The Almoravids of Spain

The Almoravid ruler Yūsuf ibn Tāshufīn entered the Iberian Peninsula from North Africa and slowly advanced to the fields of Al-Zallāqah, north of Badajoz (Baṭalyaws), where in 1086 he defeated a Castilian army under Alfonso VI. However, unable to further exploit his victory, he returned to the Maghrib. For two years Almoravid policy in Spain remained indecisive, but it appears that the siege of Aledo (1088) convinced Yūsuf ibn Tāshufīn of the urgent necessity of putting an end to the ṭāʾifas if he was going to rescue Spanish Islam. From 1090 he deposed their rulers, beginning with those of Granada and Málaga; the next year he dethroned the rulers of Almería and Sevilla, followed by the leader of Badajoz in 1093. Only Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (the Cid), exiled from his native Castile by King Alfonso VI, was able to resist the Africans, and he established an independent kingdom in Valencia—a new ṭāʾifa. The figure of the Cid—the Lord (Spanish Arabic: al-sīd), a title that the Arabs conferred upon him—is quite curious. He first served as a mercenary in the ṭāʾifa of Zaragoza, after which he became an independent prince in the east, ruling over states that were mainly inhabited by Muslims. He had the good fortune, however, of finding efficient administrators from among the Mozarabs residing in his states; further, his superb grasp of Almoravid tactics enabled him to overcome his numerical inferiority. Upon his death, Valencia remained under the control of his forces until 1102, when they were forced to evacuate it and seek refuge in Castile. Following the fall of Valencia, the Almoravids were unopposed, and in 1110, under the leadership of ʿAlī ibn Yūsuf (1106–43), they were able to occupy Zaragoza.

However, the conquest of Zaragoza marked the beginning of the Almoravid decline. The Aragonese king, Alfonso I (the Battler), and his stepson, Alfonso VII of Castile, launched renewed Christian assaults against the entire frontier of Islam in Spain. In 1118 Zaragoza fell into the hands of Alfonso I, who reconquered a large part of the valleys of the Jalón and of the Jiloca. After 1121 the Almoravids experienced serious difficulties in Africa as a result of the preachings of an Amazigh reformer, Muḥammad ibn Tūmart, and could not successfully withstand the Christian onslaught; indeed, they had to hire Christian mercenaries to help them. A resounding Almoravid victory over the Aragonese at Fraga (Ifragah) in 1134 bore no fruit, because the Almoravids lacked the resources to exploit it.

The Almohads

In Africa the Almohad dynasty finally triumphed, and ʿAbd al-Muʾmin (1130–63), successor to Ibn Tūmart, turned his attention to Spain and to the integration of all the Muslim states—the second ṭāʾifas—formed under the shield of the latest internecine wars caused by the Almoravid decline. Of these states, those under Ibn Mardanīsh (1147–72)—who was successful with Christian help in becoming the master of Valencia, Murcia, and Jaén and in securing Granada and Córdoba—especially stood out.

The Almohads assumed the title of caliph, introduced a series of severe religious measures, and sought to strengthen their states through religious unification—i.e., by compelling the Jews and Christians to either convert to Islam or emigrate. Two great sovereigns, Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf (1163–84) and Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb al-Manṣūr (1184–99), raised western Islam to the zenith of its power. Benefiting from the quarrels that divided the Christians, al-Manṣūr defeated the king of Castile, Alfonso VIII, in 1195 at the Battle of Alarcos (Al-Arak); despite this victory, however, he proved unable to exploit his triumph—repeating the fate that had befallen the Almoravids after al-Zallāqah. Years later, during the reign of his successor Muḥammad al-Naṣīr (1199–1214), the Christians avenged this defeat in the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (Al-ʿIqāb). This battle created a power vacuum into which stepped some of the ṭāʾifas, prominent among which were those of Banū Hūd of Murcia (Mursīyah) and of the Naṣrids of Arjona (Arjūnah). The policies of the two emirs were quite divergent: Muḥammad ibn Hūd (1228–38) emphasized resistance on the part of the Muslims against the Christians who, led by Ferdinand III, were occupying the Guadalquivir valley; by contrast, Muḥammad I ibn al-Aḥmar (ruled in Granada 1238–73) acknowledged himself to be a vassal of the king of Castile and even helped him against his own Muslim coreligionists. This realistic policy enabled him to preserve in his possession the territory of what are the modern provinces of Málaga, Granada, and Almería, together with portions of neighbouring provinces. Thus, after the middle of the 13th century and the reconquest of Jaén (Jayyān), Córdoba, Sevilla, and Murcia by the Castilians and of Valencia and the Balearic Islands by the Catalan-Aragonese crown under James I (the Conqueror), no independent dominions of Islam remained in Spain—with the exception of Granada, Minorca (until 1287), and the tiny area of Crevillente (Qirbilyān), which soon disappeared.

