Velasco the Gascon

Velasco the Gascon (Arabic: بلشك الجلشقي‎‎, Balashk al-Yalashqi) was a pro-Frankish lord of Pamplona (Arabic: صاحب بنبلونة‎‎, Sahib of Pamplona) in the early 9th century. In 799, Mutarrif ibn Musa, perhaps of the Córdoba-allied Banu Qasi clan, was assassinated in Pamplona. This is thought to mark the rise of a pro-Frankish faction that embodied the interests of the neighboring Christian states of France and Asturias in containing the influence of Córdoba in the western Pyrenees. This period of pro-Frankish ascendancy lasted until 816, when at the Battle of Pancorbo, Córdoba general Abd al-Karim ibn Abd al-Wahid ibn Mugit defeated an army led by Velasco, called the "Enemy of God" by chronicler Ibn Hayyan. Velasco was killed along with García López, kinsman of Alfonso II of Asturias, Sancho "warrior/knight of Pamplona", and pagan warrior "Ṣaltān". This defeat of the pro-Frankish force appears to have shifted control to an anti-Frankish faction that would be led by future king Íñigo Arista, who a quarter-century later would join his kin the Banu Qasi in rebelling against Córdoba, establishing Pamplona autonomy.