Islam in Spain and the Moriscos

Islam in Spain and the Moriscos

"Now, what I want is facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to the facts, Sir!"
(1)

The Islamic period of Spain is stated as 711 to 1492 as we are lead to believe by various reports. This does not explain the whole story of Islam in Spain. This is the period of Islamic rule but this is not the full story. Islamic Spain began in 711but it did not end officially until 1610 when the Muslims were expelled from Spain after being oppressed since the fall of the khaliphate in Granada in 1492. This period was something that I was totally unaware of and I felt that some study in this area was needed.

The period after the fall of the khaliphate makes for grim reading. Many a time we have read the blood soaked pages of history but nothing we had read previously could prepare us for what we read. All of the knowledge I knew about Christianity was about to be confirmed and it made the Crusades look like a minor skirmish. In fact the pacifying of the Iberian Peninsula from Islam to Christianity was the most brutal and unforgiving ethnic cleansing that Europe had seen, up until that point. Within less than one hundred and twenty years, Islam was taken off the map in Spain and was replaced with a cross covered in the blood of men, women and children. Many accuse the Muslims of converting by force. This is a normal argument of Orientalists and it is about as unfounded an argument that there could ever be. Forced conversion into Islam is not accepted as is forced apostasy from Islam not accepted. You see forced conversion happens within a very short period of time and actual conversion takes time. It took several hundred years for Muslims to reach fifty percent in many countries of the Middle East. As it did in Spain, Egypt, Syria and other places that you can read about in Thomas Arnold's book "The Spread of Islam."

The Spanish inquisition was one of the world's first organisation of terror who tortured and killed without prejudice of gender or age. This was with the total acceptance of the pope at the time approved of their methods. Anyone with a sound mind can only look back and see that these are nothing but a wretched organisation who fed on the extortion and murder of people. Just because someone is of another faith than what you follow does not mean that they should be killed just because they do not follow your religion. Leave them alone, you force something into someone's heart and claim that they have accepted it! Their methods were brutally over the top and would make you weep if you read what they did. Islam was removed from the public spaces with the 'Reconquista' and then they sought to remove it from the private domain. Spain was not reconquered by the Christians straight away, it was done over centuries and it took many rulers. The real sad part of these conquests was that the Christians did not see any reason why they should not massacre the civilians of the cities and the places they defeated. This included men, women and children; if the latter two were lucky they would be killed or sold into slavery where they would face more humiliation. For me this leaves as indelible stain on Christendom similar to that of the Crusades. If you do not believe me then pick up any book about Muslim Spain by English writers and read. I really find it odd when people slander Islam and make claims that Christianity is a less violent religion, when anyone with sound intellect who has read history can read the most horrific tales of murder, massacre and torture.

For something like five hundred years, Islam was banned as a religion and it was until 1975 when Islam became legal. People who were Muslims who had kept their faith secret came out; it was something that they had hidden from everyone. So you could say Islam began in 711 but did not end in 1492 or 1610 it kept going until today and it will keep going; until an appointed time will come.

We really wanted to write more about this but because of the amount of detail and the time needed to write something to do the subject justice. We hope that we have done the subject some justice. We have read several books about the subject and it is not always comfortable reading.


The Beginning

There are two reports that relate to the coming of the Muslims to the Iberian Peninsula. The first report is in Moorish Spain by Richard Fletcher(2):

"A king of Spain in ancient time built a tower in which he deposited a secret. He sealed the tower with a mighty padlock, and laid upon his successors the obligation each by turns to add an extra padlock so as to preserve ever more inviolable whatever was concealed within. Twenty-six kings came and went, respecting his wishes. Then there succeeded a rash and headstrong young king named Roderick. Resolved to penetrate the tower's secret, and against the advice of all his counsellors, he had the twenty-seven padlocks opened. Then he entered the chamber within. On its walls were painted Arab horsemen, scimitars at their belts, spears brandished in their right hands. In the middle of the room stood a table made of gold and silver set with precious stones, upon it carved the words: 'This is the table of King Soloman, son of David, upon whom be peace.' There was an urn on the table, which was found to contain a scroll of parchment. When this was unrolled, the following words were revealed: 'Whenever this chamber is violated, and the spell contained in this urn is broken, the people painted on these walls will invade Spain, overthrow its kings, and subdue the entire lands.'

