Pouvoir et légitimité dans l'Espagne musulmane à l'époque des Taifas, Ve/XIe siècle
Institution:
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Abstract EN:
The collaspse of the umayyad califate of spain at the beginning of the fifth eleventh century and the proliferation in its place of about thirty independent taifas, then the gradual vanishing of the latter as a result of sevillan expansionism, christian reconquest and, in the end, almoravid conquest, all these events put with acuteness the question of power and its legitimacy in mediaeval islam. For the taifas phenomenon doesn't mean, against all expectations, that the state machine is broken up, nor even that a new political system has arisen : it expresses, in fact, the localisation of the state, its withdrawal upon territorial base units which carry on, on a small scale, the pattern of sultanate instituted by the amirid regents a few years before. It's the reason why the taifas kings, who often had in hands elements of legitimacy which were sufficient to complete a plain local sovereignty, have been able to hold the power without any categorical opposition from the various components of the population - a further evidence of it is the noteworthy political stability of the epoch. So that in the end the failure of the taifas is less the result of a rejection in principle than due to some combination of circumstances : as a number of princes drifted away more and more in regard to fiscal justice and defence of islam, the almoravids, who have been called for support. . .
Abstract FR:
L'ecroulement du califat umayyade d'espagne au debut du 5e 11e siecle et la proliferation a sa place d'une trentaine de taifas independantes, puis la disparition progressive de ces dernieres du fait de l'expansionnisme sevillan, de la reconquete chretienne, et finalement de la conquete almoravide, tout ceci pose avec acuite la question du pouvoir et de sa legitimite dans l'islam medieval. Car, contrairement aux apparences, le phenomene des taifas ne signigie pas la dislocation des structures etatiques, ni meme l'emergence d'un systeme politique inedit : il exprime, en realite, la localisation de l'etat, son repli sur des unites territoriales de base qui perpetuent en miniature le modele sultanien institue naguere par les regents amirides. C'est pourquoi les rois de taifas, qui disposaient souvent d'elements de legitimite suffisant a une simple souverainete locale, ont pu assumer le pouvoir sans rencontrer d'opposition categorique de la part des diverses composantes de la population - ce que confirme, au demeurant, la remarquable stabilite politique de l'epoque. Si bien que l'echec des taifas tient moins a un rejet de principe qu'a des causes conjoncturelles : face a la derive croissante de certains princes en matiere de justice fiscale et de defense de l'islam, les almoravides appeles en renfort incarnerent a point nomme la possibilite d'un retour a des comportements juges plus orthodoxes.