Thread by @rgarciavelasco

I wrote a piece for @ConversationUK and @Woolf_Institute on the union between Zaida, a Muslim princes, and Alfonso VI, king of Castile-Leon, on the occasion of both #Ramadan and the #RoyalWedding THREAD #medievaltwitter #twitterstorians theconversation.com/meet-the-musli…

1. Zaida's story has recently been in the UK media, as she allegedly connects the British Queen Elizabeth II with Prophet Muhammad (through Fatima and 'Ali). I like the tongue-in-cheek one from @TheEconomist: goo.gl/jEn2Zf

(Here is Muhammad->Zaida->Elizabeth's family tree, following from Burke's Peerage ancestry work)

2. Zaida lived in Seville, at the court ʿAbbādid dynasty. By the 1040s, the ʿAbbādids had supplanted Umayyad Cordoba as the centre of power in al-Andalus. Here is the (Almohad) Patio del Yeso in the Alcázar of Seville:

3. The history of the "taifa kingdoms" is complex. @Ballandalus has written some very interesting blogs explaining this period of political turmoil and cultural florescence:

https://twitter.com/Ballandalus/status/703998170896924672

4. Back to Zaida: in reality, Zaida was not the daughter of the emir al-Muʿtamid of Seville, but her daughter-in-law. This is highlighted in the brilliant book of the late Simon Barton (1962-2017): goo.gl/dbEF67 His amazing work inspired my interest; he will be missed.

5. Under the rule of Zaida’s father-in-law, al-Muʿtamid, Seville experienced an explosion of literary production, attracting famous poets such as the Sicilian writer, Ibn Hamdis, Ibn ʿAmmār and the emir himself. For more see the post by @PublicMedieval

https://twitter.com/B_Mediterraneum/status/859406425554079744

6. In 1091, Seville was captured by the Almoravids troops of Yusuf ibn Tashfin, and al-Muʿtamid was exiled to Aghmat, in Morocco, where he died four years later. Ibn al-Khaṭīb (1313-74) dedicated some verses to the Poet King, which surround the tomb.

https://twitter.com/Ballandalus/status/681763140464472064

7. The Almoravid takeover was motivated by the conquest of the (Muslim) taifa of Toledo by Alfonso VI, king of León-Castile. This conquest has given Alfonso VI the dubious honour of being one of the pioneers of the "Reconquista".

8. People who think of Alfonso VI as a "reconqueror" fighting for the Christian cause should remember that (a) Alfonso spent time in al-Andalus as a political exile; and (b) his affinity with the Muslims of Toledo caused a rift at court with first wife, Constance of Aquitaine

9. and (c) Alfonso VI aspired to become the sole ruler of the Iberian Peninsula, including al-Andalus. Note the curious passage from 13th-century scholar, Ibn al-Kardabūs: the Castilian ruler was so arrogant that started to fashion himself as the “Emperor of the Two Religions”.

10. In this context, the decision to welcome Zaida at the Castilian court, first as a concubine and later as legitimate wife, is best understood not as a sign of intimacy and coexistence, but as a statement of power.

11. Zaida's eventual conversion and marriage to Alfonso VI was found perplexing by contemporaries. The birth of Sancho, Alfonso VI’s only son and poised to become the heir to the kingdom, was perhaps the determining factor.

12. Zaida and Alfonso VI's son, Sancho, is one of the purported ancestors of the Plantagenets. Elvira, one of Zaida and Alfonso VI's other children, married to Roger II of Sicily. Unfortunately, like many other of the women mentioned here, very little is known about her life.

13. Zaida's story is awkward for those who try to box Muslim-Christian relations in medieval Spain into the binary of convivencia vs religious conflict. Of course academics tend not to think in these terms, as per this excellent blog by @homophonous: wp.nyu.edu/sjpearce/2017/…

14. Unfortunately the clichés of the Reconquest are still way too prevalent: see José María Aznar, former Spanish Prime Minister (1996-2004) dressed as El Cid in 1987

https://twitter.com/GorkaLejarcegi/status/338726126685933568

15. Historians need to continue critiquing discussions about identity, ethnic and cultural belonging; and also explanations of the contact between Islam and the Christian West, a topic that has ballooned over the past 20 years. FIN