Acting autonomously from his nominal masters the Emirs of Córdoba, he carried out his own foreign policy and fought both Christian and Muslim regional rivals, including the Counts of Barcelona, Pallars and Aragon, the King of Pamplona and the Banu Qasi of the Upper March.
[2] In 893, al-Tawil witnessed a charter of king Fortún Garcés of Pamplona, appearing as 'pagan' Mohomat Atavel in Osca along with his rival Muhammad ibn Lubb.
He was forced to cede Barbastro and lands between Huesca and Monzón and to pay 100,000 gold dinars as well as to give his son Abd al-Malik and daughter Sayyida as hostages to insure delivery of the money.
[5] Nothing is heard of al-Tawil over the next few years, perhaps because he had turned his armies against his Christian neighbors to the north in campaigns that escaped notice of the Cordoba-based chroniclers of Al-Andalus.
[8] Muhammad al-Tawil married Sancha Aznarez, daughter of Aznar Galíndez II of Aragon[9] and maternal granddaughter of García Íñiguez of Pamplona.
By her he had five children, sons Abd al-Malik, Amrus, Furtun,[9] and Musa Aznar, and one daughter, Sayyida (called Velasquita in the Códice de Roda) who married Lubb ibn Muhammad al-Qasawi.