Amrus ibn Yusuf

'Amrus ibn Yusuf al-Muwalad (Arabic: عمروس بن يوسف المولد‎, died 808/9 or 813/4) was a Muwallad general of the Emirate of Córdoba and governor of Zaragoza.

Walls and Arab castle of Talavera de la Reina.

Amrus, a native of Huesca, and his kinsman Sabrit (Arabic: شبريط‎) were servants of Aysun ibn Sulayman al-Arabi. The kinsmen joined Aysun's brother when Matruh al-Arabi rebelled and entered Zaragoza. In Muslim year 175 (AD 791/2), Amrus turned on his master, and he and Sarhabil ibn Saltan al-Zawagi attacked Matruh with swords, killing him. Amrus then went to Córdoba, where he was rewarded by being named wali of Talavera. In 802, he was sent from Toledo as general against another Zaragoza rebel, taking Zaragoza and Huesca, expelling Bahlul ibn Marzuq and fortifying a settlement that would become Tudela, installing there his son Yusuf ibn Amrus. Zaragoza again rebelled in December, 802, this time under Fortun ibn Musa, apparently a member of the Banu Qasi, and Amrus was in the year 188 (803/4) appointed as governor of Zaragoza. He installed his kinsman, Sabrit, in Huesca. In 807, he quelled a rebellion in Tudela, and upon the death of Aureolus of Aragon, he occupied the county of Sobrarbe, which was only regained by Aragon under Aznar Galíndez I in 814. This conforms with the timeline provided by the chronicler Al-Udri, who reports that Amrus held Zaragoza for 40 days short of ten years, placing his death in 198 (813/4), but al-Udri indicated that others place his death in 193 (808/9).

His family, the Banu Amrus (Arabic: بنو عمروس‎), continued to be involved in the regional politics of the upper Ebro valley. Grandson Amrus ibn Umar ibn Amrus (Arabic: عمروس بن عمرو بن عمروس‎) rebelled in Huesca in 870, capturing his cousin Lubb ibn Zakariyya ibn Amrus (Arabic: لبّ بن زكريّا بن عمروس‎), and killing the amil Musa ibn Galind (Arabic: موسى بن قلند‎), allying himself with the amil's paternal uncle García Íñiguez of Pamplona. However, he shortly was enticed to return to Cordoban loyalty, being made governor of Toledo. Also active at this time were his brother Zakariyya ibn Umar, his uncle Zakariyya ibn Amrus and the latter's son Umar ibn Zakariyya. Mas'ud ibn Amrus (Arabic: مسعود بن عمروس‎), son of Amrus ibn Umar, was the last of the family, being killed in 884 by kinsman Muhammad al-Tawil of Huesca, a member of the Banu Sabrit, the descendants of the kinsman and ally of Amrus ibn Yusuf. Muhammad founded a family known as the Banu al-Tawil that would rule what was effectively a short-lived taifa state at Huesca in the late 9th and early 10th century before themselves being supplanted by the Banu Tujibi of Zaragoza.

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Family tree