for its inclusion of al-Zahrawi's personal experiences as a surgeon, which provided important case studies for aspiring surgeons. This distinguishes it from other strictly factual medical works of the time, most notably Ibn Sina's Canon of Medicine . Other important medical texts include al-Baytar's Comprehensive Book on Simple Drugs and Foodstuffs —an encyclopedia with descriptions of

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