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(a.) “that which is round”, has given, under the form almodovar , the name to a small river of the province of Cadiz which flows from the south-east into the Laguna de la Janda, and also to several places in Spain and Portugal: Almodovar del Rio, below Cordova; Almodovar del Campo (or de Calatrava), to the south-west of Ciudad Real; Almodovar del Pinar, in the province of Cunenca; and Almodovar to the west of Mértola in southern Portugal. (C.F. Seybold)

, whose full name was S̲h̲ihāb al-Dīn Abu ’l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. Faraḥ b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Lak̲h̲mī al-Is̲h̲bīlī al-S̲h̲āfiʿī , born in 625/1228 at Seville (Is̲h̲bīliya [ q.v.]), was taken prisoner in 646/1248 by the Franks (al-Ifrand̲j̲), i.e., the Spaniards under Ferdinand III the Saint, of Castile (1217-52), at the conquest of Seville, but escaped and afterwards went, between 650 and 660/1252-62, to Egypt; after hearing the most celebrated teachers of Cairo, he studied under those of Damascus, where he settled and gave lectures …

, or Nahr Yāna/Āna , the classical Anas, Span. Guadiana, Port. Odiana, a great river of the south-central and southwestern parts of the Iberian peninsula. It rises in the southeastern part of the central Meseta, in the Serranía de Cuenca [see Ḳūnka ], as the Záncara and Gigüela rivers, and flows westwards and then southwards to the Adantic, with a course of 578 km/360 miles. Its last part, below Pomarâo, forms part of the modern boundary between Spain and Portugal; only this section, and a little further upstream t…

, Arabic al-Munakkab, a little town in Spain to the south of Granada on the Mediterranean, is known through the landing of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān I (756) with 1000 Berber horse-men; in 1489 it surrendered to the Catholic kings. (C. F. Seybold)

, French Cordoue, English, Italian and German Cordova (Kordova), Arabic Ḳurṭuba, Latin Cordŭba (370 feet above sea-level) on the right (north) bank of the central course of the Guadalquivir (from the Arabic Wād al-Kabīr “the great river”), the ancient Baetis, with 60,000 inhabitants, is at the present day the capital of the province of the same name which lies on both sides of the river in the heart of Andalusia. The southern and smaller half of the province, practically the famous La Campiña ( Iḳlīm al-Kanbāniya, Idrīsī, Arabic text, p. 174), rising in the south east to a heigh…

b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Sanchol Abu ’l-Ḥasan, grandson of the great Al-manzor (al-Manṣur). ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz became prince of Valencia in 412 (1021), and in the year 429 (1038) when Zuhair, the prince of Almeria, had died, he took possession of the latter’s principality. Through this action, however, he came at loggerheads with Mud̲j̲āhid, the prince of Denia, and therefore in the year 1041 he installed his brother-in-law Abu’l-Aḥwaṣ, who soon made himself independent [see Ṣumādiḥ], ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, who, like his grandfather, also bore the surname of al-Manṣūr, continued to rule…

(by its fnll name Nuestea Señora or Santa María de Alarcos) is the name of a holy shrine (santuario, ermita) onelegua(6.687 kilometre) west of Ciudad Real. It is situated on a hill, formerly the site of the ancient town called al-Ark and al-Arkuh in Arabic, which was destroyed by the Almohades after the great victory which under Yaʿḳūb they gained here over Alphonse VIII of Castile. On historical maps the situation of al-Ark is always erroneously displaced towards the south, down into the Sierra Morena. I…

, the capital of a district in the Spanish province of Granada on the northern slopes of the Sierra Nevada ( Ḏj̲ebel S̲h̲ulair = Solorius Mons, Ḏj̲ebel al-T̲h̲ald̲j̲ = “snowmountain” like Hermon), the ancient Iberian Ācci (Colonia Julia Gemella, which was however 7 miles N. W. [Baedeker wrongly S. E.] of the modern Guadix and is distinguished as Guadix al Viejo), one of the oldest bishoprics in Spain ( Sedes Accitana), with 13,000 inhabitants, on the left bank of the stream of the same name which rises to the south (Rio de Guadix), with a Moorish castle (Alcazaba), in Arabic called Wādiās̲h̲, m…

, the name of five Spanish Umaiyads: 1. ʿAbd al-raḥmān I B. Muʿāwiya b. His̲h̲ām escaped from the slaughter which the ʿAbbāsides in 750 perpetrated on his family, and after long wanderings in North Africa came to Spain, where in 756 he founded the independent Emirate (subsequently also Sultanate) of the Umaiyads at Cordova. By his statesmanlike cunning and restless energy, which with all his determination and strength of character yet for the most part never degenerated into the often so useless cruelty and b…

(Arabic al-k̲h̲andaḳ = “the moat”) was the scene of the crushing defeat of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III of Cordova by king Ramiro of Leon and Queen Tota of Navarre, in the year 939. The name is, at the present day, only found in Fresno- and Torre-Alhándiga, south of Salamanca and Alba de Tormes. (C. F. Seybold) Bibliography Dozy, Hist. des Musulmans d’Espagne iii. 62 et seq. the same, Recherches sur l’histoire et la littérature de l’Espagne (3rd ed.) i. 156—170 Madoz, Diccionario geográfico-estadístico-histórico ii. 184 (“Alóndiga ó Alhóndiga”).

