caliphate that included Seville, Saragossa, and Toledo and became the strongest kingdom in western Europe. He "brooked no opposition to his authority," says Latham. On the other hand, he "was an observant Muslim but no fanatic. Throughout his reign he adopted, whenever possible, a generally tolerant policy towards Mozarabs [Hispanic Christians] and Jews."
Edwards has another view of the idea that Muslims exercised tolerance, citing the decline in Spain of the "remarkable coexistence of Islamic, Christian, and Jewish civilisations between 711 and 1492." However, Edwards attributes that decline to the influence not of Islam but Christianity, which undertook a series of crusades known as the reconquest of Spain that culminated in 1492. Watt says in that connection that Spanish Christianity "found its soul" (Inquisition and all, apparently) in "Reconquista Spain," adding that it was only in the eleventh century that the desire for independence from Muslim rule was organized around a specifically Christian identity--which in turn led Muslims to defend their Iberian territory increasingly in the name of Islam.
Indeed, by 1085 Christians had retaken Toledo, which led to nearly 150 years of oppressively defensive rule in Muslim-controlled areas by zealous Islamists from Seville, the Almoravids and then the Almohads, in territories still under Muslim control. Distinguishing between Arab and Islamic culture, Watt takes the view that the religious (Islamic) orientation of the Almoravids and Almohads was much stronger than it was in the Cordoba caliphate, which experienced secular influences. However, even the more zealous Islamic regime does not appear to have enforced conversions or theocratic praxis:
The conception of the "holy war" could from time to time rouse the enthusiasm of the masses and swell the ranks of an army; and for this reason it was found useful by politicians. For the most part, however, the actual rulers of Islami...