Al-Udri let us know that ‘The territory of Tudmir is famous for the fertility of its land and exquisite fruit. The Jund of Egypt was established there.’
In which year did the Syrians occupying the Ricote Valley come? According to the research of Robert Marín-Guzman it was the year 740: “This division of the traditional Arab tribes was aggravated in al-Andalus when the Arabs claimed privileges on the grounds of priority of arrival. The Arabs differentiated between those who formed the first migration and those of the second migration. The first group, that of the conquest, consisted mainly of Yemenites (Southern Arabs) who received the name of al-baladiyyūn (Spanish baladíes, from the Arabic balad “country”, “place of birth”). The second Arab migration was formed basically of Syrians and they were called al-Shamiyyūn (the Syrians). This second group reached the Peninsula around 740 to help the wali ‘Abd al-Malik to suppress the Berber revolt. After this success they took up arms against ‘Abd al-Malik and the Yemenites and defeated them. The Syrians (yund-s ) remained the rulers of al-Andalus for about fifteen years until the arrival of the Umayyad ‘Abd al-Rahman I (al-Dakil) in 756. The Syrians in Spain also established the Muslim practice of junds, armed land owners, in the frontier zones — equivalent to the ancient Roman limitanei — ready to defend their properties and al-Andalus from their tribal rivals, or from their Christian enemies.”
The soldiers from Syria gave the names of their own cities to their new places of settlement . Around 743 the governor Abu al-Kattar forced Theodomir’s son Athanagild to pay an amount of 27,000 gold pieces.
The Syrian junds helped Athanagild pay the unpaid taxes and the fine. This pecuniary assistance, but especially in the influence with the new emir rather than the Syrians in general, one will have to see his son-in-law ‘Abd al-Gabbar Ibn Hattab, a Syrian to whom Theodomir had married his daughter. Through al-‘Udri we know that ‘Abd al-Gabbar Ibn Ibn Marwan Ibn Hattab Nadir, was a great-grandson of a Mawla of the Umayyad caliph in Damascus (a member of the Eastern Arab nobility). He had reached al-Andalus with the troops of Balg (in 123/740-1) and settled at first in Cordoba. All things had to be very fast, since ‘Abd al-Gabbar Ibn Hattab moved his residence to Tudmir. There he married the daughter of Theodomir, to whom two villages would have been given as dowry: the Tarsa - three miles from Elche and the Tall al-H(J)attab - eight miles from Orihuela.
Orihuela
That time apart from the Visigoths Orihuela (Auraiola) had an ethnic group of Jews. They were active in commerce, medicine, and worked as ambassadors from Christian rulers to al-Andalus. They immediately learned and wrote Arabic and were extremely influential at the economic and intellectual levels .
Lorca
The tombs and objects found by archaeologists also give us an indication of the period in question and the inhabitants.
Archaeologists found a ring-seal (or seal imprint, called taba 'or Khatam in Arabic) in a tomb in Lorca that was made of bronze and had an inscription in reverse. It was distributed on two epigraphic lines drawn in two systems of writing on a glass convex rock. The first line had a type of square script of the trunk of the Aramaic script (a type of Semitic writing that could be Nabatean, which would bring us the origin of the piece in Syria-Palestine).
The second epigraphic line is inscribed in Arabic (Cufic) 5'. The dual system of writing that it shows in a rough Arabic script tells us that we have a piece of close oriental origin dating to the early Islamic period (Umayyad period or formation of the Islamic art), so it may be a reused antique piece or a product of the typical mix of the early days of Islam.
Based on the study done by the archeologists they could give some conclusions:
The complete translation of the inscriptions that the ring contains would be: Servant of the one God or Servant of Allah alone. Thus we can hypothesize that the bearer of the ring belonged to an individual of Syrian origin, of Muslim religion (possibly from an Islamized nation) that came into al-Andalus in the first half of the eighth century, settling in Lorca with other members of his tribe (within the community he would have been an illustrious personage or occupied an important position since the ring had a seal to certify documents). They used a ritual of traditionalist burial (a fact which is reflected in the sources of Islamic Lorca where documents describe Ulemas, followers of al-Bukhari, the main source for understanding the traditionalist ritual) which only shares the orientation of the sacred space and the symbolism of the graves with the Maliki ritual.
