The glory that was al-Andalus
VognoDuut863
Chaklader Mahboob-ul Alam
I live in a town whose name is Madrid (Mayerit), studied at a prestigious
local university called University of Alcala (al-Quilat an Nahar), spend my
week-ends and holidays at a country cottage near a village called
Guadaljara( Guad al- Jarras) and speak a language which has got hundreds of
Arabic words in its vocabulary. From all this, one could easily conclude
that I live in a Muslim country. That would be wrong. The country where I
live is Spain. In spite of the presence of the vestiges of the great
Hispano- Muslim civilisation in almost every walk of life, Spain today is a
predominantly Catholic country where only a few hundred thousand Muslims
live, most of whom are immigrants from Africa and Asia. But many centuries
ago things were quite different.
At the beginning of the eighth century, Spain was in turmoil because of
social unrest and internal strife among the nobility. The Roman imperial
rule had collapsed. The Visigoths, a Germanic people, who used to be
referred to as the barbarians by the Romans had gradually, over a period of
two centuries, consolidated their hold on the peninsula. But they had great
difficulty in being accepted by the conquered Hispano-Roman population
because of different linguistic, ethnic, legal, cultural and religious (The
Visigoths , although later converted to Catholicism, at the time of the
invasion practised a heretical faith called Arian Christianity) backgrounds.
For some time even marriage between members of these two communities was
prohibited by law. There was very little commercial activity. Most of the
Hispano-Romans earned their livelihood from working in agriculture and
animal husbandry while the best cultivable land often belonged to the
Visigoth noble families. Hunger and poverty were quite common among the
poorer classes because of frequent draughts. The vast majority of
Hispano-Romans did not identify themselves with the ruling Visigoths. They
lived under such appalling conditions that they believed that a change in
the governing class might improve their living conditions.
On the political front, there were continuous plots and counter-plots among
the Visigoth noble families. The situation was made worse by the Gothic
tradition of electing their monarchs from among the nobles whenever a
reigning monarch was assassinated or died a natural death, which often led
to civil wars. There was no such thing as natural heirs through hereditary
succession. In an attempt to install a system of peaceful transition of
power through hereditary succession, King Witiza (700-710) named his son
Aquila as his successor. But this was opposed by a group of nobles led by
Duke Roderick, who proclaimed himself king of Spain after the death of King
Witiza. Civil war broke out between the two camps in 710.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the straits, in Africa, the Muslims who in
only a few years after the death of Prophet Muhammad had built up a
formidable military machine and conquered the whole of North Africa, were
carefully watching the situation in Spain for an opportunity in invade the
country. That opportunity came when Witiza's family members invited the
Muslims to help them defeat Roderick, whom they considered as a usurper. It
is of historical relevance to mention here that if internal strife among the
Christian Spaniards was what paved the way for the Muslim conquest of Spain,
it is equally true that eight centuries later, internecine wars among the
Muslim Spaniards was the principal reason for their downfall and eventual
disappearance from Spain.
Although in most history books, the year 711 is mentioned as the year when
the Muslim invasion of the Iberian Peninsula began, this is not quite true.
Actually, the first Muslim soldiers set foot on the peninsula a year before.
This is true that in 711, a Muslim army of approximately seven thousand
soldiers under the command of a Berber (not Arab) general called Tariq
ibn-Ziyad landed at the foot of a mountain called Calpe in southern Spain.
But almost a year before this landing, i.e. in 710 Tariq had sent a small
contingent of soldiers (approximately four hundred men) as a reconnaissance
force to the peninsula under the command of another Berber soldier called
Tarif ibn Muluk to gather intelligence and prepare the ground for an
eventual landing of a larger army. After so many centuries and vicissitudes
of history, the places where they landed and built fortresses (now sizeable
towns) still bear their names. Tarifa (Jazirat Tarif), the southern
most -town on the Iberian Peninsula and Gibraltar (Jabal Tariq), still bear
testimony to those historical events.
Tariq was a military genius. He knew that it was essential to move swiftly.
After building a fortress at Gibraltar in only two months and securing his
supply lines from North Africa, in July 711, he camped at a place near
modern Cadiz, which he considered a suitable place to confront the
numerically superior Spanish army which was coming down from the north at
great speed with King Roderick at its head. It was the month of Ramadan.
Both the armies fought valiantly. But strategic genius of Tariq and the
Islamic zeal of his troops won the day. The Spanish army was completely
routed. King Roderick was later killed and the whole of Iberian Peninsula
lay open to Muslim domination. Instead of returning to Africa, Tariq headed
north and conquered Toledo (90 kilometres from Madrid), the capital of the
Visigoth kingdom in the same year. (By the way, Madrid or Mayerit was
founded sometime in the middle of the ninth century as a garrison town by
Emir Mohammad of Cordoba to defend Toledo.)
