''Farfanes'' (sing. ''farfan'') were soldiers hailing mostly from the Christian Iberian kingdoms in the later

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

fighting as mercenaries for the various Muslim dynasties of the Western

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

.The Papacy and Christian Mercenaries of Thirteenth-Century North Africa
by Michael Lower; published in '' Speculum'', Volume 89 / Issue 03 / July 2014, pp 601-631; doi: 10.1017/S0038713414000761; retrieved May 7, 2015 Farfanes fought in the European fashion, in dense formations of either

heavy cavalry Heavy cavalry was a class of cavalry intended to deliver a battlefield charge and also to act as a tactical reserve; they are also often termed '' shock cavalry''. Although their equipment differed greatly depending on the region and histor ...

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...

under the command of a Christian European officer, the ''qadi''. The phenomenon came to an end when Christian mercenaries were repatriated in the 15th century. The patronym "Farfán" is still relatively common in 21st-century Spanish-speaking countries and may be linked to these families which came back from the

Maghreb The Maghreb (; ar, الْمَغْرِب, al-Maghrib, lit=the west), also known as the Arab Maghreb ( ar, المغرب العربي) and Northwest Africa, is the western part of North Africa and the Arab world. The region includes Algeria, ...

Etymology

The origin of the word "farfan" is unclear, but it may be cognate with the Arabic word ''farkhan'' meaning bird. A hypothesis is that this word was commonly given to vagabonds in the Maghreb who were regarded as migratory like birds. By extension, the word ''farkhan'' came to refer in the vernacular language to bastards, criminals, and outcasts.

Origins

The use of foreign mercenaries was widespread in the medieval Mediterranean world and mercenary units were common in Muslim,

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

and Papal armies. Muslim armies, in particular, relied regularly on non-Muslim or recently Islamicized warriors such as Turks and sub-Saharan Africans. The existence of the farfanes is thus in no way exceptional. However, the actual origins of the farfan units remain undetermined. Three scenarios are usually mentioned by historians (which are not mutually exclusive). The farfans may be considered to be a continuation of the complex network of alliances common in 10th-century Iberia. Muslim leaders commonly used units lent to them by their Christian allies or formed their own units with individuals exiled from Christian lands. These types of arrangements are well known due to the fame of El Cid, and as it was widespread in

al-Andalus Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the M ...

, it is possible that this habit was passed on to the other side of the Mediterranean in the 12th century. According to another theory, the farfan units in North Africa were originally Christian slaves and prisoners of war held by the

Almoravid dynasty The Almoravid dynasty ( ar, المرابطون, translit=Al-Murābiṭūn, lit=those from the ribats) was an imperial Berber Muslim dynasty centered in the territory of present-day Morocco. It established an empire in the 11th century tha ...

after its successful offensives against the Christians in

Iberia The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

. Units composed entirely of slaves or recently-freed men were relatively common both in North Africa and in al-Andalus, so this theory of the origin of the farfan fits an observable pattern. The history of

Reverter de La Guardia Reverter I de La Guardia (died 1142 or 1144), viscount of Barcelona, was a Catalan adventurer and military leader who defended the Almoravid caliphate in North Africa against the Almohad onslaught. He was the son of Guislabert II, viscount of ...

, a Catalan nobleman captured by the Almoravid army on a Spanish battlefield in the 1120s, is one of the earliest examples of a Christian mercenary fighting in North Africa and would support this scenario. The third theory is related to the mass deportation of the Mozarab Christians from al-Andalus to North Africa in 1126 by the Almoravids. Once in the hostile Maghrebi environment, the Mozarabs would have had little choice but to seek the support of the Almoravid rulers and to enlist as soldiers in their armies. This alternative fits with the tribal designation of the farfans sometimes called Banu Farfan in the sources. The surname "Farfán de los Godos", may indicate a

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

origin.

Famous farfanes

Pedro Ruiz de Azagra Pedro Ruiz de Azagra (died 1186) was a Navarrese nobleman and soldier who established the independent Lordship of Albarracín, which lasted until 1284. He was the second son of Rodrigo Pérez de Azagra. His elder brother was Gonzalo Ruiz and his y ...

*Álvaro Núñez de Lara *

Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (c. 1043 – 10 July 1099) was a Castilian knight and warlord in medieval Spain. Fighting with both Christian and Muslim armies during his lifetime, he earned the Arabic honorific ''al-sīd'', which would evolve into El C ...

, (El Cid) * Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, el Bueno * Enrique de Castilla * Guillermo de Moncada * Raymundo de Garriga * Raymond du Busquet *

Federico Lancia Federico (; ) is a given name and surname. It is a form of Frederick, most commonly found in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. People with the given name Federico Artists * Federico Ágreda, Venezuelan composer and DJ. * Federico Aguilar Alcuaz ...

* Fadrique de Castilla * Guillermo-Raymundo de Moncada * Napoleon de Aragón * Federico di Sicilia * Guglielmo Morchio * Guillermo Galcerán * Berenger de Cardona * Jaume Garics * Guerau de Queralt * Lodorico Alvares * Andreuccio Cibo * Guglielmo Cibo * Alvero Benisituf * Anton Navara * Garci Gómez Carillo

References

{{reflist History of al-Andalus Medieval Morocco Medieval Algeria Ifriqiya Military history of Spain Military history of Portugal Spanish mercenaries Mercenary units and formations of the Middle Ages Reconquista