Muhammad al-Tawil of Huesca

Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik al-Tawil (Arabic: محمد بن عبد الملك الطويل‎, died 913 or 914) was a muwallad Wāli of Huesca in the late-ninth and early-tenth centuries. Acting autonomously from his nominal masters the Emirs of Córdoba, he carried out his own foreign policy and warfare with both Christian and Muslim regional rivals, including the Counts of Barcelona, Pallars and Aragon, the King of Pamplona and the Banu Qasi of the Upper March. He gave rise to a short-lived dynasty, the Banu al-Tawil (Arabic: بنو الطويل‎), who would rule Huesca, Barbastro and Lleida, off and on, for a century, eventually losing out to the Banu Tujibi of Zaragoza.

Background

Muhammad al-Tawil was son of Abd al-Malik ibn Abd Allah ibn Sabrit, a local lord in the region of Huesca. He was a scion of the Banu Sabrit (Arabic: بنو شبريط‎), the descendants of Sabrit, a late-eighth-century relative and ally of rebel Amrus ibn Yusuf. On 12 March 887, he killed the great-grandson of Amrus, Mas'ud ibn Amrus, governor of Huesca, and seized power there.^[1]

Rivalry with the Banu Qasi

In 889/90, Is'mail ibn Musa of Leida, a member of the rival Banu Qasi, rose in rebellion against the Emirate. Muhammad ambushed an army led by Ismail's sons, Musa and Mutarrif, leading to the death of Musa and 300 of his soldiers and the capture of Mutarrif. This defeat and the subsequent death of Is'mail ended the rebellion and al-Tawil petitioned the Emir to be given the lands of the rebels. However, Emir Abd Allah instead returned the territory to Muhammad ibn Lubb ibn Qasi, nephew of the rebel.^[2] In 893, he witnessed a charter of king Fortún Garcés of Pamplona, appearing as 'pagan' Mohomet Atavel in Osca along with his rival Muhammad ibn Lubb.^[3] Three years later he again came to blows with the Banu Qasi. Muhammad al-Tawil mobilized his troops to oppose Lubb ibn Muhammad, the son of the Banu Qasi leader, in his plans to fortify or refortify Monzón. They fought a battle in which Lubb's undermanned and poorly equipped army was able to rout those of al-Tawil and capture his brother Fortoun.^[4] In 898, the death of Muhammad ibn Lubb ibn Qasi while besieging Zaragoza presented Muhammad al-Tawil with an opportunity to recover lost ground, but Lubb ibn Muhammad returned from negotiations with another Muwallad rebel, Umar ibn Hafsun, to again defeat al-Tawil, this time capturing him. He was forced to cede Barbastro and lands between Huesca and Monzón and to pay 100,000 gold dinares as well as to give his son Abd al-Malik and daughter Sayyida as hostages to insure delivery of the money. Lubb subsequently married Sayyida and forgave the unpaid half of the ransom.^[5] Nothing is heard of al-Tawil over the next few years, perhaps because he had turned his armies against his Christian neighbors to the north in campaigns that escaped notice of the Cordoba-based chroniclers of Al-Andalus.^[4] He next appears in 906/7, taking the castles of Barbastro and Alquézar and the region of la Barbitania from Lubb ibn Muhammad.^[4]

Wars against the Christian North

In October 908, Muhammad al-Tawil launched a campaign against the County of Pallars. The castle of Roda sent emissaries to sue for peace, offering tribute, but al-Tawil rejected them and destroyed the castle. He launched another attack on Monte Pedroso and Oliola, taking 300 prisoners who he ransomed for 13,000 gold pieces.^[6] In 911, al-Tawil marched north through Aragon, the territory of his brother-in-law Count Galindo Aznárez II. He then met up with Abd Allah, brother of Lubb ibn Muhammad ibn Qasi, for a strike against Pamplona. While experiencing initial success, Sancho I of Pamplona eventually routed the southern troops and reasserted Pamplona's role as feudal overlord to Galindo's Aragon.^[7] The next year saw Muhammad al-Tawil launch a campaign against Sunyer, Count of Barcelona, forcing him to flee the field of battle. However a second Barcelona campaign resulted in the death of Muhammad al-Tawil on 23 October 913.^[8]

Family and Legacy

Muhammad al-Tawil married Sancha Aznar, daughter of Aznar Galíndez II of Aragon and granddaughter of García Íñiguez of Pamplona. By her he had five children, sons Abd al-Malik, Amrus, Furtun, and Musa Aznar, and one daughter, Sayyida (called Velasquita in the Roda Codex) who married Lubb ibn Muhammad ibn Qasi. He also had sons Yahya and Lubb, and perhaps Walid, presumably to a different mother.^[9]

Abd al-Malik ibn Muhammad succeeded his father in Huesca and Barbarsto, giving Monzón to Amrus. Abd al-Malik faced two challenges from Banu Sabrit kinsmen who entered Huesca intending to seize control, but the residents failed to support them and each was killed on the day they entered the city, Muhammad ibn Walid ibn Abd Allah ibn Sabrit on 8 August 915, and Zakariyya ibn Isa ibn Musa ibn Sabrit on 15 March 916. Abd al-Malik then had Asbag ibn Isa and Abd al-Malik ibn Isa, the brothers of Zakariyya, killed. Next his brother Amrus challenged him and Abd al-Malik ibn Muhammad was captured and strangled.^[10]

