Toledo for the campaign. He proceeded to devastate the Ribera del Duero before heading deeper into Castile. He was surprised by a Christian army in his camp near the castle called "The Eagles" (Las Águilas). He fell ill shortly after his defeat, perhaps from wounds received at the battle, but he continued to fight against Castile until he was being carried about on a litter. He was brought to Medinaceli, but the physicians were unable to diagnose his infirmity. He called his son, Abd al-Malik al-Muzaffar, to his bedside to give him instructions, but when he fled his father's tent in tears the dying general uttered the prophetic words, "This appears to me the first sign of the decadence that awaits the empire." Legend Almanzor was finishing a campaign in Galicia when he decided to invade Castile. He assembled a large army at Calatañazor, where the Leonese and Castilians met him. Thousands of Muslims were slain and Almanzor himself escaped only because of nightfall: Under cover of darkness he fled with his retinue. The next day Vermudo marched on the Muslim camp at dawn, but found it abandoned and collected instead an enormous booty. García Fernández, having pursued the fleeing Muslims, came away with a large number of prisoners. The same day as the battle in another part of Spain a fisherman was seen exclaiming, first in Arabic then in Spanish, "In Calatañazor Almanzor lost the drum". Many Muslims came from Córdoba to see the fisherman, but every time they approached him he disappeared before their eyes only to reappear elsewhere repeating the same lament. Lucas of Tuy believed it was the devil lamenting the disaster of Calatañazor (el diablo que llorava la cayda de los moros). Almanzor never ate or drank after his defeat, and dying in Medinaceli he was buried there. References Gonzalo Martínez Díez. El condado de Castilla, 711–1038: La historia frente a la leyenda (Marcial Pons Historia, 2005), 581–4. (.) Juan Castellanos Gómez. "La batalla de Calatañazor: mito y realidad". Revista de Historia Militar, 91(2001), 25–42. Notes Spanish legends Spanish folklore Calatañazor Calatañazor Calatañazor