Fletcher states that this is recorded in both Christian and Muslim sources but the author does not state where. Although a similar story is reported in Stanley lane-Poole's Muslims in Spain.

There is the more factual report which comes in addition to this report and compliments it. The count of Ceuta (In Northern Morocco but is still part of Spain) Julian sent his daughter to Roderick's court to be educated among the queen's waiting women; instead Roderick put her to shame. (3) Julian desired revenge and met with Musa ibn Nosayr, the Governor of North Africa, and said that they are comrades now and that he would assist him conquering Spain. (4) After sending out an investigatory party the governor then sent out Tariq ibn Zayd who with seven thousand troops crossed the land between Africa and Europe. He landed on a lion's rock that has bore his name ever since Jebal Tariq, Gibraltar or the mountain of Tariq. (5) Roderick had an army of one thousand men (6) and Tariq had his army reinforced by five thousand to a total of twelve thousand. After a fierce battle, the battle of Rio Brante, lasting one week the Muslims triumphed and slowly the Iberian Peninsula was assimilated into Islamic territory. The year was seven hundred and eleven, 28th Ramadan ninety two Islamic years;(7) this was the beginning of the story of Islam in Europe. There is a report in Islam in Andalus that there were exploratory forays during the khaliphate of Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him), (8) although it wasn't until the above events that any headway was made.


A Summary of the major events

Muslim advancement continued further into Spain and into Southern France where it was halted after the Muslims were defeated at the battle of the Tours. This is seen as a turning point for Europe because if the Muslims had defeated the Christian forces then there would have been little resistance left in Europe. This did not occur and in the year seven hundred and thirty two the advancement stopped. What occurred after was one of the glorious times in Spanish history that the world has ever seen and even now so few have yet to comprehend. I would just like to say that it is great that Muslims look back at the amazing achievements of the past and rightly so but we must ask ourselves one question. What are we doing, right now, that we could be remembered? Right now it seems that we can be remembered for very little.

Initially, governors came and went (9) until an exiled leader came, Abdurrahman ibn Mu'awiya who had fled the killing of his family after the collapse of the Ummayyad dynasty at the hands of Abbasids. He would become the leader that would establish Islam in Spain. (10)

Subsequently, began a new era of the Ummayyad dynasty in the West after its fall in the East. Leader after leader would come and go, none more so than his namesakes such as Abdurrahman the second and Abdurrahman the third. Abdurrahman the third in particular was one of the just and well remembered of the Muslim rulers of Al-Andulas.

One of the greatest leaders of Al-Andalus was Al-Mansur. During his lifetime was the pinnacle of the Spanish khaliphate and after his death began the decline of the Islamic rule in Spain. After the death of Al-Mansur's son Al-Muzaffar who heralded the beginning of what is known as the "party kings" they were rulers of their own provinces who did not accept or follow a centralised authority. There were many factors that lead to most of the civil wars that broke out between rulers.

There were at least thirty five small kingships (11) which rivalled and competed with each other but the most shocking fact was that they allied themselves with other Christian rulers which made their dream of taking the land back from the Muslims all the more simple. It would have been virtually impossible for them to fight the combined armies of all the forces of Muslim Spain but it would be much simpler to fight small kingships and defeat the Muslims gradually. (12)

Without the ruling of a centralised authority coupled with the rulers to busy indulging themselves in the worldly desires, the ranks of Muslims were easily picked off one by one. Thus the wheel for the conquest of Spain was set in motion and this started with the massacre and murder of Muslim civilians. This was precursor to the event of the Crusades (13) in the Middle East and begin in the East before similar bloodshed it reached the areas around Palestine.

