Al-Mu'tamid ibn Abbad

Key Accomplishments

• Made Seville the leading literary and cultural center of the taifa period
• Produced a body of Arabic poetry considered among the finest of the medieval period
• Invited the Almoravids to defend Al-Andalus, leading to the crucial victory at Sagrajas in 1086

The Full Story

Al-Mu'tamid was the third and last ruler of the Abbadid dynasty of Seville. He inherited the largest and most powerful of the taifa kingdoms and was himself a gifted poet, composing verse from his youth. His court attracted the finest poets and intellectuals of the age, and his romantic story with his wife Itimad al-Rumaykiyya -- a former slave whom he fell in love with while improvising verses by the Guadalquivir River -- became legendary.

Facing the existential threat of Alfonso VI's advancing forces after the fall of Toledo in 1085, al-Mu'tamid made the fateful decision to invite the Almoravid ruler Yusuf ibn Tashfin to cross from North Africa. When warned that this might cost him his throne, he reportedly declared that he would rather be a camel-herder in Morocco than a swineherd in Castile. The Almoravids defeated Alfonso at Sagrajas but subsequently turned on the taifa kings, deposing al-Mu'tamid in 1091.

Al-Mu'tamid spent his final four years imprisoned in Aghmat, Morocco, where he wrote some of the most moving poetry in the Arabic language -- verses of longing for Seville, grief for his lost family, and meditation on the reversal of fortune. His poetry from exile ranks among the finest elegiac literature in any language. He died in poverty in Aghmat in 1095, and his grave there became a site of literary pilgrimage.

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Sources

• [1]Jayyusi, Salma Khadra, ed. The Legacy of Muslim Spain. Brill, 1992.
• [2]al-Maqqari, Ahmad ibn Muhammad. Nafh al-Tib min Ghusn al-Andalus al-Ratib. 17th century.
• [3]Kennedy, Hugh. Muslim Spain and Portugal: A Political History of al-Andalus. Routledge, 1996.