Al-Andalus: Christians

and Muslims in Iberia

(8th-15th centuries)
 The back story

Bishop Julian of Toledo requests help from Musa ibn Nusair,

governor of North Africa against the invading King Roderick
(Visigoth)

Tariq bin Ziyad lands in ”Gibraltar” (jabal al-Tariq) and conquers

most of the Iberian Peninsula by 720 CE, settling in the South in
al-Andalus (land of the Vandals)
Cordoba martyrs

Missionary proclamation through martyrdom?

Offensive public statements leading to trial and execution

Non-military resistance (Allan Cutler)

Treaty of Tudmīr (April 713), recorded by Ibn Adarī, Kitab al-bayán al-mugrib fi ajbar muluk
al Andalus wa l-Magrib, 13th century Andalusian historian.

In the name of God, the merciful and compassionate. This is a

document [granted] by ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn Musá ibn Nusair to Tudmir, son
of Ghabdush, establishing a treaty of peace and the promise and
protection of God and his Prophet may God bless him and grant him
peace. We [‘Abd al-‘Aziz] will not set special conditions for him or for
any among his men, nor harass him, nor remove him from power. His
followers will not be killed or taken prisoner, nor will they be separated
from their women and children. They will not be coerced in matters of
religion, their churches will not be burned, nor will sacred objects be
taken from the realm, [so long as] he [Tudmir] remains sincere and
fulfills the [following] conditions that we have set for him. He has
reached a settlement concerning seven towns […] He will not give
shelter to fugitives, nor to our enemies, nor encourage any protected
person to fear us, nor conceal news of our enemies. He and [each of]
his men shall [also] pay one dinar every year, together with four
measures of wheat, barley, fruit juice, vinegar, honey and olive oil
Mosque and Cathedral, Cordoba
 Dialogue of life

Everyday social contacts, dress, music, food,

bathing, and shopping\

Historically, Islamic traditions of statecraft and

law, treated Christians and Jews as protected
subordinates to Muslims while prescribing limits
to social mixing.

These were applied to varying degrees in

different periods and regions in Spain
 Convivencia

Golden Age – for some

Translations from Arabic (Toledo)

Flourishing in sciences, mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, and

religious texts (Blended syllabus of Archimedes, Aristotle, Ibn Sina,
al-Battini, al-Quarizmi, al-Kindi)

Including first Latin translation of Qur’ān (Robert of Ketton, 1142)

Was it that good?

What would a culture of

tolerance look like?

Can we imagine descriptions?

Would this be everywhere, or

only in pockets?
Abu l-Walid al-Baji (1013-1081)

In Saragossa, under (the King) al-Muqtadir

Letter from a monk in France.

Letter and response are together, and function as a rhetorical

exchange (Letter from the People of Cypress and al-Dimashqi’s
response)
Ibn Hazm (994-1064)

Zahiri (literalist)
His great-grandfather, probably converted to the Islamic faith, and his
grandfather Saʿīd moved to Córdoba, the capital of the caliphate.

Polemical: famous for arguing with all who disagree. Maybe 400 writings,
40 that remain

Corruption (tahrīf), “the four iniquitous men who wrote these corrupted,
altered Gospels.” (Tieszen, 146).
Kitāb al-ṣal fī l-milal wa-l-ahwāʾ wa-l-niḥal

• “…startling originality in its reading of the New Testament books,

and its aggressive proof that they cannot be authentic because
they repeatedly disagree with one another. This attention to
detail singles out Ibn Ḥazm as possibly the most adamant
proponent of the view that it was the actual text of Christian
scripture that had been corrupted, rather than that it was wrongly
interpreted by Christians, and that what it said about Jesus and
early Christian history could not therefore be relied upon.”
CMR Entry
Muqatil ibn Sulayman

Earliest Commentary on the Qur’ān

“The accusation has frequently sought attestation from

a series of “tampering” verses in the Qur’ān. Investigation of the
interpretation of these verses in the earliest commentaries on the Qur’ān,
however, reveals a discrepancy between the confident polemical accusation
and the tentative understandings of the first Muslims. Of greater interest to
early commentators was a story of deception and obstinacy by the “People
of the Book” in response to the truth claims of Islam. Focusing on the eighth-
century commentary of Muqātil ibn Sulaymān and the great exegetical
compendium of al-Ṭabarī (d. 923). "
Cantigas de Maria: ca. 1280
Alfonso X of Castille

Conversion to Christianity was

desired but regarded as
miraculous.

But once converted, often

never fully trusted, a legacy
seen in the Inquisition of 1478.
 Reconquista – from 722-1492

• Gradual with many stages, but consolidated in the

union of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella
• Re-establishment of Spanish/European
Language and cultural norms

• Must be understood in the light of

Ottoman success and dominance
• Travel to the ”New World” impacted
by Ottoman pressure, and energy
from the Reconquista