Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula

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(Redirected from
Umayyad conquest of Hispania
)
Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula
Part of the early Muslim conquests

King Roderic Addresses his Soldiers at the Battle of Guadalete by Bernardo Blanco y Pérez (1871)
Date711–720s
Location
Iberian Peninsula
Result Umayyad victory
Territorial
changes		 Establishment of Al-Andalus
Belligerents
Umayyad Caliphate Visigothic Kingdom
Kingdom of Asturias
Commanders and leaders
Al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik
Musa ibn Nusayr
Tariq ibn Ziyad
Tarif ibn Malik
Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa
Uthman ibn Naissa		 Roderic †
Theodemir Surrendered
Achila II †
Oppas (MIA)
Ardo
Pelagius
Map of the Umayyad conquest of Hispania

The Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by the Umayyad Caliphate occurred between approximately 710 and the 720s. The conquest resulted in the defeat of the Visigothic Kingdom and the establishment of the Umayyad Wilayah of Al-Andalus.

During the caliphate of the sixth Umayyad caliph,

Roman Hispania.[1][2][3][4] After defeating the Visigothic king Roderic at the Battle of Guadalete in July the same year, Tariq was reinforced by an Arab force led by his superior wali Musa ibn Nusayr
and continued northward.

In 713,

Abbasid force led by Yusuf ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri
landed to claim the territory from the Umayyads.

By 781, Abd al-Rahman I had quashed all rebellions and rivals and consolidated Umayyad rule over an almost wholly reunified Iberia, a presence that would remain until the intensified Pope-backed Reconquista of the mid-13th-century, which was aimed at reclaiming the peninsula for Christianity.[5]

Background

See also: Protofeudalism and Military campaigns under Caliph Uthman

The historian al-Tabari transmits a tradition attributed to Caliph Uthman, who stated that the road to Constantinople was through Hispania, "Only through Spain can Constantinople be conquered. If you conquer [Spain] you will share the reward of those who conquer [Constantinople]". The conquest of Hispania followed the conquest of the Maghreb.[6] Walter Kaegi says Tabari's tradition is dubious and argued that conquest of the far western reaches of the Mediterranean Sea was motivated by military, political and religious opportunities. He considers that it was not a shift in direction due to the Muslims failing to conquer Constantinople in 678.[6]

Precisely what happened in Iberia in the early 8th century is uncertain. There is one contemporary Christian source, the

Al-Maqqari from the 17th century, reflect later ideological influence.[8] Roger Collins writes that the paucity of early sources means that detailed specific claims need to be regarded with caution.[9]

The Umayyads took control of Hispania from the Visigoths,[10] who had ruled for roughly 300 years.[10] At the time of the conquest, the Visigothic upper class was beginning to fracture[4] and had many problems with succession and maintaining power.[4] That was partially because the Visigoths were only 1-2% of the population,[4] which made it difficult to maintain control over a rebellious population.

The ruler at the time was King Roderic[1] but the manner of his ascent to the throne is unclear. There are accounts of a dispute with Achila II, son of his predecessor Wittiza. Later regnal lists, which cite Achila and omit Roderic, are consistent with the contemporary account of civil war.[11] Numismatic evidence suggests a division of royal authority, with several coinages being struck, and that Achila II remained king of the Tarraconsense (the Ebro basin) and Septimania until circa 713.[12] The nearly-contemporary Chronicle of 754 describes Roderic as a usurper who earned the allegiance of other Goths by deception, and the less reliable late-9th-century Chronicle of Alfonso III shows a clear hostility towards Oppa, bishop of Seville (or Toledo) and probably a brother of Wittiza, who appears in an unlikely heroic dialogue with Pelagius.[13]

There is also a story of

Julian, count of Ceuta, whose wife or daughter was raped by Roderic and who sought help from Tangier.[14] However, these stories are not included in the earliest accounts of the conquest.[15]

Musa ibn Nusayr's first reconnaissance missions to Hispania returned with reports of "great splendor and beauty", which increased Muslim desires to invade Hispania. During one of the multiple raids in 710, the Muslims "made several inroads into the mainland, which produced a rich spoil and several captives, who were so handsome that Musa and his companions had never seen the like of them".[16]

