Afonso III , or Affonso , Alfonso or Alphonso or Alphonsus , the Bolognian Afonso III , or Affonso (Archaic Portuguese), Alfonso or Alphonso (Portuguese-Galician) or Alphonsus (Latin), the Bolognian Afonso III ' onMouseout='HidePop("24212")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Tributary_state">tributary state
The term tributary state refers to one of the two main ways in which a pre-modern state might be subordinate to a more powerful neighbour. The heart of the relationship was that the tributary would send a regular token of submission to the superior power...
to the Kingdom of Castile, then ruled by
Ferdinand IIISaint Ferdinand III , was the King of Castile from 1217 and King of Galicia and Leon from 1230. He was the son of Alfonso IX of León and Berenguela of Castile. Through his second marriage he was also Count of Aumale. He finished the work done by his maternal grandfather Alfonso VIII and...
. On January 2, 1492, Muhammad XII of Granada surrendered complete control of Granada to
FerdinandFerdinand the Catholic was King of Aragon , Sicily , Naples , Valencia, Sardinia, and Navarre, Count of Barcelona, de jure uxoris King of Castile and then Regent of that country also from 1508 to his death, in the name of his mentally unstable daughter Joanna the...
and
IsabellaIsabella I was Queen of Castile and León. She and her husband, Ferdinand II of Aragon, laid the foundation for the political unification of Spain under their grandson, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor....
,
Los Reyes Católicos, "The Catholic Monarchs".
Etymology of al-Andalus
The
etymologyEtymology is the study of the history of words and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages, and texts about the languages, to gather knowledge about how words were used at earlier stages, and...
of the word "al-Andalus" is disputed. Furthermore, the extent of Iberian territory encompassed by the name changed over the centuries. As a designation for Iberia or its southern portion, the name is first attested by inscriptions on coins minted by the new Muslim government in Iberia circa 715 (the uncertainty in the year is due to the fact that the coins were bilingual in Latin and Arabic and the two inscriptions differ as to the year of minting).
At least three specific etymologies have been proposed in Western scholarship, all presuming that the name arose after the
Roman periodThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
in the Iberian Peninsula's history. Their originators or defenders have been historians. Recently, linguistics expertise has been brought to bear on the issue. Arguments from
toponymyToponymy is the scientific study of place names , their origins, meanings, use and typology. The first part of the word is derived from the Greek tópos , place; followed by ónoma , meaning name. It is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds...
(the study of place names), history, and language structure demonstrate the lack of substance in all preceding proposals, and evidence has been presented that the name predates the Roman occupation rather than postdates it.
A major objection to all earlier proposals is that the very name Andaluz (the equivalent of
Andalus in Spanish spelling) exists in several places in mountainous areas of Castile. Furthermore, the fragment
and- is common in Spanish place names, and the fragment
-luz also occurs several times across Spain.
Older proposals
The name was traditionally believed to be derived from "Vandal" (the Germanic tribe that colonized parts of Iberia from 407 to 429), however, there is no historical evidence to support this. This proposal is sometimes associated with the 19th century historian
Reinhart DozyReinhart Pieter Anne Dozy was a Dutch scholar of French origin, who was born in Leiden. He was a scholar of Arabic language, history and literature....
, but it predates him and he recognized some of its shortcomings. Although he accepted that "al-Andalus" derived from "Vandal", he believed that geographically it referred only to the harbor from which the Vandals departed Iberia for Africa—the location of which harbour was unknown.
Another proposal is that "Andalus" is an Arabic language version of the name "
AtlantisAtlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias.In Plato's account, Atlantis was a naval power lying "in front of the Pillars of Hercules" that conquered many parts of Western Europe and Africa 9,000 years before the time of Solon, or approximately 9600 BC...
". This idea has recently been defended by the Spanish historian Vallvé, but purely on the grounds that it is allegedly plausible phonetically and would explain several toponymic facts (no historical evidence was offered). In Modern Standard Arabic, the name for "Atlantis" is
aţlānţis.
