‘Busting the Dark Ages myth' 711 – 1492 AD
“MANY WESTERN HISTORIANS SEEM DETERMINED ON DEFAMING THE MOORS AND DESTROYING THE NOTION THAT DURING A PERIOD OF HISTORY KNOWN AS THE “GOLDEN AGE,” IT WAS POSSIBLE FOR THREE RELIGIONS, ISLAM, JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY LIVE TOGETHER AND ENJOYED HUNDREDS OF YEARS OF “LA CONVIVENCIA”?OR “CO-EXISTENCE.”
“MANY historians of the West have unjustly vilified Islam in Europe for centuries and cleansed its legacy from European history books.?One of the most maligned European Islamic empires are the Moors of Spain who established Al-Andalus (now known as modern Andalucia) until 1492.”
·???????María Rosa Menocal, a specialist in Iberian literature at Yale University claims that "Tolerance was an inherent aspect of Andalusian society". Menocal's 2003 book, ‘The Ornament of the World’, argues that the Jewish dhimmis living under the Caliphate, while allowed fewer rights than Muslims, were still better off than in the Christian parts of Europe. Jews from other parts of Europe made their way to al-Andalus, where in parallel to Christian sects regarded as heretical by Catholic Europe, they were not just tolerated, but where opportunities to practise faith and trade were open without restriction save for the prohibitions on proselytisation.
·???????A period of tolerance dawned for the Jews of the?Iberian Peninsula, whose number was considerably augmented by immigration from North Africa in the wake of the Muslim conquest. North African Jewish immigrants and immigrants from the Middle East bolstered the Jewish population, and made Muslim Spain probably the biggest center of contemporary Jews.
?Throughout the 700 years (711- 1492) of Islamic and Moorish Spain, there was a series of dynasties and rulers.
The Dependent Emirate (711-756)
The Independent Emirate (756-929)
The Caliphate (929-1031)
The Almoravid Era (1031-1130)
Decline of the Nasrids. 1130-1492)
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The Richness of Cordoba
Many historians of the West have unjustly vilified Islam in Europe for centuries and cleansed its legacy from European history books.?One of the most maligned European Islamic empires are the Moors of Spain who established Al-Andalus (now known as modern Andalucia) until 1492. The Moorish rule in Spain is referred to by many western historians as the “occupation,” and in 1492 when the 700-year Islamic rule came to an end it was hailed as the “reconquest. ”
My own Spanish-Moorish discovery began in 1987 when I visited Cordoba on a school exchange and stayed with a Spanish family. Andalucía was a fascinating place indeed, with its mixture of former mosques and crimson Moorish palaces overlooked by snow-capped mountains. I was intrigued by young Spaniards dancing the Sevillanas on table tops in the local bars and tourists who filled plazas. I was fascinated by a place where church bells and gypsy guitar gently fused with the sound of the call to prayer. It took me over 30 years to appreciate the significance of this cradle of Moorish civilization in Europe.
Before the arrival of the Berber Commander Tariq Ibn-Ziyad via the Strait of Gibraltar from northern Africa, Spain had been populated by a succession of invaders and settlers including the Phoenicians, Greek, Carthaginians, the Romans and Germanic tribes. In 711, the 700-year rule of the Moors began. It was an empire that expanded as far as the mountains of Asturias and ended in January 1492 in Granada.?The last sultan of Spain, Abu `Abdallah Muhammad XII (Boabdil), handed over the keys of the city to?Catholic powerhouse, Isabel of Castille and Fernando of Aragon. ..
By 1499, long after the Islamic rulers had left the Iberian Peninsular, Muslims were being forced to convert to Christianity or leave Spain. Muslim or Jews who had converted to Christianity, known as the Moriscos and Conversos, were subject to ridiculous tests of faith or burnt at stake in the famous Spanish Inquisition, carried out by Cardinal Jimenez de Cisnero which was ratified by the Catholic monarchs. Thousands of precious manuscripts and books in Greek and Arabic were burned at the orders of Cisneros and all the knowledge lost. So ended the era of La Convivencia.
Chapter 3: The Makings of a Pariah
There is right, there is wrong, then more importantly, there is the reality of power:?He who controls the levers of power, usually provide the answers to questions of right and wrong.
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The Moors (Muslims) ruled Spain for almost 800 years (711-1492), which is not a blip in the history of the world.?Consider the historic life of America (1776-2016) next to Rome 27 BC – 395 AD, (undivided) approximately.
In Dr. Ivan Van Sertima’s book, The Golden Age of the Moors, he wrote about the debt Europe owes to the Moors and the significant contributions of the African Muslim on the Iberian Peninsula and to the Renaissance in European society.?This is well researched and can be found in libraries, book stores and on the internet.
?When the Moors entered Spain in 711, they did not arrive as destroyers but instead came as consensus builders.?The Jews and the Moors worked together and in some instances the Jews were viewed as collaborators with the Muslims.?In Moorish Spain “thousands of Jews and Christians lived in peace.” The Moors may have carried into Spain, some of the lessons learned from Rome’s occupation in North Africa (Timgad) 100 AD.
In his article on Muslim Spain and European Culture in Real History, Ancient Man and His First Civilizations, Dean Derhak penned:
When you think of European culture, one of the first things that may come to your mind is the Renaissance. Many of the roots of European culture can be traced back to that glorious time of art, science, commerce and architecture. But did you know that long before the Renaissance there was a place of humanistic beauty in Muslim Spain? Not only was it artistic, scientific and commercial, but it also exhibited incredible tolerance, imagination and poetry. Moors, as the Spaniards call the Muslims, populated Spain for nearly 800 years. ?As you will see, it was their civilization that enlightened Europe and brought it out of the dark ages to usher in the renaissance. Many of their cultural and intellectual influences still live with us today. ..