Banu Qasi

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Banu Qasi
بنو قسي
714–929
Roman Catholicism (Mozarabic Rite)
GovernmentMonarchy
• 713/714–715
Cassius
• 789–862
Musa ibn Musa
History 
• Conversion of Count Cassius to Islam
714
• Conquest by Cordoba and Navarre
929
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Basques
Taifa of Zaragoza
Kingdom of Navarre
Today part ofSpain

The Banu Qasi, Banu Kasi, Beni Casi (

Arabic: بني قسي or بنو قسي, meaning "sons" or "heirs of Cassius"), Banu Musa, or al-Qasawi were a Muladí (local convert) dynasty that in the 9th century ruled the Upper March, a frontier territory of the Umayyad Emirate of Córdoba, located on the upper Ebro
Valley. At their height in the 850s, family head Musa ibn Musa al-Qasawi was so powerful and autonomous that he would be called 'The Third Monarch of Hispania'. In the first half of the 10th century, an intra-family succession squabble, rebellions and rivalries with competing families, in the face of vigorous monarchs to the north and south, led to the sequential loss of all of their land.

Dynastic beginnings

The family is said to descend from the

Caliph, Al-Walid I
.

Under the Banu Qasi, the region of Upper Ebro (modern districts of Logroño and southern Navarre, based in Tudela) formed a semi-autonomous principality. The tiny emirate was faced by enemies in several directions. Although never realized, the threat of Frankish attempts to regain control over the western Pyrenees was a real one. In actuality, even more menacing was the gradual eastwards expansion of the Asturian Kingdom; while in the south lay the Caliphate of Córdoba, ever anxious to impose its authority over the frontier regions.

As a local

Arabic (Muhammad, Musa, Abd Allah), Latinate (Awriya, Furtun, Lubb), and Basque
(Garshiya).

The

Umayyads of Cordova
sanctioned the rule of the Banu Qasi and repeatedly granted them autonomy by appointing them as governors, only to replace them as they expressed too much independence, or launch punitive military expeditions into the region. Such acts on the part of the Umayyads demonstrated their failure to ever fully resolve the problem of effective, central control of outlying regions.

First rise to prominence

The speculated homeland of Count Cassius was a narrow strip across the Ebro from

Castile, Amaya and Cerdanya to fight against Amrus ibn Yusuf at this time, suggesting that this is instead a son of Musa ibn Furtun overlooked by Ibn Hazm, whose genealogy provides most of what we know about the clan.[d]

In the next generation, Mutarrif ibn Musa, was likely a son of Musa ibn Furtun,

Claudio Sánchez Albornoz did not agree with this interpretation and believed that it had been the people of Pamplona, without any outside intervention, who took matters in their own hands. Nowhere does Ibn Hayyan mention that Mutarrif ibn Musa was the governor of Pamplona or that Velasco was pro-Carolingian.[13]

It was Musa's son Musa ibn Musa al-Qasawi whose rule brought the family to the peak of its power.

Early generations of Banu Qasi
Ibn Hazm
pedigree		Modern
reconstruction
Qasi
fl. 714		Cassius
fl. 714
(sons or
descendants)
Furtun
b. bef. 714		(perhaps)(perhaps)
Furtun ibn QasiAbu TawrAbu SalamaothersAbu Taur of Huesca
fl. 778		ancestor of
Banu Salama
clan
Musa ibn Furtun
k. 788
Musa ibn FurtunZahir ibn FurtunMutarriff ibn Musa
k. 798/9		Furtun ibn Musa
k. 802
Musa ibn FurtunZahir ibn Furtun
Musa ibn Musa
d. 862		Yusuf ibn MusaothersMusa ibn Musa
d. 862		Maymuna bint Zahir

Musa ibn Musa

Main article: Musa ibn Musa al-Qasawi
Bust honouring Musa ibn Musa in Tudela, Navarre.

