Battle of Cervera
| Battle of Cervera | |||||||
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| Part of the Reconquista | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Kingdom of Pamplona |
 Caliphate of Córdoba
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Sancho García García Gómez |
Almanzor | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| heavy | +700 | ||||||
The Battle of Cervera took place near Espinosa de Cervera on 29 July 1000 between the Christian troops of counts Sancho García of Castile and García Gómez of Saldaña and the Muslim Caliphate of Córdoba under the hajib Almanzor. The battle, "tremendous and difficult to describe", was a victory for Almanzor. The battle is listed as the fifty-second of Almanzor's career in the Dikr bilad al-Andalus.
A truce between Castile and Córdoba had existed since the succession of Sancho García, but in 999 it was broken when the count refused to pay the annual tribute and came to the aid of his Christian neighbour, García Sánchez II of Pamplona, when Almanzor attacked him. On 21 June 1000 an army left Córdoba under Almanzor for a punitive expedition against Castile. The subsequent campaign is the most well-recorded of Almanzor's many wars after his Compostela campaign of 997. The primary historian is Ibn al-Khatib, who derived his Arabic account partially from Ibn Hayyan, himself relying on the eye-witness testimony of his father, Jalaf ibn Husayn ibn Hayyan, one of the combatants on the Muslim side and a secretary to Almanzor. Ibn al-Khatib records that the campaign was the most intense and difficult Almanzor ever waged, that preparations took an especially long time, and that all the rulers of Christian Spain were allied against him, with troops from all the Christian realms assembled together.
Almanzor crossed the Duero and invaded Castile near Madinat Selim, where he sighted an army under Sancho García and the "Galician kings", consisting of troops from as far as Pamplona and Astorga. Almanzor passed by the fortresses of Osma, San Esteban de Gormaz, and Clunia, which had been in Muslim hands for several years at that point. Just north of Clunia he was surprised to find a large Christian army. Sancho, who had been elected leader of the entire army by the assembled troops, was encamped at the rock of Yarbayra (), a central location, well situated for supplies, and inaccessible due to its geography. The implication of these events is that Sancho's planning and communications had been superior to those of Almanzor. The roads from Clunia, the northernmost Muslims garrison, led to Tordómar, Lara, and Salas de los Infantes through the narrow pass of the Yecla, which passed through the Peña de Cervera before widening into the basin of the river Arlanza.
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