TAIFA

( (Spanish), ) Arabic Ta'ifa, plural Tawa'if, 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 Crdoba. After the dictatorship of al-Muzaffar (reigned 100208), 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 Aftasids of Badajoz, the Dhu an-Nunids of Toledo, and the Hammudids of Mlaga, who briefly helped the Crdoban caliphate. The Andalusians, or Hispano-Arabs, were represented by the 'Abbadids of Seville, the Jahwarids of Crdoba, and the Hudids of Zaragoza. The Saqalibah (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; soon Badajoz, Toledo, Zaragoza, and even Seville were paying tribute to the Christian Alfonso VI of Leon and Castile. Despite their political incompetence, however, 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-Mu'tamid of Seville and his vizier Ibn 'Ammar, the poets Ibn Zaydun and Walladah of Crdoba, and Ibn Hazm, the poet-philosopher-scholar. In 1085 Alfonso took Toledo. At the invitation of several party kings, the Almoravid Yusuf ibn Tashufin entered Spain and defeated Alfonso at the Battle of Zallaqah, near Badajoz, in 1086. When Muslim fortunes in Spain did not improve, Yusuf returned in 1088; he dissolved the party kingdoms (109091) and extended the Almoravid empire into Spain.