The natives of Hispania viewed the Berbers in a similar way as the Byzantines viewed the Arabs, as barbarians, and feared an invasion by them. According to Ahmad al-Maqqari’s chronicle:[17][18]

Whenever some of the scattered tribes of Berbers inhabiting along the northern coast of Africa happened to approach the sea shore, the fears and consternation of the Greeks [Iberians] would increase, they would fly in all directions for fear of the threatened invasion, and their dread of the Berbers waxed so greatly that it was instilled into their nature, and became in after times a prominent feature in their character. On the other side, the Berbers having been made acquainted with this ill-will and hatred of the people of Andalus towards them, hated and envied them the more, this being in a certain measure the reason why even a long time afterwards a Berber could scarcely be found who did not most cordially hate an Andalusian [people of Spanish/Christian descent], and vice versa, only that Berbers being more in want of Andalusians than these are of them

Establishment of the Umayyad Polity of Al-Andalus

Conquest and Treaty

According to the later chronicler Ibn Abd al-Hakam, the Tangier governor Tariq ibn Ziyad led a force of approximately 7,000 [19] men from North Africa to southern Spain in 711.[1] Ibn Abd al-Hakam reports, one and a half centuries later, that "the people of Andalus did not observe them, thinking that the vessels crossing and recrossing were similar to the trading vessels which for their benefit plied backwards and forwards". They defeated the Visigothic army, led by King Roderic, in a decisive battle at Guadalete in July that year. In 712, Tariq's forces were then reinforced by those of his superior, the wali Musa ibn Nusayr, who planned a second invasion, and within a few years both took control of more than two-thirds of the Iberian Peninsula. The second invasion comprised 18,000 mostly Arab troops, who rapidly captured Seville and then defeated Roderick's supporters at Mérida and met up with Tariq's troops at Talavera. The following year the combined forces continued into Galicia and the northeast, capturing Léon, Astorga and Zaragoza.[20][21]

According to the Muslim historian Al-Tabari,[22] Iberia was first invaded some sixty years earlier during the caliphate of Uthman (Rashidun era). Another prominent Muslim historian of the 13th century, Ibn Kathir,[23] quoted the same narration, pointing to a campaign led by Abd Allah bin Nafi al Husayn and Abd Allah bin Nafi al Abd al Qays[24] in 32 AH (654 CE), but there is no solid evidence about this campaign.

The first expedition led by Tariq consisted mainly of

Guadalete River
. Roderic was believed to have been killed, and a crushing defeat would have left the Visigoths largely leaderless and disorganized, partly because the ruling Visigoth population is estimated to have been a mere 1 to 2% of the total population.
Qasr Amra, modern-day Jordan (710-750)[29][30]

In 714, Musa ibn Nusayr headed north-west up the Ebro river to overrun the western Basque regions and the Cantabrian mountains all the way to Gallaecia, with no relevant or attested opposition. During the period of the second (or first, depending on the sources) Arab governor Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa (714–716), the principal urban centres of Catalonia surrendered. In 714, his father, Musa ibn Nusayr, advanced and overran Soria, the western Basque regions, Palencia, and as far west as Gijón or León, where a Berber governor was appointed with no recorded opposition. The northern areas of Iberia drew little attention from the conquerors and were hard to defend when taken. The high western and central sub-Pyrenean valleys remained unconquered.

At this time, Umayyad troops reached

Basque town submitted after a compromise was brokered with Arab commanders to respect the town and its inhabitants, a practice that was common in many towns of the Iberian Peninsula.[31] The Umayyad troops met little resistance. Considering that era's communication capabilities, three years was a reasonable time spent almost reaching the Pyrenees, after making the necessary arrangements for the towns' submissions and their future governance.[32]

Scholars have emphasized that animosity against the Visigothic rule in some regions of the Visigothic Kingdom, including to a greater extent the deep disagreements and resentment involving the local Jewish communities and the ruling authorities, weakened the kingdom and played a pivotal role in the ultimate success of the Umayyad Conquest of Iberia.[33]

New territorial and civil administration

Northeastern al-Andalus, the Pyrenees and southern Gaul at the time of the Berber rebellion (739–742)

Preference for treaties

In 713, Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa subdued the forces of the Visigothic count Theodemir (or Tudmir), who had taken over southeastern Iberia from his base in Murcia after the power vacuum after King Roderic's defeat. Theudimer then signed a conditional capitulation by which his lands were made into an autonomous client state under Umayyad rule.

