Taifa of Zaragoza

The Taifa of Zaragoza was an independent Muslim state in the north-east of Al-Andalus, centred on the city of Saraqusta, present-day Zaragoza. It emerged in the early eleventh century after the collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba, when the region's governors and local elites began to rule on their own. For most of its first decades the city was controlled by the Arab Banu Tujib family; in 1038/39 they were displaced by the Banu Hud, who turned Zaragoza into one of the strongest taifas of the Ebro valley. The Banu Hud patronised poets, scholars and builders, and the Aljafería palace, begun in the eleventh century, remains the most famous monument of the period. Zaragoza's position between Christian Aragon and the Muslim south made it a diplomatic and military crossroads. The taifa allied at times with El Cid and the Castilians, and at others fought them, while the expanding Almoravid movement pressed from the south. The Banu Hud resisted until May 1110, when the Almoravids captured the city and forced the last ruler, Abd-al-Malik, to flee. In 1118 Zaragoza was conquered by Alfonso I of Aragon and passed permanently into Christian hands.