Taifa

The taifas (from Arabic: طائفة ṭā'ifa, plural طوائف ṭawā'if, meaning "party, band, faction") were the independent Muslim principalities and kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula (modern Portugal and Spain), referred to by Muslims as al-Andalus, that emerged from the decline and fall of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba between 1009 and 1031. A form of petty kingdoms, they were a recurring feature of al-Andalus history. The taifas were eventually incorporated by the Almoravid dynasty in the late 11th...