The cultural “mix” went beyond architectural forms. Some Muslim men took
Christian wives, and religious practices seem to have melded a bit. In fact, the
Christians who lived in al-Andalus were called “Mozarabs”—“would-be Arabs”—by
Christians elsewhere. It used to be thought that an account of the martyrdom of 48
Christians at Córdoba between 850 and 859 was proof of implacable hostility
between Christians and Muslims there. But recent research suggests that the
account’s idiosyncratic author, Eulogius, exaggerated for effect. It is likely that
Christians and Muslims on the whole got along fairly well. Christians dressed like
Muslims, worked side-by-side with them in government posts, and used Arabic in
many aspects of their life. At the time of the supposed martyrdoms, there were in the
region of Córdoba alone at least four churches and nine monasteries.
Still, some Andalusian Christians were discontented—Eulogius was one—and
they were glad to have contact with the north. For to the north of al-Andalus, beyond
the Duero River, were tiny Christian principalities. Partaking in the general
demographic and economic growth of the period, they had begun to prosper a little.
One, Asturias, became a kingdom. A local chronicler lauded King Alfonso III (r.866–
910) for defeating the Muslims and imposing Christian rule: “He depopulated
Coimbra, which was held by the enemy, and afterward peopled it with Galicians. He
subjected many more fortresses to his rule. In his time the church grew and his
kingdom increased in size. The cities of Braga, Oporto, Orense, Eminio, Viseo, and
Lamego were populated with Christians.”^9
Alfonso and his successors built churches, encouraged monastic foundations,
collected relics, patronized literary efforts, and welcomed Mozarabs from the south.
As they did so, they looked to Christian models still farther north—to Francia, where
Charlemagne and his heirs ruled as kings “by grace of God.”
An Empire in Spite of Itself
Between Byzantium and the Islamic world was Francia. While the other two were
politically centralized, subject to sophisticated tax systems, and served by salaried
armies and officials, Francia inherited the centralizing traditions of the Roman Empire
without its order and efficiency. Francia’s kings could not collect a land tax, the
backbone of the old Roman and the more recent Byzantine and Islamic fiscal
systems. There were no salaried officials or soldiers in Francia. Yet the new dynasty
of kings there, the Carolingians, managed to muster armies, expand their kingdom,
encourage a revival of scholarship and learning, command the respect of emperors
