we’ll lounge beneath the pomegranates,---palm trees, apple trees,--- ---under every lovely, leafy thing,---and walk among the vines,--- enjoy the splendid faces we will see,---in a lofty palace built of noble stones. ibn gabirol, 11th century over a thousand years ago, the sun-washed lands of southern spain was home to jews, christrians, and muslims, living together and flourishing. their culture and beliefs intertwined and the knowledge of the ancients was gathered and reborn. here were the very seeds of the renaissance.
but this world too quickly vanished. greed, fear, and intolerance swept it away. puritanical judgments and absolutism snuffed out the light of learning. within a few centuries, the fragile union of these people dissipated like smoke. the time of tolerance was lost forever. in the fifth century, rome is sacked by a tribe of visigoths, driven by their need for land and plunder. all over europe, barbarian tribes descend upon the once-great roman empire. the western lands of the roman empire, what we now call
france, germany, spain, portugal, england, those regions collapsed first. they were abandoned by roman legions first. and with the empire's decline, europe enters a new age. historians don't like to use any longer the phrase "dark ages," but truth be told, there was a lot that was dark about this time --the roman empire collapses, there's not as much trade, many libraries are pillaged and wrecked, and some of the great classics disappear. poetry and science, medicine and mathematics, the great knowledge of the romans and greeks is lost.
in the wake of this violence, the barbarian tribes are still left homeless. they migrate across europe, searching the roman provinces for a land of their own. when we talk about the fall of rome, we're really not talking about a sudden collapse. in fact, some people have talked about it as a kind of quiet fall. what we should think of is different regions coming into crisis at different periods of time, and different forces of migration bringing about those crises. the migrations bring a great movement and mixture of cultures into the remains of the broken empire. in 476, the visigoth tribes reached westward to the isolated roman peninsula of iberia,
what we now call spain and portugal, and there they find jews living in many of its cities, such as cordoba, granada, and toledo. there is a legend among some jews that toledo was founded in the first century by refugees from rome's war against jerusalem. and the city's name itself is believed by some to come from the hebrew word "tolatola," meaning exile. it's possible that jews lived and worked in spain before christians did. i mean, there are evidence of jewish traders as early as the first century. they came because there were business opportunities and ambitious
and clever people followed the trade routes, and that's always been true, not just for the jews, but there was a great deal of travel all over the mediterranean world in roman times. jews had prospered for centuries under roman rule, building a comfortable life for their families in their new spanish homeland. as the visigoths come to rule spain in the fifth century, the jews hold their ancient traditions dear. they bake unleavened bread for passover and prepare sabbath dinners as they have for thousands of years. the seventh-century visigoth bishop is idore of seville writes,
"of all the lands from the west to the indies, "you, spain, o sacred and always fortunate "mother of princes and peoples, "are the most beautiful. "you are the pride and jewel of the world, the most luxriest part of the earth. "for the first hundred years of visigoth rule, the jews enjoy relative freedom, but are never in a position of power. the jews of visigothic spain weren't in the best or the strongest position, in a sense that they were a marginalized minority
within a culture which didn't necessarily understand jewish practices or jewish religion. in the late sixth century, this growing religious tension erupts in violence, as the visigoths convert to catholicism and begin to actively persecute the jews of spain.[uh!] most of the evidence that we have comes from a series of law codes, which were promulgated by visigothic kings and which typically restricted the action of jews, forced them to convert, and ultimately enslaved them. and one great theologian at the time compares judaism to a kind of cancer
that has to get cut out before it spreads to the rest of the body, the christian body. as these two faiths struggle, one for survival, one for dominance, a third abrahamic religion is born over 4,500 miles away, in an ancient city called mecca. it is believed that the angel gabriel appears before a man named mohammad, instructing him to recite the words of god as revealed to him. this set of revelations, these words, this scripture, which became known as the koran, it speaks of prophets beginning with adam and ending with mohammad, of prophets that were sent to every community on earth.
these prophets include the ancient jewish figure of abraham as well as the christian jesus, linking the new religion, called islam, to the common books of both judaism and christianity. the muslims share with christians and jews the concept of being called the people of a book. "al ketab" is the expression by which the koran refers to christians and jews. literally, it means "people of a scripture," people who are scriptured people. this is what joins and makes muslims, jews, and christians feel they are part of a family. according to islam, mohammad is the final prophet, but the message does not end with his life.
there is this famous saying of abu bakar, the first caliph. he said, "he who worshipped mohammad, mohammad is dead, but he who worships god, god will never die." so that is the message keeps going, even though the prophet is dead. the new faith of islam unites the tribes of arabia and begins an astonishing wave of conquest across the middle east, eventually establishing its capital in damascus, syria, before it spreads into north africa. so in that sense, we should think of the muslims, in some way, as a migratory wave, just like the visigoths, except 200 years later.
in north africa, the growing islamic empire gathers strength, converting large numbers of indigenous tribesmen called imazighen, or as the greeks named them, berbers. we don't know where the imazighen came from, because they were always there. all the invaders found the imazighen there.[sheep bleating] by converting, the berbers become part of the growing islamic empire and are therefore provided protection. the berber warriors proved useful in islam's expansion, as arab leaders set their sights on the now-vulnerable visigoth kingdom of spain.
what they did was to use those fierce warriors, the berbers, who were newly converted, and they used them-- basically they got them involved in the empire. so the bulk of the people who invaded iberia, which is portugal and spain, were berbers, or imazighen. a young newly converted berber warrior named tariq ibn ziyad leads 7,000 men in an invasion of the iberian peninsula. in 711, almost 100 years after its birth, islam has crossed the narrow 8-mile strait of gibraltar
that separates north africa from the lands of europe. in southern spain, tariq ibn ziyad and his men faced the visigoth king rodrigo at the battle of guadalete. according to legend, tariq addresses his men-- "at the moment when the 2 armies meet hand to hand, "you will see me, never doubt it, " seeking out this rodrigo, the tyrant of his people, "challenging him to combat, at god's willing(?)" nobody knows what happened. most muslim historians say there were 12,000 muslims. they say the visigothic armies had 100,000 people, and they were defeated in one blow.　we don't really know, but we know that they were defeated.
we don't really know. but we know they were defeated. that's all we know. [shouting] in the epic battle between muslim and christian armies, tariq emerges as a folk hero, leading his people to a new land. by 711, the islamic empire has reached spain, a land already rich in christian-roman, visigoth, and jewish cultures. there the muslim leaders begin laying the foundation for a new islamic kingdom in europe. the muslim armies find allies among the persecuted jews in the conquered cities of spain. when the arabs came in 711, the jews were not unhappy,
because that had to be an improvement. any change would have been an improvement. and islam brought certain advantages with it from a minority point of view. according to legend, the muslims supplied many jews with weapons to help battle the visigoths. and muslim historians say that each time the muslims took a city and wanted to move on, they did not have enough people to leave garrisons behind them. most of the time, these were jewish garrisons that took the city and kept it for them until they came back. the islamic empire holds most of the peninsula by 732. they call their new land al-andalus.
in the following decades, the marketplaces of al-andalus reflect a turbulent melting pot of cultures and allegiances. the berber and arab settlers must share their new land with its christian and jewish people. one of the things that happens with the islamic conquest is that the muslims conquer large areas, so it's very large populations that are, of course, not muslim, but there's a lot that's attractive about islam to the populations they conquer. under islamic law, christians and jews are given the status of "dhimmi," meaning "protected people" in arabic. muslims believed-- and this goes back to the koran-- that
members of religions of the book, of the same scriptures, should be respected, which is to say they should be allowed to follow their religions. jews and christians may worship freely, without fear of persecution, but they must submit to islamic authority and pay a tax in exchange for this protection. ironically, it is the undercurrents of political and religious tensions from within the muslim community that will plague the leaders of al-andalus. in al-andalus, the political threat was seen not to be coming from the minorities, but from other muslims.[shouting]
once the dynasty had arrived and conquered the christian enemy, it quickly began to splinter, you know, and there were arab factions, and there were berber north-african factions. the berbers, long treated as lower-class citizens, begin to revolt against the arab aristocracy. in the chaos that follows, a figure appears, a fugitive prince fleeing the bloody coup of his royal family back in the islamic capital of damascus. his name is abd al-rahman.
