Province of the Umayyad Caliphate During the caliphate of the Umayyad Caliph
Al-Walid I, the commander
Tariq ibn-Ziyad led an army of 7,000 that landed at
Gibraltar on April 30, 711, ostensibly to intervene in a
Visigothic civil war. After a decisive victory over King
Roderic at the
Battle of Guadalete on 19 July 711, Tariq, accompanied by his
mawla, governor
Musa ibn Nusayr of
Ifriqiya, brought most of the
Visigothic Kingdom under Muslim rule in a seven-year campaign. They crossed the
Pyrenees and occupied Visigothic
Septimania in southern France. Most of the Iberian peninsula became part of the expanding
Umayyad Empire, under the name of
al-Andalus. It was organised as a province subordinate to
Ifriqiya, so, for the first few decades, the
governors of al-Andalus were appointed by the emir of
Kairouan, rather than the Caliph in
Damascus. The regional capital was set at
Córdoba, and the first influx of Muslim settlers was widely distributed. Following the Muslim conquest of Spain, al-Andalus, then at its greatest extent, was divided into five administrative units, corresponding very roughly to: modern
Andalusia;
Castile and
León;
Navarre,
Aragon, and
Catalonia;
Portugal and
Galicia; and the
Languedoc-Roussillon area of
Occitania. The small army Tariq led in the initial conquest consisted mostly of
Berbers, while Musa's largely Arab force of over 12,000 soldiers was accompanied by a group of
mawālī (Arabic, موالي), that is, non-Arab Muslims, who were clients of the Arabs. The Berber soldiers accompanying Tariq were garrisoned in the centre and the north of the peninsula, as well as in the Pyrenees, while the Berber colonists who followed settled in all parts of the country north, east, south and west. Visigothic lords who agreed to recognise Muslim
suzerainty were allowed to retain their fiefs (notably, in Murcia, Galicia, and the Ebro valley). Resistant
Visigoths took refuge in the
Cantabrian highlands, where they carved out a rump state, the
Kingdom of Asturias. In the 720s, the al-Andalus governors launched several ''sa'ifa'' raids into
Aquitaine but were decisively defeated by Duke
Odo the Great of Aquitaine at the
Battle of Toulouse (721). However, after crushing Odo's Berber ally
Uthman ibn Naissa in the eastern Pyrenees,
Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi led an expedition north across the western Pyrenees and defeated the Aquitanian duke, who in turn appealed to the
Frankish leader
Charles Martel for assistance, offering to place himself under Carolingian sovereignty. At the
Battle of Poitiers in 732, the al-Andalus raiding army was defeated by Charles Martel and Al Ghafiqi was killed. In 734, the Andalusi launched raids to the east, capturing
Avignon and
Arles, and overran much of
Provence. In 737, they travelled up the
Rhône valley, reaching as far north as
Burgundy. Charles Martel of the Franks, with the assistance of
Liutprand of the
Lombards, invaded Burgundy and Provence and expelled the raiders by 739. In 740, a
Berber Revolt erupted in the
Maghreb (North Africa). To put down the rebellion, the Umayyad Caliph
Hisham dispatched a large Arab army, composed of regiments (
Junds) from
Bilad Ash-Sham, to North Africa. This Umayyad army was defeated by the Berber rebels at the
Battle of Bagdoura (in Morocco). Heartened by the victories of their North African brethren, the Berbers of al-Andalus quickly raised their own revolt. Berber garrisons in the north of the Iberian Peninsula mutinied, deposed their Arab commanders, and organised a large rebel army to march against the strongholds of Toledo, Córdoba, and Algeciras. In 741, Balj bin Bishr led a detachment of some 10,000 Arab troops across the
straits. The Arab governor of al-Andalus, joined by this force, was victorious over the Berber rebels in a series of battles in 742. A dispute erupted between the Syrian commanders and the Andalusi, the so-called "original Arabs" of the earlier contingents. The Syrians defeated them at the hard-fought Battle of Aqua Portora in August 742 but were too few to impose themselves on the province. The quarrel was settled in 743 when
Abū l-Khaṭṭār al-Ḥusām, the new governor of al-Andalus, assigned the Syrians to regimental fiefs across al-Andalus the Damascus jund was established in Elvira (
Granada), the Jordan jund in Rayyu (
Málaga and
Archidona), the Jund Filastin (Palestine) in
Medina-Sidonia and
Jerez, the Emesa (Hims) jund in
Seville and
Niebla, and the Qinnasrin jund in
Jaén. The Egypt jund was divided between
Beja (
Alentejo) in the west and Tudmir (
