Islamic Spain

By Addie, Audrey, Iva, Gabi, Oscar, Prerna, Russell, Theodor

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Map of Islamic Spain, green is Muslim territory

General Islamic Spain (Prerna)

• Great Mosque of Cordoba began around 785 A.D. by Abd al Rahman
• completed ~200 years later as a religious, social, and educational center
• Cordoba becomes a thriving city as well

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The Return of the Umayyad (Theo)s

• By 756, the Umayyad forces in Spain accepted Abd al Rahman as their leader.
• Abd al Rahman moved the now independent Islamic Spain's Capital to the roman city of Cordoba.
• Abd al Rahman's goal was to unify Spain under central government.
• He succeeded so well that until 1000 there was only a few invasions.

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Strengthening Cordoba (Iva)

• The climax of the Umayyad power was in Spain after Abd al Rahman during the 49 year reign of Abd al Rahman III (912-961)
• Rahman was the first ruler to be a “Caliph”
• During his time as caliph, Rahman increased the strength of the army. He bought Scandinavian, African, and German slaves to serve in the army.
• The army protected his kingdom from forces which attacked the first Abd al Rahman, Christians from North and Muslims from the East, especially Fatimids who started an empire in Africa.

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Glory of Cordoba (Prerna)

• with borders protected, Abd Al Rahman III turned to making Cordoba a thriving Cultural center
• the city was well run and attracted many scholars and artists, many from Abbasid, Baghdad
• Great Mosque was largest out of the 3000
• by 1000 Cordoba was western Europe’s largest city with 450,000 people

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A Center of Learning (Oscar)

• Poets and musicians were highly regarded by caliphs, so entertainment thrived.
• Sung and told of the glory of the empire and it’s rulers
• Muslims brought many books to Spain
• New books were written as well
• Scholars worked to translate the books into Latin
• People brought books back to Christian Europe where they raised the level of knowledge and learning at universities
• In the late 900’s, the largest libraries in Cordoba had over 500,000 books
• Clerks at the libraries hand-copied 70,000 books every year to satisfy the citizens
• Thousands of people attended the university and the law school in Cordoba.
• Scholars from Baghdad traveled to spain to share knowledge

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The Intellectual Community (Audrey)

• Cordoba was a center of learning in which non-Muslims and Muslims from other land were welcome.
• One scholar’s was Abbas Ibn Firnas who came to teach music but soon began to explore the mechanics of flight.
• He constructed a pair of wings out of feathers and a frame and made an attempt at flight.
• Later he went on to build a famous planetarium with revolving planets in Cordoba.
• Many non-muslims played an important part in the intellectual life of Cordoba.
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A Golden Age for Jews (Addie)

• Hasdai ben-Shaprut brought Jewish scholars, philosophers, poets, and scientists to Cordoba
• he made it the leading center for jewish culture
• Under Christian Visigoths and Romans Jews were persecuted
• Under the Muslims in Spain they flourished
• civil wars began but the “golden age”of Jewish culture continued for many years
• Jewish Spanish culture (Sephardic) developed with a language called Ladino

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A Golden Age for Jews CONTD.

• For example, Hasdai ben-Shaprut was a jew who served as a court physician, treasurer, and diplomat to Abd al Rahman III
• Maimonides was born in Cordoba, family has to flee the city when anti Jews controlled the city
• in Cairo he gained reputation as a doctor, lecturer, writer, & scholar-philosopher
• Ferdinand and Isabella reconquered Spain in 1492 and expelled all Jews

A City of Merchants (Gabi)

• Cordoba supported many workshops for leatherwork, prayer carpets, ivory boxes and other handicrafts.
• Spanish leather and other goods were demanded throughout Europe.
• Agriculture also flourished.
• Irrigation enabled farmers to grow new and exotic crops.
• Those crops are figs, almonds, bananas, cherries, and cotton.
• Over 4,000 markets sold these agriculture and other products.

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The Reconquest (Russell)

• By the 1000s Christian kingdoms had enough power to grow southward.
• The late 1000s mark the beginning of a period the Christians call the reconquest.
• Knights and adventurers from all over Europe journeyed to Spain to fight the Muslims.
• Adventures from Europe journeyed to spain to muslims.
• In 1085 spanish christian ruler Alfonso VI (6) took over muslim city of toledo whose king was friendly to christians.
• The loss of Toledo marked the point for no return battle for Spain.

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An Empire Lost (Theo)

• After the attack on Toledo, the rest of Islamic Spain gradually fell to Christian soldiers and the government fell into quarreling factions.
• The Muslims retreated farther south as Christian forces invaded from the north.
• Cordoba fell to the Christian forces in 1236, almost 500 years after Abd al Rahman.
• In 1236, the last Islamic kingdom in Spain was that of Berbers in Granada.
• The Catholic kingdoms of Aragon and Castile ruled Northern and central Spain, when King Ferdinand married Queen Isabella of Castile, their combined kingdoms had enough power to expel the Muslims out of Spain entirely.
• Many refugees settled in Morocco where the Berbers originally came from in 711.
• Today 98% of the Moroccans are Muslims.
• Many people speak Spanish, but the official language is Arabic.

THE END! ��