1013 Suleiman takes Cordova and Hisham disappears. His fate is one of the unsolved mysteries of history.
1016 Overthrow of Suleiman by the Slavonic element headed by Khairan and Ali of Hammud. Ali made caliph.
1017 Revolt of Khairan, who sets up Abd ar-Rahman (IV) Mortada, great-grandson of Abd ar-Rahman III, as anti-caliph. Murder of Ali. His brother, Kasim, succeeds. Fierce civil war results.
1023 Mortada falls in battle. Abd ar-Rahman V, brother of Muhammed Al-Mahdi, succeeds, but is shortly murdered. Muhammed Ben Abd ar-Rahman succeeds.
1025 Muhammed driven from Cordova. Yahya b. Ali is in power. He is slain at Seville. Hisham III, brother of Mortada, raised to the throne.
1031 The caliphate is so disorganised that Hisham abdicates the empty title.
THE INDEPENDENT KINGDOMS, OR EMIRATES (1031-1091 A.D.)
Since the death of Almansor, Mohammedan Spain has been splitting up into a number of independent emirates or principalities. The fall of the Omayyad dynasty breaks the last link of unity, and we have now the separate and distinct emirates of Saragossa, Toledo, Valencia, Badajoz, Cordova, Seville, and Granada. The Christian states seize the opportunity to reconquer Spain. The Spanish national hero, “the Cid,” takes part in these conquests. Without following each of these states in detail, we note the most important events of the period.
1032 Civil war breaks out in the emirates.