Dhū an-Nūnid Dynasty

▪ Berber dynasty

      11th-century Muslim Berber dynasty of Toledo that ruled central Spain from Guadalajara and Talavera to Murcia during the unruly period of the party kingdoms (ṭāʾifahs). As early as the mid-8th century the Banū Zannūn—their name was later Arabicized—had settled northeast of Toledo, where they became an influential family. In the civil war that broke up the Spanish Umayyad state (1008–31), ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān ibn Dhū an-Nūn, who had been invited by the Toledans to rule their city, and his son Ismāʿīl aẓ-Ẓāfir were the first local rulers to refuse to recognize the central authority of the Umayyad caliph of Córdoba. Aẓ-Ẓāfīr established himself as an independent king in Toledo and, despite constant wars with the Christians, ruled until 1043. His son Yaḥyā al-Maʾmūn (reigned 1043–75) allied with Christians several times against his Muslim enemies and even entertained King Alfonso VI of Castile and Leon at his court (1072). In 1065 al-Maʾmūn seized the ʿĀmirid capital of Valencia and in 1074–75 was able to take Córdoba, the former seat of the Umayyads. But Yaḥyā al-Qādir (reigned 1075–92), al-Maʾmūn's grandson, soon lost both Valencia and Córdoba. An alliance with Alfonso VI hastened the end of the Dhū an-Nūnid kingdom: while al-Qādir was briefly restored to Toledo, he bargained away his capital to the Christians in return for Valencia (1085), where he was assassinated in 1092.

* * *