The Iberian Peninsula
Andalusia was the
name used by the Muslim population of the Iberian Peninsula for the territory
that was under Muslim rule from 711 CE until the fall of Granada in 1492 CE.
Historians
recorded that in the early 5th century, Germanic tribes invaded the
peninsula, namely the Suebi, the Vandals and their allies, the Sermatian Alans.
All of them created several kingdoms, but only the Kingdom of Suebi endured
after the arrival of another wave of Germanic invaders, the Visigoths, who
conquered all of the Iberian Peninsula and expelled or partially integrated the
Vandals, and the Alans. After that the Visigoths conquered the Suebi kingdom in
584.
In the late fourth
and early fifth centuries they became federates of the Western Roman Empire,
and in 410 Alaric led the Visigoths in an attack on the city of Rome. They
declared independence and established a Gothic state with Toledo as its capital.
The Visigoths’ religion was Arianism, while the original people of Andalusia
were Catholic Canaanites. They were subject to the Gothic rule and were
tolerant towards them. During his reign (586-601) Reccard declared his
conversion to Catholicism in 589.
“Arianism is a belief declared by the
Alexandrian presbyter Arius (258-376). It affirmed that Christ is not truly
divine but a created being. The fundamental premise of Arius was the uniqueness
of God, who is alone self-existent and immutable. Christ, who is not self-existent,
cannot be God” (Encyclopedia
Britannica).
When the emperors
Gratian (367-383) and Theodosius I (379-395) took up the defense of orthodoxy
(Catholicism), Arianism collapsed. In 381 when the second Ecumenical Council
met at Constantinople, Arianism was proscribed and the Nicene Creed was
approved. Yet Arianism continued among some of the Germanic tribes, especially
in the Iberian Peninsula to the end of the 7th century.
Why conquering Andalusia
Before the Islamic
rule, four classes in conflict constituted the population of Andalusia: (1) The
ruling colonialist class of Goths; (2) The Roman elite (the feudal lords and
clergymen); (3) The Jews and (4) The indigenous working class. That conflict
caused domination, oppression and persecution against the lower class, the
indigenous.
The Visigoths
occupied the country for about three centuries, however, as related by Prof.
Husayn Mu’nis in his book “Fajr-al-Andalus” (I quote from www.islamqa.info): “…their authority was not well
established in the land at first, because of the religious conflicts that
occurred between them and the original people, and because of the disputes that
occurred among their rulers. Hence, throughout the sixth century the land was
subjected to civil wars, chaos and problems that resulted from them, until the
time of the last Visigoth ruler whose name was Roderic.”
"What is
clear and indisputable is that Roderic felt that he was not fully in control
and all his life he feared an attack from his many enemies. These enemies were
not only the sons of Wittiza, whose kingdom Roderic had usurped, rather they
included most of the Iberian, Roman and Jewish people, i.e., most of the people
of the land, which the Goths had invaded”.
Prof. Husayn Mu’nis
mentions that the local people rejected Gothic rule. He quoted Rafael
Balasteros, the Spanish historian, as saying: “If the Arabs had not interfered
in the Peninsula’s affairs in 711 CE and put an end to this age of turmoil, the
Goths would have inflicted unimaginable harm on Spain”.
So the population
of Andalusia, due to the Goths’s oppression, sent word to the Muslims in North
Africa, asking them to help and save them. Julian, the ruler of Ceutah sent
word to Moosa bin Nusayr (governor of the Umayads) asking him for help against
the one who had usurped his father’s kingdom. The Jews who were being
persecuted by the Goths also sought help from Muslims in North Africa to save
them from the oppression of Roderic.
Before the
military action, Moosa bin Nusayr asked permission from the Khalifa in
Damascus. The Khalifa asked him to be cautious, “send first a military
detachment to know the situation at place”. Only then, in 711 Muslim military
entered Spain under the leadership of Tariq bin Ziyad with the help of the
ruler of Ceutah. That military action could really be called jihad, because they were invited by an oppressed
people, and because they did it to liberate the oppressed from the atrocity
they were subjected to. Jihad is not terror as usually described by the media
nowadays. Jihad is the action of liberation against the oppressors, as we find
in the text of the Qur’an: « What is wrong with you, that you do not fight
in the way of God, and for the oppressed men, women, and children who say: Our Lord,
bring us forth from this town whose people are evildoers and appoint for us a
protector from You, and appoint for us from You a helper” (4:75).
