Murcia, city, capital of Murcia provincia (province) and comunidad autónoma (autonomous community), southeastern Spain. It lies at the confluence of the Segura and Guadalentín (Sangonera) rivers in a fertile, irrigated area known as the huerta (orchard land). The site was settled before the Roman occupation of southern Spain in the 3rd century BC, but its name even during the Roman rule is unknown, although some have tentatively identified it with the Roman town Vergilia. As Mursiyah it was first mentioned in the histories and chronicles of the Muslims. According to the Arab geographer Yaqut, it was founded in 825 by the Umayyad emir of Córdoba, ?Abd al-Ra?man II, who made it a provincial capital. After the fall of the caliphate of Córdoba in 1031, the city came under the control of Almería and then of Valencia, until 1063 when its ruler, Abd al-Raman ibn Tahir, declared the kingdom of Murcia independent.

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