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The citadel or sudda
We know the date of the foundation of the castle thanks to the historian Ibn Hayyan,
who gathers the relation of Isa b. Ahmad al-Rasi referring to the events that took
place in the Upper March in the year 284 of the Hegira (897-898 Ad). The text goes
as follows:
The year 284 of
the Hegira
The Frontier.
"Isa b. Ahmad
reports: in this year the lord of the Upper Frontier Lubb b. Ahmad al-Qasi attacked
the castle of Aura, in the demarcation of Barcelona, seat of the Frankish usurper.
Lubb took the castle, burned it and caused losses to the enemy. On finding himself
with the count of this region, Anqadid ibn al-Mundir (Guifré el Pilós),
father of Sunyer, he obliged him to flee, dispersed his troops and that day, in a
duel, dealt such a blow to the usurper Anqadid that he died a from it few days later.
God showed the great kindness he has towards the Muslims! The son of Anqadid, Sunyer,
ñmay he be accursed by Godñ inherited the rank of his father.
In this year, in the month of Ramadan, (October 897AD.), Lubb b. Muhammad began the
construction of hisn Balagî (castle of Balaguer), in the district of the distant
Lleida."
The castle went
from being a purely defensive and strategic place to become the noble residence.
The name of suda in Latin documentation is the result of the construction of a palace
in the interior of the castle, probably thanks to the efforts of Yusuf ibn Hud, who
awarded himself the title of al-Muzaffar (the Victorious), governor of the district
of Lleida during the first years of its independent government (1046-1081). In the
epoch of the Taifa kingdoms, following the tradition imposed by the Cordoban Caliphs,
this kind of construction must have been the artistic manifestation of the monarchy
or the royal authority, and a centre dedicated to literature, music and the decorative
arts emerged around it. |
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