The Taifa of Spain

[Brian G Turner]

In the 10th/11th centuries AD, the power of the Umayyad caliphate in Cordoba collapsed, causing a range of independent principalities/kingdoms to spring up in Moorish Spain:
Umayyad Caliphate - Wikipedia
Taifa - Wikipedia

Interestingly enough, a couple of them were apparently ruled by ex-slaves - for example, Sabur ruling Babadoz, and possibly also the ruler of Denia:
Taifa of Badajoz - Wikipedia

Also of interest is that just before the collapse, the caliphate had created a vast army of 60,000 Christian slaves, bought from all over the Mediterranean, and known collectively as the "silent ones", because they didn't speak Arabic.

It occurred to me what a rich setting this would be for an historical fantasy, not least for its diversity - English, Germans, Slavs, Egyptians, and West Africans all being present in these slave armies.

Added to that, the rich culture of Moorish Spain of Cordoba, which the Christian slaves began to emulate ...

Someone should write about this.

 

[J Riff]

Yes, I'm too busy looking at the 1450s at the moment, and the enslavement of everybody, still going on, with slaves owning slaves, with slave pets, and everything.

 

[svalbard]

In the 10th/11th centuries AD, the power of the Umayyad caliphate in Cordoba collapsed, causing a range of independent principalities/kingdoms to spring up in Moorish Spain:
Umayyad Caliphate - Wikipedia
Taifa - Wikipedia

Interestingly enough, a couple of them were apparently ruled by ex-slaves - for example, Sabur ruling Babadoz, and possibly also the ruler of Denia:
Taifa of Badajoz - Wikipedia

Also of interest is that just before the collapse, the caliphate had created a vast army of 60,000 Christian slaves, bought from all over the Mediterranean, and known collectively as the "silent ones", because they didn't speak Arabic.

It occurred to me what a rich setting this would be for an historical fantasy, not least for its diversity - English, Germans, Slavs, Egyptians, and West Africans all being present in these slave armies.

Added to that, the rich culture of Moorish Spain of Cordoba, which the Christian slaves began to emulate ...

Someone should write about this.

The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay

 

[Tulius Hostilius]

The Iberian Peninsula during the Medieval times, particularly during the “Fall of Spain” and early Reconquista can be a fertile ground for some novels, both historical and fantasy genres.


And it wouldn’t be a virgin ground… we already have “The Song of Roland” or “The Song of my Cid”… but that hasn’t reflexes in today’s pop culture, much more influenced by British legends.


Anyway the small Muslim kingdoms of the Taifas had generally a short life, and there were three different “Taifa Periods”, as states the wiki link that Brian posted.


For instance an interesting relation to be in a novel would be the one of Alfonso VI of León and Castile with his lover Zaida, probably widow of Fath al-Mamun, governor of Cordoba, son al-Mu'tamid, poet and Emir of the Taifa of Seville.


As for slaves, even if we don’t have numbers, but it seems that the Slavs were the majority, at least in the South of the Peninsula.