Besides the Arab sources, Musa ibn Musa is mentioned in three Latin texts: the Chronica Adefonsi tertii regis; the Albendensis; and the Códice de Roda.[14] The latter mentions his family relations as the half-brother and son-in-law of King Íñigo Arista and the properties he held. The Albeldensis describes the Battle of Monte Laturce, also referred to as the second Battle of Albelda, whereas the Chronicle of Alfonso III provides a more detailed account of his life and feats.[15]

While Musa had been orphaned at an early age, his military activity may have begun in the 820s, and the Banu Qasi (possibly Musa himself) most probably participated in the

Najera, Viguera and Calatayud, while also governing Tudela, Huesca and Toledo, and according to the Chronica Adefonsi tertii regis, Musa had his followers call him "the third king of Spaniae".[f]

Throughout this period, as reported by Ibn Hazm, Musa was also involved in a struggle within his family. Musa's brother Yunus ibn Musa is said to have remained loyal to Córdoba, and joined with the sons of their uncle Zahir ibn Furtun to fight Musa over a period of about 30 years. Ibn Hazm reports that Yunus had descendants, but provides no further details.

In 859,

Albelda, which passed into Christian legend as the Battle of Clavijo.[18] Emir Muhammad then stripped Musa of his titles and restored direct Cordoban control over the region. Musa died in 862 of wounds received in a petty squabble with a son-in-law,[19] and the family disappeared from the political scene for a decade.[20]

Sons of Musa

Following the 862 death of Musa, nothing is known of the family until 871. It is presumed that the members of the family associated with the Cordoban court and military campaigns, but no record of their presence there survives. According to the

Banu Jalaf of Barbitanya, marrying Sayyida, daughter of Abd Allah ibn Jalaf. Furtun ibn Musa occupied Tudela, whose governor the Banu Qasi imprisoned at Arnedo, then killed following an escape. Lubb also occupied and refortified Viguera.[23][24]

The immediate response of emir Muhammad was to try to limit the expansion of the Banu Qasi by installing a rival dynasty, the

Arab Banu Tujib, in Calatayud, the one part of their father's possessions not reclaimed. In the next year, 873, Muhammad launched a campaign against the various northern rebels. He first bought off the rebels of Toledo with governorships, and this encouraged Amrus to offer his loyalty, for which he was rewarded with Huesca where he captured Mutarrif and his family, including wife Belasquita, the daughter of García Íñiguez of Pamplona. In spite of a desperate attack by the combined troops of his brothers, Mutarrif and three sons, Muhammad, Musa and Lubb, were taken to Córdoba and crucified.[g] The next year, Furtun died in Tudela, while Lubb was killed in an accident in Viguera in 875.[26] This left control of the family in the hands of two men, the remaining brother Isma'il ibn Musa in Monzon, and Lubb's son, Muhammad ibn Lubb al-Qasawi
, who is first known as a defender of Zaragoza against the emirate troops.

Muhammad ibn Lubb

Main article: Muhammad ibn Lubb

Over the next decade, following the deaths of his father and two uncles, Muhammad ibn Lubb maneuvered to become the leader of the family. He resisted 879 and 882 campaigns from Córdoba. The latter was under the general Hashim ibn Abd al-Aziz, and Muhammad tried to persuade Hashim to unite with him against the Asturians, now ruled by

Raymond I of Pallars and Ribagorza prior to its fall. This resulted in a consolidated Banu Qasi powerbase around Arnedo, Borja, Calahorra and Viguera, with Isma'il holding an enclave to the east, around Monzon and Lleida.[31]

