The North African War
When the Romans were pre-occupied with their concerns in the Eastern Mediterranean, the peoples of the west were not idle. One development during the early 10th century was the gradual consolidation of the Berber populations into larger confederations. When the Romans had kept up with their diplomatic efforts in North Africa, they had kept the Berbers weak and divided, as they had been when the Romans occupied the important coastal cities. Upward of a dozen different tribal groups all jockeyed for primacy in the lands beyond the Roman garrisons, which suited the Romans just fine. So long as none took their rivalries to the sea, the Romans tolerated almost any actions from the tribes, up to and including small raids on the lands around the cities (though trade was far more common). However, this disunity began to fade in the end of the 9th century, and two main confederations began to form. The names that contemporaries (and, ultimately, historians) applied to these two groups implies far more cohesion within each than likely actually existed, and were likely not even how the people in these tribal confederations considered themselves, but they have proven useful enough to stand the test.
The two main confederations that emerged from the melee amongst the Berber tribes were the Zanata and the Mauri. The Zanata were originally an earlier confederation that had allied themselves with the initial Muslim expansion into the region, and had profited greatly when the invasion of Hispania occurred. They went into decline when the Romans re-asserted themselves in the region, but formed a strong nucleus around which other tribes began to ally. This renewed Zanata confederation was led by a number of Muslim clans, and they quickly established close ties with the Imams of Cordoba, eager for a benefactor among the major powers of the day. However, they did as little as possible to antagonize the Romans, for obvious reasons. It was far more profitable to keep up good relations with such a powerful state, and focus their attention on establishing hegemony over the other berber tribes. This attention, in the form of various aggressions, helped coalesce the second of the two relevant confederations, which became known as the Mauri, after the classical Latin name for the western Berber tribes. These Mauri were generally the more Latinized tribes, and, as the Zanata leadership was largely Muslim, the Mauri leadership was largely Christian. And, where the Zanata looked first to Cordoba for support, the Mauri looked first to Constantinople. Again, both groups were not nearly as homogenous and unified as the imagination might incline towards; both were composed of both Christian and Muslim tribes, and it was ultimately more geographic that cultural or religious affiliation that determined where a tribe might find itself between the confederations.
While it may be tempting to try to pin down the ultimate start of the war on one specific incident - where one confederation stole too many sheep from the other, or attacked an envoy without provocation - the historical record is actually relatively sparse. What is known is that both the Republic and the Imamate started to more actively take an interest in the goings on in North Africa around AD 920, and both states started sending detachments of troops to help guard their client confederation against the deprivations of the rival confederation, which greatly increased friction between the two powers. It was not the only cause of friction between them, though there is dispute over just why relations were deteriorating. The two most popular - though not mutually exclusive - theories are either that the Romans were eager to expand in the West, or that the Cordobans had started to antagonize the smaller Christian states in Europe, and the Roman government was finding it hard to justify siding with a relatively large Muslim power against smaller and poorer Christian states. Despite the uncertainty surrounding the beginning of the fighting, the two confederations were definitely fully mobilized and fighting each other by AD 922. The Imamate of Cordoba decided to take the fateful step of actively intervening in the fighting the following year, and sent a full army to attack the Mauri. According to some Arab historians, they had assurances from the Romans that, so long as this war as conducted within certain bounds, and that the Cordobans did not attempt to annex any land for themselves, the Roman Republic would not intervene. Roman historians do not record such a promise, which may or may not have something to do with the fact that the Republic mirrored the Imamate's decision within months, and began sending troops against the Zanata, along with ultimatums sent to Cordoba, precipitating a full war between the two former allies.
The coastal urbanized regions were firmly in Roman control, but the the main part of the war was to be fought in the hinterlands. In this territory, the lightly armed and highly mobile Arab and Berber armies had the advantage. Therefore, the Roman objective was to aid the Mauri wherever possible, and weaken the Zanata. Meanwhile, the Zanata could rely on the equally mobile Cordoban armies, and hoped that their superiority in such warfare was enough to carry the day. Of the two strategies, it was the Cordoban/Zanatan strategy that carried the day in the early phases of the war. The Romans could hold territory and maintain excellent fortifications, but they could never deliver a knock-out blow to their enemies. Meanwhile, the Mauri were effectively being isolated by attacks from both the east and the north, and were often at a two-to-one disadvantage in their encounters. By the third year of the war, the peripheral tribes of the Mauri were abandoning the confederation, and some of those were even joining the Zanata.
