Universidade Federal de Pernambuco Depto. de Letras, Programa de Espanhol Disciplina: História da Língua Espanhola

Centro de Artes e Comunicação Professor: Dr. João Sedycias Código da Disciplina: ______

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Source: Infoplease Encyclopedia (from The Columbia Encyclopedia)

The Moors –

Present in Spain from 711 to 1492, that is, for 781 years or approximately eight centuries.

Nomadic people of the northern shores of Africa, originally the inhabitants of Mauretania. They were chiefly of Berber and Arab stock. In the 8th century the Moors were converted to Islam and became fanatic Muslims. They spread SW into Africa and NW into Spain. Under Tarik ibn Ziyad they crossed to Gibraltar in 711 and easily overran the crumbling Visigothic kingdom of Roderick. They spread beyond the Pyrenees into France, where they were turned back at Tours by Charles Martel (732). In 756, Abd ar-Rahman I established the Umayyad dynasty at Córdoba. This emirate became under Abd ar-Rahman III the caliphate of Córdoba. The court there grew in wealth, splendor, and culture. The regent al-Mansur in the late 10th century waged bitter warfare with the Christians of N Spain, where, from the beginning, the Moorish conquest had met with its only opposition. The cities of the south, Toledo, Córdoba, and Seville, speedily became centers of the new culture and were famed for their universities and architectural treasures. With the exception of brief periods, there was, however, no strong central government; the power was split up among dissenting local leaders and factions. The caliphate fell in 1031, and the Almoravids in 1086 took over Moorish Spain, which was throughout the whole period closely connected in rule with Morocco. Almoravid control slowly declined and by 1174 was supplanted by the Almohads. These successive waves of invasion had brought into Spain thousands of skilled Moorish artisans and industrious farmers who contributed largely to the intermittent prosperity of the country. They were killed or expelled in large numbers (to the great loss of Spain) in the Christian reconquest, which began with the recovery of Toledo (1085) by Alfonso VI, king of León and Castile. The great Christian victory (1212) of Navas de Tolosa prepared the way for the downfall of the Muslims. Córdoba fell to Ferdinand III of Castile in 1236. The wars went on, and one by one the Moorish strongholds fell, until only Granada remained in their hands. Málaga was taken (1487) after a long siege by the forces of Ferdinand and Isabella, and in 1492 Granada was recovered. Many of the Moors remained in Spain; those who remained faithful to Islam were called Mudejares, while those who accepted Christianity were called Moriscos. They were allowed to stay in Spain but were kept under close surveillance. They were persecuted by Philip II, revolted in 1568, and in the Inquisition were virtually exterminated. In 1609 the remaining Moriscos were expelled. Thus the glory of the Moorish civilization in Spain was gradually extinguished. Its contributions to Western Europe and especially to Spain were almost incalculable – in art and architecture, medicine and science, and learning (especially ancient Greek learning).

Source: Funk and Wagnalls Multimedia Encyclopedia

The Moors –

(Lat. Mauri), a mixture of people, mostly derived from Arabs and Berbers inhabiting northern Africa. Following the Arab conquest of the Berbers in the 7th century AD, mixture and intermarriage was prevalent between the two groups. As a people the Moors traveled northward and conquered Spain. They also inhabited Morocco, Algeria, and Mauritania.

The term Moors remains ambiguous. Some authorities consider the Moors equivalent to the Berbers; others restrict the name to an admixture of Arab ancestry and refer to as Moors only the more settled Arabic-speaking population of the towns. In European history the term is applied loosely to the inhabitants of the Barbary states under Turkish rule. The term lives in the names of the two countries, Morocco and Mauritania.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Moors –

Muslim Spain

The Conquest

In the second half of the 7th century AD (1st century AH), Byzantine strongholds in North Africa gave way before the Arab advance. Carthage fell in 698. In 705 al-Walid I, caliph of the Umayyad dynasty, the first great Muslim dynasty centred in Damascus, appointed Musa ibn Nusayr governor in the west; Musa annexed all of North Africa as far as Tangier (Tanjah) and made progress in the difficult task of Islamizing the Berbers. The Christian ruler of Ceuta (Sabtah), Count Julian (variously identified by the Arab chroniclers as a Byzantine, a native Berber, or a Visigoth), eventually reached an agreement with Musa to launch a joint invasion of the Iberian Peninsula.

The invasion of Spain was the result both of a Muslim readiness to invade and of a call for assistance by one of the Visigothic factions, the "Witizans." Having become dispossessed after the death of King Witiza in 710, they appealed to Musa for support against the usurper Roderick. In April or May of 711 Musa sent a Berber army headed by Tariq ibn Ziyad across the passage whose modern name, the Strait of Gibraltar, derives from "Tariq"; in July they were able to defeat Roderick in a decisive battle at an uncertain location.

Instead of returning to Africa, Tariq marched north and conquered Toledo (Tulaytulah), the Visigothic capital, where he spent the winter of 711. In the following year Musa himself led an Arab army to the peninsula and reduced Mérida (Maridah) after a long siege. He reached Tariq in Toledo in the summer of 713. From there he advanced northeast, taking Saragossa (Saraqustah) and invading the country up to the northern mountains; he then moved from west to east, forcing the population to submit or flee. Both Musa and Tariq were recalled to Syria by the caliph, and they departed in 714 at the end of the summer; by then most of the Iberian Peninsula was under Muslim control.