Barbastro, at the foot of the Pyrenees, was taken in 1064 and after a long siege the surviving civilians were massacred, numbering into the thousands and most shocking of all was the rape of women in front of their families. (14) And other atrocities that there is no pen eloquent enough to describe. (15) This was also going to be a glimpse into the horror that the Muslims and to a certain extent Jews would face as the Christians gained more area.

After a seven year siege Toledo fell into the hands of Alfonso VI and from here proclaimed himself 'Emperor of Spain' (16) and from here he would extract tributes from all the Muslims kingships in the land. (17)

"The fall of Toledo was the beginning of the end of Islam's long sojourn in Europe. Toledo was the first domino." (18) As it was the major city of central Spain and this proved to be an ideal base from which the remainder of Spain would return into the hands of the Christians. Almost as suddenly as the sun of Islam rose upon the Iberian Peninsula it was now fast declining.

Following these events the reformists movement of the Almoravids came, who came with religious zeal aimed at reinvigorating Islam in Spain. (19) They made a concerted effort to realign the kingship rulers to their way of governance which unfortunately it was set to be ruled from North Africa and not Spain. From 1145 they defeated various rulers; Algerciras was conquered then they occupied Seville and Malaga. (20) The Muwahidun were next to follow up the Almoravids with a similar zeal to defeat the Christians. The Muwahidun pinnacle was under their leader Abu Yusuf Yaqub, he became the leader in 1184 and his greatest victory was at the battle of Alarcos (21)in 1195. Against the forces organised by Pope Innocent the third. (22) It was said that the Christians lost 146,000 and more than 30,000 were taken prisoner. Unfortunately, this victory was not taken advantage of because at this point Toledo was open to attack but there was no attack and this gave the Christians chance to re-group. Sun Tzu would have approved of taking advantage of their forces that were in disarray. It wasn't until nearly 16 years later did his son Muhammad An-Nasir would try to belatedly take advantage but the advantage was lost. An-Nasir gathered a huge army of 600,000 and subsequently ignored the advices of his generals (23) and it was stated that less than one thousand soldiers escaped the slaughter. (24)

This defeat meant that the Muslims could no longer muster a force needed to fight the Christians because many soldiers were North African. This defeat meant that Muslims could not re-take the land that was lost to the Christians over two hundred years of reversal. Cordoba fell in 1236 followed by Valencia in 1238 and Seville in 1248. (25) The Kingdom of Granada remained and this was the final standing of the Spanish Khaliphate left. Bani Nasr were descendants of the companion Sa'ad ibn Ubaydah and their chief was Muhammad Ibn Yusuf Al-Ahmar; it would be known as Nasrid Kingdom which would rule until 1492.

This was the point that we would see the Muslims who were not in Muslim controlled areas face torture, death and or various other demeaning punishments metered out to them by the Christians. This would begin the punishments that would lead to the gradual expulsion of the Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula.

In 1329 Don Pedro would attempt to finally remove Muslim influence from Spain by conquering Granada. After breaking a pledge to accept a tribute and leave the Muslims alone, (26) he decided to attack the forces of Abu l'Walid Ismail ibn Faraj. The Muslims had only five thousand warriors to call upon compared to the fifty thousand solders that the Christians contained. (27) Some reports as little as ten or thirteen Muslims soldiers were killed. (28) This victory was later reversed when Abu I'Hassan's forces were defeated in the battle of Rio Salado this loss allowed the Christians to make inroads to Granada. (29)

As the decay continued so did the re-taking of land by the Christians. Malaga and its surrounding areas were taken by 1487 and only the citadel of Granada remained by 1489. (30) The prince at the time Abu Abdullah or Boabdil surrendered the citadel after a siege of seven months. Musa, one of the military commanders, refused to capitulate and rode out to meet the Christians; he died the death of a martyr. The treaty was signed on the 25th November 1491 and the gates were opened on the 2nd January 1492. Boabdil was allowed to leave with whatever he could and just before he left he gave Granada once last glance. He sighed and began to cry, his mother's response was withering, and it became known as the 'el ultimo suspiro del Moro' (31) or the Moors last sigh, she said, "Do not weep like a woman for what you could not defend like a man." (32)

