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Europe · High and late Middle Ages

Taifa of Toledo

1010/1031–1085

Ṭā'ifa Ṭulayṭila. Capital: Toledo, the former Visigothic capital. Ruled by the Berber (Hawwara) Dhulnunid dynasty: Ismail al-Zahir (c. 1036–1043), Yahya I al-Ma'mun (1043–1075), and Yahya al-Qadir (1075–1085).

Existed
1010/1031–1085
Shown on the map
1010–1093
Peak area
90k km²
Region
Europe

Names

Ṭā'ifa Ṭulayṭila. Capital: Toledo, the former Visigothic capital. Ruled by the Berber (Hawwara) Dhulnunid dynasty: Ismail al-Zahir (c. 1036–1043), Yahya I al-Ma'mun (1043–1075), and Yahya al-Qadir (1075–1085). Al-Ma'mun was the most powerful lord of southern Iberia at his height, controlling Toledo, Córdoba, and Valencia, but was poisoned in Córdoba in 1075. His weak grandson al-Qadir lost control amid pro- and anti-Christian factions and became dependent on Alfonso VI of León-Castile. After a war of attrition, Toledo surrendered to Alfonso VI on 6 May 1085 (some sources 25 May) — a pivotal turning point. Alfonso installed al-Qadir in Valencia as his vassal. The fall of Toledo alarmed the taifa emirs and prompted the appeal to the Almoravids.

Common questions

What was the Taifa of Toledo?
Ṭā'ifa Ṭulayṭila. Capital: Toledo, the former Visigothic capital. Ruled by the Berber (Hawwara) Dhulnunid dynasty: Ismail al-Zahir (c. 1036–1043), Yahya I al-Ma'mun (1043–1075), and Yahya al-Qadir (1075–1085).
When did the Taifa of Toledo exist?
The Taifa of Toledo existed 1010/1031–1085. On this map it is drawn 1010–1093.
How large was the Taifa of Toledo?
At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Taifa of Toledo covered about 90,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.

Sources

This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for al-Andalus, the taifas and the Christian kingdoms as the primary basis, with Encyclopædia Britannica, the World History Encyclopedia and academic work on the historiography of the Reconquista and the taifa period (García-Sanjuán). The article this entry is anchored on:

This entry was last updated .

This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made

Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.

Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).

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