Taifa of Granada

The Taifa of Granada was a Muslim kingdom and Berber emirate in Al-Andalus, in what is now Spain, ruled by the Zirid dynasty, an offshoot of the North African Zirid family, from its establishment in 1013 until its fall to the Almoravids in 1090. It was founded when Zawi ibn Ziri and his Zirid followers, having received the province of Ilbira, moved their capital to Granada, and the kingdom was governed as a hereditary monarchy in which a tribal assembly called the jama'a helped choose successors among four Zirid kings: Zawi ibn Ziri, Habbus al-Muzaffar, Badis ben Habus and Abdallah ibn Buluggin. Considered the wealthiest of all the taifa kingdoms, with territory extending to Malaga at its peak, Granada's court was shaped for decades by the Jewish administrator and military commander Samuel ha-Nagid, before Almoravid conquest ended Zirid independence in 1090.