Lower March

The Lower March (Arabic: الثغر الأدنى, al-Thaghr al-Adnā; Portuguese: Marca Inferior) was a march of al-Andalus.

[1] As a borderland territory, it was home to the so-called muwalladun or indigenous converts and their descendants, some of whom eventually established dynastic lordships.

This was the case of Ibn Marwan al-Jilliqi who ruled the Cora of Mérida during the early part of the ninth century, a region with its capital in modern Mérida, including the area of modern Badajoz.

[2] Several rebellions occurred in the territory, most notably caused by Umar ibn Hafsun and two of his sons refusing to recognize the Emir of Cordoba's sovereignty;[3] even after Ibn Hafsun's death, small pockets of independent resistance persisted.

[3] It was not until a decade after Ibn Hafsun’s demise that the Emir of Cordoba was able to completely quell the rebellion in the Lower March.