Qualla: Taifa of Majorca https://qualla.com/taifa-of-majorca en-us © 2026 Bendyline Thu, 20 Aug 2026 16:39:03 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/1/c/taifa-of-majorca-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Taifa of Majorca https://qualla.com/taifa-of-majorca Taifa of Majorca: Introduction https://qualla.com/taifa-of-majorca/ Photo credit Ypsilon from Finland, CC0. The man behind the island kingdom of Majorca had begun life enslaved. Mujāhid al-ʿĀmirī belonged to the saqaliba, enslaved people of European origin who served the rulers of Muslim Spain and who, in the chaos of the eleventh century, sometimes seized power for themselves. In 1018 the Balearic Islands became a taifa under his rule, one of the small kingdoms that rose from the wreckage of the once-mighty Caliphate of Córdoba. For more than two centuries after him, Majorca would be a Muslim realm, governed from the walled city the Arabs called Madina Mayurqa, the place we now know as Palma.

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]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/1/c/taifa-of-majorca-wp/sp1c-taifa-of-majorca-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Taifa of Majorca: An Enslaved Man Who Became a Sea King https://qualla.com/taifa-of-majorca/ Photo credit Joan Gené, CC BY-SA 4.0. Mujāhid's rise says much about the fluid, dangerous world of eleventh-century Spain. The saqaliba to whom he belonged were bought as boys, often from far to the north, and raised in the households of Córdoba's rulers as soldiers and administrators. When central authority crumbled...

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Image: Joan Gené | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/1/c/taifa-of-majorca-wp/sp1c-taifa-of-majorca-an-enslaved-man-who-became-a-sea-king.mp3 0:06 2 full Taifa of Majorca: Kingdoms After the Caliphate https://qualla.com/taifa-of-majorca/ Photo credit Choooseala1, CC BY-SA 4.0. To understand the Taifa of Majorca, start with a collapse. For most of the tenth century, Muslim Spain, al-Andalus, had been unified under the Caliphate of Córdoba, one of the most brilliant states in Europe. In the early eleventh century it shattered into a patchwork of rival ki...

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]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/1/c/taifa-of-majorca-wp/sp1c-taifa-of-majorca-kingdoms-after-the-caliphate.mp3 0:06 3 full Taifa of Majorca: The Last Almoravids https://qualla.com/taifa-of-majorca/ Photo credit Hans Bernhard (Schnobby), CC BY-SA 3.0. History then handed Majorca a strange distinction. On the Spanish mainland and across the Maghreb, the Almoravids were themselves overthrown by a new Berber power, the Almohads. But on the islands, a dynasty called the Banu Ghaniya refused to accept the change. From around 1147 t...

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Image: Hans Bernhard (Schnobby) | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/1/c/taifa-of-majorca-wp/sp1c-taifa-of-majorca-the-last-almoravids.mp3 0:06 4 full Taifa of Majorca: The End of Muslim Majorca https://qualla.com/taifa-of-majorca/ Photo credit Hans Bernhard (Schnobby), CC BY-SA 3.0. The stubbornness could not hold forever. In 1203 the Almohads finally took the Balearic Islands, ending the Banu Ghaniya's long resistance and bringing Majorca into their realm. Their rule, too, would be brief. In 1229 King Jaime I of Aragon landed with a Christian army, conquere...

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Image: Hans Bernhard (Schnobby) | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/1/c/taifa-of-majorca-wp/sp1c-taifa-of-majorca-the-end-of-muslim-majorca.mp3 0:06 5 full