This is a blog of the Govert Westerveld that deals with the history of the Region of Murcia during the Muslimruled Period between 715 and 1243. A place, where followers of the three Abrahamic faiths – Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together in relative peace. (blog for educational purposes).

sábado, 13 de agosto de 2016

The treaty of Orihuela

The original of the treaty is preserved in the library of the Escorial. It is written in Arabic with Latin translation. This state paper will give an idea of the morality and loyalty of those times .  

 
Articles of peace, covenanted and sworn between Abdelazis (Abd al-Aziz), the son of Mūsā, the son of  Nassir and Theomir, prince of the Goths.
 
In the name of the merciful God Abdelazis makes peace and stipulates that Theodemir will not be disturbed in his principality; that no attempt will be made against his life, property, wives, children, religion, or the Christian churches; that Theodemir will deliver up the  seven towns of Orihuella, Valentola, Alicante, Mola (now Mula), Vacasora, Bigerra (now Bejar), Ora (or Opta), and Lorca; that he will not succour nor receive the enemies of the Caliph, but that he will communicate faithfully what he will know of their hostile intentions; that he will pay yearly, as well as every Goth of a noble family, one piece of gold, four measures of wheat, four of harley, a certain quantity of honey, oil, and vinegar, and that the tax upon each of their vassals will be half of this contribution. Done the 4th of Regeb. in  the 94th year of the Hegira, (which corresponds to 5 April, 715). Signed by four Muslims as witnesses.

   


As explained before, Theodemir resisted the invaders in his county and managed to sign an advantageous treaty with them. This treaty was in force in seven major cities: Orihuela, Alicante , Villena, Elche, Mula, Begastri (Beqasru/Buqasra close to Cehegin), and Lorca.
  


Alcudia (near Elche)
The ruins of Alcudia belong to the Illicitan Episcopal sea and the Madinat Ils mentioned in the version of al-'Udri of the Treaty of Orihuela, slowly abandoned after the conquest for the benefit of the new Ils located on the site of the current city of Elche dating from the second half of the tenth century. This date suggests a certain continuity of the sighting of Alcudia in the early centuries of Islamic presence . 

Theodomir agreed to pay an annual tribute and not cooperate with the enemies of Muslims. In exchange he could maintain his county semi-independent and keep his religion, laws, and land. In fact, this kind of treaties was frequent. The Muslims managed to control new territories through them by keeping existing power structures. Local aristocracy usually converted to Islam, which did not happen here.

According to García Anton one has to take into account that there are three versions of the treaty . One from the 9th century is in the work Buyiat-al-mutamis written by al-Dabbï that can be found in the Biblioteca of El Escorial. Another one is from the 15th century written by al-Himyari in the work Rawd al-mi’tar, and the latest one from the 11th century is written by al-Udri in his work Tarsi al-ajbar. Not all the cities in these three versions are the same.

Luckily today we have more information about the treaty thanks to the research of various Arabists. For knowing the exact pronunciation of the various places we have to read the study of Pocklington who stated among other texts : 
 
Al-'Udrï   (d. 1085) text provides the greatest assurance of reliability. Besides being his version of the treaty the oldest of all we have at our disposal it seems almost certain that the preserved manuscript is the autographic one. The complete vocalization of all lesser known place names shows that the author knew very well how they were pronounced.

The list of the villages of the treaty was taken by Ibn al-Jarrat   (1298-1359) of a part, now lost, of the genealogical work of al-Rusati (d. 1147) where the entire treaty was transcribed. Al-Dabbi (d. 1200) and al-Garnati also took their versions of the treaty from al-Rusati. In a recent work we have defended the hypothesis that al-Rusati would copy his version of the Treaty of Orihuela from an original manuscript or transfer preserved forever in Murcia.

Al-Dabbi (d. 1200) took the version of the Treaty of Orihuela of al-Rusati. On the other hand the version of the Treaty of Orihuela that al-Garâti included in his comentrio of  the  Qasîda Maqsûra de Hazîm al-Qartâyannî  was discovered by Alfonso Carmona .

Al-Himyari   (XIV-XV century) has the same version of the treaty that is found in al-Dabbi and al-Garâtî .


 

Cities in the treaty of Tudmir



Alfonso Carmona gives us full information about the lost work of ar-Râzî  called Ahbâr Mulûk al-Andalus, whose material was used for the redaction of La Crónica of 1344. In it we find the Treaty of Orihuela in Spanish, as well as in the version of La Crónica del Moro Rasis by Gabriel Rodríguez de Escabías who added diverse materials known as the Manuscript of Copenhague.

The work of this Arab historian, certainly written in the tenth century, was translated in the fourteenth century on request of King Dinís in Latin, thereafter in Portuguese. The Castilian translation dates from 1342. We know practically nothing of the Portuguese translation.  However, there are four manuscripts of the Castilian version .

 

 

The Treaty of Tudmir, as Theodomir was named by the Arabs, listed the agricultural products grown in the area and to be paid as a tribute: cereals (wheat and barley), derived from the vine (grape juice and vinegar), oil, and honey. This treaty kept this land in peace regardless of the bitter civil wars (fitnas) held by the Muslims even before their conquest of Hispania were completed. The invaders coming from Arabia, Yemen, and Syria were always facing each other, but mostly the North-African Berbers. The bad Islamized Berbers formed the basis of the Islamic armies in the Iberian Peninsula. 
 
 Orihuela painted by Trevor Haddon
 
 
At the time Tudmir occupied the territory of the present Region of Murcia in southeastern Spain, and most of the provinces of Alicante, Albacete, and northern regions of Almería (Vélez Blanco, Velez Rubio, Vera, etc.). It is interesting to know that Ana Christys  also states that the earliest surviving copy of this treaty is an interpolation into the tenth-century manuscript of The Chronicle of 754 . The text was also preserved in three Arabic works, including a fourteenth-century biographical dictionary.
  

 
Cities belonging to the Pact




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BIOGRAPHY

For my short biography, please click on the following links:



In: Cronistas Oficiales de la Región de Murcia


In: Ayuntamiento de Blanca (Murcia)


In: Real Asociación de Cronistas Oficiales

About me

The author of this blog is one of the Official Chroniclers (Historians) of Blanca (Murcia, Spain). In 2002 he was appointed Fellow of the Real Academia of Alfonso X the Wise at Murcia. He is Hispanist by the International Association (AIH) and by the Asociación de Hispanistas del Benelux (AHBx). He is one of the Official Historians of the Federation Mondiale de Jeu de Dames (FMJD) and one of the Members of the Comité of Historians of the Spanish Chess Federation (FEDA).
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