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- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
Enlightened times: Moorish Spain
Iberia’s shaky Visigothic governance, enviable soils and
proximity to Africa all came home to roost in 711.Tariq ibn
Ziyad, governor ofTangier, landed a small force of Arab and
Berber troops on Gibraltar and began moving inland.
Within a decade the Visigoths had been crushed and most
of the peninsula had fallen under Moorish control. Only
mountainous Asturias held out.
In truth, much of the population
probably welcomed the Moors:
cultured and tolerant, they made
al-Andalus (as they called their
Spanish lands) the most civilised
territory in early medieval Europe.
Northern boundaries shifted
constantly as the small Christian
states made inroads into Moorish
controlled areas only to be pushed
back again. But throughout, at
the heart of Moorish Spain, was Andalusia, from where
three distinct phases of rule unfurled.The first centred on
Córdoba, which declared itself a Caliphate independent
of the Baghdad bigwigs and nurtured a rich society before
fragmenting in the 11 thcentury.Then more militant
newcomers from northern Africa, the Almoravids and then
Almohads, moved power to Seville, before finally, when
Seville fell to the Christians in 1248, Granada became the
creative centre of Moorish life for a further 200 years.
The term Moors refers
collectively to the Arabs
and Berbers of North West
Africa, many of whom
moved to Spain over a
period of centuries.
Learning curve:
life with the Moors
The Moors didn’t simply
clone Islamic Africa in
Spain, and their time on
the peninsula shouldn’t
be viewed simply as an
occupation. The literature,
architecture and art of
Islam, with its Berber
and Arabic nuances and
infusion of ancient Greek
learning, married Spain’s
Roman education and
were bolstered by the
culture of a healthy Jewish
minority. In over 700
years of Moorish activity
in Spain, some of the
highest times came early
on, during the Caliphate
of Córdoba, when
architecture, learning and
trade created Europe’s
most sophisticated city.
Several hundred years
before London got street
lamps, in tenth century
Córdoba you could walk
the paved streets for miles
under artificial light. The
city’s public library (one
of 70 in Moorish Iberia)
apparently housed 400,000
manuscripts, while 50
hospitals helped the sick
and the people relaxed in
scores of public baths.
Moorish medicine man
Al-Zahrawi exemplified
Córdoba’s cerebral
clout under the Moors.
A physician and surgeon,
he wroteAl-Tasreef
(c.1000AD), a monumental
30-volume treatise on
medicine that was still being
used in Europe during the
Renaissance. In one of
the book’s less highbrow
sections he discusses the
use of underarm deodorants
and sunblock.