In 885 and 886, Muhammad launched attacks against

Abd Allah for possession of Isma'il's lands, the emir confirming the succession of Muhammad ibn Lubb. There followed a period of relative peace and collaboration between Muhammad ibn Lubb and al-Tawil.[33] In 891, Muhammad defeated a Christian force at Castro Sibiriano,[34] but he dedicated most of his efforts in his final years against Tujibid Zaragoza, initiating what would become a 17-year siege.[35] In 897, the citizens of Toledo rose up and offered their city to Muhammad, but being occupied with Zaragoza, he sent his son Lubb.[36] Muhammad was reconnoitering Zaragoza in 898, when on 8 October, he was caught by a guard who spitted him on a lance. His head was presented to the Tujibids, who sent it to Córdoba, where it was displayed in front of the palace for eight days before being buried with the honors due a brave foe.[37]

Lubb ibn Muhammad

Main article: Lubb ibn Muhammad

Muhammad's son, Lubb ibn Muhammad al-Qasawi, was born in 870, and was already active at the time of his father's death. In 896, he was refortifying Monzon when al-Tawil of Huesca tried his luck. Though being attacked by a larger, better equipped army, Lubb was able to rout al-Tawil's men, taking his brother prisoner.[34] In January 897 he went to Toledo to take up the leadership offer the citizens had made his father.[36] Back in the east, he launched an attack on Aura that led to the death of Wilfred of Barcelona.[38] Returning through Toledo in 898, he next marched to Jaén, with the intent of forming a coalition with another rebel, Umar ibn Hafsun, but before Umar reached Jaén, the news of his father's death at Zaragoza forced Lubb's return to Tudela, where he formally recognized the sovereignty of the emir, Abd Allah, in exchange for the formal governorship over Tudela and Tarazona.[39] His return north found al-Tawil moving to take advantage of the temporary power vacuum and three weeks after his father's death, Lubb captured the Huesca ruler in a skirmish. To buy his freedom, al-Tawil ceded lands between Huesca and Monzon to Lubb, and agreed to pay 100,000 gold dinares for the possession of Huesca. Paying 50,000 immediately, he gave his son Abd al-Malik and daughter Sayyida as hostages to ensure payment of the second half. Lubb would relent, forgiving the remaining debt and returning the hostages except Sayyida, whom he married.[h]

Lubb ibn Muhammad continued his father's siege of Zaragoza, but found himself drawn in other directions. Perhaps in 900, Alfonso III, in conjunction with

Isarn, Count Raymond's son, who was kept in Tudela for a decade before being freed.[43]

In 905, a coalition of the King of Asturias, the counts of Aragon and Pallars, and, it is sometimes claimed, Lubb ibn Muhammad, engineered a coup in Navarre that brought Sancho Garcés to the throne in place of Fortún Garcés. Two years later, Lubb launched an attack on Pamplona and fought at "Liédena" on 30 September 907, resulting in a total rout of the Banu Qasi forces, while Lubb was killed.[44] The transcendent battle marked a permanent change in the regional balance, Sancho's Pamplona becoming a major regional power, while it initiated the final decline of the Banu Qasi.

Decline (905-929)

With the fall of Lubb, his local rivals immediately fell upon the Banu Qasi lands. Sancho descended toward Calahorra. The Tujibids finally broke the siege of Zaragoza and captured Ejea.[45] Al-Tawil retook the lands he had lost, and proceeded to overrun the family's eastern enclave, taking Barbastro and Lleida. Monzon was briefly controlled by Lubb's brother Yunus ibn Muhammad, but he could not hold it, and Monzon too fell to the al-Tawil.[46] In the reduced western lands, Lubb was succeeded by brother Abd Allah ibn Muhammad al-Qasawi. In 911, Abd Allah and al-Tawil jointly, along with al-Tawil's brother-in-law Galindo Aznárez II of Aragon, attacked Pamplona. After destroying several castles, they developed cold feet and withdrew, but were caught by Sancho.[47] Al-Tawil defected and escaped, while Galindo was crushed and forced to recognize Sancho as feudal sovereign, ending the autonomy of the Aragon. Arab sources describe Abd Allah's rear-guard action at Luesia as a victory, but if so it was only a tactical victory and he immediately retreated south.[47] In 914, Sancho turned the tables, marching into the heart of the Banu Qasi homeland, taking Arnedo and attacking Calahorra.[48] In the next year, 915, Sancho turned toward Tudela, and there captured Abd Allah, killing a thousand of his best men. Mutarrif ibn Muhammad al-Qasawi, Abd Allah's brother, rushed to relieve the city, and Abd Allah was ransomed, his daughter Urraca and probably son Furtun ibn Abd Allah being given as hostages.[j] However, two months later Abd Allah was assassinated, it is said, through the machinations of Sancho.[50]