this is a real story of someone who's really literally swimming and running for their life. after many adventures, he managed to make his way from syria to egypt to north africa. his mother was north-african, so he had family connections there. and finally he crossed over to al-andalus. abd al-rahman escapes the violence of damascus but his refuge of al-andalus is equally troubled, still mired in berber revolts. the muslim society he found in al-andalus was also highly conflicted, and i don't mean between muslims and christians. i mean between rival muslim factions.
but abd al-rahman findpport among the beleaguered townsfolk longing for a strong leader. as the son of a berber and an arab, he is able to quell the tensions between these muslim factions. abd al-rahman is able to pull together dissidents and take control of muslim spain. he tries to foment a rebellion, a revolution. and that's not hard to do in the early years of muslim spain.[shouting] abd al-rahman unites the populace against their corrupt governor yusuf
at the battle of guadalquivir. when abd al-rahman i arrived in al-andalus, the governor and all of the people who were in power there at the time weren't particularly happy to see him, because they perceived him not as a liberator, but as a threat to their own power. he directly challenged their authority, and what he did was systematically destroy them. victorious, abd al-rahman declares himself emir, or leader, and makes the nearby cordoba the capital of his new kingdom.
inspired by the magnificence of his family's palace in damascus, abd al-rahman orders the construction of a magnificent mosque. it is one of the greatest buildings in the world. it is built on the site of the christian---the main christian church in cordoba. there's the history there that you can see or that's been made visible. at the same time, those beautiful red and white arches that fly overhead, that really draw the eyes upward, that are so ornamental, so strikingly ornamental, for, if you think the ninth century, eighth century.
the mosque's decorated mirab is built to show the direction of mecca for prayer as well as to amplify the words of the prayer leader. it was built by byzantine artisans, or at least one master artisan, who was sent from constantinople. he came not only with his expertise, but he also came with boxes of little glass --those little glass squares called tesserae, because they didn't have them in spain. if you look up from the mirab, in that vault overhead, once again you have that idea of the arch, but it's an arch that, again, crisscrosses, only now, instead of crisscrossing to form a screen through which you look,
it is forming a dome into which you look that represents, we think, a kind of cosmos...a kind of the heavens overhead. and those are, of course, also encrusted with that same mosaic. abd al-rahman's reign begins a new dynasty that will forever shape the future of al-andalus. his dynasty brings to spain a consolidated rule that lasts for centuries, and part of the reason why spain prospers is exactly because, one, there is this consolidated rule.there's one authority, and also, because there are these links back to the glories of islamic civilization in other lands. over the next century, cordoba's own glory continues to grow,
as not only muslims, but also christians and jews begin to develop an integrated culture that is unique to al-andalus. and you get many, many people who start to speak arabic but don't become muslim. you'll have christians who remain christian under islam but take arabic as their language. the jews and christians, especially the jews, are pretty well integrated into the economic life and into social life. they do business with muslims, and they interact with muslims. so space is made for them. key to this was the openness of that society.
because the emirs, because the political elite in al-andalus did not feel threatened by their minorities --they didn't feel threatened by the christians, they didn't feel threatened by the jews-- they were accommodating. this thriving culture draws attention. al-andalus, once a mere outpost of the larger islamic empire, becomes a lively center of trade. viking ships from the north sea as well as merchants from the new islamic capital of baghdad bring an influx of goods and of people to cordoba.
one such person, a great musician named ziryab, travels from the cosmopolitan city of baghdad to the far-flung al-andalus, bringing his many skills. he starts what some have called the first real music conservatory. the chroniclers talk about him playing what we would call a lute and using an eagle's talon to pluck the strings. he brought as a package, as it were, all of the newest fashions of the east, not so much just a style of music, but really a style of acting, a style of being. he revolutionized cooking, he revolutionized hair styles, music, the way the aristocracy acted.
and this was a culture that muslim elite of al-andalus really looked up to. they were kind of, you know, the sort of hill billies of the islamic world. ... you know, in the middle of nowhere, far from the center of power, far from the center of learning. ziryab is kind of a symbol of the refinement, i would say, of this period and of this time, where...uh some very important scientific and technological ideas are coming forward. the urban capital of cordoba is a flourishing metropolis, but at the same time, all of al-andalus does not enjoy such peace. al-andalus, islamic spain offers us shining examples
of interchange, dynamic, creativity. but if also offers us many instances of violent and despicable conflict, i...i think that we need to be careful to never focus exclusively on one. miles from the central authority of cordoba, in the northern borderland of zaragoza, the peace between communities is more fragile. many christian visigoths living in northern al-andalus convert to islam in order to move up in muslim society, but some find their conversion does not ensure fair treatment. the converts, in particular, weren't happy that the christians continued to enjoy
what they saw as a privileged, protected position in society, when they had converted to islam and by every right, should be enjoying all of the benefits of belonging to the superior group in society. the leaders of cordoba are forced to establish an army as the northern converts begin to rebel. so the background to this cultural sharing, this...cultural creation, is a lot of tension, tension at the popular level and tension at the political level. this leads to a series of civil wars which drag out through the 800's. these civil wars divide the communities of al-andalus,
threatening to tip the fragile balance between tolerance and violence. by 900, the islamic empire has taken root in spain, but the dynasty of prince abd al-rahman still struggles for peace and unity among the diverse peoples of al-andalus. finally in 912, abd al-rahman's descendant, abd al-rahman iii, is able to transform the troubled al-andalus, beginning a new age of peace and prosperity among all the communities. what he was able to do, really quite brilliantly, was combine both a kind of iron fist and at the same time, put together a program
that could be embraced by all the different elements of society. it is with his reign that islamic spain will see its greatest success, as abd al-rahman iii subdues not only rival forces within al-andalus but also abroad. by the tenth century, the islamic empire is composed of rival kingdoms, or caliphates, in the middle east and in north africa. in opposition to these kingdoms, abd al-rahman iii proclaims al-andalus' independence from the rest of the islamic empire in 929. he names cordoba the capital of his caliphate, calling himself caliph, the legitimate successor of the prophet mohammad.
abd al-rahman iii was the first caliph, who declared himself openly to be the legitimate authority in all of the islamic world. this is a period of supreme confidence for al-andalus. it was precisely that claim to authority that allowed him to then build a program of monumental buildings, of infrastructure improvements, and usher in an era of enormous economic expansion. his magnificent palace, medinat al-zahra, creates a paradise for the caliph, as well as his many visitors. you wouldn't have said, "now i'm leaving the garden, and i'm walking into a building,"
because the buildings are open, through these arches, for example, completely open on one side to the garden. so there's really no way of being in one space and not being very conscious of the other space. the palace, as the palace of the sons of umayya, abounded in all things,---and the caliphate was even more abundant medinat al-zahra shone brightly with pleasure boats. -ibn shyhaif, 11th century. the palace rooms would have been decorated with ornate gifts and other luxuries brought by ambassadors from around the world.
when christians came to visit places like medinat al-zahra, they were amazed and very impressed, and i think it's because they're coming from castles that were cold, dark, did not have much running water. and they come down to a place like medinat al-zahra, which is gardened, it's sunny, it's warm.but if you're indoors, it's cool, because it's all made out of stone. flowing water, nightingales singing in the trees, people wearing perfume.
