Ziri ibn Manad, Zirid Founder & al-Wazir al-Ṣanhājah

Ziri Manad or Manad ben Ziri and ibn Ziri Manad , was a warlord of the Berber Tribe called "Sanhaja" , and founder of the dynasty of the Zirids would achieve great relevance in the Mediterranean in the West XI century . Lived in Ashir , who founded a stronghold south of the current Algiers . He is the father of Zawi ben Ziri , who founded the Taifa of Granada , and ben Ziri Buluggin that govern Ifriqiya from 972 to 984.

When the Fatimid Ifriqiya imposed their domination in the tenth century, Ziri Manad sided with them claiming old family ties. He fought the jariyistas Berbers ( maghrawas , Banū Ifren , etc.) that revolted against Fatimid power. As reward for thier support, the Fatimid Caliph Almanzor allowed him to establish the strength of Ashir .

When Almanzor besieged Abu Yazid , leader of the Berber jariyistas Banū Ifren , in the mountains of Kiyana, Ziri troops provided critical support him. After the death of Abu Yazid in 947, Ziri's Berber crushed maghrawas . The emir Umayyad Cordoba, an ally of the Banu Maghrawas and Ifren and confronted the Fatimids, acknowledged then that his influence in the Maghreb was severely diminished after victories Fatimids.

In recognition of his loyalty, Almanzor appointed governor Menad Ziri Tahert , and authorized his son ben Ziri Buluggin to build new cities in Medea and Miliana , having expelled the zenatas that governed them. In 960, Buluggin fortified and expanded Nicosium hitherto occupied by the Beni Mezghenna , and renamed El-Djazair Mezghenna Beni (modern Algeria ).

Despite Manad Ziri's victories, wars between maghrawas Zirids continued. When Ali ibn Djafar, one chief ally of the Fatimids, went over to the side of the maghrawas and the Umayyads of Córdoba, Ziri decided to crush this new revolt. But he was defeated and killed in battle in 971. [2] His head was taken to the Umayyad emir of Córdoba, Alhakén II .

His son succeeded him Buluggin and was appointed governor of Ifriqiya in 972 when the Fatimids transferred his court from al-Mahdiyya in Tunisia, to Cairo in Egypt .

Notes and references

1. Dja far ibn Ali, nicknamed "The Andalusian" emir was a service of the Fatimids who ruled zanatas regions of Biskra and M'Sila . It was of Arab origin and was born in Andalusia (see Evariste Lévi-Provençal, Histoire de l'Espagne musulmane , volume 2, Maisonneuve & Larose, 1999, 435 p., ISBN 978-270681387-0 , p. 187)

2. Yves Lacoste and André André Nouschi Prenant, L'Algérie, passé et présent: étapes et les le cadre de la Constitution de l'Algérie actuelle , Editions Sociales, Paris, 1960, 462 p., p. 115 [ edit ] Source

Ibn Khaldoun (French translation of William MacGuckin Slane), Histoire des des dynasties Muslim Berbers et de l'Afrique septentrionale , volume 2, Imprimerie du Gouvernement, Algiers, 1854, 635 p.

Zīrids

, the name of two mediæval dynasties of the Muslim west.

1. zīrids or banū zīrī, a Berber dynasty which held a part of Eastern Barbary from the end of the fourth (tenth) century to the middle of the sixth (xiith). The Zīrids were connected with the great confederation of the Ṣanhād̲j̲a [q. v.] and led a settled existence in the central Mag̲h̲rib. Zīrī b. Manād had founded As̲h̲īr [q. v.] in the mountains of Titterī about 940. He made it the capital of his territory and a bulwark against the attacks of the Zenāta Mag̲h̲rāwa [q. v.], allies of the Umaiyads of Cordova. By their resistance to the Zeuāta, the Zīrids rendered considerable service to the plans of the Fāṭimids of lfrīḳiya. Their most signal service was the relief of al-Mahdīya when it was besieged by the Ḵh̲ārid̲j̲ī agitator Abū Yazīd. The timely assistance which they rendered to the Fāṭimids on this and several other occasions was rewarded. When the Umaiyad caliph al-Muʿizz left lfrīḳiya for Egypt in 363 (973) he appointed Buluggīn b. Zīrī governor of Itrīḳiya and gave him by anticipatory investiture all the lands which he might conquer from the Zenāta.