Vallvé writes:
Arabic texts offering the first mentions of the island of al-Andalus and the sea of al-Andalus become extraordinarily clear if we substitute this expressions with "Atlántida" or "Atlantic". The same can be said with reference to HerculesHercules is the Roman name for the mythical Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmena. Early Roman sources suggest that the imported Greek hero supplanted a mythic Italic shepherd called "Recaranus" or "Garanus", famous for his strength, who dedicated the Ara Maxima that became...
and the AmazonsThe Amazons are a nation of all-female warriors in Classical and Greek mythology. Herodotus placed them in a region bordering Scythia in Sarmatia...
whose island, according to Arabic commentaries of these GreekGreek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
and LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
legends, was located in jauf al-Andalus—that is, to the north or interior of the Atlantic OceanThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres , it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface and about one-quarter of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek...
.
The "Island of al-Andalus" is mentioned in an anonymous Arabic chronicle of the conquest of Iberia composed two to three centuries after the fact. It is identified as the location of the landfall of the advance guard of the Moorish invasion of Iberia. The chronicle also says that "Island of al-Andalus" was subsequently renamed "Island of Tarifa". The preliminary invasion force of a few hundred, led by the Berber chief, Tarif abu Zura, seized the first bit of land that is encountered after crossing the Strait of Gibraltar in 710. The main invasion force led by Tariq ibn Ziyad followed them a year later. The landfall, now known in Spain as either Punta Marroquí or Punta de Tarifa, is in fact the southern tip of an islet, presently known as Isla de Tarifa or Isla de las Palomas, just offshore of the Iberian mainland.
This testimony of the Arab chronicle, the modern name "Isla de Tarifa", and the above mentioned toponymic evidence that "Andaluz" is a name of pre-Roman origin taken together lead to the supposition that the "Island of Andalus" is the present day Isla de Tarifa, which lies just offshore from the modern day Spanish city of Tarifa. The extension of the scope of the designation "Al-Andalus" from a single islet to all of Iberia has several historical precedents.
In the 1980s, the historian Halm, also rejecting the "Vandal" proposal, originated an innovative alternative. Halm took as his points of departure ancient reports that Germanic tribes in general were reported to have distributed conquered lands by having members draw lots, and that Iberia during the period of Visigothic rule was sometimes known to outsiders by a Latin name, Gothica Sors, whose meaning is 'lot Gothland'. Halm thereupon speculated that the Visigoths themselves might have called their new lands "lot lands" and done so in their own language. However, the Gothic language version of the term
Gothica Sors is not attested. Halm claimed to have been able to reconstruct it, proposing that it was
*landahlauts (the asterisk is the standard symbol among linguists for a linguistic form that is merely proposed, not attested). Halm then suggested that the hypothetical Gothic language term gave rise to both the attested Latin term, Gothica Sors (by translation of the meaning), and the Arab name, Al-Andalus (by phonetic imitation). However, Halm did not offer evidence (historical or linguistic) that any of the language developments in his argument had in fact occurred.
The Emirate and Caliphate of Córdoba
Under the orders of the Great Umayyad Caliph
Al-Walid IAl-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik or Al-Walid I was an Umayyad caliph who ruled from 705 - 715. He continued the expansion of the Islamic empire that was sparked by his father, and was an effective ruler.His father Abd al-malik had taken the oath of allegiance for Walid I during his lifetime ., As such...
,
Tariq ibn-ZiyadTariq ibn Ziyad or Taric bin Zeyad was a Berber Muslim and Umayyad general who led the conquest of Visigothic Hispania in 711 under the orders of the Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid I....
led a small force that landed at
GibraltarGibraltar is a self-governing British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula and Europe at the entrance of the Mediterranean overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar. The territory covers and shares a land border with Spain to the north...
on April 30, 711. After a decisive victory at the
Battle of GuadaleteThe Battle of Guadalete was fought in 711 or 712 at an unidentified location between the Christian Visigoths of Hispania under their king, Roderic, and an invading force of Muslim Arabs and Berbers under Ṭāriq ibn Ziyad. The battle was significant as the culmination of a series of Arab-Berber...
on July 19, 711, Tariq ibn-Ziyad brought most of the Iberian Peninsula under Muslim occupation in a seven-year campaign. They crossed the
PyreneesThe Pyrenees are a range of mountains in southwest Europe that form a natural border between France and Spain...
and occupied parts of southern France, but were defeated by the
FrankThe Franks or Frankish people were a West Germanic tribal confederation first attested in the 3rd century as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul...
