Ghālib ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān

Ghālib ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (c. 900 – 10 July 981), called al-Nāṣirī or al-Ṣiḳlabī, was a general in the Umayyad caliphate of Córdoba, serving the caliphs ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III al-Nāṣir, al-Ḥakam II and Hishām II.

Ghālib was originally a Ṣiḳlabī, a slave of eastern European, generally Slavic, origin, probably from a Christian family. He was owned, and later freed, by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III, becoming a mawlā (freedman) and, as per custom, taking his former owner's name as his patronymic surname, becoming ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Nāṣirī.^[1][2]

Middle March

In 946, Ghālib was placed in charge of the Middle March. In this capacity, according to al-Maḳḳarī, a late source, he rebuilt Medinaceli and used it as a base to harass the Christian kingdom of León. In 953, he attacked the Leonese county of Castile, bringing back many prisoners and much booty, but the border remained unchanged.^[2]

In 954, a Sicilian fleet under the orders of the Fāṭimid caliph al-Muʿizz sacked the Umayyad city of Almería. The next year (955), Ghālib led a punitive naval raid on the coast of Fāṭimid Ifrīḳiya. This expedition failed, but in 956 a second expedition with seventy ships captured and razed Marsā al-Kharaz and plundered Ṭabarḳa and Sūsa.^[2]

In 960, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III restored the deposed Sancho I to the Leonese throne in exchange for ten border fortresses. This condition had not been fulfilled when the caliph died in October 961. Sancho's rival, Ordoño IV, had fled to the Count Fernán González of Castile, who, in obedience to the treaty between his sovereign, now Sancho, and the caliphate, sent him as a prisoner to Ghālib at Medinaceli, who passed him along to Córdoba. There he was interviewed by the new caliph, al-Ḥakam II, in April 962 and agreed to uphold Sancho's deal if the caliph would restore him to the throne. Before this new agreement could be put into effect, Sancho I renewed his promise to hand over the ten fortresses. Following the death of Ordoño IV shortly after, Sancho reneged. He then allied with the Kingdom of Navarre and the County of Barcelona to attack the caliphate. Al-Ḥakam II then personally led an army to the border in the summer of 963, seizing the fortresses of Gormaz and Atienza while Ghālib and Yaḥyā ibn Muḥammad al-Tujībī, the governor of Zaragoza, led a two-pronged attack on Navarre. Ghālib captured Calahorra from the Navarrese and al-Tujībī defeated their king, García Sánchez I, in battle.^[3][4]

Supreme commander

In 972, Ghālib was promoted to the new rank of al-qāʾid al-aʿlā (supreme commander). In 974, diplomas of authority (sijilāt) were issued to the lords of the Middle March upon Ghālib's request. In them, Ghālib is described as the zaʿīm (boss) of the marcher lords. He was thus at the peak of his power and influence when in 973 he was sent to Africa to bring the Idrīsids back under Umayyad control. He did not return to Córdoba in triumph with the deposed Idrīsid leader, al-Ḥasan ibn Gannūn, as his captive until September 974.^[5]

In 975, Ghālib led an expedition against the alliance of León and Navarre. He won two major victories, defeating the allied force that was besieging Gormaz on 28 June and then defeating Count García Fernández of Castile south of the Duero, near Langa, on 8 July.^[6] After these victories he was granted the honorific Dhu ʾl-Sayfayn (Lord of the Two Swords), which had been granted by the ʿAbbāsid regent al-Muwaffaq in Baghdad to his general Isḥāq ibn Kundāj in 883. Only al-Ḥakam himself, his son Hishām and his first minister, Jaʿfar ibn ʿUthmān al-Muṣḥafi, were present at the ceremony where Ghālib received the honour. Establishing his headquarters at Medinaceli, Ghālib brought Ibn Abī ʿĀmir, the future ruler of Córdoba, into his employ as his intendant general and was followed by many others drawn by word his latest honour.^[2][3][5]

Conflict with Ibn Abī ʿĀmir

After the accession of Hishām II in October 976, Ghālib took command of the military forces of the capital and Ibn Abī ʿĀmir followed him there. In 978, the latter married Ghālib's daughter, Asmāʾ.^[2][7] In the capital, Ibn Abī ʿĀmir plotted with al-Muṣḥafi, to overthrow the palace Ṣaḳāliba, and then plotted with Ghālib to overthrow al-Muṣḥafi.^[8]

Son-in-law and father-in-law soon had a falling-out over Ibn Abī ʿĀmir's restricting the caliph's sphere of activity to religious ceremonies. When the conflict broke into the open, Ibn Abī ʿĀmir seized Medinaceli at the head of a large Berber army. In order to recover his fiefdom, Ghālib allied with Castile and Navarre and fought a series of victorious engagements with his son-in-law's forces before the latter forced him into a pitched battle. The battle of Torrevicente took place on 10 July 981. The king of Navarre's brother, Ramiro Garcés, was killed in action and Ghālib himself died when his horse stumbled and his chest was pierced on his saddlebow. He was about eighty years old.^[2] It was for this victory over his last internal rival that Ibn Abī ʿĀmir was given the honorific al-Manṣūr bi-Llāh (Victorious by God) by which is most commonly known.^[9]

Notes

Sources