Battle of Simancas

For the siege of Simancas barracks during the Spanish Civil War in 1936, see Siege of Gijón.

The Battle of Simancas (also called Alhandega or al-Khandaq) was a military battle that started on 19 July 939 in the Iberian Peninsula between the troops of the King of León Ramiro II and Cordovan caliph Abd al-Rahman III near the walls of the city of Simancas.

Battle of Simancas
Part of the Reconquista
Map of the Caliphate of Cordoba circa 1000.
Date 19 July 939 Location Simancas, Spain Result Leonese victory.
Belligerents
Kingdom of León	Caliphate of Córdoba
Commanders and leaders
James the Great (According to the Legend) Ramiro II of León Fernán González of Castile García Sánchez I of Pamplona	Abd-ar-Rahman III

The battle unfolded after the army of Abd al-Rahman III launched toward the northern Christian territories in 934. Abd al-Rahman III had gathered a large army of caliphal fighters, with the help of the Andalusian governor of Zaragoza, Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Tujibi. The Leonese king Ramiro II led the counterattack with an army constituted of his own troops, those of Castile under Count Fernán González, and the Navarrese under García Sánchez I.

Arab witnesses chronicle a spectacular eclipse of the sun that took place on the first day of the battle:

As the army arrived near Simancas, there was an awful eclipse of the sun that covered the earth of a dark yellow amid the day and it filled us and the infidels with terror as neither had seen in their life such a thing as this. Two days passed without either side making any movement.

The battle lasted some days, with the allied Christian troops emerging victorious and routing the Cordovan forces. Furtun ibn Muhammad al-Tawil, wali of Huesca, withheld his troops from the battle. He was hunted down near Calatayud by Salama ibn Ahmad ibn Salama, taken to Córdoba, and crucified in front of its Al-Qasr.

Bibliography

• de la Granja, Fernando (1967). La Marca Superior en la Obra de al-'Udrí, Estudios de la Edad Media de la Corona de Aragón (in Spanish). vol. 8 (1967), pp. 457–545.
• Martínez Díez, Gonzalo (2005). El Condado de Castilla (711–1038): la historia frente a la leyenda (in Spanish). 2 volumes. Valladolid. ISBN 84-9718-275-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)