This rapid success can be explained by the fact that Hispano-Visigoth society had not yet succeeded in achieving a compact and homogeneous integration. The Jews, harassed by the legal ordinances of Toledo, were particularly hostile toward the Christian government. Moreover, the Muslim conquest brought advantages to many elements of society: the burden of taxes was on the whole less onerous than it had been in the last years of the Visigoth epoch; serfs who converted to Islam (mawali; singular: maula) advanced into the category of freedmen and enrolled among the dependents of some conquering noble; Jews were no longer persecuted and were placed on an equal footing with the Hispano-Romans and Goths who still remained within the Christian fold. Thus, in the first half of the 8th century, there was born a new society in Muslim Spain. The Arabs were the ruling element; a distinction was made between baladiyyun, that is, Arabs who had entered Spain in 712 under Musa, and Syrians, who arrived in 740 under Balj. Below them in status were the Berbers, the majority of the invading troops, whose numbers and influence continued to grow over the course of centuries because of their steady influx from Africa. Then came the native population who had converted to Islam, the musalimah, and their descendants, the muwallads; many of them were also mawali, that is, connected by patronage with an Arab, or even themselves of Berber lineage. This group formed the majority of the population because during the first three centuries social and economic motives induced a considerable number of natives to convert to Islam. Christians and Jews who kept their religion came next in the social hierarchy, but their numbers decreased in the course of time. Finally, there was a small group of slaves (Saqalibah) – captives from the northern peninsula and other European countries – and Negro captives or mercenaries.

The period between 711 and 756 is called the dependent emirate because Muslim Spain, or Al-Andalus, was dependent on the Umayyad caliph in Damascus. These years were marked by continuous hostilities between the different Arab factions and between the various social groups. Nonetheless, Muslim expansion beyond the Pyrenees continued until 732, when Franks, under Charles Martel, defeated the Muslims, led by the emir 'Abd ar-Rahman al-Ghafiqi, near Tours. This battle marked the beginning of the gradual Muslim retreat. A major Berber uprising against the Arabs in North Africa had powerful repercussions in Muslim Spain; it caused the depopulation of the northwestern peninsula, occupied at that time mainly by Berbers, and brought the Syrian army of Balj to Al-Andalus, which introduced a new motive for discord. This situation changed with the establishment of an independent emirate (756) by 'Abd ar-Rahman I ad-Dakhil, an Umayyad prince who, having succeeded in escaping from the slaughter of his family by the 'Abbasids, and in gaining power in Al-Andalus, became politically independent of them (not religiously; he did not adopt the title of caliph).

The Independent Emirate

The dynasty of the Andalusian Umayyads (756-1031) marked the growth and perfection of the Arabic civilization in Spain. Its history may be divided into two major periods – that of the independent emirate (756-929) and that of the caliphate (929-1031) – and may be interpreted as revolving around three persons of like name – 'Abd ar-Rahman I (756-788), II (822-852), III (912-961) – and the all-powerful hajib (chief minister) al-Mansur (976-1002).

'Abd ar-Rahman I was the organizer of the new Arab state. Vigorously checking all dissident elements, he endeavoured to base his power on the Eastern aristocracy affiliated with his house and heaped upon it property and riches, though he nonetheless treated it ruthlessly when it showed signs of rebellion. He protected the religious authorities who represented orthodoxy, and, through a series of punitive campaigns, he held in check the Christians of Asturias. In the eastern part of the country he was troubled by intrigues of the 'Abbasids, and in the north he had to cope with the ambitions of Charlemagne, who menaced the valley of the Ebro (Ibruh). As stated above, Charlemagne failed ignominiously; he was forced to raise the siege of Saragossa, and in the course of his retreat he suffered a defeat at Roncesvalles (778), which is celebrated in the great medieval epic La Chanson de Roland. The Franks had to be content with occupying the upper valleys of the Pyrenees. The Frankish advance ended with the Muslim seizure of Gerona (Jerunda) in 785, Barcelona (Barjelunah) in 801, and Old Catalonia.

'Abd ar-Rahman I's successors, Hisham I (788-796) and al-Hakam I (796-822), were confronted with severe internal dissidence among the Arab nobility. A rebellion in Toledo was put down savagely, and the internal warfare caused the emir to increase the numbers of Slav and Berber mercenaries and to impose new taxes to pay for them.

'Abd ar-Rahman II inaugurated an era of political, administrative, and cultural regeneration for Muslim Spain, beginning a sharp "Orientalization," or, more precisely, of an "Iraqization." 'Abd ar-Rahman's greatest problems sprang from his restless vassals in the Ebro valley, namely, the convert Banu Qasi family, and, before his death, above all, from the Mozarabs. Incited by the extremist chiefs Alvaro and Eulogio (the latter being canonized after his death), they sought to strengthen their faith through the aura of martyrdom and began to revile publicly the Prophet Muhammad, an action punishable by death from 850 onward (this is reported only by Mozarabic sources). The emir sought to persuade the blasphemous to retract, but failing in his attempts, he imposed the death penalty. The "vogue" of seeking martyrdom was a reaction of the conservative Mozarabic party against the growing "Arabization" of their coreligionists. The conflict ended in 859-860, and, in spite of official tact, this provocation by the Christians led to the capital punishment of 53 people and was finally disavowed by the ecclesiastical authorities.

In foreign policy 'Abd ar-Rahman II conducted intensive diplomatic activity: he exchanged ambassadors with the Byzantine Empire and with the Frankish king Charles II the Bald and maintained friendly relations with sovereigns of Tahart, which lent military support to Spain. He was able to confront the constantly growing incursions of the Northmen, or Vikings, whom he defeated in the vicinity of Seville. Furthermore, he established permanent defenses against the Viking invaders by the creation of two naval bases, one facing the Atlantic at Seville and another on the Mediterranean shore at Pechina near Almería.