Charles MartelCharles Martel , called Charles the Hammer, was a Frankish military and political leader, who served as Mayor of the Palace under the Merovingian kings and ruled de facto during an interregnum at the end of his life, using the title Duke and Prince of the Franks. In 739 he was offered the title...
at the
Battle of PoitiersThe Battle of Tours , also called the Battle of Poitiers and in Battle of Court of The Martyrs, was fought in an area between the cities of Poitiers and Tours, located in north-central France, near the village of Moussais-la-Bataille about north of Poitiers...
in 732. However Poitiers did not stop the progress of the Berber Arabs and in 734
AvignonAvignon is a commune in the Vaucluse department in south-eastern France with an estimated mid-2004 population of 89,300 in the city itself and a population of 290,466 in the metropolitan area at the 1999 census.The city is well known for its Palais des Papes , where several popes...
was occupied,
ArlesArles is a city in the south of France, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, of which it is a subprefecture, in the former province of Provence.-Geography:...
was looted and the whole of
ProvenceProvence is a region of southeastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative région of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur...
was overrun. In 737, the Muslims reached Burgundy, where they captured a large quantity of slaves to take back to Iberia. Charles Martel responded with continuous campaigns against the Muslims in the south of Gaul between 736 and 739 and twenty years later, in 759, the Franks under the leadership of Pepin the Short expelled the Muslims from
SeptimaniaSeptimania was the western region of the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis that passed under the control of the Visigoths in 462, when Septimania was ceded to their king, Theodoric II. Under the Visigoths it was known as simply Gallia or Narbonensis. It corresponded roughly with the modern...
which was one of the five administrative areas of Al-Andalus .
The Iberian peninsula, except for the
Kingdom of AsturiasThe Kingdom of Asturias was the first Christian political entity to be established in the Iberian peninsula after the collapse of the Visigothic Kingdom. This followed the defeat of King Roderic at the Battle of Guadalete and the subsequent Islamic conquest of Hispania...
, became part of the expanding
Umayyad empireThe Umayyad Caliphate was the second of the four Islamic caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. It was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty, whose name derives from Umayya ibn Abd Shams, the great-grandfather of the first Umayyad caliph. Although the Umayyad family originally came from the...
, under the name of
al-Andalus. The earliest attestation of this Arab name is a
dinarThe Dinar is the name of the official currency in several countries. The Gold Dinar was a coin dating back to the early days of Islam, issued by many rulers, and the Islamic gold dinar is a modern revival of it as a coin or unit of account, separate from the currencies listed below...
coin, preserved in the Archaeological Museum in
MadridMadrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. It is the third-most populous municipality in the European Union after Greater London and Berlin, and its metropolitan area is the third-most populous city by urban area in the European Union after Paris and London.The city is located on the river...
, dating from five years after the conquest (716). The coin bears the word "al-Andalus" in Arabic script on one side and the Iberian Latin "Span" on the obverse.
At first, al-Andalus was ruled by governors appointed by the
CaliphThe Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the leader of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transliterated version of the Arabic word which means "successor" or "representative"...
, most ruling for periods of under three years. However, from 740, a series of civil wars between various Muslim groups in Iberia resulted in the breakdown of Caliphal control, with
Yūsuf al-FihriYusuf ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri was Umayyad governor of Narbonne in Septimania and then from 747 to 756 governor of al-Andalus, ruling independently following the collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate in 750...
, who emerged as the main winner, effectively becoming an independent
rulerA ruler, or rule, is an instrument used in geometry, technical drawing and engineering/building to measure distances and/or to rule straight lines. Strictly speaking, the ruler is essentially a straightedge used to rule lines and the calibrated instrument used for determining measurement is called...
.
