Emirate of Nekor

The Arab conquest of North Africa began in 648, bringing Islam, thereafter the predominant religion of the region. 'Uqba ibn Nāfi (662–683) was the leader of the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb. When his troops attacked local mountain Berber tribes, Arab reinforcements appeared in the Rīf to join them. One of these groups was led by a Yemeni Arab called Şālih ibn Mansūr al-Himyari, who founded the Banū Şālih dynasty in 710, ruling until 749. His putative south Arabian origin is disputed by al-Ya'ķūbi, who associates him with the Nafzī Berber tribe in his Kitāb al-Buldān (Book of Countries).^[2] The Şālih family founded the Emirate of Nekor and ruled it for more than three hundred years. Located beside the river Nekor, east of al-Husaima (al-Hoceima), it prospered through trade and commerce.^[5]

According to Rīfian tradition, Şālih ibn Mansūr, ancestor of the Şālihids, established himself at Tamsāmān on the coast, where he converted the local Berber groups, the Ghumāra and the Şanhādja, to Islam. The new converts soon became apostate and unseated Şālih, and took as their leader a certain Dāwūd al-Rundī al-Nafzī. Şālih was nonetheless restored to the throne and upon his death, his son al-Mu'taşim succeeded him. Later, his grandson Sa'id ibn Idris ibn Şālih founded in 760 or 761 the town of Nekor to serve as capital of the small state.^[2] The Madinat al-Nakur was situated on the banks of the river Nekor in an alluvial valley of the Rīf Mountains, 25 km inland from the Mediterranean coast. Under Indrisid rule it controlled productive agricultural territory that reached the coastal plain near modern-day al-Hoceima. The city flourished as it was on established trade routes and served as an entrepôt for goods shipped from Fes and Sijilmāsa in the south of the Rīf.^[6]

In 859, a major long-distance Viking expedition set out for Spain. They tried to land at Galicia and were driven off. Then they sailed down the west coast of the peninsula and burned the mosque at Išbīliya (Seville), but were repelled by a large Muslim force there before entering the Mediterranean through the Straits of Gibraltar and burning the mosque at al-Jazīrah (Algeciras), following which they headed south to Nekor, plundered the city for eight days,^[7] and defeated a Muslim force that attempted to stop them.^[8]

Nekor was surrounded by a wall of coarse brick that also enclosed gardens and pomegranate and pear orchards.^[2] The city had many markets and shops, as well as baths, a large mosque, and an oratory (muṣallā^[9]). According to the historian Ahmed Tahiri it contains the oldest urban structure dating from the medieval period in the west of the Maghreb, built with the earliest Islamic construction methods. He considers the Viking invasion of 859 (Tahiri says 858) and the sacking of Nekor as a demarcation line in its urban evolution, and that afterwards, urban and rural architecture in the area became more defensive in orientation. The rivalry between the Fäţimid and the Umayyad Caliphates spurred the development of a new architectural layout in the city.^[10]

Fäţimid troops sacked the city twice, in 917 and in 934. According to J.D. Latham, 'Abd al-Rahman III, the Umayyad Caliph of Qurṭuba (Córdoba), had observed with growing concern the increasing prestige and power of the Fäţimids in the Rīf, this region perilously close to al-Andalus. In 927 he began his policy of defensive expansion by occupying Malīlya (Melilla) and by 928-929, he opened negotiations with the Idrīsids. In retaliation Mūsā ibn Abi'l-Afiya attacked and vanquished the Umayyad's vassal, al-Mu'ayyad, the Şālihid (Şāliņid) ruler of Nakūr, situated between Malīlya (Melilla) and Tiṭwān (Tetuan). The troops of Mūsā, a Berber chieftain of the Miknasa tribe ^[11] besieged, sacked, and burned Nekor in 931.^[11] With a fleet of forty vessels, the Umayyads launched a naval assault from Ceuta against Nekor and its port, al-Mazamma, and attacked Nekor, devastating the city which was garrisoned by three thousand men.^[10]

The relationship between the ruling family of the Şālihid (Şāliņid) Emirate of Nekor and the local Berber tribal structure made it a predominantly Berber state, one aligned with the Umayyads of al-Andalus. The Umayyad Caliph al-Walid I had obtained the territory through iqṭāʿ, the Isamic practice of tax farming. His son 'Abd al-Malik bestowed the region of Nekor as a gift to the Banū Şālih ibn Mansūr. The family settled there and intermarried with the local population of Berbers, who came to acknowledge them as their emirs.^[12]

According to the Arab Andalusi geographer al-Bakrī, Şālih ibn Mansūr was renowned for converting the Berber tribes of northern Africa to Islam. All the Arab chroniclers credit Şālih ibn Mansūr and the dynasty he founded with the Islamization of the Rīf. His grandson Sa'id ibn Idris ibn Şālih ibn Mansūr built the city of Nekor in 760 or 761^[13] to serve as the capital of the small state.^[2] He died after reigning over it for thirty-seven years. Emir Sa'id ibn Idris had ten sons. The third one, Şālih ibn Sa'id, assumed rule of the emirate upon his father's death. According to the narrative of al-Bakrī, Şālih's reign was filled with conflicts and wars with his brothers. He imprisoned his brother Idris and had him executed. Şālih ruled for twenty-eight years. When he died his youngest son, Sa'id ibn Şālih, was elected emir.^[14] The bond between the Emirate of Nekor and the Umayyads was strengthened by the fact that the Banū Şālih professed the same Islamic creed as the Umayyad caliphs, that of the Maliki school.^[15]

Al-Bakrī says several ports of the Moroccan Rīf in the Emirate of Nekor – including Badia, Buquya, and Bālish,^[16] the port of the Ṣanhāja (Aẓnag) Berber confederation – were controlled by Berber tribes. These coastal communities developed with mixed populations of Berber, Arab, and Andalusi (converted or Mozarab) descent. The Berbers were taxed by the Şāliņid emirs, and paid their taxes with the income they earned by exploiting marine resources on the coast and consequently controlling its maritime activity.^[17]

The Şālihids ruled over Nakur and the Berber tribes around it until about 1015, when Ya'la ibn al-Fatuh of the Azdaja tribe, now extinct, gained control of the emirate. His descendants defended the city and maintained their rule until the city was destroyed in 1080–1081 for the fourth and last time by the Almoravid leader Yūsuf ibn Tāshfīn. With the destruction of the city by the Almoravids, the iqta' or fief of Nakur, created in 710 for Şālih ibn Mansūr by al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, ceased to exist.^[18]

History

See also

References

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