His successors, Muhammad I (852-886), al-Mundhir (886-888), and 'Abd Allah (888-912), were confronted with a new problem, which threatened to do away with the power of the Umayyads – the muwallads. Having become more and more conscious of their power, they rose in revolt in the north of the peninsula, led by the powerful Banu Qasi clan, and in the south (879), by 'Umar ibn Hafsun. The struggle against them was long and tragic; Ibn Hafsun, well protected in Bobastro and in the Málaga mountains, was the leader of muwallad and even Mozarabic discontent in the south of Al-Andalus, but his defeat at Poley, near Cordova (891), forced him to retreat and hide in the mountains. 'Abd Allah, however, was not able to subdue the numerous rebels and thus left a weak state for his grandson, the great 'Abd ar-Rahman III, who, from 912, was able to restore order. He subdued all Al-Andalus, from Jaén (Jayyan) to Saragossa (Saraqustah), from Mérida (Maridah) to Seville (Ishbiliyah) and the Levant. He even challenged Ibn Hafsun successfully, especially after the latter's political error of reverting to the Christianity of his Spanish ancestors, a step that caused the desertion of numerous muwallads, who regarded themselves as good Muslims. When Ibn Hafsun died in 917, his sons were forced to capitulate, and in 928 'Abd ar-Rahman III was able to capture the theretofore impregnable fortress of Bobastro.

The Caliphate of Cordova

One of the first political problems of an international nature that was posed for 'Abd ar-Rahman III was that of his juridical status vis-à-vis the 'Abbasid caliphate at Baghdad. As long as religious unity existed in the Islam dominions, the Umayyads in Spain were resigned to acknowledging the religious leadership of Baghdad. When after 910 there grew up in Tunis the heterodox caliphate of the Fatimids, 'Abd ar-Rahman III did not hesitate to proclaim himself caliph and to adopt the caliphal title of an-Nasir in 929. This new caliphate, known as the Caliphate of Qurtubah, was to rule Al-Andalus for somewhat more than a century. An-Nasir's internal situation was already almost assured; the last bulwarks of resistance were not long in capitulating (Toledo, 933), and from that time on he was able to devote all his efforts to foreign affairs. As to Christian Spain, his successes were meagre, and, what was more serious, he suffered a severe defeat in 939 at Simancas (Shant Mankas). From then on, however, the internal debilitation of the kingdom of León enabled him to restore his predominance on the peninsula by political means. He consolidated his position by a series of embassies to the Holy Roman emperor Otto I, to the Christian sovereigns of the peninsula, to the pope, and to Constantinople. His sovereignty was also acclaimed by the corsair enclave in Fraxinetum (Frakhshinit; modern-day La-Garde-Freinet), in southern France. In Tunis the Fatimids fought the establishment of an empire that would reach as far as the Atlantic and encompass Al-Andalus. In order to forestall Fatimid hegemony in the Islamic area of northwestern Africa, the Maghrib, an-Nasir occupied the North African ports of Melilla (Malilah) and Ceuta (931). Intense naval warfare between the two western caliphates coincided with clashes on land in the Maghrib and attempts at subversive wars in the enemy states in northwest Africa. In the latter area, an-Nasir came close to overthrowing the Fatimid caliphate by his support of the rebel Abu Yazid an-Nukkari; the conflict between the Umayyads and the Fatimids dragged on and ended when the latter conquered Egypt (969) and lost interest in the Maghrib, thus leaving a power vacuum that was rapidly filled by the Umayyads.

An-Nasir was succeeded by his son al-Hakam II (961-976), who adopted the caliphal title of al-Mustansir. His reign was peaceful, and he succeeded in resolving the problem of the Maghrib, thanks to the strategic ability of General Ghalib and the policy of the intendant, Abu 'Amir al-Ma'afiri, who soon became the all-powerful al-Mansur, the Victorious One (Almanzor).

On the death of al-Mustansir, his throne was occupied by his son, a minor, Hisham II al-Mu'ayyad. He grew up under the tutelage of his mother, Aurora, and of the prime minister Ja'far al-Mushafi, who before long was liquidated by al-Mansur (governed 978-1002). The latter succeeded in eliminating all temporal power of the caliph, whom he dominated, and acquired totalitarian power for himself.

Al-Mansur won control over a great part of the Maghrib, which he transformed into the viceroyalty of Cordova, and he arrested the expansion of the Christian kings from the north through a series of raids – usually every six months – in which he sacked nearly every Christian capital on the peninsula. With the support of a professional army consisting predominantly of Berbers, many of them recent arrivals from Africa who obeyed him blindly, he managed to dispense with the Arab aristocracy, which for the most part was pro-Umayyad, and to hold in check the influence of the slaves, whose numbers had been increasing since an-Nasir had placed them in posts of high responsibility. But this balancing of forces – Arabic aristocracy, Berbers, and slaves – could be sustained only by the strong hand of a ruler such as himself.

Al-Mansur played the role of a grand lord. A protector of poets and scholars, he concealed his rationalism under a cloak of piety and was the darling of the faqihs (scholars versed in the traditions of Islam); he contrived to attract to himself the outstanding poets of that era. At the time of his death, after more than 50 victorious raids, he succeeded in leaving a robust and well-organized state for his son 'Abd al-Malik al-Muzaffar.

