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.