Amrus ibn Muhammad had been given Monzón by his brother in 914, but was rejected by the residents, who invited Muhammad ibn Lubb ibn Qasi to replace him.^[11] He took Huesca from his brother on 25 December 918, but the people rejected him and he was forced to flee weeks later. Amrus went to Barbastro and Alquézar, asking Abd-ar-Rahman III to appoint him governor there.^[12] He then enlisted the help of Sancho I of Pamplona and Bernard I Hunifred of Ribagorza to reduce Monzón.^[13] He subsequently fought against his brother Furtun, the Banu Qasi, and the Banu Tujibi, taking and ransoming several important hostages, and himself being captured and ransomed. He submitted to the Caliph in 933/4 and died 6 June 935.^[14]

Furtun ibn Muhammad was nominated in Huesca in place of his brother Amrus.^[15] In 931/2 he signed a pact with Muhammad ibn Hasim, rebel leader of the Banu Tujibi, and in response Abd ar-Rahman punished Huesca, imprisoning many men. They responded by expelling Furtun in 933. He first fled to Las Peñas de San Miguel y Aman, but then went to Córdoba and humbled himself before the Caliph and was restored to Huesca in 936/7.^[16] However, when at the Battle of Simancas he withheld his troops from the fight, he was hunted down near Calatayud by Salama ibn Ahmad ibn Salama and taken to Córdoba, where he was crucified in front of the Alcázar.^[17]

Yahya ibn Muhammad received Huesca when Furtun fled in 933 and governed Merida from 935. However, he fell under suspicion and was imprisoned. Following Furtun's fall he was returned to favor and given Barbastro. He died there 20 December 951.^[18] He was succeeded in Barbastro by brother Lubb ibn Muhammad, who died suddenly at Córdoba in December 955.^[19] Other sources report a brief interlude by Walid ibn Muhammad.^[20] Musa Aznar ibn Muhammad was given Lleida, and in 940, Huesca. He married Dadildis, daughter of Jimeno Garcés of Pamplona, dying 18 December 954.^[21] He was followed in Huesca by son Abd al-Malik ibn Musa, later forced to share Huesca with Lubb's son Yahya ibn Lubb, who had followed his father in Barbastro.^[22] The family is last definitively heard from in 974, when a Walid ibn Abd al-Malik of the Banu Sabrit took part in a tournament in Córdoba. Control of Huesca passed to the Banu Tujibi.^[23]

While always nominally a vassal of Córdoba, the rebellious, semi-autonomous actions of the Banu al-Tawil along with those of their rivals the Banu Qasi, set the stage for their successors, the Banu Tujibi and Banu Hud, to establish a fully independent taifa state in what had been the Upper March of the Caliphate.

Family tree

   Family tree

	Banu Amrus
	Banu Šabrit
	Banu al-Tawil

Š....h

Rašid

Yusuf

Šabrit

Amrus ibn Yusuf

Abd Allah ibn Šabrit

Musa ibn Šabrit

Umar ibn Amrus

Yusuf ibn Amrus

Zakariyya ibn Amrus

Abd al-Malik ibn Abd Allah

Walid ibn Abd Allah

Isa ibn Musa

Zakariyya ibn Umar

Amrus ibn Umar

Umar ibn Zakariyya

Lubb ibn Zakariyya

Muhammad al-Tawil

Muhammad ibn Walid

Zakariyya ibn Isa

Asbag ibn Isa

Abd al-Malik ibn Isa

Mas'ud Ibn Amrus

Abd al-Malik ibn al-Tawil

Amrus ibn al-Tawil

Furtun ibn al-Tawil

Musa Aznar ibn al-Tawil

Yahya ibn al-Tawil

Lubb ibn al-Tawil

Walid ibn al-Tawil

Abd al-Malik ibn Musa

Yahya ibn Lubb

Walid ibn Abd al-Malik

Sources

• Alberto Cañada Juste, "Los Banu Qasi (714-924)", in Principe de Viana, vol. 41 (1980), pp. 5–95 (1980)
• Francisco Codera, "Mohámed Atauil, Rey Moro de Huesca", Revista de Aragón, vol. 1 (1900), pp. 81–85
• Fernando de la Granja, "La Marca Superior en la Obra de al-'Udrí", Estudios de la Edad Media de la Corona de Aragón, vol. 8 (1967), pp. 457–545.
• Philippe Sénac, La frontière et le hommes, VIIIe-XIIe siècle: le peuplement musulman au nord de l'Èbre et les débuts de la reconquête aragonaise, Maisonneuve & Larose, 2000.

References

1. ^ de la Granja, pp. 518-519
2. ^ Codera, pp. 81-82
3. ^ Codera, p. 84
4. ^ ^{a b c} Codera, p. 82
5. ^ de la Granja, pp. 520-521; Cañada Juste, p. 71; Sénac, p. 97
6. ^ Codera, pp. 82-83
7. ^ Codera, p. 83
8. ^ Cañada Juste, p. 80
9. ^ Codera, p. 84; de la Granja, pp. 521-522
10. ^ de la Granja, pp. 521-522
11. ^ Cañada Juste, p. 81
12. ^ de la Granja, pp. 523, 525
13. ^ de la Granja, pp. 489
14. ^ de la Granja, pp. 523-525
15. ^ de la Granja, p. 525
16. ^ de la Granja, pp. 506, 525-528
17. ^ de la Granja, p. 528
18. ^ de la Granja, pp. 530-531
19. ^ de la Granja, p. 531
20. ^ Sénac, p. 103
21. ^ de la Granja, p. 529; José María Lacarra. "Textos navarros del Códice de Roda," Estudios de Edad Media de la Corona de Aragón, 1:194-283 (1945)
22. ^ de la Granja, pp. 529,531
23. ^ Sénac, p. 529,531