The Roman Senate was growing increasingly vexed by the course of the war. They were not actually losing any major battles, but the war was trending further and further away from victory. It was becoming increasingly seen as a quagmire of a war, where the Romans were doing little more than keeping the Mauri alive solely through their support of the confederation. There was discussion of simply withdrawing support for the Mauri, and ending the war. The Republic itself was not in any danger of losing any territory, and the Zanata had previously maintained relatively amicable relations with Rome. The pro-war faction in Constantinople was able to maintain power for at least another year, and they decided to change their strategy drastically.
Taking a cue from Second Punic War, the Republic decided to attack the heartland of the enemy. There, the Romans could bring their superior infantry and heavy cavalry armies to bear, and prevent Cordoba from assistingn the Zanata. Two main Roman armies landed in Hispania, one in the region around Barcelona, under the command of Petrus Galba, and one near Valencia, under the command of Paulos Doukas. Both armies were comparable in size to what the Imamate of Cordoba could bring to bear, and they began to ravage the countryside and invest their respective major cities. When Cordoba brought its armies to beear against Rome, they had to withdraw forces from North Africa, which brought much of the pressure off the Mauri. The initial meetings between the Andalusians and the Romans outside of Valencia favored the Imamate, and Doukas began to withdraw from Valencia, in good order, towards Barcelona. As the army slowly approached the Roman army under Galba, the skirmishing increasingly began to favor the Romans, as they were able to bring more and more forces to bear against the Imam's army.
That army, under the command of one Tariq ibn Husayn, decided to bring battle as soon as possible against Doukas' army, before it could fully link back up with Galba's. Husayn's army made a series of forced marches and cut off Doukas' army near the city of Tortosa. As Husayn's army was still the larger of the two - in fact, by this point, it was likely the largest army the Imamate had - he quickly forced a battle against Doukas' smaller force. The battle was one of the great examples that poets and playwrights love in warfare. Husayn's army was on the verge of outflanking the Roman army on both flanks, and had the Roman wings breaking, when fate intervened. A stray arrow hit Husayn and incapacitated him in an instant. The sort of Act of God that happens in such medieval battles, when the commanders are expected to command within missile range of the enemy. Husayn was not actually dead, but the fall from his horse did knock him unconcious. However, rumors always outpace truth, particularly in the heat of battle. The Cordoban center broke quickly after Husayn was taken out of the battle, and the Roman center charged forward, enabling them to break the envlopment, and even capture Husayn. Afterward, the Romans were able to take out each enemy wing in turn, and win the battle.
When Husayn came to, he was in Doukas' custody, and gravely injured. The Roman physicians were pessimistic about his survival, and Doukas, in a grand gesture of chivarly, sent him back to Cordoba, with his own personal physician, to either recover in the capital or, more likely, die surrounded by his family. It was the second that happened, but Husayn did survive his wounds for an additional two months after returning to the capital. Around the time of his death, multiple disastrous reports began to filter into the capital at Cordoba. First was the fall of Barcelona to Galba's army, which gave the Romans a full and proper port from which to supply their armies, and enabling them a better base of operations in the region than the small Balearic islands. The second was that the Christian kingdoms of the north, Asturias and Vasconia (or Navarra) began to probe into Cordoban territory. Smelling blood in the water, these rival kingdoms were eager to take advantage of the weakness of their southern neighbor.
News did not get much better afterward for the Cordobans, and the Romans were able to secure the rest of the northeastern region. Rather than annex it directly, they decided to establish a new kingdom, as a client of the Republic, declaring the new Kingdom of Gothalania (or, in later renditions, Catalonia). When Valencia fell the next year, the new Gothalanian kingdom had two of the most important ports on the east coast of the Peninsual under their control. The Cordoban army was able to regroup under a new supreme commander, Umar ibn Marwan, and, at minimum, stem the bleeding. The Cordobans began to negotiate with Asturias and Vasconia, working feverishly to keep them from forming a completely united front with the Romans. Meanwhile, they began to withdraw the remainder of their support from the Zanata, deciding to prioritize their own homeland.
The withdrawal of support for the Zanata began to bear fruit quickly, and the Mauri were able to push into Zanata tribal lands, and the Romans were able to take the interior lands in the east. The Zanata finally broke, and accepted Roman terms. Their most valuable lands were directly annexed to the Republic, their western tribes joined the Mauri confederation, and the remainder of the confederation became a Christianized Roman client. With the Zanata out of the war, the Immate of Cordoba agreed to peace with the Republic, in AD 929. They recognized the territory of the new kingdom of Gothalania, and agreed to maintain open trade with the Republic and their new neighbors. Separate peaces were established with Vasconia gaining lands down to Zaragoza, and Asturias gaining land, largely on the western coast, down to the Port of Calus (Porto). Though Cordoba had lost much land, it was still a major power, and it quickly established amicable relations with Gothalania, hoping to balance the new kingdom against the other two Christian kingdoms of the peninsula.
End
