Abu þl-Jaysh MujÃÂhid ibn ÿAbd AllÃÂh al-ÿÃÂmirë, surnamed al-Muwaffaḳ (died <small>AD</small> 1044/5 [<small>AH</small> 436]), was the ruler of Dénia and the Balearic Islands from late 1014 (early <small>AH</small> 405) until his death. With the exception of his early and disastrous invasion of Sardinia, his reign was mostly peaceful. His court became a centre of scholarship and literary production and he himself wrote a book about poetry (now lost).
MujÃÂhid was a á¹£aḳlabë, a slave of Slavic origin. His patronymic, Ibn ÿAbd AllÃÂh, does not refer to his actual father. His mother was a captured Christian. He was purchased and converted to Islam by the ḥÃÂjib al-Maná¹£à «r, who also had him educated. He may have served as governor of Dénia under al-Maná¹£à «r's sons after 1002. After the death of al-Maná¹£à «r's second son, Sanchuelo, in March 1009, he took control of Dénia. Within a few years he had set up his own rival puppet caliph, al-Muÿayá¹Âë.
In 1015 (<small>AH</small> 406), MujÃÂhid launched an expedition to conquer the island of Sardinia in the name of the caliph al-Muÿayá¹Âë. He landed with 120 ships and occupied the southern coastal plain, but was defeated by Pisan and Genoese forces from Italy. The following year he returned with a large force of cavalry, defeated the army of the judge of Cagliari and fortified the conquered area. He even sent a force to attack Luni on the Italian coast. The German chronicler Thietmar of Merseburg wrote that he sent a sack of chestnuts to the pope to illustrate the number of Muslim soldiers he would unleash on Christendom, but that Benedict VIII sent back a sack of millet representing the number of Christian soldiers that would meet them.
In May 1016, the Italians returned to Sardinia. MujÃÂhid, facing mutiny among his men, fled by sea. His fleet was devastated in a storm and the remaining ships were picked off by the Pisan and Genoese fleets. His mother and his son and eventual successor ÿAlë were captured, but MujÃÂhid made it back to Dénia. ÿAlë remained a prisoner for many years.
During MujÃÂhid's absence in Sardinia and probably informed of his difficulties, al-Muÿayá¹Âë tried to seize actual authority in Dénia for himself. Following his return, MujÃÂhid sent the caliph into exile in Africa.
MujÃÂhid's rule in Dénia following the dismissal of al-Muÿayá¹Âë is not well recorded. Unusually, few coins of his survive and none in his name that can be dated to between the years <small>AH</small> 407 (1016âÂÂ17) and 434 (1042âÂÂ43). Only the years 406 (1015âÂÂ16) and 435 (1043âÂÂ44) at the beginning and end of his reign are attested in the surviving dated coinage. He minted dirhams at a mint named "Elota" that remains unidentified.
In <small>AH</small> 410 (1019âÂÂ20), MujÃÂhid became co-ruler of the taifa of Valencia alongside Labëb al-Fatàal-á¹¢aqlabë. This arrangement only lasted until <small>AH</small> 411 (1020âÂÂ21), when Labëb was forced to leave Valencia and return to Tortosa. Soon after this, MujÃÂhid was replaced by ÿAbd al-ÿAzëz ibn Abë ÿÃÂmir as the ruler of Valencia.
In 1033, Abu þl-ḲÃÂsim, the ruler of Seville, put forward an impostor claiming he was the caliph HishÃÂm II, who had actually died in 1013. MujÃÂhid accepted the nominal authority of the fake HishÃÂm II, probably as part of a series of marital alliances with the Abbadid dynasty ruling Seville.
The peace of his reign was broken only towards the end of his life, when he temporarily occupied Murcia and also became preoccupied by a dispute with his younger son, Ḥasan. He was succeeded by ÿAlë, who continued to make the court of Dénia a centre of culture.
MujÃÂhid was a patron of theological and literary studies, especially of qirÃÂþÃÂt (recitation). His interest in this last practice may have stemmed from his name, since one of the most influential students of qirÃÂþÃÂt was Ibn MujÃÂhid (died 936).
Ibn Gharsiya and Ibn Burd al-Aá¹£ghar are known to have composed works at MujÃÂhid's court. Ibn Gharsiya's famous risÃÂla (treatise) on the shuÃ¿à «biyya (non-Arab nations), criticising Arab ascendancy in Spain and praising non-Arabs, like Berbers and Slavs, was written there. Ibn Burd dedicated his RisÃÂlat al-Sayf wa þl-ḳalam to MujÃÂhid and is known to have composed other works at Dénia and elsewhere under MujÃÂhid's patronage. The polymath Ibn Ḥazm and the jurist Ibn ÿAbd al-Barr are also known spent time at his court.
MujÃÂhid himself wrote a now lost work on ÿarà «á¸ (Arabic metre).