Murcia) in the east. The arrival of the Syrians substantially increased the Arab element in the Iberian peninsula and helped strengthen the Muslim hold on the south. However, at the same time, unwilling to be governed, the Syrian
junds carried on an existence of autonomous feudal anarchy, severely destabilising the authority of the governor of al-Andalus. A second significant consequence of the revolt was the expansion of the
Kingdom of the Asturias, hitherto confined to enclaves in the Cantabrian highlands. After the rebellious Berber garrisons evacuated the northern frontier fortresses, the Christian king
Alfonso I of Asturias set about immediately seizing the empty forts for himself, quickly adding the northwestern provinces of
Galicia and
León to his fledgling kingdom. The Asturians evacuated the Christian populations from the towns and villages of the Galician-Leonese lowlands, creating an empty buffer zone in the
Douro River valley (the "
Desert of the Duero"). This newly emptied frontier remained roughly in place for the next few centuries as the boundary between the Christian north and the Islamic south. On the Muslim side of the frontier, al-Andalus had three large
march territories (
thaghr, pl.
thughūr): the
Lower March (capital at
Mérida and
Badajoz, featuring a population primarily of Berber and
Muwallad stock), the
Middle March (centred at Toledo, primarily
muwallad), and the
Upper March (centred at
Zaragoza, with a more intrincate ethnic mix and a more substantial population of Arab stock as well as maintaining more complex relations with its Carolingian and Navarrese neighbours). These disturbances and disorder also allowed the Franks, now under the leadership of
Pepin the Short, to invade the strategic strip of
Septimania in 752, hoping to deprive al-Andalus of an easy launching pad for raids into
Francia. After a lengthy siege, the last Arab stronghold, the citadel of
Narbonne, finally
fell to the Franks in 759. Al-Andalus was sealed off at the Pyrenees. The third consequence of the Berber revolt was the collapse of the authority of the
Damascus Caliphate over the western provinces. With the Umayyad Caliphs distracted by the challenge of the
Abbasids in the east, the western provinces of the Maghreb and al-Andalus spun out of their control. From around 745, the
Fihrids, an illustrious local Arab clan descended from
Oqba ibn Nafi al-Fihri, seized power in the western provinces and ruled them almost as a private family empire of their own
Abd al-Rahman ibn Habib al-Fihri in Ifriqiya and
Yūsuf al-Fihri in al-Andalus. The Fihrids welcomed the fall of the Umayyads in the east, in 750, and sought to reach an understanding with the
Abbasids, hoping they might be allowed to continue their autonomous existence. But when the Abbasids rejected the offer and demanded submission, the Fihrids declared independence and, probably out of spite, invited the deposed remnants of the Umayyad clan to take refuge in their dominions. It was a fateful decision that they soon regretted, for the Umayyads, the sons and grandsons of caliphs, had a more legitimate claim to rule than the Fihrids themselves. Rebellious-minded local lords, disenchanted with the autocratic rule of the Fihrids, conspired with the arriving Umayyad exiles.
Umayyad Emirate of Córdoba Establishment , from
Estoria de España In 755, the exiled Umayyad prince
Abd al-Rahman I (also called
al-Dākhil, the 'Immigrant') arrived on the coast of Spain. He had fled the Abbasids, who had overthrown the Umayyads in Damascus and were slaughtering members of that family, and then he spent four years in exile in North Africa, assessing the political situation in al-Andalus across the Straits of Gibraltar, before he landed at
Almuñécar. News of his arrival spread across al-Andalus, and when word reached its governor,
Yūsuf al-Fihri, he was not pleased. During this time, Abd al-Rahman and his supporters quickly conquered
Málaga and then
Seville, finally besieging the capital of al-Andalus,
Córdoba. Abd al-Rahman's army was exhausted after their conquest, meanwhile Governor Yūsuf al-Fihri had returned from quashing another rebellion with his army. The siege of Córdoba began, and noticing the starving state of Abd al-Rahman's army, al-Fihri began throwing lavish feasts every day as the siege went on, to tempt Abd al Rahman's supporters to defect to his side. However, Abd al-Rahman persisted, even rejecting a truce that would have allowed Abd al-Rahman to marry al-Fihri's daughter. After decisively defeating Yūsuf al-Fihri's army, Abd al-Rahman was able to conquer Córdoba, where he proclaimed himself emir in 756. The rest of al-Andalus was easily conquered, and Abd al-Rahman soon had control of all of al-Andalus.
