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Benahavís

Field	Value
official_name	Benahavís
image_skyline	Benahavís DSCF1473.JPG
image_shield	Escudo_de_Benahavís.svg
pushpin_map	Spain Province of Málaga#Spain Andalusia#Spain
pushpin_label	Benahavís
pushpin_map_caption	Location in the Province of Málaga##Location in Andalusia##Location in Spain
coordinates
subdivision_type	Sovereign state
subdivision_name	Spain
subdivision_type1	Autonomous community
subdivision_name1	Andalusia
subdivision_type2	Province
subdivision_name2	[[File:Flag Málaga Province.svg	23px]] Málaga
subdivision_type3	Comarca
subdivision_name3	Costa del Sol Occidental
area_total_km2	145
elevation_m	150
population_as_of
population_footnotes
population_total
population_density_km2	auto
timezone	CET
utc_offset	+1
timezone_DST	CEST
utc_offset_DST	+2
website	www.benahavis.es
footnotes	benahavis.net benahavis.com

Benahavís is a Spanish town (pueblo) and municipality in the province of Malaga. It is a mountain village between Marbella, Estepona, and Ronda, 7 km from the coast.

On the southern face of La Serranía de Ronda mountain range, Benahavís is one of the most mountainous villages on the western Costa del Sol, near the resort beaches as well as the spectacular mountains of the Serrania de Ronda. Its terrain is traversed by the Guadalmina, Guadaiza and Guadalmansa Rivers. Places of great natural and historic interest are to be found within its boundaries, such as El Cerro del Duque, Daidin and the Montemayor Castle.

During the late 1990s, the Junta de Andalucia constructed a dam on the site of an old marble quarry, and now for much of the year the once ever-flowing Río Guadalmina is a dried-up riverbed.

History

At the end of the 11th century, Benahavís was founded by Arabs. The village was intimately involved with Andalusia's Arabic past, and particularly with Marbella, the municipal district to which it belonged until it was granted the so-called "Carta Puebla" by Philip II in 1572. Montemayor Castle, built prior to the founding of Benahavís, played an important role in disputes between successive Arab rulers in Andalusia, because of its strategic position. It was disputed for many years by the various military factions of the time. Its prominent location overlooking the coast, with up to a hundred kilometres of seaboard visible in clear weather, and even the African coast, was extremely useful at a time when piracy and invasion were commonplace. The town takes its name from Havis, an 11th-century Moorish prince who reigned in Montemayor Castle. The name Benahavís is derived from the Arabic "Binā' Ḥabīsh" (بناء حبيش), meaning "The Building of Ḥabīsh", the word 'Ḥabīsh' could have come from the Arabic word 'Ḥabashi' (حبشي), which meant Ethiopian, but was used to identify any dark-skinned African, this could indicate that the city was founded by a man of Sub-Saharan African descent.

The castle's strategic location drew the attention of the Catholic Monarchs, who were intent on conquering the last Moorish kingdoms in the south of the Iberian Peninsula. Isabel and Ferdinand's forces had already laid siege to the Nazarite kingdom of Granada, but they decided first to occupy the nearby province of Málaga. Soon after, on 11 June, 1485, Benahavís, together with the localities of Daidin, Montemayor Castle, Cortes Fortress, Ojen, Arboto, Almáchar, Tramores and Calalui Fort (the Castle of Light), in the Sierra Bermeja, all within the district of Marbella, were handed over to King Ferdinand the Catholic, by Mohammed Abuneza after the signing of the capitulation.

The Catholic Monarchs entrusted their custody to Don Pedro Villandrado, Count of Ribadeo, the first Christian mayor of Benahavís. From that moment on, a dispute arose between Benahavís and Marbella which lasted three and a half centuries, until Benahavís achieved the status of an independent community.

References

[[Miguel Asín Palacios]] (1944), ''[https://www.academia.edu/44709789/Contribuci%C3%B3n_a_la_toponimia_%C3%A1rabe_de_Espa%C3%B1a_Miguel_Asin_Palacios_Madrid_1944 Contribución a la toponimia árabe de España]'', Madrid, p. 84, {{QID. 114700810

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

municipalities-in-the-province-of-málaga

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