Peyton R McClure

Professor McCandless
Final Research Project
4/27/2019
In the centuries following the conquest of Iberia and the formation of Al-Andalus,
Christian Kingdoms in Northern Iberia slowly began to pick away at the Muslim kingdoms to
their south. Eventually culminating in the conquest of the last Muslim kingdom of Granada, the
Reconquista would create Spain as a nation devoted to homogeneity, firmly in the grasp of the
Catholic church. As such, a general predisposition against Moorish traditions and non-orthodox
Catholic teachings took hold amongst the Spanish Christian monarchies. Despite, and at times
because of, their zealous attempts to eradicate Arab culture from Iberia, the nations born of the
Reconquista became something different from their other Christian neighbors. Just as the
Caliphate of Cordoba was able to claim succession and continuation from the Roman Empire,
the Christian kingdoms assimilation of Arab culture created them into the inheritor of the
Caliphate of Cordoba’s literary exploits, early governance, and architecture. As such, the
Reconquista, in the sense that it was the eradication of Arab culture from the peninsula never
happened, instead the historical period of the Reconquista was a gradual melding of Arab and
Iberian identity that eventually came to dominate the peninsula.
In terms of other works, there have been a few mentions of this argument. They call into
question the validity of even calling the era The Reconquista due to the at times discordant
events to a straightforward narrative. However, they typically will continue to analyze just one
part of the era.
Of course, any argument that asserts the Reconquista was not a campaign to rid Iberia of
Muslim rule must acknowledge that the successor states in Iberia after 1452 were all Catholic.
To this it should be noted that the change in religion does not delegitimize the claim to
Cordoba’s legacy. In fact, this change in Iberian religion serves to reinforce the notion, for both
the Caliphs and the Christian monarchs of Iberia used religion to unite potential allies for the
cause of unifying the peninsula. At their peak, the Caliphs of Cordoba were able to unite the
Muslims of their realm as the divinely appointed leaders of the faith. In turn, the advancing
Christian realms were able to turn to their own religious head in Rome who had a personal stake
in seeing Iberia united. For centuries, the Bishops of Rome had tried to expand their power to
cover all Christians in Europe, with varying degrees of success. The conflicts between the
papacy and the secular rulers of Europe would become infamous as the two wrestled for
supremacy. However, in Asturias and other contemporary Christian kingdoms a different series
of events were playing out. While rulers like Alfonso VI were spreading south into the
fragmented Taifa's, the splinter kingdoms of Cordoba, Cluny monks from France were invited to
the growing Christian kingdoms to introduce theological reforms. Possessing an ever-growing
number of congregants due to the capture of Iberian cities, the western edge of Christendom was
an excellent place for a monk to show their devotion. The advance of these orders was directly
tied to “[t]he political leadership of the kingdoms in Christian Spain [who] clearly understood the
impact of these reforms and the relation and unity with the Church [to] fight.”1 As the Spanish
Church gradually came to mirror the rest of European Christianity, the Popes in Rome took the
opportunity to expand their temporal powers into Iberia where the Christian kings were willing
to accept papal oversight in exchange for legitimacy in their continued expansion. Until then,
there was “no record of [Iberian] attendance at papal councils, no hint of any pilgrimages to
Rome. Important decisions about the government of the church were taken locally; for example,
the decision to restore the sees of Braga, Tuy and Orense in 1070-1.”2 As such, the local
churches acted autonomously and the question of who, if anybody, held authority over the
Spanish church, at least in practice. Alfonso VI would change this, his work with the Cluny order
and Rome would make it so that “by the time of the pontificate of Innocent III the scene had
