abstract:In the history of the Iberian Peninsula, a taifa (from ṭā'ifa, plural طوائف ṭawā'if) was an independent Muslim-ruled principality, usually an emirate or petty kingdom, though there was one oligarchy, of which a number formed in the Al-Andalus (Moorish Iberia) after the final collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba in 1031.