Alfonso VI of León and Castile, ‘al-Imbra ⃛ tūr dhū-1-Millatayn’

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Notes

1. For a recent and stimulating study on the significance of the reconquest of Toledo see Reyna Pastor de Togneri, Del Islam al Cristianismo. En las fronteras de dos formaciones económico-sociales: Toledo, siglos XI–XIII (Barcelona 1975).

2. R. Menéndez Pidal, La España del Cid, 5th edn. (Madrid 1956), II, 725–31.

3. Ibid., I, 320–21.

4. J. F. O'Callaghan, A History of Medieval Spain (Ithaca 1975), pp. 207 and 256, for example, is careful to emphasize that Muslim sources ‘report’ or ‘attribute’ the title to Alfonso VI.

5. Al-[Hdot]ulal al-Mawshiya fī Dhikr al-Akhbār al-Marrākushiya, ed. I. S. Allouche (Rabat 1936), 25–28; unless otherwise indicated all references are to this edition. The Arabic texts of the letters are also reproduced in R. P. A. Dozy, Scriptorum arabum loci de abbadidis (Leiden 1852), II, 185–87; Muhammad ‘Abd Allah Enan, Duwal at-Tawā ⁾ if, 2nd ed. (Cairo 1969), 75–76. For a Spanish translation of the chronicle see ‘Al-[Hdot]ulal al Mawšiyya.’ Crónica árabe de las dinastias Almorávide Aìmohadey Benimerín, trans, and ed. A. Huici Miranda (Tetuán 1952).

6. Al-[Hdot]ulal, 24.

7. Ibid., 25.

8. Ibid., 27–28.

9. Ibid., 31–32.

10. Menéndez Pidal, op. cit., I, 320.

11. Enan, op. cit., 75 is of the opinion that Alfonso's letter was written by a Christian or Jewish member of the royal court who knew Arabic.

12. Al-[Hdot]ulal, trans, and ed. A. Huici Miranda, 11, 14–15. As an intermediate example there is Valdeavellano who refers to the false letters and inventions of the [Hdot]ulal in his bibliography but accepts the authenticity of Alfonso's letter and the mission of Álvar Fáñez: L. Garcia de Valdeavellano, Historia de Espana, 4th edn. (Madrid 1967), I, 70 and II, 353.

13. In the introduction to his translation Huici was not concerned with these two letters specifically. However the following points are taken from his introduction, and they certainly rehearse the reasons which can be adduced for regarding the letters as apocryphal: Al-[Hdot]ulal, trans. and ed. A. Huici Miranda, 11–17.

14. Al-[Hdot]ulal, 41–43.

15. Al-[Hdot]ulal, 46.

16. Al-[Hdot]ulal, 29: letter to YŪsuf b. Tāshufīn.

17. The form of title used by Alfonso VI in his letter implies that, if it was genuine, it must have been drawn up in Arabic. Consequently several possibilities arise—the mistake could have been made when the letter was written, the original may have included the names of both Alfonso's father and grandfather and the copyist may have contracted all this to ‘b. Sancho’, or the copyist may simply have misread the name. The latter possibility would not constitute a remarkable error—even when Alfonso gets the name of his father right (in the letter to Yusuf), the [Hdot]ulal text gives it as ‘Firnandā’.

18. Al-[Hdot]ulal, 29. Both Menéndez Pidal, op. cit., I, 299 and Enan, op. cit., 73 date this episode to 1082.

19. Al-[Hdot]ulal, 29–30.

20. The text is given, along with details on the source, in Enan, op. cit., 446–50. Although it is not clear whether the Escorial document is the original letter itself, there can be little doubt as to its authenticity. In it Yūsuf recounts the events leading up to his victory over Alfonso VI at Zalaca in Rajab 479 (1086).

21. For the specific passage see ibid., 447. It should also be noted that Yusuf states that the challenge and the offer were contained in a letter from Alfonso VI.

22. See Ibn Bassām, Adh-Dhakhīra fī Mahāsīni ahl al-Fazīra, ed. by members of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Cairo (Cairo 1945), part IV, i, 131–32.

23. Menéndez Pidal, op. cit., I, 321. See also his El imperio hispánicoy los cinco reinos (Madrid 1950), 110–11.

24. Kitāb al-Iktifa in R. P. A. Dozy, op. cit., II, 20.

25. Menéndez Pidal, La España del Cid, I, 321 and II, 725–31.

26. Kitāb al-Iktifa in Dozy, op. cit., 20. See also Menéndez Pidal, La Espana del Cid, I, 319; Enan, op. cit., 74.

27. Al-[Hdot]ulal, 26–27.

28. For a useful summary of the career of Álvar Fáñez see Poema de mio Cid, ed. Colin Smith (Oxford 1972), 163–64.

29. Menéndez Pidal, La España del Cid, I, 301–02, 312; his reference to the embassy to Seville is, of course, based on the assumption that the information in al-[Hdot]ulal is accurate.

30. ⁽Abd Allāh b. Buluggīn, Kitāb at-Tibyān, ed. E. Lévi-Provençal (Cairo 1955), 69–76, 123–29. For a French translation of the passages in question see E. Lévi-Provençal, ‘Les “Mémoires” de ⁽Abd Allāh, dernier roi ziride de Grenade’, Al-Andalus, IV (1936–39), 29–40, 104–13.

31. Kitāb at-Tibyān, ed. cit., 76.

32. Ibid., 123.

33. Ibid., 124–29.

34. Al-[Hdot]ulal, 24: ‘… ya ⃛lubu minhu taslīm a ‘mālihi ilā rusulihi wa ⁽ummālihi . . .’

35. Al-[Hdot]ulal, 24: ‘… ya ⃛lubu minhu taslīm a ‘mālihi ilā rusulihi wa ⁽ummālihi . . .’ 25.

36. For example, Kitāb at-Tibyān, ed. cit., 76.

37. Al-[Hdot]ulal, 28: ‘… ad-duwal la tantaqil’.

38. Ibn Bassām, Adh-Dhakhīra, ed. cit., part IV, i, 130–31. For a translation of this section of the Adh-Dhakhira into Spanish and for penetrating comments on its significance see R. Menéndez Pidal and E. García Gómez, ‘El conde mozárabe Sisnando Davídiz y la política de Alfonso VI con los Taifas’, Al-Andalus, XII (1947), 27–41.

39. The following information is taken from Menéndez Pidal and Garcia Gómez, op. cit., passim.

40. The following information is taken from Menéndez Pidal and Garcia Gómez, op. cit., 29.

41. Kitāb at-Tiby?ān, ed. cit., 74. The passages which precede and follow this quotation are justly famous for their insights and sophistication.

42. See Menéndez Pidal, La Espana del Cid, I, 320; Menéndez Pidal and García Gómez, op. cit., 38.

43. See Menéndez Pidal, La Espana del Cid, I, 320; Menéndez Pidal and García Gómez, op. cit., 40–41.

44. Ibid., 38–41 where Ibn Bassām's account is compared with the more famous Christian version, and the attitudes of Bernard, archbishop-elect of Toledo, and Queen Constance are discussed.

45. Al-Mu⁽tamid's letter opens with a poem, part of which is given in the text of the chronicle: Al-[Hdot]ulal, 26. The ruler of Seville was, of course, an accomplished poet.