The historical context into which we must place the settlement that would give rise to this maqbarah would originate after the breakdown of the Treaty of Orihuela. The special political status reflected in the content of the Covenant that was given to this region (Kura of Tudmir) remained until the mid eighth century when the Spanish-Gothic elites were increasingly reluctant to pay the fixed tax, engendering a tense situation which prompted that circa 743-744 Abu-l-Khattār spread different contingents of troops (coming in 742 from the East to quell rebellions of the Berbers) over al-Andalus, grouped according to their military recruiting district (Jund), dispersing "part of the troops of Syria and Egypt ” in Tudmir.
Mula, Lorca, and Orihuela
In 746 A.D. Yusuf b. ‘Abdul-Rahman al-Fihri won the civil war, became a ruler, and decided which cities would be his principal ones. Among them are Tudmir, Mula, Lorca, Auriola (Orihuela), and Cartagena .
Reinhart Dozy gives us more information about the years between 743 and 745 of Abu-l-Khattār in his work of 1913, and here follows the partial text in which Tudmir is stated:
«The more moderate and intelligent men on either side, labouring under the evils produced by civil war, indignant at the horrible excesses committed by both parties, and fearing lest the Christians of the North might take advantage of the strife between the Moslems and extend their borders, entered into communication with the Governor of Africa, Handhala the Kelbite, begging him to send a Governor capable of restoring order and tranquillity. Handhala thereupon sent the Kelbite Abu ’l-Khattar to Spain, who arrived with his troops at Biosara at the very moment when Arabs were being bartered for goats and dogs. Abu ’l-Khattār produced his commission, and since he was a noble of Damascus the Syrians could not refuse to recognise him. The Arabs of Spain hailed him as their deliverer, for his first care was to set at liberty the ten thousand captives who were being ignominously bartered. By prudent measures the new Governor re-established tranquillity.
He granted an amnesty to Omayya and Katan, the two sons of ‘Abd al-Malik, and to all their partisans, except the ambitious ‘Abd-er-Rahmān ibn Habib, who nevertheless succeeded in reaching the coast and crossing over to Africa, where a brilliant career awaited him. Handhala exiled from Spain a dozen of the most turbulent chieftains, including Thalaba himself, telling them that while they were disturbers of the peace in the Peninsula, their fiery valour would find better scope in warring against the Berbers of Africa. Since it was of primary importance that the Capital should be freed from the embarrassing presence of the Syrians, Handhala gave them the public lands in fee, ordering the serfs who tilled the soil henceforth to make over to the Syrians that third part of the crops which they had hitherto yielded to the State. The Egyptian division‘ was settled in the districts of Oksonoba, Beja, and Tudmir; the division of Emesa, in Niebla and Seville; that of Palestine, in the district of Sidona and Algeciras; that of Jordan, in the district of Regio; that of Damascus, in the district of Elvira; and, finally, that of Kinnisrin, in the district of Jaen. The important but unhappy part played by the sons of the Helpers of Mohammed here came to an end. Schooled by so many reverses and calamities, they seem at last to have become convinced that their ambitious hopes could never be realized. Abandoning politics to others, they retired into the background to live privately on their domains, and when, at long intervals, the name of a Medinese chief crops up in Arab annals, it is always in connexion with purely personal interests, or as a supporter of some party other than his own ».
The Chronicle known as Crónica Mozarable ensures in 754 that the Pact of Orihuela of 713 (715 ) was still in force. The Chronicle of 754 (or Continuatio Hispana) was a Latin-language history in 95 sections which was composed in 754 in a part of Spain under Arab occupation. The Chronicle of 754 covers the years 610 to 754 during which it has a few contemporary sources against which to check its veracity; some consider it one of the best sources for post-Visigothic history and for the story of the Moorish conquest of Spain and southern France.
