THE RECONQUISTA
A few centuries after the fall of Rome in 711AD, the Berber and Arab Moors of North Africa, zealous converts to the new religion of Islam, launched a devastating invasion of the Iberian Peninsula (now Spain and Portugal), then ruled by the Christian Visigoths. They swept all before them, humbling the Christian armies, soon hurdling the Pyrenees and in just 7 years extending their rule into what is now far Southern France, all the way up to Narbonne.
Few of the Christian communities in the Iberian Peninsula held out. But they did have a victory around 720AD at the Battle of Covadonga, regarded as the first tentative start of the Reconquista, which led to the foundation of the Kingdom of Asturias (later the Kingdom of León).
After a dozen years, the Christians were left with territories on the shoulders of the Peninsular, which they hung onto grimly. However they did make some advances south, particularly around the end of the 9th century.
The pinnacle of Moorish rule was during the century long Caliphate of Córdoba, established in 929. Its capital was the magnificent city of Córdoba and its stupendous civilisation was the envy of Europe. Córdoba in its glorious heyday is described in chapter 1 of Colin Windeyer’s novel Call the Intention Good.
The Caliphate of Córdoba saw the Moors as undisputed masters of the bulk of the Iberian Peninsula, launching raid after fearsome raid on the Christian Kingdoms in the north, forcing them back. The Moors attacked and sacked León, Burgos, Pamplona and Barcelona; and, not long before the end of the millennium, that holiest of Christian shrines, Santiago de Compostela. The Moors triumphantly hauled away the Cathedral bells from Santiago de Compostela, then contemptuously hung them upside down to use as lamps in the Great Córdoba Mosque.
However civil war broke out in 1009; and over the next couple of decades the great Caliphate of Córdoba disintegrated into battling Moorish fiefdoms known as Taifas. The conflicts between the Taifas were enthusiastically egged on by the Christian Kingdoms to the north, who intensified their hitherto mostly feeble attempts at the Reconquista, striking deep into Al Andalus; and with the Moors weakened and at each other’s throats, the Christian Kingdoms now had considerable success.
Toledo fell to the Kingdom of Castile in 1085AD, resulting in over half the Iberian Peninsula being under Christian rule, as well as the revelation of the extraordinary collection of unknown ancient books inside that city’s magnificent libraries.
The Christian victories brought a fresh invasion of Al Andalus by Berbers from North Africa under the puritanical Almoravid dynasty, determined to unite the Moors of Al Andalus and subdue the troublesome Christians. In 1086 the Almoravids decisively defeated the army of Castile, stopping the Christian advances.
Against this trend, in 1094 the modern day Spanish folk hero El Cid defeated the Almoravids and conquered the city of Valencia, although his family only managed to hold onto it for another 8 years.
But it was not all the Christian Kingdoms fighting the Moors. The quarrelsome Christian Kingdoms from time to time fought each other, sometimes even allied with their Moorish enemies.
The next half century saw mainly Almoravid Moorish victories at the start, developing into to and fro warfare with the Christian Kingdoms; but there were a number of notable Christian gains.
In 1118 the Christian armies conquered Zaragoza, which became the capital of the Kingdom of Aragon; and in 1147, the newly proclaimed Kingdom of Portugal captured first Santarém and then Lisbon from the Moors.
Around the middle of the twelfth century a power struggle began amongst the Moors, between the ruling Almoravid Dynasty and the Almohads, newly arrived out of northern Africa. The Almohads eventually emerged victorious and the Christians of Castile then suffered a calamitous defeat at their hands at the battle of Alarcos in 1195. The neighbouring Christian Kingdoms of León and Navarre were quick to take advantage of this, allying themselves with the Almohads to invade a battered Castile.
However finally in 1212 the Christian Kings of Castile, Aragon, Navarre and Portugal combined to fight the Almohads, winning one of the greatest victories of the Reconquista at the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, in which they crushingly defeated the might of Moorish Al Andalus.
From here the Christian Kingdoms never looked back.
Córdoba fell to the Christians of the Kingdom of Castile in 1236, helped by Moorish infighting, as described in Colin Windeyer’s novel Call the Intention Good.
Valencia fell to the Christians of the Crown of Aragon in 1240 (part of the backdrop to Colin Windeyer’s novel Call the Acts Chaos); and the Kingdom of Castile conquered Seville in 1248.
This left the Moors ruling just the southern Emirate of Granada, and even that they held as vassal of the Kingdom of Castile, paying a tribute in gold from Africa.
This sole remaining Moorish territory persisted until nearly the end of the 15th century. Then, after a decade of fierce fighting, which saw the Christians of Castile take many towns, including the great strategic ports of first Málaga and then Almeria, the Reconquista finally came to an end in 1292, with the surrender of the city of Granada by the Moorish Sultan Boabdil.
Legend has it that as Boabdil retreated into exile, he turned around for one final look at Granada, sighed, and burst into tears. In one of history’s most brutal putdowns, his mother reputedly told him: “You do well, my son, to cry like a woman for what you couldn’t defend like a man!”
The Sultan Boabdil surrenders Granada