The Raid of 897 ( ar, الغزو سنة ٢٨٤, ''Al-Ġazw sana 284''; in Catalan, ''Ràtzia de 897'') was a military campaign (, ') of the Emirate of Cordoba against the

County of Barcelona The County of Barcelona ( la, Comitatus Barcinonensis, ca, Comtat de Barcelona) was originally a frontier region under the rule of the Carolingian dynasty. In the 10th century, the Counts of Barcelona became progressively independent, here ...

Background

Between 883 and 884, the

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

of the

Upper March The Upper March (in ar, الثغر الأعلى, ''aṯ-Tagr al-A'la''; in Spanish: ''Marca Superior'') was an administrative and military division in northeast Al-Andalus, roughly corresponding to the Ebro valley and adjacent Mediterranean coa ...

( ar, الثغر الأعلى , ''Aṯ-Ṯaḡr al-Aʿlà'') felt menaced by the expansion of the count of Barcelona,

Wilfred the Hairy {{Infobox noble, type , name = Wilfred , title = Count of Barcelona , image = Wilfredo el Velloso 01.jpg , image_size = 150px , caption = Statue in Madrid, L. S. Carmona, 1750–53 , alt ...

, who began to make efforts to relocate the frontier line between the rivers Lubricatus and Siqr, by establishing defensive positions at the present-day

shires Shire is a traditional term for an administrative division of land in Great Britain and some other English-speaking countries such as Australia and New Zealand. It is generally synonymous with county. It was first used in Wessex from the begi ...

of the

Bages Bages () is a comarca (county) in the center of Catalonia, Spain. It includes a ''subcomarca'', Lluçanès. Industries include the mining of potash at Súria and Sallent, and the manufacture of textiles along the rivers Llobregat and Carden ...

(the

Castle of Cardona The Castle of Cardona ( ca, Castell de Cardona, ) is arguably the most important medieval fortress in Catalonia and one of the most important in Spain. It is situated on a hill overlooking the river valley of the Cardener and the town of Cardon ...

, for example),

Osona Osona () is a comarca situated in Catalonia, Northeast Spain. Its capital is Vic. Its population in 2001 was 129,543. Osona covers roughly the same area as the historic Catalan county of Osona. The name Osona comes from ''Ausetans'', a group of ...

Berguedà Berguedà () is an inland comarca (county) in Catalonia, Spain, lying partly in the Pyrenees and Pre-Pyrenees, and partly in the Catalan Central Depression. Geography The northern half of Berguedà, known as Alt Berguedà (“Upper Berguedà� ...

and below the river Lubricatus, and repopulating those areas; building and consolidating there churches and abbeys, at whose surroundings the repopulating settlements were established. Wilfred fought to stabilize the frontier line from the Castle of Cardona towards the present-day shire of Solsona. By that time, the

's frontier line passed through to the north of the shire of Solsona; and that of Osona passed through Cardona, Manresa and the mountains of Montserrat. Because of all this, the '' madīnah'' of Larida was fortified; but Wilfred saw it as a provocation and attacked the city, by that time governed by the ''

walī A wali (''wali'' ar, وَلِيّ, '; plural , '), the Arabic word which has been variously translated "master", "authority", "custodian", "protector", is most commonly used by Muslims to indicate an Islamic saint, otherwise referred to by the ...

'' Isma'il ibn Musa, of the Banu Qasi dynasty. The attack against Larida failed. Muslim historian

Ibn al-Athir 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 ...

narrates that the Muslims inflicted many casualties among the attackers. A successor to Isma'il,

Lubb ibn Muhammad Lubb ibn Muhammad ibn Lubb () (? - 907), was a ''wali'' of Tudela (890-907) and Larida, as well as a prominent Muslim lord on the Upper March of Al-Andalus. Family Lubb was a member of the prominent Muwallad Muslim Banu Qasi clan; being the son o ...

, became engaged in an incessant combat against the ''walī'' of Washka, Muhammad al-Tawil, as well as against Christian nobles from the Aragonese and Catalan counties, that were slowly expanding down to the south and repopulating the areas at the south of the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...

