Day 5

The death of Al-Mansur marked the end of the Umayyad dynasty and Muslim Spain succumbed to civil strife. In 1031 the great Caliphate was ended and al-Andalus split into a multitude of small kingdoms. These small kingdoms, ruled by the ta'ifs, or “provincial kings”, were not politically strong, except by alliances. Nonetheless, the arts flourished throughout Andalusia, and Muslim Spain was a centre for music, poetry, literature, and the sciences.

The Taifa kingdoms of al-Andalus were generally too weak and divided to defend themselves against repeated raids and demands for tribute from the Christian states to the north and west. Known to the Muslims as "the Galician nations", the raids had spread from their initial strongholds in Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque country and the Carolinian Marca Hispanica to become the Kingdoms of Navarra, Leon, Portugal, Castile and Aragon and the County of Barcelona. Eventually, raids turned into conquests and in response, the taifa kings were forced to request help from the Almoravid, Islamic rulers of the Maghreb. The notable dynasty of the Almoravid (1062-1147) began in southern Morocco and moved into al-Andalus. The Berber Almoravid were harsh, puritanical, orthodox Muslims, critical of the grandeur of the Umayyads which they considered decadent.

Spanish Christians, with help from other European Christians, continued with their Reconquista to take Spain from the Muslims. Over time they made inroads against the Muslims who were all too often fighting with each other. In 1085, the Spanish retook Toledo, in the north of al-Andalus. For another 125 years the Christian Spanish made no great inroads into al-Andalus.

In 1086 the Almoravid ruler of Morocco Yusuf ibn Tashfin was invited by the Muslim princes in Iberia to defend them against Alfonso VI, King of Castile and Leon. In that year, Yusuf ibn Tashfin crossed the straits to Algeciras and inflicted a severe defeat on the Christians at the az-Zallaqah. Realizing the weakness of the Taifa kingdoms and the continuing threat of the Christian north who had recently taken Toledo, Yusuf ibn Tashfin removed all Muslim princes in Iberia and annexed their states by 1094, except for the one at Zaragoza. Further, he regained Valencia from the Christians.

Inevitably the Almoravids who had lived a sober life in Berbería, in al-Andalus turned to a more luxurious and pleasurable lifestyle which the Taifa kings were prone to. Taking advantage of this decadence, another African Berber Dynasty, the Almohads, conquered their positions in Morocco, while the Almoravids were dethroned in al-Andalus.

Seville was to become the most northern capital of the Almohads, with their capital in Marrakech, and they would take a prominent position thereafter. Many of the historical stereotypes that are generally perceived from a modern Spanish common understanding are from the extreme cultural and political contrast that we find during this period, and the following “Reconquista”, which is in fact a

The Almohads, a religious and political group that spread from  Northern Africa into al-Andalus, united the entire coast of the Maghreb from the Atlantic Ocean to the frontier of Egypt for a brief period from  1147 to 1258. The Almoravids were succeeded in the 12th century by the Almohads after the victory of Abu Yusuf Ya'qub Al-Mansur over the Castilian Alfonso VIII at the Battle of Alarcos. In 1212, Almohad troops were defeated in  Navas de Tolosa, 150 km miles North-east of Cordoba, by the combined forces of King Alfonso VIII of Castile, the kings of Aragon and Navarra, a contingent of Templars and other knights from Portugal as well as French Crusaders.

After this battle, they saw the fall of Cordoba in 1236, and their own capital, Seville, was taken by the Christian King, in 1248. By 1250 Almohad power completely collapsed.

For the third and last time, al-Andalus divided into several Taifa kingdoms. Under the advantage of these quarrels between Muslim kings, the advance of the Christians over Muslim lands, the so-called 'Reconquista', fuelled up and advanced at a steady pace.

The Taifas, newly independent but now weakened, were quickly conquered by Portugal, Castile, and Aragon. After the fall of Murcia (1243) and the Algarve (1249), only the Emirate of Granada survived as a Muslim state, paying tribute to Castile. Most of its tribute was paid in gold from present-day Mali and Burkina Faso that was carried to Iberia through the merchant routes of the Sahara.

The Maghreb and al-Andalus were plunged into bitter civil wars between various Hispano-Muslim and Berber factions. Finally, all that remained of the independent Muslim state was the Kingdom of Granada, a small section of southern Spain on the Mediterranean.

With these defeats, al-Andalus was mostly parcelled out among the various sovereigns until only the Kingdom of Granada remained under Islamic control stretching through the south and eastern mountain formations from Malaga to nearly Murcia.

Surrounded, the Nazari Kingdom of Granada survived for nearly two centuries and a half, thanks to the protection offered by it's natural geography in the surrounding mountain areas and a network of enclave fortified cities in key locations. Malaga, Ronda, Antequera, Alcala la Real, Loja, Almería, Salobreña, to mention but a few.

During this final period of Muslim Spain, the Nasrid kings paid tribute to the Kings of Castille. Granada being the wealthiest city in Spain, also became a sanctuary for Muslims fleeing Christian attacks and maintained a careful balance of diplomacy and military defence and strength.