one sign of the wealth that was expended on the palace city outside of cordoba was that, when ambassadors dined with the caliph, he would provide sherbet made out of ice that had been brought from the pyrenees. that was considered to be a tremendous luxury. at his palace, abd al-rahman iii not only accepts ambassadors from far-off lands, he also employs his own, both christian and jewish, to travel abroad. if we look at the court of abd al-rahman iii, it reflects, in many ways, all of these trends of diversity that had been developing in al-andalus up to that time.
in 955, he sends his secretary, the christian recemund of granada, as his diplomatic emissary to otto i, the king of germany. because recemund is a christian, he is able to connect with the german king, settling a potentially volatile dispute, and establish a treaty between al-andalus and germany. it wasn't practical for abd al-rahman iii to send, for example, a muslim envoy to germany. but it was very practical to send a christian clergyman. in the cold german castle, the king and his court listened in awe as recemund describes the luxury and splendor enjoyed in abd al-rahman iii's spanish kingdom.
many of these muslim towns, even very small ones, would have had functioning bath houses with warm water, and so folks would have-- would go and have a nice hot-water soak after a hard day's work. also street lighting. we know that there was lighting at night because one of the poets described the lights between medinat al-zahra and cordoba were like a string of pearls. so you can just imagine looking out beyond the confines of the city and looking into that landscape and seeing lights leading all the way to this other place. it's a very modern notion-- a well-lit city, gas light, right(?)
but they were doing it, what? in the tenth century. also in abd al-rahman iii's court is the jewish scholar and poet hasday ibn shaprut. he, too, acts as a diplomatic emissary and as the caliph's personal physician. he treated abd al-rahman for an illness, and he cured him. so you can imagine, if someone has cured you of an illness which might be fatal, particularly at this time, this is someone who you're going to have great faith in. and abd al-rahman iii and hasday ibn shaprut cultivated a relationship of profound trust, which was mutually beneficial, and, in fact, he was much more than a doctor,
because at this time, if you were a learned man, if you were a man of religion and a man of science, you tended to kind of dabble in everything.[sniffs] ibn shaprut's medicine skills proved valuable in abd al-rahman iii's court, as scientific knowledge flows into al-andalus from the east. there was communication between the various scientists, and we know, for example, that there were people conducting scientific experiments and people who haven't seen each other. uh...they were conducting simultaneously scientific experiments,
observations of astronomical phenomena and so on. there is this text about caliph abd al-rahman iii, who had contacts with the byzantine emperor in byzantium, who sent him a lot of books and a lot of people to translate them who knew arabic. it is the jewish scholar ibn shaprut who facilitates the translations of these great classical works of science brought to abd al-rahman iii's court from the christian byzantines. one of these works is a copy of the book of dioscorides, written in greek. dioscorides was a physician who lived in the first century of the common era
who traveled widely with the roman army, uh...and he conducted observations of various botanical phenomena, plants which had medicinal usage. ibn shaprut works with the byzantine emissaries on the complicated translations. he seems to have known latin, although not that many jews knew latin in that period, and therefore was able to bridge between arabic and...and some of these documents that took a third party to translate because the medical texts that came over were in greek. so it took an eastern monk, too.
but that was the way translation was often done.there were often, like, 3 people involved. so basically what the islamic civilization accomplished was they translated and absorbed all of the knowledge of the various civilizations and added and contributed to it. as a gifted scholar, ibn shaprut also fosters the development of poetry in his jewish community. he was the first important patron of hebrew poets and hebrew letters in spain, in sepharad. so we usually say that with hasday ibn shaprut began the hebrew golden age. 11th-century jewish poet ibn gabirol uses poetry to explore his vision of god. "sages have said that the secret of being "owes all to the all who has all in his hand.
"he longs to give form to the formless as a lover longs(?) for his friend. " in time, among jews, christians, and muslims, the art of poetry begins to take on a shape unique to al-andalus. these poems are kind of choral compositions, where you have a kind of back-and-forth between this poet singing in a high form of classical arabic and these refrains, which are oftentimes put in the mouth of a christian. these poems reflect a kind of cultural sharing, if you will. they set up these kinds of cross-religious, cross-cultural dialogue.
poetry served the exact same function as p.r. and newspapers today. you circulated opinions by poetry, because people liked catchy phrases. they would memorize it. they would circulate it. under the caliphate of abd al-rahman iii and his descendants, al-andalus put together one of the largest libraries in the medieval world. the first thing that the andalusians did was to import books from baghdad. they had camels of camels of books coming to medieval spain. this is how it began. we're talking about a library that would hold volumes
on just about every subject imaginable. you had books on astronomy. you had books on astrology. you also had many books on science, on natural sciences. with this new scientific knowledge, agriculture booms. cordoba blossoms like never before during what's called the green revolution. well, the agricultural revolution, and really, i think, the sort of cultural explosion in cordoba has to be understood from a hydraulic perspective. it's really all about water. using the existing roman aqueducts, the muslims develop advanced techniques,
such as the water wheel, to bring water from the mountains into the cities and growing fields. sophisticated irrigation has practical uses in al-andalus, but it also allows for the fostering of exquisite gardens. in that world, the garden was every bit as much about scent and sound. so we know that there were nightingales in the gardens. we know that there were peacocks sometimes. there were doves make that beautiful cooing sound. and we also know that many of the things planted in the gardens were planted for their scent.
to make a garden was to act out in miniature the very processes that are making that landscape productive. sadly, in 976, darkness falls on al-andalus, as the death of abd al-rahman iii's successor begins a period of hostility and upheaval. eventually the kingdom descends into civil war, as rebels ravage the countryside outside cordoba. historians say that this general took over. he started killing anyone in sight because he was insecure and he wanted to put his house in order, and it went like this.
after months of grueling attack, the great city of cordoba itself falls to the rebels in a bloody battle. cordoba was burnt down. most of the city built by abd al-rahman iii, medinat al-zahra, which is west of cordoba, which he was building as the most beautiful city in spain at the time, but they really burnt it down to the ground. the weeping of one who weeps with an eye whose tears flow endlessly is not enough to lament the loss of such as cordoba.
my heart is torn apart for its wise and forbearing men, it's men of letters and it's men of taste. this was a time of great upheaval, when native spanish muslims turned against berbers, when jews and christians became more vulnerable. it was, and really the best expression for this is an arabic one, it was the time of fitna, of strife. by the beginning of the 11th century, the unified al-andalus has enjoyed a cultural effloresce, but without the authority of its great leader, caliph abd al-rahman iii, al-andalus
now begins to break apart, dividing into separate smaller kingdoms called taifas. the glory of cordoba is gone. the library is destroyed. countless scholars perish in the violence of civil war. but remarkably, their wisdom survives. among the many refugees who must now find new homes among the taifa kingdoms are 2 young students, one jewish and one muslim. one finds tolerance, and the other persecution. the jewish student, samuel ibn naghralla, travels to the burgeoning taifa of malaga in the now-fractured al-andalus.
he was one of those who fled cordoba, because he came from a political family and they were out, so he had to go elsewhere. and there is a story that's probably just folklore but is a good story, that he had no way to support himself, so he got a job working in a grocer's shop. well, in malaga, he would have encountered all kinds of arab intellectuals, and apparently it was possible for muslim and jewish and christian intellectuals to interact. but in his new city, ibn naghralla does not forget his beloved cordoba. he laments the loss of his home and his poetry. "exile is ink in god's book.