Rule Abd al Rahman's rule was stable in the years after his conquest – he built major public works, most famously the
Mosque of Córdoba, and helped urbanise the emirate while defending it from invaders, including the quashing of numerous rebellions, and decisively repelling the invasion by
Charlemagne (which would later inspire the epic,
Chanson de Roland). By far the most important of these invasions was the attempted reconquest by the
Abbasid Caliphate. In 763 Caliph
Al-Mansur of the Abbasids installed
al-Ala ibn-Mugith as governor of Africa (whose title gave him dominion over the province of al-Andalus). He planned to invade and destroy the Emirate of Córdoba, so in response Abd al Rahman fortified himself within the fortress of
Carmona with a tenth as many soldiers as al-Ala ibn-Mugith. After a long siege, it appeared that Abd al Rahman would be defeated, but in a last stand Abd al Rahman with his outnumbered forces opened the gates of the fortress and charged at the resting Abbasid army, and decisively defeated them. After being sent the embalmed head of al-Ala ibn-Mugith, it is said Al Mansur exclaimed "Praise be to God who has put the sea between me and this devil!" , the former Great Mosque built by Abd ar-Rahman I in 785, later expanded by his successors Abd al Rahman I died in 788 after a lengthy and prosperous reign. He was succeeded by his son,
Hisham I, who secured power by exiling his brother who had tried to rebel against him. Hisham enjoyed a stable reign of eight years and was succeeded by his son
Al-Hakam I. The next few decades were relatively uneventful, with only occasional minor rebellions, and saw the rise of the emirate. In 822 Al Hakam died and was succeeded by
Abd al-Rahman II, the first great emir of Córdoba. He rose to power with no opposition and sought to reform the emirate. He quickly reorganised the bureaucracy to be more efficient and built many mosques across the emirate. During his reign science and art flourished, as many scholars fled the Abbasid caliphate due to the disastrous
Fourth Fitna. The scholar
Abbas ibn Firnas made an attempt to fly, though accounts vary on his success. In 852 Abd al Rahman II died, leaving behind him a powerful and well-established state that had become one of the most powerful in the Mediterranean. Abd al Rahman was succeeded by
Muhammad I of Córdoba, who according to legend had to wear women's clothing to sneak into the imperial palace and be crowned, since he was not the heir apparent. His reign marked a decline in the emirate, which was ended by
Abd al-Rahman III. His reign was marked by multiple rebellions, which were dealt with poorly and weakened the emirate, most disastrously following the rebellion of
Umar ibn Hafsun. When Muhammad died, he was succeeded by emir
Abdullah ibn Muhammad al-Umawi whose power barely reached outside of the city of Córdoba. As Ibn Hafsun ravaged the south, Abdullah did almost nothing, and slowly became more and more isolated, barely speaking to anyone. Abdullah purged his administration of his brothers, which lessened the bureaucracy's loyalty towards him. Around this time several local Arab lords began to revolt, including one Kurayb ibn Khaldun, who was able to conquer Seville. Some loyalists tried to quell the rebellion, but without proper material support, their efforts were in vain. He declared that the next emir would be his grandson
Abd al-Rahman III, ignoring the claims of his four living children. Abdullah died in 912, and the throne passed to Abd al Rahman III. Through force of arms and diplomacy, he put down the rebellions that had disrupted his grandfather's reign, obliterating Ibn Hafsun and hunting down his sons. After this he led several sieges against the Christians, sacking the city of
Pamplona, and restoring some prestige to the emirate. Meanwhile, across the sea the
Fatimids had risen up in force, ousted the Abbasid government in North Africa, and declared themselves a caliphate. Inspired by this action, Abd al Rahman joined the rebellion and declared himself caliph in 929. For nearly 100 years under the Córdoban Umayyad period, from the 9th century to the 10th, al-Andalus also extended its presence from
Fraxinetum into the Alps with a series of organised raids.
Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba receiving
John of Gorze, ambassador of
Otto I, at the
Medina Azahara, by
Dionisio Baixeras Verdaguer, 1885 The period of the
Caliphate is seen as the
golden age of al-Andalus. Córdoba under the Caliphate, with a population of more than half a million, eventually overtook
Constantinople as the largest and most prosperous city in the world. Al-Andalus became a centre for the arts, medicine, science, music, literature and philosophy. The work of its most important philosophers and scientists, such as
Abulcasis and
Averroes, had a major influence on the intellectual life of medieval Europe. Muslims and non-Muslims often came from abroad to study at the libraries and universities of al-Andalus, and after the reconquest of Toledo, several translation institutions such as the
Toledo School of Translators were established for translating books and texts from Arabic into Latin. The most noted figures in this being
Gerard of Cremona and
Michael Scot, who took these works to Italy. The transmission of ideas significantly affected the formation of the European
Renaissance. The Caliphate of Córdoba also had extensive trade with other parts of the Mediterranean, including Christian parts. Trade goods included luxury items (silk, ceramics, gold), essential foodstuffs (grain, olive oil, wine), and containers (such as ceramics for storing perishables). In the tenth century,
Amalfitans were already trading
Fatimid and
Byzantine silks in Córdoba. Later references to Amalfitan merchants were sometimes used to emphasise the previous golden age of Córdoba. Fatimid Egypt was a supplier of many luxury goods, including elephant tusks, and raw or carved crystals. The Fatimids were traditionally thought to be the only supplier of such goods, and control over these trade routes would be a cause for conflict between the Umayyads and Fatimids. The largest of the taifas to emerge were
Badajoz (
Batalyaws),
Toledo (
Ṭulayṭulah),
Zaragoza (
Saraqusta), and
Granada (
Ġarnāṭah). After 1031, the
taifas were generally too weak to defend themselves against repeated raids and demands for tribute from the Christian states to the north and west, which were known to the Muslims as "the Galician nations", and which had spread from their initial strongholds in
Galicia,
Asturias,
Cantabria, the Basque country, and the
Carolingian Marca Hispanica to become the Kingdoms of
Navarre,
León,
Portugal,
Castile and
Aragon, and the
County of Barcelona. During the eleventh century several centres of power existed among the taifas, and the political situation shifted rapidly. Before the rise of the
Almoravids from Africa or the Christians from the north, the
Abbadid-ruled
Taifa of Seville succeeded in conquering a dozen lesser kingdoms, becoming the most powerful and renowned of the taifas, such that it could have laid claim to be the true heir to the Caliphate of Córdoba. The taifas were vulnerable and divided but had immense wealth. During its prominence the Taifa of Seville produced technically complex
lusterware and exerted significant influence on ceramic production across al-Andalus. In the 1080s, the
taifa kingdoms began to face an existential threat from the Christian kingdoms to the north, as
Alfonso VI of Castile escalated attacks against them. In 1083, he led a punitive expedition against Seville that reached all the way to
Tarifa at the southern tip of al-Andalus. In 1085, he
annexed Toledo, a turning point which galvanised the remaining
taifa leaders into seeking outside help.
