For 780 years from 711 to 1492 Muslim forces ruled large parts of the Iberian Peninsula.
What began as a lightning conquest from North Africa ended only when the last Muslim stronghold Granada fell to the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella.
In 711 a Berber commander named Tariq ibn Ziyad crossed the Strait of Gibraltar at the head of an Umayyad army. He crushed the Visigothic forces at the Battle of Guadalete and within a few short years the Christian Visigothic kingdom that had dominated the peninsula collapsed. The name Gibraltar itself still echoes that moment: Jabal Tariq the Mountain of Tariq.
The native population at the time consisted of Hispano Roman Christians descendants of the ancient Iberian peoples mixed with Roman settlers. They spoke Latin dialects that would later evolve into Spanish and Portuguese and their culture was thoroughly Roman Christian.
By the early 720s most of what is now Spain and Portugal was under Muslim control. The invaders pushed northward into France but were decisively halted by Charles Martel at the Battle of Poitiers in 732. The conquered territory became known as Al Andalus first as a province of the Umayyad Caliphate then as the independent Emirate of Cordoba in 756 and at its zenith as the Caliphate of Cordoba from 929 to 1031.
Under the Caliphate Cordoba grew into one of the largest wealthiest and most intellectually vibrant cities in the world a center of science medicine philosophy and architecture that outshone most of contemporary Europe. Yet this golden age rested on military conquest and the subjugation of the indigenous Christian population.
After 1031 the Caliphate fragmented into dozens of small Taifa kingdoms. Meanwhile the Christian kingdoms in the north steadily gained strength. The long grinding process known as the Reconquista began the gradual Christian reconquest of their ancestral lands. It culminated in 1492 with the fall of Granada.
That same year Ferdinand and Isabella issued the Alhambra Decree expelling all Jews who refused to convert to Christianity. The expulsion was driven not only by religious zeal and fear of crypto Judaism but also by cold financial calculation: seizing the substantial wealth of the Jewish communities helped finance the enormous costs of the centuries long war.
The Spanish people fought for eight centuries to reclaim their homeland from Muslim rule. Even after nearly 800 years of Muslim presence governance language and culture on Iberian soil the Christians still viewed the land as theirs by right of ancestry and prior sovereignty and they eventually took it back.
Today Spain often sides with the Palestinian cause. The irony is striking. Spaniards reclaimed their country after 780 years of foreign Muslim domination yet many now question the Jewish right to reclaim their own ancestral homeland after only 2000 years of exile.
The Arabs who lived in Al Andalus for centuries also came to see themselves as the rightful natives and insisted the land was theirs. Islamist movements still speak of returning Spain to Muslim rule because in their doctrine any territory once conquered by Islam becomes Dar al Islam eternal Islamic land that must be restored to Muslim sovereignty.
Fortunately for Spain there was no United Nations in 1492 to grant the expelled Muslims permanent refugee status and endless international support. Otherwise we might still see Muslim refugee camps on Spains borders demanding their land back chanting adapted slogans: From the mountains to the sea Al Andalus will be free.
History does not repeat itself exactly but it certainly rhymes.
Comments
Post a Comment