"Some Spanish History regarding Muslims, Christians, and Jews"

	As everyone knows, Spain offers us a unique example of how the followers of the three monotheistic
faiths lived together and got along.  Knowing the by now infamous 1492 edict for the expulsion of the Jews,
one would expect to find that everything was in harmony until this terrible event.  Not all is what it seems because
the documents that are available to us and the history that they tell do not allow for this type of picture to emerge.
We do find that periods of time passed where there was nothing "out of the ordinary" happening, but we cannot
assume that it was what we would now call harmony.  It was in accordinance with the law of the times and the
land, which was the Visigothic law code in Northern Spain in the kingdoms of Castile, León, Aragon and the
others, but in the south it was based on Shari'a or Islamic law.  Both had different treatments of the other and
both had different advantages for their subjects.

	The beginning of Islamic Spain happened in 711 CE with the southern entry by Berbers and the
remnant of the Umayyads.  With the rapid expansion of the Islamic states in the East, one would wonder why
it wasn't as quick in the West.  The main reason for this is that the Berbers put up a large resistance to Islam,
just as they had done to the Romans before them (Fletcher "Quest" 12).  The Berbers were connected to the
Visigoths that ruled Iberia at the time by virtue of their being Goths too.  The Goths were an upper German
people who conquered much territory but couldn't quite get to Rome, so they conquered northern Africa, which
had little Roman control and was easily taken (Maas 311).  The different Goths took control of different parts
of Europe: Visigoths-Iberia, Ostrogoths-Italy, Vandals-North Africa, Angles and Saxons-Britain (299).  The
Visigoths conquered Spain in 470 CE.  They had adopted the Christian religion more than a century earlier
and many Roman ways.  Richard Fletcher says this about the Visigoths:
		Visigothic Spain was the most Romanised of the successor-states to Roman dominion
		 which emerged in the provinces of Western Europe.  [...] In matters of government,
		economy and culture broadly conceived, there was a much greater degree of continuity
		from Roman to post-Roman in Visigothic Spain than there was in Frankish Gaul or
		Anglo-Saxon England.  The name of King Recceswinth may sound uncouthly in our ears;
		but it was he who, as Flavius Reccesvintus Rex, issued in 654 the most sophisticated
		code of law produced in early medieval Western Christendom.  [...] The Latin culture of
		seventh-century Spain, of which Isidore, the polymath bishop fo Seville (d. 636) was the
		leading light, was the richest in Western Europe.  (Fletcher "Quest" 13-14)
Since it was "the richest in Western Europe", it seems likely that the conquering groups of Arabs and Berbers
saw plenty booty in Spain and that might have been one of the causes of their entering Spain in the first place.
But our sources of this time are scarce so this remains a hypothesis.

	If the Visigothic kingdom was the richest in culture at the time, perhaps we should take a look at
what they accomplished before we move on.  Isidore, who was the bishop of Seville from 600 until his death
in 636, wrote many works in the ranges of natural philosophy, theology, and history.
		One of them [the historical works], the "Historiae Gothorum Vandalorum et Sueborum"
		[History of the Goths, Vandals, and Suevi], completed in 624, chronicled the history of
		the Visigoths from 256 until the time in which Isidore was writing, with brief additional
		sections describing the Vandals and the Suevi.  Although this book had an important
		influence on later Spanish historiography, it was less known outside the peninsula.
		(Constable 3)
One of the lines in his History says "Yes you are rich in purple-clad rulers as you are native gems, and, rich in
imperial gifts, you are as wealthy in adorning your princes as you are blessed in producing them.  Rightly did
golden Rome, the head of the nations, desire you long ago" (4).  The glory and beauty of Iberia returns many
times in subsequent histories.  The mention of the colour purple is also noteworthy because it was the royal
colour in ancient times and he is saying that Iberia was the source of these purple rulers.  Other figures that
came from the Iberian Peninsula are Trajan and Hadrian who also connected with quashing revolts from the
Jews in Judea and Samaria.

