ABSTRACT
The final collapse of Umayyad rule in 1031 ushered in a period referred to as the era of the “petty” or “factional” kings during which al-Andalus splintered into as many as 30 different principalities, many of which were not much more than city-states. Throughout the 11th century the emirs of the small principalities competed in the pomp and finery of their courts, providing multiple potential sources of patronage for poets, philosophers, religious scholars, historians, and musicians. Their divisions, however, ultimately proved their undoing, for they were unable to resist the arrival of the Amazigh (Berber) Almoravids and their successors, the Almohads, from North Africa or the military advances from the increasingly unified Christian forces in the north. Although we do not have detailed descriptions of their musical skills or of their writings on music, it is clear that upper-class men continued to be devoted aficionados of music during the reigns of the “petty kings,” Almoravids, and Almohads.
