The civil war between Berbers and Arabs…

The civil war between Berbers and Arabs has engendered the reduction of the Umayyad territory to the Spanish heartland, with Berber emirates controlling the southwest and Arab emirates controlling the southeast.

For the past two decades, the Córdoba-based caliphate of al-Andalus, founded in 736 by Abd al-Rahman, has been a prize fiercely contested by the Umayyad and Hammudid dynasties.

Hisham III, the brother of Abd ar-Rahman IV, had been chosen as Caliph in 1026 after long negotiations between the governors of the border regions and the people of Córdoba.

He could not enter Cordoba until 1029 as the city was occupied by the Berber armies of the Hammudids.

Although he had tried to consolidate the Caliphate, the raising of taxes (to pay for mosques among other things) had led to heavy opposition from the Muslim clerics.

After the murder of his Visir al-Hakam by a conspiracy of Córdoban patricians, Hisham is imprisoned.

He manages to escape, but will die in exile in 1036 in Lerida.

The Umayyad dynasty will end with his death.

After the Caliphate falls with the overthrow of Hisham III in 1031, the Caliphate's land holdings—already much diminished from its height in power just 100 years past—devolve into a number of militarily weak but culturally advanced taifas.