Granada

The Naṣrid dynasty, founded by Muḥammad ibn al-Aḥmar in Granada, endured for two and a half centuries. The Muslims of Granada lacked sufficient forces to constitute a genuine danger to the Christians, who limited themselves to collecting tribute and launching an attack against the Muslims from time to time, snatching from them some city or other. The people of Granada, for their part, always bore in mind what had happened in the cases of the Almoravids and the Almohads, who, having arrived from Africa as auxiliary troops, became masters in Al-Andalus. Vis-à-vis the new North African empires, particularly the empire of the Banū Marīns, they maintained a policy of balance of power. Although they permitted the influx of volunteers from Africa to enroll in their army to fight against the Christians, they never permitted the crossing of the Strait of Gibraltar by massive organized contingents. The years between 1302 and 1340 were extraordinarily complex both diplomatically and militarily. The Banū Marīns in both the western Maghrib and Castile vied for the possession of the Granadan ports of Tarifa (Jazīrat Ṭarīf) and Algeciras (Al-Jazīrah al-Khaḍraʾ), ports that controlled the strait. Granada, therefore, allied alternately with the Africans and the Christians, hoping thus to maintain the balance of power. A fourth state, Catalonia, called a Crusade; hoping to obtain a larger slice of the Reconquista, it intervened with its fleet and laid siege to Almería (Al-Marīyah) in 1309.

When Ismāʿīl I (1314–25) ascended the throne, another branch of the Naṣrid family gained power. Ismāʿīl checked the reconquest ambitions of Alfonso XI—who in 1340, with the aid of the Portuguese, won a decisive victory over the Maghribian army of Abū al-Ḥasan at the Battle of the Salado. The defeat of the Maghribians and the lack of interest in reconquest on the part of Alfonso’s successors created a favourable climate for Granada, which found itself free from political pressures of both Maghribians and Castilians. During the reign of Muḥammad V (1354–59; 1362–91) Granada attained its greatest splendour; its ministers included some of the most learned men of the epoch, such as the polymath Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Khaṭīb, the physician Abū Jaʿfar ibn Khātima, and the poet Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Zamraq. Important figures from the Maghrib were in close touch with Granada.

During this long era there also developed the institution of the “judge of the frontier” (juez de la frontera y de los fieles del rastro); the judge was a Muslim official who heard Christian complaints against the Granadans. This procedure did much to reduce frontier incidents between Muslims and Christians.

Little is known about the decline of the Naṣrid dynasty, since with Ibn al-Khaṭīb died the last great Muslim historian of Al-Andalus. The extant records and reports from the 15th century are as a rule from Christian sources or from the tales of travelers. The narrative poems that are of the utmost interest as historic sources for other periods in Muslim history are completely lacking in this era. The conventional verses of the king-poet Yūsuf III (1408–17), of his court poet Ibn Farkūn, or of the anonymous Arab poet of the romance Abenamar, Abenamar, moro de la morería, do little to illuminate the history of this period. More illustrative, however, are the verses of ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Qaysī (c. 1485), an esteemed member of Granada’s middle class, who eschewed classic themes and wrote of such mundane phenomena as the increase in the cost of living or the decline of Granada and its continuous territorial losses.

