A prosperous town set in the foothills of the Pyrenees, some 50 kilometers (c. 31 mi.) east of Huesca in Spain. Under Muslim rule, Barbastro (Arab. Barbashtura) was a district capital of one of the marches of the caliphate, and later a Taifa kingdom belonging to the Banu Hud family.
In 1064 Barbastro was the object of a “proto-crusade” when a force of Aragonese and Normans (led by the Norman nobleman Robert Crispin), fortified with an indulgence granted by Pope Alexander II, laid siege to the town. Starved out, the defenders capitulated once they had been assured of safe passage from the city for themselves and their goods. As they were leaving, however, the Christian forces fell on the refugees, massacring them and carrying women and booty into the town, where they installed themselves and lived in reputed decadence. Western Islam was shocked by the episode, which was attributed to the Taifa rulers’ conciliatory policies toward Christian states, fueling the discontent among the ulama (the Muslim learned elite). This unrest eventually led to Almoravid intervention in the Iberian Peninsula. Nine months after its conquest, a Muslim coalition retook Barbastro and massacred the occupiers.
The town fell definitively into Christian hands when it was captured by King Peter I of Aragon in 1101. At this point it became an episcopal see. It became a quiet backwater after the conquests of King Alfonso I (1109-1134).
-Brian A. Catlos
See also: Aragon; Reconquista
Bibliography
Ferreiro, Alberto, “The Siege of Barbastro (1064-1065): A Reassessment,” Journal of Medieval History 9 (1983), 129-144.
Turk, Afif, El reino de Zaragoza en el siglo XI de Cristo (V de la Hegira) (Madrid: Instituto Egipcio de Estudios Islamicos en Madrid, 1978).
Tutush’s sons, Ridwan, who ruled Aleppo and northern Syria, and Duqaq, who ruled Damascus and southern Syria. Barkyaruq himself was occupied by another rebellion led by his uncle, Arslan Arghun, in Khurasan in 1097. This was followed by another challenge to power by the sultan’s younger brother Muhammad Tapar in 1098, which continued for the rest of the reign, exhausting Saljuq military power and crippling the economy of the empire. The struggle between Barkyaruq and Muhammad took place mostly in Iraq, Persia, and Transoxania. Saljuq Syria was neglected to such an extent that when a Syrian delegation traveled to Baghdad to urge the sultan and caliph to intervene after Jerusalem fell to the crusaders, the caliph pleaded helplessness, as Barkyaruq was fighting in Khurasan. When his cousin Duqaq was killed in 1104, Barkyaruq was unable to prevent the atabeg Tughtigin from seizing control of Damascus from the Saljuq dynasty. Barkyaruk died of tuberculosis in January 1105 after nominating his four-year-old son Malik Shah II as successor.
-Taef El-Azhari
See also: Saljuqs
Bibliography
The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 5: The Saljuq and Mongol periods, ed. J. Boyle (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968).
Lambton, A. K. S. Continuity and Change in Medieval Persia (London, Tauris, 1988).
World History
