A prosperous town set in the foothills of the Pyrenees, some 50 kilometers (c. 31 mi.) east of Huesca in Spain. Under Muslim rule, Barbastro (Arab. Barbashtura) was a district capital of one of the marches of the caliphate, and later a Taifa kingdom belonging to the Banû Hûd family.
In 1064 Barbastro was the object of a “proto-crusade” when a force of Aragonese and Normans (led by the Norman nobleman Robert Crispin), fortified with an indulgence granted by Pope Alexander II, laid siege to the town. Starved out, the defenders capitulated once they had been assured of safe passage from the city for themselves and their goods. As they were leaving, however, the Christian forces fell on the refugees, massacring them and carrying women and booty into the town, where they installed themselves and lived in reputed decadence. Western Islam was shocked by the episode, which was attributed to the Taifa rulers’ conciliatory policies toward Christian states, fueling the discontent among the ulama (the Muslim learned elite). This unrest eventually led to Almoravid intervention in the Iberian Peninsula. Nine months after its conquest, a Muslim coalition retook Barbastro and massacred the occupiers.
The town fell definitively into Christian hands when it was captured by King Peter I of Aragon in 1101. At this point it became an episcopal see. It became a quiet backwater after the conquests of King Alfonso I (1109-1134).