192 EARLY MEDIEVAL SPAINSlave-trading in early Medieval Europe is still much understudied,
although it is clear that it did exist on a major scale and was a vital
feature of the society and economy of the period.^16 The Vikings, who
first come into prominence with their attacks on Anglo-Saxon and
Irish monasteries at the very end of the eighth century, played a large
part in it. Many of their raids, which grew in intensity and geographical
range throughout the middle of the ninth century, had as an end the
obtaining of slaves as well as silver and gold. Captives of wealth and
status might be ransomed, but the many others who fell into their hands
during their carefully co-ordinated raids were sold as slaves. A ready
market, especially for men of fighting age, could be found in Umayyad
Spain, with its need for supplies of new mamelukes. Other victims
could be sold in Mrica and some exported further east.^17 As well as
those taken in raids on Britain, Ireland and Francia, cargoes of Slavs
from the Baltic could have been brought by the Vikings to the slave
markets. There was also a land route for the westward trade in slaves
out of central Europe, one of the main entrepots for which was Verdun,
and it is quite conceivable that slaves reached Spain in this way too.
Once arrived, wherever from, the Umayyads' slaves came to add
another element to the already very mixed racial and cultural
composition of the peninsula. Some of them were culturally self-
conscious: during the ascendancy of Al-Man~ur one of them, called
Fatin (d. 1029) was noted as an Arabic stylist and book collector,
while another, called Habib, wrote a work entitled Clear and Victorious
Arguments against Those who Deny the Excellencies of the Sclavonians.^18 The
slave soldiers and eunuchs of the palace of the Umayyads never came
to isolate the ruler and dominate the court in the way that their
Turkish counterparts did in the 'Abbasid Caliphate. This could largely
be due to their never achieving an unchallenged ascendancy: alterna-
tive sources of strength could be found to match them. Under the
dictatorship of Al-Man~Ur (c. 980-1002), a new wave of Berber merce-
naries was introduced into Al-Andalus, though with ultimately fatal
results for the Caliphate. For they took an active part in the civil wars
between rival Umayyad candidates from 1009 onwards, and even
supported the pretensions of a rival Mrican dynasty, the Hammiidids,
that tried briefly to seize power in Spain. In 1010 the Berber merce-
naries looted Cordoba and destroyed the two great suburban palace
complexes of Medina Azahara and Medina Azahira, erected by 'Abd
al-Ral}.rnan III and Al-Man~Ur.19 Mter the dissolution of the Caliphate
in 1031, some of the Berbers established small kingdoms for themselves