Against these hereditary enemies the struggle was continued under Buluggīn [cf. buluḳḳīn] who marched victoriously through the Mag̲h̲rib and seized all the important towns with the exception of Ceuta, under al-Manṣūrb. Buluggīn (373—385 = 984—995) and under Bādīs b. al-Manṣūr (385—406 = 995—1016). During the latter emīr’s reign took place the division of the Zīrids into two kingdoms: one in the west went to the Ḥammādids who lived in the Ḳalʿa and the other in the east to the Zīrids with Ḳairawān as capital. An amicable arrangement regularising the division was made in 408 (1017) under al-Muʿizz b. Bādīs [q. v.]. In spite of this loss of territory, eastern Barbary enjoyed an undeniable economic prosperity during the reign of al-Muʿizz (406-454 = 1016—1062) which enabled the emir to enrich Ḳairawān and Ṣabra, the official city, with very fine buildings (ceilings and maḳṣūra of the great mosque of Ḳairawān). This wealth encouraged al-Muʿizz to cast off Fāṭimid suzerainty and to repudiate their doctrine which the people of Ifrīḳiya had only accepted with great reluctance. The caliph in Cairo punished this secession by sending in 444 (1052) against the rebels the Arab nomad tribes of the Banū Hilāl and Banū Sulaim [q. v.]. This was the great disaster. The open country was ruined completely; al-Muʿizz had to leave Ḳairawān ¶ and seek refuge in al-Mahdīya. While the Arabs held the plains, the towns formed republics and independent little principalities. Al-Muʿizz’s son Tamīm (454—501 = 1062—1108) tried without much success to regain possession of his kingdom and to thwart the ambition of the Ḥammādids. His successors were to continue this difficult task. What really gives interest to the later Zīrids, Tamīm b. al-Muʿizz, Yaḥyā b. Tamīm (501—509 = 1108—1116), ʿAlī b. Yaḥyā (509—515=1116—1121), al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī(515—563 = 1121-1167), is the maritime activity developed by these former landsmen now paralysed on the mainland and the repeated attempts made by them to retake the command of the sea from the Normans of Sicily. This struggle which generally took the form of piratical enterprises did not however end to the advantage of the Zīrids. After an effort to come to an arrangement with the Normans, the emirs could not prevent the enemy raiding the coast of Ifrīḳiya and plundering the coast towns. In 543 (1148) al-Mahdīya was taken by George of Antioch. Al-Ḥasan driven from his capital sought refuge at Bône, then in Algiers. He was reinstated in al-Mahdīya by the Almohad caliph ʿAbd al-Muʾmin and spent eight years there before being again exiled, to die in obscurity in the extreme Mag̲h̲rib in 563 (1167).

(G. Marçais)

Bibliography

Ibn Ḵh̲aldūn, Histoire des Berbères, ed. de Slane, i. 199—210

transl., ii. 9—29

Ibn ʿld̲h̲ārī, al-Bayān al-mug̲h̲rib, ed. Dozy, i. 237 sqq.

transl. Fagnan, i. 332 sqq.

Ibn al-At̲h̲īr, Kāmil, ed. Tornberg, viii. 456 sqq.

transl. Fagnan (Annales du Maghreb et de l’Espagne), p. 370 sqq.

al-Bakrī, Description de l’Afrique septentrionale, ed. and transl. de Slane

de Mas-Latrie, Traités de paix et de commerce concernant les relations des Chrétiens avec les Arabes de l’Afrique septentrionale, Paris 1866, vol. i.

G. Marçais, Les Arabes en Berbérie, introduction, chap, i.-ii.

do., Coupoles et plafonds de la Grande Mosquée de Kairouan, Tunis 1925

S. Flury, Islamische Schriftbänder-Anhang, Bâle 1920.

2. zīrids of spain, a secondary branch of the Berber family of the Banū Zīrī of Ifrīḳiya, who founded an independent principality with Granada as capital at the time of the dismemberment of the Umaiyad caliphate of Cordova.

