Mayrit

Mayrit is the medieval Arabic name used to refer to the site that would become Madrid, the capital of Spain. In Arab geographers and chronicles, Mayrit (also rendered as Mayrit or Magerit) denotes the fortified settlement on the Manzanares River at the western frontier of Al-Andalus. The term appears in sources from the 9th and 10th centuries as a military and administrative center that anchored Muslim control of the region.

Historically, Mayrit was a fortress town that developed on the banks of the Manzanares during the period of Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula. It functioned as a defensive outpost and local center in the frontier zone between Muslim al-Andalus and the Christian kingdoms to the north. The town was incorporated into the Christian realm after the conquest led by Alfonso VI in the late 11th century, traditionally dated to 1085, and subsequently evolved as Madrid within the growing Crown of Castile. Over the high and late Middle Ages, the settlement expanded and transformed into the political and economic core that would later become the modern capital.

Etymology surrounding Mayrit is uncertain, and scholars propose several possibilities linked to Arabic toponymy, including references to water sources or fortifications. The polyglot transmission of sources over centuries has produced variants such as Mayrit and Magerit, with no single interpretation universally accepted.

Today, Mayrit is primarily of historical and scholarly interest. It serves as a historical label for Madrid’s Muslim-era period and appears in archaeological reports and academic writings. The official name of the city remains Madrid, a designation established in the subsequent Christian and modern periods.