. Christian and Muslim raids and counter-raids in enemy territory occurred quite often. In this context, Lubb ordered the fortification of several towns, such as Larida; constructing its ''As-Sudd'' ( ar, السد) or '' Al-Qaṣabah'' ( ar, القصبة), also called "Castell del Rei" some time after the Christian conquest; Munt sun or Balagî; constructing its famous ''Ḥiṣn Balagî'' or "Castell Formós". He also ordered the construction of the main mosque ( ar, مسجد الجامع, ''Masjid al-Jāmiʿ'') of Larida, on the grounds of the modern-day Seu Vella.

Muslim raid

In 897, after the retreat of Muhammad al-Tawil's forces, Lubb ibn Muhammad attacked the County of Barcelona. Eudes, King of Western Francia, who was busy confronting many troubles in the interior of the kingdom, as well as the

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

invasions, could not send any reinforcement to the Catalan counts, who had to confront the Muslim offensive by themselves alone. On 11 August 897, count Wilfred the Hairy was killed in action near the Castle of Aura; which had previously been, according to the Muslim historian

Ibn Hayyan Abū Marwān Ḥayyān ibn Khalaf ibn Ḥusayn ibn Ḥayyān al-Qurṭubī () (987–1075), usually known as Ibn Hayyan, was a Muslim historian from Al-Andalus. Born at Córdoba, his father was an important official at the court of the Andalusi ...

, seized and burnt to the ground by Lubb's army.In his ''Kitāb al-Muqtabis fī Ta'rīkh rijāl Al-Andalus'', Ibn Hayyan narrated the events as follows: Thus provoking the mass evacuations of the populations of

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

and Vallès, that went to take then refuge in the fortified places situated to the north of the Vallès and at the

, leaving their houses and lands deserted. In the following year, Lubb's forces would be still fighting against the

Franks The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools, ...

, while in retreat.

Consequences

Wilfred the Hairy was succeeded by his son Wilfred II, and

was not seized by Lubb's army, so that its population could return to the city in early 898, but the Vallès area suffered greatly the ravagings of the raid, and remained almost completely deserted for twenty-five years.

Castle of Aura

The location of the ''castle of Aura'', or ''castle of Gold'', which was destroyed by Lubb ibn Muhammad's forces, and at whose vicinity Wilfred died; remains uncertain. It has been suggested that it may have been ''Valldaura'' (at the mountain range of

Collserola The Serra de Collserola (), or simply Collserola, is a mountain range between the rivers Besòs and Llobregat. It is part of the Catalan Coastal Range. These mountains separate Barcelona from the Vallès plain and their tallest peak is the Tib ...

), ''Valldora'' (at the present-day shire of the

Solsonès Solsonès () is a comarca (county) in Catalonia, Spain. It is part of historic county of Urgell Modern-day Urgell (), also known as ''Baix Urgell'' (''baix'' meaning "lower", by contrast with Alt Urgell "Higher Urgell"), is a ''comarca'' (co ...

), Besora Castle, Santpedor (formerly Sant Pere d'Or) or ''Gualta'', nearby

Caldes de Montbui Caldes de Montbui in Catalan or Caldas de Montbui in Spanish, is a Spanish town and municipality in the ''comarca'' of the Vallès Oriental in Catalonia. It is situated in the upper valley of the Caldes river, and the highest point of the munici ...

. According to Muslim sources, it was located ''"in the area of Barsaluna arcelona'' and was the residence of ''qumis ountAnqadid ibn al-Mundhir ilfred the Hairy'. The etymology of Collserola's Valldaura comes from ''Vallis Laurea'' ("Valley of the

bay leaves The bay leaf is an aromatic leaf commonly used in cooking. It can be used whole, either dried or fresh, in which case it is removed from the dish before consumption, or less commonly used in ground form. It may come from several species of tr ...

") and not from ''Vallis Aurea''. The location of Gualta comes from a legend which mixes the events relating to the death of Wilfred, with the count

Borrell II Borrell II (died 993) was Count of Barcelona, Girona and Ausona from 945 and Count of Urgell from 948. Borrell was first seen acting as Count during the reign of his father Sunyer II in 945 at the consecration of the nunnery church of Sant Per ...

. The other locations are too far away from Barcelona.

Annotations

References

{{coord missing, Spain 897 890s conflicts Military history of Barcelona County of Barcelona Battles involving the Emirate of Córdoba Battles in Catalonia Banu Qasi Military raids