completely changed. Relations between Leonese churchmen and the papal curia were frequent
and close. The popes were receiving visits from churchmen and dispatching legates and fund-
raisers. They issued privileges, heard appeals, appointed judges-delegate, answered questions,
listened to complaints. Their registers are full of letters rebuking, scolding, chiding, warning,
informing, advising, and sometimes even praising the men who made up the [Iberian]
episcopate.”2 Even the Spanish liturgy had been altered into the Mozarab right, liturgy that was
delivered largely in Arabic. The liturgy would later be banned following threats by Pope
Greggory VII against Alfonso VI, but the rite would continue in parts of Iberia for many years
after. The power dynamic of pope and secular ruler was kept in a way that complimented rather
than opposed the other, in a similar fashion that religion and government interplayed in Cordoba.
The religious orders that came to Iberia were at the periphery of their faith and felt they had a
vital role to play, much like the Muslims of early Al-Andalus. By the time that Christian
Kingdoms started to push south, the religious makeup had already been altered in contrast to the
rest of Europe, following centuries of interaction with the Arab Muslim world.
The most important and most far-reaching aspect the inheritors of Cordoba gained was its
wealth of knowledge. Ever since the Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates invaded the former
lands of the Roman Empire, the Muslim conquers had been recovering, translating, and
discussing the works of the classical Greco-Roman world. In turn, the major cities of the Muslim
world became beacons to learned citizens from all over western Afro-Eurasia. However, as the
power of these nations eroded, large swaths of territory were consumed by opportunistic
neighbors. Among these growing states were the Christian kingdoms of northern Iberia. As they
advanced, they quickly followed in their defunct predecessor’s footsteps and began laboriously
translating and copying the works of Cordoba. It should be noted that “[t]he appearance of the
school of translation between the 12th and 13th centuries meant a complete revolution for
European knowledge.”3 Just as the Caliphs of Cordoba had encouraged the diffusion of
knowledge to the rest of the Muslim world, the developing Spanish nations spread their
newfound knowledge back to the rest of Europe. Further, after the conquest of Toledo “Jewish
and Arabian scholars remained in the city, carrying on with their studies... The previous cultural
baggage... combined with the knowledge that Christian intellectuals brought.”4 Here too, we see
that this was not truly the narrative of expulsion yet. The idea that the Reconquista was a war
against Moorish influence and a campaign to banish Islam from the peninsula is clearly false as
the strengths of the former Muslim caliphate come together to better everyone who wishes to
further knowledge.
 It should be noted that, despite evidence to the contrary, many people, including
contemporaries of the Reconquista, felt that this period truly was a war between Islam and
Christianity. Many of them would quickly point to the events that precipitated the fundamental
desire for the Reconquista, the Muslim invasion of the 8th century. Taking this at face value, one
could be forgiven for assuming that the Reconquista really was a holy war for the Iberian
Peninsula. However, when analyzing such a claim it is important to understand the context in
which these people lived. The idea of the Reconquista was encouraged in large part by the
Christian nobility, or those close to their power, seeking to legitimize their claim to being
monarchs over all Spains. In their recounts they make the last Visigoth rulers into noble, if
corrupt, individuals who had their realms stolen from them. As such, the primary goal of
Christian Spanish monarchs was to tie themselves to a kind of tragedy of the Visigoths whose
dominion was “believed to have extended their rule over the whole of Spain, including
Mauritania in North Africa...The whole Roman Diocese of Spain... one of the most significant
