Le califat méditerranéen et maritime de Denia

Abstract

The fall and fragmentation of the Caliphate of Cordova in 1009 opened the door to a new apprehension of Islamic political and religious space. Mujāhid al-‘Āmirī, ruler of the taifa of Denia on the Mediterranean coast, created a caliphate ex novo on the Islamic maritime frontier. Similar to the policies of the early Umayyad caliphs, Mujāhid’s state was based on jihād and territorial expansion, and not on the appropriation of an already Islamicized space. This ambition was doubly unique. First of all, the creation of a new caliphate to legitimize this maritime jihād supports the idea of an active struggle against the dār al-ḥarb, and not simple piracy. Secondly, the space sacralized by Mujāhid and the jihād carried out under his authority comprised as much the maritime routes as it did the bordering coasts and islands. The caliphate of Denia ended in failure, but the maritime holy war it had begun continued; the taifa of Denia remained an outpost for Islam on the maritime frontier, while its ships acted as reticular and mobile extensions of Islamic space.

Keywords

• piracy
• jihād
• frontier
• al-Andalus
• Denia
• Mediterranean