Onneca Fortúnez
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Onneca Fortúnez or Iñiga Fortúnez Jayyusi 1992
p. 463
/ref> Fletcher 2006
p. 53
/ref> (c. 848 – after 890) Stasser 1999
pp. 815–816
/ref> was a
Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...
Barrucand & Bednorz 1999
p. 51
/ref> princess from the
Kingdom of Pamplona The Kingdom of Navarre (; , , , ), originally the Kingdom of Pamplona (), was a Basque kingdom that occupied lands on both sides of the western Pyrenees, alongside the Atlantic Ocean between present-day Spain and France. The medieval state took ...
, later known as the Kingdom of Navarre. She was the daughter of
Fortún Garcés of Pamplona Fortún Garcés ( Basque: ''Orti Gartzez''; died 922) nicknamed the One-eyed (''el Tuerto''), and years later the Monk (''el Monje''), was king of Pamplona from 870/882 until 905. He appears in Arabic records as ''Fortoûn ibn Garsiya'' (''فرت ...
and his wife Auria. At the time of Onneca's birth, which occurred between 848 and 850, the
Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, def ...
was largely under the domination of the Muslim Umayyad dynasty. Only the northern kingdoms of
Asturias Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is an autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensiv ...
, Pamplona and the Pyrenean threshold remained under control of Christian rulers. Onneca was a member of the Íñiguez dynasty, named after her great-grandfather Íñigo Arista, who founded the Kingdom of Pamplona. Information about Onneca's life is limited. Biographical details about her come from two main sources: the ''
Códice de Roda The ''Códice de Roda'' or ''Códice de Meyá'' (Roda or Meyá codex) is a medieval manuscript that represents a unique source for details of the 9th and early 10th century Kingdom of Navarre and neighbouring principalities. It is currently held ...
'' and the accounts of Muslim
Andalusi The Arabic '' nisbah'' (attributive title) Al-Andalusi denotes an origin from Al-Andalus. Al-Andalusi may refer to: * Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati * Ibn Hazm * Ibn Juzayy * Ibn 'Atiyya * Said Al-Andalusi Ṣāʿid al-Andalusī (); he was Abū al-Qāsi ...
historians, who refer to the grandmother of
Abd al-Rahman III ʿAbd al-Rahmān ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥakam al-Rabdī ibn Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Dākhil () or ʿAbd al-Rahmān III (890 - 961), was the Umayyad Emir of Córdoba from 912 to 92 ...
by the Arabic name Durr (), meaning "pearl". Her marriage created family ties between the Christian and Muslim ruling families of the Iberian peninsula, initially leading to close collaboration between the Christian House of Íñiguez and the Muslim Umayyads. Faro Carballa et al. 2007
p. 102
/ref> The political effects resulting from Onneca's marriages continued to be felt long after her death, which occurred at an unknown date.


Marriage to Emir Abdullah

Onneca's father Fortún Garcés, the then heir to the throne of Pamplona, was captured in 860 in the town of
Milagro Milagro means "miracle" in Spanish. Milagro may refer to: Places: *Milagro, Ecuador, a city * Milagro Canton, Ecuador, of which the city is the canton seat * Milagro River, Ecuador *Milagro, Navarre, Spain, a town and municipality * El Milagro, Q ...
during a
punitive expedition A punitive expedition is a military journey undertaken to punish a political entity or any group of people outside the borders of the punishing state or union. It is usually undertaken in response to perceived disobedient or morally wrong beh ...
led by Muhammad I, the Muslim
emir of Córdoba Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cerem ...
, against the small Kingdom of Pamplona. The expedition resulted in the devastation of the Christian kingdom's territory and the seizure of three castles by the Muslim forces. Fortun Garcés, nicknamed al-Anqar (الأنقر) by the Muslims because he was one-eyed, was taken to Córdoba where he was detained for two decades in gilded captivity. It is not known when or how his daughter Onneca came to Córdoba, whether she was captured with him or sent to join him at the emir's court at a later date, but she there was wedded to Muhammad I's son
Abdullah Abdullah may refer to: * Abdullah (name), a list of people with the given name or surname * Abdullah, Kargı, Turkey, a village * ''Abdullah'' (film), a 1980 Bollywood film directed by Sanjay Khan * '' Abdullah: The Final Witness'', a 2015 Pakis ...
around 862/863. Onneca was presumably still a teenager when she bore Abdullah a son named Muhammad in 864. As Abdullah's wife, Onneca became known as Durr. According to some sources, she converted to Islam. Goyhenetche 1998
p. 169
/ref> Lévi-Provençal 1953
pp. 18–19
/ref> In addition to Muhammad, Onneca bore Abdullah two daughters: al-Baha' and Fatima the Younger. Abdullah became emir in 888, and Onneca's son Muhammad was named heir to the throne. However, Muhammad was assassinated by his younger half-brother al-Mutarrif on 28 January 891. There is disagreement among historians as to whether al-Mutarrif acted on his own or at the instigation of his father Abdullah. Al-Mutarrif himself was beheaded in 895 under orders of his father. As a result, Muhammad's son Abd-ar-Rahman, who was born three weeks prior to his father's assassination, was the one who succeeded his grandfather Abdullah as emir of Córdoba. Known in the West as Abd-ar-Rahman III, he later elevated himself to the position of
caliph A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...
. Onneca was thus the paternal grandmother of Abd-ar-Rahman III, who inherited from her as well as from his mother Muzna hailing from the Pyrenees (probably a Basque) European facial features such as blue eyes and light reddish hair that he attempted to alter (notably through
hair coloring Hair coloring, or hair dyeing, is the practice of changing the hair color. The main reasons for this are cosmetic: to cover gray or white hair, to change to a color regarded as more fashionable or desirable, or to restore the original hair color ...
) in order to look more typically
Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
.


