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Dr. A. ZahoorThe Muslims
of the Iberian Peninsula, who ruled Spain between 711 and 1492 C.E.,
are commonly known as the Moors. They called their land Andalus
which in the early period of their history also included Portugal
and southern France and in the last period only the Kingdom of
Granada. The word Andalusia is derived from the Arabic word
Al-Andalus which has several meanings. One of them is 'to become
green after a long summer or drought,' and the history of the
Iberian Peninsula over the ages attests to this phase when Muslims
ruled Spain.In the
earliest setback in southern France, the Muslims were defeated at
Tours-Poitiers (about two-thirds of the way to Paris) during the
month of Ramadan in 732 CE. This place is known as 'The Pavement of
the Martyrs' and in Muslim cronicles as Balaat ash-Shuhada'. Muslim
control of Toulouse, Narbonne, Lyon and nearby territories varied
from time to time, as some of the territories were lost, regained,
and then lost. This went on until 975 C.E.The word
Moors is a corrupted word referring to the people who came from
Morocco. The Christians of the Iberian Peninsula began to use this
term exclusively for Muslims when the Muslims lost administrative
control of northern parts of Spain and Portugal. Later, other words
such as Moriscos and Mudejares were used for
them beginning in the mid-thirteenth
century.When Muslims first arrived in Spain in 711 C.E., they
constituted mainly Arabs and Berbers of North Africa. Within two
decades a majority of the inhabitants of Andalus, especially most of
the Unitarian Christians and the oppressed class, accepted Islam
freely in recognition of the peace, security and the freedom of
religion and expression under the Muslim rule. (Gothic Princess
Sara). By 770 C.E. people of all races from North Africa and Arabia
migrated to Andalusia (Spain and Portugal). They intermarried
with various nationalities including the native
Spanish-Muslim population, with the result that Spain became a
fairly homogeneous country within a few generations. During the
reign of Abdur-Rahman, the 'Falcon of Andalus' (755-788), they began
the work of building an Islamic civilization similar to the one
already flourishing in Damascus, Baghdad and its many regional
centers. Within a century of their activity, they had developed a
civilization far in advance of any in Europe. Their great
contribution is commonly known as the Moorish
Civilization.Stanley Lane-Poole in 'The Moors in Spain':
Introduction."For
nearly eight centuries, under the Mohamedan rule, Spain set all
Europe a shining example of a civilized and enlightened state. Her
fertile provinces rendered doubly prolific, by the industrious
engineering skill of the conquerors bore fruit a hundredfold,
cities innumerable sprang up in the rich valleys in the
Guadalquivir and the Guadiana whose names, and
names only commemorate the vanished glories of their
past."...To Cordoba belong all the beauty and ornaments
that delight the eye or dazzle the sight. Her long line of Sultans
form her crown of glory; her necklace is strung with the
pearls which her poets have gathered from the ocean of language;
her dress is of the banners of learning, well-knit together by her
men of science; and the masters of every art and industry are the
hem of her garments."Art,
literature and science prospered as they then prospered nowhere
else in Europe..."Mathematics, astronomy, botany, history, philosophy
and jurisprudence were to be mastered in Spain, and Spain alone.
Whatever makes a kingdom great and prosperous, whatever tends to
refinement and civilization, was found in Muslim
Spain..."With
Granada fell all Spain's greatness. For a brief while, indeed, the
reflection of the Moorish splendour cast a borrowed light upon the
history of the land which it had once warmed with its sunny
radiance. The great epoch of Isabella, Charles V and Philip II, of
Columbus, Cortes and Pizarro, shed a last halo about the dying
monuments of a mighty state. When followed the abomination of
dissolution, the rule of inquisition and the blackness of darkness
in which Spain has been plunged ever
since."In the
land where science was once supreme, the Spanish doctors became
noted for nothing but their ignorance and incapacity. The arts of
Toledo and Almeria faded into
insignificance."The land
deprived of skillful irrigation of the Moors, grew improvished and
neglected, the richest and most fertile valleys languished and
were deserted, and most of the populous cities which had filled
every district in Andalusia, fell into ruinous decay; and beggars,
friars, and bandits took the place of scholars, merchants and
knights. So low fell Spain when she had driven away the Moors.