The final Nasrid dynasty of Granada began in 1232. Granada was a thriving state, rich with trade, particularly silk, and the arts. The magnificent fortress and palace called al-Hamra was begun in 1248 and completed about one hundred years later. Now known as the Alhambra, it is the oldest Islamic palace in the world to survive in a good state of preservation.

Out of Granada, the last Muslim threat to the Christian kingdoms was the rise of the Marinids in Morocco during the 14th century, who took Granada into their sphere of influence and occupied some of its cities, like Algeciras. However, they were unable to take Tarifa, which held out until the arrival of the Castilian Army led by Alfonso XI. The Castilian king, helped by Alfonso IV of Portugal and Pedro IV of Aragon, decisively defeated the Marinids at the Battle of Salado in 1340 and took Algeciras in 1344.

Gibraltar was besieged from the Kingdom of Granada in 1349–1350. Alfonso XI along with most of his army perished by the Black Death. His successor, Pedro of Castile, made peace with the Muslims and turned his attention to Christian lands, starting a period of almost 150 years of rebellions and wars between the Christian states that secured the survival of Granada.

In 1469 the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile signalled the launching of the final assault on Spanish Islam as they convinced the Pope to declare their war a crusade. The Spanish Inquisition was created by the Catholic Kings in 1478, its task was to seek out heretics and non-Christians, beginning again a reign of terror for the Jews who had been well integrated into the Muslim world for several hundred years.

The final war against Granada began in 1481. Isabel brought in German and Italian artillery to destroy the protective outposts on the hills surrounding Granada. The final checkmate was produced when Granada was surrounded and the Christian Kings, after 10 years of siege over the city, decided to found a new city from their camp outside Granada. This city was to be called, Santa Fe, or Holy Faith, and encouraged the last Muslim King of Granada to hand over the keys to the Medina under peaceful terms for the remaining Muslims of his kingdom.

In January 1492, after a long siege, the Muslim sultan, Muhammad XII Abu-Abdullah (Boabdil), signed the handover treatise within the palace of the Alhambra, handing in the keys of the city to the Catholic Kings. The contract signed was called the 'Capitulations of Granada' and was to guarantee the rights of Muslims in Spain thereon, though in time proved to be fraud. The Christians Kings had sovereign control over all of Spain, marking the end of al-Andalus. An interesting fact is that the same year, Christopher Columbus was sent out to officially 'discover' and exploit what up to then had been kept within families as secret commercial routes.

While the Reconquista signalled the end of al-Andalus, Andalusian culture continued to survive in small pockets for well over one century and it has exerted an undeniable influence on Spanish culture to this day.

While Castile had always been strictly against Islam, Aragon was more tolerant. Now united they both agreed that any Islamic or Jewish presence was forbidden, and forced to convert by the Inquisition.

After the Christian take over and steady repression of the non-Catholic population, many Muslims and Jews left for Muslim ruled countries, although most couldn't afford to move and stayed. Named at first 'Mudejares' (in Arabic the 'domesticated').

Those Jews who refused to convert became known as the Sephardic. Jews formerly Spanish who fled around the Mediterranean, many to North Africa, some eventually going as far as the Balkans, Greece, and Turkey - many still speaking a form of medieval Spanish known as Ladino. A massive number of Jews expelled by the Reconquista crossed the Straits of Gibraltar to the Maghreb, followed by a smaller wave of Muslims fleeing from the fall of Granada.

Breaking the agreements made in the Capitulaciones of Granada, in 1502 thousands of Andalusian Muslims fled Spain for the Maghreb after decrees of expulsion. During the 16th century more people of Jewish or Muslim background were expelled from Spain or fled persecution there, and settled in Morocco. Many of them had been forcefully converted from Islam and Judaism to Catholicism, by baptism in public squares, but were suspected of continuing to practice their previous religions secretly. These new Christians are called Moriscos, or Moorish population and where treated as 'heretic' due to their ongoing Islamic traditions.

In 1568, two generations after Granada's treague to the Christians, the Moriscos took it to arms in a rebellion which was to spread from the mountains of Ronda, through the Alpujarras, Granada (particularly in the Albaycin) and further north in Valencia mountain regions. Under Philip III of the new united Catholic Spain, remaining 'Moriscos' where repatriated and dissipated to other areas in the north and Ronda until later Royal decrees of expulsion where expedited. As late as 1609 to 1614 thousands more "Moriscos" fled Spain, arriving in the Maghreb.

The Sephardic Jews lived well enough in the Maghreb until the coming of the Ottoman Empire in the 17th century, which began persecuting and restricting them.

By the first decade of the 17th century all in Spain were forced to convert to Catholicism or be forcibly deported. In this short time, 3 million Muslims and Jews were executed or banished.

"1492 marked the official end to Islamic rule in al-Andalus. However, this did not mean all the Muslims left al-Andalus in one go. Muslims lived in al-Andalus for at least two hundred years after the fall (1492). Their lives were not easy. In many cases they were forced to give up their identities, could not practice Islam in public, they were not allowed to speak Arabic (and therefore could not pray in congregation) or even give their children Muslim names! So what began as tolerance for the practice of Islam in al-Andalus and allowing for their affairs to be judged under Shariah courts (Capitulations of Granada) slowly but surely led to the persecution of the Muslims of al-Andalus until no trace was to be found."