The permanent state of war in al-Andalus thus allowed the Christians of the North to seize the cities and regions of Lisbon, Tortosa, and Lérida. The Portuguese seized Beja a first time on 22 dhū l-ḥijja 557/December 1, 1162. They pillaged the town, but were unable to hold onto it after April of the next year. During the same period, Count Ximeno of Ávila (Abū l-
Barḍāʿa) pillaged the region of Seville where the caliph was taking care of supplying Badajoz,
resettling Beja, and directing attacks against Talavera and Toledo.150 After a few years of reprieve, the Christian offensives began fiercely anew in 560/1165. Giraldo Sempavor, the “Portuguese Cid,” a military leader in the service of the Portuguese king, seized the Almohad cities of Cáceres, Trujillo, Évora, and Beja. When, because of internal problems, Castile and Portugal solicited a truce in the summer of 1173, Giraldo Sempavor changed over to the Almohads and served in the Maghrib with other Christian soldiers who constituted the personal guard for the Almoravid, Almohad, and subsequent rulers.151 Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf returned to the
Maghrib in 571/1176 where the Almohads were faced with new insurrections.152 The Leonese,
rivals of both young Portugal to the west and Castile to the east, quickly broke their traditional alliance with the Almohads to attack Cáceres in 577/1183.
Alfonso II of Aragon attacked Valencia in May 1171, anxious about the disappearance of his ally Ibn Mardanīsh. Hostilities with León resumed between 1174 and 1177. Alfonso Enríquez of Portugal raided the Sevillian Aljarafe in the summer of 1178. The Muslims definitively evacuated Beja. Alfonso VIII took Setefilla. The Leonese besieged Cáceres in
150ʿAṭā’ al-jazīl, f° 1-3, ed. NLA, n° 27, 130-134.
151 cf Ch.-E. DUFOURCQ, L’Espagne catalane et la Maghreb, and I. al-Q. BUTSHISH, “Al-jāliya al- masīḥiyya”.
1183. When the caliph returned to al-Andalus in May 1184 with Arab and Maṣmūda troops, it was to die during the siege of Santarem. Yūsuf’s death, kept secret until the army’s return to Seville, opened the doors of the caliphate to his son, Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb, acknowledged in the Andalusī capital the 10-11 August 1184.153 The Christians took advantage of the Almohad
ruler’s absence to advance their pieces and seize strongholds in al-Andalus. Alfonso VIII of Castile harrowed Cordova and Seville, allied with ʿAbd Allāh b. Ghāniya of Majorca, and seized Magacela in June 1190. A band of Crusaders on their way to Jerusalem (conquered by Saladin in 1187) helped Sancho I of Portugal take Silves in September 1189 after a four-month siege, as well as a few minor enclaves like Alvor.
In April 1190, the caliph disembarked at Tarifa and went directly to Cordova. He accepted truces with Castile and León to free himself for action against Portugal. From the Guadiana valley, he sent troops along the Tagus against Silves and Évora, seized Torres-Nova, and returned to Seville on June 26, 1190, after a partial defeat at Tomar. He seized Alcacer in April 1191, then Silves in June. The Portuguese begged for a truce, which allowed Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb to return triumphantly to the Maghrib. The Almohad caliph returned to al-Andalus in 1195. He arrived at Tarifa on June 1st, headed to Seville, then Cordova (June 23rd). He crossed the pass of Muradiel and set up his army on the plain of Salvatierra and in Campo de Calatrava where Alfonso VIII of Castile came out to meet him.154 The turning movement of his troops allowed al-Manṣūr to win the battle of Alarcos (al-Arak). The Almohads pushed their advantage to take back a number of fortresses: Alarcos, Guadalferza, Malagón, Benavente, Calatrava la Vieja, and Caracuel. Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb al-Manṣūr refused the Castilian truce offer and accepted an alliance with León to whom he provided troops to attack Castile in Tierra de Campo. He, himself, took Montánchez, Trujillo, Santa Cruz, and Plasencia, raiding lands in Talavera, Santa Olalla, and Escalona without succeeding in taking Máqueda. He remained before Toledo for ten days then returned to Cordova. The caliph renewed the ṣayfiyya the next year, and raided the lands of Talavera, Máqueda, Oreja, Madrid, Alcalá de Henares, Guadalajara, Huete, Uclés, Cuenca, and Alarcón. Returning to Seville the 19th of August, he accepted truces with Castile to take care of troubles instigated by the Banū Ghāniya in Ifrīqiya.