Al-Muzaffar (1002-08) continued the policies of his father. He hemmed in Hisham II and fought against the Christians, but he died prematurely; his brother 'Abd ar-Rahman Sanchuelo lacked the fortitude to maintain the structure built by his father. An uprising that sought to vindicate the political rights of Hisham II resulted in Sanchuelo's death and brought about the beginning of the end of the Umayyad dynasty in Spain.

The ta'ifas

Upon the death of 'Abd ar-Rahman Sanchuelo, 21 years of unrest followed (1009-31), during which the social and political unity among "Andalusians" (Arabs, Berbers who had settled in Al-Andalus a long time earlier, and the population that had converted to Islam), Berbers who had arrived fairly recently, and the slaves fell apart. The consequence of those years of anarchy was the formation of numerous independent kingdoms, or ta'ifas, which may be classified into the following: (1) "Andalusian" factions in the three capitals of the frontier area (Saragossa, Toledo, and Badajoz), in the valleys of the Guadalquivir (Wadi al-Kabir), and in the transition zone from the Ebro to the Tajo (Tagus) valleys; (2) "New" Berbers in Granada, Málaga, and four small southern ta'ifas; and (3) groups of slaves in the east.

The political history of the period constitutes an uninterrupted series of internecine wars. Preeminent is the confrontation between the Arab factions, under the leadership of Seville (Ishbiliyah), governed by the dynasty of the Banu 'Abbad, and the Berbers, presided over by Granada. Little by little, Seville succeeded in uniting southern Al-Andalus under its aegis, exclusive of Granada and Málaga. This state was ruled by al-Mu'taid, a sovereign devoid of scruples, who pretended at first to have found the vanished Hisham II al-Mu'ayyad (at most, the pretender was a mat maker from Calatrava who bore some resemblance to the old caliph), and then by a poet-prince, his son al-Mu'tamid. In the east, except for a brief period when the petty state of Denia (Daniyah) built a powerful fleet that enabled it to stage incursions throughout the western Mediterranean as far as Sardinia, the various ta'ifas preserved a certain static and dynastic equilibrium; farther to the north, the various ta'ifas also wasted their time in interminable internal quarrels.

This fragmentation facilitated the expansion of the Christian states of the north, which, lacking the demographic potential to repopulate the lands they had succeeded in occupying, wisely annexed only those that they were capable of repopulating and garrisoning. The Christian states also imposed a heavy economic burden of tribute on the ta'ifas. Christian armies forced the Andalusian petty kings to buy peace by paying annual tribute, the famous parias. This tribute, while it revitalized the economy of the Christian states, created sharp friction between the Muslim authorities and their subjects. The ta'ifas had constantly to increase the yield from their imposts, and they constantly laid new and heavier tax burdens on their subjects; when cash was lacking, they devaluated the currency, minting low-standard coins that were not accepted by the Christians. This, in turn, gave rise to new tax increases and to popular discontent, which was considerably aggravated by the legalistic party of the faqihs. Furthermore, the petty local courts were characterized by extravagant luxury and lavish public outlays. This situation rendered Al-Andalus ripe for the foreign intervention that came when the Castilians occupied Toledo (1085), the key to the Meseta Central Plateau and to the peninsula. The factional chiefs, alarmed by the Christian advance, called in the help of the Almoravids, the powerful Berber confederation then exercising hegemony over northwestern Africa.

The Almoravids

The Almoravid ruler Yusuf ibn Tashufin entered the peninsula from North Africa and by a slow advance reached the fields of Az-Zallaqah, north of Badajoz (Batalyaws), where in 1086 he defeated a Castilian army under Alfonso VI; unable to exploit his victory, he returned to the Maghrib. For two years Almoravid policy in Spain remained indecisive, but it appears that the siege of Aledo (1088) convinced Yusuf ibn Tashufin of the urgent necessity of putting an end to the ta'ifas if he was going to rescue Spanish Islam. From 1090 onward he deposed their rulers, beginning with those of Granada and Málaga, then, in 1091, of Almería and Seville, and in 1093 of Badajoz. Only Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (the Cid), exiled from his native Castile by King Alfonso VI, was able to resist the Africans, and he set himself up in an independent kingdom – a new ta'ifa, that of Valencia. The figure of the Cid – the Lord (Spanish Arabic: as-sid), a title that the Arabs conferred upon him – is quite curious: first he served as a mercenary in the ta'ifa of Saragossa; then he became an independent prince in the east, ruling over states that were mainly inhabited by Muslims. He had the good fortune, however, of finding efficient administrators from among the Mozarabs residing in his states; further, his superb grasp of Almoravid tactics enabled him to overcome his numerical inferiority. Upon his death, Valencia remained under the control of his men until 1102, when they were forced to evacuate it and seek refuge in Castile. Following the fall of Valencia, the Almoravids were unopposed; and in 1110, under the leadership of 'Ali ibn Yusuf (1106-43), they were able to occupy Saragossa.

The conquest of Saragossa, however, marked the beginning of the Almoravid decline. The Aragonese king, Alfonso I the Battler, and his stepson, Alfonso VII of Castile, launched renewed Christian assaults against the entire frontier of Islam in Spain. The Almoravids, who after 1121 experienced serious difficulties in Africa as a result of the preachings of a Berber reformer, Muhammad ibn Tumart, could not successfully parry the blow; indeed, they had to hire Christian mercenaries to help them. In 1118 Saragossa fell into the hands of the Battler, who reconquered a large part of the valleys of the Jalón and of the Jiloca. A resounding Almoravid victory over the Aragonese at Fraga (Ifragah) in 1134 bore no fruit because the Almoravids lacked the resources to exploit their victory.

