Taifa

The taifas (from Arabic: طائفة ṭā'ifa, plural طوائف ṭawā'if, meaning "party, band, faction") were the independent Muslim principalities and kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula (modern Portugal and Spain), referred to by Muslims as al-Andalus, that emerged from the decline and fall of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba between 1009 and 1031.

[7] Muslim historians originally used these terms to refer to the Parthian Empire and other regional rulers that succeeded Alexander the Great.

In the 11th century, Ṣāʿid al-Andalusī first applied the term to the regional rulers who appeared after the collapse of Umayyad power in Spain, "whose condition was like that of the mulūk al-ṭawāʾif of the Persians".

[2] During the late 11th century, the Christian rulers of the northern Iberian peninsula set out to retake the lands of the former Visigothic Kingdom that had been conquered by Muslims.

By this time the caliphate of Cordova, among the richest and most powerful states in Europe, had suffered a civil war, known as the Fitna of al-Andalus.

[2] Reversing the trend of the Umayyad period, when the Christian kingdoms of the north often had to pay tribute to the Caliph, the disintegration of the Caliphate left the rival Muslim kingdoms much weaker than their Christian counterparts, particularly the Castilian–Leonese monarchy, and many had to submit to them, paying tributes known as parias.

[4] Due to their military weakness, taifa princes appealed for North African warriors to come fight Christian kings on two occasions.

[11] In the 1100s, the remnants of the taifa dynasties in al-Andalus would join forces with Christian powers as a last attempt to shift momentum back in their favor against the Almoravids.

[citation needed] After the fall of the Caliphate of Cordoba in 1031 about 33 independent taifas emerged out the civil war and conflict in al-Andalus.