Taifa of Seville

The Taifa of Seville was an Arab kingdom in what is now southern Spain and Portugal, established in 1023 after the collapse of the Caliphate of Cordoba and ruled by the Abbadid dynasty from its capital at Seville until it was conquered by the Almoravids in 1091. Governed successively by three emirs, Abu al-Qasim from 1023 to 1042, Abbad II al-Mu'tadid from 1042 to 1069, and Muhammad al-Mu'tamid from 1069 to 1091, it pursued an expansionist policy that made it the most powerful taifa of its time, and by around 1080 its territory covered parts of the modern provinces of Seville, Huelva and Cadiz after it had conquered several smaller neighboring taifas following its full independence in 1031. A major center of Ibero-Muslim culture and poetry, Seville paid tribute to the Christian kingdom of Castile for military support before its own request for Almoravid help against the Christians led instead to Almoravid occupation in 1091.