Banu Tujib
The Banu Tujib, the Tujibids or Banu al-Muhajir, were an Arab dynasty on the Upper March of Al-Andalus active from the ninth to the eleventh centuries. They were given control of Zaragoza and Calatayud by the Umayyads as a counterweight to the independence-minded Muwallad nobility of the region. In Zaragoza, they developed a degree of autonomy that served as the precursor to their establishment of an independent Taifa of Zaragoza after the collapse of the Caliphate of Córdoba. They ruled this taifa from 1018 until they were expelled by another Arab dynasty, the Banu Hud, in 1039. An exiled junior line of the family, known as the Banu Sumadih, established themselves as rulers of the Taifa of Almería, which they held for three generations, until 1090.
Family origin
The historian Ibn Hazm traced the Banu Tujib to two brothers who accompanied Musa ibn Nusayr from Egypt for his conquest of Iberia, ʿAmira and ʿAbd Allah, both sons of al-Muhajir ibn Naywa. They were installed in Aragon, and ʿAmira is said to have served as governor of Barcelona for two years, while ʿAbd Allah was ancestor of the later family. The 11th century historian al-Udri claimed the Banu Salama, who governed Zaragoza in the late 8th century were a branch of the Banu Tujib, but his contemporary Ibn Hazm included in the earliest generation of the Banu Qasi a son named Abu Salama, apparently hinting at a derivation of the Banu Salama from this Muwallad Upper March family. In the second half of the 9th century, faced with the repeated threat of the rebel Banu Qasi clan, emir Muhammad I of Córdoba recruited to his side the sons of ʿAbd al-ʿAziz ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Tujibi, giving them several towns, including Daroca, as well as 100 dinars each, and charging them with fighting the Banu Qasi. He rebuilt Calatayud and gave it to ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz in 862/3. During this period, the family was also involved in long-running hostilities with Ahmad ibn al-Barraʼ al-Qurashi, governor of Zaragoza, and in one of their battles, ʿAbd al-Rahman's son, ʿAbd al-ʿAziz ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Tujibi, lord of Daroca, was killed. Two other sons of ʿAbd al-Rahman, al-Mundhir in Calatayud and Muhammad in Zaragoza, would found lineages that long held positions of power on the Upper March. A fourth son, Sumadih, is known only as ancestor of the Banu Sumadih, who would take power in Almería in the 11th century.Tenth century
Zaragoza
Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman
The accession of emir Abdullah led to shuffling of the court, and the father of Ahmad al-Qurashi, who had been the visier, fell out of favor. The new emir then encouraged the Tujibis to take action against the governor. In events concluding in January 890, ʿAbd al-Rahman and his son Muhammad carried out a plot in which Muhammad feigned a dispute with his father so that he and his men would be admitted to the city and gain trusted access to Ahmad's inner circle. Muhammad then murdered Ahmad, but when ʿAbd al-Rahman came to claim the city Muhammad barred him entry and successfully petitioned the emir to be named governor in Ahmad's place. ʿAbd al-Rahman died shortly thereafter, in 277 A.H. at the age of 58.Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman established what was, in effect, an autonomous hereditary protectorate. He remained loyal to Córdoba and continued the family's fight against the Banu Qasi, including resisting the 17-year siege of Zaragoza by Muhammad ibn Lubb and his son Lubb ibn Muhammad. In 919, he took the towns of Roda de Isábena and Monzón, though the latter was recaptured by an alliance of Sancho I of Pamplona, Bernard I of Ribagorza, and Amrus ibn Muhammad of Huesca. When in 921 Muhammad took the castle of Samaliq, his nephew Mutarrif ibn al-Mundhir al-Tujibi arrived with men to help garrison the town, but Muhammad marched out against him and forced him to withdraw back to Calatayud with heavy casualties. In 923, Sancho I captured and murdered Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allah, head of the rival Banu Qasi clan, and Muhammad al-Tujibi and his son Hisham took advantage of the power vacuum to take Tudela and turned it over to the emir. After al-Tujibi joined ʿAbd al-Rahman III on his 924/5 campaign against Pamplona, the caliph awarded Tudela to the Zaragoza leader's grandson, Muhammad ibn Hisham ibn Muhammad.
The elder Muhammad al-Tujibi, who would be known to history as Muhammad al-Anqar or al-Aʿwar died in January 925. His son Hashim ibn Muhammad was allowed to succeed him, but faced a revolt by his Tujibid kinsmen of Calatayud and Daroca, who besieged some of his castles. Hashim attacked and dispersed them, ending their hostilities. He died five years later, in October 930. It is presumably from him that the Zaragoza branch of the Banu Tujib came to be called the Banu Hashim.
