Muslim Empire and Coexistence

Arabic Invasion

711 Tarik crosses the Strait of Gibraltar

Summary of Periods of Islamic Spanish Occupation 711-1492 I. Al-Andalus (711-56)

--Berber expansion, period of conquest and consolidation II. Independent Umayyad Emirate (756-929) --Cordoba established by Abd al Rahman I as capital III. Umayyad Caliphate (929 1031) --Abd alRahman III (caliph) --advisers: wazirs IV. Taifa Kingdoms (1031 1090) V. Almoravides and Almohades occupation (1090-1212) VI. Nasrid Kingdom of Granada (1235-1492)

1150

1300

Society in Al-Andalus

• Characterized for tolerance toward Christians and Jews • Peoples of the Book • Center for knowledge and learning in Middle Ages (the Great Library of Cordoba)

Contributions

• Influence on language (vocabulary,

mozarabic dialect

• Art and architecture • Literature (oriental tales) • Daily life 

More advanced than Latin culture in the sciences, astronomy, medicine, mathematics, philosophy, literature, construction, comforts of daily life (baths), agronomy.

Society in Al-Andalus

 Mozarabic (mustarab): a Christian living in Muslim Spain, who conserved their eclesiastical, judicial and religious organizations.

 Muladí (muwaladi): a Hispanic Christian who converted to Islam during the period of Muslim rule.  Jews: allowed to practice own religion and conserve own community structure.

 In Christian territory: Mudejar (mudayyan): Muslim permitted to live under Christian domination conserving own religion.

Language Influence



Guadalajara< "río de piedra"



Guadalquivir < "río grande"



Gibraltar < "monte de Tarik"



Algebra, alcalde, ajedrez



Ojalá “May Allah grant”

Arquitecture

Alcázar, Sevilla

Mezquita de Córdoba

Interior of the mezquita in Córdoba

Giralda de Sevilla

La Alhambra, Granada

Jarchas

tanto amare tanto amare habîb tanto amare enfermeron olios nidios e dolen tan male

¡Tanto amar, tanto amar, amigo, tanto amar!

¡Enfermaron unos ojos brillantes y duelen tan mal!

Characteristics

• Appear at the end of a much longer poem in Classical Arabic or Hebrew called muwuassahs («collar de perlas») [moaxaja, muvaschaja] • Language: romance (mozarabic) • Many times the poetic voice is female • Amorous themes predominate • Simple structures, parallelistic • Popular in nature and anonymous • The same jarcha appears at the end of different muwuassahs

The Structure of a moaxaja:

a ________ b ________ } cabeza (markaz) a ________ d __________ d __________ } mudanza (dyuz) d __________ b __________ } vuelta (qufl) a __________ e __________ e __________ } mudanza e __________ b __________ a __________ } jarcha

Hebraic Jarcha

Ibn Hazm of Córdoba (994-1063)

Wrote: Tawq al- hamamah [

The Dove’s

Necklace] (c. 1020) a treaty about love and lovers in verse and prose that includes autobiographical and historical details.

Kitab al-Fisal, a history of religions that was not surpassed by Western scholars until well into the 19th century

Ibn Sina (Avicenna) ?? 1037

• A universal scholar, the most influential philosopher and physician of the Islamic east in the Middle Ages, who interpreted Greek metaphysics in the framework of Islam. • Known in the West as the Galen of the Moslem world.

Avicenna’s Canon of

Medicine

• Surveys the entire medical knowledge available from ancient and Muslim sources • Includes such advances as the recognition of the contagious nature of tuberculosis, distribution of diseases by water and soil, and the interaction between psychology and health • Describes 760 drugs • First to describe meningitis • Contributionn to anatomy, gynaecology and child health

Avicenna

• Wrote numerous works on medicine, a philosophical dictionary, astronomy, mathematics, music, theology, physical sciences and poetry • Neoplatonic outlook in his summaries of Aristotle with an emphasis on the dualism of mind and matter. Saw matter as passive and creation as the act of instilling existence in this passive material; only in God are being and existence one.

• Said that cause and effect are simultaneous and therefore God and the world are co-eternal; that God created intelligence or the soul, and these emanate from the heavens and reach the earth in huge chains, intelligence being sustained by God.

Averroes (1126-1198)

• Andalusian qadi, physician, philosopher in the Aristotelian tradition, and author of important commentaries on the works of Aristotle, as well as on music, astronomy, medicine and jurisprudence (over 20,000 pages).

Averroes

• Deeply influenced Christian and Jewish thinkers • Called the “commentator” by Thomas Aquinas.

• Composed 38 treatises on works of Aristotle • Controversial figure among the anti-philosophical forces, was exiled and his books were burned.

• Theories of the evolution of pre-existent forms and of the intellect anticipated modern concepts.

• Taught that there is one eternal truth that can be seen in two ways: the way of revelation and the way of natural knowledge, with the aid of Aristotle and other philosophers • Double truth: a proposition may be theologically true and philosophically untrue and vice versa

Jews

in la Peninsula

• In the peninsula since the time of the

Romans

• Lived separately from the Christian

community

• Were persecuted by the Visigoths • Maintained good relations with the

Muslim community

• Important philosophers

(Maimónides), poets and translators

Maimonides 1135-1204

• Enormous influence on European thought • Wrote works in Arabic • Guide to the Perplexed: An effective synthesis of medieval Judaism with the philosophy of Aristotle: Reason is the primary source of human knowledge, but it remains acceptable to rely on faith in cases beyond the reach of rationality. Suggests philosophical reasoning not helpful to most ordinary people who are advised to rely on faith.

• Book of Commandments codified Talmudic law.

Bibliography

• http://www.sumadrid.es/ariza/aland alus/hmalanda.htm

• http://www.legadoandalusi.es/legado _es.html

• http://www.museosefardi.net/ • http://www.cla.umn.edu/courses/spa n3xxx/egea/andalus/index.htm