In the first years of the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, Seville became the setting for a story of love, ambition and betrayal. At its centre were Egilona, widow of the last Visigothic king, and Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa, one of the new rulers of al-Andalus — a marriage that would end in suspicion, conspiracy and death.
THE ILLUSTRATED LEGEND
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OMMALISSAN AND ABD AL-AZIZ IBN MUSA
Love, ambition and betrayal in the first years of Muslim Seville.
According to the Sevillian tradition collected by José María de Mena, the Muslim conquest soon revealed itself to be something very different from the temporary intervention expected by the supporters of the former Visigothic king Witiza. While Mérida continued to resist, the new forces advanced across the peninsula under commanders such as Musa ibn Nusayr and Tariq ibn Ziyad.
The story describes a bitter rivalry between Musa and Tariq. Musa divided his forces, sending Tariq towards Toledo while entrusting his son, Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa, with operations in the south. After Mérida finally surrendered, Egilona, widow of King Roderic, was brought to Seville together with other members of the defeated Visigothic elite.
Instead of remaining a prisoner, Egilona attracted the attention of Abd al-Aziz and became his wife. In the Sevillian version of the story she later appears under the name Ommalissan, remembered once again as the woman of the beautiful necklaces. Their marriage united the widow of the defeated Visigothic monarch with one of the leading figures of the new Muslim government.
The legend then reconnects Egilona with Pelagius, or Don Pelayo, who had supposedly loved her before the fall of the Visigothic kingdom. Unaware of her new marriage, he dreamed of returning south, defeating the conquerors and restoring Egilona to the throne. But when he reached Seville and discovered that she had married Abd al-Aziz, those hopes disappeared. According to the story, Pelagius returned north and decided that any crown he might obtain would now have to be won by his own efforts.
Ommalissan, meanwhile, was not satisfied with being merely the wife of a governor. She had once been a queen, and the legend portrays her as encouraging Abd al-Aziz to seek a greater destiny. One night in their residence in Seville, she supposedly took one of her necklaces, placed it around his forehead like a crown and urged him to stop serving distant rulers and become king in his own right.
According to the traditional tale, a servant overheard the conversation and the news eventually reached Tariq, who saw an opportunity to strike against the family of Musa. A warning was sent east accusing Abd al-Aziz of planning to break away from the authority of the caliph and create an independent kingdom in Hispania.
The response was swift. Men loyal to the caliph arrived in Seville and waited for Abd al-Aziz while he was at prayer. As he knelt, they attacked and killed him. Later tradition has attempted to identify the place with different early religious buildings in or around Seville, although the precise location remains uncertain.
The story says that Abd al-Aziz's head was then prepared and sent to the East as proof that the order had been carried out. His death was publicly announced in Seville as a warning to anyone tempted to challenge the authority of the new rulers.
Mena's version gives Ommalissan an equally tragic end. She was supposedly arrested in Seville, strangled and her body thrown outside the city near the area traditionally associated with today's Calle Arjona. Thus the woman who had first entered the story as the Visigothic queen Egilona ended it as Ommalissan, destroyed by the political ambitions that tradition says she had helped awaken.
Behind its dramatic details lies a remarkable historical reality: within only a few years, Seville had passed from the Visigothic world into the emerging society of al-Andalus, and the marriage of Egilona and Abd al-Aziz became one of the most striking symbols of that transformation.
BETWEEN HISTORY AND LEGEND
An extraordinary legend built around one of the earliest written accounts of al-Andalus.
Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa was a historical figure and one of the earliest governors of al-Andalus. He established himself in Seville and married Egilona, the widow of King Roderic. Remarkably, this marriage is not merely a late legend: it is already mentioned in the Chronicle of 754, written only a few decades after the conquest.
That early chronicle also records the accusation that Abd al-Aziz, influenced by Egilona, intended to throw off outside authority and retain the kingdom of Hispania for himself. It states that he was killed by his own men while at prayer. The basic connection between the marriage, suspicions of independent rule and his violent death therefore has a genuinely early historical foundation.
Later sources add further details to the story, including the idea that Egilona encouraged her husband to behave like a king and even persuaded him to wear a form of crown. The famous scene of the necklace placed around his forehead belongs to this later narrative development and should not be treated as a documented eyewitness episode.
The name Ommalissan is the form preserved in the Sevillian tradition followed here. Other sources use different names or forms for Egilona, including Umm 'Asim. Her exact religious status after the marriage and the origin of these different names are not completely certain.
Several other elements in Mena's account belong much more clearly to legend: Pelagius travelling to Seville because of his love for Egilona, the servant who overheard the conversation, Tariq personally engineering the denunciation, the two princely assassins hidden behind columns, and the precise Sevillian locations proposed for the murder.
The account of Ommalissan being strangled and her body abandoned near the modern Calle Arjona is likewise part of the local legendary tradition. The early Chronicle of 754 records Egilona's influence on Abd al-Aziz but does not describe such an end for her.
It is therefore a story in which history and legend are unusually close. The marriage of Egilona and Abd al-Aziz, the fear that he might establish an independent rule and his assassination are rooted in early sources; the romance, secret conversations, conspirators and tragic fate of Ommalissan belong to the narrative that Seville built around those events.
PODCAST VERSION
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SOURCE AND ADAPTATION
Adapted for Sevilla Ciudad Mágica from the Sevillian tradition collected by José María de Mena in Tradiciones y Leyendas Sevillanas.
Seville is not only discovered through its monuments and streets.
Its legends are also part of its history and cultural memory.
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