The beginnings of prose

A major influence on prose was exercised by Arabic. Oriental learning entered Christian Spain with the
capture (1085) of Toledo from the Muslims, and the city became a centre of translation from Oriental
languages. An anonymous translation from Arabic (1251) of the beast fable Kalīlah wa Dimnah
exemplifies early storytelling in Spanish. A romance of the Seven Sages, the Sendebar, was translated
likewise through Arabic, with other collections of Eastern stories.

By the mid-12th century, the Christians had recovered Córdoba, Valencia, and Sevilla. A propitious
intellectual atmosphere fomented the founding of universities, and under Alfonso X of Castile and Leon
(reigned 1252–84) vernacular literature achieved prestige. Alfonso, in whose chancery Castilian replaced
Latin, mandated translations and compilations aimed at fusing all knowledge—Classical, Oriental,
Hebrew, and Christian—in the vernacular. These works, some under his personal editorship, include the
great legal code Las Siete Partidas (“The Seven Divisions”), containing invaluable information on daily
life, and compilations from Arabic sources on astronomy, on the magical properties of gems, and on
games, especially chess. The Crónica general, a history of Spain, and the General estoria, an attempted
universal history from the Creation onward, were foundational works of Spanish historiography. The
Crónica general, overseen by Alfonso to AD 711 and completed by his son Sancho IV, was Spain’s most
influential medieval work. Alfonso, sometimes called the father of Castilian prose, was also a major poet,
and he compiled early Spain’s greatest collection of medieval poetry and music, the Cantigas de Santa
María (“Songs to St. Mary”), in Galician.