The Almohads

In Africa the Almohad dynasty finally triumphed, and 'Abd al-Mu'min (1130-63), successor to Ibn Tumart, was able to turn his attention to Spain and to undertake the integration of all the Muslim states – the second ta'ifas – formed under the shield of the latest internecine wars caused by the Almoravid decline. Of these states, there stood out especially that under Ibn Mardanish (1147-72), who, with Christian help, was successful in becoming the master of Valencia, Murcia, and Jaén and in securing Granada and Cordova.

The Almohads assumed the title of caliph, introduced a series of severe religious measures, and sought to strengthen their states through religious unification – i.e., by compelling the Jews and Christians to convert to Islam or to emigrate. Two great sovereigns, Abu Ya'qub Yusuf (1163-84) and Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur (1184-99), raised western Islam to the zenith of its power. Benefiting from the quarrels that divided the Christians, al-Mansur defeated the king of Castile, Alfonso VIII, in 1195 at the Battle of Alarcos (Al-Arak); but, despite this victory, he proved unable to exploit his triumph – repeating the fate that befell the Almoravids after az-Zallaqah. Years later, during the reign of his successor an-Nasir (1199-1214), the Christians avenged this defeat in the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (Al-'Iqab). This battle created a power vacuum into which stepped some of the ta'ifas, or petty kingdom states, prominent among which were those of Banu Hud of Murcia (Mursiyah) and of the Nasrids of Arjona (Arjunah). The policies of the two emirs were quite divergent: Muhammad ibn Hud (1228-38) emphasized resistance on the part of the Muslims against the Christians who, led by Ferdinand III the Saint, were occupying the Guadalquivir valley; Muhammad I ibn al-Ahmar (ruled in Granada 1238-73), on the other hand, acknowledged himself to be a vassal of the king of Castile and even helped him against his own Muslim coreligionists. This realistic policy enabled him to preserve in his possession the territory of what are the modern provinces of Málaga, Granada, and Almería, together with portions of neighbouring provinces. Thus, after the middle of the 13th century and the reconquest of Jaén (Jayyan), Cordova, Seville, and Murcia by the Castilians and of Valencia and the Balearic Islands by the Catalan-Aragonese crown under James I the Conqueror, no independent dominions of Islam remained in Spain with the exception of Granada, Minorca (until 1287), and the tiny area of Crevillente (Qirbilyan), which soon disappeared.

Granada

The Nasrid dynasty, however, founded by Muhammad ibn al-Ahmar in Granada, was destined to endure for two and a half centuries. The Muslims of Granada lacked sufficient forces to constitute a genuine danger to the Christians, who limited themselves to collecting tribute and launching, from time to time, an attack against them, snatching from them some city or other. The people of Granada, for their part, always bore in mind what had happened in the cases of the Almoravids and the Almohads, who, having arrived from Africa as auxiliary troops, became masters in Al-Andalus. Vis-à-vis the new North African empires, particularly the empire of the Banu Marins, they maintained a policy of balance of power. While they permitted the influx of volunteers from Africa to enroll in their army to fight against the Christians, they never permitted the crossing of the Strait of Gibraltar by massive organized contingents. The years between 1302 and 1340 are of an extraordinary complexity from a diplomatic as well as a military point of view. The Banu Marins in both the western Maghrib and Castile vied for the possession of the Granadine ports of Tarifa (Jazirat Tarif) and Algeciras (Al-Jazirah al-Khara'), ports that controlled the strait. Granada, therefore, allied alternately with the Africans and the Christians, hoping thus to maintain the balance of power. A fourth state, Catalonia, called a crusade hoping to obtain a larger slice of the Reconquest; it intervened with its fleet and laid siege to Almería (Al-Mariyah) in 1309.

When Isma'il I (1314-25) ascended the throne, another branch of the Nasrid family gained power. Isma'il was able to check the reconquest ambitions of Alfonso XI – who later, in 1340, with the aid of the Portuguese, won a decisive victory over the Maghribian army of Abu al-Hasan at the Battle of the Salado.

The defeat of the Maghribians and the lack of interest in reconquest on the part of the successors of Alfonso XI created a favourable climate for Granada, which found itself free from political pressures of both Maghribians and Castilians. During the reign of Muhammad V (1354-59; 1362-91) Granada reached its greatest splendour; its ministers included some of the most learned men of the epoch, such as the polymath Abu 'Abd Allah ibn al-Khatib, the physician Abu Ja'far ibn Khatima, and the poet Abu 'Abd Allah ibn Zamraq. Important figures from the Maghrib were in close touch with Granada.

During this long era there also developed the institution of the "judge of the frontier," juez de la frontera y de los fieles del rastro; the judge was a Muslim official who heard Christian complaints against the Granadinos. This procedure did much to reduce frontier incidents between Muslims and Christians.

Little is known about the decline of the Nasrid dynasty, since with Ibn al-Khatib died the last great Muslim historian of Al-Andalus. The extant records and reports from the 15th century are as a rule from Christian sources or from the tales of travelers. The narrative poems that are of the utmost interest as historic sources for other periods in Muslim history are completely lacking in this era. The conventional verses of the king-poet Yusuf III (1408-17), of his court poet Ibn Farkun, or of the anonymous Arab poet of the romance Abenamar, Abenamar, moro de la morería, do little to illuminate the history of this period. More illustrative, however, are the verses of 'Abd al-Karim al-Qaysi (c. 1485), an esteemed member of Granada's middle class, who eschewed classic themes and wrote of such mundane phenomena as the increase in the cost of living or the decline of Granada and its continuous territorial losses.