The only bright spot for the family in this period happened in the east. In 913, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik al-Tawil died, and the next year, the residents of Monzon rejected his son Amrus ibn Muhammad, and invited the Banu Qasi to return in the person of Muhammad ibn Lubb, son of Lubb ibn Muhammad. After a brief siege, he was able to reclaim the city for his family, as well as Lleida.[51]

In the west, Mutarrif ibn Muhammad and his nephew Muhammad ibn Abd Allah struggled for dominance. The latter proved victorious, killing Mutarrif in 916.

Abd ar-Rahman III, who was to temporarily reverse the centrifugal forces at work in the Emirate, soon to be Caliphate of Córdoba, sent armies north, routing the Christians.[53] The next year, both Banu Qasi leaders, Muhammad ibn Abd Allah and Muhammad ibn Lubb, attacked the Banu al-Tawil at Barbastro, but Sancho took advantage of this, and allying himself with his cousin Bernard I of Ribagorza and the Banu al-Tawil, he attacked and burned Monzon, which was hence lost to the Banu Qasi.[54]

In 920, the emir, Abd ar-Rahman III, personally led the Cordoban army north, and forced Sancho to abandon fortifications he had been building. After some maneuvering the emir met the armies of Ordoño and Sancho, and defeated them at Valdejunquera.[55] In 923, the Christian allies brought another force south, and while Muhammad ibn Abd Allah formed a coalition of local nobles to resist it, their armies were dispersed and Viguera and Najera fell. Like his father, Muhammad was captured, then assassinated on Sancho's orders, and when Abd ar-Rahman launched another punitive campaign the next year, on his return to Tudela he removed the Banu Qasi and sent them to Córdoba, placing their old rivals the Tujibids of Zaragoza in their place.[56] After 923, only the eastern enclave encompassing Lleida and the

Jimeno Garcés, the new king of Navarre, intervened on his behalf in opposition to Hasim ibn Muhammad al-Tujibi.[57][58] The next year, Muhammad fell victim to an ambush and was killed by his brother-in-law, a son of Raymond of Pallars.[59]

Later generations of Banu Qasi[60]
Musa ibn Musa
d. 862
Lubb ibn Musa
d. 875		Mutarrif ibn Musa
cruc. 873 Córdoba		daughterAzraq ibn MantilFurtun ibn Musa
d. 874		Isma'il ibn Musa
d. 889		Awriya bint MusaGarcía
 † Monte Laturce 859
Muhammad ibn Lubb
k. 898		2 other
sons		3 sons
cruc. 873 Córdoba		Yusuf ibn Mutarrif
k. Najerra		'Abd Allah ibn Mutarrif
converted		Isma'il ibn Mutarrif
converted		4 sons
k. by Muhammad
ibn Lubb		Muhammad ibn Isma'il
k. Toledo		Musa ibn Isma'il
k. 889 Huesca		Sa'id ibn Isma'il
k. Córdoba		Musa ibn Garsiya
Lubb ibn Muhammad
k. 907		{{{2so}}}'Abd Allah ibn Muhammad
k. 915		Yunis ibn MuhammadMutarrif ibn Muhammad
k. 916 by
Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allah		Lubb ibn Muhammad
fled to Fatimids
in Maghreb
'Abd Allah ibn Lubb
k. by Mutarrif ibn Muhammad		Muhammad ibn Lubb
 † 929		Furtun ibn Lubb
converted		Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allah
k. 923		Musa ibn 'Abd Allah
murdered		Furtun ibn
'Abd Allah
converted		'Abd Allah ibn 'Abd Allah
drowned in Tagus		Urraca bint 'Abd Allah
converted		Fruela II of Asturias
Lubb ibn MuhammadOrdoñoRamiro