"across my soul and every shore, and all on whom wandering is written " "a driven like johna and scvanage like k___." the muslim student, ibn hazm, wanders the broken land of spain, moving from patron to patron, hoping to continue his learning in a life without conflict. as a young man, he wrote a really remarkable book called "the neck ring of the dove, " which is a book about love. he talks about love at the first sight. uh...he talks about how to recognize whether people are in love. he talks about
the butterflies in one's stomach when one gazes upon the person that they love. in his youth, ibn hazm proves to be idealistic, hoping that someday unity will return to his homeland. he was a royalist, if you want. he wanted to bring back the caliphate, and he would go to any general who claimed he was fighting for the restoration of the caliphate. so, but of course, his choices were always poor. he always went with the weak side. in his writing, ibn hazm mourns the security lost in the civil war. "i see before my eyes the destruction of that noble citadel
which i had once known as beautiful and prosperous. and the stable, well-ordered atmosphere in which i had grown up. its courtyards, once full of people, now empty. " with the fall of cordoba and the rise of the many smaller taifa kingdoms, each local ruler must compete for power, setting the muslim leaders at odds with each other. this is the political landscape in which the jewish ibn naghralla and the muslim ibn hazm must now survive. paradoxically, this is also the period of time which offers, perhaps, some of the greatest cultural splendor,
and the reason for this is that each one of these petty kings wanted to have the most brilliant court possible. as the years pass, word of ibn naghralla's reputation for scholarship spreads, and soon the jewish scholar is invited to serve in the court of one of the most powerful taifa kingdoms, granada. granada is a kingdom which has a large percentage of jews in its population and is also characterized by a diverse muslim population. so it was really a complex situation, much like the caliphate had been. samuel ibn naghralla is asked to compose letters on behalf of the berber vizier,
or prime minister of granada, who find the scholar's work so impressive, that he is eventually promoted into the court of the king himself. from a scholarly point of view, he had 2 lives, if you want ---one that he did in arabic that is the official one as a secretary of the ruler, and the other one in hebrew. that is, he wrote poetry in hebrew, and he even wrote some scholarly books in hebrew. but after many years of struggle, the muslim scholar, ibn hazm, has no such success with his patrons.
he contemplated a political career earlier in his life, but it didn't work out because of the situation at the time, because of the internal upheavals, political upheavals. ibn hazm is someone who never succeeded in having the career he wanted to have. he never succeeded at having a career as great as his father's. dispirited by the tumultuous life of politics, ibn hazm eventually settles at his family's estate near the increasingly powerful taifa kingdom of seville. in granada, the years have been kinder to the jewish scholar, ibn naghralla. he achieves such a high level of authority in the kingdom that in 1057, he is invited to lead the granadan army,
and he does so for the rest of his life. he definitely accompanied the troops on their annual forays against the neighboring states, and we know a lot about his activities in that regard because he wrote poetry about it. samuel ibn naghralla is, in some sense, the opposite of ibn hazm in that he had a meteoric career. he rose to great heights. in fact, he couldn't have risen to greater heights without becoming king himself. the muslim ibn hazm is rewarded not with trust, but with persecution in the taifa kingdom of seville. one of the aspects of the taifa kingdoms at this point in time is that,
along with each political faction, you often get different divergent kind of beliefs, religious beliefs, and ibn hazm represented one particular strand of those beliefs, and, of course, his enemies were very glad to try to depict him as heretical. he spoke his mind. at least from everything that he had written, he clearly didn't mince words. i mean, he was very blunt, very eccentric. his career went from exile to prison to...any nimber of ... we might say, vicissitudes. after his release, ibn hazm withdraws from public life.
he devotes his time to writing and the study of religion. ibn hazm wrote an incredible book which was seminal in those times. it's the first comparative study of religions, that is, islam, christianity, and judaism. ibn hazm has one intellectual peculiarity that sets him apart from almost everyone else of the medieval muslim world ---he was very interested in other religions. he had conversations with christian clergymen. he had conversations with jewish clergymen.
he probably had conversations with ibn naghralla himself when they were young. by the end of his life, the years of hardship and rejection have taken their toll on ibn hazm. he was both embittered personally, disappointed personally, and also had a broad sense of being at a moment of crisis for islam. ibn hazm's religious work establishes no interfaith dialogue, no sympathy, only criticism of christianity and judaism. he even lashes out at his fellow refugee, the jewish scholar ibn naghralla. he wrote a very nasty book refuting the judaism of ibn naghralla, and i've often thought that some of the bitterness in ibn hazm's writing about ibn naghralla
had to do with a competition between them, but certainly he must have contemplated the rise of ibn naghralla with rage. they were almost exact contemporaries. in moments like this, in moments when islam seems to be losing its struggle against christianity, against other religions, then the need for explanation arises. and one of the interesting things about this moment in which ibn hazm operated was it produced the kind of political anti-judaism in ibn hazm that was quite rare previously. this isn't muslim hatred of jews.
this is ibn hazm and the people of his world looking at what they see as a symptom of this inversion of the order of the world. so his perspective on the whole collapse of the caliphate was also a very personal one, but it was a very different one than that of ismail ibn naghralla. for people like ibn hazm, the fall of the caliphate and the beginnings of the taifa kingdoms was the greatest catastrophe imaginable. indeed, with no central authority in cordoba to unite its people, the rise of the taifa kingdoms turns muslim against muslim, beginning a period of division and war.
as the powerful taifa kingdoms of seville and granada compete with each other for supremacy, they turn on the more vulnerable taifa kingdoms to the north. in a bid for survival, these northern muslim kingdoms send emissaries to the christian kings with an appeal for help. in exchange for payment of tribute, a financial payment, the christian monarch would offer a modicum of protection against enemies. uh...and so we end up with these complicated arrangements where you might see combinations of christian or muslim kingdoms in alliance against similar combinations on the other side.
so, in some ways, these taifa kingdoms were very interesting places in the sense that, because they were vulnerable, they opened a new phase in interaction between christians and muslims. we wrongly imagine muslims and christians monolithically squared off one against another. but part of this reality is that a muslim ruler of a kingdom will see no shame in making a deal with a christian king in the north if that can give him some protection for his kingdom. the rise of the taifa kingdoms forever changes al-andalus, shifting the landscape of muslim power in spain.
by 1060, the muslim-christian alliances may have granted the smaller muslim taifa kingdoms a temporary reprieve from the aggression of the larger taifas, but they also contribute to a growing demand among many muslim and christian leaders for a purification of their religion and of their land. in rome, pope alexander ii sees the intimate relationships between christians and muslims as immoral, and he seeks to purify spain of all muslims. in the core of christendom, they saw the kinds of relationships that christians had with muslims in spain as a source of contamination,
and as a possibility of error, as a kind of traffic with the enemy. while conflict builds in christian europe, religious tensions escalate in al-andalus as well, just as the taifa kingdoms begin to fall apart. in granada, a muslim religious leader, abu is-haq, mobilizes a faction of muslims against the city's jewish community, preaching that a jew or a christian should not have authority over a muslim. it was instigated by a muslim preacher who was also a poet, and he wrote a very scurrilous poem in which he attacked the ruler badis for having this jewish vizier, and it's a very nasty poem.
it's...it's long. it contains nasty attacks on the jews, nasty attacks on the government for tolerating the jews. it's the kind of thing you don't see much of in this period. it was virulent, and poetry had a lot of power because of the prestige of poetry. disgusted with what he sees as his society's moral ills, abu is-haq turns to violence. his poem apparently was influential in whipping up the crowds, and probably it was the masses. again, usually when there are attacks on the jews, it's not usually government-sponsored in the period until the 14th century. it's usually some uncontrollable crowd.