Foreign relations entered a long period of tranquillity as a result of the ghastly losses of life from the Black Death, which reached Spain in 1348, and afterward from the internal wars that weakened Christian Castile. Only an occasional confrontation served to remind the Muslims and Christians that their territorial struggle, considered by the latter as a reconquest, had not yet come to an end. In the 15th century, however, the Reconquista proceeded apace. The Castilian regent, Prince Ferdinand, seized Antequera (Antaqīrah) in 1410; Jimena and Huéscar fell in 1435, Huelma in 1438, and Gibraltar in 1462. One result of these events was that the people of Granada became increasingly less tolerant of Christians, and the Granadan faqīhs professed the most extreme xenophobia. The policy of intolerance and xenophobia points to the existence of a Granadan school of law, which before long exerted an influence on the other side of the strait; the Maghribians—subjected to the constant pressure of the Portuguese, who had gained possession of their coastal areas (Ceuta first, in 1415)—realized, like the Granadans, that the only way to escape Christian hegemony was through the profession of the most rigorous Islamic ideals and the practice of the most extreme xenophobia. This policy, common to both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar, did not achieve equal results. It saved the Maghrib from its external enemies, but in Spain it became the casus belli for the “Granada War” (Guerra de Granada), which was to inaugurate the conclusion of the Reconquista.

The sultan Muley Hacén (Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī) refused to pay the annual tribute he owed to the Catholic Monarchs and seized the fortified town of Zahara (1481), thus launching hostilities that were destined to liquidate the last bastion of Andalusian Islam. The campaign proved difficult for the Christian army, despite the discord that split the royal family of Granada and was exploited in Machiavellian fashion by Ferdinand II (the Catholic): Muḥammad XII (Spanish: Boabdil), son of Muley Hacén, rebelled in Guadix against his father and was recognized in Granada with the aid of the Abencerrajes, a powerful Granada family. Muley Hacén, however, who had taken refuge in Málaga, succeeded in recapturing the capital with the assistance of the Zegries family. Muley Hacén was successfully deposed by his brother, the Zagal (Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad al-Zaghall—the Valiant One), who was supported by the Venegas family.

Muḥammad XII was captured by the Catholic Monarchs during his attack at Lucena. In order to regain his freedom, he signed the Pact of Córdoba, in which he pledged himself to deliver the portion of the kingdom that was in the hands of the Zagal in exchange for help from the Castilians in recovering Granada, part of which (the Alhambra) was still in the hands of Muley Hacén. The latter and the Zagal allied themselves against Muḥammad XII, who fled and sought asylum in the court of the Catholic Monarchs. The death of Muley Hacén in 1485 enabled Muḥammad XII, with the help of the inhabitants of Albaicín, to occupy the Alhambra. The Zagal, who had been routed by the Christians before Vélez Málaga, retreated to Guadix in 1487 and, being incapable of further resistance, delivered his territories to the Catholic Monarchs and emigrated to Tlemcén (1491). Taking advantage of this civil war, the Christians seized Ronda, Marbella, Loja, and Málaga and were in a position to lay siege to Granada. When the siege began, the population divided into factions: one consisted of pacifists and the other of belligerents who, despite their quarrels, fiercely defended the city.

By the end of 1491 the situation became desperate, and Muḥammad XII capitulated. But before making the news public, he brought a detachment of Castilian troops into the Alhambra on the night of January 1–2 for the purpose of avoiding a disturbance on the part of his vassals that might render it impossible for him to comply with the terms of the pact. The official surrender, and with it the end of Muslim political power on the Iberian Peninsula, took place the following day, January 2, 1492. Islamic minorities, such as submissive Mudejars (later called Moriscos), remained in Spain until the 17th century.

