From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Battle of the Reconquista in 939 AD
For the siege of Simancas barracks during the Spanish Civil War in 1936, see
Siege of Gijon
.
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- 8th century
- 9th century
- 10th century
- 11th century
- 12th century
- 13th century
- 14th century
- 15th century
- Post-Reconquista Rebellions
- North Africa
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The
Battle of Simancas
(also called
Alhandega
or
al-Khandaq
) was a military battle that started on 19 July 939 in the
Iberian Peninsula
between the troops of the
King of Leon
Ramiro II
and Cordovan caliph
Abd al-Rahman III
near the walls of the city of
Simancas
.
The battle unfolded after the army of
Abd al-Rahman III
launched toward the northern Christian territories in 934. Abd al-Rahman III had gathered a large army of
caliphal
fighters, with the help of the
Andalusian
governor of
Zaragoza
, Muhammad ibn Yahya
al-Tujibi
. The Leonese king Ramiro II led the counterattack with an army constituted of his own troops, those of
Castile
under Count
Fernan Gonzalez
, and the Navarrese under
Garcia Sanchez I
.
Arab witnesses chronicle a spectacular eclipse of the sun that took place on the first day of the battle:
- As the army arrived near Simancas, there was an awful eclipse of the sun that covered the earth of a dark yellow amid the day and it filled us and the infidels with terror as neither had seen in their life such a thing as this. Two days passed without either side making any movement.
The battle lasted some days, with the allied Christian troops emerging victorious and routing the Cordovan forces. Furtun ibn Muhammad al-Tawil, wali of Huesca, withheld his troops from the battle. He was hunted down near
Calatayud
by Salama ibn Ahmad ibn Salama, taken to Cordoba, and crucified in front of
its
Al-Qasr
.
[2]
References
[
edit
]
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- de la Granja, Fernando (1967).
La Marca Superior en la Obra de al-'Udri, Estudios de la Edad Media de la Corona de Aragon
(in Spanish). vol. 8 (1967), pp. 457?545.
- Martinez Diez, Gonzalo (2005).
El Condado de Castilla (711?1038): la historia frente a la leyenda
(in Spanish). 2 volumes. Valladolid.
ISBN
84-9718-275-8
.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link
)
41°36′00″N
4°49′01″W
/
41.600°N 4.817°W
/
41.600; -4.817
