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Birth:          ABT  848 
Death:          AFT  890 

Notes
her second (Stuart says first but dates mean second) marriage was to Abdullah I, 
Sultan of Cordoba (842-912)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onneca_Fort%C3%BAnez
Onneca Fortúnez or Iñiga Fortúnez[1][2] (c. 848 – after 890)[3] was a Basque[4] 
princess from the Kingdom of Pamplona, later known as the Kingdom of Navarre. She 
was the daughter of Fortún Garcés of Pamplona and his wife Auria. At the time of 
Onneca's birth, which occurred between 848 and 850, the Iberian Peninsula was 
largely under the domination of the Muslim Umayyad dynasty. Only the northern 
kingdoms of Asturias and Pamplona remained under Christian rule, perpetuating the 
Hispano-Roman Visigothic traditions. Onneca was a member of the Íñiguez dynasty, 
named after her great-grandfather Íñigo Arista, who founded the Kingdom of 
Pamplona.[5]

Information about Onneca's life is sketchy. Biographical details about her come from 
two main sources: the Roda Codex and the accounts of Muslim Andalusi historians, 
who refer to Onneca by the Arabic name Durr (??), meaning "pearl". Onneca is 
primarily known for marrying into the Umayyad dynasty. Although matrimonial unions 
between Christian slave-concubines and Muslim rulers were common, Onneca's case 
is one of the few examples of a Christian princess marrying into Muslim royalty.[1] Her 
marriage created family ties between the Christian and Muslim ruling families of the 
Iberian peninsula, initially leading to close collaboration between the Christian House 
of Íñiguez and the Muslim Umayyads.[6] The political effects resulting from Onneca's 
marriages continued to be felt long after her death, which occurred at an unknown 
date.
Marriage to Emir Abdullah[edit]

Onneca's father Fortún Garcés, the then heir to the throne of Pamplona, was captured 
in 860 in the town of Milagro during a punitive expedition led by Muhammad I, the 
Muslim emir of Córdoba, against the small Kingdom of Pamplona. The expedition 
resulted in the devastation of the Christian kingdom's territory and the seizure of three 
castles by the Muslim forces. Fortun Garcés, nicknamed al-Anqar (??????) by the 
Muslims because he was one-eyed, was taken to Córdoba where he was detained for 
two decades in gilded captivity.[7] Onneca accompanied or followed her father to 
Córdoba, where she was wedded to Muhammad I's son Abdullah around 862/863. It is 
not known when or how she came to Córdoba. She may have been captured with her 
father, or sent to join her father at the emir's court at a later date. Onneca was 
presumably still a teenager when she bore Abdullah a son named Muhammad in 864.
[3] As Abdullah's wife, Onneca became known as Durr.[8] According to some sources, 
she converted to Islam.[9][10]

In addition to Muhammad, Onneca bore Abdullah two daughters: al-Baha' and Fatima 
the Younger.[11] Abdullah became emir in 888, and Onneca's son Muhammad was 
named heir to the throne. However, Muhammad was assassinated by his younger 
half-brother al-Mutarrif on 28 January 891. There is disagreement among historians as 
to whether al-Mutarrif acted on his own or at the instigation of his father Abdullah. 
Al-Mutarrif himself was beheaded in 895 under orders of his father. As a result, 
Muhammad's son Abd-ar-Rahman, who was born three weeks prior to his father's 
assassination, was the one who succeeded his grandfather Abdullah as emir of 
Córdoba. Known in the West as Abd-ar-Rahman III, he later elevated himself to the 
position of caliph.[12]

Onneca was thus the paternal grandmother of Abd-ar-Rahman III, who inherited from 
her as well as from his mother Muzna hailing from the Pyrenees (probably a Basque) 
European facial features such as blue eyes and light reddish hair that he attempted to 
alter (notably through hair coloring) in order to look more typically Arab.[2][4]

Marriage to Aznar Sánchez de Laron[edit]

In about 880, after two decades in Córdoba, Onneca abandoned her Muslim family,
[13] and returned with her father to Pamplona, to which he would shortly succeed. 
Shortly after her return, Onneca married her first cousin Aznar Sánchez de Laron. 
Together they had a son and two daughters, probably born between 880 and 890: 
Sancho, Toda and Sancha. Their son Sancho Aznar is only known from the Roda 
Codex genealogies and may have died young.[3] Their daughters Toda and Sancha 
would both become queens consort of Pamplona by marrying into the Jiménez dynasty, 
which came to power in 905 after displacing Onneca's father Fortún Garcés from the 
throne. Toda married Sancho I Garcés, thus uniting the royal houses of Íñiguez and 
Jiménez.[14] Toda's sister Sancha was wedded to Sancho I Garcés' brother and 
successor Jimeno Garcés, and was later killed in France by her son García Jiménez.
[15]

Alternative chronology[edit]

The Roda Codex, the sole source for Onneca's Christian marriage, places this union 
with her cousin Aznar Sánchez de Laron before her marriage, as a widow, to Abdullah 
of Córdoba. Based on this, French historian Évariste Lévi-Provençal developed a 
chronology for Onneca's life that placed her birth date around 835. Lévi-Provençal 
believed that Onneca did not accompany her father when he returned to Pamplona in 
882, either because she had already died, or because she had converted to Islam and 
chose to remain in Abdullah's harem.[10] However, such a chronology is problematic 
since it implies that Onneca's children by Aznar were born before or only shortly after 
her father's capture in 860, thus making Onneca's daughter Toda Aznárez a 
sexagenarian at the time of her son García Sánchez I's birth (which is known to have 
occurred in either 919 or 922[16]), and nearly a centenarian at the time of her 958 
visit to Cordoba. Therefore, most historians addressing the question have concluded 
that the Roda Codex was in error with regard to the order of Onneca's two marriages.

Legacy[edit]

Onneca's historical importance stems from the fact that she provided an important 
genealogical link between the Muslim caliphs of Córdoba and the Christian kings of 
Pamplona,[6] as well as between the first two royal dynasties of Pamplona.[17][18]

Parents
GARCES Fortun (ABT  830 -  922)
____ Auria (Aria) (Aurea) ()

Siblings
FORTUN OF PAMPLONA Oneca (ABT  848 - AFT  890)

Marriage To SANCHEZ DE LARRON Aznar (ABT  847 - )
    m.  875 

Notes

Parents
GARCES OF PAMPLONA Sancho (ABT  830 - )
----- ----- ()

Children by SANCHEZ DE LARRON Aznar ABT  847 - 
AZNAREZ OF LARRON Toda (ABT  876 - AFT  970)

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