emirate · Iberia

Taifa of Mértola

1033 CE – 1044 CE (approx.) · capital Mértola

A tiny taifa on the Guadiana at Mértola, an old river port in southern Portugal, independent for little more than a decade.

Origins

Around 1033 a local leader, known as Ibn Tayfur, made Mértola and its district independent, in the period when the small principalities of the south-west were breaking away from both the Hammudids and the Taifa of Badajoz.

Rule and society

Known only from brief references in Arabic chronicles, the state consisted of the hilltop town and its castle above the Guadiana, the highest navigable point for river traffic from the Atlantic, with copper and grain trade.

Decline and legacy

Around 1044 al-Mutadid of the Taifa of Seville annexed Mértola. A century later it became the base of the Sufi rebel Ibn Qasi, as the Second Taifa of Mértola.

Few sources survive for this state; details are uncertain.

Connections (2)

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Taifa of Mértola. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/taifa-of-mertola
MLA
“Taifa of Mértola.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/taifa-of-mertola. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Taifa of Mértola.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/taifa-of-mertola.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Taifa of Mértola’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/taifa-of-mertola (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