This was the end of Islamic rule at one end of Europe and the beginning on the other side; The Ottomans would conquer Constantinople in a few years. What follows was the main reason for writing this essay. The next chapter of Islam in Europe was brutal history of torture and punishment that was ever to be documented. The Muslim leadership had gone but the Muslims were still present in large numbers and this is the subject of the next section.


The Moriscos

"You have built here what you, or anyone else, might have built anywhere; to do so you have destroyed what was unique in the world." Said Charles the fifth after he entered in the masjid of Cordoba, which had been converted into a church. (33) It is also a summary of the damage that the Christians had done when they regained political power.

After the fall of the last khaliphate in Spain, the Christians did not cease their conquest; they wanted to retake the hearts of Muslims back to their faith. The physical battle had been lost over four hundred or so years and now the spiritual battle was about to be fought and the victory could not be measured in the same way.

Although in many ways the battle for the hearts had already started. In 1216 the Lateran Council ordered that all Muslims and Jews to wear what became known as the 'san benito.' This distinguished them from the Christians and made them open to humiliation and attack with recourse in some cases. (34) In 1248 Pope Innocent IV ordered the king of Aragon to only allow Muslims as slaves in his kingdom. (35) In 1250 no one could buy or sell from a Muslim without a licence. (36) In 1312 the Council of Vienna ordered that the princes of Spain to suppress Islamic worship and offer Christian worship or else endure a 'terrible punishment.' (37) Worse was to follow, in 1385 and 1387 more slavery was introduced. 1388 saw a law pass that all Muslims had to kneel when Christian 'sacraments' were being paraded in the streets and the Friday was made obligatory for them to work. (38) In 1412 there was further legislation preventing Muslims and Jews from holding office, taking up certain professions and worse. (39) This is the real beginning of the punishment that anyone other than the Christians would face in that time and it really is shocking but it wasn't until 1483 that the Spanish inquisition was established even though the Holy office of the inquisition existed in Europe from 1184.

Systematically anything that was Muslim was removed from the public space and replaced by something Christian. There was destruction of people, masjids, books, public baths, libraries and worst of all was the history of forced conversion en masse. Anyone who wants to read about forced conversion should read Henry Charles Lea's book the Moriscos of Spain and they will see that the forced conversion is almost strictly a Christian phenomenon in Spain. For further information of how Islam spread see T. Arnold's work 'How Islam spread in the world' or 'The Preaching of Islam' they are both the same book.

The treaty of Granada, which was agreed to by Ferdinand and Isabella, was broken within seven years of it being ratified in November 1492. (40) The treaty contained articles that protected Muslims in fields of their religion and many other aspects. The breaking of this treaty paved the way for the Spanish inquisition.

Pope Innocent the 3rd commanded that all heretics be punished (41) what they meant was anyone who was not Christian should be punished and this would be a century for it. There was an incident in Granada that led to a riot because of a claim of a Muslim girl that she was being taken to be forced into Christianity. The Cardinal Ximenes denounced the uprising as a rebellion and said that there were only two choices left for the Muslim: expulsion or conversion. (42) Thousands were forcibly converted but in name only and because of this, they were given the insulting title Moriscos which means little Moor.

The Grand Mufti of Oran, Ahmad ibn Abu Juma'a, issued an edict in 1504 that allowed Muslims act like Christians and accept the Christian faith on their tongues as long as they rejected it in their hearts. (43) Faith in Islam is defined as belief in the heart with affirmation on the tongue (also performing actions by the limbs) so the affirmation of the Christian faith did not mean anything as long as they did not believe it in their hearts. Also note that this was in a situation of life and death, this was a dispensation given to Muslims in such times.

