The emergence of the Taifa kingdom of Toledo

The period between the fall of the Umayyads of Cordoba and the emergence of the successor states in the Iberian peninsula is shadowy and unclear. In t his article, I attempt to offer a micro-study of the process in one place. Using literary and numismatic sources, I attempt a reconstruction of events in and connected with Toledo, and of the list of rulers who were active th ere, in the first two decades of the fifth Islamic century. This list is mu ch longer (though almost all those mentioned in it ruled very briefly) than was previously suspected. Because of the importance of Toledo as a frontier city, it is particularly important to know something of the process of the transfer of authority the re at this time. Most of the local leaders seem not to have attributed much importance to the city; the local population, on the other hand, seems to have been willing to accept virtually any ruler who might protect them agai nst the threat of Christian encroachment. The study shows the potential val ue of micro-studies in illuminating broader issues, such as factional in-fi ghting in such cities, but it also brings out the metropolitan bias and oth er limitations of our sources. In three appendices I look at numismatic evidence for two of these newly id entified rulers, at a textual crux in the anonymous Fath al-Andalus, and at a difficult passage in the Naqt al-'Arus of Ibn Hazm.