The Lower March ( ar, الثغر الأدنى, ''al-Ṯaḡr al-ʾAdnā''; ) was a

march March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the second of seven months to have a length of 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of March ...

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 included territory that is now in Portugal. As a borderland territory, it was home to the so-called ''muwalladun'' or indigenous converts and their descendants, some of these eventually established dynastic lordship such as the case of Ibn Marwan al-Jilliqi who ruled the Cora of Merida during the early part of the ninth century, a region with its capital in modern Merida and included the area of modern

Badajoz Badajoz (; formerly written ''Badajos'' in English) is the capital of the Province of Badajoz in the autonomous community of Extremadura, Spain. It is situated close to the Portuguese border, on the left bank of the river Guadiana. The populatio ...

. Several rebellions occurred in the territory, most notably caused by

Umar ibn Hafsun Umar ibn Hafsun ibn Ja'far ibn Salim ( ar, عمر بن حَفْصُون بن جَعْفَ بن سالم) (c. 850 – 917), known in Spanish history as Omar ben Hafsun, was a 9th-century political and military leader ...

and two of his sons refusing to recognize the Emir of Cordoba's sovereignty; even after Hafsun's death, small pockets of independent resistance persisted. It was not until a decade after Hafsun's demise that the Emir of Cordoba was able to completely quell the rebellion in the Lower March. In the reign of

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III ʿAbd al-Rahmān ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥakam al-Rabdī ibn Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Dākhil () or ʿAbd al-Rahmān III (890 - 961), was the Umayyad Emir of Córdoba from 912 to 92 ...

(912–961), the Lower March was combined with the

Central March The Central March or Middle March ( ar, الثغر الأوسط, al-Thaghr al-Awsaṭ) was the central of the three marches along the northern frontier of the Emirate and (after 929) Caliphate of Córdoba between the 8th and 11th centuries. It lay ...

to form an enlarged march with its capital at Medinaceli in the former Central March. It retained the name of the Lower March.

References

Subdivisions of Al-Andalus Medieval Portugal 8th-century establishments in the Umayyad Caliphate Marches (country subdivision) {{Al-Andalus-stub