Foreign relations entered a long period of tranquillity as a result of the ghastly losses of life from the Black Plague (1348-51) and, afterward, from the internal wars that weakened Christian Castile. Only an occasional confrontation served to remind the Muslims and Christians that their territorial struggle, considered by the latter as a reconquest, had not yet come to an end. In the 15th century, however, the Reconquest proceeded apace. The Castilian regent, Prince Ferdinand, seized Antequera (Antaqirah) in 1410; Jimena and Huéscar fell in 1435, Huelma in 1438, and Gibraltar in 1462. One result of these events was that the people of Granada became increasingly less tolerant of Christians, and the Granadine faqihs professed the most extreme xenophobia. The policy of intolerance and xenophobia points to the existence of a Granadine school of law, which before long exerted an influence on the other side of the strait; for the Maghribians, subjected to the constant pressure of the Portuguese – who had gained possession of their coastal areas (Ceuta, first, in 1415) – realized, like the Granadinos, that the only way to escape Christian hegemony was through the profession of the most rigorous Islamic ideals and the practice of the most extreme xenophobia. This policy, common to both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar, did not achieve equal results. It saved the Maghrib from its external enemies, but in Spain it became the casus belli for the final campaign, "the Granada War" (Guerra de Granada), that was to inaugurate the conclusion of the Reconquest.

The sultan Muley Hacén (Abu al-Hasan 'Ali) refused to pay the annual tribute he owed to the Catholic Monarchs and seized the fortified town of Zahara (1481), thus launching hostilities that were destined to liquidate the last bastion of Andalusian Islam. The campaign proved to be difficult for the Christian army despite the discord that split the royal Granada family and was exploited in Machiavellian fashion by Ferdinand the Catholic: Boabdil (Arabic: Muhammad Abu 'Abd Allah), son of Muley Hacén, rebelled in Guadix against his father and was recognized in Granada with the aid of the Abencerrajes, a powerful Granada family. Muley Hacén, however, who had taken refuge in Málaga, succeeded in recapturing the capital with the assistance of the Zegries family. But he was successfully deposed by his brother, the Zagal (Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad az-Zaghall – the Valiant One), who was supported by the Venegas family.

Boabdil was captured by the Catholic Monarchs during his attack at Lucena. In order to regain his freedom, he signed the Pact of Cordova, in which he pledged himself to deliver the portion of the kingdom that was in the hands of the Zagal in exchange for help from the Castilians in recovering Granada, part of which (Alhambra) was still in the hands of Muley Hacén. The latter and the Zagal allied themselves against Boabdil, who had to flee and seek asylum in the court of the Catholic Monarchs. The death of Muley Hacén in 1485 enabled Boabdil, with the help of the inhabitants of Albaicín, to occupy the Alhambra. The Zagal, who had been routed by the Christians before Vélez Málaga, retreated to Guadix in 1487 and, being incapable of further resistance, delivered his territories to the Catholic Monarchs and emigrated to Tlemcén (1491). Taking advantage of this civil war, the Christians seized Ronda, Marbella, Loja, and Málaga and were in a position to lay siege to Granada. When the siege began, the population divided into factions: one consisted of pacifists and the other of belligerents who, despite their quarrels, fiercely defended the city.

By the end of 1491 the situation became desperate, and Boabdil capitulated. But before making the news public, he brought a detachment of Castilian troops into the Alhambra on the night of January 1-2, for the purpose of avoiding a disturbance on the part of his vassals that might render it impossible for him to comply with the terms of the pact. The official surrender, and with it the end of Muslim political power on the Iberian Peninsula, took place the following day, Jan. 2, 1492. Islamic minorities, such as submissive Mudejars (later called Moriscos), remained in Spain until the 17th century.

Moorish Society

In discussing the influx of the Muslims into Spain, the various social groups into which the population was divided have already been pointed out: Arabs (baladiyyun and Syrians), Berbers, muwallads, Mozarabs, Jews, and slaves. The Muslim population continued to increase during the early centuries of the occupation because of the wave of conversions that markedly reduced the number of Christians. Precise figures cannot be given, but it is estimated that at the time of the conquest some 4,000,000 Spaniards inhabited the peninsula, and that, in the course of the 8th century, the number of immigrant Arabs rose to about 50,000 and of Berbers to about 250,000. The population was primarily rural, and large cities were few in number. At the end of the 10th century one can estimate the following urban populations: Cordova, 250,000; Toledo, 37,000; Almería, 27,000; Granada, 26,000; Saragossa, 17,000; Valencia, 15,000; and Málaga, 15,000.

At the peak of the administrative pyramid was the emir, caliph, sultan, or king, depending on the era. All the functionaries exercised their power by delegation from the sovereign, who embodied within himself all executive, legislative, and judicial authority, even though at times he delegated power to a hajib (chamberlain) or, after the 11th century, to a prime minister (dhu al-wizaratayn). In the discharge of his functions he was assisted by various viziers. At times, there was, at the head of the various departments, a katib, or official secretary. The provinces were governed by walis who enjoyed wide autonomy. Uniform municipal organization did not exist, and the duties fulfilled by some officials cannot be considered as representative; such officials included, for example, the chief of police (sahib ash-shurta) and the market inspector, known until the 10th century as sahib as-suq (zabazoque) and later as muhtasib. The Muslim cities of Spain, with their baths, gardens, markets, mosques, and high cultural level, were quite different from and, some believe, superior to those of Christian Europe.

