taifa, a faction or party, as applied to the followers of any of the petty kings who appeared in Muslim Spain in a period of great political fragmentation early in the 11th century after the dissolution of the central authority of the Umayyad caliphate of Córdoba. After the dictatorship of al-Muẓaffar (reigned 1002–08), civil war reduced the caliphate to a puppet institution and allowed the various taifas to establish themselves in independent and short-lived kingdoms throughout the Iberian Peninsula. There were at least 23 such states between 1009 and their final conquest by the Almoravids of North Africa in 1091. Thus, the Berbers counted in their party the Afṭasids of Badajoz, the Dhū al-Nūnids of Toledo, and the Ḥammūdids of Málaga, who briefly helped the Córdoban caliphate. The Andalusians, or Hispano-Arabs, were represented by the ʿAbbādids of Sevilla (Seville), the Jahwarids of Córdoba, and the Hūdids of Zaragoza. The Ṣaqālibah (Slav mercenaries) did not form dynasties but created such kingdoms as Tortosa, Denia, and Valencia.
Wars between the various states never ceased. The states had few scruples in asking for Christian support against rival Muslim kings or in turning to the North African kingdoms for aid against Christian princes. Such lack of unity and consistency made the kingdoms of the taifas fair targets for the growing forces of Christian reconquest, and soon Badajoz, Toledo, Zaragoza, and even Sevilla were paying tribute to the Christian Alfonso VI of Leon and Castile.
Despite their political incompetence, the taifa kings fostered a period of brilliant Islamic cultural revival. In the manner of the caliphal courts, they entertained poets; promoted the study of philosophy, natural science, and mathematics; and produced such noted figures as the poet-king al-Muʿtamid of Sevilla and his vizier Ibn ʿAmmār, the poets Ibn Zaydūn and Wallādah of Córdoba, and Ibn Ḥazm, the poet-philosopher-scholar.
In 1085 Alfonso took Toledo. At the invitation of several party kings, the Almoravid Yūsuf ibn Tāshufīn entered Spain and defeated Alfonso at the Battle of Zallāqah, near Badajoz, in 1086. When Muslim fortunes in Spain did not improve, Yūsuf returned in 1088. He dissolved the party kingdoms (1090–91) and extended the Almoravid empire into Spain.