The Treaty of Theodemir in 713 represents a form of indirect rule that Abd al-Aziz, son of Musa the Umayyad governor of Ifriqiya, installed over "a Visigothic potentate named Theodemir (Tudmir, in Arabic)".[4] The treaty entailed that the local ruler, Theodemir, would remain in power as long as he recognized Muslim suzerainty, constituted in Abd al-Aziz, and paid monetary tribute.[4] Furthermore, Abd al-Aziz agreed that his forces would not plunder or "harass" Theodemir's town or people, an agreement that extended to seven more towns as well.[4]

Abd Al-Aziz sent messages to the governors of the different Islamic provinces denouncing non-Muslims:[34][35]

O ye who believe! The non-Muslims are nothing but dirt. Allah has created them to be partisans of Satan; most treacherous in regard to all they do; whose whole endeavor in this nether life is useless, though they themselves imagine that they are doing fine work. Upon them rests the curse of Allah, of the Angels and of man collectively

His government and the Christian beliefs of his subjects were respected; in exchange, he pledged to pay a tax (

muwallad Banu Qasi
based in the Ebro Valley and other counts and landowners.

Some towns (Cordova, Toledo, etc.) were stormed and captured unconditionally by the Umayyads to be governed by direct Arab rule. In the area thought to be part of King Roderic's territory, Mérida also staged a prolonged resistance to the Umayyad advance but was ultimately conquered in mid-summer 712.[37] As of 713 (or 714), the last Visigothic king, Ardo, took over from Achila II, with effective control over only Septimania and probably the eastern Pyrenean threshold and coastal areas of the Tarraconense.

Islamic laws did not apply to all the subjects of the new rulers. Christians continued to be ruled by their own Visigothic law code (Forum Iudicum) as before. In most of the towns, ethnic communities remained segregated, and newly arriving ethnic groups (Syrians, Yemenites, Berbers and others) would erect new boroughs outside existing urban areas. However, that would not apply to towns under direct Umayyad rule. In Cordova, the cathedral was partitioned and shared to provide for the religious needs of Christians and Muslims. The situation lasted some 40 years until Abd ar-Rahman's conquest of southern Spain (756).

Taxation

An early governor (wali) of al-Andalus, al-Hurr ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Thaqafi, spread the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate up to the Ebro Valley and the northeastern borders of Iberia, pacifying most of the territory and initiating in 717 the first forays across the Pyrenees into Septimania. In addition, he laid out the foundations of Umayyad civil administration in Iberia, by sending civil administration officials (judges) to conquered towns and lands guarded by garrisons established usually next to the population nuclei.[38]

Moreover, al-Hurr restored lands to their previous Christian landowners, which may have added greatly to the revenue of the Umayyad governors and the caliph of Damascus, by increasingly imposing the

vectigalia on the former, a tax that was applied on a specific region or estate, not per capitation (jizya). Only non-Muslims were subject to taxation, apart from a Muslim subject's compulsory alms-giving.[38] The task of establishing a civil administration in conquered al-Andalus was essentially completed by Governor Yahya ibn Salama al-Kalbi
10 years later.

The period following al-Hurr's office saw the establishment of the Arabs in southern Septimania during Al-Samh ibn Malik al-Khawlani's tenure as wali. Narbonne fell (720), and no sooner had he garrisoned it than the Arab commander led an offensive against Toulouse. During this Umayyad thrust or its aftermath, King Ardo died (721).