Armies of Christian militia randomly attacked Muslim areas, in Andarax a masjid was burned down, in it were women and children and in Belfrique all the men were killed and the women were taken as slaves. (44) The children were taken from their parents, sold into slavery never to be seen again. Copies of the Quran were burnt as were any Arabic books. (45) If the Muslims wanted to leave they had to pay a sum of money but people who had converted were not allowed to leave. (46) There was also the massacre of the Muslim population of Lisbon which lasted three days and three nights. (47) The Muslims were told to keep their doors open during wedding and feast celebrations, (48) and a Christian midwife had to be present during birth of a child thus preventing the call to prayer being announced into the newborns ear.

The Spanish inquisition would confiscate the land of anyone they suspected as not being a true Christian and anyone else they suspected of being dangerous. They used many different methods of torture and the most famous was the 'auto de fe' which was the burning at the stake of the accused. The Spanish inquisition did not discriminate women from men, even if the women were pregnant this did not matter, they would torture them for days, weeks and sometimes months. Majids were changed into churches, some were demolished totally and people were preventing from bathing! (49)

Part of the reason why they called them Moriscos was they were for all intents and purposes Christians in the public space but in the private space they acted as Muslims. This caused resentment from the Christians and thus this name was insulting because their forefathers adoption of Islam, before them.

Charles the fifth addressed notables in early September 1525 informing them of his determination not to allow a Muslim or other infidel to remain in his dominions except as slaves; he recognised that expulsion would affect their revenues and leave their lands 'depopulated.' (50) He followed this with an edict that stated that no other faith but Christianity would be allowed to be present in Spain. (51)

These false 'converts' had their lands confiscated by the Spanish Inquisition (52) so in some bizarre way the Inquisition funded itself on the misery of these illegal acts. The Moriscos were disarmed during Ximenes mass baptism thus leaving them defenceless (53) and open to attack from Christians who saw it as their religious duty to kill the moors.

The edict issued by Phillip II in 1567 that forbade the customs, language of the Moors namely Arabic and Moorish clothes were forbidden. (54) The public baths were finally all closed and destroyed; and the people forgot the custom of washing themselves in Spain well into the 19th century. (55) This is very strange for us to understand, the Christians were happy with being dirty and unclean. If we look at the Quran it describes polytheism/Shirk as filth from the devil. Moorish names and surnames were not used because of the harm that they would receive for it. Silk clothes were all forbidden (56) all of these prohibitions make for difficult reading for anyone living in a time when these things are normal in most western societies. So this was an active and deliberate intention to bring forth the Spain that they knew and remove any Spain that made it anew. They wanted to bring everything back the clothes, landscape basically everything.

Many other stories can be related and some contain the saddest stories of human suffering that you could ever read. Amid various rebellions that were lead by the Muslims was the one of the brutal massacres on Spanish soil. Phillip Don John put down the rebellion in 1569 by force; he and his forces massacred the three thousand men, women and children in Gelera. As he did in the villages of Alpuxarras, butchered the inhabitants and raised them to the ground. (57) For this, the Pope, at the time, called him 'a champion of Christianity.' (58) The survivors were sold into slavery and exiled but there were few. (59) Twenty thousand were massacred and a further seventy thousand were butchered during the celebrations of All Saints day in 1570. (60)

These massacres that occurred are some of the worst acts of religious intolerance that could ever fill the pages of the books of history. A reader of history will find it difficult to really look at these events and not feel a sense of great grief over the loss of life. Did it matter that the people had a different religion? Why did they feel it their religious duty to murder thousands if not millions of people just because they saw them as heretics? The Muslims did not do this to them, there was no mass massacres of the people carried by the Muslims in Spain when they came into the country in 711. Any act of genocide and violence on this scale and to this grandiose scale was rarely repeated in Europe. As the crusaders were sent home during the 13th century this internal crusade continued until there was no one left to kill! (61)

After these events there no more cause for 'rebellion' by the Moriscos because it was impossible as there was not enough people to even speak up now never mind to organise forces.

