History of Moorish Spain: Part 2
Al Mansur died in 1010 which led to the crisis in
which Medina Azahara, the city palace of Abd ar-Rahman III, was destroyed by
rampaging Berbers. Moorish Spain deteriorated rapidly into violent turmoil. The caliphate ceased to exist and Al Andaluz broke up
into 20 taifas and unified rule came to an end. Seville and Granada were
the most powerful of these small kingdoms followed by Cordoba, Almeria, Zaragoza,
Badajoz and Toledo. The Moorish warriors were no more as life degenerated
into drunken orgies and mercenaries, including Christians, were employed to do
the fighting.
Along the Moorish/Christian frontier, castles had
been built to protect against Arab attack leading to the area being named Castile. The kingdom of
Leon had lead the reconquest until Al-Mansur's
raid on Santiago then Navarra under Sancho III became the key force.
Sancho gained control of Castile through marriage and placed his son Fernando on
the throne. Fernando then occupied Leon and became emperor of the Spains'.
Castile would now dominate the reconquest.
When Fernando I died after taking lands from
Valencia to Portugal, power was split between his sons, Alfonso in Leon and
Sancho in Castile. Sancho was served by a young knight who would become
known as El Cid Campeador. Sancho was murdered and his brother was
suspected so El Cid made Alfonso swear under oath that he had no part in the
murder. Alfonso became ruler of a united Castile and Leon and a few years
later sent El Cid into exile after a dispute. In 1085 Alfonso's army
recaptured Toledo in the first crucial victory of the Reconquest.
This news didn't go down well in Muslim north
Africa and an army of Almoravids (fanatical Muslim nomads from the Sahara) was
invited by the taifa of Seville to reassert the balance of power. They
arrived in 1086 and annihilated Alfonso's army. Fernando again turned to
El Cid for assistance. In 1099 El Cid died and for a few years the
Almoravids controlled southern Iberia from Marrakesh.
The tolerant society of the caliphate and the
taifas disappeared as the Almoravids persecuted Christians and Jews.
Another fanatical group, the
Almohades, came from the Atlas mountains of Morocco and were natural enemies of
the Almoravid desert tribes. They conquered Marrakesh then invaded Al-Andalus
to again unite the region under one Muslim regime. These Almohades ordered
the destruction of all churches and synagogues forcing Christians and Jews to
swarm to the north.
In spite of this fanaticism, a period of great
cultural achievement occurred under the Almohades which was the brightest period
between the caliphate and the glories of Granada centuries later. The
minaret of the Seville mosque, La Giralda, was built during this period with
wide ramps all the way up the tower which allowed the sultan to ride his horse to
the top.
During the early reconquest the Christians spent
too much time fighting amongst themselves. In 1195 the Christians were
heavily defeated at Alarcos and from then on decided to cooperate against the
Almohades, even more so when the pope called for a crusade against these
invaders.
History of Moorish Spain:
Part 3
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