Problematic chronology of marriage Aznar Sánchez de Laron

The ''Códice de Roda'', the sole source for Onneca's Christian marriage, places this union with her cousin Aznar Sánchez de Laron before her marriage, as a widow, to Abdullah of Córdoba. Based on this, French historian
Évariste Lévi-Provençal Évariste Lévi-Provençal (4 January 1894 – 27 March 1956) was a French medievalist, orientalist, Arabist, and historian of Islam. The scholar who would take the name Lévi-Provençal was born 4 January 1894 in Constantine, French Algeria, ...
developed a chronology for Onneca's life that placed her birth date around 835. Lévi-Provençal believed that Onneca did not accompany her father when he returned to Pamplona in 882, either because she had already died, or because she had converted to Islam and chose to remain in Abdullah's
harem Harem ( Persian: حرمسرا ''haramsarā'', ar, حَرِيمٌ ''ḥarīm'', "a sacred inviolable place; harem; female members of the family") refers to domestic spaces that are reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A har ...
. However, such a chronology is problematic since it implies that Onneca's children by Aznar were born before or only shortly after her father's capture in 860, thus making Onneca's daughter Toda Aznárez a sexagenarian at the time of her son García Sánchez I's birth (which is known to have occurred in either 919 or 922), and nearly a centenarian at the time of her 958 visit to Cordoba. Therefore, most historians addressing the question have concluded that the ''Códice de Roda'' was in error with regard to the order of Onneca's two marriages, that she indeed returned to Pamplona with her father and only at that time married Aznar Sánchez. This would allow her birth to have come a decade later, and that of her daughter to be pushed back at least two decades. Following this modified timeline, in about 880, after two decades in Córdoba, Onneca would have abandoned her Muslim family, and returned with her father to Pamplona, to which he would shortly succeed, and shortly after married Aznar Sánchez, having together a son and two daughters probably born between 880 and 890: Sancho, Toda and Sancha. Their son Sancho Aznar is only known from the ''Códice de Roda'' genealogy and he may have died young. Their daughters Toda and Sancha would both become queens of Pamplona by marrying into the
Jiménez dynasty The Jiménez dynasty, alternatively called the Jimena, the Sancha, the Banu Sancho, the Abarca or the Banu Abarca,Alberto Cañada Juste, "¿Quién fue Sancho Abarca?, ''Príncipe de Viana'', 73: 79-132. was a medieval ruling family from the 9th c ...
, which came to power in 905 after displacing Onneca's father Fortún Garcés from the throne. Toda married Sancho I Garcés, thus uniting the royal houses of Íñiguez and Jiménez. Toda's sister Sancha was wedded to Sancho I Garcés' brother and successor Jimeno Garcés, and was later killed in France by her son García Jiménez. In a more substantive departure from the Roda genealogy, historian Alberto Cañada Juste concludes that the chronological challenges are overwhelming. Rather than simply shifting the order of Onneca's marriages, he posits that the identity of the Christian princess who went to Córdoba has been confused by the Roda source between two Pamplona princess in successive generations who both married men named Aznar. Rather than it being Onneca Fortúnez, widow of Aznar Sánchez of Laron, he suggests that the Pamplona woman who went to Córdoba was actually her paternal aunt, Onneca Garcés, sometime wife of Aznar Galíndez II, Count of Aragon. Cañada Juste 2013


Legacy

Onneca's historical importance stems from the fact that she provided an important genealogical link between the Muslim caliphs of Córdoba and the Christian kings of Pamplona, as well as between the first two royal dynasties of Pamplona. Stasser 1999
pp. 837–838
/ref> Martínez Díez 2005
p. 174
/ref>


Family tree

The following family tree shows the relationship between Onneca and her immediate relatives. Solid lines indicate descent, while horizontal dashed lines indicate marriage. The names of the three dynasties to which Onneca was directly related are in big capital letters: the Íñiguez dynasty into which she was born and married, the
Umayyad dynasty Umayyad dynasty ( ar, بَنُو أُمَيَّةَ, Banū Umayya, Sons of Umayya) or Umayyads ( ar, الأمويون, al-Umawiyyūn) were the ruling family of the Caliphate between 661 and 750 and later of Al-Andalus between 756 and 1031. In t ...
into which she married, and the
Jiménez dynasty The Jiménez dynasty, alternatively called the Jimena, the Sancha, the Banu Sancho, the Abarca or the Banu Abarca,Alberto Cañada Juste, "¿Quién fue Sancho Abarca?, ''Príncipe de Viana'', 73: 79-132. was a medieval ruling family from the 9th c ...
into which her two Christian daughters married. Salas Merino 2008
pp. 216–218
/ref>


See also

* Family tree of Navarrese monarchs *
List of Navarrese consorts This is a list of those men and women who have been royal consorts of the Kingdom of Navarre. Because the laws of Navarre did not prohibit women from inheriting the crown, on a number of occasions, the Kingdom was inherited or transmitted via heir ...
*
List of Navarrese monarchs This is a list of the kings and queens of Pamplona, later Navarre. Pamplona was the primary name of the kingdom until its union with Aragon (1076–1134). However, the territorial designation Navarre came into use as an alternative name in the l ...


References


Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Onneca Fortunez 840s births 9th-century people from the Kingdom of Pamplona Basque women Navarrese infantas Year of death unknown House of Íñiguez 9th-century Spanish women Converts to Islam from Christianity Daughters of kings