Taifa of Santa Maria do Algarve

The Taifa of Santa Maria do Algarve was a small Islamic taifa in the Algarve region of what is now southern Portugal. It existed from 1018 to 1051 and was ruled by the Banu Harun, a family whose members bore the title of qadi. The taifa's first ruler, Sa'id, governed from about 1018 until 1041 or 1042, when he was succeeded by Muhammad al-Mu'tasim. In 1051 the kingdom was forcibly incorporated into the Taifa of Seville under Abbad II al-Mu'tadid. Although the taifa lost its independence, the Banu Harun remained as qadis of the city, and their descendants held local authority until the Portuguese conquest of the Algarve in 1249. The last of the line, Aloandro Ben Bekar, is named in the sources as the final qadi. The taifa was centered on the coastal town of Santa Maria do Algarve, the present-day Faro, and formed part of the political fragmentation of al-Andalus after the collapse of the Caliphate of Córdoba.