Banu Qasi: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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The '''Banu Qasi''', '''Banu Kasi''', '''Beni Casi''' ({{lang-ar|بنو قسي or بني قسي}}, meaning "sons" or "heirs of Cassius") or '''Banu Musa''' were a [[Basque peopleHispania|BasqueHispano-Roman]] [[Muladi]] dynasty that ruled the upper [[Ebro]] valley ([[Spain]])in the 9th century, before being displaced in the first quarter of the 10th century.

==Dynastic beginnings==

The family is said to descend from the [[Hispania|Hispano-Roman]] or [[Visigoth]]ic nobleman named [[Count Cassius|Cassius]].<ref name="Ball2009">{{cite book|author=Warwick Ball|title=Out of Arabia: Phoenicians, Arabs, and the discovery of Europe|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=35wbAQAAMAAJ|accessdate=30 March 2013|year=2009|publisher=East & West Publishing|isbn=978-1-907318-00-9|pages=117–122}}</ref> According to the 10th century [[Muladi|Muwallad]] historian Ibn al-Qutiyya, Count Cassius converted to Islam in 714 as the ''[[mawali]]'' (client) of the [[Umayyads]], shortly after the [[Umayyad conquest of Hispania]].<ref>Cañada Juste, "Los Banu Qasi", 6; This origin legend, as recounted by Ibn al-Qutiyya, may be a product of the spurious antiquarianism of the latter Umayyad period that satisfied the need for stories which bridged the conquest, rather than reliable genealogy.</ref> After his conversion, he is said to have traveled to [[Damascus]] to personally swear allegiance to the Umayyad [[Caliph]], [[Al-Walid I]].

Under the Banu Qasi, the region of Upper Ebro (modern districts of [[Logroño]] and Southern Navarra) formed a semi-autonomous principality. The tiny Basque emirate was faced by enemies in several directions. Although never realized, the threat of Frankish attempts to regain control over the Western Pyrenees was a real one. In actuality, even more menacing was the gradual eastwards expansion of the [[Asturias|Asturian Kingdom]]; while in the south lay the [[Caliphate of Córdoba]], ever anxious to impose its authority over the frontier regions. The Banu Qasi were a local, rather than a foreign-imposed, [[Muslim]] regime, and while nominally clients of the caliphate, they continually shifted alliances among the BasquesChristians of [[Pamplona]], [[Aragon]] and [[Ribagorza]] to the north, other muladi dynasties of the Ebro Valley, and the Umayyads to the south over the next two centuries. Though Muslim, they frequently intermarried with the Christian BasquePir nobility. Musa ibn Musa and Pamplona king [[Íñigo Arista of Pamplona|Íñigo Arista]] were maternal half-brothers, while Musa also married Arista's daughter, and married a daughter and nieces to other BasquePyrenean princes. The cultural ambivalence of the Banu Qasi is also demonstrated by their mixed use of names: for example, Arabic (Muhammad, Musa, Abd Allah), [[Latin]]ate (Auria, Lubb), and Basque (Garsiya).

The Umayyads of [[Córdoba, Spain|Córdoba]] sanctioned the rule of the Banu Qasi and repeatedly granted them autonomy by appointing them as governors, only to replace them as they expressed too much independence, or launch punitive military expeditions into the region. Such acts on the part of the Umayyads demonstrated their failure to ever fully resolve the problem of effective, central control of outlying regions.

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[[Category:States and territories established in 714]]

[[Category:Basque history]]

[[Category:Basque Muslims]]

[[Category:History of Islam]]

[[Category:Navarre history]]