See also
| Husband: | Abdullah ibn MUHAMMAD (844-912) | |
| Wife: | Onneca + FORTUNEZ (848-890) | |
| Children: | Muhammad (864- ) | |
| Al-Baha (c. 866- ) | ||
| Fatima (c. 868- ) | ||
| Marriage | 0862 | |
| Name: | Abdullah ibn MUHAMMAD | |
| Sex: | Male | |
| Father: | Muhammad I (823-886) | |
| Mother: | - | |
| Birth | 11 Jan 0844 | |
| Title | frm 0888 to 0912 (age 43-68) | Emir of Cordoba |
| Occupation | Emir of Cordoba | |
| Death | 15 Oct 0912 (age 68) | |
| Name: | Onneca + FORTUNEZ | |
| Sex: | Female | |
| Father: | Fortun + GARCES (c. 835-aft925) | |
| Mother: | Oria + ( - ) | |
| Birth | 0848 | |
| Death | 0890 (age 41-42) | |
| Name: | Muhammad | |
| Sex: | Male | |
| Birth | 0864 | |
| Name: | Al-Baha | |
| Sex: | Female | |
| Birth | 0866 (est) | |
| Name: | Fatima | |
| Sex: | Female | |
| Birth | 0868 (est) | |
Abdullah ibn Muhammad (January 11, 844 – October 15, 912) of the Umayyad dynasty was the seventh Emir of Córdoba, reigning from 888 to 912 in the Al-Andalus (Moorish Iberia).
Contemporary historians accused Abdullah of orchestrating the death of his elder brother, al-Mundhir, whereby he ascended to power. This is unlikely, as ibn Muhammad showed very little interest in governing, becoming a neurotic recluse who was only interested in hunting and his faith. Once in power, however, he showed no reluctance to dispose of those he viewed as a threat, even if they were family. Two of his own brothers were executed on his orders, and he commanded one of his sons (al-Mutarrif) to kill his own brother. Even this extreme display of loyalty was not enough to save al-Mutarrif, as he too was executed for treason a few years later.[citation needed]
Abdullah is described as an apathetic[clarification needed] emir. His government was marked by continuous wars between Arabs, Berbers and Muladi. His power as emir was confined to the area of Córdoba, while the rest had been seized by rebel families that did not accept his authority.
The most formidable threat for the emir was Umar Ibn Hafsun, who had conquered the provinces of Rayyo (including Bobastro), Elvira (including Granada) and Jaén, and had allied with the populations of Archidona, Baeza, Úbeda and Priego. In 891 Ibn Hafsun was defeated near the castle of Polei and lost several cities. After the victory, Abdullah massacred all the Christians, while the Muslims of the conquered cities were pardoned. However, by the following year Ibn Hafsun had already recovered, and conquered back all the lost territories.
In 901, the emir signed a peace agreement with Ibn Hafsun (who had allied with the Banu Qasi family, controlling the Ebro valley, and the Kingdom of Asturias). However, the war broke out again the following year, only to be halted by the death of Abdullah at Córdoba, who was improving his positions. The son he had designated as successor was killed by one of Abdullah's brothers. The latter was in turn executed by Abdullah's father, who named as successor Abd ar-Rahman III, son of the killed son of Abdullah.
[edit] Family
Abdullah was the son of Muhammad I and the younger brother of al-Mundhir.
Abdullah married Onneca Fortúnez, daughter of Fortún Garcés, King of Pamplona and his wife Aurea (Orea), in ca 863. She was repudiated sometime before 880 and took her cousin Aznar Sánchez of Larraun as her second husband. Abdullah had several children:
Muhammed ibn Abd Allah (867/8-3 Dec 895). Recorded to be a son of Onneca.[1] He was murdered by his brother al-Mutarrif (with the approval of their father) on 3 Dec 895, aged 27.[2] He married a Basque or Frankish woman named Muzna. They were the parents of Abd ar-Rahman III
al-Mutarrif, He was murdered in 895 after being accused of conspiracy.
Aban
al-Asi He was executed in 921 after being accused of conspiracy.
