The tribute of 100 virgins (
virgin maidens paid by the Christian
kingdom of Asturias to the Muslim
emirate of Córdoba. The narrative also suggests that fifty were to be of noble birth and fifty commoners.
[1] The myth of tribute has been described "historically apocryphal but ideologically accurate" because it played important propaganda role in the formation and affirmation of the
Reconquista ideology in the later
Middle Ages, and it still figures prominently to this day in Spanish national cultural memory.
Myth's origin
The political and military frontier on the Iberian Peninsula of the time, dividing different religio-ethnic communities, was porous, among other, for inter-faith marriages and the political alliances.[2] However, practices such as Mauregato's, who forged amicable relationships with the Moors, and who allowed intermarriages between the Moors and the Asturias, where these exogamous marriages served to create a "network of social affection" among different kinships, despite being in line with "fundamental role" of contemporary in the medieval world as "peaceweaving instruments" and Christian ideology, was never accepted by the Church.[2]
Thus, the origin of the myth of tribute is placed in the reign of
Lucas of Tuy, writing in 1236 described how Mauregatus "gave many high-born and also low-born maidens [to the Saracens] in marriage due to an agreement with the Saracens so that he might be at peace with them," adding a "sinister spin" to the story through subsequent chapters.
[2]Narrative
Basic narrative started evolving around King Mauregatus' amicable relationships with the Moors, who was assassinated by revolting counts Arias and Oveco in 788, in revenge for granting the Moors such a repulsive tribute. His successor,
Bermudo I, tried to negotiate for a tribute of money instead. Bermudo was succeeded by
Alfonso II, nicknamed "the Chaste", who fully rejected the tribute and had to deal with military consequences. He won the
Battle of Lutos and killed the Moorish Captain Mugait, thus achieving his goal: no more tribute. The next king,
Ramiro I, with the help of
Bernardo del Carpio defeated the Moors at the (fictitious)
Battle of Clavijo. The Moorish rulers were reportedly scared, by the growing military strength of the northern Christians, into giving up demands for the tribute.
Analysis
There is an implicit attack on the licentiousness of the Moors in this myth, specifically in that what is being demanded was virgins. The Moors' sexual libertinism, or alleged sexual libertinism, was a key thread in Christian attacks on it and in motivation for the Reconquista.Abd al-Rahman II, was rumored to have limited his sexual partners to virgins, i.e., he did not make love with the same woman twice, presumably because he preferred the variety. (See
es:Abderramán II#Familia e hijos.) The legend of the tribute of the 100 virgins did not begin during the reign of
Abd al-Rahman I
See also
References
