The Battle of Faḥṣ al-Jullāb was fought on Thursday 15 October 1165 between the invading

Almohads The Almohad Caliphate (; ar, خِلَافَةُ ٱلْمُوَحِّدِينَ or or from ar, ٱلْمُوَحِّدُونَ, translit=al-Muwaḥḥidūn, lit=those who profess the unity of God) was a North African Berber Muslim empire f ...

and the king of Murcia, Ibn Mardanīsh. An Almohad army under ''

sayyid ''Sayyid'' (, ; ar, سيد ; ; meaning 'sir', 'Lord', 'Master'; Arabic plural: ; feminine: ; ) is a surname of people descending from the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandsons, Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali, sons of Muhamma ...

''s Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar and Abū Saʿīd ʿUthmān, the brothers of the Caliph Abū Yaʿḳūb Yūsuf, went on the offensive against Ibn Mardanīsh in the summer of 1165. They captured

Andújar Andújar () is a Spanish municipality of 38,539 people (2005) in the province of Jaén, in Andalusia. The municipality is divided by the Guadalquivir River. The northern part of the municipality is where the Natural Park of the Sierra de Andú ...

in September, harried Galera, Caravaca, Baza and

Sierra de Segura Sierra de Segura is a mountain range of the Prebaetic System in the Jaén Province in Spain. It is named after the ancient town of Segura de la Sierra and it gives its name to the Segura River. Its highest point is the 1,993 m high Las Banderil ...

, then captured Cúllar and Vélez on their approach to

Murcia Murcia (, , ) is a city in south-eastern Spain, the capital and most populous city of the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia, and the seventh largest city in the country. It has a population of 460,349 inhabitants in 2021 (about one ...

. Ibn Mardanīsh called a general levy and sought the assistance of his Christian allies from the

Kingdom of Castile The Kingdom of Castile (; es, Reino de Castilla, la, Regnum Castellae) was a large and powerful state on the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages. Its name comes from the host of castles constructed in the region. It began in the 9th cent ...

to augment his standing army of salaried troops. The Almohad armies were composed of Berbers,

Arabs The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

and slaves. The core was composed of Berbers from Tinmal. Others came from Harga and Hintāta tribes. Arab reinforcements, mostly from the Riyāḥ, Athbaj and Zughba clans of the Banū Hilāl, had been brought over from Marrakesh in July. Ibn Mardanīsh went out to defend Lorca and was met by an Almohad force advancing from the castle of Vélez. Battle was met south of Murcia, near Alhama (''al-Ḥamma'') at a place called the "merchant's field", ''Faḥṣ al-Jullāb'', in the valley of the Guadalentín. Ibn Mardanīsh and his men were routed. The king took refuge in the city while the victors plundered the countryside. The Almohads were incapable of seriously threatening the walled city. Letters announcing the victory were sent to

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

and Marrakesh, the latter arriving on 31 October. In the letters, the battle was compared to the Battle of Dhū Ḳār, when the Arabs routed the Persians in the time before Islam. After the battle, Abū Saʿīd ʿUthmān went to Córdoba while Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar took most of the army to Marrakesh, where the caliph rewarded each soldier with a turban, a cloak and a bolt of linen, each cavalryman with 20 gold ''dīnār''s and each leader of the Almohad and Arab troops with 100 gold ''dīnār''s. The names of all were recorded. Although some Christians participated on the side of Murcia, the battle is known only from Muslim sources. Among those histories that describe the battle are

Ibn ʿIdhārī Abū al-ʽAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʽIḏārī al-Marrākushī ( ar, أبو العباس أحمد ابن عذاري المراكشي) was a Moroccan historian of the late-13th/early-14th century, and author of the famous '' Al-Bayan al- ...

's ''Bayān'', Ibn Ṣāḥib al-Ṣalāt's ''Mann'', Ibn al-Abbār's ''Takmila'', Ṣafwān ibn Idrīs's ''Zād'', al-Marrākushī's ''Muʿjib'',

al-Ṣafadī Khalīl ibn Aybak al-Ṣafadī, or Salah al-Dīn al-Ṣafadī; full name - Salah al-Dīn Abū al-Ṣafa Khalīl ibn Aybak ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Albakī al-Ṣafari al-Damascī Shafi'i. (1296 – 1363); he was a Turkic Mamluk author and historian. ...

's ''Wāfī'', Ibn Abī Zarʿ's ''Anīs'',

Ibn al-Athīr Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ash-Shaybānī, better known as ʿAlī ʿIzz ad-Dīn Ibn al-Athīr al-Jazarī ( ar, علي عز الدین بن الاثیر الجزري) lived 1160–1233) was an Arab or Kurdish historian a ...

's ''Kāmil'', Ibn al-Khaṭīb's ''Iḥāṭa'' and al-Maḳḳarī's ''Nafḥ''.

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* * * * * {{refend Fahs al-Jullab Fahs al-Jullab 1165 in Europe