Families were broken up further with children separated from their families, some were sent to Priests to learn texts, (62) and most were sold as slaves. (63)

In the Early period of Islam in Spain the ratio of Muslim to others was 1 to 8, in the ninth century the number was 1 to 4 and by the tenth Century the Muslims began to outnumber the other groups. (64) This also proves that this was gradual and not sudden which was like the massacre of the Muslims was, sudden. The converts to Islam were gradual, in number, and occurred over a number of years. The population who they were killing were Muslims who were genetically of Spanish stock. This may have been strange for the Christian Spaniards to see the Muslim Spaniards. People who had taken on this 'foreign' religion as their own and they did whatever they could to remove it from the Iberian Peninsula. Worse was to come for the Moriscos and it came with the brutality that they had come to know under the rule of the Christians.

Another edict issued on the 6th October 1572 meant that they were under perpetual surveillance. (65) It meant that the Moriscos could be punished with various punishments depending on the extent of the 'crime.'

From 1591 to 1593 two inquisitors collected all weapons that the Moriscos held in their possession. (66) This effectively meant that any proposed rebellion did not have the means to occur. The Christians were afraid that the Ottomans would attack and seek assistance from the Moriscos which never occurred and their fears were unfounded.

By 1595 the numbers of the Moriscos began to increase as did their wealth. (67) This was also seen as a danger by the Christian rulers and because these reports came from a Vatican envoy. They lived an existence outside the influence of the ruling elite and stayed away from entering the army or engaging in religious education. Despite all the massacres, killings and the brutal force of the Spanish Inquisition the Moriscos clung to their faith in the darkest moments of their time. Even at this late juncture all was not lost.

King Phillip II, who had engineered the massacres and killings of Moriscos, lay on his death bed for two months. (68) Covered in tumours and abscesses he died a painful death. The power shifted from him to his son Phillip III then to Duke of Lerma.

There was a supposed 'plot' that was uncovered that somehow the Moriscos and Henry IV of France were about to conspire. This lead to a decree that stated that all the Moriscos had to leave Spain, within one month. The deportation continued until 1610 when half a million Moriscos were expelled from Spain. (69) Other books state that the deportation started on 6th October 1609 and finished in 1614. (70) Also the number of people deported ranged from half a million to three million. (71)

The expelled fled with virtually nothing and spread across parts of Northern Africa and other areas of the Islamic world.

The revenue that the Muslims brought in because of their trades and farming was lost. This caused problems because many work practices for farming were only known to Moriscos. (72)


Final remarks

Islam remained banned until 1975 when it was 'allowed' again. Many families who had hid their faith for centuries came out as Muslims. Today around one million (2.3%) Muslims live in Spain (73) according to National statistics. Many are from migrant communities living and working in Spain.

With this essay we wanted to primarily highlight the suffering of the Moriscos. It was something that I was in total ignorance of and I decided to read about it until my ignorance was removed. At the beginning of the essay I stated Islam in Spain is wrongly understood to be from 711 to 1492 and that it should read 711 to 1614 but the real date should be 711 to date, because Islam is still there. The first set of dates was the Islam as the political power, the second was Islam as an active force and the third is Islam's survival as a religion.

When we look back at history we normally feel sadness at the loss of Spain but really all that was lost was the political power. It also behoves us that we look at history using eyes that do not concentrate on a single event or events but look at the whole period.

Islam as a religion survives in modern day Spain. The blood of the martyrs who fought and the Moriscos, who died needlessly, was not in vain. And despite all the centuries of effort by the Christians of the time, Islam was never removed from the hearts of the people. It remained there like a flag blowing in the storms but never coming down. People do not realise that land can be conquered very easily but hearts are not conquered completely except by the truth.

SOURCE: sheikhynotes.blogspot.com