أخذ الفرنج طليطلة

Name: أخذ الفرنج طليطلة
Start: 1085

1085 CE · 478 AH

The first of al-Andalus's great cities retaken by the Franks: Toledo, from al-Qadir ibn Dhi-l-Nun in 478 — Tuesday 1 Safar in Ibn Khallikan, Wednesday 10 Muharram in Ibn Alqama — after a siege some stretched to seven years. Ibn Bassam records the fifty-year stored wheat spoiling that very year; Ibn Dhi-l-Nun left astrolabe in hand; the mosque became a church in Rabi I 496; Alfonso refused the crown 'until we take their Cordoba' — a vow unfulfilled; Ibn al-Asal's lament 'hasten your mounts, people of al-Andalus' — and Zallaqa followed the next year ¹.

Depth

At a glance

Era: Abbasid Fragmentation
Region: al-Andalus & Europe
Review: Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it

In time

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

In space

Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph

Wars and campaigns

Overview

Toledo was one of the first great Andalusian cities the Franks recovered, in 478 AH, from al-Qadir bi-llah, son of Dhu al-Nun. Alfonso besieged it very hard, said to be for seven years. ²

The date

The accounts differ on the day. In Ibn Khallikan it was Tuesday, the first of Safar; in Ibn Alqama, Wednesday the tenth of Muharram. ³

The reports

Al-Maqqari reports from Ibn Bassam that wheat used to stay stored in the people of the city for fifty years. In the year of the taking it spoiled quickly. ²

The enemy made its people submit to his judgement, and Ibn Dhi al-Nun came out holding an astrolabe. The king began converting the mosque into a church in Rabi al-Awwal 496 AH. At its taking Ibn al-Assal composed verses urging the people of al-Andalus to leave. ⁴

The battle of al-Zallaqa took place the following year. ²