A [possible] Revision of the Muslim Invasion of Spain

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Visigodo

Curious politician from Andalucia called “the father of the Andalusian motherland”, who tried to look for the origins of the Andalusian people and his roots between the Arabs and Moors comming from North-Africa.

Pathetically he and his family was not fitting in any way in the “moor” stereotype. Manuel Fernandez de Escalante wrote about him as having blue eyes but I can not be sure.

I don't know what Blas Infante's idea was, but I would be very careful with dismissing too quickly the identification of Andalusia with the old al-Andalus as just an idea of lunatics.

The thesis of historian Ignacio Olagüe in his book La Revolución Islámica en Occidente ("The Islamic Revolution in the West") where he dismisses the Moorish invasion and argues for a revolution throughout Hispania which led to a mass conversion to Islam (thus the so-called Moors were in fact Spaniards), is being exploited by Islamics in Andalusia by presenting Islam as a religion accepted and not imposed in al-Andalus.

Though wrong as a whole, some parts of the theory of Olagüe are right. Remember Profs. Vigil and Barbero? While some of his theories can be wrong, others are not. In their work Sobre los Orígenes de la Reconquista ("On the Origins of the Reconquista") they expose the problem of the Arian Unitarianism and Catholic Trinitarianism. The former (Unitarianism) was closer to Islam (also unitarian) than to Christian Trinitarism.

You can read online the work of Olagüe (in Spanish) published by guess who.. webislam.

[Menydh]

To help understand the above post, I'll try to resume what many believe that happened in Hispania around and after 711 AD.

When the Goths arrived in Spain their religious beliefs were Arianist, like other Eastern Germanic nations. In contrast, the Hispano-Roman were in their majority Catholic. We can assume that there would still remain some Roman Pantheists, plus the non romanicised or little romanicised tribes in the North were still Pagan.

King Leovigildo (Leowgild, 572-586) achieved the political union of Hispania by defeating the Byzantines who were settled in South Eastern Hispania and in the strongholds of Northern Africa, the Suevi who had a semi-independent kingdom in North Western Hispania (Callaecia), and suffocating the revolts of the Vasconi (and probably the Cantabri too) in the North.

His first born son, Hermenegildo, converted to Catholicism after marrying a Frankish princess who was a Catholic herself. He rebelled against his father but was finally imprisoned and presumably killed by command of his own father when he refused to take the communion from the hands of an Arian bishop.

Leovigildo, in order to achieve the full union of the Hispaniae had realized reforms such as derogating the law which forbid marriages between Goths and Hispano-Romans (a law which was anyway non functional) and unifying the Gothic and the Roman Laws. However, he was aware that the full union could only come through the religious unification of Hispania. With this in mind, he advised his succesor in the throne, his second son Recaredo (Rekhared, 586-601), to convert to Catholicism. (As a note apart, the association of Recaredo to the throne by his father provoked a discontent in the Gothic nobility since the character of the Gothic monarchy was elective, not hereditary).

In 589 Recaredo summoned the III Concile of Toledo, where he abhorred the Arian heressy together with some nobles and Arian bishops.

It is here that Olagüe (and other historians) argues that Arianism did not vanish completely and neither did Paganism. Something that makes sense if we take into account that it had been for centuries the religion of the Goths and that it wouldn't fade away by just a decree.

A few kings later came Witiza (700-710 - there were 14 other kings between Recaredo and Witiza). Witiza associated his son Egica to the throne. This, again, provoked a discontent among a part of the nobility. At the death of Witiza, these discontent nobility put Rodrigo (Roderik) on the throne.

Thus we had two parties. The party of Rodrigo (who is presumed to have had on his side the territories of Lusitania, Cartaginense and Betica) and the party of Egica, commonly known as the party of the descendants of Witiza (who would have on their side the Hispania the territories of Tarraconense and Narbonensis).

The regicide as a means to leave the throne empty and be able to be elected was common practice among the Visigoths. This practice is know as morbus Gothorum. It was also not uncommon to request foreign armies to help in these civil wars.

Little is know from the reign of Witiza, but it is assumed that there was social unrest and much discontent. The Visigothic administration was chaotic. One part of the population much discontent were the Jews.

Here, another note apart should be written to tell that Arianists were much tolerant to the Jews and that official anti-Jewish sentiment in Spain came from the Catholic camp.

In 711 the rebellion starts. The party of the Witizans, with the help and the finances of the Jews and through some Julianus, a comes or governor of Ceptem (modern Ceuta, Northern Africa), request the help of a foreign army. This was the army of Musa, the Muslim Governor of al-Ifriqiya (Northern Africa) who was at the time in the last stages of his conquest of North Western Africa.

At first the interest of Musa in invading Hispania does not seem to be much, as he sends in 5 or 6 thousand Berber troops under the command of his general Tariq. It must be remembered that Tariq and his men were Berbers, of the type known as Libertos. These Libertos were slaves or sons of slaves who had gained their freedom though their conversion to Islam. Not the kind of people who Musa would entrust the full invasion of a kingdom like that of Hispania (in fact it is clear later on that the Berbers are distrusted when they are slowly relegated as the Muladi (Spanish converts to Islam) are given more credit; this provoked a couple of civil wars in the early al-Andalus as the Berbers rebelled in discontent).

When the rebelious Witizans supported --by the Berbers of Tariq-- met the Hispano-Goth army of Rodrigo, it is speculated that more left the band of Rodrigo to join the Witizans. Nothing is known however of the Battle of Guadalete (not even the exact place where it took place). The army of Rodrigo is crushed and King Rodrigo himself dies in the battle.

Hispania, without an army to keep law and order, is a chaos. The followers of Witiza go on the rampage, sacking the towns and villages. Tariq sends notice of the situation to Musa and continues advancing without finding any resistance. At that point Musa decides to intervene and comes to Hispania with his personal army of some 12,000 Syrians and Yemenis.

The chronicles of the time tell us that the Muslim army was accompanied by a bishop, Oppas, a son of King Witiza. Oppas accompanied the Muslims to convince the city defenders to surrender.

Many Visigoth nobles must have converted. A daughter of Witiza, Sarah "La Goda", is known to have travelled to Damascus to request that the Calipha granted her family the status that they deserved. Over a century later a "Moorish" writer prides himself of his family being a royal Gothic lineage descended from Witiza and for being faithful Muslim believers. His family name was al-Qutiya, meaning "of the Goth woman", i.e. Sarah.

Suspicions are that what happened in 711 is that Arrianists converted to Islam. Though being a Christian heressy, Arianism was closer to Islam for its Unitarian beliefs (one God and Jesus a prophet) than to Trinitarian Catholicism (Father God, Son God and Holy Spirit God).

But there is one weak point in the theory of Olagüe. The last of the Arrianist kings was Leovigildo and since then there had been 15 Catholic kings until Witiza. Though it can be suspected that Witiza, his descendents and a part of the Gothic nobility was still close to Arianism (not unlikely), it cannot be affirmed and supported with evidence. Further, it seems that Olagüe goes as far as denying any foreign Muslim presence and speculates that conversions to Islam would have started to take place before 711, via commercial and other contacts. A possibility, but only in part.

The rest is history.