Loading ...Arabs of Iberia: Al-Andalus
By Liam Nagle / Arab America Contributing Writer
When one thinks of the medieval Muslim conquests of Europe, they might first think of the Ottoman invasions of southern and eastern Europe in the 14th century. However, another far earlier example of this can be seen on the Iberian Peninsula – and their territories there existed for just as long. Muslim rule over the peninsula lasted for around 800 years, with various kingdoms and caliphates creating magnificent works during the Islamic Golden Age, and crafting a new level of religious tolerance for the era. Although various Muslim empires have come and gone on the peninsula, there is a collective name given to all of them: Al-Andalus.
Iberia under the Umayyads
The name “Andalus” in Arabic is actually a loan word from Latin. Andalus, in this case, refers to the Vandals, one of the Germanic tribes that had helped to destroy the Roman possessions on the Iberian Peninsula before they themselves settled there. The word “Vandals” eventually became the Spanish word “Andalucía” – incidentally the name for the southernmost province of modern Spain – and Arabic took the word and made it “Andalus”. As such, “Al-Andalus” means “Land of the Vandals”.
However, by the time of the Arab conquest of Iberia, the Vandals were not in control of the peninsula. Instead, another Germanic tribe known as the Visigoths held most of the peninsula. The Visigoths here were in a state of civil war when the Umayyad Caliphate arrived in 711. The caliphate, extending from northwestern Africa to modern-day Pakistan, was able to easily sweep through the Visigoths and took almost the entire peninsula within a decade, even extending into as far as modern-day France.
During this time period, the Umayyads controlled Al-Andalus as a province of their caliphate. Attempts were made to expand further north, and their armies made it as far as Burgundy, but they would be repulsed by the European Christian kingdoms. But the Umayyads would not last for very long after this. Conflicts with the Abbasids resulted in the Umayyad’s collapse in 750, and subsequently proclaiming their own caliphate.
The Emirate and Caliphate of Córdoba
The Abbasid Caliphate, seeking to cement their reign, had begun to slaughter members of the Umayyad family. Because of this, the Umayyad prince Abd al-Rahman I fled from Damascus to Spain in an attempt to create his own emirate. The local rulers there attempted to resist, but failed to do so – Abd al-Rahman would proclaim himself emir of Córdoba in 756, and the remainder of Iberia fell under his control soon afterwards. Subsequent attempts by the Abbasids and Christian kingdoms to retake the Iberian Peninsula failed, and Al-Andalus remained an independent emirate from 756 to 929.
In 929, then-emir Abd ar-Rahman III proclaimed himself caliph, thereby turning the emirate into the Caliphate of Córdoba. This time period has been considered a peaceful, golden age for Al-Andalus, helped especially by Abd ar-Rahman III and his son’s coexistence with the Christian kingdoms to the north and Berber tribes of Northern Africa. With the Islamic Golden Age in full swing, expansions in trade and culture resulted in the construction of Andalusi, or “Western Islamic”, architecture. Elaborate geometric shapes and arabesque ideas were huge motifs in this architectural style, maintaining its difference from eastern Islamic architecture through its lack of domes and vaults.
Of particular interest during this time period has been the relative religious tolerance practiced by the Córdoban caliphate, as well as the emirate beforehand. Iberia had now become an ethnically, culturally, and religiously diverse territory – made up of Muslims, Christians, and Jews, as well as both Arabs and Berbers. With Christians and Jews considered as “People of the Book”, their religious practices were tolerated in Al-Andalus during the reign Córdoba. However, while Christians and Jews were allowed to practice their religions, restrictions were certainly enacted. Among other things, Jews and Christians had to pay a jizya, or “protection tax”, to the proper authorities. Additionally, public displays of faith, such as processions or the ringing of bells, were discouraged. Nevertheless, this religious harmony was relatively progressive for the Middle Ages, especially considering the violence that would come during the crusades and Spanish Inquisition.
The Fall of Al-Andalus
The Caliphate of Córdoba collapsed just a century after its creation, with al-Andalus breaking up into a number of independent states known as the taifas. Although small, these taifas had become immensely wealth during the preceding years and continued to exert significant influence on the Muslim world. However, the Christian kingdoms in the north began expanding southwards, succeeding in capturing Toledo in 1085. With this, the taifas requested for assistance from the Almoravids, a Berber empire in present-day Morocco. The Almoravids were successful in defeating the Christian kingdoms’ advances and left Al-Andalus, but soon returned to conquer the land themselves. Most of the taifas would be annexed into the Almoravid dynasty by 1094.
The Almoravids would be overthrown by the Almohads, another Berber dynasty, in 1147. The religious tolerance practiced by Córdoba, and at least partially carried on by the Almoravids, would be drastically reversed by the Almohads. Many of the Jews and Christians were given a choice of either death or conversion, resulting in many fleeing Al-Andalus – some even to more tolerant Muslim lands in the east. But as Almoravid rule collapsed at the hands of the Almohads, the Christian kingdoms expanded southwards again, and engaged in several more wars with the Almohads. The wars weakened the Almohads’ position in Iberia, resulting in the creation of more taifas that were each subsequently conquered by the newly-formed kingdoms of Portugal, Castille, and Aragon.
By the 1260s, only the region of Granada remained unconquered by the Christians as the last bastion of Al-Andalus. The Emirate of Granada would remain for another 200 years, managing to stave off Christian invasions through its geographic position and playing northern Christian kingdoms against eachother. However, in 1492, a final Castilian invasion of Granada finally forced the last remnants of Al-Andalus out of the Iberian Peninsula.
Al-Andalus was an incredibly interesting time period, filled with architectural and artistic feats, while also practicing a relatively progressive religious tolerance for the time period. A quick Umayyad invasion in the 700s resulted in almost 800 years of Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula, from the Umayyads to Córdoba to Granada. During Christian rule in the subsequent years, those that did not convert to Christianity would be expelled from Iberia, resulting in a mass emigration of both Muslims and Jews from the peninsula. However, their decision to convert the former mosques into Christian churches allowed for many of the buildings to survive. Many of these buildings still exist to this day – a testament to the legacy of Al-Andalus.
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