Taifa of Valencia

The Taifa of Valencia was a Muslim kingdom in and around Valencia, Spain, that emerged from the collapse of the Caliphate of Córdoba around 1010. It was one of the taifas, the small successor states formed during the Fitna of the early eleventh century. After a period of rivalry among local rulers, Abd al-Aziz, a grandson of Almanzor, took power around 1021 and presided over four decades of stability and prosperity; his court fostered poetry and learning, and the taifa grew wealthy on the irrigated huerta and Mediterranean trade. His son Abd al-Malik was forced to seek help from Toledo, and in 1065 the Taifa of Toledo annexed Valencia. Toledo itself fell to Alfonso VI of León and Castile in 1085. From 1094 to 1099 the city was ruled by the Castilian commander El Cid, and after his death by his wife Jimena until the Almoravids annexed it in 1102. The taifa's capital was Valencia, then known as Balansiya.