In the historiography of Muslim Spain (Andalusia), the 1990s were marked by a new discussion about one of the most interesting and dramatic phenomena in the country's history-a series of rebellions of the late 9th - early 10th centuries (fitna), which in terms of scale and duration deserves to be called a civil war. Telling about the events of that time, sources report about numerous rebels who captured individual fortresses and entire regions and sought de facto independence from the rulers of the country - the emirs of Cordoba. It took the latter more than half a century to put an end to the rebellions and restore their power throughout Andalusia.
So many aspirations, ambitions, and other motivations are intertwined in the actions of the rebels that it is quite difficult to find an unambiguous interpretation for them. The traditional interpretation of fitna, based on the vision of events by medieval Muslim authors, is that the defining moment was the mutual hatred of autochthonous Spanish (regardless of religion) and alien Arab-Berber elements, which manifested themselves in numerous cases of confrontation at various levels. Another characteristic of Fitna was the appearance of more successful robbers, who, taking advantage of the weakening of the central government, plundered entire areas with impunity. 1
And so, in 1994, the Spanish scholar M. Asien Almanza published the book "Between feudalism and Islam. Umar Ibn Hafsun in the portrayal of historians, in sources and in history " 2, in which he called for a radical revision of the established point of view. Judging by the title of the work, it should be about Umar Ibn Hafsun - the most remarkable and colorful person among all the Andalusian rebels, but from the very first lines the author formulates his task as follows: not to create another political biography, but to conduct a comprehensive study of the features of the spread of Islam in Andalusia using this example (p. 7).
Starting his research with the tradi ...
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