Al-Andalus

Al-Andalus () was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The term is used by modern historians for the former Muslim states in modern Spain and Portugal. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most of the peninsula and a part of present-day southern France, Septimania (8th century). For nearly 100 years, from the 9th century to the 10th, al-Andalus extended its presence from Fraxinetum into the Alps with a series of organized raids. The name describes the different Muslim states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. These boundaries changed constantly as the Christian Reconquista progressed, eventually shrinking to the south and finally to the Emirate of Granada.
Following the Muslim conquest of Spain, al-Andalus, then at its greatest extent, was divided into five administrative units, corresponding roughly to modern Andalusia; Castile and Leon; Navarre, Aragon, Catalonia; Portugal and Galicia; and the Languedoc-Roussillon area of Occitania.
As a political domain, it successively constituted a province of the Umayyad Caliphate, initiated by the Caliph al-Walid I (711-750); the Emirate of Cordoba (-929); the Caliphate of Cordoba (929-1031); the taifa kingdoms that succeeded the Caliphate of Cordoba (1009-1110); the Almoravid Empire (1085-1145); the second taifa period (1140-1203); the Almohad Caliphate (1147-1238); the third taifa period (1232-1287); and ultimately the Nasrid Emirate of Granada (1238-1492).
This civilization was quite advanced at architecture and urban planning. The Moors were very wealthy because they controlled the gold trade from the Ghana Empire in West Africa. They built many beautiful buildings in all the land they controlled. Many of their large buildings still stand in cities in Andalusia, such as in Seville, Granada, and Cordoba.
Muslim Spain was multicultural and comparatively tolerant; Jews, Christians and Muslims lived side by side. There was also a saqaliba population (the descendants of European slaves) near the Mediterranean coast. Though these people were at first brought in to be slaves, some of them became generals (as did some Mamluks in another caliphate) and some generals became rulers of their own cities (taifas) for a short time.
In 1236, the Reconquista (gradual Christian reconquest) under the forces of Ferdinand III of Castile progressed as far as the last remaining Islamic stronghold, Granada. Granada was reduced to a vassal state to Castile for the next 256 years, until January 2, 1492, when Boabdil surrendered complete control of Granada to Ferdinand and Isabella.
Related pages
Umayyad Caliphate
Islamic Golden Age
History of Islam
History of Spain
Berber people
Andalusia
Moors
Notes
Footnotes
Bibliography
An Islamic History of Europe . video documentary, BBC 4, August 2005.
Stavans, Ilan. 2003. The Scroll and the Cross: 1,000 Years of Jewish-Hispanic Literature. London: Routledge.
Wasserstein, David J. 1995. Jewish elites in Al-Andalus. In Daniel Frank (Ed.). The Jews of Medieval Islam: Community, Society and Identity. Brill.
Movies
Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain (Unity Productions Foundation documentary)
Other websites
Paper by Georg Bossong evaluating proposals for the etymology of "al-Andalus". In German.
Photocopy of the Ajbar Machmu'a, translated by Lafuente 1867
The routes of al-Andalus (from the UNESCO web site)
Muslim contributions to Andalus
History and influences of Andalusian music
The Library of Iberian Resources Online
Al-Andalus Chronology and Photos
History of Portugal
History of Spain