Zawi ibn Ziri

Zawi ibn Ziri
Emir
Zirid King of Granada
Reign	1013 – 1019/1020
Successor	Habbus al-Muzaffar
Born	c. 955 Achir
Died	1034 or 1035 Algiers[1]
Names Al-Mansur Zawi ibn Ziri ibn Manad as-Sanhaji
Arabic	المنصور زاوي بن زيري بن مناد الصنهاجي
Dynasty	Zirids
Father	Ziri ibn Manad

Zawi ibn Ziri as-Sanhaji or Al-Mansur Zawi ibn Ziri ibn Manad as-Sanhaji (Arabic: المنصور زاوي بن زيري بن مناد الصنهاجي), was a chief in the Berber Sanhaja tribe. He arrived in Spain in 1000 (391) during the reign of Almanzor. He took part in the rebellion against the Caliphate of Córdoba and settled in the Cora of Elvira with followers from his Sanhaja tribe. He founded the Taifa of Granada, and founded the Zirid dynasty of Granada as its first Emir, reigning from 1013 to 1019.^[1]

Early Zirid dynasty

Further information: Zirid dynasty

Zawi's father, Ziri ibn Manad (Ziri) was the leader of the Berber Sanhaja tribe, with allegiance to al-Mansur bi-Nasr Allah, leader of the Fatimid Caliphate. Ziri founded the Zirid dynasty in the Maghreb with the permission of al-Mansur bi-Nasr Allah in 944 and built the city of El Achir. During the ongoing revolt of the Zenata tribe against Fatimid rule, Ziri marched against the Zenata forces in 970. Following a bloody battle, the Sanhaja army was routed and Ziri's horse fell on him. With his troops having abandoned the battlefield, Ziri was left stranded amongst the Zenata tribe who cut off his head. A deputation seeking support from El-Hakem al-Mostancer, took Ziri's head to Cordoba, where it was put on display in the market place.^[2]

Zawi's brother, Buluggin ibn Ziri (Buluggin) was appointed governor of the Maghreb by the Fatimids as they transferred their capital to the newly created Cairo. The Sanhaja tribe then became responsible for holding back the Spanish Umayyads and their Zanata Berber Allies. The Sanhaja defeated the Umayyad-supported Maghrawa invasion of Morocco in 973, pushing most of the Maghrawa people into central Morocco. Following the death of Buluggin, in 984 the extensive inheritance was divided by his relatives with Buluggin's son Abul-Fat'h al-Mansur ibn Buluggin (al-Mansur) carrying on the Zirid dynasty and another son, Hammad ibn Buluggin, taking over the lands of central Maghreb west of Ifrqiya.^[3][4][5]

Al-Mansur entrusted the governorship of Tiaret to his uncle, Abu al-Behar, and that of El Achir to his brother Itouweft. The Zenatas and their Umayyad allies quickly recaptured the places lost to Buluggin, including Fes and Sijilmassa. Uprisings in Ketama, Morocco, were put down with great severity and their perpetrators slain. After reducing offending tribes to submission, Sanhaja officials were put in charge of them. During the reign of Zawi's nephew, al-Mansur (983-995), the Zirid dynasty suffered from internal family tensions as well as a drift away from their Fatimid rulers.^{[6][7][8][9][10]}

Abu Qatada Nasir ad-Dawla Badis ibn Mansur (Badis), son of al-Mansur, became the next ruler of the Zirid dynasty. Following failed attacks against Badis, in 999 and 1000, Zawi left for Spain with his son, nephews and followers.^[9][11]

Al Andalus

Al-Andalus in the year 1000

Almanzor, "mayor of the palace" for the Caliphate of Córdoba in Al-Andalus, eagerly welcomed the refugees as support for his power, through which he planned to establish his domination of the empire and remove the Caliph (Hisham II) of all of his authority. Almanzor also enlisted Zenatas and other Berbers to replace, in Spain, the militia of the Caliph, umayyad troops and contingents of Arab tribes.^[12][13]

