232 EARLY MEDIEVAL SPAINdespite the growing internal chaos of the Amirate, and after the first
settlement had been destroyed by an Arab army Zamora had to be
refounded by Alfonso III in 893. Such attacks were not always the
work of organised expeditions from Cordoba. In 901 a self-proclaimed
Mahdi, or Islamic Messiah, tried to seize Zamora with the support of
Berber tribesmen, but was defeated, executed and his head displayed
on the walls.^15 The collapse of order in the centre of the peninsula
could thus present as many problems to the Asturian monarchs as to
the amirs.
It did however also provide opportunities of a predatory kind for
Alfonso and his nobility. Much of the Amirate's western march, around
Merida and Badajoz, was subjected to raids and devastation by the
Asturians in the early 880s, and again in the first quarter of the tenth
century, until a truce had to be negotiated by MUQammad I in 883.
This same period of weakness gave Alfonso the chance of expelling
the garrison of Coimbra and resettling it with Christians. New settle-
ments were also made further north in Braga, Oporto, and Viseu and
also in southern Galicia. This period also saw the foundation of Burgos
in 884 and of other fortified sites in Castille. In these latter the work
was carried out by the count Roderic. It is this era of confidence and
expansion that saw the production of the so-called Prophetic Chronicle,
and helps to explain its air of facile optimism in forecasting the
imminent collapse of Islam in the peninsula and the restoration of
the kingdom of the Goths by Alfonso.
Such hopes were ill-founded and the period of expansion in the
early part of the reign was followed by a quieter time of consolidation
and defence. Internal divisions also materialised within the kingdom.
Alfonso's brother Vermudo, previously blinded for his involvement
in a conspiracy, successfully rebelled in Astorga and maintained an
independent kingdom there for seven years with Arab support. Nor
were the Asturian ruler's problems confined to his southern frontier
as he was twice faced by revolts by his Basque subjects in Alava that
required forcible suppression.
Despite such difficulties, the growth of the kingdom under Alfonso
III marked its most substantial expansion since its foundation and
before the late eleventh century. This was a time of self-confidence
for its monarchy that is reflected in a programme of royal building
that included a new palace in Oviedo and the commissioning of such
masterpieces of the jeweller's art as the 'Cross of Victory', now housed
in Oviedo Cathedral, and the agate casket in Astorga.^16 Alfonso, as ruler