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Onneca Fortúnez or Iñiga Fortúnez Jayyusi 1992
p. 463
/ref> Fletcher 2006
p. 53
/ref> (c. 848 – after 890) Stasser 1999
pp. 815–816
/ref> was a
Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...
Barrucand & Bednorz 1999
p. 51
/ref> princess from the Kingdom of Pamplona, later known as the Kingdom of Navarre. She was the daughter of Fortún Garcés of Pamplona and his wife Auria. At the time of Onneca's birth, which occurred between 848 and 850, the
Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...
was largely under the domination of the Muslim Umayyad dynasty. Only the northern kingdoms of
Asturias Asturias (; ; ) officially the Principality of Asturias, is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensive with the provinces of Spain, province of Asturias and contains some of the territory t ...
, Pamplona and the Pyrenean threshold remained under control of
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
rulers. Onneca was a member of the Íñiguez dynasty, named after her great-grandfather Íñigo Arista, who founded the Kingdom of Pamplona. Information about Onneca's life is limited. Biographical details about her come from two main sources: the ''
Códice de Roda The ''Códice de Roda'' or ''Códice de Meyá'' (Roda or Meyá codex) is a medieval manuscript that represents a unique primary source for details of the 9th- and early 10th-century Kingdom of Navarre and neighbouring principalities. It is current ...
'' and the accounts of Muslim Andalusi historians, who refer to the grandmother of Abd al-Rahman III by the
Arabic name Arabic names have historically been based on a long naming system. Many people from Arabic-speaking and also non-Arab Muslim countries have not had given name, given, middle name, middle, and family names but rather a chain of names. This system ...
Durr (), meaning "pearl". Her marriage created family ties between the Roman Catholic and Muslim ruling families of the Iberian peninsula, initially leading to close collaboration between the Catholic House of Íñiguez and the Muslim Umayyads. Faro Carballa et al. 2007
p. 102
/ref> The political effects resulting from Onneca's marriages continued to be felt long after her death, which occurred at an unknown date.


Marriage to Emir Abdullah

Onneca's father Fortún Garcés, the then heir to the throne of Pamplona, was captured in 860 in the town of Milagro during a
punitive expedition A punitive expedition is a military journey undertaken to punish a political entity or any group of people outside the borders of the punishing state or union. It is usually undertaken in response to perceived disobedient or morally wrong beha ...
led by Muhammad I, the Muslim
emir of Córdoba Emir (; ' (), also transliterated as amir, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or ceremonial authority. The title has ...
, against the small Kingdom of Pamplona. The expedition resulted in the devastation of the Roman Catholic kingdom's territory and the seizure of three castles by the Muslim forces. Fortun Garcés, nicknamed al-Anqar (الأنقر) by the Muslims because he was one-eyed, was taken to Córdoba where he was detained for two decades in gilded captivity. It is not known when or how his daughter Onneca came to Córdoba, whether she was captured with him or sent to join him at the emir's court at a later date, but she there was wedded to Muhammad I's son Abdullah around 862/863. Onneca was presumably still a teenager when she bore Abdullah a son named Muhammad in 864. As Abdullah's wife, Onneca became known as Durr. According to some sources, she converted to
Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
. Goyhenetche 1998
p. 169
/ref> Lévi-Provençal 1953
pp. 18–19
/ref> In addition to Muhammad, Onneca bore Abdullah two daughters: al-Baha' and Fatima the Younger. Abdullah became emir in 888, and Onneca's son Muhammad was named heir to the throne. However, Muhammad was assassinated by his younger half-brother al-Mutarrif on 28 January 891. There is disagreement among historians as to whether al-Mutarrif acted on his own or at the instigation of his father Abdullah. Al-Mutarrif himself was beheaded in 895 under orders of his father. As a result, Muhammad's son Abd-ar-Rahman, who was born three weeks prior to his father's assassination, was the one who succeeded his grandfather Abdullah as emir of Córdoba. Known in the West as Abd-ar-Rahman III, he later elevated himself to the position of
caliph A caliphate ( ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with Khalifa, the title of caliph (; , ), a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of ...
. Onneca was thus the paternal grandmother of Abd-ar-Rahman III, who inherited from her as well as from his mother Muzna hailing from the Pyrenees (probably a Basque) European facial features such as blue eyes and light reddish hair that he attempted to alter (notably through
hair coloring Hair coloring, or hair dyeing, is the practice of changing the color of the hair on humans' heads. The main reasons for this are cosmetic: to cover gray or white hair, to alter hair to create a specific look, to change a color to suit preferen ...
) in order to look more typically
Arab 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 years ...
.