Legacy

The death of Muhammad ibn Lubb marked the end of the Banu Qasi in the Ebro valley. Their rivals the Tujibids would follow their model, making an independent peace with Leon in 937, a move that resulted in a punitive expedition from the Caliph similar to those of prior years against the Banu Qasi. The Tujibids would eventually establish a full-fledged Taifa kingdom centered at Zaragoza.[61][62]

Two other Taifa crowns were ruled by men with names reminiscent of the Banu Qasi and are claimed as dynastic members, although there is no evidence of any actual genealogical connection. A small Taifa state at

Almohads (to whom he would submit) against Seville. They fell out and Ibn Qasi was assassinated in 1151 by his own men.;[64][65][66][67]

Leadership of the Banu Qasi

The following men are the documented leaders of the Banu Qasi (entries in italics are of uncertain affiliation to the family):

  • Cassius, fl. 714
  • Musa ibn Furtun, grandson of Cassius
    • Mutarrif ibn Musa, assassinated 799, perhaps son of Musa ibn Furtun
    • Furtun ibn Musa, killed in rebellion 801, perhaps son of Musa ibn Furtun, else identical to him
  • Musa ibn Musa, d. 862, son of Musa ibn Furtun
  • Lubb ibn Musa, d. 875, son of Musa ibn Musa
  • Isma'il ibn Musa, co-leader to 882, d. 889, son of Musa ibn Musa
  • Muhammad ibn Lubb, co-leader to 882, then sole leader, d. 899, son of Lubb ibn Musa
  • Lubb ibn Muhammad, d. 907, son of Muhammad ibn Lubb
  • Abd Allah ibn Muhammad, d. 915, son of Muhammad ibn Lubb
(succession struggle between Mutarrif ibn Muhammad and Muhammad ibn Abd Allah, 915-916)
  • Muhammad ibn Abd Allah, d. 923, son of Abd Allah ibn Muhammad
  • Muhammad ibn Lubb, d. 929, son of Lubb ibn Muhammad
(end of dynasty)

Notes

  1. ^ "Curiously, there has always been a great degree of insistence on defining the Banu Qasi as being of Gothic background, when there is no member of the family actually bearing any Gothic name. All Muslim authors make them to appear descending from the Visigothic Count Cassius, whose name, as well as those of many of his descendants, is Latin: Fortunius, Lupus, etc. Whence we must therefore come to deduce that the roots of this lineage are obviously Hispano-Roman."[3]
  2. Ibn al-Qūṭiyya, may be a product of the spurious antiquarianism of the latter Umayyad period that satisfied the need for stories which bridged the conquest, rather than reliable genealogy.[2]
  3. ^ This is as the pedigree appears in the work of Ibn Hazm, but historian Al-Udri refers to his descendant as Muhammad ibn Lubb ibn Muhammad ibn Lubb ibn Musa ibn Musa ibn Furtun ibn Garshiya (Muhammad son of Lubb, son of . . . son of Musa, son of Furtun, son of Garshiya). This last patronymic may simply be an error for ibn Qasi (son of Cassius), or may suggest that Ibn Hazm has dropped a generation, Garshiya, between Cassius and Furtun in his account of the senior line. An additional generation would better fit the chronology.[8]
  4. ^ Historian Jesús Lorenzo Jiménez stresses the fact that part of Ibn Hayyan's al-Muqtabis that refers to the events that took place in Pamplona was published for the first time in 1954 whereas the part which mentions the uprisings in Huesca and Zaragoza did not come to light until 1999/2001. Therefore, Cañada Juste and other historians did not have access to the most recently published work.[9]
  5. ^ Several Iberian historians have attempted to harmonize the difficulties with the pedigree though the insertion of two generations, making a first Musa ibn Furtun, murdered 788 the father of Mutarrif ibn Musa of 798 and Furtun ibn Musa of 802, the latter in turn father of an otherwise undocumented Musa ibn Furtun, father of Musa ibn Musa.[10]
  6. ^ tertium regem in Spania appellare precepit.[17]
  7. ^ Two of Mutarrif's remaining sons, 'Abd Allah and Isma'il, fled north and converted to Christianity.[25]
  8. ^ Lubb thus also linked himself with the Galindo Aznar, Count of Aragon, whose sister was the girl's mother.[40]
  9. Fatimids, taking the Banu Qasi line into Africa.[42]
  10. Fruela II of León.[49]