sadly, the mob's main target is none other than joseph ibn naghralla, who has inherited his position as court vizier from his father, the great scholar samuel ibn naghralla. what accompanied joseph's overthrow was not just the fact that he was removed from power or even executed himself, but a massive massacre in which 3,000 to 4,000 jews of granada were killed by the local population. the medieval chroniclers give astronomical numbers, which are probably not accurate, and we don't need to worry about them.
the fact that jews were killed in the street is a bad thing, however many it may have been. what we really need to study is what was the peculiar constellation of political needs, of cultural structures, et cetera, that made it possible for someone like samuel to rise and for his son to fall in the midst of a massive massacre. in northern spain, christian armies begin their form of purification as well, marching against muslim cities, taking them by force one by one in their "reconquista," or reconquest of spain. the christian kingdoms begin to claw back first frontier land, then crown-jewel cities. in 1085, the christian king alfonso vi
conquers the great city that marks the geographical center of the peninsula, toledo. one of the first great advances of these now-coalescing christian kingdoms, one of their first great advances or encroachments into muslim territory is the taking of toledo, one of the great cultural cities of the islamic part of spain. certainly to alfonso, it is important that this was the visigothic capital. there are legends about finding, you know, a light in the mosque of cristo de la luz, which had been a light since the time of the visigoths. so it's a city with resonance, for both the muslims and for the christians. with its conquest, toledo takes on a new role
as transmitter from islamic civilization to christian. within the city walls, its captors find toledo's expansive libraries, housing arabic translations of the greatest classical texts. they wouldn't have had access to all of those things, although you do find that, you know, texts are beginning to appear in northern monastic collections. people know about them. but the christian king values toledo's extensive knowledge and history. one of the things that would be attractive about a city like muslim toledo is not to have an empty museum of buildings, but to have a thriving commercial center.
alfonso vi seems to have written documents or agreed to documents in which he referred to himself-- or was referred to as "the emperor of the 2 religions. " uh...so this christian king himself seems to have a concept of "there might be a mixed solution, a mixed society that we can bring it about here." threatened by the encroaching christian forces, the muslim ruler of seville enlists armies from north africa to help defend his kingdom, with disastrous results. the royal court of seville enjoys the typical lavish lifestyle of al-andalus. they have no idea how their simple everyday life will outrage the north africans. the north african factions are appalled to see
that their co-religionists appear to be drinking alcohol. they're appalled to see that their fellow muslims are mingling with christians and jews so readily because they are people who have a much stricter, much more by-the-book, much more rigid concept of how muslims should live and work. the ruler of seville becomes the first victim of his own faulty plan. the north africans send him to prison in morocco and take his kingdom for themselves, setting in motion one of the most difficult and violent eras of al-andalus. the north africans begin their new regime by burning controversial books from the libraries of al-andalus. they were seeking to purify religion, to strip it away of things
they said that didn't have a good textual basis for practices or beliefs. they saw an islamic world, an islamic kingdom which had once been at the pinnacle of power brought low by civil war, shattered, destroyed, now prey to the onslaught of christian kingdoms. so they saw themselves as saving a failing state. the north africans see the root of this failing state in the unfamiliar, open, and diverse society of islamic spain. unfortunately, the burning of these libraries meant that we only know about books from lists that were compiled by others.
it's rather sad to hear of these authors who composed a hundred or two-hundred different works, and we have maybe 2 or 3. we can only guess at the riches that have been lost to us. over the next century, these north african armies flood into al-andalus ---first the almoravids, then a new more puritanical muslim group, the almohads, seeking to transform the diverse kingdom into a purely muslim state. there was a combination on their part of a moral duty and a political desire in order to conquer this society, and once they had conquered it, to transform it
into something which they saw as morally appropriate. under the north african almohads, many jews and christians are forced to flee al-andalus. entire families must abandon their ancestral homes or face humiliating persecution. the almohads certainly represent an authoritarian, absolutist perspective. they came and swept away the tolerant traditions of the caliphate. judaism and christianity were simply outlawed. the almohads began to impose their ideals, and then the andalusi society,
or segments within the andalusi society began to feel that they were being oppressed and began to leave, in some cases, preferring christian rule. in the dust of the refugees, the light of al-andalus, the land once known for its diversity, prosperity, and scholarship, is lost. but as they travel, these homeless wanderers never lose the culture of their birth. the jews who find new homes in the christian north carry with them not only their ancient jewish traditions, but also the knowledge fostered in al-andalus. they planted the results-- it was these jewish courtiers
who planted the products of arabic and islamic scholarship in christian territories and really helped to fructify these european territories. conditions remained favorable for jews in the christian territories for quite a while. we often forget about that. we think of islam good for the jews, and christianity bad for the jews. it didn't look that way in 1150. from 1150 to about 1250, it looked as if christianity, christendom was the land of opportunity for the jews. while the jews find comfort in their new lives in northern spain,
larger forces soon threaten their security as violent religious fervor erupts in christian europe. the spirit of holy war is sweeping the continent. while the muslim almohads wage their religious war in al-andalus, christian europe is waging its own crusade against the muslim world to the east. [shouting] in a frenzy of purification and intolerance, the christian crusaders intend to cleanse the holy land of muslims. and for a couple of centuries, we have this intermittent series of expeditions
into the holy land, ultimately unsuccessful, some of them deeply barbaric. now, this crusading movement, of course, affects the mentality in spain. so the crusades bring, for example, a harshen-ing of the rhetoric on the christian side, and conversely, on the muslim side, were getting these more puritanical dynasties from north africa launching jihads into southern spain to kind of shore up their beleaguered co-religionists. appeals to absolutes on both sides led to hardening of positions, led to great strife within those governments. and then you see a kind of a downward slide.
by the 12th century, christian and muslim leaders have taken a violent turn toward religious purification in an effort to strengthen their position. ironically, through this conflict, christian, muslim, and jewish knowledge meet at a new crossroads, as the borders of conquest and the barriers of culture shift. as conditions worsen, refugees continue to flee the puritanical rule of the almohads, among them a gifted jewish student, moses ben maimon, also known as maimonides, who will become one of the greatest philosophers in jewish history. here you have a jew who is extremely learned in the jewish tradition, but also very well versed in the general intellectua.
in the themes of general intellectua a___, particularly in the sciences and philosophy. he was born in spain, but he lived at a time of systematic persecution. maimonides' family had to flee, though he always retained the memory of being from sepharad. he calls himself moses sepharadi, "___ ____ ____ ____ ____." on his journey, the boy takes with him the passion for knowledge born in that broken city so many years before. over the years, maimonides travels from spain into north africa and on to egypt, where he is welcomed into the court of its leader, saladin, in 1165. revered today for his important work on philosophy and law,
maimonides spends much of his life studying the arabic translations of the greek philosopher aristotle. maimonides' scholarship on aristotle is seen as controversial in the 12th century, as much of aristotle's science seems to conflict with religion. maimonides is the one who really takes upon himself to demonstrate that you can be a full adherent of aristotelian philosophy and still remain loyal to the religious tradition. these things can be harmonized. one of maimonides' contemporaries, a muslim scholar named ibn rushd, also known as averroes in the west, is able to stay in cordoba
and debate the problem of philosophy with his fellow muslims. averroes was like maimonides. (he) was a religious lawyer by training and a philosopher, and he also developed a philosophical system that made room for the greek philosophical tradition and found ways to explain the islamic system in such a way as to harmonize with it. the problem of reconciling the science of aristotle with the religious scriptures is common to islam, judaism, and christianity. but through the work of averroes, all 3 religions are able to expand their philosophies.
