Emirate of Nekor
Emirate of Nekor إمارة بني صالح | |||||||||
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| 710–1019 | |||||||||
.gif) The Emirate of Nekor (yellow) at the time of the Idrisid dynasty. | |||||||||
| Status | Client state of the Umayyad Caliphate (710–750) | ||||||||
| Capital | Temsaman (710–760) Nekor (760–1019) | ||||||||
| Common languages | Arabic Berber | ||||||||
| Religion | Islam | ||||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||||
| Emir | |||||||||
• 710–749 | Salih I ibn Mansur | ||||||||
• 947–970 | Jurthum ibn Ahmad | ||||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages | ||||||||
• Established | 710 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 1019 | ||||||||
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| History of Morocco |
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| Historical Arab states and dynasties |
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The Emirate of Nekor or Salihid Emirate (Arabic: إمارة بني صالح, romanized: ʾImārat Banī Ṣāliḥ) was an Arab emirate centered in the Rif area of present-day Morocco. Its capital was initially located at Temsaman, and then moved to Nekor. The ruling dynasty presented itself as of Himyarite Arab descent.[1] The emirate was founded in 710 CE by Salih I ibn Mansur through a Caliphate grant. Under his guidance, the local Berber tribes adopted Islam, but later deposed him in favor of one az-Zaydi from the Nafza tribe. They subsequently changed their mind and reappointed Ibn Mansur. His dynasty, the Banū Sālih, thereafter ruled the region until 1019.
The Emirate of Nekor (or Nakur) was the first autonomous state in the Maghreb and the only one that adhered to Sunni Islam exclusively. Not much is known about the town of Nekor's archaeology outside the field survey and minor excavations conducted in the 1980s. The town has what may have been a mosque, a possible hammam, or public bathhouse, and two substantial walls. Ceramics excavated there include local productions and others that show its connections with Ifriqiya and al-Andalus.[2]
History
[edit]In 859, a major long-distance Viking expedition set out for Spain. They tried to land at Galicia and were driven off. Then they sailed down the west coast of the peninsula and burned the mosque at Seville, but were repelled by a large Muslim force there before entering the Mediterranean through the Straits of Gibraltar and burning the mosque at Algeciras, following which they headed south to Nekor, plundered the city for eight days,[3] and defeated a Muslim force that attempted to stop them.[4]
The relationship between the ruling family of the Salihid Emirate of Nekor and the local Berber tribal structure made it a predominantly Berber state, one aligned with the Umayyads of al-Andalus. The Umayyad Caliph al-Walid I had obtained the territory through iqṭāʿ, the Isamic practice of tax farming. Their bond was strengthened by the fact that the Emirate of Nekor professed the same Islamic creed as the Umayyads, that of the Maliki school.[5]
According to the Arab Andalusi geographer al-Bakrī, several ports of the Moroccan Rif in the emirate of Nekor – including Badia, Buquya, and Bālish,[6] the port of the Ṣanhāja (Aẓnag) Berber confederation – were controlled by Berber tribes. These coastal communities developed with mixed populations of Berber, Arab, and Andalusi (converted or Mozarab) descent. The Berbers were taxed by the Salihid emirs, and paid their taxes with the income they earned by exploiting marine resources on the coast, consequently controlling maritime activity on the coast.[7]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Picard, Christophe (2018). Sea of the Caliphs. Harvard University Press. p. 247. ISBN 978-0-674-66046-5.
- ^ Anderson, Glaire D.; Fenwick, Corisande; Rosser-Owen, Mariam (2017). "Introduction". In Anderson, Glaire D.; Fenwick, Corisande; Rosser-Owen, Mariam (eds.). The Aghlabids and their Neighbors: Art and Material Culture in Ninth-Century North Africa. BRILL. p. 27. ISBN 978-90-04-35604-7.
- ^ García Losquiño, Irene (2023). "Vikings in the Spanish Mediterranean: Measuring Impact Through Local Responses" (PDF). In Price, Neil; Eriksen, Marianne Hem; Jahnke, Carsten (eds.). Vikings in the Mediterranean: Proceedings of an International Conference co-organized by the Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish Institutes at Athens, 27-30 November 2019. Athens: Norwegian Institute at Athens. p. 70. ISBN 978-618-85360-4-3.
- ^ Price, Neil (2008). "Spain, North Africa and the Mediterranean". In Brink, Stefan; Price, Neil (eds.). The Viking World. Routledge. pp. 465–466. ISBN 978-1-134-31826-1.
- ^ Cressier, Patrice (2017). "Nakur: un émirat rifain pro-omeyyade contemporain des Aghlabides". In Anderson, Glaire D.; Fenwick, Corisande; Rosser-Owen, Mariam (eds.). The Aghlabids and their Neighbors: Art and Material Culture in Ninth-Century North Africa. BRILL. p. 502. ISBN 978-90-04-35604-7.
- ^ Huici Miranda, A. (1986). "Bālish". Encyclopaedia of Islam (2 ed.). BRILL. p. 997. ISBN 90-04-08114-3.
- ^ Picard, Christophe (2018). Sea of the Caliphs: The Mediterranean in the Medieval Islamic World. Harvard University Press. p. 166. ISBN 978-0-674-66046-5.