Use only the readings no outside sources.
Long Essay Outline
One of Spain’s national myths is that of the Reconquista, the idea that Christian Iberians engaged in a centuries-long struggle to evict the Muslim occupiers from their homeland. This interpretation of Iberian history implies a rather static (and unflinchingly oppositional) relationship between the Islamic and Christian polities of medieval Iberia. Drawing on any readings you feel are relevant from Weeks 1-8, including a minimum of three (3) primary sources from the Medieval Iberia reader, please address the Reconquista paradigm of medieval Iberian history. To what extent do you feel it accurately reflects the dynamics of Christian-Muslim-Jewish interaction in medieval Iberia? If you feel that the material we have studied thus far does not support the Reconquista paradigm, please consider the reasons for why such a paradigm nevertheless took hold. What evidence in the primary sources may have contributed to this image? How would different readings of the same sources result in different views of religious interaction in medieval Iberia?
The occupation of the Ibreian Peninsula could not have been completed without the assistance of outside forces.
Introduction of the Reconquista
What is the Reconquista? It is known as a holy crusade by the Christian Church to reclaim the land that was taken over by the Muslims. The narrative century-long battles between the Chritians and Muslims, good and evil, is far from the socio-political atmosphere present of the time.
To what extent do you feel it accurately reflects the dynamics of Christian-Muslim-Jewish interaction in medieval Iberia?
What evidence in the primary sources may have contributed to this image?
Many of the primary sources were written centuries after events took place and personal sentiments lingered in the writing. One primary source dictated by the translator in the introduction of the primary source, “History of Muhammad,” that unknown author canonical describes the life of Muhammad, but, “the account has been altered to suit the polemical purposes, or misconceptions, of its Chrsitan author” (58, History of Muhmmad).
The author could not have written the primary source without prior knowledge to the Islmaic lifestyle and faith. As the stories of Muhammad were written in Arabic, that indicates that the choice of language was deliberate.
“When, as an avaricious user, he traveled on business, he began to assiduously to attend assemblies of Chirstians… he began to commit some of the sermons of Christans to memory and became the wisest among the irrational Arabs in all things” (58, History of Muhmmad)
“Soon after, the spirit of error appeared to him in the form of a vulture and, exhibting a golden mouth, said it was the angel Gabriel and ordered Muhammad to present himself among his people as a prophet.” (58, History of Muhammad)
Avarice is one of the 7 sins.
The symbolism behind the vulture. Vultures are unclean, eat off decaying corpses, scavengers. Why would an angel of God, present itself as a vulture. Author trying to indicate that the Ismalic faith is not a faith that follows the same God, but their religion is fake and made-up
Another Christian source
In another primary document written by another anonymous Christan, its narratives the beginnings of the campaign upon the Iberain Peninsula. The introduction of the primary sources inixtes that this document, “is the single most important source of infotstion on the “settinling in” period of Muslim rule” (33, Chronicle of 754) and that “The…conquests themselves…despite the rhetorical expressions of horror and grief, the chronicle as a whole treats the Muslim governors as legitimate rulers” (33, Chronicle of 754). What is the difference between the two primary documents? The biases primary source is written a couple centuries into Muslim occupation of the Iberian Pensiua, but the other primary source is written two genrations after the initial conquest. One depicts the Mulisms as savages, but another treats them as impartially as possible.
As the muslims ruled over the Iberain Peninsula for roughly 800 years, there was plenty of time for many blends between cultures and intermarriages.
Mothers raised kids, intermarriage between Christans and Muslims, Mulism male married Christan woman, woman did not have to convert, but could. Muslim male is not allowed to convert to wife’s faith. Typical to many household situations in the present the
Anonymous Christian. “Chronicle of 754.” Medieval Iberia: Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources, edited by Olivia Remie Constable, translated by Kenneth B. Wolf, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997, Page 32-36.
Anonymous Christian. “History of Muhammad.” Medieval Iberia: Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources, edited by Olivia Remie Constable, translated by Kenneth B. Wolf, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997, Page 58-60.
Alvarus, Paul. “Christains in Cordoba.” Medieval Iberia: Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources, edited by Olivia Remie Constable, translated by Edward P. Colbert, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997, Page 61-66.
“The Treaty of Tudmir.” Medieval Iberia: Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources, edited by Olivia Remie Constable, Pennsylvania Press, 1997, Page 45-46.
Catlos, Brian. Kingdoms of Faith: A New History of Islamic Spain. New York, Basic Books, 2018.