The chronicles show a great contrast between the Almoravid period, with practically no truces, and the Almohad period, when they were frequent with all the kingdoms concerned, except Navarra - with no common border with al-Andalus, Navarra was the traditional ally of
153 Ma J. VIGUERA (dir.), El retroceso territorial, 96. 154 Ma J. VIGUERA (dir.), El retroceso territorial, 98.
the Muslim powers against Castile and Aragon until 1212. This does not mean that the state of war was permanent at the beginning of the twelfth century, and that peace reigned during the second half of the century. An absence of official truces, first of all, does not necessarily imply the existence of military expeditions (the borderlands must have been spared, in particular, in winter). Next, an agreement did not prevent transgressions, and, finally, the treaties passed by the Almohad Empire never concerned all the Christian kingdoms at once. The Mu’minid dynasty was in fact perpetually at war with one or many of the Christian kingdoms. It is, however, incontestable that the end of the twelfth century, and even more so after the Christian victory at Las Navas de Tolosa (al-ʿIqāb), saw an institutionalization of diplomatic relations, as witnessed by the exchange of emissaries, negotiations, and renewed accords.
The truces were all temporary, except the alliance with León, and they seem to have been negotiated, established for a fixed time, with the possibility of renewal. The duration was generally fixed at five years.155 All truce proposals were not accepted: they came out of a common accord that considered the power struggle between two polities. The truce, moreover, was passed in the name of the central power.156 The ruler, or his representative, signed the accord after having negotiated terms. The negotiations appear to have been bitter, and Muslim sources mention more often the arrival of Christian ambassadors than the expedition of Muslim ambassadors.157 The Christians do not seem to have been held to pre-established rules in
155 Morabia recalls that because of the Koran (115, IX, 3), treaties were authorized four months of the year. Al-Shafīʿī’s Kitāb al-umm (IV, 190) accepts the signing of armistices without paying tribute or truces the duration of which was to be determined. They had to be less than ten years for the Shafīʿites, and less than four for the Malīkites and Ḥanafites, based on the Prophet’s example at Hudaybiyya, when he broke a truce originally meant to last ten years (A. Morabia, Le Gihad, 319).
156 This point is discussable, for, on the Muslim side, the taifas who separated from the central government during the crises (middle of the twelfth and middle of the thirteenth centuries), passed treaties with the Christian kingdoms. However, these were not “private” accords, but in fact “public”, for the territorial rulers claimed legitimate power over al-Andalus. This was the case for Ibn Mardanīsh, Sayf al-Dawla, or later Abū Zayd or al-Bayāsī.
157 As shown by this passage from the Bayān concerning the renewal of treaties in 618/1221-1222: “In 618, treaties and the peace were renewed (al-muhādana wa-l-muṣālaḥa bayna wulāti l-Andalusi mina l-sādati wa-l-muwaḥḥidīna bi-amri amīri l-mu’minīn al-Mustanṣiri bi-Llāhi, wa bayna al-naṣārá) between
the Almohad sayyids, governors of al-Andalus in the name of the amīr al-mu’minīn al-Mustanṣir bi-Llāh and the Christians, may God annihilate them; the vizier Abū Yaḥyá Zakariyā b. Abī Zakariyā wrote to the queen of Castile, Doña Berenguela, daughter of the king of Castile and Toledo, a letter written by Ibn ʿAyyāsh, in which he notified her of the peace (yukhbiru-hā bi-l-salami lladhī nʿuqida bayna-hu wa
bayna rasūli-him) signed between him and the Christian envoys: ‘Your emissary was sent back to you
with what you will learn from him concerning the peace established, may its star shine, agreed upon between Almohads and you with this eminent information which he brings you and the gifts he carries you and which will arrive in his hands, as a sign of good will (mukhālaṣat wa thamrat al-muwāṣala) and it is good that all that relates to this treaty between us be respected (yanbaghī an yakūna mutaqabbilan) and interpreted in the best way (wa ʿalá aḥsani al-muta’awwalāti muta’awwilan inshā’ Allāh) if God wills it and yourself with God’s help may you stay with the terms of peace, may you keep it, and may you punish all those who plot against the Muslims, for loyalty is the distinction of kings (fa-inna al-wafā’a
negotiated truces. They thus adapted to the norms applicable in Dār al-Islām.158 The appearance
of early indicators of troubles, complaints on the eve of truce expirations bear witness on the contrary to the respect they warranted.159 Giraldo Sempavor’s departure for North Africa after the truce signed between Portugal and the Almohads confirms that it would have been inconceivable for this nobleman to go against the agreement signed by his king.160