In which year did the Syrians occupying the Ricote Valley come? According to the research of Robert Marín-Guzman it was the year 740: “This division of the traditional Arab tribes was aggravated in al-Andalus when the Arabs claimed privileges on the grounds of priority of arrival. The Arabs differentiated between those who formed the first migration and those of the second migration. The first group, that of the conquest, consisted mainly of Yemenites (Southern Arabs) who received the name of al-baladiyyūn (Spanish baladíes, from the Arabic balad “country”, “place of birth”). The second Arab migration was formed basically of Syrians and they were called al-Shamiyyūn (the Syrians). This second group reached the Peninsula around 740 to help the wali ‘Abd al-Malik to suppress the Berber revolt. After this success they took up arms against ‘Abd al-Malik and the Yemenites and defeated them. The Syrians (yund-s ) remained the rulers of al-Andalus for about fifteen years until the arrival of the Umayyad ‘Abd al-Rahman I (al-Dakil) in 756. The Syrians in Spain also established the Muslim practice of junds, armed land owners, in the frontier zones — equivalent to the ancient Roman limitanei — ready to defend their properties and al-Andalus from their tribal rivals, or from their Christian enemies.”
The soldiers from Syria gave the names of their own cities to their new places of settlement . Around 743 the governor Abu al-Kattar forced Theodomir’s son Athanagild to pay an amount of 27,000 gold pieces.
The Syrian junds helped Athanagild pay the unpaid taxes and the fine. This pecuniary assistance, but especially in the influence with the new emir rather than the Syrians in general, one will have to see his son-in-law ‘Abd al-Gabbar Ibn Hattab, a Syrian to whom Theodomir had married his daughter. Through al-‘Udri we know that ‘Abd al-Gabbar Ibn Ibn Marwan Ibn Hattab Nadir, was a great-grandson of a Mawla of the Umayyad caliph in Damascus (a member of the Eastern Arab nobility). He had reached al-Andalus with the troops of Balg (in 123/740-1) and settled at first in Cordoba. All things had to be very fast, since ‘Abd al-Gabbar Ibn Hattab moved his residence to Tudmir. There he married the daughter of Theodomir, to whom two villages would have been given as dowry: the Tarsa - three miles from Elche and the Tall al-H(J)attab - eight miles from Orihuela.
Athanagild
Biblioteca Nacional of Madrid
Biblioteca Nacional of Madrid
Orihuela
That time apart from the Visigoths Orihuela (Auraiola) had an ethnic group of Jews. They were active in commerce, medicine, and worked as ambassadors from Christian rulers to al-Andalus. They immediately learned and wrote Arabic and were extremely influential at the economic and intellectual levels .
Lorca
The tombs and objects found by archaeologists also give us an indication of the period in question and the inhabitants.
Archaeologists found a ring-seal (or seal imprint, called taba 'or Khatam in Arabic) in a tomb in Lorca that was made of bronze and had an inscription in reverse. It was distributed on two epigraphic lines drawn in two systems of writing on a glass convex rock. The first line had a type of square script of the trunk of the Aramaic script (a type of Semitic writing that could be Nabatean, which would bring us the origin of the piece in Syria-Palestine).
The second epigraphic line is inscribed in Arabic (Cufic) 5'. The dual system of writing that it shows in a rough Arabic script tells us that we have a piece of close oriental origin dating to the early Islamic period (Umayyad period or formation of the Islamic art), so it may be a reused antique piece or a product of the typical mix of the early days of Islam.
Based on the study done by the archeologists they could give some conclusions:
The complete translation of the inscriptions that the ring contains would be: Servant of the one God or Servant of Allah alone. Thus we can hypothesize that the bearer of the ring belonged to an individual of Syrian origin, of Muslim religion (possibly from an Islamized nation) that came into al-Andalus in the first half of the eighth century, settling in Lorca with other members of his tribe (within the community he would have been an illustrious personage or occupied an important position since the ring had a seal to certify documents). They used a ritual of traditionalist burial (a fact which is reflected in the sources of Islamic Lorca where documents describe Ulemas, followers of al-Bukhari, the main source for understanding the traditionalist ritual) which only shares the orientation of the sacred space and the symbolism of the graves with the Maliki ritual.
