Viking raid on Seville

Part of Viking expansion

Date	25 September – 11 or 17 November 844
Location	Seville and the surrounding area, Emirate of Cordoba (today part of Spain)
Result	Initial Viking victory; Seville was taken and sacked Later Muslim victory; invaders were expelled

Belligerents

Vikings of Noirmoutier, Francia.

Al-Andalus

Commanders and leaders

unknown †

Isa ibn Shuhayd
Musa ibn Musa al-Qasi

Strength

16,000 men, 80 ships

unknown

Casualties and losses

up to 1,000 killed in battle, 400 captured and executed

unknown

Al-Andalus

The Viking raid on Seville, then part of the Umayyad Emirate of Córdoba, took place in 844. After raiding the coasts of what are now Spain and Portugal, a Viking fleet arrived in Seville through the Guadalquivir on 25 September, and took the city on 1 or 3 October. The Vikings pillaged the city and the surrounding areas. Emir Abd ar-Rahman II of Córdoba mobilised and sent a large force against the Vikings under the command of the hajib (chief-minister) Isa ibn Shuhayd. After a series of indecisive engagements, the Muslim army defeated the Vikings on either 11 or 17 November. Seville was retaken, and the remnants of the Vikings fled Spain. After the raid, the Muslims raised new troops and built more ships and other military equipment to protect the coast. The quick military response in 844 and the subsequent defensive improvements discouraged further attacks by the Vikings.

Historians such as Hugh N. Kennedy and Neil Price contrast the rapid Muslim response during the 844 raid, as well as the organization of long-term defences, with the weak responses by the contemporary Carolingians and Anglo-Saxons against the Vikings.

After the Abbasid Revolution which overthrew the Umayyad Caliphate, Muslims of the Iberian Peninsula (called Al-Andalus by the Muslims) declared an independent emirate, with its capital in Córdoba in 756. The Umayyad-ruled emirate received waves of refugees who escaped the revolution in the Middle East, and soon became a center of intellectual developments. The 844 raid was the first confirmed large-scale Viking incursion on the peninsula. During this period, Al-Andalus was in the state of uneasy peace with the Iberian and Frankish Christians to its north, dotted by constant skirmishes and occasional military campaigns across a sort of a demilitarized zone between them. There might have been small Viking incursions to the Basque Country in early ninth century prior to the raid.

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Wikipedia