Abbadid dynasty
The Abbadids' interest in science is evident in the many scientific works that were written during their reign, including the famous Book of Optics by the polymath Ibn al-Haytham.
In addition to their patronage of the arts, sciences, and literature, the Abbadids also made significant contributions to the development of Islamic law and jurisprudence.
The Almoravids saw the Abbadids' tolerance of other religions and cultures as a threat to the purity of Islam, and they were determined to impose their own strict interpretation of the faith on Andalusia.
[4] The Abbadids had not previously played a major role in history though they were of noble pedigree from tribe Lakhm in Egypt and were among the first Arab Muslim families to settle in al-Andalus after the Umayyad conquest of Hispania.
[8] Abu al-Qasim gained the confidence of the townsmen by playing a major role in the successful resistance to the Berber soldiers of fortune who had grasped at the fragments of the Caliphate of Cordoba.
[10] Second, he opened the ranks to all races and social class, as Berbers, Arabs, Christians, and foreigners were all accepted along with slaves from Nubia and Sudan.
[11] Before the military could become a formidable force, a Berber army from Málaga was at the gates demanding entrance and fealty, in the form of sons of the richest and most powerful nobles and merchants as hostages.
This time the deception was successful and the coalition formed starting with Cordoba, then followed by Dénia, Balearic Islands, Tortosa, and Valencia.
[6] Abbad wrote poetry and loved literature; he also appears as a poisoner, a drinker of wine, a sceptic, and a man treacherous to the utmost degree.
Though he waged war all through his reign, he himself very rarely appeared in the field, but directed the generals, whom he never trusted, from his "lair" in the fortified palace, the Alcázar of Seville.
In 1053, he tricked a number of his enemies, the Berber chiefs of southern al-Andalus, into visiting him, and got rid of them by smothering them in the hot room of a bath.
These incessant wars weakened the Muslims, to the great advantage of the rising power of the Christian kings of León and Castile, but they gave the kingdom of Seville a certain superiority over the other little states.
When his son, Rashid, advised him not to call on Yusuf ibn Tashfin, Al-Mu'tamid rebuffed him and famously said, I have no desire to be branded by my descendants as the man who delivered al-Andalus as prey to the infidels.
At the end what he had foreseen happened to him: in 1095 his kingdom was overthrown by Yusuf ibn Tashfin and Almoravid sympathizers within his city, following which he was deposed.
[5] He was exiled to Morocco[4] Al-Mu'tamid was the father-in-law, through his son, Fath al-Mamun (d. 1091), of Zaida, mistress, and possibly wife, of Alfonso VI of Castile.
[21] With the fall of Seville to the Almoravids, she fled to the protection of Alfonso VI of Castile, becoming his mistress, converting to Christianity and taking the baptismal name of Isabel.
