Taifa of Almería

The Taifa of Almería was a small Muslim kingdom in the south-east of al-Andalus, centred on the port city of Almería, that existed from about 1012 to 1091. It arose when the local governor declared independence from the collapsing Caliphate of Córdoba, and it was ruled by a succession of emirs, among them Khayran, who also held Cartagena, and Abu Yahya Muhammad ibn Ma'n. The kingdom's importance rested on its harbour, the best in the region, and on its textile industry: contemporary sources speak of some five thousand looms and a silk trade that reached Italy and the eastern Mediterranean. Almería was also a base for piracy and for the export of oil, figs and esparto grass, and its prosperity attracted the envy of stronger neighbours. Granada, Seville and Valencia repeatedly attacked the little state, and Seville stripped it of territory in the north, but Almería kept a precarious independence, briefly interrupted by a Valencian occupation. It was finally annexed by the Almoravids in 1091, along with the other taifas of al-Andalus, and the city later became an Almoravid naval base.