In 750, the
AbbasidThe Abbasid Caliphate was the third of the Islamic Caliphates of the Islamic Empire. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphs from all but Al Andalus....
s overthrew the Umayyads for control of the great Arab empire. But in 756, the exiled Umayyad prince Abd-ar-Rahman I (later titled
Al-Dākhil) ousted Yūsuf al-Fihri to establish himself as the
EmirEmir , is a high title of nobility or office, used throughout the Arab World and historically in 19th-century Afghanistan and also in the medieval Muslim World...
of
Córdoba||-||-||}Córdoba is a city in Andalusia, southern Spain, and the capital of the province of Córdoba. Located at 37.88° North, 4.77° West, on the Guadalquivir river, it was founded in ancient Roman times as Corduba by Claudius Marcellus...
. He refused to submit to the Abbasid caliph, as Abbasid forces had killed most of his family. Over a thirty year reign, he established a tenuous rule over much of al-Andalus, overcoming partisans of both the al-Fihri family and of the Abbasid caliph.
For the next century and a half, his descendants continued as emirs of Córdoba, with nominal control over the rest of
al-Andalus and sometimes even parts of western
North AfricaNorth Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa.Geopolitically, the UN definition of Northern Africa includes the following seven countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia,Mauritania, and...
, but with real control, particularly over the marches along the Christian border, vacillating depending on the competence of the individual emir. Indeed, the power of emir Abdallah ibn Muhammad (circa 900) did not extend beyond Córdoba itself.
But his grandson Abd-al-Rahman III, who succeeded him in 912, not only rapidly restored Umayyad power throughout al-Andalus but extended it into western North Africa as well. In 929 he proclaimed himself Caliph, elevating the emirate to a position competing in prestige not only with the
AbbasidThe Abbasid Caliphate was the third of the Islamic Caliphates of the Islamic Empire. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphs from all but Al Andalus....
caliph in
BaghdadBaghdad is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate, with which it is coterminous. Having a municipal population estimated at 6.5 million, it is the largest city in Iraq and the second largest in the Arab World....
but also the
Shi'iteShia Islam , is the second largest denomination of Islam, after Sunni Islam. The followers of Shia Islam are called Shi'as or Shi'ites....
caliph in
TunisTunis is the capital of the Tunisian Republic and also the Tunis Governorate, with a population of 1,200,000 in 2008 and over 3,980,500 in the greater Tunis area...
—with whom he was competing for control of North Africa.
The period of the Caliphate is seen by Muslim writers as the
golden ageThe Islamic Golden Age or the Islamic Renaissance, is traditionally dated from the 9th to 13th centuries for 400 years C.E., but has been extended to the 15th century by recent scholarship...
of al-Andalus. Crops produced using irrigation, along with food imported from the Middle East, provided the area around Córdoba and some other
Andalusī cities with an agricultural economic sector by far the most advanced in Europe. Among European cities, Córdoba under the Caliphate, with a population of perhaps 500,000, eventually overtook
ConstantinopleConstantinople was the imperial capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire...
as the largest and most prosperous city in Europe. Within the Islamic world, Córdoba was one of the leading cultural centres. The work of its most important philosophers and scientists (notably
AbulcasisAbu al-Qasim Khalaf ibn al-Abbas Al-Zahrawi, also known in the West as Abulcasis, was an Andalusian physician, surgeon, chemist, cosmetologist, and scientist. He is considered the father of modern surgery, and as Islam's greatest medieval surgeon, whose comprehensive medical texts shaped both...
and
AverroesAbū 'l-Walīd Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Rushd , better known just as Ibn Rushd , and in European literature as Averroes , was an Andalusian Muslim polymath of Moroccan origins; a master of Islamic philosophy, Islamic theology, Maliki law and jurisprudence, logic, psychology, politics, Arabic music...
) had a major influence on the intellectual life of medieval Europe.
Muslims and non-Muslims often came from abroad to study in the famous libraries and universities of
al-Andalus after the reconquista of Toledo in 1085 . The most noted of these was
Michael ScotMichael Scot was a medieval mathematician and scholar.- Early life and education :He was born in Scotland, and studied first at the cathedral school of Durham and then at Oxford and Paris, devoting himself to philosophy, mathematics, and astrology...