Problematic chronology of marriage Aznar Sánchez de Laron

The ''Códice de Roda'', the sole source for Onneca's Catholic marriage, places this union with her cousin Aznar Sánchez de Laron before her marriage, as a widow, to Abdullah of Córdoba. Based on this, French historian Évariste Lévi-Provençal developed a chronology for Onneca's life that placed her birth date around 835. Lévi-Provençal believed that Onneca did not accompany her father when he returned to Pamplona in 882, either because she had already died, or because she had converted to Islam and chose to remain in Abdullah's
harem A harem is a domestic space that is reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A harem may house a man's wife or wives, their pre-pubescent male children, unmarried daughters, female domestic Domestic worker, servants, and other un ...
. However, such a chronology is problematic since it implies that Onneca's children by Aznar were born before or only shortly after her father's capture in 860, thus making Onneca's daughter Toda Aznárez a sexagenarian at the time of her son García Sánchez I's birth (which is known to have occurred in either 919 or 922), and nearly a centenarian at the time of her 958 visit to Cordoba. Therefore, most historians addressing the question have concluded that the ''Códice de Roda'' was in error with regard to the order of Onneca's two marriages, that she indeed returned to Pamplona with her father and only at that time married Aznar Sánchez. This would allow her birth to have come a decade later, and that of her daughter to be pushed back at least two decades. Following this modified timeline, in about 880, after two decades in Córdoba, Onneca would have abandoned her Muslim family, and returned with her father to Pamplona, to which he would shortly succeed, and shortly after married Aznar Sánchez, having together a son and two daughters probably born between 880 and 890: Sancho, Toda and Sancha. Their son Sancho Aznar is only known from the ''Códice de Roda'' genealogy and he may have died young. Their daughters Toda and Sancha would both become queens of Pamplona by marrying into the Jiménez dynasty, which came to power in 905 after displacing Onneca's father Fortún Garcés from the throne. Toda married Sancho I Garcés, thus uniting the royal houses of Íñiguez and Jiménez. Toda's sister Sancha was wedded to Sancho I Garcés' brother and successor Jimeno Garcés, and was later killed in France by her son García Jiménez. In a more substantive departure from the Roda genealogy, historian Alberto Cañada Juste concludes that the chronological challenges are overwhelming. Rather than simply shifting the order of Onneca's marriages, he posits that the identity of the Catholic princess who went to Córdoba has been confused by the Roda source between two Pamplona princess in successive generations who both married men named Aznar. Rather than it being Onneca Fortúnez, widow of Aznar Sánchez of Laron, he suggests that the Pamplona woman who went to Córdoba was actually her paternal aunt, Onneca Garcés, sometime wife of Aznar Galíndez II, Count of Aragon. Cañada Juste 2013


Legacy

Onneca's historical importance stems from the fact that she provided an important genealogical link between the Muslim caliphs of Córdoba and the Catholic kings of Pamplona, as well as between the first two royal dynasties of Pamplona. Stasser 1999
pp. 837–838
/ref> Martínez Díez 2005
p. 174
/ref>


Family tree

The following family tree shows the relationship between Onneca and her immediate relatives. Solid lines indicate descent, while horizontal dashed lines indicate marriage. The names of the three dynasties to which Onneca was directly related are in big capital letters: the Íñiguez dynasty into which she was born and married, the Umayyad dynasty into which she married, and the Jiménez dynasty into which her two Catholic daughters married. Salas Merino 2008
pp. 216–218
/ref>


See also

* Family tree of Navarrese monarchs *
List of Navarrese consorts This is a list of those men and women who have been royal consorts of the Kingdom of Navarre. Because the laws of Navarre did not prohibit women from inheriting the crown, on a number of occasions, the Kingdom was inherited or transmitted via hei ...
*
List of Navarrese monarchs This is a list of the kings and queens of kingdom of Pamplona, Pamplona, later kingdom of Navarre, Navarre. Pamplona was the primary name of the kingdom until its union with Kingdom of Aragon, Aragon (1076–1134). However, the territorial desig ...


References


Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Onneca Fortunez 840s births 9th-century people from the Kingdom of Pamplona Basque women Basque Muslims Navarrese infantas Year of death unknown House of Íñiguez 9th-century Spanish women Converts to Islam from Christianity Daughters of kings