Benahavís is a Spanish town (pueblo) and municipality in the province of Malaga. It is a mountain
village
A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...
between
Marbella,
Estepona, and
Ronda, from the coast.
On the southern face of
La Serranía de Ronda mountain range, Benahavís is one of the most mountainous villages on the western Costa del Sol, near the resort beaches as well as the spectacular mountains of the
Serrania de Ronda. Its terrain is traversed by the
Guadalmina,
Guadaiza and
Guadalmansa Rivers. Places of great natural and historic interest are to be found within its boundaries, such as
El Cerro del Duque,
Daidin and the
Montemayor Castle.
During the late 1990s, the
Junta de Andalucia constructed a dam on the site of an old marble quarry, and now for much of the year the once ever-flowing Río Guadalmina is a dried-up riverbed.
See also
*
List of municipalities in Málaga
History
At the end of the 11th century, Benahavís was founded by
Arabs
Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world.
Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of yea ...
. The village was intimately involved with Andalusia's Arabic past, and particularly with Marbella, the municipal district to which it belonged until it was granted the so-called "Carta Puebla" by
Philip II in 1572. Montemayor Castle, built prior to the founding of Benahavís, played an important role in disputes between successive Arab rulers in Andalusia, because of its strategic position. It was disputed for many years by the various military factions of the time. Its prominent location overlooking the coast, with up to a hundred kilometres of seaboard visible in clear weather, and even the African coast, was extremely useful at a time when piracy and invasion were commonplace. The town takes its name from Havis, an 11th-century Moorish prince who reigned in Montemayor Castle. The name ''Benahavís'' is derived from the Arabic "''Binā' Ḥabīsh''" (بناء حبيش),
[ Miguel Asín Palacios (1944), ]
Contribución a la toponimia árabe de España
', Madrid, p. 84, meaning "The Building of Ḥabīsh", the word Ḥabīsh''
' could have come from the Arabic word 'Ḥabashi' (حبشي), which meant
Ethiopian, but was used to identify any dark-skinned African, this could indicate that the city was founded by a man of
Sub-Saharan African descent.
The castle's strategic location drew the attention of the
Catholic Monarchs, who were intent on conquering the last Moorish kingdoms in the south of the Iberian Peninsula. Isabel and Ferdinand's forces had already laid siege to the Nazarite kingdom of Granada, but they decided first to occupy the nearby province of Málaga. Soon after, on the 11th of June, 1485, Benahavís, together with the localities of Daidin, Montemayor Castle, Cortes Fortress,
Ojen, Arboto,
Almáchar, Tramores and Calalui Fort (the Castle of Light), in the Sierra Bermeja, all within the district of Marbella, were handed over to King Ferdinand the Catholic, by Mohammed Abuneza after the signing of the capitulation.
The Catholic Monarchs entrusted their custody to Don Pedro Villandrado, Count of Ribadeo, the first Christian mayor of Benahavís. From that moment on, a dispute arose between Benahavís and Marbella which lasted three and a half centuries, until Benahavís achieved the status of an independent community.
References
External links
* http://www.benahavis.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benahavis
Municipalities in the Province of Málaga