(c. 1175 to c. 1235), who took the works of Ibn Rushd ("Averroes") and Ibn Sina ("Avicenna") to
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
. This transmission was to have a significant impact on the formation of the European
RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe...
.
The First Taifa Period
The Córdoba Caliphate effectively collapsed during a ruinous civil war between 1009 and 1013, although it was not finally abolished until 1031.
Al-Andalus then broke up into a number of mostly independent states called
taifaIn the history of Iberia, a taifa was an independent Muslim-ruled principality, usually an emirate or petty kingdom, though there was one oligarchy, of which a number formed in the Al-Andalus after the final collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba in 1031.The origins of the taifas must be...
s. These were generally too weak to defend themselves against repeated raids and demands for tribute from the Christian states to the north and west, which were known to the Muslims as "the Galician nations", and which had spread from their initial strongholds in Galicia,
AsturiasThe Principality of Asturias is an autonomous community within the kingdom of Spain, former Kingdom of Asturias in the Middle Ages...
,
CantabriaCantabria is a Spanish province and autonomous community with Santander as its capital city. It is bordered on the east by the Basque Autonomous Community , on the south by Castile and León , on the west by the Principality of Asturias, and on the north by the Cantabrian Sea.Cantabria belongs to...
, the Basque country and the
CarolingianCarolingian Empire is a historiographical term sometimes used to refer to the realm of the Franks under the Carolingian dynasty. This dynasty is seen as the founders of France and Germany...
Marca HispanicaThe Marca Hispanica was a buffer zone beyond the province of Septimania, created by Charlemagne in 795 as a defensive barrier between the Umayyad Moors of Al-Andalus and the Frankish Kingdom....
to become the Kingdoms of
NavarreNavarre is a region in northern Spain, constituting one of its autonomous communities - the "Chartered Community of Navarre" .-History:...
,
LeónKingdom of León was an independent country situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in 910 AD when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their main seat from Oviedo to the city of León...
,
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
,
CastileKingdom of Castile was one of the medieval kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula. It emerged as a political autonomous entity in the 9th century. It was called County of Castile and was held in vassalage from the Kingdom of León. Its name comes from the host of castles constructed in the region...
and
AragonAragon is an autonomous community of Spain. Located in northeastern Spain, the region comprises three provinces from north to south: Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza .Aragon's northern province of Huesca borders France and is positioned in the middle of the Pyrenees...
and the County of Barcelona. Eventually raids turned into conquests, and in response the
taifa kings were forced to request help from the Almoravids, Islamic rulers of the
MaghrebThe Maghreb , also rendered Maghrib , meaning "place of sunset" or "western" in Arabic, is a region in North Africa. The term is generally applied to all of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, but in older Arabic usage pertained only to the area of the three countries between the high ranges of the...
. Their desperate maneuver would eventually fall to their disadvantage, however, as the Moravids they had summoned from the south went on to conquer many of the
taifa kingdoms.
Almoravids, Almohads and Marinids
In 1086 the
AlmoravidThe Almoravids are a Berber dynasty of Sahara, which lived between the current Senegal and south of the current Morocco It is affiliated to the Berber tribe of Sanhadja and Lemtuna...
ruler of Morocco
Yusuf ibn TashfinYusuf ibn Tashfin was a king of the Berber Almoravid empire in North Africa and Al-Andalus .-Succession to power:...
was invited by the Muslim princes in Iberia to defend them against
Alfonso VIAlfonso VI , nicknamed the Brave or the Valiant, was King of León from 1065, king of King of Castile and de facto King of Galicia from 1072, and self-proclaimed "Emperor of all Spain"...
, King of
CastileKingdom of Castile was one of the medieval kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula. It emerged as a political autonomous entity in the 9th century. It was called County of Castile and was held in vassalage from the Kingdom of León. Its name comes from the host of castles constructed in the region...
and
LeónKingdom of León was an independent country situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in 910 AD when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their main seat from Oviedo to the city of León...
