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ISLAMIC TRADITIONS IN SPAIN.
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Explains Muslim rule as last bastion of non-Christian influence in Europe.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Explains Muslim rule as last bastion of non-Christian influence in Europe. Islam religious traditions and protocols in Muslim political and cultural dominance. Tolerance for individual religious beliefs. History of Islamic conquest and domination of the Iberian Peninsula in Andalusea. Christian/Muslim battles for control. Outline.
Paper Introduction:
This research examines Islamic traditions in Spain between about 732, the year that Charles Martel famously halted the Muslim invasion of Europe at Tours, and 1492, which marked the expulsion of Islamic political power from Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella. During the intervening centuries, Spain represented the western extent of Muslim rule of Spain and the last bastion of non-Christian independence in Europe. During this time, too, certain Islamic religious traditions and protocols were able to assert themselves in a way that distinguished Muslim political and cultural dominance from such dominance under Christianity.
Apart from the apparent ability of invading Muslim forces to impart administrative, and economic strength to a weak, factionalized, and demoralized late-Roman/Visigothic Spain, the Islamic tendency for tolerance of individual religious belief, thoug
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Beginning with an account of the first Islamic conquest, italso provides an explanation of the causes and consequences of theReconquest. The history of Islamic conquest and domination of the IberianPeninsula, especially in Andalusia, or Al-Andalus, up to the fifteenthcentury is well documented. The Abd al-Rahman III turnaround of Cordoba, and the golden age, 929-1 85 1. This is a survey of the main events and personalities in Spain betweenAD 711 to 1492. Religious tolerance in culturally diverse society C. The prevailing view of Islamic control of theregion is that as long as the presumption of Islam as foundational andincorrigible was not challenged, its rulers espoused a policy of fairnessand tolerance. An account of the difference between the generally religiouslytolerant Islam conquerors of medieval Spain and the repeated false promisesto guarantee religious freedom to non-Christians when the Muslims weredefeated in 1492, this article links the sense of injustice and entitlementfelt by modern Muslims to the history of betrayal and oppression byChristians. [1 ]Ibid. On the other hand, he "was an observantMuslim but no fanatic. Watt evenattributes the Christian conception of the Crusades, which were undertakenduring that period, to the concept of "jihad or 'holy war' of theMuslims."[9] The point is that in Spain, Christianity and Islam metdecisively on the boundaries of culture and social praxis, with Christiansfeeling "both strong attraction and strong repulsion. [6]Miguel Cruz Hernandez, "The Roots of Coexistence," UNESCO Courier:December 1991, 22. [3]W. Throughout his reign he adopted, whenever possible,a generally tolerant policy towards Mozarabs [Hispanic Christians] andJews."[1] Edwards has another view of the idea that Muslims exercised tolerance,citing the decline in Spain of the "remarkable coexistence of Islamic,Christian, and Jewish civilisations between 711 and 1492."[2] However,Edwards attributes that decline to the influence not of Islam butChristianity, which undertook a series of crusades known as the reconquestof Spain that culminated in 1492. Montgomery. For the most part, however, the actual rulers of Islamic states found it necessary to follow secular traditions of governmental practice.[5] The fact that Islamic Spain was marked by religious tolerance andcivil pragmatism on the part of the dominant culture does not mean thatIslam and Muslims were not privileged in all areas of experience. Yet the privileging of Islamicreligious consciousness in Spain seems to have been far more benign thanthe dynamic of religious consciousness was when Christianity andChristendom reasserted control there. BibliographyBoase, Roger. Unlike Islam, Christianity seems to have been insecureabout "its own origins or its nature," and thus the practice of peacefulcoexistence between and among religious cultures under Islam declined intoactive animosity and oppression under the Reconquest.Hernandez, Miguel Cruz. Consistent struggle after 1 85 A. 31 (1981): 115-128. Andalusia as the highest and best expression of Islamic dominance of Spain B. Apart from the apparent ability of invading Muslim forces to impartadministrative, and economic strength to a weak, factionalized, anddemoralized late-Roman/Visigothic Spain, the Islamic tendency for toleranceof individual religious belief, though non-Muslims were given second-classcivic status, is noteworthy. Watt's analysis of that point is thatthe dominant dynamic of Islamist Spain was one of "symbiosis or culturalfusion," whereby Spanish Moors became the major vehicle for preserving,translating, and commenting on Greek philosophy for the West: There was no "iron curtain" between Christian Toledo and Islamic Cordova in the later twelfth century when Averroes was at the height of his power; and the thought of the great Aristotelian penetrated more easily into Christian Europe than into the Islamic heartlands, and constituted a large part of the stimulus which provoked the greatest intellectual achievement of medieval Christendom, the philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinas.[8] The influence of Muslim religious consciousness on the overalldevelopment of medieval Spain in particular and Europe in general can beseen from the fact that at a time when high, literate culture was floweringin the "Golden Age" of Andalusia under Muslim rule, the rest of WesternEurope was experiencing what is commonly called the Dark Ages. This research examines Islamic traditions in Spain between about 732,the year that Charles Martel famously halted the Muslim invasion of Europeat Tours, and 1492, which marked the expulsion of Islamic political powerfrom Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella. Islam was at one andthe same time the great enemy and the great source of higher material andintellectual culture."[1 ] What made Christian dominance of Spain differentfrom Islamic dominance was that there was in Christianity no doctrinalprovision for the protection and/or tolerance of non-Christianconsciousness or praxis. Spanish Christian behavior highlights thedistinctiveness of Islamic culture and religious tolerance in Spain andhelps explain the difference between the diffuse, symbiotic culture of theSpanish Middle Ages and the monolithic, imperialistic, and religiously andpolitically retrograde culture of Spain during the early Renaissance.Indeed, religious freedom was not formally available in Spain until 1975,after the death of the dictator Francisco Franco.[13] More than this, thesemany centuries later, the residue of 15th-century cultural retrogressionthat Spain underwent after Islamic authority was expunged may help explainwhy 21st-century Islam seems to so many to be so wedded to monolithic,brain-dead theocracy. While the main emphasis of this article is on the artistic andarchitectural achievements of Islamic Spain that survive into the presentday, it also cites the incomplete success that Christianity had inexpelling every trace of Islamic culture from Spain--a culture increasinglyvalued as the history of medieval Islamic rule become more widely known.Watt, W. V. Derek. He "brooked no oppositionto his authority," says Latham. Although non-Muslims' civil and economic libertieswere suppressed, they do not seem to have been forced to renounce Judaismor Christianity and convert to Islam. "The Roots of Coexistence." UNESCO Courier: December 1991, 2 -23. Conclusion: Medieval Christian behavior explaining modern Muslim behavior?----------------------- [1]J. Rather, as Spain became de jureChristian, "purity of faith came to be identified with purity of blood sothat all New Christians or conversos, whether of Jewish or Muslim origin,were branded as potential heretics."[12] In 16 9, a royal edict issued atthe behest of the pope formally and forcibly exiled Muslims and Jews alikefrom Spain; most settled in northern Africa. "The Muslim Expulsion From Spain: Roger Boase Looks at a Spanish Example of Religious and Ethnic Cleansing." History Today 52 (April 2 2): 21-7. The strengths of Islamic rule A. From Inquisition to expulsion VI. By 15 he could report back to the Catholic Monarchs that "there is now no one in the city who is not a Christian, and all the mosques are churches." The [Islam] converts were known as Moriscos [little Moors].[11] And the Jewish converts were known as conversos, and the good peopleof the Inquisition trusted them not. [11]Meisler, 48. Exile became apersonal triumph when Abd al-Rahman overtook decrepit Visigothic rule andeventually suppressed tribal rivalries between and among Berber Muslims.However, it took another 2 years for the petty civil wars and power playsto be resolved by Abd al-Rahman III, who launched the 1 -year golden ageof Islamic Andalusia and made Cordoba the "cultural capital of the West."Meisler, Stanley. Non-Muslims were "implicitly treated as themembers of another society, which did not exist in political terms butwhose religious structure assumed responsibility for administering thetolerated social rights."[6] Hernandez characterizes Muslim rule between711 and 1 86 in Andalusia and "Christian Spain" between 1 85 and 137 as"golden ages of social and cultural coexistence."[7] Over the course of the entire period, Christians and Muslim engagednot only in battles for territorial control but also in a series oftreaties and truces that seem to have been intended to accomplish thecreation of a rational social order. The primary theme of this article is that the role of the famedInquisition was decisive in shaping the culture of Christian Spain, whichaimed at the eradication of non-Christian--especially Jewish--experience,thought, presence. Christians retaking Toledo, other cities, and Almoravid/Almohads retrenchment B. Montgomery Watt, A History of Islamic Spain (dinburgh: EdinburghUniversity Press, 1965), 17 . I. The Islamic conquest of Iberia A. Formal protection for protected non-Muslims 2. "The Golden Age of Andalusia Under the Muslim Sultans." Smithsonian 23 (August 1992): 42-53. The sauce of intolerance for the gander is sauce forthe goose. However, eventhe more zealous Islamic regime does not appear to have enforcedconversions or theocratic praxis: The conception of the "holy war" could from time to time rouse the enthusiasm of the masses and swell the ranks of an army; and for this reason it was found useful by politicians. Latham gives the example of Abd al-Rahman III, who inheritedwhat over some 1 years had become a bankrupt throne at Cordoba butovertook minor Muslim governors and princes in Andalusia to consolidatepower in a caliphate that included Seville, Saragossa, and Toledo andbecame the strongest kingdom in western Europe. [8]Watt, 172. Indeed, by 1 85 Christians had retaken Toledo, which led to nearly 15 years of oppressively defensive rule in Muslim-controlled areas by zealousIslamists from Seville, the Almoravids and then the Almohads,[4] interritories still under Muslim control. [7]Ibid., 21. Precisely because Jews felt they had a special place inrelation to God and to history and had biblical authority to back them up,Jews during the Reconquest were often singled out for persecution in waysthat Muslims were not, and in ways that did not happen while Spain wasunder Muslim rule. [13]Ibid., 27. Religious tolerance fundamental: no forced conversions 2. Spanish Moors preserving Greek thought for Western Christianity B. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1965. Christians--and especially Jews--were called, after Muhammad,"people of the book" by Muslims, who considered Judaism and Christianityprecursors of the true faith. "Religious Belief and Social Conformity: The 'Converso' Problem in Late Medieval Cordoba." Transcripts of the Royal Historical Society. Symbiotic Christian-Muslim relationship under Islam 1. This article describes the ability of missional Islam, undercharismatic leadership, to establish itself far afield of Arabia after lessthan 1 years of existence and evolve into the Umayyad dynasty in Cordoba,Spain. What began as a Muslim trade outpost by a Syrian prince who escapedpolitical intrigue and assassination in Syria in AD 756. The Alhambra, constructed inthe late 14th century, when Islamic culture was already under increasingChristian assault, escaped destruction because the Spanish Christian kingswanted to live in splendor. Crusader mentality with Islamic ("jihad") provenance? Tolerance as a key to flourishing culture III. Administrative competence embedded in religious structure B. [9]Ibid. The Koran(Qu'ran) specifically provided that full civil status was to be given onlyto "one social grouping, the umma, the community of the faithful, whosemembers are theoretically equal." Christians (Mozarabs) and Jews in Spain,collectively known as dhimmis, enjoyed protection but not participation incivic life. The Reconquista betrayal 1. The Reconquista, 1 85 and beyond A. Cruz asserts that in Andalusia, under both Islamic and Christian rule,until 137 , the dominant social dynamic was one of coexistence rather thanreligious warfare, aided by a flowering of intellectual and artisticactivity. During the intervening centuries,Spain represented the western extent of Muslim rule of Spain and the lastbastion of non-Christian independence in Europe. A History of Islamic Spain. The same cannot be said of the fateof Muslims (or Jews) when in 1492 the forces of Ferdinand and Isabelladrove the Muslims from power in Granada, the last Islamic stronghold.Instead, Inquisition mentality asserted itself in the guise of Christianreligious consciousness: Cardinal Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros ordered a campaign of forced conversion and mass baptism under threat of torture and prison. Watt says in that connection that SpanishChristianity "found its soul" (Inquisition and all, apparently) in"Reconquista Spain,"[3] adding that it was only in the eleventh centurythat the desire for independence from Muslim rule was organized around aspecifically Christian identity--which in turn led Muslims to defend theirIberian territory increasingly in the name of Islam. "The Rise of the Umayyad Dynasty in Spain." UNESCO Courier: December 1991, 24-7. Political tolerance limited: full citizenship only to Muslims IV. False Christian promises of protection for Muslims, Jews 2. Not unrelated to the organizational competenceof Islamic rule in Spain during the Middle Ages was the ability of thedistinctive religious consciousness of Islam to contribute to the culturaland social identity of Spain and Europe. [12]Roger Boase, "The Muslim Expulsion From Spain: Roger Boase Looksat a Spanish Example of Religious and Ethnic Cleansing," History Today 52(April 2 2): 26. [2]J.H. [4]Stanley Meisler, "The Golden Age of Andalusia Under the MuslimSultans," Smithsonian 23 (August 1992): 46 [5]Watt, 167. During this time, too,certain Islamic religious traditions and protocols were able to assertthemselves in a way that distinguished Muslim political and culturaldominance from such dominance under Christianity. Introduction: Scope and limit of research II. The record of official denunciations of Moriscos and conversosin Spain well into the modern period, as well as the 2 th-centurycanonization of an Inquisition bishop who advocated expulsion of allconversos, is noteworthy for helping to explain persistent religiousanimosity against Christian culture on the part of non-Christians.Edwards, J.H. Distinguishing between Arab andIslamic culture, Watt takes the view that the religious (Islamic)orientation of the Almoravids and Almohads was much stronger than it was inthe Cordoba caliphate, which experienced secular influences. Cruz cites the particular debt that Thomas Aquinas owed to thephilosophical commentaries of Averroes and Avicenna on Aristotle for theSumma Theologica, the most authoritative articulation of general Catholicdoctrine, and laments that Andalusian cultural style did not survive to thepresent.Latham, J. Edwards, "Religious Belief and Social Conformity: The'Converso' Problem in Late Medieval Cordoba," Transcripts of the RoyalHistorical Society 31 (1981): 115. It also includes details of the golden-age Umayyad period inAndalusia. Derek Latham, "The Rise of the Umayyad Dynasty in Spain," UNESCOCourier: December 1991, 25.
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