The historical context into which we must place the settlement that would give rise to this maqbarah would originate after the breakdown of the Treaty of Orihuela. The special political status reflected in the content of the Covenant that was given to this region (Kura of Tudmir) remained until the mid eighth century when the Spanish-Gothic elites were increasingly reluctant to pay the fixed tax, engendering a tense situation which prompted that circa 743-744 Abu-l-Khattār spread different contingents of troops (coming in 742 from the East to quell rebellions of the Berbers) over al-Andalus, grouped according to their military recruiting district (Jund), dispersing "part of the troops of Syria and Egypt ” in Tudmir.
Mula, Lorca, and Orihuela
In 746 A.D. Yusuf b. ‘Abdul-Rahman al-Fihri won the civil war, became a ruler, and decided which cities would be his principal ones. Among them are Tudmir, Mula, Lorca, Auriola (Orihuela), and Cartagena .
Reinhart Dozy gives us more information about the years between 743 and 745 of Abu-l-Khattār in his work of 1913, and here follows the partial text in which Tudmir is stated:
«The more moderate and intelligent men on either side, labouring under the evils produced by civil war, indignant at the horrible excesses committed by both parties, and fearing lest the Christians of the North might take advantage of the strife between the Moslems and extend their borders, entered into communication with the Governor of Africa, Handhala the Kelbite, begging him to send a Governor capable of restoring order and tranquillity. Handhala thereupon sent the Kelbite Abu ’l-Khattar to Spain, who arrived with his troops at Biosara at the very moment when Arabs were being bartered for goats and dogs. Abu ’l-Khattār produced his commission, and since he was a noble of Damascus the Syrians could not refuse to recognise him. The Arabs of Spain hailed him as their deliverer, for his first care was to set at liberty the ten thousand captives who were being ignominously bartered. By prudent measures the new Governor re-established tranquillity.
He granted an amnesty to Omayya and Katan, the two sons of ‘Abd al-Malik, and to all their partisans, except the ambitious ‘Abd-er-Rahmān ibn Habib, who nevertheless succeeded in reaching the coast and crossing over to Africa, where a brilliant career awaited him. Handhala exiled from Spain a dozen of the most turbulent chieftains, including Thalaba himself, telling them that while they were disturbers of the peace in the Peninsula, their fiery valour would find better scope in warring against the Berbers of Africa. Since it was of primary importance that the Capital should be freed from the embarrassing presence of the Syrians, Handhala gave them the public lands in fee, ordering the serfs who tilled the soil henceforth to make over to the Syrians that third part of the crops which they had hitherto yielded to the State. The Egyptian division‘ was settled in the districts of Oksonoba, Beja, and Tudmir; the division of Emesa, in Niebla and Seville; that of Palestine, in the district of Sidona and Algeciras; that of Jordan, in the district of Regio; that of Damascus, in the district of Elvira; and, finally, that of Kinnisrin, in the district of Jaen. The important but unhappy part played by the sons of the Helpers of Mohammed here came to an end. Schooled by so many reverses and calamities, they seem at last to have become convinced that their ambitious hopes could never be realized. Abandoning politics to others, they retired into the background to live privately on their domains, and when, at long intervals, the name of a Medinese chief crops up in Arab annals, it is always in connexion with purely personal interests, or as a supporter of some party other than his own ».
The Chronicle known as Crónica Mozarable ensures in 754 that the Pact of Orihuela of 713 (715 ) was still in force. The Chronicle of 754 (or Continuatio Hispana) was a Latin-language history in 95 sections which was composed in 754 in a part of Spain under Arab occupation. The Chronicle of 754 covers the years 610 to 754 during which it has a few contemporary sources against which to check its veracity; some consider it one of the best sources for post-Visigothic history and for the story of the Moorish conquest of Spain and southern France.
Very little is known about the events that had to occur in the region of Todmir during the control by the dependent emirs of the caliphs of Damascus. The news items of that time that we know from Arabic historians pertain to Spain in general, but nothing to any specific region. They say nothing about Theodomir and his assumed successor Athanagild; only the manuscript “Anónimo latino” makes mention of these personas.
