Moorish Spain clearly was one of the reasons why the Western hemesphere became more civilised than it had been before the 15th Century. which is directly connected to print and the proliferation of paper by the Muslims this is why the average house in Andalusia especially in Cordoba had more books in it than the whole of Europe in the eleventh century.

Furthermore if it wasn’t for the introduction of paper into Europe which was the reason why books became more available over parchment the Reformation and the Humanist movement would not have got anywhere it was through print that Martin Luther was able to propogate his attack on the Catholic Church.

Indeed Andalusia was a place that was concord by all the great civilisations that is the Romans, Greeks … etc but what no-one can deny is the effect of the Muslims on the Iberian Peninsula and the World indeed its 900 years of presence is the reason why its monuments can be visited today like the Alhambra Palace a unique building, and the Cordoba Mosque. We can say much more about this but it would take a book.

No, James, that’s the Catholic history/myth. The orthodox history/myth in English-speaking countries, derived from Washington Irving and others, is that for seven hundred years muslim Spain was an astonishingly tolerant and civilised place far in advance of the rest of Europe that for some mysterious reason was overthrown by barbarous and intolerant Spaniards who didn’t want to be ruled in a tolerant or civilised way.
In fact, the ummayad dynasty- the “golden age of islamic Spain”- fell in the early eleventh century and the next four centuries weren’t quite so golden for anyone. It’s a myth that ignores the ta’ifas and the activities of the almoravids and the almohads who were imported from Morocco as allies in the fight against christian statelets and who each usurped power in their turn. The division between arab and berber existed- still exists- in North Africa and affected politics and warfare there and in Spain- both the almoravids and the almohads were Berber by origin.
You could say that “In the high middle ages Islam was the more cultured and more civilized governance.”. It would be more accurate to say it was the less uncultured and less uncivilised in fact, and only at its best at that. Cerainly the almohads were so unpleasant as rulers that many muslims preferred rule by christian states. However, as I said, at that time Spanish christians were also comparatively tolerant religiously for entirely pragmatic reasons.

We will have to wait for the full election results on that won’t we? Richard Fletcher has a study, that is a beginning isn’t it? Having not seen the study or the statistics all I can add is “meh.”

Statistical studies can shed light or they can add confusion on a subject. There is a great book that has been out for ages called “how to lie with statistics”

Now maybe this study by Mr. Fletcher is solid research or maybe there are some flaws that didn’t catch his eye. Foolishly believing in the innate goodness of all humans, I’ll give Mr. Fletcher the benefit of the doubt and assume that this was serious research and not a hatchet job.

The Orthodox history/myth of Moorish Spain is that Islam was a foreign, despotic rule imposed on the poor Christians who after 700 years threw off the Muslim yolk finally liberating Hispana from the evil interlopers.

The revisionist history may give overemphasis to the notion that Islam actually was deeply ingrained into the lives of the people of Andalus, that might be a good point. But the revisionist history is offering new Thesis.

Don’t want to get too Hegelian here but sometimes the writing of history does follow the pattern of Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis.

Understanding the difference between Muslim rule and Islam is important. I seriously doubt there is anything in the Holy Quaran nor the Hadiths that lead the Umyyads to use Mercenaries to protect their rule.

But this was not an uncommon arrangement in the 8th Century. Mercenary armies were used right up to the French Revolution. Mercenary armies are always messy and if you don’t pay them they can get quite nasty. As they are in for the pay only, they can and are riven by class, race, ethnic and sometimes religious differences. History is full of dynastic collapses brought about by disgruntled mercenary soldiers who turn on their employer when the gold ran out.

It is a very subjective business of figuring out witch band of brigands was “the worst.” The Islamic Brigands? The Christian Brigands? Hard to say without a program to figure out who all the players are. Hard to say which team they are on at any given time.

The overarching idea though is not so hard. In the high middle ages Islam was the more cultured and more civilized governance. For the times, Islam was light-years ahead of Christendom. For every jihad of the Muslims there seems to be 10 or so Crusades or some other form of nastiness perpetrated by the Latins. Remember it was the Latin Crusaders that sacked Constantinople and laid low the Byzantine Empire.

I know it’s slightly off topic (apologies), but i particularly regret the absence of such a site for women. There are the blogs that range from disaffected Saudi girls, to the ultra religious politcal moderates in Canada, and the once delightfully subvrsive personal blog of a young Tunisian woman living in the US. But I haven’t yet found the same callibre of political discussion that exists here in a comparable site run by a woman or women. I wonder if there are such women in Australia (politically astute and moderate) with an online presence. I am particularly interested inthose with a background out of Dar el-Islam, as opposed to converts. Not that I have anything against converts, it’s just that the life experiences differ so greatly.

If anyone knows of anything I should check out, please alert me.

Sorry for the ramble.

Back to Andalus!

Looking back, one wonders about how Islam made such inroads into “Christian” Spain. In the High Middle ages, most of Andalusia was Muslim. A great deal of ink has been spilled over how this was an effect of taxation. Leave it to our material view of the world to put this explanation front and center. But I wonder how many people converted to Islam because they were tired of being oppressed for being the “wrong” type of Christians.

In the high middle ages the Muslims were much more relaxed about religious matters than the Christians. If you doubt that Wiki the “Albigensian Crusade.” I wonder how many people in medieval Hispania decided to give Christianity a miss and join the more rational religion of the time, Islam.

One thing that I was surprised to learn from this documentary and reading about the period is that the so-called Fall of Andalusia more resembled a civil war than a simple case of Muslim versus Christian. For example, there were Christian rulers aligning themselves with Muslims (and vice versa) and people such as the famous El Cid who were more or less mercenaries selling their services to rulers of any faith.