Society

In discussing the influx of the Muslims into Spain, the various social groups into which the population was divided have already been pointed out: Arabs (baladiyyūn and Syrians), Imazighen, muwallads, Mozarabs, Jews, and slaves. The Muslim population continued to increase during the early centuries of the occupation because of the wave of conversions that markedly reduced the number of Christians. Precise figures cannot be given, but it is estimated that at the time of the conquest some 4,000,000 Spaniards inhabited the peninsula and that in the course of the 8th century the number of immigrant Arabs rose to about 50,000 and of Imazighen to about 250,000. The population was primarily rural, and large cities were few in number. At the end of the 10th century one can estimate the following urban populations: Córdoba, 250,000; Toledo, 37,000; Almería, 27,000; Granada, 26,000; Zaragoza, 17,000; Valencia, 15,000; and Málaga, 15,000.

At the peak of the administrative pyramid was the emir, caliph, sultan, or king, depending on the era. All the functionaries exercised their power by delegation from the sovereign, who embodied within himself all executive, legislative, and judicial authority, even though at times he delegated power to a ḥājib (chamberlain) or, after the 11th century, to a prime minister (dhu al-wizāratayn). In the discharge of his functions he was assisted by various viziers. At times there was, at the head of the various departments, a kātib, or official secretary. The provinces were governed by wālīs who enjoyed wide autonomy. Uniform municipal organization did not exist, and the duties fulfilled by some officials cannot be considered as representative; such officials included, for example, the chief of police (ṣāḥib al-shurṭa) and the market inspector (known until the 10th century as ṣāḥib al-sūq [zabazoque] and later as muḥtasib). The Muslim cities of Spain, with their baths, gardens, markets, mosques, and high cultural level, were quite different from and, some believe, superior to those of Christian Europe.

The army was based on the voluntary recruitment of soldiers or on contracts with soldiers from abroad. The units (jund), grouped according to the places of origin of their men, were deployed strategically along the borders and possessed extraordinary mobility at the time of the caliphate. Holding castles close to the enemy lands as their bases of operation, they were glad to welcome into their midst the Muslims, who were eager to die in combat in order thus to open for themselves the gates of paradise. These volunteers, who became more and more numerous with the passage of time and about whom many details are known, were frequently second-class soldiers, since they enrolled during years when they constituted a hindrance rather than a source of help. The navy and merchant marine, organized by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān II, remained an effective force until the middle of the 14th century.

The entire state structure rested, theoretically, on a foundation of the most rigid Islamic orthodoxy as interpreted by the Malikite (Mālikīyah) school, which in Al-Andalus manifested special characteristics of a hyperconservative nature. It is not known whether the school acquired these traits upon settling in the peninsula because intolerance was indigenous to the inhabitants there or whether it indoctrinated the Andalusian Muslims in this manner and they in turn transmitted it to the Christian states, their reconquerors.

The economy

The Muslim conquerors divided the lands seized from the Christians by force of arms and operated them, as a general rule, by means of “tenant-farmer” leases. Possibly about the 10th century the woodlands achieved their widest expansion, and the cultivation of irrigated lands was encouraged by means of drastic regulations, which, however, were favourably received. Plants used in the manufacture of textiles (flax, cotton, esparto grass, and mulberry for silk) as well as those with medicinal properties were protected by the state.

In addition to agriculture, the raising of livestock (sheep and Arabian horses) occupied a central position in the peninsular economy. As in the Roman period, lead, iron, gold, and mercury were mined. Domestic industry, which never went beyond the handicraft stage, culminated in the production of luxury cloths such as silk (a state monopoly), in the tanning of hides (Córdoban leather), and in the export of ivory objects. Commerce was selective and carried on in products “of low weight and high value” that frequently reached the most remote regions of the known world. There are reports of Andalusian travelers as far as the Sudan, central Europe, and even China.

The evolution of economic life was conditioned by political events; as the productive centres passed into Christian hands, the commercial vigour of the Muslims kept diminishing proportionally. No phenomenon is more illustrative of this than the confidence placed in the currency. In the 11th century Barcelona was counterfeiting Muslim coins; in the 14th century Granada was doing the same with Barcelona’s coins.