The army was based on the voluntary recruitment of soldiers or on contracts with soldiers from abroad. The units (jund), grouped according to the places of origin of their men, were strategically deployed along the borders and possessed extraordinary mobility at the time of the caliphate. Holding castles close to the enemy lands as their bases of operation, they were glad to welcome into their midst the Muslims, who were eager to die in combat in order thus to open for themselves the gates of paradise. These volunteers, who became more and more numerous with the passage of time and about whom many details are known, were frequently second-class soldiers, since they enrolled during years when they constituted a hindrance rather than a source of help. The navy and merchant marine, organized by 'Abd ar-Rahman II, remained an effective force until the middle of the 14th century.

The entire state structure rested, theoretically, on a foundation of the most rigid Islamic orthodoxy as interpreted by the Malikite (Malikiyah) school, which in Al-Andalus manifested special characteristics of hyperconservative nature. It is not known whether the school acquired these traits upon settling in the peninsula because intolerance was indigenous to the inhabitants there or whether it indoctrinated the Andalusian Muslims in this manner, who transmitted it, in turn, to the Christian states, their reconquerors.

The Economy of Moorish Spain

The Muslim conquerors divided the lands seized from the Christians by force of arms and operated them, as a general rule, by means of "tenant farmer" leases. Possibly about the 10th century the woodlands achieved their widest expansion, and the cultivation of irrigated lands was encouraged by means of drastic regulations, which, however, were favourably received. Plants used in the manufacture of textile (flax, cotton, esparto grass, and mulberry for silk) as well as those with medicinal properties were protected by the state.

In addition to agriculture, the raising of livestock (sheep and Arabian horses) occupied a central position in the peninsular economy. As in the Roman period, lead, iron, gold, and mercury were mined. Domestic industry, which never went beyond the handicraft stage, culminated in the production of luxury cloths such as silk (a state monopoly), in the tanning of hides (Cordovan leather), and in the export of ivory objects. Commerce was selective and carried on in products "of low weight and high value" that frequently reached the most remote regions of the known world. There are reports of Andalusian travelers as far as the Sudan, central Europe, and even China.

The evolution of economic life was conditioned by political events; as the productive centres passed into Christian hands, the commercial vigour of the Muslims kept diminishing proportionally. No phenomenon is more illustrative of this than the confidence placed in the currency. In the 11th century, Barcelona was counterfeiting Muslim coins; in the 14th century, Granada was doing the same with Barcelona coins.

Culture of Moorish Spain

Arab civilization in the peninsula reached its zenith when the political power of the Arabs began to decline. In the 8th century, in the years immediately following the conquest, there were no traces of a cultural level higher than that attained by the Mozarabs who lived among the Arab conquerors. All available evidence points to the fact that in this period popular works of medicine, agriculture, astrology, and geography were translated from Latin into Arabic. Many of these texts must have been derived from the Etymologies of Isidore of Seville and from other Christian writers. In the 9th century, the situation changed abruptly: the Andalusians, who traveled east in order to comply with the injunction to conduct a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetimes, took advantage of their stay in those regions to enhance their knowledge, which they then introduced into their native country.

Culture of Moorish Spain: Literature

In the 9th century there flourished such court poets as 'Abbas ibn Nasih, 'Abbas ibn Firnas, Yahya al-Ghazal, and the knight Sa'id ibn Judi. Towering above all these, however, was Muhammad ibn Hani', nicknamed the "Mutanabbi of the West" (Abu al-Tayyib al-Mutanabbi was a 10th-century poet of Iraq), who by virtue of his religious ideas was obliged to forsake his native land and enter into the service of the Fatimid caliph al-Mu'izz. In the 10th century al-Mansur assembled in Cordova a notable group of court poets. Bards performed the functions of modern journalists; they accompanied their protector on military expeditions and celebrated his exploits in verse, the singsong rhyme of which became engraved in the memory of the people of Al-Andalus. This occasional poetry did not always attain literary heights, but at times that was indeed the case. And al-Mansur himself chose as "poet-journalists" the foremost talents of his time – men such as Ibn Darraj al-Qastalli, ar-Ramadi, Sa'id of Baghdad, at-Taliq, and numerous others. And it was in the 10th century that Ibn Faraj of Jaén deemed himself to possess sufficient background to compose the Kitab al-Hada'iq ("Book of Orchards") – the first anthology of Andalusian poets. This was soon followed by another, that of the physician Ibn al-Kattani.

The highest peak in Islamic literature in Spain was attained during the era of the ta'ifas, when the poet-king al-Mu'tamid established an embryo of an academy of belles lettres, which included the foremost Spanish intellects as well as Sicilians who emigrated from their native land before its conquest by the Normans. Other petty kings in the peninsula endeavoured to compete with al-Mu'tamid but did not succeed in assembling a constellation of writers of comparable stature.

Among the outstanding poets of the 12th century in eastern Andalusia (the Andalusian Levant) were Ibn Khafaja of Alcira and his nephew Ibn az-Zaqqaq. To the era of greatest decadence in the 13th century belonged Abu al-Baqa' of Ronda and Ibn Sa'id. In the 14th century three court poets, Ibn al-Jayyab, Ibn al-Khatib, and Ibn Zamraq, preserved their verses by having them inscribed in the Alhambra.

