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Mujāhid al-ʿĀmirī
Srnec: ←Created page with ''''Abu ʾl-Djaysh al-Muwaffaḳ ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿĀmiri''' (died <small>AD</small> 1044/5 [<small>AH</small> 436]), better known by his...'
'''Abu ʾl-Djaysh al-Muwaffaḳ ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿĀmiri''' (died <small>[[AD]]</small> 1044/5 [<small>[[Anno Hegirae|AH]]</small> 436]), better known by his nickname, '''Mujāhid''', was the [[Taifa of Dénia|ruler of Dénia and the Balearic Islands]] from late 1014 (early <small>AH</small> 405) until his death. With the exception of his early and disastrous [[Pisan–Genoese expeditions to Sardinia|invasion of Sardinia]], his reign was mostly peaceful. His court became a centre of scholarship and literary production and he himself wrote a book about poetry (now lost).<ref name=EOI>D. J. Wasserstein, "Mu<u>dj</u>āhid, al-Muwaffaḳ ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿĀmiri, Abu ʾl-<u>Dj</u>ay<u>sh</u>", ''The Encyclopaedia of Islam'', Vol. VII (Leiden: Brill, 1993), pp. 292–93.</ref>
==Origins and rise==
Mujāhid was a ''[[Saqaliba|saklabi]]'', a slave of [[Slavs|Slavic]] origin. His [[patronymic]], Ibn ʿAbd Allāh, does not refer to his actual father.<ref name=EOI/> His mother was a captured Christian.<ref name=Bruce2006>Travis Bruce, [https://ift.tt/2HS6xIK "The Politics of Violence and Trade: Denia and Pisa in the Eleventh Century"], ''Journal of Medieval History'', 32 (2006): 127–42.</ref> He was purchased and converted to Islam by the ''[[ḥājib]]'' [[Almanzor|al-Manṣūr]], who also had him educated. He may have served as governor of Dénia under al-Manṣūr's sons after 1002. After the death of al-Manṣūr's second son, [[Abd al-Rahman Sanchuelo|Sanchuelo]], in March 1009, he took control of Dénia. Within a few months he had set up his own rival puppet caliph, [[al-Muʿayṭī al-Munstaṣir biʾllāh|al-Muʿayṭī]].<ref name=EOI/>
==Sardinian expeditions==
In 1015 (<small>AH</small> 406), Mujāhid launched an expedition to conquer the island of [[Sardinia]] in the name of the caliph al-Muʿayṭī. He landed with 120 ships and occupied the southern coastal plain, but was defeated by [[Pisan–Genoese expeditions to Sardinia|Pisan and Genoese forces]] from Italy. The following year he returned with a large force of cavalry, defeated the army of the [[Judicature of Cagliari|ruler of Cagliari]] and fortified the conquered area. He even sent a force to attack [[Luni, Italy|Luni]] on the Italian coast. The German chronicler [[Thietmar of Merseburg]] wrote that he sent a sack of chestnuts to the pope to illustrate the number of Muslim soldiers he would unleash on Christendom, but that [[Pope Benedict VIII|Benedict VIII]] sent back a sack of millet representing the number of Christian soldiers that would meet them.<ref name=Bruce2006/>
In May 1016, the Italians returned to Sardinia. Mujāhid, facing mutiny among his men, fled by sea. His fleet was devastated in a storm and the remaining ships were picked off by the Pisan and Genoese fleets. His mother and his son and eventual successor [[ʿAlī ibn Mudjāhid Iḳbāl al-Dawla|ʿAlī]] were captured, but Mujāhid made it back to Dénia.<ref name=Bruce2006/> ʿAlī remained a prisoner for many years.<ref name=EOI/>
During Mujāhid's absence in Sardinia and probably informed of his difficulties, al-Muʿayṭī tried to seize actual authority in Dénia for himself. Following his return, Mujāhid sent the caliph into exile in Africa.<ref name=EOI/>
==Rule in Dénia==
