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ABBADIDES

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 9 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ABBADIDES , a See also:

Mahommedan See also:dynasty which arose in See also:Spain on the downfall of the western See also:caliphate. It lasted from about 1023 till 1091, but during the See also:short See also:period of its existence was singularly active and typical of its See also:time. The founder of the See also:house was Abd-ul-Qasim Mahommed, the See also:cadi of See also:Seville in 1023. He was the See also:chief of an Arab See also:family settled in the See also:city from the first days of the See also:conquest. The Beni-abbad were not of See also:ancient descent, though the poets, whom they paid largely, made an illustrious ABBADIDES See also:pedigree for them when they had become powerful. They were, however, very See also:rich. Abd-ul-Qasim gained the confidence of the townsmen by organizing a successful resistance to the See also:Berber soldiers of See also:fortune who were grasping at the fragments of the caliphate. At first he professed to See also:rule only with the See also:advice of a See also:council formed of the nobles, but when his See also:power became established he dispensed with this show of republican See also:government, and then gave himself the See also:appearance of a legitimate See also:title by protecting an impostor who professed to be the See also:caliph Hisham II. When Abd-ul-Qasim died in 1042 he had created a See also:state which, though weak in itself, was strong as compared to the little See also:powers about it. He had made his family the recognized leaders of the Mahommedans of Arab and native See also:Spanish descent against the Berber See also:element, whose chief was the See also:king of See also:Granada. Abbad, surnamed El Motaddid, his son and successor, is one of the most remarkable figures in Spanish Mahommedan See also:history. He had a striking re-semblance to the See also:Italian princes of the later See also:middle ages and the See also:early See also:renaissance, of the See also:stamp of Filipo Maria See also:Visconti.

El Motaddid was a poet and a See also:

lover of letters, who was also a poisoner, a drinker of See also:wine, a sceptic and treacherous to the utmost degree. Though he waged See also:war all through his reign he very rarely appeared in the See also:field, but directed the generals, whom he never trusted, from his " lair " in the fortified See also:palace, the Alcazar of Seville. He killed with his own See also:hand one of his sons who had rebelled against him. On one occasion he trapped a number of his enemies, the Berber chiefs of the See also:Ronda, into visiting him, and got rid of them by smothering them in the hot See also:room of a See also:bath. It was his See also:taste to preserve the skulls of the enemies he had killed—those of the meaner men to be used as See also:flower-pots, while those of the princes were kept in See also:special chests. His reign until his See also:death on the 28th of See also:February 1069 was mainly spent in extending his power at the expense of his smaller neighbours, and in conflicts with his chief See also:rival the king of Granada. These incessant See also:wars weakened the Mahommedans, to the See also:great See also:advantage of the rising power of the See also:Christian See also:kings of See also:Leon and See also:Castile, but they gave the See also:kingdom of Seville a certain superiority over the other little states. After 1063 he was assailed by Fernando El Magno of Castile and Leon, who marched to the See also:gates of Seville, and forced him to pay See also:tribute. His son, Mahommed Abd-ul-Qasim Abenebet—who reigned by the title of El Motamid-'-was the third and last of the Abbadides. He was a no less remarkable See also:person than his See also:father and much more amiable. Like him he was a poet, and a favourer of poets. El Motamid went, however, considerably further in patronage of literature than his father, for he See also:chose as his favourite and See also:prime See also:minister the poet See also:Ibn Ammar.

In the end the vanity and featherheadedness of Ibn Ammar drove his See also:

master to kill him. El Motamid was even more influenced by his favourite wife, Romaica, than by his vizir. He had met her paddling in the See also:Guadalquivir, See also:purchased her from her master, and made her his wife. The caprices of Romaica, and the lavish extravagance of Motamid in his efforts to please her, See also:form the subject of many stories. In politics he carried on the feuds of his family with the See also:Berbers, and in his efforts to extend his dominions could be as faithless as his father. His wars and his extravagance exhausted his See also:treasury, and he oppressed his subjects by taxes. In ro8o he brought down upon himself the vengeance of See also:Alphonso VI. of Castile by a typical piece of flighty See also:oriental barbarity. He had endeavoured to pay See also:part of his tribute to the Christian king with false See also:money. The See also:fraud was detected by a See also:Jew, who was one of the envoys of Alphonso. El Motamid, in a moment of folly and rage, crucified the Jew and imprisoned the Christian members of the See also:mission. Alphonso retaliated by a destructive See also:raid. When Alphonso took See also:Toledo in x085, El Motamid called in Yusef ibn Tashfin, the Almoravide (see SPAIN, History, and See also:ALMORAVIDES).

During the six years which preceded his deposition in 1091, El Motamid behaved with valour on the field, but with much meanness and See also:

political folly. He endeavoured to See also:curry favour with Yusef by betraying the other Mahommedan princes to him, and intrigued to secure the See also:alliance of Alphonso against the Almoravide. It was probably during this period that he surrendered his beautiful daughter Zaida to the Christian king, who made her his concubine, and is said by some authorities to have married her after she See also:bore him a son, Sancho. The vacillations and submissions of El Motamid did not See also:save him from the See also:fate which overtook his See also:fellow-princes. Their See also:scepticism and See also:extortion had tired their subjects, and the mullahs gave Yusef a " fetva " authorizing him to remove them in the See also:interest of See also:religion. In 1091 the Almoravides stormed Seville. El Motamid, who had fought bravely, was weak enough to See also:order his sons to surrender the fortresses they still held, in order to save his own See also:life. He died in See also:prison in See also:Africa in 1095.

End of Article: ABBADIDES

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