وقعة كتندة

c. 1120 CE · c. 514 AH

The rout of Cutanda (514) in the Upper March of Saragossa: some twenty thousand volunteer mutatawwi'a were cut down while the regular army escaped unhurt; the amir was Ibrahim ibn Yusuf ibn Tashfin, and the scholars Abu Ali al-Sadafi and Ibn al-Farra went out as ghazis and were lost. The qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi was present — asked how he had fared, he gave the Maghrebi proverb 'the state of one who left his tent and cloak': everything gone ¹.

Depth

At a glance

Era: Abbasid Fragmentation
Region: al-Andalus & Europe
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In time

The Buyid, Fatimid and Seljuk Era · The Crusades, Ayyubids and Mamluks

Battles

Overview

al-Maqqari mentions the battle of Cutanda in 514 AH. Cutanda is in the district of Dorqa in the lands of Saragossa, in the Upper Frontier. The defeat fell on the Muslims. ²

The losses

About twenty thousand of the volunteers were killed in it, and none of the regular army was killed. The Muslims were under the command of the amir Ibrahim ibn Yusuf ibn Tashfin. Among those lost there was Abu Ali al-Sadafi, who had gone out to raid. ²

Several have said that the army withdrew to Valencia, and that the judge Abu Bakr Ibn al-Arabi was there. When he was asked about his condition, he answered with a well-known Maghribi proverb whose meaning is that he had lost everything he had. ²