The village of Jumilla
The Jumilla castle perched on a hill from which it dominated its town. Its first fortifications were from the Bronze Age and due to its privileged position it continued to expand throughout the centuries. In the Iron Age the Iberians settled in it making it a great hill fort. Thereafter the Romans took possession of it and fortified the hill, constructing a part of the wall which still exists today. Pottery shards, “sigillata” from the first century were found in this era. Seven centuries later, in April 713, the Arabs crossed Jumilla in their attempt to conquer the peninsula. They began building the Arab fortress on the ancient Roman ruins. The Arab settlement in Jumilla lasted five centuries until it was conquered by king San Fernando in 1241, integrating it into the crown of Castile for the first time.
Castle of Jumilla
(CC BY-SA 3.0) Photo of Gregorio
(CC BY-SA 3.0) Photo of Gregorio
Consequently the Arabic presence in Jumilla was of an early date. Archaeological research proved that the core population between the eighth to eleventh centuries was in the vicinity of the Rinconada de Olivares necropolis. This core moved during the eleventh century to a space that exists between the “Plaza de Arriba” and the “Rambla de la Alquería, occupying the hilltop of the castle where the first fortress was built .
A new hypothesis
The first thing we must say again is that we hardly know anything credible about the invasion of Spain by Muslims. In his "Introduction" to the History of Muslim Spain by E. Lévi-Provencal, the illustrious Spanish Arabist who was also translator to our language, Emilio García Gómez already says that "there is barely any silence as vast and eerie in history as the one surrounding the entry of Muslims into Spain. What we know from the conquest and the early days of the new situation is because of relatively late sources that try to project some clarity, not always impartial or disinterested, on a very dark period already populated with legends that, like monstrous flora, often vegetate in historical darkness." And indeed it is. It seems that when one faces that historical period, the astonishment at what was happening in Spain was so great that deadly silence followed the supposed arrival of Tarik in Gibraltar. Before continuing with the topic a previous question arises: Did Tarik really come to Gibraltar?
The First General Chronicle of Spain, which King Alfonso X the Wise ordered to compile, placed the defeat of Don Rodrigo in two scenarios. The first was the Guadalete River. But immediately afterwards the First Chronicle warned that "some say this battle happened in the field of Sangonera, which is between Murcia and Lorca." For centuries this second option was relegated until new data that underpinned its authenticity arose. It happened in 1989 and the idea was not sketched by anyone, nor in a forum without prestige. On the contrary, the thesis was the basis for the inaugural speech of the eminent philologist Joaquín Vallvé in the Real Academia de la Historia on April 2 of that year . Vallvé maintained that certain names of places mentioned in Arab sources about this dispute may correspond to Murcian names of places . The al-Buhayra or al-Lakk could be identified "with the Mar Menor or La Albufera or even better, with the lagoon surrounding the city of Cartagena in the northwest, origin of medieval and modern Almarjal. The Wadi-l-Tin may be the Guadalentín or Sangonera river." Scholar Vallvé added that the term al-Sawaqi, the canals, quoted by the poet of the thirteenth century Al-Qartachanni, could correspond to the canals that watered the garden of Murcia. And the Qartachanna conquered by the Arabs could refer to the city of Cartagena and not the old Carteya of the Algeciras Bay .
Another author, Emilio García Gómez, based on Arab sources, says that it was the Count Teodomiro who connected Don Rodrigo with the Arab landing. This is not an inconsiderable hypothesis, since from the time of the Punic empire the maritime traffic had created a route from the African Carthage to New Carthage, founded around 227 B.C. by Asdrúbal el Bello with the name Qart Hadasht. Why would they go to Gibraltar to cross the strait if an old and known seaway allowed them to go from one continent to another in just four hours?
Spanish Arabists as Chalmeta and Vallvé have criticized the use that Sanchez Albornoz made of Arab historiography on the Islamic conquest of the peninsula . It is time to study the historical sources with other perspectives.
The castle of Mula
Photo: Juan González Castaño
Photo: Juan González Castaño
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