Moors: On the history channel tonight.

[Didz]

What's it called, I might check it out. That's if I can get it, I’m watching History right now and it the guide says nothing about the Moors.

Bit late but its called 'The Moors', I'm watching it at the moment and its very good. I've already seen Toledo, Cordoba and Valencia which was interesting to see in real life. And its suggested a possible explanation to the mystery of why Moorish troops were described by eyewitness accounts as 'Black as Pitch' when their commanders were frequently pale skinned and red haired.

It was very good and what follows is a sort of potted version of the understanding I gained from it.

It appears that the Muslim princes of El Andalusia were a little too liberal for their own good. Not only were they tolerant of other religions but their main focus was on promoting culture and learning. Cordoba for example had no less then seventy libraries containing over half a million books and scholars from all over Europe travelled to Spain to study everything from medicine to mathematics’ alongside Muslim, Jewish and Christian academic's. There are texts still in existence of books translated from Greek and Arabic, some copied from text by scholars as well known as Aristotle the prefaces of which include introductions by German scholars who worked on their translation into Latin, and the margins of which contain notes and explanations in just about every European language in existence at the time.

Modern Muslim fundamentalists attribute the loss of Spain directly to this obsession with logic over the divine revelations of Allah, and in part they are correct, but only in part.

The fact is that the Muslim princes of Andalusia were so focussed on culture and learning that they neglected their military and their defences. The people of Andalusia were not required to serve in the armed forces and so their army was hard pressed to find enough men to man the countries defences. Not only that but money was spent mainly on art, culture and learning rather than fortresses and weapons and the countries safety was largely reliant upon the goodwill which was fostered with its Christian neighbours.

Thus when their Christian neighbours began raiding and destroying the border provinces, and demanding money in return for protection the Muslims found themselves with little choice but to pay the tribute or suffer the destruction. Large area's of northern Andalusia were laid waste, crops burned in the fields, tree's cut down and irrigation canals broached. In desperation, the Muslim princes began to hire mercenaries, initially from the Christians themselves, but when these proved less than reliable they turned to the ruler of Al Maghreb (Morocco) across the Mediterranean Sea.

The warriors sent to aid the Andalucian princes were apparently not the same tribes of Berbers who assisted in the original invasion of Spain but were from further south in the Sahara region and were probably a mixture of Almohads and Almoravids. This explains the eyewitness accounts of these men being 'black skinned' tribesmen by Christians who fought them, as opposed to the lighter skinned warriors who originally helped to conquer Spain. They were also accompanied by camels and some accounts claim even elephants.

This would also appear to explain the anomaly between armies of dark skinned troops being led by pale skinned generals. The dark skinned troops were the mercenaries from Morocco and presumably the lighter skinned generals were those of their employers who felt obliged to accompany them into battle. Whatever, the truth of this, it seems that these imported troops were a mixed blessing. Whilst they provided skilled manpower to combat the Christian raiders they were also extremely fundamental in their faith and they did not appreciate the way the people of Andalusia worshipped logic and beauty above the divine words of Allah. It appears that soon after their arrival they began to deliberately vandalise the art and cultural buildings which had been so lovingly created by their employers and so the Princes found themselves trapped between raiding Christians destroying their crops and angry allies destroying their artwork and demanding a return to fundamental teachings.

At about this point it appears the entire kingdom fractured under the combined stress as cities decided to follow their own path. Some attempted to ally themselves with nearby friendly Christian rulers, others adopted the fundamentalist ideals of their new protectors. Civil war and chaos ensued, even between different factions of Almohad and Almoravid tribesmen as it seems everyone tried to grab or save what they could by whatever means seemed most suited to them. Palaces were burned to the ground, books destroyed, people were executed and murdered by their own countrymen and the enemy alike.

Thus when the reconquista started in earnest Andalusia was little more than a wasted shell of independent cities trying desperately to survive and by 1492 only Gharnatah (Grenada) was left in Muslim hands.

On Monday 2 January (1492) Isabella and Ferdinand left the camp with their army duly drawn up. The were dressed in Moorish robes especially designed and tailored for the occasion. As they came near to the Alhambra, Abu Abd-Allah rode out, accompanied by many of his knights, with the keys of the city in his hand. He tried to dismount in order to kiss the king's hand, but the king would not allow it.

Instead, the Abu Abd-Allah kissed Ferdinand on the arm and gave him the keys of the city, saying 'Take the keys of your city, for I, and the men who are within, are your vassals.'

You do well to weep like a woman for that which you could not defend like a man
Admonishment by the mother of Sultan Abu 'abd-Allah Muhammad XII, the last Nasrid King of Gharnatah (Grenada) when he began to weep for the loss of his city.

King Ferdinand took the keys and gave them to the queen . . . It was the end of Moorish rule in Spain.

Conclusion

I thought it was very interesting. I think its broadened my understanding of the background to the Moorish faction, though how much of it is accurate and truthful is difficult to judge except where there was physical evidence such as the annotated books and burnt palace ruins. It certainly didn't match the accepted history of Spain or the Reconquesta, but according to the programme that history has been rewritten at least twice most recently at the insistence of General Franco. So, basically its 'bollocks' like most history and its just a question as to how much of the information presented on the programme was 'bollocks' too.

Couple of more the controversial claims was that El Cid former ruler of Valencia though not actually Muslim was quite happy to allow Muslims to live freely in his city and probably hired himself and his army out to Muslim Princes when the price was right.

Also there was a long interview with the Countess Medina Sidona who claims that her ancestor the famous Christian Knight was most likely a Muslim, and that her family history was carefully rewritten to avoid the undue attentions of the inquisition. I actually found her evidence for this a little less than convincing but she seemed adamant about it.

There were also all sorts of weird architectural anomalies such as Christian churches built after the Recoquista but with quotes from the Quoran combined with Christian icons, and supposedly Christian kings who built their palaces in Moorish styles complete with Arabic inscriptions and referring to themselves as Caliph rather than King. Indeed it seems that even Isabella and Ferdinand were not fanatically anti-muslim at all and were quite happy to embrace the ideals and culture of Muslim Spain so long as it didn't conflict with their own plans and power-base.

All interesting stuff and as usual much more messy and confusing than past historians would like us to beleive.
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Hmm! this begining to turn into a bit of blog. I'm still trying to make sense of the eyewitness accounts of Christian witnesses who claim that the warriors they fought were 'black as pitch' and other references which claim that Berbers (which theoretically included the Almohad and Almoravid's) were lighter skinned frequently with red hair. Either these were two different ethnic groups from the same area or someones not telling the truth.

Interestingly, this book http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Moor-Jo...9221289&sr=8-3 and the comments posted about it suggest that I'm not alone in this confusion and it appears the enthnic/genetic history of the Moors is a bit of controversial issue.