Such is the melancholy contrast offered by her
history."Conde as Quoted in Prescott, 'Philip II of Spain,' Vol.
III."And so
vanquished for ever from the Spanish territory this brave,
intelligent and enlightened people, who with their resolution and
labour inspired life into the land, which the vain pride of the
Goths condemned to sterility, and endowed it with prosperity and
abundance and with innumerable canals, this people whose admirable
courage was likewise, in happiness and adversity, a strong rampart
to the throne of the Caliphs, whose genius, progress and study
raised in its cities an internal edifice of light which sent its
rays into Europe and inspired it with the passion of study, and
whose magnanimous spirit tinted all its acts with an unrivalled
colour of grandeur and nobility, and endowed it in the eyes of
posterity with a sort of extraordinary greatness and charming
colour of heroism which invokes the magical ages of Homer and
which presents them to us in the garb of Greek
half-gods."The Arabs
suddenly appeared in Spain like a star which crosses through the
air with its light, spreads its flames on the Horizon and then
vanishes rapidly into naught. They appeared in Spain to fill her
suddenly with their activity and the fruit of their genius, and
endowed her with a glorious glamour which enveloped her from the
Pyrenees to Gibraltar and from the oceans to the Barcelona. But a
burning love for liberty and independance, a fickle character
disposed to frivolty and merriness, neglect of old virtues, an
unfortunate disposition of revolution, provoked always by an
inflamed imagination, violent passions and ambitions, a spirit to
dominate, and other factors of decay, worked in the course of
time, to demolish this grand edifice raised by men like Tariq,
'Abdul Rahman al-Nasir, Muhammad ibn al-Ahmer, and led the Arabs
to internal dissention, which sapped their power and pushed them
to the abyss of naught."Millions
of Moors quitted Spain carrying their property and arts - the
patrimony of a state. What have the Spaniards created in their
place? We could say nothing, but an eternal sorrow fills this land
in which the gayest natures breathed before. Indeed there are some
ruined monuments which still look upon these gloomy districts, but
a real cry resounds from the depths of these monuments and ruins:
honour and glory to the conquered Moor and decay and misery to the
victorious Spaniard!"Gustav Lebon"For five
to six hundred years general books in Arabic language and
particularly on various disciplines have been almost the only
source of learning and teaching in the European universities. And
we can safely assert that in certain disciplines like medicine the
impressions of the Arabs are still at work in Europe. The medical
writings of Ibn Sina (Avicenna) have
been explained about the close of the last century in
Monabiliah.""Roger
Bacon, Leonard, Erno Al Felquni, Raymond Lot, San Thoma, and
Azfonish X Qashqani have solely depended on Arabic
Books."Renan"Albert,
the Great, is indebted to Ibn Sina and San
Thoma owes it all to Ibn Rushd
(Averroes)."Homeld on Science"It was
the Arabs who for the first time invented the method of chemical
preparation of medicines, and it was from this source that sound
advice and the procedure of experiments came to us, which were
taken up by the School of Saliram and from there after a long time
spread to southern Europe. The medicine and the natural elements
on which medication entirely depends became the cause of study of
plants' Chemistry. In this way both these studies went on
simultaneously in two different ways and thus the door on a new
era of the study of this science was opened by the Arabs. Suffice
it for the proof of the vast Arab knowledge of the plant kingdom
that they made addition of two thousand herbs to those of
Zulefuredas. There were many herbs in their pharmacy that the
Greeks had not even dreamt of."Sideo"During the middle ages, the Arabs alone were the
standard-bearers of a civilisation.""When the
Arabs gained expertise in Astronomy, they paid special attention
to Mathematical sciences and gained a high degree of excellence
and they were really our teachers in this field....When we take
stock of all that got transferred from Arabic to Latin, we find
that a great doorway was made in the name of Gerbert Sylvester II,
through which during the period between 970-980 AD, all those
sciences he had acquired in Andalusia had entered
Europe."..."Our
searching gaze rests on the Malikite Law, since we have had
contacts with Africa, and France had ordered its competent learned
men to translate into French the short compendium on Fiqh
(jurisprudence) compiled by Ishaq bin Yaqub (d. 1242 AD, his book
titled "Kitab-e-Khalil")..."For
full six hundred years his (Ibn Sina,
Avicenna) works held sway over the educational institutions
of Europe. His book Al-Qanun (Canon) was translated in five
volumes and had repeated reprints, since the instruction in the
universities of France and Italy totally depended on
it."Martin Hume in 'Spainish People'"The
Sultan Abd-er-Rahman was one of the Heaven-sent rulers of men.
