Juego como forma de escape …

After al-Mustanṣir’s accidental or provoked death in 1124, power no longer transferred from father to son. The late caliph’s great uncle, Abū Muḥammad b. Yūsuf b. ʿAbd al-Mu’min, known as al-Makhlūʿ (the “Deposed”), succeeded him, but his reign lasted only eight months (620-621/1224). His ascension marked the beginning of the wars of succession. His nephew, Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿĀdil (621/1224-624/1227), the son of al-Manṣūr, then governor of Murcia proclaimed himself caliph on 13 ṣafar 621/March 6, 1224 in Murcia, at the instigation of his vizier, Ibn Yujjān.231 _{He appointed his brother, Abū l-ʿAlá Idrīs, the future al-}

Ma’mūn, as governor of Seville, and one of his cousins, the sayyid ʿAbd Allāh al-Bayāsī, as governor of Cordova. With the help of other brothers, the governors of Malaga and Granada, he received the support of all al-Andalus, except Valencia, Denia, Játiva, and Alcira, governed by one of his cousins, the brother of al-Bayāsī, the sayyid Abū Zayd or Ceyt Abu Ceyt, grand- nephew of Yūsuf I, who had remained loyal to the caliph in Marrakesh (al-Makhlūʿ), and who was rapidly assassinated in September 1224.

Al-ʿĀdil was easily recognized in the Maghrib at the end of 1225, but in al-Andalus he faced the revolt of the sayyid ʿAbd Allāh al-Bayāsī, who allied with Fernando III and fortified his position in Baeza (hence his shuhra). The Leonese pillaged the region of Seville, which was defenseless because of the military conflict with al-Bayāsī. Fernando III entered Murcia and Abū Zayd (Ceyt Abu Ceyt), al-Bayāsī’s brother, declared himself his vassal in the summer of 1225. Al-Bayāsī was able to take Cordova, but his alliance with the Christians alienated the population, leading to a revolt and his execution in the summer of 1226. Sometime between al- Bayāsī’s death, and al-Ma’mūn’s claim to the caliphal title, the future ruler issued taqdīm 4 from manuscript 4752, so sometime between the summer of 1226 and September 1227. Indeed, the copyist indicates in the title: “in the name of al-Ma’mūn Abū al-ʿAlá, before he became caliph.” Moreover, the act was written in Cordova. The taqdīm served to appoint a shaykh as governor (wālī) of a region, with important prerogatives: direction of the affairs and interests of the entire region (ufq) and its districts (anẓār), combating “the party of corruption” (ahl al-

fasād), applying and executing the law (tanfīdh al-ḥaqqī wa mḍā’i-hi), and collecting taxes

(istīfā’ al-wājibi wa qtiḍā’i-hi).232 _{Al-ʿĀdil had left the Peninsula to his brother, al-Ma’mūn}

(624/1227-629/1232), who also declared himself caliph in September 1227, leading to al- ʿĀdil’s assassination in Marrakesh (22 shawwāl 624/October 5, 1227). Al-Ma’mūn then marched on the Maghrib impose his power over that of his nephew, Yaḥyá al-Muʿtaṣim (624/1227-633/1236), son of Muḥammad al-Nāṣir and brother of al-Mustanṣir, who had been proclaimed in Marrakesh.

Al-Ma’mūn arrived in October 1228 and chased al-Muʿtaṣim from Marrakesh where he had himself recognized as caliph and renounced shortly thereafter the Almohad doctrine of the

ʿiṣma of the Mahdī Ibn Tūmart. He thus ordered the suppression of the Mahdī’s name from the khuṭba and from coinage. There is perhaps a trace of al-Ma’mūn’s ideological rupture in the taqādīm of manuscript 4752, in the five judicial appointments ascribed to him.233 _{In the first}

two, the only foundations mentioned on which the judge should rely in pronouncing the law are “The Book of God and the Tradition of His messenger” (kitābu Llāhi wa sunnatu rasūli-hi),234

or simply “the Book and the Tradition” (al-kitāb wa l-sunna).235 _{In the following three,}

however, these two pillars are joined by a third, the “consensus of the Community” (ijmāʿu l-

ummati),236 or even, in the case of taqdīm 51, a fourth: the “juridical consultations of the imāms” (wa fatāwá al-a’immati).237

A veritable purge of his adversaries in Marrakesh accompanied this doctrinal reorientation, in particular within the Hintāta tribe. This purge had very important consequences, since, as we shall see, it led to Ifrīqiya seceding. Al-Ma’mūn sought then to reestablish ties with the remaining pieces of Islamic Spain, notably Seville, where the Almohads were still solidly entrenched and from whence he had come. He consequently tried to take Ceuta from his brother, Abū Mūsá ʿImrān, who had revolted against him, but failed.238 _{The taqādīm}

52 and 53 seem related to this, wherein al-Ma’mūn appoints his “relative” (ṣanū-hū), the faqīh Abū Muḥammad, as judge of Jérez, in the middle of shawwāl 626/1229, then of Algeciras in ṣafar of the same year. Taqdīm 57, in which the caliph al-Rashīd (629/1232-640/1242) appoints the same person, Abū Muḥammad, to the judgeship of Jérez in dhū l-Qaʿda 636/1238, is the

232 _{See taqdīm 4.}

233 _{See below taqādīm 49 to 53.} 234 _{f° 32r, l. 18.}

235 _{f° 33r, l. 1}

236 _{f° 33v, l. 10-11, f° 34r, l. 16 and f° 35r, l. 5.} 237 _{f° 33v, l. 12.}

last act of power by the Almohad caliphs in the Iberian peninsula. Al-Ma’mūn’s departure from al-Andalus thus represents a rupture in the history of the Iberian peninsula: he was the last Almohad ruler to have resided there and, despite a few nominal later associations with the Almohad rulers of Marrakesh, we can consider the peninsula no longer under North African authority