References

  1. ^ Ball 2009, pp. 117–122.
  2. ^ a b Cañada Juste 1980, p. 6.
  3. ^ Salazar y Acha 2006, p. 32, n.11.
  4. ^ Collins 1990, pp. 123, 158–159.
  5. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, p. 56.
  6. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, p. 12.
  7. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, pp. 7–9.
  8. ^ Granja 1967, pp. 519–520.
  9. ^ Lorenzo Jiménez 2010, p. 117.
  10. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, pp. 8–12.
  11. ^ Lorenzo Jiménez 2010, p. 119, n. 18.
  12. ^ Lorenzo Jiménez 2010, p. 118.
  13. ^ Lorenzo Jiménez 2010, pp. 118–120.
  14. ^ Lorenzo Jiménez 2010, p. 139.
  15. ^ Lorenzo Jiménez 2010, pp. 139–141.
  16. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, pp. 12–3.
  17. ^ Lorenzo Jiménez 2010, p. 141.
  18. ^ a b Lorenzo Jiménez 2010, p. 142.
  19. ^ Lorenzo Jiménez 2010, p. 214.
  20. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, pp. 12–4.
  21. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, pp. 41–4.
  22. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, pp. 42–3.
  23. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, pp. 43–5.
  24. ^ Granja 1967, pp. 474, 524–520.
  25. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, pp. 45–8.
  26. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, pp. 48–50.
  27. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, pp. 54–6.
  28. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, p. 57.
  29. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, pp. 56–8.
  30. ^ a b Cañada Juste 1980, p. 59.
  31. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, pp. 51–2, 58–60.
  32. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, pp. 59–63.
  33. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, pp. 63–4.
  34. ^ a b Cañada Juste 1980, p. 66.
  35. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, pp. 64–5.
  36. ^ a b Cañada Juste 1980, pp. 66–7.
  37. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, pp. 67–8.
  38. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, p. 67.
  39. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, pp. 67–70.
  40. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, p. 71.
  41. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, pp. 71–2.
  42. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, pp. 72–3.
  43. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, p. 73.
  44. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, pp. 74–5.
  45. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, p. 70.
  46. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, pp. 77–9.
  47. ^ a b Cañada Juste 1980, pp. 79–80.
  48. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, p. 80.
  49. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, pp. 81, 91.
  50. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, p. 81.
  51. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, pp. 80–1.
  52. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, p. 83.
  53. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, p. 85.
  54. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, pp. 85–6.
  55. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, p. 86.
  56. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, pp. 88–9.
  57. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, pp. 89–90.
  58. ^ Granja 1967, p. 486.
  59. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, p. 90.
  60. ^ Cañada Juste 1980, p. 91.
  61. ^ O'Callaghan 1983, p. 29.
  62. ^ Watt & Cachia 1996, p. 40.
  63. ^ Catlos 2004, p. 40n.
  64. ^ Fletcher 2006, p. 121.
  65. ^ Kennedy 1996, p. 191.
  66. ^ Reilly 1998, p. 84.
  67. ^ O'Callaghan 1983, pp. 228–9.

Bibliography

External links

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