Between 883 and 884, the Muslims of the Upper March (Arabic: الثغر الأعلى, Aṯ-Ṯaḡr al-Aʿlà) felt menaced by the expansion of the count of Barcelona, Wilfred the Hairy, who began to make efforts to relocate the frontier line between the rivers Lubricatus and Siqr, by establishing defensive positions at the present-day shires of the Bages (the Castle of Cardona, for example), Osona, Berguedà and below the river Lubricatus, and repopulating those areas; building and consolidating there churches and abbeys, at whose surroundings the repopulating settlements were established.

Because of all this, the madīnah of Larida was fortified; but Wilfred saw it as a provocation and attacked the city, by that time governed by the walī Isma'il ibn Musa, of the Banu Qasi dynasty.

[5] On 11 August 897, count Wilfred the Hairy was killed in action near the Castle of Aura;[3] which had previously been, according to the Muslim historian Ibn Hayyan, seized and burnt to the ground by Lubb's army.

It has been suggested that it may have been Valldaura (at the mountain range of Collserola), Valldora (at the present-day shire of the Solsonès), Besora Castle, Santpedor (formerly Sant Pere d'Or) or Gualta, nearby Caldes de Montbui.

[7][9] According to Muslim sources, it was located "in the area of Barsaluna [Barcelona]" and was the residence of qumis [count] Anqadid ibn al-Mundhir [Wilfred the Hairy].

That year, the sayyid [lord] of Aṯ-Ṯaḡr al-Aʿlà [Upper March], Lubb ibn Muḥammad Al-Qasawī, attacked the qasr [castle] of Awra [Aura], on the area Barsaluna [ Barcelona ], which was the see of the Faranjī [ Frankish ] usurper.