The power of the Sanhaja increased to such a degree that they became the main support of Almanzor and his son and successors, Abd al-Malik al-Muzaffar and Abd al-Rahman Sanchuelo. Zawi took a very active part in the war that broke out between the Spanish Muslims and Berber troops. Supported by Sanhaja, Zenata and other Berber troops, Zawi attacked Cordoba to establish Sulayman ibn al-Hakam as their chosen caliph. The Berbers entered Cordoba with their Caliph, indulging in every excess. They stripped the people of their property and carried violence and dishonor among the most respectable families. During the pillage of the city, Zawi removed the head of his father, Ziri Ibn Menad, from the top of the citadel where it had been, for returning to his family to be deposited in the tomb which contained the body of his father. ^[14]

Following the fall of Cordoba, dissension began between the Berbers and the fire of discord spread to all parts of the country. Berber leaders and the great officers of the Umayyad empire rushed at will on cities and provinces, while the Sanhaja, already masters of the Elvira campaign, went to seize the city.^[14]

Elvira/Granada

View of the Albaicín neighbourhood in Granada today, the site of the Zirid citadel during the Taifa period, with some of the Zirid city walls still standing.^[15]

Soon after settling in the area, Zawi moved his capital from Madinat Ilbira (a site near modern Atarfe) to the more defensible Granada (Gharnāṭa) nearby.^[16][17][18] Granada had been until then a small settlement on the right bank of the Darro river,^[a] but here Zawi founded what became modern Granada and the capital of the new Taifa kingdom of Granada.^[26]

Ibn Hazm, with followers of Umayyad pretender Al-Murtada (Abd al-Malik), tried to take Granada from the Zirids, in April 1018, but was heavily defeated. Deeply distressed by the excesses of his countrymen during the civil war, and convinced that these misdeeds would bring down divine vengeance on the perpetrators and would bring the downfall of the empire he had founded, Zawi resolved to abandon Al-Andalus. He returned to the Maghreb in 1020, after appointing his nephew Habbus ibn Maksan as his successor.^[27][28][29]

The Maghreb

Zawi was welcomed back with honour by his great grand nephew, Al-Mu'izz ibn Badis, the ruler of the Zirids in the Maghreb at that time. It was then that he buried his father's head in the tomb which contained the body.^[30][9]

Aftermath

Habbus al-Muzaffar organised the Taifa and the construction of Granada went ahead during his reign.^[31] The Zirids of Granada dynasty reigned until 1238, when Muhammad ibn al-Ahmar founded the Nasrid dynasty. The Nasrids built the Alhambra and reigned until January 2, 1492, when the army of the Catholic Monarchs conquered the last Muslim city in the Iberian Peninsula, ousting the last Nasrid king Boabdil.

Notes

1. The region surrounding what is now known as Granada had been populated since 5500 B.C. and experienced Roman and Visigothic influences. It was originally known as Elibyrge and, by the 1st century A.D., it had become a Roman municipality known as Iliberri which, by the end of the Visigoth period, had changed to Elvira. Jews were established in another area close to Illiberis, called Ġarnāṭah or Ġarnāṭah al-yahūd (Arabic: غرناطة اليهود, lit. 'Granada of the Jews') on the right bank of the Darro River, which became the site of modern Granada.^{[19][20][21][22][23][24][25]}

