Al-Andalus: A History of Islamic Spain
It was during the end of the Middle Ages that Islam was involved in the process of being eliminated from Europe. The historical tension between Christian and Muslim forces dates back to this period. The European crusades accounts for a portion of this hostility. Yet in the Iberian Peninsula this hostile tension was intensified and lingered even longer. By the middle of the thirteenth century two distinct categories of Muslims could be found in the Iberian Peninsula. The first dwelled in the small but densely populated independent Muslim kingdom of Granada while the other was scattered in the midst of such Christian kingdoms as Castile, Aragon and Navarre. Muslims living in the Iberanian Peninsula were often deeply divided even during the great era of Caliphate of Cordova during the tenth century. Yet from a very early date these same people were quite conscious that they shared an underlying religious and cultural unity, a common inheritance which they identified as jazirat al-Andalus. Andalusians living in countries as diverse as Tunsia, Algeria and Morocco trace their common ancestry back to Islamic Spain. This essay will focus on Andalus' alternating periods of centralization and decentralization.
What is striking is the amount of information which is available. The history of Islamic Spain or Al-Andalus is vastly richer than those available for the preceding Roman and Visgothic periods. The eleventh century historian Ibn Hayyan detailed more events within a single years than the slightly earlier Christian chroniclers could record for two centuries. Yet despite the wealth of material, its validity has been seriously called into question by the fact that it appears to have been recorded centuries after the actual events happened.
The first two monarchies of the Nasrid line experienced long but tumultuous reigns. The Muslim dynasty which reigned over Gr...