Sara al-Qutiyya

Sara al-Qutiyya was born to a noble family; her father was Olmund ca], a son of Wittiza the Visigothic king. When he died, Sara, along with her two younger brothers, inherited the family's lands around Seville. However, Olmund's brother, Artobas, who had inherited land-holdings in Cordoba, appropriated Sara and her brother's inheritance. Whilst at court, Sara met the future Abd al-Rahman I, who reportedly "gave her special treatment and innumerable attentions". During this time, the caliph Hisham also arranged for her to marry a man called Isā Ibn Muzāḥim, After Isā Ibn Muzāḥim died in 138H (755/756), Abd al-Rahman I advised Sara to remarry, this time to Umayr ibn Sa'id, a member of the Lakhmid dynasty. They had a son called Habib, whose son, Ibrahim bin Hajjaj al-Lakhmi, later became governor of Seville. == Legacy ==

Sara al-Qutiyya's sons established several significant dynasties in the generations after her death. The historian Ibn al-Qutiyya was one of her descendants, writing a history of the Umayyad caliphate and including his great-grandmother's life in it. In 2018, the Spanish-language broadcaster RTVE recorded a documentary on her. == Historiography ==

The story of Sara al-Qutiyya appears in the History of the Conquest of al-Andalus by Ibn al-Qutiyya and also in a biography of Ibn al-Qutiyya by Ibn Khallikan. As Visigothic royalty, Sara al-Qutiyya would have been a Christian. Her marriages to Muslim men have been seen by historians such as Mary Elizabeth Perry and Ilan Vit-Suzan, as emblematic of the Islamization of the Christian Visigothic elite of Al-Andalus. However the medievalist Roger Collins regards Sara as a "mythical ancestor" rather than a historical individual. == References ==