THE UMAYYAD REGIME 217Not surprisingly, where the place of origin of these fugitive monks is
known it generally turns out to be Cordoba.
There are few historical records of the actual migrations but the
Mozarabs are so culturally distinctive that the traces of their presence
in the north are not hard to find. They were given lands on which to
settle and found new monasteries by the Christian rulers, particularly
in the recently colonised frontier regions of the kingdom of Leon.
The architecture that they employed, although used in a Christian
context, was strongly affected by the styles of Al-Andalus. Particularly
striking in their many extant churches are the narrow columns topped
by 'horseshoe' arches, which are identical in design to the types of
arch and arcading to be found in Umayyad Cordoba, as for example
in the Great Mosque, and which are also demonstrably different to
the features of the churches of the Asturias, which derive from
Visigothic tradition.
The Mozarabic monks also brought with them a distinctive style of
manuscript illumination, that is best exemplified in the magnificent
decorated copies of Beatus of Liebana's Commentary on the Apocalypse.
The earliest of these dates from 930 and the series stretches on into
the early twelfth century, with the Silos manuscript, currently in the
British Museum. Other important manuscripts may be found in the
cathedrals of Seo de Urgel and Burgo de Osma, and in the Pierpont
Morgan Library in New York. The places of origin of some of the
manuscripts are known: the Escorial Beatus (c. 950) is from the
scriptorium of San Millan de la Cogolla, while the Pierpont Morgan
of 962 is from Escolada. They, like the architecture, seem quite dis-
tinct from the contemporary and parallel products of the Christian
states, although attempts have been made recently to argue that what
is at issue is the creation of a new Leonese style of manuscript paint-
ing, rather than the importing of an already established Mozarabic
one.so However, it is highly unlikely that this frontier zone was as
Arabicised, or as culturally sophisticated, as such arguments would
require us to believe.
Unfortunately, the origins of the Mozarabic style of manuscript
decoration are obscure. No certain examples of Visigothic illumi-
nated manuscripts are available for comparison; the only possible
contender, the Ashburnham or Tours Pentateuch, is no longer thought
to be of Spanish origin. The highly schematic, stylised architectural
designs to be found in some of the Beatus manuscripts clearly reflect
the actual styles of Mozarabic churches, and of Al-Andalus. Although