Next year, (in 712), Tariq's superior, General Musa ibn Nusayr , landed in
the peninsula at the head of a largely Arab army composed of approximately
12,000 soldiers to consolidate Muslim hold over the peninsula. He also set
about the task of putting in place the rudiments of a government for the
conquered territories. In a mere matter of 21 years after Tariq's first
victory in 711, the Muslims conquered most of the Peninsula (modern Spain
and Portugal), which eventually came to be known as al-Andalus. Some of the
mountainous regions in the north remained in the hands of the Visigoths. It
was from this small patch of unconquered territory that the Christians
mounted their "reconquista" which eventually culminated in the fall of the
last Muslim kingdom of Granada in 1492 and the "final solution of the Muslim
problem" in 1609 and 1611.
The Muslims did not come to the peninsula to plunder and go back home with
the pillage. They came to stay. They settled on lands taken over from the
Visigoths. Unlike the Visigoths, who were against establishing family ties
with the conquered, the Muslims readily intermarried with the Hispano-Romans
and the Visigoths. It was also made necessary by the fact that the first
waves of Muslim invaders did not bring any women with them. The locals
converted to Islam in vast numbers and became known as the "new Muslims".
Although at the initial stage there were considerable rivalries among the
various ethnic groups (the Syrians, the Yemenis, the Berbers and the new
Muslims), gradually there evolved a mixed race of people whose common
religion was Islam and the common language was Arabic. As their ties with
the East loosened, the soldier- settlers and their descendants started
considering al-Andalus as their homeland. They became Spaniards or
Andalusis.
The privileged classes lived in walled cities. Traders, craftsmen, peasants
lived both in towns and villages depending on business opportunities. The
family structure was clearly patriarchal and agnatic. Women played a
secondary role in the society. But unlike modern Spanish women, who only
recently have acquired the right to make financial transactions without
authorisation from their male folks, the Hispano-Muslim women could own
properties and run businesses without any male supervision.
It was a highly urbanised society. The streets were narrow, noisy and full
of hustle and bustle. While in small towns there were mosques, fountains,
public parks, baths, libraries and markets only in the central area, in
large cities there were similar facilities in the suburbs as well. Cordoba
at the height of its glory had more than eight hundred fountains and six
hundred public baths. Cleanliness was godliness for the Hispano-Muslims.
Most major towns had underground sewage system. The public places, including
the streets and market places were kept impeccably clean.
Cereal sorghum and olive oil were the staple diet of the poor, which was
occasionally supplemented by chicken or meat. In the Levante region, people
used to consume a lot of rice as well. With the development and success of
irrigation agriculture, the introduction of new crops like apricot,
artichoke, carob, rice, saffron, sugar, jujube, eggplant, parsnip, lemon,
orange, grapefruit, carrot, dates etc. and the growth of a sophisticated
middle lass, urban cuisine reached its excellence.
As far as the basic principles were concerned, the Hispano-Muslims were an
intensely religious and family-oriented people. They prayed five times a
day, paid Zakat, fasted from dawn to dusk in the month of Ramadan, which was
considered as the month of quiet reflection and communal solidarity. They
celebrated Eid ul Fitr and Eid ul Azha with great fervour. On these
occasions, they used to wear their finest clothes and go to the nearby
mosque to pray. After the prayer, they used to invite the poor to share
their food. They also used to buy new clothes for their family members and
servants.
The local people who maintained Christianity as their religion adopted the
language, food, clothes and customs of the Muslims and they came to be known
as Mozarabes. The Jews, who were not treated well by the Visigoths, became a
powerful community during the Muslim rule. Not only did they prosper in
finance and commerce but also occupied important positions in the government
bureaucracy.
Thus evolved a society in which the Muslims, the Christians and the Jews
lived in peace and harmony. It was a remarkably tolerant society. During the
course of the next eight hundred years, despite many civil wars among the
kings and princes, the Muslims built a civilisation in al-Andalus, which
became the envy of the world. They excelled in art, literature, science,
architecture, agriculture, astronomy, astrology, mathematics, medicine, etc.
and left their mark on every walk of life, when Christian Europe plunged
into a state of intellectual hibernation. Now the question is: Why and how
their enormous contributions to civilisation disappear from the collective
memory of the Europeans and in particular, the Spaniards?
Well, it was a long and deliberate process which started as early as 718,
only 7 years after Tariq's landing at Gibraltar when one of King Roderick's
nephews called Pelayo made himself strong in the northern mountains and
waited for an opportunity to counter-attack. Since most of the ordinary
citizens of Gothic Spain, who were Hispano-Romans had accepted Muslim rule
because they were treated so unfairly by the Visigoths, a common cause had
to be found to rally them against the Muslim invaders. Catholicism was the
answer. From then onwards the Catholic Church played a progressively
important role in uniting the new Catholics like the Goths and the old
Catholics like the Hispano-Romans against the "infidels", i.e. the Muslims.
