The Iberian Peninsula, like most Mediterranean countries, has been invaded many times. The Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Carthaginians, the Celts, the Romans and the Visigoths, six different invaders, take us only to the year 711. Then the good guys arrive. They were the Arab and Berber invaders. now popularly known as the Moors, who called Spain ‘Al Andalus’.Visitors to Spain, unless historians, do not need to know about its early invaders but they will inevitably come across some of their interesting remains.

Heritage Of The Moors

Arab invaders from northern Africa in AD 711 created a new society combining three distinct ethnic and religious groups. Muslims now joined Christians and Jews. These Muslim settlers were known as ‘The Moors’. Their powerful presence was established in Andalusia where mathematics, science and architecture flourished. Competent administrators, they also brought new crops such as rice and oranges to Spain.

Cordoba was the great shining light of Islamic culture. In time, it became a centre of learning, literature and the arts. Arabic numerals enabled the Spanish Moors to invent algebra. Great libraries sprang into being, the one at Cordoba containing 250,000 books. Poetry flourished. Fine art, silken garments, elaborate glassware and pottery were produced. Moorish surgeons used full anaesthetics to carry out brain surgery and eye operations, so that the wealthy from all over Europe used their services. Above all, the Moors built great mosques and palaces. The great Mosque in Cordoba and the mighty Alhambra in Granada bear witness to the magnificence of Moorish architecture.

The Moorish legacy to Spain is immense. Over 4,000 words of modern Spanish are of Arabic origin. The elaborate courtesy of many Spanish phrases reflects Islamic greetings. Spain’s most impressive buildings, palaces and castles are Moorish. Many words used in the context of architecture, mathematics and the practice of medicine are traceable to Arabic.

One other group was to have their lives profoundly affected by centuries of Moorish occupation. The Jews of Spain enjoyed, for the first time in their troubled history, a respected role in daily life. Freed from persecution, they were highly valued as merchants, administrators, ambassadors and financiers. Cordoba attracted Jewish scholars from all over Europe. Salamanca created a school of languages at the famous University, where Jewish, Christian and Moorish scholars worked side by side, translating the Holy Books of all three religions into Spanish.

Although Moors established themselves principally in the south, their power stretched to every corner of the peninsula. However, Christian kingdoms flourished in the far north and were eventually responsible for a rebellion that became known as the Re-conquest. It took Christian troops seven centuries to achieve a definite end to Muslim rule in Spain, a so-called triumph celebrated to this day by a fiesta known as ‘The Moors and Christians’.

Far from being a simple conflict between Christians and Muslims, the Re-conquest was a see-saw of hostile encounters between Muslims and Muslims, Christians and Christians and only ultimately between Muslims and Christians. Within each warring camp there were opportunists, mercenaries and contending royal houses ready, willing and able to make a deal by temporarily enlisting the support of allies.

Charlton Heston played the magnificent, gallant and heroic Christian hero El Cid in the Hollywood film of that name. El Cid’s title Cid is Arabic for gentleman or chief, and was given to him in recognition of his service to the Moors. He was, in fact, an adventurer and battled with equal heroism against Christians and Muslims to further his own ends. He was no more averse to destroying a church than a mosque and plunder was his expected reward. His name is, nonetheless, preserved in history as an ideal husband and father, gentle courageous soldier, a generous noble conqueror and unswervingly loyal to King and country.

The expulsion of the cultured Moors and the rich industrious Jews left great gaps in the agricultural and administrative expertise of Spain. The Moors had also been responsible for the intricate terraces and irrigation systems that had created exotic gardens and orchards that still exist today, and the Jews had been highly placed in court circles as advisers. Without the Moors and the Jews, Spain suffered a long slow economic decline.