ʿAbbādid dynasty

ʿAbbādid dynasty, Muslim-Arab dynasty of Andalusia that arose in Sevilla (Seville) in the 11th century, in the period of the factions, or “party kingdoms” (ṭāʾifahs), following the downfall of the caliphate of Córdoba.

In 1023 the qadi (religious judge) Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿAbbād declared Sevilla independent of Córdoba. His son Abu ʿAmr ʿAbbād, known as al-Muʿtaḍid (1042–69), greatly enlarged his territory by forcibly annexing the minor kingdoms of Mertola, Niebla, Huelva, Saltés, Silves, and Santa María de Algarve.

A poet and patron of poets, al-Muʿtaḍid also had a reputation for ruthlessness and cruelty; in 1053 he suffocated a number of Berber chiefs of southern Andalusia in a steam bath in Sevilla and then seized their kingdoms of Arcos, Morón, and Ronda.

The last member of the dynasty, the poet-king Muḥammad ibn ʿAbbād al-Muʿtamid (1069–95), made Sevilla a brilliant centre of Spanish-Muslim culture. In 1071 he took Córdoba, maintaining a precarious hold on the city until 1075; he held it again, 1078–91, while Ibn ʿAmmār, his vizier and fellow poet, conquered Murcia.

The ʿAbbādids’ position was weakened, however, by an outbreak of hostilities with the Castilian king Alfonso VI; Christian progress in Aragon and Valencia and the fall of Toledo (1085), together with pressure from religious enthusiasts at home, forced al-Muʿtamid to seek an alliance with Yūsuf ibn Tāshufīn of the Almoravid dynasty. Despite ʿAbbādid support of Ibn Tāshufīn at the Battle of Al-Zallāqah in 1086, Ibn Tāshufīn later turned against his ally and besieged Sevilla; the city was betrayed by Almoravid sympathizers in 1091 after a heroic defense by al-Muʿtamid. With the exile of al-Muʿtamid and his family to Morocco began the ascendency in Spain of the Almoravids.