Muslims came to Andalusia with four purposes, motivated by their
faithful devotion to God:
1. Establishing Human
freedom; the Qur’an says: “O mankind! We have indeed created you from
a male and a female, and made you nations and tribes that you may come to know
each other. Truly the noblest of you in the sight of God is the most
God-conscious among you. Truly, God is all-Knowing, all-Aware” (49:13).
2. Respecting God’s
ordinances; the Qur’an says: “Follow what has been revealed to you from
your Lord, and do not follow beside Him any masters. Little do you remember” (7:3).
3. Establishing Social
justice; the Qur’an says: O you who have attained to faith! Be upright
in justice; witnesses for God, even though it be against yourselves, or parents
and kinsmen, whether the person be rich or poor; God is better caretaker of
both. So do not follow any whim, lest you swerve, for if you twist or refrain,
surely God is ever aware of what you do” (4:135).
4. Promoting skills to
enrich the country, because they believed that God has given them opportunities
to exploit all what is on earth, in the skies and around it to be of use to
them and to fulfil their needs in life as easily as possible, as the Qur’an
says: “And He (God) has disposed for you whatever is in the heavens, and
whatever is in the earth; all being from Him. Surely in that there are signs
for a people who reflect”
(45:13). “It is He (God) Who made the
earth tractable for you, so walk in its flanks and eat of His provision; and to
Him is the resurrection” (67:15).
Europe’s benefit
According to Juan
Vernet in his book “The Art of Islamic Spain” (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Abrams, 1992),
“Muslims entered
Spain not as aggressors, but as liberators. In this multicultural society, many
Jews and Christians held government positions”.
“Throughout the
period of Islamic rule, Al-Andalus was a remarkable example and outstanding
model of tolerance”
(Benchrifa, Mohamed: “The Routes of
al-Andalus” http://mirror-us.
Unesco.org/culture/al-andalus/html_eng/andalus2.htm).
“When Muslims
first arrived in Spain in 711 CE, they were mainly composed of Arabs and
Berbers from North Africa. Within two decades a majority of the inhabitants of
Andalusia, especially most of the Unitarian Christians and the oppressed class,
accepted Islam freely in recognition of the peace, security and the freedom of
religion and expression under the Muslim rule. They intermarried within various
ethnic groups including the native Spanish-Muslim population, with the result
that Spain became a fairly homogeneous country within a few generations” (Dr. A. Zohoor).
“At a time when
even kings could not read or write, a Moorish king had a private library of six
hundred thousand books. At a time when ninety-nine percent of the Christian
people were wholly illiterate, the Moorish city of Cordova had eight hundred
public schools, and there was not a village within the limits of the empire
where the blessings of education could not be enjoyed by the children of the
most indigent peasant and it was difficult to encounter even a Moorish peasant
who could not read and write” (S.
P. Scott in “The History of the
Moorish Empire in Europe” quoted from: www.cyberistan.org/islamic/quote3.html).
Muslim civilization
Andalusia was the main route of Islamic civilization and the most
important bridge through which Islamic civilization moved to whole Europe and
had an impact on various scientific, intellectual, social and economical
fields.
Andalusia remained for eight centuries (711-1492) a radiating beacon of
civilization, even when it was politically weak, when a part of the kingdom was
overthrown. In fact, during those centuries in Spain, Muslim rulers have almost
never been in peace. There was disintegration within them. Some of them made alliances
with neighbouring enemies against one another, but scientists, philosophers and
lawyers all continued in their researches and works. They achieved a lot of
success for the benefit of the renaissance in Europe and ultimately the whole
world.
Gustave Le Bon (1841-1931), a French scholar recorded: “No sooner had
the Arabs completed the conquest of Spain than they started to carry out the
message of civilization there. In less than a century, they managed to give
life to dead lands, reconstruct ruined cities, set up magnificent buildings,
and strengthen close trade relation with other nations. They then started to
dedicate themselves to studying sciences and arts and to translate Greek and
Latin books and set up universities which continued to be a place for culture
in Europe for a long time” (G. Le Bon: “Civilization of Arabs”, quoted from:
islamstory.com).
To be continued…
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