averroes wrote voluminous commentaries on the works of aristotle, commentaries which then were avidly read in europe and translated into latin and were in many ways responsible for helping to spark our own european interest or rekindling of interest in aristotle. students even today at almost any catholic seminary in the world are going to study some of the theological and philosophical works of thomas aquinas. and what we don't often think about is that thomas aquinas and his colleagues built their theology largely around the philosophical works of aristotle. and they got their aristotle
through translations that took place in the muslim world and in spain. the valuable work of scholars like maimonides and averroes will come to the west through an unlikely portal, the now-christian city of toledo. in toledo, an archbishop launches a movement of translation. its mission-- to take the knowledge created in al-andalus and brought from the east and make it available to the west. toledo became the primary center in which arabic knowledge was translated and then transmitted into europe. uh...pretty much, a large number of scholars from all over europe,
who were interested in acquiring the best science and knowledge of the time, which was arabic knowledge, came to toledo to study. the new clarified aristotelian world view which people like ibn rushd and maimonides helped create captures the imagination of thinkers who are interested in rationally understanding the world. and of course, to find the personnel to make these translations, we're going to end up with teams that are putting together a muslim and a christian or a christian and a jew. in the 12th century, toledo is a bustling city, filled with refugees from almohad rule,
(?)many of whom who had been scholars in the intellectual communities of cordoba and seville. so all of these things are percolating in christian spain, thanks in part to the rather tragic collapse of the christian and jewish communities in muslim spain. an italian scholar, gerard of cremona, comes to toledo to study the arabic texts and befriends a muslim scholar named ghalib. together, they started working on translations a number of the materials... arabic materials which were available in the libraries of toledo. they started translating them into latin. ghalib would translate from arabic into castilian, and toledo
--and gerard of cremona would translate from castilian into latin. so we have these wonderful little laboratories that are interfaith experiments in a sense. and to me, one of the important lessons they give us is that, in the end, the society is richest when each individual civilization and culture is bringing something to the table, as opposed to thinking, "my society, my culture, my religion alone knows everything worth knowing" it is here in toledo that the great work of the muslim scholars will be understood and eventually carried into europe, planting the seeds of what will one day become the renaissance. toledo was the center that enabled this renaissance.
a revival of knowledge, of rational and scientific knowledge, and literary knowledge as well in europe was enabled .. through this activity. a lot of the early explorers of the generation of columbus and just before and just after would have used astrolabes, an instrument that helps them to chart star positions and so on, and these astrolabes also would have been manufactured at instructions that came to the latin west, to western europe, through muslim spaniards. there is no question that some of these instruments would have been used by columbus. we know that a number of the main navigators on the ship with columbus were muslims or of muslim descent.
this cultural center of toledo is a small island of peace surrounded by warfare, as the christian kingdoms continue their expansion into al-andalus. outside seville, the muslim almohad army holds strong against king alfonso viii and his christian army at the battle of Ａlarcos. the 15th-century muslim chronicler ____ writes of the day. "the two sides met at the bridge of Ａlarcos, and a battle was joined. "the enemy fled and were put to the sword. from early morning to midday, the camp of the christians was plundered, and about 30,000 of them were killed, fewer than 500 muslims found _____.
when they faced the christians, they defeated them. they routed them basically. and they forced them to a treaty that lasted, i think, some 10 years. to the christians, this muslim victory is devastating and serves as a catalyst to unite the christian kingdoms in one cause. in 1207, the pope proclaimed spain a crusading zone and calls upon other european armies to join forces. it was not only the christians in iberia that were fighting the almohads. it was some sort of crusade. people had come from france, from germany.　all the crusaders came to defeat the muslims,
especially after the crusades failed in the east. they marched not only for conquest, but for what they believed god wants ---a purely christian spain. so this becomes spain's crusade, and one of the popes, in fact, instructs spanish knights that they shouldn't go off on these voyages to the holy land, that their job is to liberate their own country for christendom. it seems deep in the monotheistic religions that sacrificing your life for god is a tremendous value. it was definitely true in christianity,
and we're much more familiar with it in islam today because of the suicide bombings, but the theme of martyrdom is obviously a deeply christian theme as well. finally, the christian army defeats the almohad army at the decisive battle of las navas de tolosa, led by king alfonso viii. so that was the christians' opportunity to take their revenge, and the almohads did not know that they were faced with such a huge army. so the rout was complete. in a message to the pope, king alfonso viii recounts the slaughter. "on their side, there fell in the battle 100,000 armed men, perhaps more."
"of the army of the lord, only some 20 or 30 christians in our whole host fell." "what cause for joy and thanksgiving." "yet there is one cause for regret here-- that so few in such a vast army went to christ " the situation became absolutely desperate. 20 years later after the defeat of the muslims in las navas de tolosa, the christians kept taking one city after the other. the battle of las navas de tolosa is the end of almohad rule in al-andalus, and it marks the beginning of the end of al-andalus itself. [cheering]
in 1236, the christian armies conquer the once-magnificent city of cordoba, the very seat of al-andalusian scholarship and innovation. the muslims can do nothing to stop the christian conquest. it was too symbolic, because they knew that the end was coming, and when the christians took it, they knew that they could not count on anyone to come and help them. it was hopeless. in an act of utter domination, the christian king orders the great mosque consecrated as a catholic church,
which in the 16th century will be expanded into an elaborate cathedral. when i go to the building, i'm fascinated, because like spain itself. it shows that islamic base that of course sits on an older visigothic foundation, out of which emerges this christian thing, this christian church which is, of course, christianity itself. so to me that mosque, you know, that's why, to me, it really represents spain, because it has all these different layers in there mixed up together, inseparable in many ways. where the mosques have become churches where only bells and crosses may be found,
even the mihrabs weep,though they are solid, even the pulpits mourn, through they are made only of wood. - al-rundi-, 13th century by 1236, christian forces have begun their conquest of al-andalus, transforming conquered cities into gateways where muslim and jewish knowledge will travel into christian europe, enabling its renaissance. although most of the iberian peninsula is under christian rule, the culture of al-andalus survives. after cordoba, the other muslim cities quickly fall to the christians. the entire peninsula, except for the very southern tip, comes under christian rule.
there, in the remaining muslim lands of al-andalus, one local leader, mohammad ibn nasr, manages to establish an independent muslim state in granada in 1238. granada became the seat of the nasrids, who were the last surviving dynasty when all the other dynasties to the north had been sort of picked off and eradicated by this christian encroachment from the north. so it becomes the capital of the last islamic kingdom of spain. it is a protected region, surrounded by mountains, with a bustling economy based on silk production and textiles. granada was considered very, very sophisticated, and it's still.
personally, it surprises me that it lasted so long after the whole of muslim spain fell, and they lasted for 200 years. it means that they were quite skillful in managing to survive. granada was probably a very exciting place to be in the 13th and the 14th century, whether you were christian or jewish or muslim. it's got a very big population relative to its size, because many muslims from other areas come down into granada. because granada successfully maintains its independence under the surrounding christian encroachment,
it provides a safe refuge for muslims who must flee their homes and search for a new life. many come from seville when the christian army brutally takes the city in 1248. all muslims are forced to leave, taking only what they can carry in their arms. the christian kingdoms were expanding. castile was pushing southward, taking over really the choicest areas of al-andalus, seville, the guadalquavir. this very rich, wealthy area of the south was falling. where is cordoba---the home of sciences and many a scholar---whose rank was once lofty there
where is seville---and the pleasure it containsas well as its sweet river---overflowing and brimming full there are cities---which were pillars of the land yet when the pillars are gone---the land may no longer endure ---al rundi, 13th century- al-andalus will never be the same, as its muslim citizens soon become outsiders in their own cities. when the christian rulers repopulate and restructure the cities they conquer, select muslim craftsmen are permitted to stay and work. they are sought after for their ceramics, for their woodworking, for their stoneworking, for their stucco, tanning, all sorts of skills, building.