Almoravids and Almohads After the fall of Toledo, most of the major
taifa rulers agreed to request the intervention of the Almoravids, a Berber empire based in
Marrakesh that had conquered much of northwest Africa. The Almoravid leader,
Yusuf Ibn Tashfin, led several campaigns into al-Andalus, initially in defence of the
taifa kingdoms. At the
Battle of Sagrajas (or Battle of Zallaqa in Arabic), a Muslim army led by the Almoravids soundly defeated Alfonso VI. By 1090, however, Yusuf ibn Tashfin was disillusioned with the disunity of the
taifa leaders and he returned on a campaign to conquer al-Andalus instead. Most of the
taifas, except for Zaragoza, were annexed by 1094. Valencia, which had come under the control of
El Cid at the end of
its taifa period, was eventually occupied in 1102, after El Cid's death. Zaragoza was annexed in 1110. Modern scholarship has sometimes admitted originality in North African architecture, but according to Yasser Tabbaa, historian of Islamic art and architecture, the Iberocentric viewpoint is anachronistic when considering the political and cultural environment during the rule of the Almoravid dynasty. The rise and fall of the Almoravids is sometimes seen as an expression of
Ibn Khaldun's
asabiyyah paradigm. By 1147, the Almoravids were overthrown in North Africa by the
Almohads, another Berber dynasty, under the leadership of
Abd al-Mu'min. As Almoravid rule collapsed, another brief period of
taifa kingdoms followed in al-Andalus, during which the Christian kingdoms expanded southward again. From 1146 onward, the Almohads intervened and took control of al-Andalus. One of Abd al-Mu'min's successors,
Ya'qub al-Mansur, won a major victory over the Castilian
Alfonso VIII at the
Battle of Alarcos in 1195. In 1212, a coalition of Christian kings under the leadership of Alfonso VIII defeated the Almohads at the
Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa. Almohad rule was diminished in prestige and in 1228 the Almohad caliph
al-Ma'mun withdrew from al-Andalus altogether. In this political vacuum, a new wave of
taifa kingdoms emerged, which were progressively conquered by Portugal, Castile, and Aragon. Córdoba was
conquered in 1236 and Seville was
conquered in 1248. Some Muslim city-states, such as
Murcia and
Niebla, survived as vassal kingdoms of Castile until the 1260s. Only the region of Granada remained unconquered.
Emirate of Granada, its fall, and aftermath (1232–1492), with the epigraphic inscription "glory to our lord the Sultan". From the mid 13th to the late 15th century, the only remaining domain of al-Andalus was the
Emirate of Granada, the last Muslim stronghold in the Iberian Peninsula. The emirate was established by
Muhammad ibn al-Ahmar in 1230 and was ruled by the
Nasrid dynasty, the longest reigning dynasty in the history of al-Andalus. Although surrounded by Castilian lands, the emirate was wealthy through being tightly integrated in Mediterranean trade networks and enjoyed a period of considerable cultural and economic prosperity. Despite internal conflicts, the Nasrids of Granada were able to survive in part by playing the Christian kingdoms of the north against each other, while at other times soliciting aid from the
Marinids, a new Berber dynasty ruling in North Africa from their capital in
Fez. For much of its existence, Granada paid tribute to the Castilian kings. Along with this political status, its favourable geographic location, with the
Sierra Nevada as a natural barrier, helped to prolong Nasrid rule. in the
Alhambra, the palace of
Nasrid Granada Granada also accommodated a large number of Muslim refugees fleeing the
Reconquista or expelled from Christian-controlled territories, which grew the city and the emirate's population. The city even became one of the largest in Europe throughout the 15th century in terms of population. The most visible legacy of the Nasrids is the
Alhambra, their fortified palace complex, partly preserved today. The independent Nasrid kingdom was also a trade hub between the Atlantic and Mediterranean, and was frequented especially by
Genoese merchants. Under the conditions of the Capitulations of 1492, the Muslims in Granada were to be allowed to continue to practice their religion. From 1492 to 1493, tens of thousands of expulsed Muslims and Jews from al-Andalus were rescued when the Ottomans under orders of Sultan Bayezid II sent ships. Thousands of Jews were transported to Ottoman lands, and many settled in North Africa. Mass
forced conversions of Muslims in 1499 led to a
revolt that spread to Alpujarras and the mountains of
Ronda; after this uprising the capitulations were revoked. In 1502 the Catholic Monarchs decreed the forced conversion of all Muslims living under the rule of the Crown of Castile, although in the kingdoms of
Aragon and
Valencia (both now part of Spain) the open practice of Islam was allowed until 1526. Descendants of the Muslims were subject to expulsions from Spain between 1609 and 1614 (see
Expulsion of the Moriscos). The last mass prosecution against
Moriscos for
crypto-Islamic practices occurred in Granada in 1727, with most of those convicted receiving relatively light sentences. The Morisco community including these final convicts kept their identity alive at least through the late eighteenth century. == Science ==