Taifa of Murcia

The Taifa of Murcia was an Arab taifa in medieval Al-Andalus, centred on the city of Murcia in what is now southern Spain. It emerged after the collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba in the eleventh century. Unlike most taifas, Murcia existed in several separate periods: from 1011 to 1014, from 1065 to 1078, briefly in 1145, from 1147 to 1172, and finally from 1228 to 1266. At its height the taifa included Albacete and part of Almería. Murcia was founded in 825 by the emir Abd ar-Rahman II and grew into a major Moorish city with a prosperous agricultural hinterland. The taifa was contested by neighbouring powers and was taken by the Almohads in 1172. It revived as an independent kingdom in the thirteenth century before being conquered by Castile in 1266, after which it became the Kingdom of Murcia within the Crown of Castile. Its irrigation systems, crafts and scholarship left a lasting mark on the region.