a lot of it has to do with architecture. all sorts of skills that they have, and the new christian rulers don't want them to go away. they know that this is a valuable commodity. that's why you see all those buildings which do not reflect any christian sense of architecture but which were built under christians, and they called them mudejars. some muslim elites who are wealthy enough immigrate to morocco or the middle east, but most who stay are forced beyond their own city walls. jews enjoy more acceptance under their new christian rulers,
living predominantly in urban centers, where their skills in administration and business are in need. some jews find success as landowners, those familiar with the thriving agriculture of al-andalus. there were things that the christians needed from the jews. they needed the population. they needed the skills that the jews had in managing the territory. the jews knew the irrigation systems, and they spoke the language of the population also. they spoke arabic, whereas the christian ruling class didn't. so there was opportunity for jews.
in the beginning, jews prosper in christian lands, but over the next hundred years, their comfortable lives begin to suffer. it gradually changed. as spain became christianized, christians were able to take over, thank you very much. they now acquired the skills, and the skills that the jews had became less important. as the 13th century continues, the christian public sentiment turns against the jews of spain. the christian territories on the peninsula are now established and secure. in 1252, alfonso x is crowned king of castile and leon, now the largest christian kingdom on the peninsula.
conditions are becoming increasingly difficult for both muslims and jews, as alfonso x sets out to establish a master code of laws for his diverse populace. we begin to see a diminution in the status of jewish courtiers, a tendency on the part of the ruler to confiscate jewish property, to settle political problems by simply throwing all the jewish leadership in jail. alfonso x's christian subjects call for severe punishments, such as public lashing, for jews who do not wear identifying clothing. at times, the punishments are even more brutal. in his law codes, alfonso says that "where someone is so unfortunate
as to convert to judaism or islam, we odered that it will be put to death." [man groaning] but in this period of tremendous change and upheaval, king alfonso x proves to embody personally the very conflict that divides his kingdom. in some ways, alfonso x, epitomizes the schizophrenia, in a way, that must have afflicted a lot of these medieval muslims, christians, and jews, while his punishments are harsh, alfonso x's laws
also allow for privileges and protection for the jews and muslims living under christian rule. muslims living under christian rule in medieval spain were called in arabic modeshanon, in spanish, or in english, mudejars. these are muslims who lived under christian rule and who were basically artists, laborers. they were builders. alfonso x allows these muslims, as well as the jews living under christian rule, to live by their own laws as long as they do not conflict with the laws of the kingdom. he warns his christian subjects that they must never annoy jews or muslims on their respective holy days because, he says,
the temple, the mosque, is a sacred place where the name of god is praised. surprisingly, alfonso x, the christian lawmaker, is also a lover of arabic poetry and the arts fostered by islamic spain. here is a king that his nickname is el sabio, the wise or the learned, and truly he brings incredible intellectual wisdom to his kingdom. yet at the same time, like so many of these medieval spaniards, he seems to have a great deal of difficulty trying to navigate his way through the problems that can emerge in a land of multiple religions in the middle ages. you know, their intellectual tool box would have been much different than what we have,
and so there would have been a profound conflict sometimes between what their religion taught them or what they understood and what they might have been experiencing day to day in real-life interactions. alfonso x, because he was an aficionado of arabic culture and islamic culture, he translated books on chess and other games that had come from the islamic world, on falconry. so he's very visible as a figure of cultural diversity and cohabitation. yet this interest in islamic knowledge is dependent on the christians' superior status. as long as the soldiers continue their victories,
the christian kingdom can afford to be open-minded. in 1348, the christian conquest is brought to a staggering halt by an unexpected and deadly force from the east-- the black plague. when the plague swept europe in 1348, it hit all of europe with equal severity, and it hit the muslim kingdom of granada just as hard as it hit the christian kingdom. almost half the population of europe succumbs to the disease. the countless deaths only feed the puritanical fervor in christian territories. hatred and violence erupts, as jews become the first scapegoats.
near the spanish border in france, jews are dragged from their homes and thrown into bonfires on fabricated charges that they have poisoned the water with the intent to kill and destroy all of christendom. the black plague attracted preaching, anti-jewish preaching. the...christian preachers made a big issue of that and of claiming that it was the jews' fault and it was the tolerance of the jews that was one of the reasons for this suffering. it was the beginning of the major and permanent downturn
of jewish relations in the christian world. in 1354, the jews of christian spain make a desperate but unsuccessful plea to their king for safety. "we ask you to forbid the christians "to fall upon the jews whenever a natural visitation "such as a plague occurs. "they should rather seek the favor of the lord "by good deeds of charity and kindness "and not add transgression to their sins by destroying the jews" as the plaque ravages christrian spain, there are few doctors for the sick and fewer soliders for war.
thriving cities are desolated. mighty armies collapsed. in some ways you might say that the plague gave the islam a break in iberian penisula, because it created a set of social instablities, political instablities, civil wars in christian polity this kind of things that took the christians' attention off the war against islam. so in that sense, i'm sure that the muslims living in granada when the black death came did not think of it as a good thing, but it did give them some breathing room over time. now, with the great force of the christian conquest stalled by war and plague, the small muslim kingdom of granada is able to flourish and craft one of the most extraordinary examples of islamic architecture ever created.
in 1354, the emir of granada expands the great palace of the alhambra, built by the first rulers of his family's dynasty. someone coming from either northern spain or europe to visit the court in granada would have been, i think, amazed and delighted by what they saw there. to have large tanks of water, to have playing fountains, to have orange trees, beautifully scented with ripe fruit and the brilliant orange of the fruit itself. even(?) none of that would you have seen in northern europe at this time.
the alhambra is not rational. it is entirely sensory. it is about confounding the senses, overwhelm-ing the senses. it's meant to be absorbed on that level, ..it's not a logical building. in the alhambra, even the walls speak in poetry. you have whole poems where the poem talks about the place. it's like having this room talking about itself and praising itself ---"i am this. i am this. i ___ in glory with the stars and so on". and the poets who wrote those poems were the viziers of the ruler. i am a garden adorned by beauty.
i will know weather you see my beauty oh, muhammad, my king, i try to equal the noblest thing that has ever existed-or will ever exist. sublime work of art. fate wants me to outshineevery other moment in history.†—ibn zamrak, 14th century, on cordoba and i believe that alhambra and kingdom of granada at the time reflected islam when it was open. open to influences. open to interactions with other cultures, whether it is christian, jewish or whatever. and european too. that before islam basically fell back on itself and closed doors and said,
"we don't want to deal with the rest of the world " so alhambra is a very good example of what happens when people open up. the granadan artists and craftsmen are known for their incomparable skill, even among the christian kings. they're inviting, for example, muslims to come build their palaces for them, to transform them for them. they don't want christian workmen. they want the best workman available. the christian king, pedro i of castile, hires muslim craftsmen from granada when he wants to remodel his expansive palace, the alcazar in seville.
on the facade as you enter into the alcazar of seville, you see a..sort of poly-lobed arches and and inscriptions that are both latin and also arabic. and also one sees in the small detail when sees shields, the shields of castile. the entire christian palace embodies the culture of al-andalus, seen in every courtyard and every carved wall. the kings of castile didn't change it into a cold, dark christian kind of castle. they changed their own lifestyle, so that they began to live more and more like their muslim neighbors. so, religion was no barrier to adopting a luxurious lifestyle.
and king pedro's jewish treasurer, samuel ha-levi uses the artists of granada when he builds his magnificent synagoga del transito in toledo. it roughly dates to the same time as the alcazar of seville. and you have the same kind of multiculturalism going on there in a very overt way. if you look at the walls, you can see arabic and hebrew inscriptions, and you can see the shield of castile. this is one culture that has different languages, different religious practices. the kingdom of granada enjoys relative peace and prosperity, even after the plague subsides in europe.