Prompt yet cautious in council and in war, unscrupulous,
overbearing and proud, he was as ready to wreak terrible
vengeance, as he was politic to forgive when it suited him. Berber
and Yamanite alike acknowledged that at last they had found their
master....He ruled until his death, in 788, with the tempered
severity, wisdom, and justice which made his domain the best
organized in Europe, and his capital the most splendid in the
world."S.P. Scott in 'The History of the Moorish Empire in
Europe.'"Yet there
were knowledge and learning everywhere except in Catholic Europe.
At a time when even kings could not read or write, a Moorish king
had a private library of six hundred thousand books. At a time
when ninety-nine percent of the Christian people were wholly
illiterate, the Moorish city of Cordova had eight hundred public
schools, and there was not a village within the limits of the
empire where the blessings of education could not be enjoyed by
the children of the most indigent peasant, ...and it was difficult
to encounter even a Moorish peasant who could not read and
write."Thomson in 'The Muslims in Andalusia.'Europe was
darkened at sunset, Cordova shone with public lamps; Europe was
dirty, Cordova built a thousand baths; ..., Cordova changed its
undergarments daily; Europe lay in mud, Cordova's streets were
paved; Europe's palaces had smoke-holes in the ceiling, Cordova's
arabesques were exquisite; Europe's nobility could not sign its
name, Cordova's children went to school; Europe's monks could not
read the baptismal service, Cordova's teachers created a library
of Alexandrian dimensions. (800-1000
C.E.)Dozy in 'The Moslems in Spain.'"Cruel and
fanatical, the Leonese rarely gave quarter; when they captured a
town they usually put all the inhabitants to the sword. Tolerance
such as that accorded by the Muslims to the Christians could not
be expected of them."H. Kamen, 'The Spanish Inquisition.'"As a
result of his (Cardinal Ximenes' coercive) endeavours, it is
reported that on l8th December 1499 about three thousand Moors
were baptized by him and a leading mosque in Granada was converted
into a church. 'Converts' were encouraged to surrender their
Islamic books, several thousands of which were destroyed by
Ximenes in a public bonfire. A few rare books on medicine were
kept aside for the University of Alcala...(Ximenes) claimed...the
Moors had forfeited all their rights under the terms of
capitulation (of Granada). They should therefore be given the
choice between baptism and expulsion...At Andarax the principal
mosque, in which the women and children had taken refuge, was
blown up with gun-powder...all books in Arabic, especially the
Qur'an, were collected to be burnt...Cardinal Ximenes:...was
reported during his conversion campaign among the Granada Moors in
1500 to have burnt in the public square of Vivarrambla over
1,005,000 volumes including unique works of Moorish
culture."H.C. Lea, 'The Moriscos of Spain.'"...that
cemeteries could be established near the churches changed from
mosques, but old Christians were not to be debarred from burial
there if they wished....it continued until 1591 when it was
ordered that they should be buried inside of the churches, which
was so abhorrent to them that they vainly offered more than thirty
thousand ducats if king or pope would allow them to be interred
elsewhere, even though in dunghills."...
tailors were not to make garments nor silver-smiths jewels after
their (Moorish) fashion; their baths were prohibited; all births
were to be watched by Christian midwives to see that no Moorish
rites were performed; disarmament was to be enforced by a rigid
inspection of licences; their doors were to be kept open on
feast-days, Fridays, Saturdays, and during weddings, to see that
Moorish rites were abandoned and Christian ones observed...no
Moorish names were to be used and they were not to keep 'gacis' or
unbaptised Moors either free or as
slaves."
