Battle of Cuarte

Battle of Cuarte
Part of the Reconquista
Development of the Battle of Cuarte (in Spanish).
Date 21 October 1094 Location Between Quart de Poblet and Mislata, Principality of Valencia (Present-day Valencian Community, Spain) Result Victory for El Cid[1]
Belligerents
Principality of Valencia	Almoravid Empire
Commanders and leaders
Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar "El Cid"	Muhammad ibn Tashfin
Strength
4,000–8,000 combatants Approximately half of the Muslim knights	8,000–10,000 combatants 4,000 Almoravid light cavalry About 300 Andalusian heavy cavalry Approximately 6,000 foot soldiers.[2]
Casualties and losses
Low	High

The Battle of Cuarte or Battle of Quart de Poblet was a military encounter that took place on 21 October 1094 between the forces of El Cid and the Almoravid Empire near the towns of Mislata and Quart de Poblet, located a few kilometres from Valencia.

After El Cid conquered the city of Valencia on June 17,^[3][4] the Almoravid Empire assembled a large army in mid-August under the command of Muhammad ibn Tashfin, nephew of the emir Yusuf ibn Tashfin, with the aim of recovering it. Towards 15 September, Muhammad laid siege to the city, but Rodrigo came out to break the siege in a pitched battle, obtaining a decisive victory that repelled the Almoravids and secured his Valencian principality.^[5]

It was possibly the most important of El Cid's victories and the first against a large Almoravid army in the Iberian Peninsula; it also halted their advance in the Levante during the remaining years of the 11th century.^[6] In the 1098 diploma of endowment of the new Cathedral of Santa María consecrated on what had been the main mosque, Rodrigo signs "princeps Rodericus Campidoctor"^[7] considering himself an autonomous sovereign despite not having royal ancestry, and the preamble of said document alludes to the battle of Cuarte as a victory achieved quickly and without casualties over an enormous number of Muslims.^[8]