References

1. Aparicio, Javier Iglesia (2018-04-06). "Zawi ben Ziri, primer rey de la taifa de Granada". Historia del Condado de Castilla (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-07-08.
2. Ibn Khaldoun 1854, pp. 7, 8, 554, 555.
3. Shillington 2005, p. 525.
4. Hsain Ilahiane 2006, p. 86,153.
5. Ibn Khaldoun 1854, pp. 12, 13.
6. Hsain Ilahiane 2006, p. 149.
7. Charles-André Julien 1970, p. 67.
8. Ibn Khaldoun 1854, pp. 15, 16.
9. Hsain Ilahiane 2006, p. 153.
10. Ibn Khaldoun 1854, pp. 12, 13, 14.
11. Ibn Khaldoun 1854, pp. 16, 44, 59, 60.
12. Ibn Khaldoun 1854, pp. 60.
13. Fletcher 2006, p. 74.
14. Ibn Khaldoun 1854, pp. 60–62.
15. Bush, Olga (2013). "Granada art and architecture". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam, Three. Brill. ISBN 9789004161658.
16. Sarr Marroco, Bilal (2007). "La granada zirí: una aproximación a través de las fuentes escritas, arqueológicas e historiográficas" (PDF). @rqueología y Territorio (4): 167.
17. Carvajal López, José C. (2020). "Material culture". In Fierro, Maribel (ed.). The Routledge Handbook of Muslim Iberia. Routledge. pp. 490, 505 (see note 18). ISBN 978-1-317-23354-1.
18. Kennedy, Hugh (1996). Muslim Spain and Portugal: A Political History of al-Andalus. Routledge. pp. 141–142. ISBN 9781317870418.
19. RingSalkinLa Boda 1995, p. 296.
20. Room 2006, p. 149.
21. Dale 1882.
22. El Hareir 2011, p. 454.
23. Escudo de Oro 1997, p. 4.
24. alhambradegranada.org 2014.
25. Viguera Molins 2013, p. 8.
26. Rodgers & Cavendish 2021, pp. 11–15.
27. Adang 2013, p. 9.
28. El Hareir 2011, p. 455.
29. Ibn Khaldoun 1854, p. 61.
30. Ibn Khaldoun 1854, pp. 19, 61, 62.
31. El Hareir 2011, p. 456.

Sources

• Ring, Trudy; Salkin, Robert M; La Boda, Sharon (1995). International Dictionary of Historic Places: Southern Europe. Fitzroy Dearborn. ISBN 1-884964-04-4. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
• Room, Adrian (2006). Placenames of the World: Origins And Meanings of the Names for 6,600 Countries, Cities, Territories, Natural Features And Historic Sites. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-2248-7. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
• Dale, Alfred (1882). The Synod of Elvira. MacMillan and Co. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
• El Hareir, Idris (2011). The spread of Islam throughout the world. UNESCO. ISBN 978-92-3-104153-2. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
• Escudo de Oro (1997). All Granada and the Alhambra. Editorial Escudo de Oro. ISBN 84-378-1884-2.
• Adang, Camilla (2013). Ibn Ḥazm of Cordoba: The Life and Works of a Controversial Thinker. Koninklike Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-24310-1. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
• Ibn Khaldoun (1854). Histoire des Berberes. Ministre de la guerre. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
• Hsain Ilahiane (2006). Historical Dictionary of the Berbers. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-5452-9. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
• Shillington, Kevin (2005). Encyclopedia of African History. Fitzroy Dearborn. ISBN 1-57958-245-1. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
• Charles-André Julien (1970). History of North Africa: Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco : From the Arab Conquest to 1830. Routledge & K. Paul. ISBN 9780710066145.
• Fletcher, Richard (2006). Moorish Spain. Henry Holt & Company. ISBN 0-520-24840-6.
• alhambradegranada.org (2014). "Origins of Granada". alhambradegranada.org. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
• Rodgers, Helen; Cavendish, Stephen (2021). City of Illusions: A History of Granada. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780197619414.
• Viguera Molins, María Jesús (2013). "La taifa de los Ziríes, primer reino de Granada. Constitución, dimensiones políticas de este Estado del siglo XI" (PDF). Andalucía en la Historia (in Spanish) (40): 8–11. ISSN 1695-1956. La taifa de Granada fue regida por los Ziríes —beréberes Sinhaya llegados desde Ifriqiya (actual Túnez) a principios del siglo XI— como mercenarios

Preceded by None

Zirid dynasty Taifa kings of Granada 1013-1019

Succeeded by Habbus bin Makhsen al-Muzaffar