The UNTRUE Spanish Reconquest

Prologue

Good afternoon everybody! I've found this article that I wrote many years ago, it has some mistakes but I'm sharing it because, even though my opinion could have slightly changed, it shed a light on a truly important matter: Is the history we studied at school factual or is it influenced by political interests? Let me know what's your opinion.

I've also lost the bibliography I used at the time, I do remember that I wrote this article while studying for my thesis on the "Arabisms in the Spanish language".

The veil of Maya on the historical truth

Are we sure that history that we learn at school, really happened? Are we certain that the pages we read are not influenced by nationalist ideologies? Have we never argued what we studied in favor of a real historical truth?

Al-Andalus and the recent historical criticism associated with it, are not addressed, and often less mentioned. In a period like the one we live in, of racism, discrimination of all kinds and a dangerously growing nationalism, I believe it's essential to use and reformulate the lexicon, especially the one adopted at school. The term?Reconquista?indicates the historical events that led the Catholic Kings of Spain to repossess the territories of the Iberian Peninsula. But how can we talk about a reconquest if there has never been a conquest?

Even in the Middle Ages historians didn't talk about a reconquest! We should teach our students the real deal, with an appropriate vocabulary. Call it invasion, conquest, cruel and bloody war, but not?Reconquista. But why am I "complaining" about it now, in 2022?

For two simple reasons: We are talking about a word which was used for the first time in the nineteenth century to romanticize the concept of national unity and the idea of homeland and from there, it started taking a new turn, a strong nationalist concept quite far from the truth, considering that the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco used a lot the term?Reconquista, in the same way he defined the Spanish Civil War (1936 - 1939) a crusade. Do we really want (or need) to share with the next generations such a negative concept? Even the spanish essayist and philosopher Ortega y Gasset reported that a reconquest that lasted six centuries, is not a reconquest. On the other hand, we should ask ourselves: Can a re-conquest exist without a previous conquest? This is why I'd prefer the term "Catholic invasion". Muslim Spain (711 - 1492, nearly eight centuries) - with great exceptions - wasn't taken over after a fierce and long war. Ibn Tariq had it easy, Iberians citizens were tired of the heavy hand that the Visigoth's church had on them so they quite accepted the new "brand" that muslim were carrying: brotherhood, equality and peace! A smart move, if you ask me.

The Muslim Invasion

Each word has an history and a meaning that we cannot ignore. Not a single document described the Reconquista as such, no objective descriptions of terrible acts often cited by teachers and nationalist texts. Be careful, I'm not saying that the arabic troops were the humanized image of peace and love, there were fine and taxes imposed on catholics and jews, I'm just trying to state that the concept of "a needed Reconquista" was introduced only 150 years later, to the usual Catholic propaganda. But let's jump 4 centuries back;

We are in a period of great tension within the Catholic Church, a time when there was a collision between two visions: the unitary theory, which believes in one God and does not see him as a trinity and the theory of the Trinity, that was the one that was imposed by force and in which we still believe today. To solve such argument in 325, Constantine, at the Council of Nice, imposes the idea of the Trinity and from that moment in the Iberian Peninsula, where most of the population believed in the unitary theory (theory spread by Arius and later by Priscillian, the first heretic executed by Church), began a violent repression that slowed down in 702 thanks to the Visigoth King Witiza and returned bloodier than before with the King Rodrigo, known to the Spanish as Don Rodrigo. And it is under his kingdom that a small handful of Arabs, led by Tariq ibn Ziyad and some say helped by Witiza "friends", entered the Iberian Peninsula in 711 and in a couple of years took possession of all the territories, only stopped in Poitiers. The Muslims brought a message of peace, brotherhood, and did not impose their religion but allowed everyone to believe what they prefer to profess publicly and in their places of worship - however they had to pay really high taxes-. The Arabist Asin Palacios says that Islam itself is a fusion between the unitary theory and Judaism, for this reason during the Muslim Spain these three religions lived almost in peace and harmony and that's why the inhabitants of the Peninsula saw in Muslims a liberation from the oppression of the Church and happily embraced Islam and helped the small group of Arabs to drive the Visigoths out of the country and overcome the Pyrenees. How could they get so far? Almost three thousand Berbers fighting against at least two million Visigoths! Moreover the period of Al-Andalus is undervalued, here I say it is the first European Renaissance, a time when Spain saw culture, discoveries and economy grow.

The first European Renaissance with Al-Andalus

Inevitably the Arab traces left tangible legacy in poetry, in music but also in many scientific fields. Many sovereigns were surrounded by men (and sometimes women) of culture who often accompanied them during trips and expeditions. The same Spanish poetry evolved into numerous metric forms, which were born in the XI century,?moaxaje?and?zagal, both made to be sung and subsequently transformed into?villancicos. In music the great master was Ziryab who arrived in Cordoba in 822 and added a fifth string to the lute. The music was so important for Western Muslims, who outshone the famous Baghdad allowing Seville to become the true center of music, so that even the Catholic Kings made use of Arab musicians. The Arab culture relied on books, which allowed the creation of numerous libraries and paper industries that allowed the diffusion of books also in subsequent years, as well as the birth of some of the first universities in the world. Under the Arab kingdom Historiography was also developed with Ibn al-Qutiyya, as well as Geography, travel writings -?Rihla?- but especially sciences. They were masters in Astronomy and Mathematics, and many important works in these fields were translated into Latin. The same goes to Medicine and their decisive theories about infection, the cauterization of wounds, and how to dissolve kidney stones. Al-Andalus excelled in every field imaginable, and his fame reached all parts of the world, so much that a German nun called it "the world's diamond”.?Finally I quote the Hispanist Ian Gibson, who said that

the real Spain is the mixture of cultures, religions and genes.

What's the point then to undervalue its relevance? How great is the ignorance of those who discriminate? How important is it to change the lexicon of our history to convey this new message? Let's free the history from any political constriction and allow knowledge and history itself to save us from repeating the same mistakes.