Onneca Fortúnez or Iñiga Fortúnez[1][2] (c. 848 – after 890)[3] was a Basque[4] princess from the Kingdom of Pamplona, later known as the Kingdom of Navarre. She was the daughter of Fortún Garcés of Pamplona and his wife Oria. At the time of Onneca's birth, which occurred between 848 and 850, the Iberian Peninsula was largely under the domination of the Muslim Umayyad dynasty. Only the northern kingdoms of Asturias and Pamplona remained under Christian rule, perpetuating the Hispano-Roman Visigothic traditions. Onneca was a member of the Íñiguez dynasty, named after her great-grandfather Íñigo Arista, who founded the Kingdom of Pamplona.[5]
Onneca's father Fortún Garcés, the then heir to the throne of Pamplona, was captured in 860 in the town of Milagro during a punitive expedition led by Muhammad I, the Muslim emir of Córdoba, against the small Kingdom of Pamplona. The expedition resulted in the devastation of the Christian kingdom's territory and the seizure of three castles by the Muslim forces. Fortun Garcés, nicknamed al-Anqar (??????) by the Muslims because he was one-eyed, was taken to Córdoba where he was detained for two decades in gilded captivity.[7] Onneca accompanied or followed her father to Córdoba, where she was wedded to Muhammad I's son Abdullah around 862/863. It is not known when or how she came to Córdoba. She may have been captured with her father, or sent to join her father at the emir's court at a later date. Onneca was presumably still a teenager when she bore Abdullah a son named Muhammad in 864.[3] As Abdullah's wife, Onneca became known as Durr.[8] According to some sources, she converted to Islam.[9][10]
In addition to Muhammad, Onneca bore Abdullah two daughters: al-Baha' and Fatima the Younger.[11] Abdullah became emir in 888, and Onneca's son Muhammad was named heir to the throne. However, Muhammad was assassinated by his younger half-brother al-Mutarrif on 28 January 891. There is disagreement among historians as to whether al-Mutarrif acted on his own or at the instigation of his father Abdullah. Al-Mutarrif himself was beheaded in 895 under orders of his father. As a result, Muhammad's son Abd-ar-Rahman, who was born three weeks prior to his father's assassination, was the one who succeeded his grandfather Abdullah as emir of Córdoba. Known in the West as Abd-ar-Rahman III, he later elevated himself to the position of caliph.[12]
Onneca was thus the paternal grandmother of Abd-ar-Rahman III, who inherited from her as well as from his mother Muzna hailing from the Pyrenees (probably a Basque) European facial features such as blue eyes and light reddish hair that he attempted to alter (notably through hair coloring) in order to look more typically Arab.[2][4]
[edit] Marriage to Aznar Sánchez de Laron
In about 880, after two decades in Córdoba, Onneca abandoned her Muslim family,[13] and returned with her father to Pamplona, to which he would shortly succeed. Shortly after her return, Onneca married her first cousin Aznar Sánchez de Laron. Together they had a son and two daughters, probably born between 880 and 890: Sancho, Toda and Sancha. Their son Sancho Aznar is only known from the Roda Codex genealogies and may have died young.[3] Their daughters Toda and Sancha would both become queens consort of Pamplona by marrying into the Jiménez dynasty, which came to power in 905 after displacing Onneca's father Fortún Garcés from the throne. Toda married Sancho I Garcés, thus uniting the royal houses of Íñiguez and Jiménez.[14] Toda's sister Sancha was wedded to Sancho I Garcés' brother and successor Jimeno Garcés, and was later killed in France by her son García Jiménez.[15]
[edit] Alternative chronology
The Roda Codex, the sole source for Onneca's Christian marriage, places this union with her cousin Aznar Sánchez de Laron before her marriage, as a widow, to Abdullah of Córdoba. Based on this, French historian Évariste Lévi-Provençal developed a chronology for Onneca's life that placed her birth date around 835. Lévi-Provençal believed that Onneca did not accompany her father when he returned to Pamplona in 882, either because she had already died, or because she had converted to Islam and chose to remain in Abdullah's harem.[10] However, such a chronology is problematic since it implies that Onneca's children by Aznar were born before or only shortly after her father's capture in 860, thus making Onneca's daughter Toda Aznárez a sexagenarian at the time of her son García Sánchez I's birth (which is known to have occurred in either 919 or 922[16]), and nearly a centenarian at the time of her 958 visit to Cordoba. Therefore, most historians addressing the question have concluded that the Roda Codex was in error with regard to the order of Onneca's two marriages.
[edit] Legacy
Onneca's historical importance stems from the fact that she provided an important genealogical link between the Muslim caliphs of Córdoba and the Christian kings of Pamplona,[6] as well as between the first two royal dynasties of Pamplona.[17][18]
Information about Onneca's life is sketchy. Biographical details about her come from two main sources: the Roda Codex and the accounts of Muslim Andalusian historians, who refer to Onneca by the Arabic name Durr (??), meaning "pearl". Onneca is primarily known for marrying into the Umayyad dynasty. Although matrimonial unions between Christian slave-concubines and Muslim rulers were common, Onneca's case is one of the few examples of a Christian princess marrying into Muslim royalty.[1] Her marriage created family ties between the Christian and Muslim ruling families of the Iberian peninsula, initially leading to close collaboration between the Christian House of Íñiguez and the Muslim Umayyads.[6] The political effects resulting from Onneca's marriages continued to be felt long after her death, which occurred at an unknown date.