	The population would have lowered after the early battles, "partly by violence and partly by
emigration to safer regions" (Fletcher "Moorish Spain" 26).  Similar lowerings happened with the Crusades.
The earliest text that we have on the invasion was written by a Mozarab Christian in 754 and in Latin.  The
text is important "because the estant Arab histories postdate the Muslim conquest of Spain by hundreds
of years, [and] is the single most important source of information on the 'settling in' period of Muslim
rule-from the invasion to the eve of the establishment of the Umayyad emirate (756)" (Constable 29).
The main details from this source are: the quick conquests of Africa and Asia Minor (modern Turkey), the
attack and conquer of the Goths by Musa (noting that the Gothic kingdom had been there for 350 years),
after the seizure the making of paying tribute, the counter-attack by Roderic and the flight of his army, and
his losing Spain to Musa.  This is the decisive battle that brings it under Muslim control, but there are still
more details after the conquest and what happened to the inhabitants of the cities: "while Spain was being
devastated by the aforesaid forces, Musa himself, approaching this wretched land across the straits of
Cádiz and pressing on to the pillars of Hercules [...] entered the long plundered and godlessly invaded
Spain to destroy it" (Constable 30), imposed "an evil and fraudulent peace" (30), captured some
nobles with the help of the previous king's son, exposing to Zaragoza
		the sword, famine, and captivity.  He ruined beautiful cities, burning them with fire;
		condemned lords and powerful men to the cross; and butchered youths and infants
		with the sword.  While he terrorized everyone in this way, some of the cities that
		remained sued for peace under duress and, after persuading and mocking them
		with a certain craftiness, the Saracens granted their requests without delay.  When
		the citizens subsequently rejected what they had accepted out of fear and terror,
		they tried to flee to the ountains where they risked hunger and various forms of
		death.  The Saracens set up their savage kingdom in Spain, specifically in Córdoba,
		formerly a patrician see and always the most opulent in comparison to the rest of the
		cities, giving its first fruits to the kingdom of the Visigoths.  (31)
Musa is ordered home to Syria, bringing gold and other ornaments, but was taken out of favour and "paraded
with a rope around his neck" (31).  A further event is introduced at the end of the conquest that should also
be quoted here:
		After he [Abd al-Aziz] had taken all the rishes and positions of honour in Seville, as well
		as the queen of Spain, whom he joined in marriage, and the daughters of kings and
		princes, whom he treated as concubines and then rashly repudiated, he was eventually
		killed on the advice of Ayub by a revolt of his own men while he was in prayer.  After Ayub
		had held Spain for a full month, Al-Hurr succeeded to the throne of Hesperia by order of
		the prince, who was informed about the death of Abd al-Aziz in this way: that on the advice
		of queen Egilona, wife of the late king Roderic, whom he had joined to himself, he tried to
		throw off the Arab yoke from his neck and retain the conquered kingdom of Iberia for
		himself.  (31-32)

	The story of the queen reappears in the Arabic text of Ibn 'Abd al-Hakam, who died in 871, 160
years after the conquest.  We find out that Abd al-Aziz is the son of Musa and the story with the queen is given
some more details.
		Then he returned to the hadith of 'Uthman and others, and he said: After his father departed,
		'Abd al-'Aziz married a Christian princess, daughter of a king of al-Andalus.  It is said she
		was the daughter of Roderic, king of al-Andalus, whom Tariq killed.  She brought him a
		great fortune in worldly things, such as cannot be described.  When she came to him,
		she said, "Why do I not see the people of your kingdom glorifying you?  They do not prostrate
		themselves before you as the people of my fahter's kingdom glorified him and prostrated
		themselves before him."  He did not know what to say to her, so he commanded that the
		side of his palace be pierced with a small door.  He used to give audience to the people,
		and for this purpose he would come to the inside of the door, so that someone entering
		to see him would have to lower his head on account of the smallness of the door.  She was
		in a [hidden] spot watching the people, and when she saw this, she said to 'Abd al-'Aziz,
		"Now you are a great king!"  The people heard, however, that he had constructed the door
		for this purpose, and some believed that she had made him a Christian.  So Habib ibn
		Abi 'Ubaida al-Fihri and Ziyad ibn al-Nabigha al-Tamimi and their friends from the Arab
		tribes, when they heard about it, stirred up rebellion against him.  They decided to kill
		'Abd al-'Aziz.  They went to his muezzin and said, "Give the call to prayer at night so
		that we may come out for prayers."  So the muezzin called out and intoned the call to
		prayer, and 'Abd al-'Aziz came out and said to his muezzin, "You have rushed indeed,
		giving the call to prayer at night!"  Then he went to the mosque.  Those of the [rebel]
		party had already gathered there, as well as others who were present for the prayers.
		'Abd al-'Aziz went to the front and began to recite, "When the event happens-and there
		is no lie to the event-casting [some] low and raising [oters] high," whereupon Habib
		struck his sword at 'Abd al-'Aziz's head.  'Abd al-'Aziz turned away in flight until he
		came to his house, and he went into his garden and hid there under a bush.  Habib
		ibn Abi 'Ubaida and his companions fled, but Ziyad ibn al-Nabigha followed him.  He came
		upon his tracks and found him under the bush.  'Abd al-'Aziz said to him, "Be merciful, Ibn
		al-Nabigha, and I will give you whatever you ask."  But he answered, "You may not taste
		life after this!" and finished him off, and he cut off his head.  (36)
This shows us that there was fear at this late date about the Christian queens trying to convert their new Muslim
husbands to Christianity.  There are similar stories with other Christian queens in Europe that have similar events
in them to make each one look suspicious as to whether each was a separate event, or whether or not they were
based on some literary theme that fit the stereotype of the Christian queen.  More analysis has to be done, but
we will not do it here.

				"Bibliography"
Ed. Adler, Elkan Kathan.  "Jewish Travellers in the Middle Ages: 19 Firsthand Accounts."  New York: Dover
	Publications, Inc., 1987.
Ed. Constable, Olivia Remie.  "Medieval Iberia: Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources."
	Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997.
Ed. Ferreiro, Alberto.  "The Visigoths: Studies in Culture and Society."  Leiden: Brill, 1999.
Fletcher, Richard.  "The Quest for El Cid."  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
---.  "Moorish Spain."  Berkeley and Loos Angeles: University of California Press, 1993.
Maas, Michael.  "Readings in late Antiquity: A Sourcebook."  London: Routledge, 2000.
Moreno, Luís A. García.  'Spanish Gothic Consciousness among the Mozarabs in Al-Andalus (VIII-Xth Centuries)'.
	In "The Visigoths."  Ed. Ferreiro, Alberto.  Leiden: Brill, 1999.  303-323.
Ed. Wright, Thomas.  "Early Travels in Palestine."  Mineola: Dover Publications, Inc., 2003.