The establishment in Spain of the Ṣanhād̲j̲a family had taken place only a few years previously. It originated in the rebellion in Ifrīḳiya of the members of the family of the Zīrid princes Buluggīn and al-Manṣūr who had been deprived of their positions. These malcontents gathered round one of Zīrī’s sons, Zāwī, who persuaded them to leave Ifrīḳiya. They offered their services, which were at first welcomed, to the ʿĀmirid ḥād̲j̲ib of Cordova, ʿAbd al-Malik al-Muẓaffar [q. v.]; accompanied by numerous followers they went to Spain where they soon played an important part in the Berber army raised by the ʿĀmirids in which they formed one of the main elements. When the caliph Sulaimān al-Mustaʿīn at the beginning of the vth (xith) century distributed lands to his principal auxiliaries, he gave the Banū Zīrī the district of Elvira [q. v.], the old capital of which was gradually being supplanted by Granada, a town of quite recent foundation mainly peopled by Jews. Zāwī b. Zīrī without adopting the ¶ sovereign title at once began to act as an independent ruler in Granada. Taking up the cause of the pretender to the caliphate ʿAlī b. Ḥammūd [q. v.], he inflicted on the supporters of another pretender, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Murtaḍā, in 407 (1016—1017) a serious defeat in the region of Granada. His authority was naturally strengthened by this success; it is therefore all the more difficult to explain the decision he soon took to abandon his principality and return to his native land of Ifrīḳiya. It was dictated no doubt by the ancient hatred, still alive in Spain, which had divided Africa into anti-Fāṭimid Zenāta and pro-Fāṭimid Ṣanhād̲j̲a. The Zenāta were daily gaining ground in Spain, where they occupied the mountainous region of the centre and west of Andalusia. Zāwī however retook Ḳairawān with only a very small body of followers in 416 (1025).

On the departure of Zāwī b. Zīrī, his nephew Ḥabbūs b. Māksan assumed command of the Zīrids in Granada. He adopted a sovereign title, that of ḥūd̲j̲ib, and the honorific laḳab of Saif al-Dawla. He reigned for over 10 years until 429 (1038). He concluded alliances with the petty neighbouring dynasties and at his death had increased his kingdom by the districts of Jaen [q. v.] and Cabra. He had entrusted the conduct of his kingdom to a Jewish vizier, Samuel Ibn Nag̲h̲zāla, a thing unprecedented in Muslim Spain. The fame of this vizier, not only an able minister, but author of many original works in Hebrew, spread far and in 1027 the Jews of Spain revived for him the princely title of nag̲h̲īd.

On the death of Ḥabbūs b. Māksan, power passed to his son Bādīs b. Ḥabbūs, whose long reign marks the culminating point of Zīrid power in Spain. He began by inflicting a bloody defeat on the prince of Almeria, his former ally Zuhair [q. v.] who lost his life in the battle fought in the pass of Alpuente (429). Emboldened by this success and by the victories which he won without difficulty over the troops of the prince of Valencia and Seville, Bādīs b. Ḥabbūs threw off the suzerainty (at best only nominal) of the petty Ḥammūdid caliph of Malaga and annexed his dominions (c. 450 = 1058). The years following were marked by the anti-Berber policy of the Arab king of Seville, al-Muʿtaḍid [q. v.] Ibn ʿAbbād, who successfully annexed the little Berber kingdoms of Ronda [q. v.], Jerez (Ar. S̲h̲arīs̲h̲ [q. v.]) and Acros. As a result the power of the Arabs in Spain increased considerably and the only bloc of Berber resistance which was still really solid was that of the Ṣanhād̲j̲a Zīrids of Granada. Bādīs could not help being disturbed by this advance of the ʿAbbādid kingdom in the east of Andalusia and at the same time by the increasingly marked signs of disaffection among his own Arab subjects. Bādīs in these unpropitious circumstances and against the advice of the vizier Samuel, whom he had retained on his accession, went to war with Seville, but without success. A Seville army led by the prince al-Muʿtamid was fortunately checked in its advance on Malaga.

