A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME PART 4
In the last episode (part 3, June issue) we learnt of the times of the Visigoths and the ‘dark age’ of Spain. Dark age because of the dearth of information we have about this period, for the Visigoths lived off the achievements of the Roman Empire and brought very little in the way of advancement of a nation state.
In the rest of Europe, the age of serfdom was being forged, which in turn led to various levels of society required to bring about nationhood as we know it today. Although the Visigoths were from northern Europe and indeed had links to their land of origin, they choose not to follow the way of the rest of Europe.
It was as if they already had the ‘manana’ attitude.
They operated a loose and somewhat indifferent method of running the land of Hispania and this gave them a false feeling of security. From the south, in a land separated by only 13 kilometres of narrow sea passage, the Moors were planning to take this ripe plum, ready for picking, to expand the land of Mohamed and the religion of Islam.
In April of the year 711, Tariq ibn Ziyad launched an army of 10,000 men across the narrow sea crossing and landed at the place we now call Gibraltar (Tariq’s Rock or jabal-tariq), and the invasion of Iberia by the Moors had begun the occupation was to last almost 800 years. The Visigoth King, Roderick, who was away in the north of the land, made haste to do battle with the Moors, and in July of the same year the two forces clashed in southern Andalucia in which some of Roderick’s men changed sides during the course of the battle resulting in a crushing defeat for the Visigoths.
No trace of Roderick was ever found except for his magnificent white charger which still had its jewel-encrusted saddle strapped to its back.
As if to strike fear into the scattered troops of the Visigoths and the population of the land, Tariq had a group of randomly chosen prisoners cut into pieces and boiled in large cooking pots.
The remainder of the prisoners were released in order to spread the word, ‘do not mess around with this one, he means business’. At this one stroke all resistance melted away and Tariq claimed Toledo, the old Visigoth capital and spent the winter there planning his next move to claim all the lands of the peninsular and beyond. With the initial invasion so successful and the bounty so plentiful, a second wave of troops was despatched from North Africa in the summer of the next year, commanded by Musa who took control of all the Moorish troops and led them into the final battle with the remnants of the Visigoths at Merida where the last defeat of the Visigoths took place.
The Visigoths fled into the area of Asturias where they joined forces with the local defenders and formed the nucleus of the future Christian Reconquest. The relative ease which the Moors swept across this most westerly part of Europe has left modern historians with a conundrum, how could they take such a vast area with a relatively small number of men?
Many believe that it was the weakness of the Visigoth state plus the hostility of the normal population to their masters. The Jews certainly turned against the Visigoths, and sided with the Moors, something that the rest of the population would carry against them in the future, whereas some of the population simply rolled over, wishfully believing that the invaders would take what they wished and simply go home.
In just a few years, the Moors swept across the peninsular and over the Pyrenees into France, it appeared that nothing could stop them. In 732 at the battle of Poitiers (modern day Tours) they came up against the Franks under the command of King Caldus, (Charles Martel) who gave them a bloody nose after the Moors sacked the city and slaughtered the inhabitants.
The battle took place by the side of the Loire river and swung between the two armies over a period of two days with the final conquest by the Franks. This battle is worthy of note and reflection for had the Moors won, all of Europe lay open to them and the Islamic faith. This became the dividing point between Christianity and Islam, a line had been drawn, this far and no further.
The Moors retreated back across the great dividing mountain ridge of the Pyrenees, having to be content with already conquered lands. They even gave Hispania a new name, that of Al-Andulas but the northwest of the country proved yet again as it had done in the times of the Roman conquest, too difficult to conquer, and the seeds of unrest were sow here which effectively later turned against them.
For the first two hundred years of their occupation, the Moors fought amongst themselves.
Individual tribes trying to wrestle control from other tribes and elitist Arab leaders and between them their Berber henchmen who they treated with distain. At one point, two of the leading Arab tribes united against a Berber revolt then turned against themselves in an orgy of blood letting and assignations.
Whilst this infighting was taking place the Christian part of Spain was becoming more organised and through a marriage, a local chieftain, Alfonso, the founder of the Kingdom of Asturias became all powerful in the region and throughout his reign of 18 years he gradually won back a quarter of the peninsular.
As a mark of respect to this fledgling nation to be, the heir to the Spanish throne is called the Prince of Asturias, the equivalent to the Prince of Wales.
During this period fine glassware was introduced as was silk weaving and intricate leatherwork. The art of metalwork was also crafted into fine and somewhat delicate shapes and the glazed tiles called azulejos were introduced. Indeed Cordoba, the undisputed capital of Moorish Al-Andulas became the most civilised and envied city in Europe, and in the 10th C could boast open gardens fed by running water, public baths, libraries and paved, lighted streets. There was indeed a very marked difference between the area controlled by the Moors and the northern area controlled by the Christians who remained pastoral and backward.
When the Moors invaded they brought no women with them, instead they took wives and built up their harems from the local population who were very highly prized for their fair hair and skin, but this continual interbreeding of Moor and Christian produced offspring in which the Arab blood became insignificant. So much so that men even after three or four generations had fair or even blond hair with fair skin, and in order to prove their Moorish ancestry had to dye their hair black.
Still the strife continued. There was lack of order and unity, until a person by the name of Abd-er-Rahman came on the scene with his followers, and within a year he had crushed the opposition and was proclaimed the Emir (leader) of Al-Andalus. He ruled for a period of 32 years and allowed no voice of dissent.
His personal army consisted of 40,000 loyal men and any insurgents were quickly disposed of, their heads packed in boxes of salt and sent to the Caliph in Damascus, the centre of the Muslim world.
This alarmed the Caliph so much that he bribed the then Frankish King, Charlemagne to invade Al-Andulas and they unsuccessfully attacked Zaragoza. This proved to be an ill founded escapade – so on their retreat they sacked Pamplona. Then on their way through the Roncesvallas Pass in the Pyrenees they were attacked not by the Moors but by the Basques who were incensed by the sacking of Pamplona.
So here we have a Frankish army (Christian) paid by the Caliph in Muslim Damascus (Islamic) to attack the Moors in Al-Andulas (Islamic) finally succumbing to the Basques(Christians).
Money and power ruled the day just as it does today!
However, taken as a whole, religious differences i.e. Islam, Christianity and the Jewish faith were tolerated and each person allowed to follow their own beliefs, after all everyone ‘followed the book and were people of the book’.
So great was this tolerance that the Great Mosque of Cordoba came about by the Moors using half the church of St. Vincent with the Christians using the other half. When the Moors needed to expand, the Christians sold them their half of the church, and the Moors went on to demolished the church and build the Great Mosque which was to become the second most important place for Islamic worship after Mecca.
When, during the Reconquest, Cordoba was retaken for the Christians, the Christians built a church inside the Mosque it was so large that the roof had 800 double pillars to support the structure. It remains to this day one of the lasting legacies of the Moorish period.
Another legacy of the period was the use of water, the Moors used it in abundance. Not only in agriculture but to embellish buildings and to make individual features.
Personal hygiene took priority, springs, fountains and public bathing and washing areas either closed or bricked up during the gothic period (they were not used to bathing) were opened up and people were encouraged to bathe.
However, the Christians preferred not to bathe as they thought body odour and filth was next to godliness, and clothes went unwashed for years or until they fell of the body.
I wonder whether this has lead us to today’s abundance of scent – sorry perfume shops – in Spain?
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