Ḥammūdid dynasty

Ḥammūdid dynasty, in Spain, Muslim Berber dynasty, one of the party kingdoms (ṭāʾifahs) that emerged during the decline of the Umayyad caliphate of Córdoba early in the 11th century. The Ḥammūdids ruled Málaga (1022–57) and Algeciras (1039–58).

In 1013 the Umayyad caliph Sulaymān al-Mustaʿīn awarded Sabtah to ʿAlī ibn Ḥammūd and Algeciras, Tangier, and Asilah to ʿAlī’s brother al-Qāsim in payment for their help in returning him to the throne. ʿAlī, however, claiming to be the rightful heir to Hishām II, al-Mustaʿīn’s predecessor, marched into Córdoba in July 1016 and deposed al-Mustaʿīn. Al-Mustaʿīn was then declared al-Hishām’s murderer and was executed, while ʿAlī had himself proclaimed caliph and assumed the title al-Nāṣir. The first non-Umayyad to occupy the Spanish caliphate, ʿAlī was murdered by his palace slaves after a brief reign (1016–18). Al-Qāsim, meanwhile, had been governing Sevilla (Seville) and, after the murder of the Umayyad al-Murtaḍā (reigned 1018), established himself in Córdoba (1018–21). The resident Berbers, however, induced ʿAlī’s son Yaḥyā al-Muʿtalī to take Córdoba and proclaimed him caliph in 1021, only to drive him out in 1022. Al-Qāsim returned that year, but he too was forced out in 1023. Yaḥyā, now ruler of Málaga, was invited back to Córdoba in 1025, but by this time the caliphate was a meaningless institution, so, entrusting it to his lieutenants, he returned to Málaga, where his successors ruled until 1057, when the city was seized by the Zīrids. The Ḥammūdid line, through al-Qāsim’s heirs, held Algeciras until 1058.