On the death of the vizier Samuel, his son Joseph succeeded him as Bādīs’s first minister. Unlike his father, the new vizier soon turned against himself not only the Arabs of the Zīrid kingdom but also the Berbers themselves, by his extravagance and the luxury with which he surrounded himself and the favours he bestowed on his co-religionists. If ¶ we may believe the Arab historians, his ambitions increasing, he had the heir presumptive of Bādīs poisoned, his son Buluggīn, succeeded in exculpating himself with his master and for a time thought of creating a Jewish kingdom in Spain for his own advantage. He was in secret correspondence with the lord of Almeria, Ibn Ṣumādiḥ, and offered to surrender Granada to him, on condition that Almeria became the capital of a Jewish principality of which he should be ruler. The reaction was inevitable and rapid. On the appeal of the Arab poet Abū Isḥāḳ al-Ilbīrī in a poem that became famous, a conspiracy was got up against the Jews of Granada and on 9th Ṣafar 459 (Dec. 30, 1066) Joseph Ibn Nag̲h̲zāla and 3,000 Granada Jews were massacred and their houses plundered.

The reign of Bādīs b. Ḥabbūs lasted till 466 (1073). Granada had now become an important city grouped around the citadel which stood on the west bank of the Darro; it had been built by Ḥabbūs b. Māksan and enlarged by Bādīs. The residence of the latter, according to local tradition, was called “house of the weathercock” (dār dīk al-rīḥ) which is preserved in that of “casa del Gallo”. A bridge over the Darro still called “Puente del Cadi” was built in 447 (1055) by the ḳāḍī of Granada ʿAlī b. Muḥammad b. Tawba. A mawlā of Bādīs b. Ḥabbūs, Muʾammil, left his memorial in Granada in several public works also built in the Zīrid period.

When Bādīs b. Ḥabbūs died, he left two grandsons, Tamīm, then governor of Malaga, and ʿAbd Allāh; the latter assumed power in Granada while his brother set up as an independent ruler in Malaga. This division was to be maintained till the end of the Zīrid dynasty. Events were however soon to move rapidly with the advance of Christian arms. The taking of Toledo [q. v.] in 1085 by Alfonso VI was followed next year by the famous victory won by Yūsuf b. Tās̲h̲fīn at al-Zallāḳa [q. v.] in which Tamīm and ʿAbd Allāh took part with their contingents. When in 1090, Yūsuf returned to Spain, one of his first cares, after the failure of the siege of Aledo, was, on the advice of the ḳāḍī of Granada Abū Ḏj̲aʿfar al-Ḳulaiʿī, to seize Granada and dethrone ʿAbd Allāh. The latter abandoned by all had to go to the Almoravid sulṭān who made him a prisoner and soon afterwards dethroned his brother Tamīm in Malaga. ʿAbd Allāh was exiled to Ag̲h̲māt [q.v.] on the northern borders of the Moroccan Great Atlas. Tamīm was forced to live in Marrākus̲h̲ where he died in 488 (1095). Almoravid governors were installed at Granada and Malaga to mark the completeness of the fall of the Zīrid dynasty in Spain.

Bibliography

The principal source is Ibn ʿId̲h̲ārī, al-Bayān al-mug̲h̲rib, iii., ed. E. Lévi-Provençal, Paris 1930, index. Cf. also Ibn al-Ḵh̲aṭīb, Iḥāṭa, Cairo and MSS. in the Escurial

Ibn Bassām, al-Ḏh̲ak̲h̲īra fī Maḥāsin Ahl al-Ḏj̲azīra, i.

the texts collected by Dozy, Script. arabum loci de Abbadidis, Leyden 1846

al-Maḳḳarī, Nafḥ al-Ṭīb (Analectes), index

Munck, in J. A., 4th serie, vol. xvi., p. 210 sqq.

Graetz, Les Juifs d’Espagne, transl. Stenne, Paris 1872

Dozy, Hist. Mus. Esp., new ed., Leyden 1932, vol. iii., index

Dozy, Recherches sur l’histoire et la littérature de l’Espagne au Moyen-âge, Leyden 1881, i. 282 sqa.

A. Prieto y Vives, ¶ Los Reyes de taifas, Madrid 1926, p. 28 sqq.

A. González Palencia, Historia de la España musulmana, Barcelona 1925, p. 60-64, 72—73.

(E. Lévi-Provençal)

Citation " Zīrids." Encyclopaedia of Islam, First Edition (1913-1936). Brill Online , 2013. Reference. Jim Harlow. 29 January 2013 <http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-isla...>