Not Zaida Again
Leo
It think it is accepted that she was only the daughter-in-law of Al-Mutamid, emir of Seville, and he, reputedly descends from Mohammed the Prophet.
A very knowledgeable person has sent me a message stating how most likely Zaida's father was Abenabeth, and Abenabeth should be known as Abenabeth ibn Abbad and he most likely was a brother of Al Mutamid. This restores the abandoned possible line from Zaida to Mohamed. Below is what I am going to enter as a kind of biography for Zaida.
Look foreward to any comments.
With best wishes
Leo van de Pas,
Canberra
a.. Zaida of Seville is said by Iberian Muslim sources to have been the daughter-in-law of Al Mutamid, the Muslim emir of Seville, wife of his son Fath al-Mamun, emir of Cordoba, who died in 1091. Later Iberian Christian chroniclers call her Al Mutamid's daughter, but the Islamic chroniclers have been considered more reliable. Al Mutamid was said to have been a descendant of the prophet Mohammed. Recently strong evidence has emerged that Zaida's first husband was also her first cousin, her (reputed) father and her father-in-law being brothers. If this evidence were true, it would make Zaida also a descendant of Mohammed.
b.. With the fall of Seville to the Almoravids, Zaida fled to the protection of Alfonso VI 'the Brave', king of Castile and León, becoming his mistress, converting to Christianity and taking the baptismal name of Isabel.
c.. She was the mother of Alfonso's only son Sancho who, though illegitimate, was named his father's heir, but was killed in the Battle of Uclés of 1108 during his father's lifetime. It has been suggested that Alfonso's fourth wife, Isabel, was identical to Zaida,but this is still subject to scholarly debate, others making Queen Isabel distinct from the mistress or suggesting that Alfonso had two successive wives of this name, with Zaida being the second Queen Isabel. Alfonso's daughters Elvira and Sancha were by Queen Isabel, and hence were possibly Zaida's.
d.. She died in childbirth, and it is unclear whether the child being delivered was Sancho, Sancha or Elvira (the younger of the two if Zaida is indeed identical to Queen Isabel, their order of birth not being known), or an additional child, otherwise unknown. A funerary marker once at Sahagun bore the inscription:
e.. H.R. Regina Elisabeth, uxor regis Adefonsi, filia Benabet Regis Sevillae, quae prius Zayda, fuit vocata
f.. ("Queen Isabel, wife of King Alfonso, daughter of Aben-abeth, king of Seville; previously called Zayda.")
g.. The tomb was later moved to Leon where the sepulchre and inscription can now be found. A second inscription memorialises Queen Isabel, making her daughter of Louis, king of France (although there was no such king in the generation prior to Queen Isabel). Both memorials are non-contemporary and neither is generally viewed as credible.
M.Sjostrom
a) it is entirely plausible that Zaida and her first (= muslim) husband were first cousins. their 'tribal' background had that sort of customs, of cousin marriage.
in section c), you would want to specify the Elvira there as:
Elvira the younger
(this is because the mistress Ximena Munoz (de Cantabria) bore him also an Elvira, the elder one)
a question: is any BENABET known (from any other sources) as any sort of ruler or co-ruler of Sevilla, in mid- or late 11th century ?
taf
> In genealogy there are a few people whose ancestry can only be described as tantalising, and Zaida is one
>
> It think it is accepted that she was only the daughter-in-law of Al-Mutamid, emir of Seville, and he, reputedly descends from Mohammed the Prophet.
>
'Reputedly' here translates as 'someone made it up for political
reasons'. The descent from Muhammed is a complete concoction.
> A very knowledgeable person has sent me a message stating how most likely Zaida's father was Abenabeth, and Abenabeth should be known as Abenabeth ibn Abbad and he most likely was a brother of Al Mutamid. This restores the abandoned possible line from Zaida to Mohamed. Below is what I am going to enter as a kind of biography for Zaida.