Ethnic groups and rise of conflicting internal tensions

Duchy of Vasconia, and Septimania
just after its conquest by Pepin (760)

In the first stage of the invasion, the armies were made up of

Western Asia. These peoples, clustered around the banner of the Umayyads did not mix together, remaining in separate towns and boroughs. The Berbers, recently subdued and superficially Islamized, were usually in charge of the most difficult tasks and the most rugged terrains, similar to the ones found in their North African homeland, while the Arabs occupied the gentler plains of southern Iberia.[39] Notable military leaders came to include Berbers in their ranks, such as Tariq Ziyad who is credited with much of the strategy of conquering Al-Andalus.[4]

Consequently, the Berbers went on to stations in

Odo of Aquitaine
and detached from Cordova.

The internal frictions continually threatened (or sometimes may have spurred) the ever-expanding Umayyad military effort in al-Andalus during the conquest period. Around 739, on learning the news of

Berber revolt in the south instead. The following year, the Berber garrisons stationed in León, Astorga and other north-western outposts gave up their positions, and some of them even embraced the Christian religion.[40] The Muslim settlement was thereafter established permanently south of the Douro
's banks.

The Berber rebellions swept the whole of

Yusuf ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri (opposed to the Umayyads) remained in power up to his defeat by Abd al-Rahman I in 756, and the establishment of the independent Umayyad Emirate of Cordova. It was in this period of unrest that the Frankish king Pepin finally captured Narbonne from the Andalusians (759)
.

In Yusuf's and Abd-ar-Rahman's fight for power in al-Andalus, the "Syrian" troops, a mainstay of the Umayyad Caliphate, split. For the most part, Arabs from the

Mudhar and Qais tribes sided with Yusuf, as did the indigenous (second- or third-generation) Arabs from northern Africa, but Yemeni units and some Berbers sided with Abd-ar-Rahman, who was probably born to a North African Berber mother himself. By 756, south and central al-Andalus (Cordova, Sevilla) were in the hands of Abd-ar-Rahman, but it took another 25 years for him to hold sway over the Upper Marches (Pamplona, Zaragoza and all of the northeast).[41]

Aftermath and consequences

The Iberian Peninsula was the westernmost tip of the Umayyad Caliphate of Damascus and was under the rule of the governor of Ifriqiya.[10] In 720, the caliph even considered abandoning the territory.[22] The conquest was followed by a period of several hundred years during which most of the Iberian peninsula was known as al-Andalus, dominated by Muslim rulers.[10] Only a handful of new small Christian realms managed to reassert their authority across the distant mountainous north of the peninsula.

In 756,

Abbasid Caliphs from the Friday prayers.[42] In the wake of those events, southern Iberia became de jure and de facto independent from the Abbasid Caliphate.[43] Although this was not accepted outside al-Andalus and those North African territories with which it was affiliated, Abd al-Rahman, and especially his successors, considered that they were the legitimate continuation of the Umayyad caliphate, i.e. that their rule was more legitimate than that of the Abbasids.[43] It seems that Abd ar-Rahman never considered establishing a separate principality. (See Caliphate of Córdoba
.)

During the unification of al-Andalus in the reign of Abd ar-Rahman before his death in 788, al-Andalus underwent centralization and slow but steady homogenization. The autonomous status of many towns and regions negotiated in the first years of the conquest was reversed by 778,[44] in some cases much earlier (Pamplona by 742, for example). The Hispanic Church based in Toledo, whose status remained largely undiminished under the new rulers, fell out with the Roman Church during the Adoptionist controversy (late 8th century). Rome relied on an alliance with Charlemagne (in war with the Cordovan emirs) to defend its political authority and possessions and went on to recognize the northern Asturian principality (Gallaecia) as a kingdom apart from Cordova and Alfonso II as king.

The population of al-Andalus, especially local nobles who aspired to a share in power, began to embrace

Dar al-Harb was motivated not by a goal of converting the population to Islam but by the belief that everyone was better off under Islamic rule.[46]

Abd ar-Rahman I founded an independent dynasty that survived until the 11th century.

The last wave of expulsions
of Spaniards of Muslim descent took place in 1614.

Chronology

History of Al-Andalus
Muslim conquest

(711–732)
Umayyad dynasty of Córdoba
(756–1031)
First Taifa period
(1009–1110)
Almoravid rule
(1085–1145)
Second Taifa period
(1140–1203)
Almohad rule
(1147–1238)
Third Taifa period
(1232–1287)
Emirate of Granada
(1232–1492)
Related articles

As discussed above, much of the traditional narrative of the Conquest is more legend than reliable history. Some of the key events and the stories around them are outlined below.