in that last vestige of al-andalus, muslims and jews live together and thrive. granada was a really diverse community. they were eating the same food. they were wearing the same kind of clothes. they were probably singing the same songs, speaking the same languages. i mean, it's really one culture. while its people hold strong to the ancestral culture of al-andalus, granada remains safe in its sheltered valley. christian monarchs over the decades left granada as a tributary that would pay a certain amount of money but would never be invaded.
and from 1250 or so all the way to 1492, there's this prolonged twilight of muslim rule in spain, no longer in any way a meaningful threat. by the 15th century, granada has not only survived the christian conquest of spain, but flourished, creating extraordinary architecture and poetry in a time of plague and warfare. but even the magnificent kingdom of granada will be lost as the forces of conquest and purification intensify. in 1453, again events in the east occur that will change all of europe. the ancient christian city of constantinople in modern-day turkey
is taken by muslim ottoman turks. a 15th-century greek chronicler writes of a prophetic storm that precedes the fall of constantinople ---"such was the unheard of and unprecedented violence of that storm and hail" "that it certainly foreshadowed the imminent loss of all, and like a torrent of fiercest waters, it would carry away and annihliate everything." the muslim victory over constantinople, the last bastion of the crumbling byzantine empire, is devastating to the christians in europe in 1469, christian spain marks their commitment to a unified front.
for the first time in 800 years, the kingdoms of castile and leon and aragon are united with their monarchs' marriage. queen isabel and king ferdinand are joined in a lavish ceremony outside toledo. she was the queen of castile, and he was the king of aragon, and when they got married, they united christian spain. so, the 2 largest regions, they come together in marriage, and they are now united to campaign against that last holdout in the south. for isabel and ferdinand, their conquest is not only of land, but of religion, with devastating consequences for the muslims and jews of spain.
with a strong catholic monarchy ruling over christian spain, the pope authorizes the spanish inquisition, a bloody investigation into the private religious lives of their people. originally, the inquisition was meant to deal with christians who were lapsed, not with jews or with muslims. but over time, it began to concern itself with converted jews who had lapsed back to judaism, and then, of course, once we have masses of muslims who have converted to christianity, it began to concern itself with converted muslims
-- we call them moriscos-- who had lapsed back into islam. queen isabel names the priest tomas de torquemada as the inquisitor general. a 15th-century christian chronicler describes torquemada as "the hammer of heretics, the light of spain, the savior of his country, the honor of his order" torquemada is to try and to punish those who have converted to christianity but continue to practice their own faiths. there was a lot of holding onto traditions for whatever reason, and this became exactly a part of the problem that brought the suspicion of the inquisition. the inquisition is often held up as
the single greatest sign of the horrors of this christian society that emerged in medieval and early modern spain. the spanish inquisition is one of the last tragic chapters in the history of al-andalus. soon isabel and ferdinand's dream of a unified christian spain becomes a reality. by 1487, internal strife in granada's royal family allows the christian armies to conquer the final muslim cities surrounding granada, leaving the capital city itself vulnerable to attack. boabdil, the ambitious son of the granadan emir, has rebelled against his father and joined forces with the christian army.
so it was castile's turn to capitalize on divisions within granada. boabdil abu abdullah became an ally of castile because castile promised to help him against his muslim enemies. boabdil and his christian allies launch a civil war against his father, laying waste to the lands surrounding granada. during the course of this civil war, boabdil switched sides various times. twice he was captured by the christian forces, twice he made a deal, and twice he reneged on it. with the alliance broken, ferdinand launches a siege on the walled city of granada,
and in january of 1492, spain's last muslim city finally succumbs to the christian army. boabdil had violated a treaty which he had made with them, and they had every right to take the city. according to legend, when isabel and ferdinand entered the city, they are given the gate keys by none other than boabdil himself, as they tour the great silent halls of the alhambra palace. boabdil is part hero, part villain of this story, one of the contenders for rule in granada. he makes an alliance with ferdinand, and in the end,
it's boabdil who is the one in many granadan eyes who really sells out his own kingdom. after conquering granada, isabel and ferdinand order jews to either convert or face expulsion from their homeland of spain. after 1492, tolerance has disappeared. that's gone. that official doctrine of tolerance is gone. you do find people being forced to convert or voluntarily converting, but the question is, are they really converting, or are they doing this for the public face? we see it from the moment the catholic kings isabel and ferdinand took over all of spain and decided that spain should be only a catholic country,
and how it impoverished the country. they said there was only one official version of catholicism in spain, and they started excluding anyone else. the jews who choose to leave spain and settle elsewhere face a long and dangerous journey through the rough countryside. a 16th-centuary priest laments their plight in his memoir. "in much travail and misfortune, some falling, others standing up," "some dying, others being born, others falling sick," "and the rabbis continually gave them strength and made the women and children sing"
"and play tambourines and timbrels to raise the spirits." as refugees, the jews of spain carry their andalusian culture and identity to new homes in italy, as well as the muslim lands of north africa and the ottoman empire. when the jews were expelled from spain in 1492, they already had a hundred years of intensive persecution behind them. other jews stay and convert. yet many maintain their ancient traditions, as they have since they first settled in spain almost 1,500 years before, struggling to keep their own culture in their new christian world.
so, for example, we have stories of jewish mothers cleaning the house and preparing saturday's meal on friday evening. you know, we have stories of 'converted' jews going to sit with their still-jewish neighbors on yom kippur. for some, surely they were trying to desperately hang on to the faith that gave their lives meaning, you know, and they were christians in name, but they were trying to do whatever they could to be jews. the 15th-century jewish poet judah abravanel addresses his young son, lost to him during the expulsions, and reminds him of his faith.
"now pay attention, son. know that you descend from scholars," "men with minds developed to the point of prophecy." "wisdom is your heritage, so did not waste your boyhood. pleasurest boy." in the centuries following the fall of granada, muslims are given the same choice as the jews in 1492 ---convert to christianity or leave spain. some converted muslims called moriscos continue to worship in secret, trying desperately to hold onto their traditions. during the 16th century, there were muslims in spain, kind of cut off from the rest of the islamic world
and leading a vestigal islamic life. so the muslims not only have the symbolic loss of what was this jewel in their worldwide civilization, they have this added sadness and indignity that their religion is taken from them. finally in 1609, the last of the moriscos, over a half a million in number, are expelled from spain, even though they have converted to christianity. the reconquest of spain by the catholics, by the christians created very much a sense of loss, and even until today muslims who visit andalusia, cordoba, and granada and seville, feel this nostalgia, feel the sense of loss.
when there is diversity, there is by definition friction. but of course, if you eliminate diversity, and everyone would be the same. there would be no friction, but there would beno creativity that results from that tension.... just think of what medieval spain gave to europe. we have this technology for making paper. we have this irrigation technology… we have these medical ideas and all of thesethings came about only because cultures interacted and borrowed from each other…and we. so, a kind of a rough and ready togetherness came about, not an ideological tolerance, but a practical kind of tolerance.
i think that we’re fascinated by islamic spain because we project into it our own desires for a world where jews, christians and muslims all kind of got along, i mean more or less got along….and when you look at that and it’s wishful thinking- you wish that in the modern world relationships were easier. and we see that to a greater or lesser extent, people have to find a way to live together, find a way forward, despite some of the contradictions they feel, despite the fact that, you know, your belief is heretical in my eyes, but we're still here together in this city and we may have shared values and we're going to find a way to make this work
for the good of our own children and families. the history of islamic spain reveals the immense potential that lies in our shared values. its triumph and tragedy compels us to embrace again a culture of tolerance and to heed the wisdom most sacred to all christians, muslims, and jews –- to love god above all things and to love your neighbor as yourself.
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