Emirate of Nekor
Historical Arab state From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Emirate of Nekor or Salihid Emirate (Arabic: إمارة بني صالح, romanized: ʾImārat Banī Ṣāliḥ) was an Arab emirate centered in the Rif area of present-day Morocco. Its capital was initially located at Temsaman, and then moved to Nekor. The ruling dynasty presented itself as of Himyarite Arab descent.[1] The emirate was founded in 710 CE by Salih I ibn Mansur through a Caliphate grant. Under his guidance, the local Berber tribes adopted Islam, but later deposed him in favor of one az-Zaydi from the Nafza tribe. They subsequently changed their mind and reappointed Ibn Mansur. His dynasty, the Banū Sālih, thereafter ruled the region until 1019.
Emirate of Nekor إمارة بني صالح | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 710–1019 | |||||||||
.gif) The Emirate of Nekor (yellow) at the time of the Idrisid dynasty. | |||||||||
| Status | Client state of the Umayyad Caliphate (710–750) | ||||||||
| Capital | Temsaman (710–760) Nekor (760–1019) | ||||||||
| Common languages | Arabic Berber | ||||||||
| Religion | Islam | ||||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||||
| Emir | |||||||||
• 710–749 | Salih I ibn Mansur | ||||||||
• 947–970 | Jurthum ibn Ahmad | ||||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages | ||||||||
• Established | 710 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 1019 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
The Emirate of Nekor (or Nakūr) was the first autonomous state in the Maghreb and the only one that adhered to Sunni Islam exclusively. Not much is known about the town of Nekor's archaeology outside the field survey and minor excavations conducted in the 1980s. The town has what may have been a mosque, a possible hammam, or public bathhouse, and two substantial walls. Ceramics excavated there include local productions and others that show its connections with Ifriqiya and al-Andalus.[2]
History
Summarize
Perspective
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 Rif to join them. One of these groups was led by a Yemeni Arab called Salih ibn Mansur al-Himyari, who founded the Banū Sālih dynasty in 710, ruling until 749. The Salih family founded the Emirate of Nekor and ruled it for more than three hundred years. Located beside the river Nekor, east of al-Hoceima, it prospered through trade and commerce.[3]
The Madinat al-Nakur was founded in the early 8th century. It was situated on the banks of the river Nekor in an alluvial valley of the Rif 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 Rif.[4]
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 Seville, but were repelled by a large Muslim force there before entering the Mediterranean through the Straits of Gibraltar and burning the mosque at Algeciras, following which they headed south to Nekor, plundered the city for eight days,[5] and defeated a Muslim force that attempted to stop them.[6]
The relationship between the ruling family of the Salihid 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. Their bond was strengthened by the fact that the Emirate of Nekor professed the same Islamic creed as the Umayyads, that of the Maliki school.[7]
According to the Arab Andalusi geographer al-Bakrī, several ports of the Moroccan Rif in the emirate of Nekor – including Badia, Buquya, and Bālish,[8] 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 Salihid emirs, and paid their taxes with the income they earned by exploiting marine resources on the coast, consequently controlling maritime activity on the coast.[9]
See also
References
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