The Lower March ( ar, الثغر الأدنى, ''al-Ṯaḡr al-ʾAdnā''; ) was a

march March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the second of seven months to have a length of 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of March ...

al-Andalus Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the Mus ...

. It included territory that is now in Portugal. As a borderland territory, it was home to the so-called ''muwalladun'' or indigenous converts and their descendants, some of these eventually established dynastic lordship such as the case of Ibn Marwan al-Jilliqi who ruled the Cora of Merida during the early part of the ninth century, a region with its capital in modern Merida and included the area of modern

Badajoz Badajoz (; formerly written ''Badajos'' in English) is the capital of the Province of Badajoz in the autonomous community of Extremadura, Spain. It is situated close to the Portuguese border, on the left bank of the river Guadiana. The populatio ...

. Several rebellions occurred in the territory, most notably caused by

Umar ibn Hafsun Umar ibn Hafsun ibn Ja'far ibn Salim ( ar, عمر بن حَفْصُون بن جَعْفَ بن سالم) (c. 850 – 917), known in Spanish history as Omar ben Hafsun, was a 9th-century political and military leader ...

and two of his sons refusing to recognize the

Emir of Cordoba 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 ceremo ...

's sovereignty; even after Hafsun's death, small pockets of independent resistance persisted. It was not until a decade after Hafsun's demise that the Emir of Cordoba was able to completely quell the rebellion in the Lower March. In the reign of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III (912–961), the Lower March was combined with the Central March to form an enlarged march with its capital at

Medinaceli Medinaceli () is a municipality and town in the province of Soria, in Castile and León, Spain. The municipality includes other villages like Torralba del Moral. Etymology Its name derives from the Arabic 'madīnat salīm', which was named afte ...

in the former Central March. It retained the name of the Lower March.

References

Subdivisions of Al-Andalus Medieval Portugal 8th-century establishments in the Umayyad Caliphate Marches (country subdivision) {{Al-Andalus-stub