Muhammad ibn Hashim
, now caliph, was hesitant to allow Muhammad ibn Hashim to succeed his father as governor of Zaragoza. He and his family, along with the Banu Shabrit sons of Muhammad al-Tawil of Huesca, went to the caliph to plead their loyalty, and on acceding to his demands that Muhammad pay an unspecified tribute and agree to participate in military raids on Córdoba's behalf, he was named governor in 931. Not long thereafter, however, Muhammad and his Banu Shabrit allies refused to participate in the caliph's campaign against Osma.In 934 ʿAbd al-Rahman III began a campaign in the north against Ramiro II of León, but also targeted Muhammad ibn Hashim al-Tujibi. Refusing to submit to ʿAbd al-Rahman, al-Tujibi formed an alliance with Ramiro, so in 935 the caliph launched a siege of Zaragoza that he was then forced to abandon as he was faced with rebellion on several fronts until he executed an Umayyad rival in 936, and he then sent an army to subjugate Zaragoza in 937. Christian and Muslim sources paint the relationship between Muhammad al-Tujibi and Ramiro II in different ways. According to Ibn Hayyan, after inconclusively confronting al-Tujibi on the Ebro, ʿAbd al-Rahman briefly forced the Kingdom of Pamplona into submission, ravaged Castile and Alava, and met Ramiro in an inconclusive battle. Ibn Hayyan, basing himself on ʿIsa al-Razi, stated that al-Tujbi voluntarily sought an alliance with Ramiro II in order to avoid submitting to ʿAbd al-Rahman, but ʿAbd al-Rahman negotiated a truce with Ramiro in order to isolate al-Tujibi, and then forced al-Tujibi's surrender in 937. However, according to the Chronicle of Sampiro, in which al-Tujibi is called "Abohayha", Ramiro had attacked al-Tujibi and forced his submission, but once ʿAbd al-Rahman arrived with his armies, al-Tujibi changed his allegiance to the Umayyads.
Following his defeat in 937, Muhammad ibn Hashim was forced to temporarily surrender Zaragoza to the caliph and reside in Cordoba, but was then allowed to return to the governorship, while being prohibited to negotiate independently with the Christian states, and required to pay tribute and to participate in the caliph's campaigns. Thus, in 939 the combined Umayyad and Tujibid armies met Ramiro in the Battle of Simancas, which resulted in the defeat of ʿAbd al-Rahman and the capture of al-Tujibi. ʿAbd al-Rahman III temporarily placed Muhammad's son, Yahya ibn Muhammad, in charge of Muhammad's troops and also sent him mercenaries under Muhammad's brother Yahya, who was named commander of the Upper March, before in 941 sending his secretary and doctor, Hisdai ben Isaac ben Shaprut, to negotiate a treaty with Ramiro II. After Muhammad's release was secured, Abd al-Rahman formally acknowledged Yahya's right to succeed Muhammad in all of this lands and titles and granted to Muhammad's brother, another Yahya, the castles of Warsa/Orosa, María de Huerva and Lérida, the first of these having been held by another brother, Ibrahim, before the family came to blows with the caliph in 934/5. Muhammad was again governing Zaragoza in 942, when he was named visier, and ʿAbd ar-Rahman sent Turkish slave soldiers from Cordoba to Zaragoza so that the Tujibis could deploy them against García Sánchez I of Pamplona, Ramiro's ally. Ramiro, in turn, sent forces to help García. However, Ibn Hayyan's history ends in that year, so these events are not known in as much detail as the previous campaigns of ʿAbd ar-Rahman against Ramiro and al-Tujibi. Muhammad ibn Hashim al-Tujibi died in June 950, and as had been agreed, the caliph named Yahya ibn Muhammad as his successor. As another sign that the Zaragoza branch of the Banu Tujib had restored themselves to the caliph's favor, when Muhammad's brother Yahya ibn Hashim died at Toledo in 952, his castles were confirmed to his brother Hudayl ibn Hashim, who had held them before the caliph's punitive 934 campaign against the family.
Late Umayyad Caliphate
The leadership of the Banu Hashim branch of the Tujibis becomes confused after Muhammad, the sources being contradictory and apparently confused. Yahya al-Zuqaytar ibn Muhammad al-Tujibi was apparently still governing Zaragoza during the reign of caliph Al-Hakam II. Al-Andalus chroniclers report that in 975, a governor of Zaragoza accompanied a campaign against Castile, but while some call the leader Yahya, others name him as ʿAbd al-Rahman, the name of Yahya's brother and successor. Yahya also took part in the campaign against Africa at this time, returning to Zaragoza before his death. About this time, the governor of Lérida and Monzón, Rashiq al-Barghawati, was ordered to turn over his charges to Hashim ibn Muhammad ibn Hashim al-Tujubi, younger brother of Yahya and ʿAbd al-Rahman.After Almanzor had consolidated his power in 983, he formed an alliance with the Tujibis of Zaragoza to be his military support. However, in 989 one of Almanzor's sons conspired with the Tujibis against his father, and the Tujibid leader, ʿAbd ar-Rahman ibn Muhammad, joined a pact that would see the family control the marches of the Caliphate, but Almanzor learned of the plot and executed Abd ar-Rahman al-Tujibi as well as his own son. ʿAbd al-Rahman's own eldest son, al-Hakam, is also said by Ibn Hazm to have been killed, though it is unclear if this happened at the same time. To mollify the Tujibis, Almanzor soon replaced the executed rebel with his nephew, ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Yahya al-Tujibi, but there is no further mention of the family during the chaos of the collapsing Umayyad caliphate. When they next appear, early in the following century, control of Zaragoza had passed to a different branch of the family.