elements in the Visigoths legacy.”5 Tucked away in the rugged mountains of Northern Iberia, the
Christian kingdoms steadily built up this legend. They sought to paint the Muslim rulers at
Cordoba as tyrants that had to be purged from Iberia. In fact, when looking at the chronicles of
the time it seems fictitious or contrived in a few ways. The chronicles talk about how “Roderic
headed for the Transductine Mountains to fight them and in that battle the entire army of the
Goths, which had come with him fraudulently and in rivalry out of ambition for the kingship,
fled and he was killed. Thus, Roderic wretchedly lost not only his rule but his homeland, his
rivals also being killed, as Walid was completing his sixth year of rule.”6 The legacy of an
apparently betrayed ruler who is portrayed as a king rather than a usurper or a rebel can be a
powerful claim to legitimacy. As such, Spanish monarchs all the way to Ferdinand and Isabella
claimed, “continuity existing between the new Kingdom of Asturias and the old Visigothic
kingdom, whether actual or imagined.”7 Therefore, the claim that the Christians were fulfilling
an obligation to Christendom is a fabrication. A fabrication that becomes even more apparent
when one considers that the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada, the last Muslim holdout of Al-
Andalus, had existed under some form of Muslim rule for over 700 years.
Continuing the idea of Christian Spain being the inheritor of Cordoba, attention should be
brought to the actual conflicts that dominate most discussions of the Reconquista. Noting that
“Pope Paschall II... declared that a crusade against the Muslims in Spain was as valid as were the
crusades in Palestine.”8 Returning to a previous point, this was a function of obtaining more
allies for the secular purposes of expanding power. This is not to say that there was not some
religious component, but the Spanish rulers were just trying to drum up support much in the
same way that the past caliphs of Cordoba did by appealing to a divine presence. This statement
being corroborated by how “Rome remained concerned... [about] the disobedience of the
Spanish Church to the Pope’s reformation orders.”9 Also, when a formerly Muslim held city fell
the terms of surrender tended towards a peaceful transition of power. In the Treaty of Granada,
the official document signed upon the surrender of the last Muslim kingdom in Iberia, we are
met by a lengthy list of promises to the people's security. Castille made promises that “[o]nce the
fortresses are surrendered, their highnesses and the prince... the greater and lesser common
people... inhabitants of Granada and the Albaicin and its surrounding areas... shall be allowed to
stay in their houses, estates, and inherited properties.”10 The treaty is genuinely geared towards a
peaceful settlement with further promises of people having the option to sell their property in
Spain in favor of relocating to other lands with minimal expenses to the individual depending on
them giving proper notice within a fixed time span, with the treaty acknowledging that people
may still leave after the three years are passed but must pay a fee and book passage with their
own wealth. The final surrender of the Moors in Iberia from this standpoint does not appear to be
anywhere near the tone of the Crusades that the Reconquista is typically ascribed to being. If
anything, the treaty was more in keeping of the policies and legacy exercised by the Umayyad
Caliphate when they first began taking Visigoth territory in the 8th century.
Thus far, the topics covered in this work have included theology, the sciences and the
nature of conflict that helped set Christian Iberia apart from the rest of Europe in keeping with its
Arabic heritage. Here an investigation into the architectural history of Spain will be taken. When
the Umayyad dynasty first took Iberia, the peninsula had gone from the works of the Roman
Empire to the stout and heavy style of Visigoth migration art. A style that tried to emulate
Roman style but possessed characteristics that made it clear they were more familiar with Roman
defensive structures than the wealth of more urban environments.

