The etymology of Andalusia has produced a lot of debate. Furthermore, the Christians were required to refrain from helping deserters or enemies, and were obliged to pay individually an annual tribute of money and goods to the invaders. In return for submission, he retained his leadership and his people were free to follow their Christian practices. It only became a caliphate in 929 under Abd al-Rahman III, and remained a caliphate until the fall of Cordoba in 1031.Ī case in point is a treaty arranged with a certain Theodemir, the Visigoth chief of Murcia. Andalus in 756.However, it is more correct to call it an emirate at this time. But equally productive and less demanding, since it did not require the establishment of garrisons, was a peaceful agreement between the conquerors and conquered. There was some urban defiance –Mérida in particular, Córdoba, Zaragoza– which appears to have cost their inhabitants dearly, and was probably a disincentive for others to follow suit. Roderic was defeated and presumably killed (nothing more is known about him).Īfter Roderic’s defeat, the Muslim armies (now reinforced by more soldiers from across the straits of Gibraltar) faced little opposition as they moved rapidly north. In the following year, Tariq’s forces engaged Roderic and his army somewhere in the hills behind Tarifa or along the Guadalete River in the western part of the region we now know as Andalusia. What we do know is that in 711 an invading force of Muslims, led by a general named Tariq ibn Ziyad, landed near Gibraltar. The historical circumstances: What we know of the Muslim invasion. It gives a sketchy outline of the events, but the reasons why the invasion took place and how it was carried out are largely conjectural. Unfortunately, we have no contemporary sources to balance the legendary versions, the closest being a Latin document called the Chronicle of 754 (after the the latest year recorded in it). Legends are always later accretions, when chronological distance allows the imagination to weave tales around the historical skeleton. Opening the urn, he read what was written on the parchment: that whenever the tower was violated the country would be invaded and conquered by the people painted on the walls. There he saw painted on the walls figures of Arab horsemen bearing scimitars and lances. He ordered all the padlocks removed, and entered to the innermost room of the tower. He sealed the tower with a padlock and imposed on his successors, each in turn, the obligation of respecting the integrity of the tower and of adding another padlock to its door.Īll did so except Roderic. A certain king of Spain had deposited in a tower an urn containing a parchment. It is a compelling story as the explanation for the invasion of the Moors, but it is no more than that, a story embroidered by later generations to explain why Christian Hispania (modern Spain and Portugal) was lost to the Muslims. It’s not the first time that unrestrained passion has had far reaching consequences, and nothing is likely to give a greater human edge to the fall of kings or a kingdom than the weakness of the flesh. That man was Roderic (Rodrigo), the last king of the Visigoths, the young woman is known to us as Florinda (or La Cava), daughter of a Visigoth noble, Count Julian.ĭesire, anger, revenge…a potent combination. The father, angered, seeks vengeance and invites the expansionist Muslim forces of North Africa to invade his country and punish the man who has offended him. She complains to her father who is the governor of the far away outpost of Ceuta, across the straits from Gibraltar. Hidden in some bushes outside the walls of Toledo, a young man watches a beautiful young woman as she bathes in the river Tagus, Eventually overcome by passion, he seduces her.
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