General Notes

There are two major questions concerning Zaida: 1) Some say she was not really the wife, Queen Isabel, of Alfonso VI, but a mistress; even though she was baptized as Isabel when she took a Christian name, Queen Isabel was a different person.  The Queen was mother of Sancha as I have her, while Zaida/Isabel the mistress was mother of Sancho who descended to the King of Portugal. 2) Some say that Zaida/Isabel was daughter-in-law, not daughter, of Muhammad the Emire of Seville.  Other "experts" tend to agree with the way that I have it.  There are continuing debates and questions over both issues.

The ancestry for Zaida goes back to Muhammad, the Prophet, founder of the Islamic Religion.  The file then continues back to Abraham of the Old Testament, who, according to the Koran, was a direct ancestor of Muhammed.  Unfortunately I have no source books to verify the Islamic portions of the pedigree, nor have I verified it with the Koran.  The pedigree back to Muhammad can be treated much as any other genealogical pedigree, in that it is historical and undoubtedly verifiable.  The pedigree from Muhammad going back to Abraham, and from Abraham back to Adam and Eve, is a matter of faith.  As any one knows, for example, the Old Testament has numerous people that lived lengthy life spans of hundreds of years, and other such occurences which are not acceptable in normal genealogy.

This entire ancestry for Zaida was provided to me by BARBARA PHELPS, bphelps@@pressenter.com, who did all of the research in putting it together.  I have embelished it here and there with references to the Encyclopaedia Britannica and to the Holy Bible (mostly Old Testament).  I also added two other things which have not necesarily increased the value of the pedigree: 1) As I insist on birth years or approximate birth years for all individuals in my files, I have added approximate birth years (many ended up "bef. 100" which is the oldest date allowed by Family Tree Maker).  2) I also added "of Arabia" or "of The Old Testament" to most of the names in order to keep them segregated within my indexes.

I/we owe the entire ancestry to Barbara Phelps, who gave me permission to put it in my files on the internet.  Thank You Barbara.

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The following post to SGM, 22 Feb 2003, by Todd A. Farmerie indicates that there is some support, though with strong doubts, for Zaida's marriage to Alfonso VI and also her direct descent from Muhammad:

From: Todd A. Farmerie (farmerie@@interfold.com)
Subject: Re: Muslim Lines: Abunzar; Zayda, wife of Alfonso VI; Vincent the Almohad
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.medieval
Date: 2003-02-22 14:41:06 PST 

History Writer wrote:

> I am curious about two other Muslim lines.  Has any progress been made
> on the ancestry of Zayda/Isabel (d. 1106), fourth wife of King Alfonso
> VI of Castile. 

Well, the most important question in the whole debate is exactly this.  The only document close to contemporary, a chronicle, says that Zaida was the king's mistress and mother of Sancho, while Isabel was his wife, the queen, and mother of Elvira and Sancha.  There is a non-contemporary tomb marker for Zaida that says she was baptized as Isabel.  There is a non-contemporary marker for 'queen' Isabel that calls her daughter of Louis of France.  I have yet to see any convincing argument that Zaida WAS queen Isabel (I am ambivalent on the fall-back position, that Alfonso married first queen Isabel, and then married again to his mistress, Zaida/Isabel).  This is critical to the descendants question.

> She is believed to have been the daughter-in-law of
> King Muhammed II of Seville, and possibly the daughter of the Emir of
> Denia. 

A single christian source calls her daughter of Muhammed, a single muslim one (better informed, it seems to me) calls her daughter-in-law.  While I have seen the speculation several places that she was daughter of the Emir of Denia, I have never seen a legitimate source cited for that solution, so I cannot evaluate it (although the absence of a source is never a positive recommendation).

> As shown in Turton's chart, Zayda, through her daughter
> Sancha, wife of Rodrigo Gonzalez de Lara is an ancestor of King Deniz
> I of Portugal. 

Sancha, was only daughter of Zaida IF queen Isabel was Zaida.  In this case, Turton (actually his source) got the two confused, but may have ended up with the right answer by coincidence.  That being said, King Deniz of Portugal was not a descendant of Sancha.  I have followed her descendants for 5 generations, and there is only one identifiable descendnat in the generation of Diniz - Juan Lopez de Haro, a scion of the Counts of Viscaya, who disappears from historical sources (I have not tried to find him in more obscure records).  That said, there is a descent from Sancha's sister, Elvira, wife of King Roger of Sicily, the first English king with the line being Henry VIII, IIRC.

taf