>
The theory (and that's all it is) goes like this:
There are three contradictory accounts of her parentage. Bishop Pelayo
calls her the daughter of Abenabeth, king of Hispalensis. The
Chronicon Villarense calls her niece of Abenalfaje (which is a more
accurate rendition of the same name as Abenabeth, and refers to the
family of Al Mu'tamid). Ibn Idari al Marrakusi calls her wife of
Ma'mun (son of al Mu'tamid). Now it looks to me like nothing but
confusion - one source calling her daughter-in-law a, a second niece,
the third daughter of the same man. Which is right?
I would take this confusion to suggest that the Christian sources knew
she was some kind of female relative, and turned her into daughter or
niece, when in fact she was daughter-in-law (similar confusion is seen
when others tried to relate Byzantine 'princesses' to their Emperor
kinsmen).
However, others have suggested that they are all right. Al Mu'tamid
had a brother, you see. He (according to the argument) could also
have been called Abenalfage. If we make her daughter of him, then that
allows the same woman to be daughter of Abenabeth (i.e. Isma'il ibn
'Abbad), niece of Abenalfage (al Mu'tamid ibn 'Abbad) and daughter-in-
law of al-Mu'tamid all at the same time. It is a convenient way to
square the circle, but I don't buy it. To me this looks like nothing
more than a valliant attempt to make a purse out of a pig's ear, like
some of the elaborate hypotheses for Agatha 'of Hungary'.
> Recently strong evidence has emerged that Zaida's first husband was also her first cousin, her (reputed) father and her father-in-law being brothers. If this evidence were true, it would make Zaida also a descendant of Mohammed.
>
There is no such recent evidence, nothing has emerged, and what there
is is not that strong.
> A funerary marker once at Sahagun bore the inscription:
>
> e.. H.R. Regina Elisabeth, uxor regis Adefonsi, filia Benabet Regis Sevillae, quae prius Zayda, fuit vocata
> f.. ("Queen Isabel, wife of King Alfonso, daughter of Aben-abeth, king of Seville; previously called Zayda.")
>
> g.. The tomb was later moved to Leon where the sepulchre and inscription can now be found. A second inscription memorialises Queen Isabel, making her daughter of Louis, king of France (although there was no such king in the generation prior to Queen Isabel). Both memorials are non-contemporary and neither is generally viewed as credible.
>
And this is it in a nutshell. One of these late stones takes Pelayo's
text and upgrades her to uxor, the other Lucas de Tuy's. Note the
'neither is generally viewed as credible' part.
taf
mara Gonzalez Morejon
> In Googlebooks, there appears the article (incomplete) by Salazar y Acha
> published in Hidalguía on Zaida.
Regards,
Mara
taf
wrote:
> > In Googlebooks, there appears the article (incomplete) by Salazar y Acha
> > published in Hidalguía on Zaida.
>
Yes - that was one of the sources for my summary. It is actually a
response to a published criticism of an earlier article of his:
Salazar y Acha, Jaime de. Contribución al estudio del reinado de
Alfonso VI de Castilla: algunas aclaraciones sobre su política
matrimonial. Anales de la Real Academia Matritense de Heráldica y
Genealogía, 2:299-336 (1992-1993)
Montaner Frutos, Alberto. La Mora Zaida, entre historia y legenda (con
una reflexión sobre la técnica historiográfica alfonsí). in Historist
Essays on Hispano-Medieval Narrative: In Memory of Roger M. Walker.
272-352 (2005).
Salazar y Acha, Jaime de. De nuevo sobre la mora Zaida. Hidalguía: la
Revista de Geneología, Nobreza y Armas. 54:225-242 (2007).
Other relevant works addressing Zaida:
Lévi-Provençal, Evariste. La 'Mora Zaida' femme d'Alfonse VI de
Castile et leur fils l'Infant D.Sancho. Hesperis. 18:1-8,200-1 (1934).
Canal Sánchez-Pagín, José Maria. Jimena Muñoz, Amiga de Alfonso VI.
Anuario de Estudios Medievales. 21:11-40 (1991).
Reilly, Bernard F. The Kingdom of Leon-Castile Under Alfonso VI.
(1988).
Palencia, Clemente. Historia y Legendas de las Mujeres de Alfonso VI.
in Estudios Sobre Alfonso VI y la Reconquista de Toledo. 281-90
(1988).
taf