Phoenicians, Greeks, Vandals, Visigoths, Muslims, Jews, and Christians all occupied Spain at one point or another. Though this was a time of artistic, educational, and cultural enlightenment, it was not completely serene or without persecution for the Jewish people. As historians look back before the first millennium at the Jewish populations of Iberia, we see Jews living in convergence with both Muslims and Christians. However, Muslims were undoubtedly the principal subjects of the kingdom, not Jews, nor Christians. The Muslims had greater rights and responsibilities than non-Muslims, thus Moorish toleration was not exactly Moorish equality.
History demonstrates a long history of persecutions against the Jewish people.
And the Jews living in Muslim Spain were not excluded from such inequity. One hundred and eighty years later in 589 C.E., Visigoth King Recared relinquished the Aryan sect and accepted the orthodox Catholic faith, thereby paving the way for the religious unity in the country. Subsequently the Church was to exert powerful influence on all aspects of social life. However, the years of late Aryan and early orthodox Christian rule were both coming to a close. In 709 C.E., internal unrest destabilized the peninsula.