Isma'il ibn Musa () () was a

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

lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power (social and political), power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the Peerage o ...

in the

Upper March The Upper March (; Spanish ''Marca Superior'') was an administrative and military division in northeastern al-Andalus, roughly corresponding to the Ebro valley and adjacent Mediterranean coast, from the 8th century to the early 11th century. It ...

(, ''aṯ-Ṯaḡr al-Aʿlà'') of

al-Andalus Al-Andalus () was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The name refers to the different Muslim states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most o ...

, as well as ''

walī The term ''wali'' is most commonly used by Muslims to refer to a saint, or literally a "friend of God".John Renard, ''Friends of God: Islamic Images of Piety, Commitment, and Servanthood'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008); John ...

'' of Larida. He hailed from the prominent Muwallad Banu Qasi clan (), and was the son of

Musa ibn Musa al-Qasawi Musa ibn Musa al-Qasawi () also nicknamed the Great (); died 26 September 862) was leader of the Muwallad Banu Qasi clan and ruler of a semi-autonomous principality in the upper Ebro valley in northern Iberian Peninsula, Iberia in the 9th century. ...

and his wife Maymuna bint Zahir ibn Furtun, who was Musa's uncle. For some years, he lived in Córdoba as an hostage-guest of its

emir Emir (; ' (), also Romanization of Arabic, transliterated as amir, is a word of Arabic language, Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocratic, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person po ...

, Muhammad I, being the necessary pledge which guaranteed the Banu Qasi's loyalty to the

Emirate of Córdoba An emirate is a territory ruled by an emir, a title used by monarchs or high officeholders in the Muslim world. From a historical point of view, an emirate is a political-religious unit smaller than a caliphate. It can be considered equivalen ...

. In 850, he was still in Córdoba. Once liberated, he joined the revolt initiated by all his brothers against Muhammad I, to the end of 870, even forming an alliance with the Kingdom of Pamplona and King

Alfonso III of Asturias Alfonso III (20 December 910), called the Great (), was king of Asturias from 866 until his death. He was the son and successor of Ordoño I. After his death, the Kingdom of Asturias was split between his sons, with García inheriting León, ...

Isma'il seized

Zaragoza Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...

and Montsó in 872, and about this time formed a marriage alliance, wedding Sayyida, daughter of 'Abd Allah ibn Jalaf, of the Banu Jalaf of Barbitanya. In 882, his own nephew, Muhammad ibn Lubb (loyal to Córdoba), made him prisoner, but he was set free again a short time later. Having been restored as ''walī'' of Larida in 884, Isma'il was attacked at Larida by

Wilfred the Hairy {{Infobox noble, type , name = Wilfred , title = Count of Barcelona , image = , image_size = , caption = , alt = , CoA = , more = no , su ...

Count of Barcelona The count of Barcelona (, , , ) was the ruler of the County of Barcelona and also, by extension and according with the Usages of Barcelona, Usages and Catalan constitutions, of the Principality of Catalonia as Prince#Prince as generic for ruler, p ...

, to obstruct the fortification of its walls and its '' al-qaṣabah'' (). Isma'il defeated the attacking

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of 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 c ...

troops and pursued them as far as to the Llobregat valley. In the late 880s, the Banu Qasi challenged the new emir, who established men of other families in what had been Banu Qasi territory to balance their power. The sons of Isma'il fought a battle against one of these, Muhammad al-Tawil of Huesca, in which one son was killed and another captured. Isma'il died 10 October 889. Because his father controlled Huesca during the approximate period that Nunilo and Alodia are said to have been killed there, it has been suggested that he could be the emir of Huesca, Zumael, who ordered their deaths. Were this the case, he was presumably acting on his father's behalf. However, the precise dating of the martyrdom is disputed, and since nothing is known of the earlier rulers of Huesca and some details of the story seem inconsistent with what is known of the Banu Qasi, Zumael may instead have been an otherwise unknown Cordoba-appointed predecessor of Musa. Isma'il had three sons: Muhammad, who briefly seized Toledo before being assassinated, leaving a son Lubb about whom nothing further is known; Musa, who was killed in battle against Muhammad al-Tawil at Huesca; and Sa'id, who died at Córdoba.

References

{{Reflist Banu Qasi People from the Emirate of Córdoba Generals of the medieval Islamic world History of Catalonia Upper March 9th-century people from al-Andalus