In Arab literature, poetry possesses greater vitality than prose. Even so, there are several prose writers of importance. Ibn Shuhayd (c. 1035) was the author of a work that lent inspiration to Abu al-'Ala' al-Ma'arri for his Risalat al-ghufran ("Epistle of Pardon"). The prolific Ibn Hazm of Cordova (d. 1064) wrote the delightful Tawq al-hamamah ("The Ring of the Dove"), dealing with love and lovers, which is still popular today. The enormous output of Ibn Hazm cannot be enumerated here; it suffices to cite his Kitab al-Fisal, a history of religions that was not surpassed by Western scholars until well into the 19th century. Another polymath was the vizier-historian Ibn al-Khatib (d. 1375). Two 12th-century anthologies of historical and literary works by Ibn Bassam and Ibn Khaqan are excellent sources of information concerning the apogee of Andalusian letters. Often the best grammars and dictionaries of a language are written by authors living in the peripheral zones who endeavour to prevent gross errors being committed by their countrymen in the region. This perhaps explains why Al-Andalus, located at the western fringe of the Muslim world, produced works that to this day are used as texts in certain traditional Islamic universities. From among these grammarians should be mentioned az-Zubaydi, tutor of Hisham II and Ibn Maah' of Cordova, who proposed a drastic reform of grammatical methods. Ibn Malik of Jaén's didactic poem Alfiyya ("The Thousand Verses") constitutes an excellent handbook of grammar; and Abu Hayyan of Granada (d. 1344), who emigrated to the east, wrote an outstanding commentary on the Qu'ran as well as the first Turkish grammar. In the field of lexicology the blind Ibn Sida of Denia (d. 1066) is preeminent; he was also the author of a sort of "dictionary of ideas."

Noteworthy in the field of Qu'ranic science are Abu 'Amr of Denia and Ibn Fierro of Játiva, whose handbooks made possible the correct psalmodizing of the Qu'ran. In addition, various collections of hadiths (traditions referring to the Prophet) appeared, but none of these was of particular importance. In this area the Andalusians were imitators of the East, and figures such as Ibn 'Abd al-Barr, Ibn Rushd (the grandfather of Averroës), and Ibn 'Asim are of increasing interest.

The first extant chronicles in Muslim Spain, such as the Ta'rikh iftitah al-Andalus ("History of the Conquest of Spain"), by Ibn al-Qutiyyah, date back to the 10th century. In the ta'ifa era the preeminent Spanish historian is Ibn Hayyan of Cordova (d. 1076), whose Muqtabis, preserved for the most part, is an anthology of historical texts collected from the works of his predecessors; but he also wrote an original chronicle, the Matin. Of human interest are the Memoirs of the king Ziri 'Abd Allah, who was deposed by the Almoravids and who sought to justify in those memoirs his deeds as a statesman. In the Nasrid era is found the aforementioned Ibn al-Khatib. The works of the North African historians Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406) and al-Maqqari (d. 1631) supply much information concerning Al-Andalus.

Culture of Moorish Spain: Science

In the mid-11th century, Sa'id, a qadi of Toledo, composed a noteworthy handbook of the history of science that contained much information on technical subjects. [In Sa'id's book] mathematical sciences received little attention, but mention should be made of Maslama al-Majriti (d. 1008), who probably took part in the translation of Ptolemy's Planispherium and made some contributions to pure mathematics. Also during the heyday of Granada, there was 'Ali al-Qalasadi, commentator on Ibn al-Banna', who did important work on fractions. Despite their lack of interest in the physical sciences, the Andalusians excelled in astronomy, both theoretical and practical. A number of these scholars sought to simplify the astrolabe, and finally az-Zarqali (Azarquiel; d. 1100) achieved success by inventing the apparatus called the azafea (Arabic: as-safiha), which was widely used by navigators until the 16th century. Az-Zarqali also anticipated Kepler by suggesting that the orbits of the planets are not circular but ovoid. Jabir ibn Aflah (12th century) criticized the Ptolemaic system.

Astrology was popular in Muslim Spain, and the Umayyad rulers, after 788, maintained an official astrologer in their courts. The most widely used astrological treatises were those of the Tunisian 'Ali ibn Abi ar-Rijal and another, anonymous, scientist, who made a translation from Vulgar Latin into Arabic in the 8th century. This book was translated from Arabic into Spanish during the era of Alfonso the Learned under the title of Libro de las Cruces ("Book of the Crosses").

The treatises on esoteric or occult subjects attribute to Maslama al-Majriti two works on natural science that are not properly his but may be ascribed to one of his pupils. They are Ghayat al-hakim ("The Goals of the Scholar"; also known as Picatrix) and Rutbat al-hakim ("The Step of the Scholar"). Greater interest is merited by the Materia Medica, a revision of the Eastern Arabic text of the 1st-century Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides, ordered by an-Nasir, on which Jews, Arabs, and Christians collaborated. Gradually, the Andalusian Arabs kept adding new medicinal "simples" (which described the properties of various medicinal plants) to those described by Dioscorides, and the last eminent essayist on the subject, Ibn al-Baytar (d. 1248), describes more than 1,400 of these. The Andalusians were familiar with the texts of the great Latin classics relating to natural science, and Ibn Wafid, Ibn Bassal, and Ibn al-'Awwam (11th and 12th centuries) quote Varro, Virgil, and others. The most notable geographers in Muslim Spain were Abu 'Ubayd al-Bakri (d. 1094), who wrote the Kitab al-masalik wa'l-mamalik ("Book of Highways and of Kingdoms"), and al-Idrisi (d. 1166), who was in the service of Roger II of Sicily and is the author of the leading universal geography composed by the Arabs. Somewhat later (1323) there appeared the first Arabic nautical map, possibly of Granadine origin. In technology, Muslim Spain was noted for its windmills and for its manufacture of paper. The Jews who lived in Muslim Spain had become culturally Arabized. They also pursued their own religious studies; in this regard, the works of Moses Maimonides (1135-1204) are a good example of the cultural brilliance of the Andalusian Jews.

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