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Spain History - Moor Period - Part I - Emirates (711-756)
The term Moors refers to all Muslims whether of Berber or Arab origin and
is a derivative from the Latin word "mauri", a word used by Romans
referring to the tribes living in Mauritania. In 710 the ruling general
Musa in Damascus sent a small force of 400 soldiers to investigate the
south of the peninsular and landed at Tarifa. They reported back that
they had found wealth and beautiful women. A combination of this report,
the support of Achila and the son of ex-King Witiza, together with Julian
Governor of Septum, Musa instructed a force of 10,000 men to invade under
the able leadership of Traiq ibn-Ziyad. King Roderick was caught unprepared
and was in the north of his kingdom. He rushed south with an army composed
of different supporters and some of questionable loyalty. The two armies
fought a battle near to the Guadalquivir River at Rio Barbate and some of King Roderick's
army exchanged allegiance during the fighting. The King escaped only to die
shortly after leaving the peninsular open to conquest by the Moors. By the
winter of 711 Tariq and his army had made their headquarters in
Toledo and by 715 they were effectively masters of most of the
peninsular.
In the following year Musa himself led another army to take on the remainder
of the Visigoths at Mérida. The Visigoths were beaten and fled north to the
Asturias. The land Hispania now belonged to the Moors who then renamed it
as Al-Andulas and belonging to the Arab Empire based in Damascus. The Moors
found their conquest of such a large territory to be relatively easy and it
is believed that they met with considerable support from the inhabitants,
particularly the Jews and the vast slave population originating from Roman
times. Based on tradition the Moors supposedly were expected to "fill their
sacks with loot and leave". General Musa returning to Damascus with 30,000
peninsular "virgins" and many treasures including a jeweled table belonging
to King Solomon, reported that his victory had been made much easier by the
"effeminacy of the princes". His son by Muslim custom married the widow of
King Roderick and appointed himself governor of Al-Andulas. The new Caliph
in Damascus took exception and shortly the son's head was sent to Damascus
as an example to any over-ambitious man.
The Moors also suffered from considerable in-fighting amongst the various
tribes of which their army was composed. Two leading tribes Yemenites and
the Kaishers crushed a Berber rebellion and then promptly turned on each
other. Another problem for the Moors was the appearance on the scene of
Count Pelayo an Austurian bandit leader of men including surviving Visigoths.
After several years of hard fighting Pelayo was reduced to about fifty men when
he successfully defeated a small Moorish army sent to seek him out. This act at Covadonga made
him a folklore hero overnight. His daughter married a local chief Alfonso
who was to later become the first King of Austuria. This King was to reign
for 18 years and at his death in 757 his kingdom occupied one quarter of
the peninsular. Towards the end of the same century the Austurians and the
Galicians joined to become one kingdom. Even to this day the King of Spain
bears also the title of the King of Austuria.
In 756 a Syrian Prince by the name of Abd-ar-Rahman fled Damascus to land
eventually at Almuñecar and raised a local supporting army. Within the
short space of a year he was established in Córdoba as the first leader of
the independent Emirate of Al-Andulas. Abd-ar-Rahman I ruled for 32 years
with a personal army of 40,000 men and was quick to show unmerciful force
to any threats. The area which including
Seville to Malaga under his strong leadership prospered and grew powerful
both in trade and culture. Towns
and hamlets were fortified and many buildings were constructed including
the remarkable Córdoba Mosque which was started in 785.
In 777 the Caliph in Damascus convinced King Charlemagne to send an
army headed by his nephew Roland into the peninsular. They failed to take
Zaragoza so decided to plunder Pamplona instead. In the battle of
"Roncesvalles" they were defeated but not by the Moors as fable would have
us believe but by the Basques who were compensating for the rape of
Pamplona. The reign of the house of Abd-ar-Rahman I (756-788) was to last
for some three centuries. Some rulers were recorded as cruel and ruthless
whilst others in comparisons appeared virtually saintly. They all had to
deal with uprisings or invasions. The army of Emperor Charlemagne
was successfully stopped at Saragossa in 777 but he returned to
capture Cátalunia by 811. In 817 the region of Cátalunia becomes an
independent State in the Carolingian Empire and in 851 the State of
Aragón was also declared. In 844 the Vikings started attacking
the western coast of the peninsular moving constantly southwards until
they reached Seville. Here they were put to flight but only after two
weeks period of murder and rape. By the reign of Abd-ar-Rahman II
(822-852), the Emirate was powerful and rich with a standard of living
unsurpassed in those times. He owned a rich jeweled belt with a long
history that eventually passed through the hands of El Cid and Queen
Isabel, the latter having to sell it later to partially pay for the
conquest of Granada. The ruler was a cultured man and encouraged all
forms of art, particularly poetry and philosophy. He is reported to have
imported Persian women to entertain at his court and they sung in high
falsetto voices as they danced - a possible fore-runner to "flamenco".
Córdoba grew to a city of several hundred thousands and it was recorded
as having hundreds of mosques and public baths, libraries, paved and
lighted streets, even indoor plumbing. His reign was also occupied
with dealing with invading armies, as King Alfonso of Aragón made
an attempt to take León, whilst the Franks tried to conquer Cátalunia. The Christians and Jews had to be crushed in 837 when
they revolted in Toledo.
During all this time the Moors had interbred with the inhabitants as they
had brought no women with them. This helped considerably in the local
administration and a blending of cultures was achieved to a certain level,
never completely as the Moors were proud of their inheritance and when
necessary even dyed their hair black so as to hide a possible question in
their blood line. The Moors were responsible of introducing fine glasswork,
glazed tiles (azulejos), silk weaving and other fine crafts. The country
in religion was divided in three, Muslim, Christian and Jews. The later
probably was the race that enjoyed the most liberal expansion under the
Moorish rule. They were unfettered in being allowed to develop their
philosophy, craftsmen and financial skills. It is possible that at this
stage in history that there developed in the peninsular the concept that
social position became linked to a positive commitment to a religious
faith.
A Moor army under Muhammad I attacked the Christian forced in
Galicia, León and Navarre from 852 to 861 in the north in an effort
to stem the advance of the Christian faith. Later, in the reign of Abd-ar-Rahman III (912 - 961), when he was at the peak of
this power in 929 he turned his Emirate into a Caliphate. His reign was
also marked by rebel problems and at one time, on his very doorstep near
to Málaga, a certain Umar-ibn-Hafsun ruled an area for four decades before
he and his sons were slain. As the success of this ruler became even
respected by foreign powers outside the peninsular he set about creating
buildings of magnitude to reflect his power. He built the incredible Palace
of Medina Ashara outside Córdoba and enlarged the Great Mosque with its
800 supporting pillars to its present size which was completed in
1118.. This sumptuous Palace with
interior walls created from fountains and 6,000 women in the harem, was
described by a contemporary poet as being "a concubine in the arms of a
black eunuch". As the new ruler Al-Mansur (1009-1010) declined to use it
and it fell into disrepair and was later destroyed in 1010 by warring
Berbers. In 910 the state of Al-Andulus covered over half of the peninsular
with another large part as an autonomous Moor region governed from Zaragoza.
However, it was only to take some 50 years for the eventual decline of this
Caliphate and by 1031 it had become a number of small independent and
fragile kingdoms.
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