“Iglesia de San Juan de Baños.”699. http://www.jdiezarnal.com/sanjuandebanos.html

As seen here, the picture above is of the Monastery of San Juan Bautista. The monastery was
built by the Visigoths as they moved into Spain, and the result is a structure like others
throughout post Roman Europe, few windows, and thick walls to support the building. Things
would quickly change, for following the invasion of the Umayyad Caliphate Iberia took on the
style of the rest of the Muslim world. In turn, once the Caliphate fell and the Christian kingdoms
of Iberia spread their influence, they began incorporating Moorish styles into their construction
to create Mudéjar style.
 Magal,Samuel.”San Martin Tower.” 14th century. Sites and Photos.

http://www.sites-and-photos.com

Following the blending of the two cultures, the nature of Iberian architecture was permanently
changed. While the gothic traditions of the rest of Europe did see expression in the works of the
new Christian states of Al-Andalus, most of Spanish architecture would go on borrowing from
their Moorish neighbors. In fact, so enthralled were the Spanish monarchs by Andalusian
architecture, after the Fall of Granada, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella relocated their court
to the palace complex of the Nasrid dynasty, Alhambra.
 Rogers, Elizabeth. ”Alhambra.”

13th century. Foundation for Landscape Studies. Image and original data provided by the Foundation for Landscape Studies. https://www-jstor-

org.proxy.kennesaw.edu/action/doImageSearch?pagemark=cGFnZU1hcms9Mw%3D%3D&Query=alhambra&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery

%3Dalhambra&refreqid=search%3A74a3b599dd8e76d10f0c886a126b3d23

In conclusion, the confluence of Arab and Iberian cultures was able to create Spain and
its predecessors into a state dissimilar from its counterparts in the rest of the Medieval world.
Therefore, the traditional narrative of an us versus them situation is unable to be substantiated
when one looks at how the two cultures fed into each other. This melding culminating in Spain
becoming the successor and inheritor of the legacy of the Caliphate of Cordoba.

Notes
Roberto, Guzman, CRUSADE IN AL-ANDALUS: THE ELEVENTH CENTURY FORMATION OF THE RECONQUISTA AS AN IDEOLOGY, Islamic Research Institute, International
1.
Islamic University, Islamabad, 1992. Pp. 292

Richard, Fletcher, The Episcopate in the Kingdom of León in the Twelfth Century, Oxford University Press, 1978
2.
Luisa, Paton, THE SCHOOL OF TRANSLATORS OF TOLEDO AND THE IDENTIFICATION OF GUNDISALVO’S MAIN CONTRIBUTOR, University of Alcala, pp 3
3.
Paton, Toledo, pp. 4
4.
Joseph, O’Callaghan, Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain, University of Pennsylvania Press,2004
5.
Kenneth, Wolf, Surrender Treaty of Granada, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012, pp. 1-2
6.
O’Callaghan, Reconquest
7.
Guzman, Crusade, pp. 8
8.
Fletcher, Episcopate
9.
Jon, Cowans, Chronicle of 754, Early Modern Spain: A Documentary History
10.
 Bibliography

 MARIN-GUZMÁN, ROBERTO. "CRUSADE IN AL-ANDALUS: THE ELEVENTH CENTURY FORMATION

OF THE RECONQUISTA AS AN IDEOLOGY." Islamic Studies 31, no. 3 (1992): 287-318.
http://www.jstor.org.proxy.kennesaw.edu/stable/20840082.
 Paton, Luisa. THE SCHOOL OF TRANSLATORS OF TOLEDO AND THE IDENTIFICATION OF
GUNDISALVO’S MAIN CONTRIBUTOR. FITISPos International Journal, 2015, v. 2, p. 122-131
 Fletcher, Richard. The Episcopate in the Kingdom of León in the Twelfth Century. Oxford
University Press. 1978. Pp.1-37
 O'Callaghan, Joseph F.. Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 2004. Accessed May 7, 2019. ProQuest Ebook Central.
 Jon, Cowans, Chronicle of 754, Early Modern Spain: A Documentary History

 Kenneth, Wolf, Surrender Treaty of Granada, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012, pp. 1-2
 Messier, Ronald A. 2010. The Almoravids and the meanings of jihad. Santa Barbara, Calif:
Praeger.
 Rogers, Elizabeth. ”Alhambra.” 13th century. Foundation for Landscape Studies. Image and
original data provided by the Foundation for Landscape Studies. https://www-jstor-
org.proxy.kennesaw.edu/action/doImageSearch?pagemark=cGFnZU1hcms9Mw%3D
%3D&Query=alhambra&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery
%3Dalhambra&refreqid=search%3A74a3b599dd8e76d10f0c886a126b3d23

 Magal,Samuel.”San Martin Tower.” 14th century. Sites and Photos. http://www.sites-and-

photos.com
 “Iglesia de San Juan de Baños.”699. http://www.jdiezarnal.com/sanjuandebanos.html