Zawi ibn Ziri as-Sanhaji or Al-Mansur Zawi ibn Ziri ibn Manad as-Sanhaji, was a chief in the Berber Sanhaja tribe. He arrived in Spain in 1000 (391) during the reign of Almanzor. He took part in the rebellion against the Caliphate of Córdoba and settled in the Cora of Elvira with followers from his Sanhaja tribe. He founded the Taifa of Granada, and founded the Zirid dynasty of Granada as its first Emir, reigning from 1013 to 1019.
View of the Albaicín neighbourhood in Granada today, the site of the Zirid citadel during the Taifa period, with some of the Zirid city walls still standing.
The Taifa of Granada or Zirid Kingdom of Granada was a Muslim kingdom that was formed in al-Andalus in 1013 following the deposition of Caliph Hisham II in 1009. The kingdom was centered on Granada, its capital, and it also extended its control to Málaga for a period. Four kings succeeded each other during its nearly 80 years of existence, all of them belonging to an offshoot of the Zirid dynasty of North Africa, a Sanhaja Berber clan. The Taifa of Granada was considered to be the wealthiest out of all of the taifa kingdoms. It was eventually conquered by the Almoravids in 1090, putting an end to Zirid rule in Granada.
View of the 11th-century Zirid walls of Granada in the Albaicín district today
The bell tower of the Church of San José in Granada today, converted from the minaret of a former 11th-century mosque from the Zirid period