Mujāhid's rule in Dénia following the dismissal of al-Muʿayṭī is not well recorded. Unusually, few coins of his survive and none in his name that can be dated to between the years <small>AH</small> 407 (1016–17) and 434 (1042–43).<ref name=EOI/> Only the years 406 (1015–16) and 435 (1043–44) at the beginning and end of his reign are attested in the surviving dated coinage. He minted ''[[dirham]]s'' at a mint named "Elota" that remains unidentified.<ref>George C. Miles, ''Coins of the Muluk al-Tawa'if'' (New York: American Numismatic Society, 1954), p. 43 (no. 159) and p. 61 (no. 266).</ref>
In 1033, [[Abu al-Qasim Muhammad ibn Abbad|Abu ʾl-Ḳāsim]], the ruler of [[Taifa of Seville|Seville]], put forward an impostor claiming he was the caliph [[Hisham II|Hishām II]], who had actually died in 1013. Mujāhid accepted the nominal authority of the fake Hishām II, probably as part of a series of marital alliances with the [[Abbadid dynasty]] ruling Seville.<ref name=EOI/>
The peace of his reign was broken only towards the end of his life, when he temporarily occupied [[Taifa of Murcia|Murcia]] and also became preoccupied by a dispute with his younger son, Ḥasan. He was succeeded by ʿAlī, who continued to make the court of Dénia a centre of culture.<ref name=EOI/>
==Patronage of scholarship==
Mujāhid was a patron of theological and literary studies, especially of ''[[kirāʾāt]]'' (recitation). His interest in this last practice may have stemmed from his name, since one of the most influential students of ''kirāʾāt'' was [[Abu Bakr Ibn Mujāhid|Ibn Mujāhid]] (died 936).<ref name=EOI/>
[[Ibn Gharsiya]] and [[Ibn Burd al-Aṣghar]] are known to have composed works at Mujāhid's court. Ibn Gharsiya's famous ''[[Risalah (fiqh)|risāla]]'' (treatise) on the ''[[Shu'ubiyya|shuʿūbiyya]]'' (non-Arab nations), criticising Arab ascendancy in Spain and praising non-Arabs, like Berbers and Slavs, was written there. Ibn Burd dedicated his ''Risālat al-Sayf wa ʾl-ḳalam'' to Mujāhid and is known to have composed other works at Dénia and elsewhere under Mujāhid's patronage. The polymath [[Ibn Ḥazm]] and the jurist [[Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr]] are also known spent time at his court.<ref name=EOI/>
Mujāhid himself wrote a now lost work on ''[[ʿarūḍ]]'' (Arabic metre).<ref name=EOI/>
==Notes==
[[Category:1040s deaths]]
[[Category:11th-century rulers in Al-Andalus]]
==Origins and rise==
Mujāhid was a ''[[Saqaliba|saklabi]]'', a slave of [[Slavs|Slavic]] origin. His [[patronymic]], Ibn ʿAbd Allāh, does not refer to his actual father.<ref name=EOI/> His mother was a captured Christian.<ref name=Bruce2006>Travis Bruce, [https://ift.tt/2HS6xIK "The Politics of Violence and Trade: Denia and Pisa in the Eleventh Century"], ''Journal of Medieval History'', 32 (2006): 127–42.</ref> He was purchased and converted to Islam by the ''[[ḥājib]]'' [[Almanzor|al-Manṣūr]], who also had him educated. He may have served as governor of Dénia under al-Manṣūr's sons after 1002. After the death of al-Manṣūr's second son, [[Abd al-Rahman Sanchuelo|Sanchuelo]], in March 1009, he took control of Dénia. Within a few months he had set up his own rival puppet caliph, [[al-Muʿayṭī al-Munstaṣir biʾllāh|al-Muʿayṭī]].<ref name=EOI/>
==Sardinian expeditions==
