Taifa of Ceuta

The Taifa of Ceuta (Arabic: طائفة سبتة) was one of the taifa states formed after the breakup of the Caliphate of Córdoba in the early 11th century. The cities of Ceuta (Arabic: Sabta) and Tangiers were a part of the Ḥammūdid dynasty taifa of Málaga from 1026. From 1036 (427 AH) it was governed on behalf of the Ḥammūdids by the Barghawāṭa,[1] a Berber tribe with a non-Islamic religion.[2] Shortly before 1061 (453 AH), the Barghawāṭa, led by the illiterate Saqqūt,[3] took power from the Ḥammūdids.[4] They could field a large army of 12,000 cavalry, but were defeated and conquered by the rising power of the Almoravids in 1078–79.[2][5]

Notes

1. François Clément, Pouvoir et légitimité en Espagne musulmane à l'époque des taifas (V^e–XI^e) (L'Harmattan, 1997), 236.
2. David Nicolle, El Cid and the Reconquista, 1050–1492 (Oxford: Osprey, 1988), 12–14.
3. Clément, Pouvoir et légitimité, 100.
4. Clifford Edmund Bosworth, The New Islamic Dynasties (New York: Columbia University, 1996), 14–16.
5. Bernard F. Reilly, The Medieval Spains (Cambridge University, 1993), 103.