See also

Notes

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 0-312-22464-8
    .
  2. ISBN 9781842000915
    .
  3. ISBN 9788496395046
    . Retrieved 26 May 2010 – via Books google.
  4. ^
    OCLC 1003304619.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  5. ^ Fromherz, Allen: The Near West: Medieval North Africa, Latin Europe, and the Mediterranean in the Second Axial Age (2017)
  6. ^
    ISBN 9780521196772
    .
  7. ^ Collins 1989, p. 28.
  8. ^ Collins 1989, p. 31.
  9. ^ Collins 1989, pp. 25–26.
  10. ^
    OCLC 34746098
    .
  11. ^ Collins 1989, p. 33.
  12. ^ Collins 1989, pp. 32–33.
  13. ^ Collins 1989, pp. 17, 32–33.
  14. ^ Collins 1989, pp. 31–32.
  15. ISBN 2-02-012935-3
  16. ^ Maqqarī, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad; Al-Khaṭīb, Ibn (1840). "The History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain: Extracted from the Nafhu-t-tíb Min Ghosni-l-Andalusi-r-rattíb Wa Táríkh Lisánu-d-Dín Ibni-l-Khattíb".
  17. ^ Maqqarī, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad; Al-Khaṭīb, Ibn (1840). "The History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain: Extracted from the Nafhu-t-tíb Min Ghosni-l-Andalusi-r-rattíb Wa Táríkh Lisánu-d-Dín Ibni-l-Khattíb".
  18. ISBN 9780415297714
    .
  19. ^ "Taariq Ibn Ziyaad the Conqueror of Andalusia".
  20. ISBN 978-0-19-533403-6
    .
  21. ISBN 978-0-19-988041-6
    .
  22. ^ a b See: History of the Prophets and Kings (Tarikh al-Tabari)
  23. Al-Bidayah wa al-Nihayah
    (Tarikh ibn Kathir)
  24. ISBN 9780791401545
    .
  25. ISBN 9780415004749
    . The historian Abd al-Wāḥid Dhannūn Ṭāhā mentions that several Arab-Muslim writers mention the fact that Tariq has decided to cross the strait without informing his superior.
  26. ^ Ripoll López, Gisela (1989). "Características generales del poblamiento y la arqueología funeraria visigoda de Hispania". Espacio, Tiempo y Forma, S. I, Prehist. y Arqueol., t. 2. pp. 389–418. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 12, 2010. Retrieved 27 November 2017. En resumen se puede considerar que el pueblo visigodo – sin diferenciar la población civil de la militar – representó de un uno a un dos por ciento sobre la totalidad de la población de Hispania.
  27. ^ Kennedy, Hugh (1996). Muslim Spain and Portugal: A political history of al-Andalus. Longman. pp. 1–14.
  28. ^ Lomax, D.W. (1978). The Reconquest of Spain. Longman. pp. 15–16.
  29. The Metropolitan Museum of Art
    .
  30. ^ Drayson, "Ways of Seeing".
  31. ISBN 0-631-17565-2
    .
  32. ^ Collins 1990, p. 116.
  33. JSTOR 4466922
    .
  34. ISBN 9780307472458
    .
  35. ^ Gottheil, Richard James Horatio (1921). An Answer to the Dhimmis.
  36. ^ Collins 1989, pp. 39–40.
  37. ^ Collins 1989, pp. 42–43.
  38. ^ a b Collins 1989, pp. 45–46.
  39. ^ Collins 1989, pp. 49–50.
  40. ^ Collins 1989, p. 158.
  41. ^ Collins 1989, p. 180.
  42. ^ Collins 1989, p. 127.
  43. ^
    OCLC 889165096
    .
  44. ^ Collins 1989, p. 174.
  45. OCLC 1111697223
    .
  46. ISBN 9780472130283
    .
  47. ISBN 978-1851096725
    . Retrieved August 6, 2015.

Sources
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