In 1015 (<small>AH</small> 406), Mujāhid launched an expedition to conquer the island of [[Sardinia]] in the name of the caliph al-Muʿayṭī. He landed with 120 ships and occupied the southern coastal plain, but was defeated by [[Pisan–Genoese expeditions to Sardinia|Pisan and Genoese forces]] from Italy. The following year he returned with a large force of cavalry, defeated the army of the [[Judicature of Cagliari|ruler of Cagliari]] and fortified the conquered area. He even sent a force to attack [[Luni, Italy|Luni]] on the Italian coast. The German chronicler [[Thietmar of Merseburg]] wrote that he sent a sack of chestnuts to the pope to illustrate the number of Muslim soldiers he would unleash on Christendom, but that [[Pope Benedict VIII|Benedict VIII]] sent back a sack of millet representing the number of Christian soldiers that would meet them.<ref name=Bruce2006/>
In May 1016, the Italians returned to Sardinia. Mujāhid, facing mutiny among his men, fled by sea. His fleet was devastated in a storm and the remaining ships were picked off by the Pisan and Genoese fleets. His mother and his son and eventual successor [[ʿAlī ibn Mudjāhid Iḳbāl al-Dawla|ʿAlī]] were captured, but Mujāhid made it back to Dénia.<ref name=Bruce2006/> ʿAlī remained a prisoner for many years.<ref name=EOI/>
During Mujāhid's absence in Sardinia and probably informed of his difficulties, al-Muʿayṭī tried to seize actual authority in Dénia for himself. Following his return, Mujāhid sent the caliph into exile in Africa.<ref name=EOI/>
==Rule in Dénia==
Mujāhid's rule in Dénia following the dismissal of al-Muʿayṭī is not well recorded. Unusually, few coins of his survive and none in his name that can be dated to between the years <small>AH</small> 407 (1016–17) and 434 (1042–43).<ref name=EOI/> Only the years 406 (1015–16) and 435 (1043–44) at the beginning and end of his reign are attested in the surviving dated coinage. He minted ''[[dirham]]s'' at a mint named "Elota" that remains unidentified.<ref>George C. Miles, ''Coins of the Muluk al-Tawa'if'' (New York: American Numismatic Society, 1954), p. 43 (no. 159) and p. 61 (no. 266).</ref>
In 1033, [[Abu al-Qasim Muhammad ibn Abbad|Abu ʾl-Ḳāsim]], the ruler of [[Taifa of Seville|Seville]], put forward an impostor claiming he was the caliph [[Hisham II|Hishām II]], who had actually died in 1013. Mujāhid accepted the nominal authority of the fake Hishām II, probably as part of a series of marital alliances with the [[Abbadid dynasty]] ruling Seville.<ref name=EOI/>
The peace of his reign was broken only towards the end of his life, when he temporarily occupied [[Taifa of Murcia|Murcia]] and also became preoccupied by a dispute with his younger son, Ḥasan. He was succeeded by ʿAlī, who continued to make the court of Dénia a centre of culture.<ref name=EOI/>
==Patronage of scholarship==
Mujāhid was a patron of theological and literary studies, especially of ''[[kirāʾāt]]'' (recitation). His interest in this last practice may have stemmed from his name, since one of the most influential students of ''kirāʾāt'' was [[Abu Bakr Ibn Mujāhid|Ibn Mujāhid]] (died 936).<ref name=EOI/>
[[Ibn Gharsiya]] and [[Ibn Burd al-Aṣghar]] are known to have composed works at Mujāhid's court. Ibn Gharsiya's famous ''[[Risalah (fiqh)|risāla]]'' (treatise) on the ''[[Shu'ubiyya|shuʿūbiyya]]'' (non-Arab nations), criticising Arab ascendancy in Spain and praising non-Arabs, like Berbers and Slavs, was written there. Ibn Burd dedicated his ''Risālat al-Sayf wa ʾl-ḳalam'' to Mujāhid and is known to have composed other works at Dénia and elsewhere under Mujāhid's patronage. The polymath [[Ibn Ḥazm]] and the jurist [[Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr]] are also known spent time at his court.<ref name=EOI/>
Mujāhid himself wrote a now lost work on ''[[ʿarūḍ]]'' (Arabic metre).<ref name=EOI/>
==Notes==
[[Category:1040s deaths]]
[[Category:11th-century rulers in Al-Andalus]]
April 23, 2018 at 11:13AM
