Al-Mutamid
(1040 - 1095) Spain
Seville Ruler
Berbers from Africa established the kingdom of Granada, where Badis ruled 1038-1073, repulsing attacks from the powerful kingdom of Seville, where the son of its judge (qadi) proclaimed himself al-Mutadid in 1042. His son Abbad III (al-Mutamid) was king of Seville 1069-1091, and he ended the republican council. Al-Mutamid formed an alliance with Alphonso VI, king of Leon and Castile. When Alphonso did not aid him against the incursions of the Cid, al-Mutamid turned to Morocco's Murabit ruler Yusuf ibn Tashufin in 1086, and together they defeated the armies of Alphonso VI at Zalaca.
Abbad III (al-Mutamid), was a poet and a great patron of the arts, but an inept ruler. Four years later Yusuf returned to Spain, took al-Mutamid prisoner, and annexed all of Muslim Spain except for Toledo and Zaragoza. Granada's king 'Abd Allah was also deposed by the Almoravid Yusuf in 1090. Al-Mutamid was in love with with the poet Ibn 'Ammar, whom he made one of the most powerful men in Spain.
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