From this small beginning, the Church and the Christian princes successfully
mounted the "reconquista" which slowly but steadily advanced over a period
of eight centuries until the last Muslim armies of the king of Granada were
defeated in 1492.
Islam was banned. All Islamic customs and traditions were prohibited. Arabic
books were burnt in public squares. Some well-to-do Muslims left the
country. But the vast majority was forcibly converted to Catholicism. The
newly converted adopted Christian names and outwardly accepted Christianity
but in private continued to practise Islamic rituals. Although they were
officially classified as "Moriscos" (baptised Moors), in reality they were
not considered as true Christians by the authorities but as crypto-Muslims
(secret Muslims). After a series of repressive measures, in 1609 and 1611
(more than one hundred years after the fall of Granada), a policy of "final
solution" of the Morisco problem was put into practice. Royal decrees were
published ordering the expulsion of all the Moriscos to Africa. Tens of
thousands were massacred and the lucky ones escaped with their lives to
Africa.
To justify all this, the Church worked out a long-term strategy. From the
pulpits across the country, the priests demonised Islam and the Muslims-
they were the enemies of God and country. Thus religious and racial
intolerance were allowed to take root in the collective psyche of the people
and the Muslims as a community came to be considered as irredeemably "the
other". Revised language and belief systems were introduced and propagated
by the dominant group to perpetuate its hegemony and power structure. The
Church certainly did a good job. To the ordinary Spanish mind, Islam and the
Muslims came to be considered as things utterly negative. Thus eight
centuries of Muslim presence in the peninsula was brought to an unworthy
end. The Catholic Church certainly deserves a lot of credit for the final
victory of the Catholic kings over the Muslims and the subsequent
demonisation of Islam but in reality, the Muslims were responsible for their
own defeat. The incessant fratricidal wars among the Muslim kings and
princes which plagued the entire period of the existence of the
Hispano-Muslim civilisation were primarily responsible for its final
downfall.
Today there are no legal bars to practise Islam. Article 16 of the Spanish
constitution guarantees ideological and religious freedom to all Spanish
citizens and foreigners living in Spain. According to reliable estimates,
today there are approximately 600,000 Muslims in Spain, most of whom are
immigrants (many of them illegal). A little over 100,000 are Spanish
citizens of Arab origin who live in the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and
Melilla in North Africa. In recent years at least twenty thousand Spanish
Christians have voluntarily converted to Islam. The largest immigrant group
comes from Morocco. According to unofficial estimates, there are
approximately twenty thousand Bangladeshi immigrants in Spain, most of whom
work as street vendors, small shopkeepers or restaurant owners.
In their quest for a better life, every week, hundreds of illegal Muslim
immigrants from Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali,
Bangladesh, Pakistan and India try to enter Spain from Africa. In the
process many of them drown in the turbulent waters of the straits. Even then
they come and try to find work in "the black economy" as temporary
agricultural or construction labourers. They live in precarious conditions
but they practise their religion with firm conviction. Leaving aside the
grand mosques in Madrid, Valencia, Marbella, Ceuta and Melilla, there are at
least three hundred other small neighbourhood mosques or prayer halls in
Spain, which are maintained by small subscriptions from Muslim immigrants.
Unfortunately, in some cases, these prayer halls operate in a clandestine
manner because of the difficulty in obtaining permits. In other places,
licences to build mosques have been denied by the authorities because of
hostile reaction from the local population. In spite of the difficulty
involved in Friday being a working day, the faithful pack many of these
prayer halls on Fridays. Ramadan is observed with rigour. Small shopkeepers,
restaurant workers and unemployed immigrants gather at prayer halls for
Iftar and evening prayer. These places also function as community centres
where the needy are given food and warm clothing. Eid ul Fitr and Eid ul
Azha are celebrated all over the country with fervour. On these occasions
the Muslims shed their day-to-day garb and wear long Islamic clothes,
perfume their bodies and go to their neighbourhood mosques to pray. After
the prayer, different communities like the Bangladeshis or the Moroccans or
the Malaysians get together with other members of their respective
communities for lunch and to exchange gifts.
After almost five centuries of exile, Muslims are now coming back to Spain.
In comparison with other European countries, the Muslim immigrants receive
much better treatment here. Most modern Spaniards are not hostile to them.
The government and the majority of Spaniards appreciate their contribution
to the economy. But unfortunately, Bush's so-called war on terror has
created an atmosphere of suspicion and fear among some Spaniards. The
government and some cultural organisations are trying to counter its
negative effects by taking initiatives such as the Alliance of Civilisations
or organising seminars and exhibitions on Islam. Looking at the great
Hispano- Muslim civilisation in the wider context of human history, no
self-respecting Spaniard can deny the fact that "it (the Hispano-Muslim
civilisation) embodied what came before and illuminated what came after".
Torpedo
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