THE MUSLIM CONQUEST AND LOSS OF SPAIN 85alliance between the warlords of both Christian and Moorish religions.
Until near the end, the wars of theReconquista^1 would not see the sides
defined by religion. Self-interest would trump Christian or Moorish prin-
ciples in almost every case.
In 1085 Alfonso VI of Castile captured Toledo, a shock that awoke the
Moorish kings. Their anxiety grew as he began his siege of Saragossa. A
combined Moorish force came to meet the Christian forces at the Battle
of Zalaca or Sagrajas, fought in 1086. The initial attack by Alfonso VI,
who had a combined force of Castilian and Aragonese troops supported
by a body of French knights, drove off the first Moorish line. As Alfonso’s
soldiers cut down the Andalusian Muslims, the leader of the Almoravid
Muslims watched them go.
Alfonso then launched his attack against the Almoravids who stood
their ground. While engaging the Spanish to the front, the Almoravid
leader, Yusuf, led a force of Saharan desert nomads to the rear and struck
the Spaniards in the flank. The Spanish army was utterly destroyed, and
Alfonso escaped with only a guard of 500 men.
At this time the Spanish hero, El Cid, waged war against the Moors. El
Cid, though a Christian hero, like any medieval warlord served his own
interests first. After a falling-out with Alfonso IV he actually allied with
the Moors.
When Alfonso was defeated at Zalaca he called on El Cid to support
him, because Yusuf was on a rampage through Castilian territory. El Cid
moved against the Muslim city of Valencia and besieged it for twenty
months, one of the longest sieges in the Reconquest of Spain. It fell in
904, and El Cid became a king in his own right. The wars continued, and
in 1094 the Christians won their first victory over the Almoravid Moors
at the battle of Cuarte. El Cid played a pivotal role in the battle, launching
an attack into the rear of the enemy army. Three years after El Cid’s death
in 1099, Valencia fell to the Almoravid leader, Yusuf’s nephew, known to
the Spanish as King Bucar.
As the Crusades were declared by the various popes and Christian ar-
mies moved to Palestine, others went to Spain to fight the Muslims—who
were much more geographically convenient. By 1114 large numbers of
French knights from Provence, Gascony, Bearn, and Languedoc, and oth-
ers from Normandy, Burgundy, and the north of France joined the crusade
in Spain.
The Almoravids provided a useful block to the Christian resurgence,
but by 1118, after the fall of Saragossa, they lost their following. There
simply weren’t enough Moroccan Berbers available to provide a constant
military presence in Spain, nor were they universally successful. When