, Greek ΒαλιαρεĩΣ, Latin Baliares, which form has more authority than Baleares, usually but falsely derived from βάλλειν “to throw”, because the ancient inhabitants were good slingers and as such served in the Roman and Carthaginian armies, earlier called Gymnesiae Insulae after the almost naked horsemen, a group of islands in the western Mediterranean. The name includes in the narrower sense, ¶ the two principal islands, lying to the north-east: Mallorca (Insula Major, since the time of Procopius Majorica, Majorca) and Minorca (Insula Minor, Minorica) wi…

The Banū Ḏj̲ahwar were an oldestablished influential A r a b family in Cordova, which produced numerous scholars, jurists and particularly viziers. After the fall of the Umaiyads the shrewd vizier of the last of them, Abu ’l-Ḥazm Ḏj̲ahwar b. Muḥammad b. Ḏj̲ahwar made himself President of the republic or Regent ( Raʾīs) of Cordova 422—435 = 1031—1043. Dozy ( Histoire, iv. 298) makes his son Abu ’l-Walīd Muḥammad b. Ḏj̲ahwar reign from 1043—1064, while Lane-Poole, Mohammadan Dynasties gives his date as 435—450=1043—1058 and his son Abd al-Malik’s correspondingly 1064—1070 …

(Portuguese: Albuera, variants Albufeira, Albuera; from Arabic al-buḥaira, small sea, lake) is the name of a lagoon near Valencia, the Palus Naccararum of the ancients. Part of it has been drained both with the alluvium and by artificial means, and is now used for growing rice. (C. F. Seybold)

The Bānū Ḏh̲i ’l-Nūn were an influential Berber family of the Huwāra tribe, who migrated into Spain at quite an early period where, during the rebellions against Muḥammad I. (238—273 = 852—886) and ʿAbdallāh (275—300 = 888—912) Amīrs of Córdoba, they played a part as leaders of a robber band of rebels, northeast of Toledo in S̲h̲antaberīya (Santaver on the Guadiela), Webd̲h̲a (Huete) and Uḳlīs̲h̲ (Uclés). After the fall of the Caliphate of Cordoba in the first quarter of the xith century the first independent king of Toledo of the new dynasty, Yaʿīs̲h̲ b. Muḥammad b. Yaʿīs̲…

(or algeciras), Arabic: al-Ḏj̲azīra al-Ḵh̲aḍrāʾ, “the green island” (named after the Isla Verde lying in front of it), sometimes called Ḏj̲azīrat Umm Ḥakīm, the first Spanish town taken by Ṭarīf, in Ramaḍān 91 (Juiy 710). It lies on the bay of Algeciras or of Gibraltar, and, together with the latter place, served the Arabs as a harbour and dockyard. The first governors, and after them the Umaiyads, the petty kings, the Almoravids, the Almohads and the Naṣrids all used to cross to the African coas…

is the chief town in the northeastern district of the Spanish province of Alicante, the most southerly of the three modern provinces (Castellón de la Plana, Valencia, Alicante) which make up the ancient kingdom of Valencia, with 14,000 inhabitants, situated almost at the southeast end of the Gulf of Valencia (Sinus Sucronensis) north of Mongo (2196 feet high), in Arabic Ḏj̲ebel Ḳāʿūn = Mon(t)gó, was on account of its good harbour, northwest of the ancient Promontorium Artemisium, Ferrarium or T…

(from Arabic al-ḳāḍī = judge) is a Spanish name for “mayor”, not to be confused with alcaide (from al-ḳāʾid = leader, general) which in Spanish means “commandant of a fortress”, “steward of a castle”. (C. F. Seybold)

, the capital of the Spanish province of the same name, on the plateau (2000 feet high) of northeastern Castile, with 12,000 inhabitants, is the ancient Arriaca (from arri, Basque “stone”) on the left (eastern) bank of the Henares, which the Arabs called Wādi ’l-Ḥid̲j̲āra “Stone-river” ( amnis lapidum in Rodericus Toletanus), whence the name Guadalaxara, ¶ the modern Guadalajara, which was then transferred to the town and used particularly of it; the latter was also called Madīnat al-Farad̲j̲, which might be translated “city of joy”, if a note by al-Yaʿḳūbī did not inform…

(from Arabic al-Ḥamma and al-Ḥāmma, “the hot bath”) is the name of various places and of a few streams in Spain, the best known being (1) Alhama, south-west of Granada at the northern foot of the Sierra de Alhama and on the Rio Alhama; in 1482 it was surprised and taken by Ferdinand the Catholic of Aragon, the prelude to the conquest of Granada 1492, cf. the well-known popular ballad); on December 25th 1884 it was almost completely destroyed by an earthquake. (2) Alhama on the upper Jalón, south-west of Saragossa, the ancient Aquae Bilbilitanae. (3) Alhama between Murcia and Lorca. (C. F. Seybo…

b. Mūsā b. Nuṣair, a governor. When his father, the famous conqueror of Spain, left this country in the year 95 (713), he remained behind as governor and married the widow of the Gothic king Roderick, named by the Arabs Eyilo, Ailo (Egilona), or Umm ʿĀṣim after her son. According to al-Wāḳidī and other Arabian chroniclers, it was the arrogance of this woman which caused the Arab troops to murder him in the year 97 (715) in the monastery of Santa Rufina near Seville, to day known as the Convento Cap…