Battle of Río Salado

Date	30 October 1340
Location	Salado River, near Tarifa
Result	Portuguese-Castilian victory Defeat of the Marinid invasion

Belligerents

Commanders and leaders

Alfonso XI of Castile

Afonso IV of Portugal
Juan Manuel, Prince of Villena
Garci Lasso de la Vega II

Abu al-Hasan 'Ali

Yusuf I

The Battle of Río Salado, also known as the Battle of Tarifa (30 October 1340) was a battle of the armies of King Afonso IV of Portugal and King Alfonso XI of Castile against those of sultan Abu al-Hasan 'Ali of Marinid dynasty and Yusuf I of Granada.

After his defeat at the Battle of Teba in 1330, Mohamed IV of Granada sent to Abu Hasan for help in maintaining his survival. Hasan sent a fleet and an army that landed at Algeciras in 1333. These set about helping the Granadan King to capture the Castilian outpost of Gibraltar, which he did after less than two months. They then conducted a limited campaign to reunite these territories to the realm of Granada. Back in Magreb, Abu Hasan amassed his biggest army to undertake an invasion of Castile with the intention of undoing the previous century's Christian advances.

This invasion was a final attempt by the Marinids to set up a power base in the Iberian Peninsula. The Marinids had mobilised a vast army and, after crossing the Strait of Gibraltar and defeating a Christian fleet at Gibraltar, proceeded inland to the Salado River near Tarifa, where they met the Christians.

During the winter of 1340, Abu Hasan gathered his fleet: 100 war galleys concentrated at Ceuta under command of Muhammad ibn Ali al-Azafi. They landed an army at Gibraltar, and on 1 April 1340 they met the Castilian fleet (32 galleys and 6 naos, under Admiral Alfonso Jofre de Tenorio) in the straits. Al-Azafi surrounded and destroyed the Castilian fleet; Tenorio himself lost his life, and only 5 of his galleys managed to reach Cartagena.

Abu Hasan crossed the Gibraltar straits on 14 August 1340, and all through the summer troops and supplies were ferried across to the Peninsula. On 22 September the siege of Tarifa was formally established, with the help of Yusuf I. However the Sultan made a serious mistake: believing it would take many months for the Castilians to rebuild a fleet, and in the hope of cutting down the enormous cost of maintaining his own fleet, Abu Hasan prematurely laid up most of his galleys and returned those of his allies, leaving only 12 at Algeciras.

...
Wikipedia