Taifa of Granada
The Taifa of Granada (, , ) or Zirid Kingdom of Granada was a Berber Muslim kingdom ruled by the Zirids which was formed in al-Andalus in 1013, following the deposition of Caliph Hisham II in 1009. Four kings succeeded each other during its 80 years of existence, all of them from the Zirid dynasty, a Sanhadja Berber clan arrived from current-day Tunisia, originating in present-day Algeria. They were considered to be the wealthiest out of all of the taifa kingdoms. History. In the wake of the fragmentation of the Caliphate of Córdoba in the early 11th  century, the fitna of al-Andalus, the Zirids settled in the "kūra" of Ilbira by 1013, moving soon after the capital from Madinat Ilbira to Granada, a hitherto small settlement near the Darro right bank, hereby founding a new madina ("Madinat Garnata") and creating an independent polity that lasted 77 years. The Zirids were a Berber Sanhaja clan led by Zawi ben Ziri who had arrived to the Iberian Peninsula from Ifriqiya as mercenaries in the early years of the century. In 1018 the Umayyad pretender Abd al-Rahman IV laid siege to Granada but was defeated by a furious  counterattack and later assassinated near Guadix. The Zirid King Badis ibn Habus annexed the Taifa of Malaga and from 1073 to 1090, Tamim ibn Buluggin, a brother of Abdallah ibn Buluggin, ruled the taifa of Málaga. The Taifa of Granada was conquered by the Berber Almoravids in September 1090. Role of the Jews. "The peak of Sephardic Judaism as a political as well as cultural reality is found in eleventh-century Granada. The Zirid state that existed for half a century was a Jewish kingdom in everything but name. The Muslim ruler was a powerless figurehead." Jews did not hold  the foreigner (dhimmi) status typical of Islamic rule. A Jew, the rabbi, scholar, and poet Samuel ha-Nagid, commanded an army, something not seen again until the modern state of Israel. It has been said that the power and status of the Granadan Jews was not only unique in al-Andalus, but in the entire Islamic world. Architecture. The architecture of the Zirids in al-Andalus seems to have been influenced by the architecture of the Hammadids. Several structures in southern Spain today have been dated, or tentatively dated, to the time of the Zirid Taifa kingdom. In Granada, the  Bañuelo, a public baths complex originally known as the "Hammam al-Yawza", is traditionally dated to the time of the Zirids in the 11th century, during the reign of Badis ibn Habus or Abdallah, based on an early study by Leopoldo Torres Balbás. (Although more recent studies have argued that the building dates from the 12th century or later.) The Alcazaba of Granada, a fortress on the Sabika hill, was first built under the Zirids. Although it was later rebuilt and incorporated into the Alhambra of the Nasrids, traces of the original Zirid fortress remain. The original palace of the  Zirids, the "al-Qasaba al-Qadima", was located on the hill that is now the Albaicin neighborhood, but it has not been preserved. Nearby, however, the inner northern walls of the city, which run along the top of the Albaicin today, still date from this period. Also in the same area, the bell tower of what is now the Church of San José was originally a minaret and is traditionally dated to the Zirid period. It belonged to a mosque known as the al-Murābiṭīn Mosque (the Mosque of the Marabouts or "Almoravid" Mosque). The Zirids are also believed to  have constructed the Great Mosque (congregational Mosque) of Granada, whose site is now occupied by the present-day Cathedral. One Arabic historical text records that its minbar was completed in the year 1055. Elsewhere, the Alcazaba of Malaga was also built during the Taifa period in the 11th century, though it was significantly remodeled under the later Nasrids. The limited elements that have survived from the 11th century were likely built by both the Zirids and by the Hammudids from whom they conquered the city.