. In that year,
Yusuf ibn TashfinYusuf ibn Tashfin was a king of the Berber Almoravid empire in North Africa and Al-Andalus .-Succession to power:...
crossed the straits to
AlgecirasAlgeciras is a port city in the south of Spain, and is the largest urban area on the Bay of Gibraltar . It is the busiest port in Spain. It is situated on the Río de la Miel 20 km north of Tarifa, which is the southernmost town of the Iberian peninsula and continental Europe. It has a population in...
and inflicted a severe defeat on the Christians at the az-Zallaqah. By 1094,
Yusuf ibn TashfinYusuf ibn Tashfin was a king of the Berber Almoravid empire in North Africa and Al-Andalus .-Succession to power:...
had removed all Muslim princes in Iberia and annexed their states, except for the one at
ZaragozaZaragoza, also called Saragossa in English, is the capital city of the Zaragoza province and of the autonomous community and former Kingdom of Aragon, Spain...
. He regained Valencia from the Christians.
The
AlmoravidsThe Almoravids are a Berber dynasty of Sahara, which lived between the current Senegal and south of the current Morocco It is affiliated to the Berber tribe of Sanhadja and Lemtuna...
were succeeded in the 12th century by the
AlmohadThe Almohad Dynasty , was a Berber, Muslim dynasty that was founded in the 12th century, which conquered all of northern Africa as far as Libya, together with Al-Andalus .Between 1130 and his death in 1163, Abd al-Mu'min al-Kumi, the only one Berber from Nedroma among the Masmudas...
s, another Berber dynasty, after the victory of
Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-MansurAbu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur , was the third Almohad AmirSucceeding his father, Abu Ya'qub Yusuf, Yakub al-Mansur reigned from 1184 to 1199 with distinction. During his tenure, trade, architecture, philosophy and the sciences flourished, to say nothing of military conquests...
over the Castilian
Alfonso VIIIAlfonso VIII , called the Noble or el de las Navas, was the King of Castile from 1158 to his death and King of Toledo. He is most remembered for his part in the Reconquista and the downfall of the Almohad Caliphate...
at the
Battle of AlarcosBattle of Alarcos , was a battle between an alliance of Almohads led by Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur and some Castilian cavalry led by Pedro Fernández de Castro versus King Alfonso VIII King of Castile,; also referred as the Disaster of Alarcos.- Background :In 1188 the Almohad caliph Abu Yusuf...
. In 1212 a coalition of Christian kings under the leadership of the Castilian
Alfonso VIIIAlfonso VIII , called the Noble or el de las Navas, was the King of Castile from 1158 to his death and King of Toledo. He is most remembered for his part in the Reconquista and the downfall of the Almohad Caliphate...
defeated the Almohads at the
Battle of Las Navas de TolosaThe Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa took place on 16 July 1212 and was an important turning point in the Reconquista and in the medieval history of Spain...
. The Almohads continued to rule Al Andalus for another decade, but with much reduced power and prestige; and the civil wars following the death of
Abu Ya'qub Yusuf IIYusuf II was Caliph of Morocco from 1213 until his death. Son of the previous caliph, Muhammad an-Nasir, Yusuf assumed the throne following his father's death, at the age of only sixteen years....
rapidly led to the re-establishment of taifas. The taifas, newly independent but now weakened, were quickly conquered by Portugal, Castile and Aragon. After the fall of
MurciaMurcia is a city in south-eastern Spain, capital of the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia, located along the river Segura. Its current population is 433,850 , ranking seventh in Spain, and the population of the metropolitan area is 743,326, ranking ninth out of the largest metropolitan...
(1243) and the
AlgarveThe Algarve from the Arabic word meaning "the west" is the southernmost region of mainland Portugal. It has an area of 5,412 square kilometres with approximately 410,000 permanent inhabitants, and incorporates 16 municipalities...
(1249), only the Kingdom of Granada survived as a Muslim state, but only as a tributary of Castile. Most of its tribute was paid in
goldGold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. It has been a highly sought-after precious metal for coinage, jewelry, and other arts since the beginning of recorded history. The metal occurs as nuggets or grains in rocks, in veins and in alluvial deposits. Gold is...
from present-day
MaliMali, officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked nation in Western Africa. Mali is the seventh largest country in Africa, bordering Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west...
and
Burkina FasoBurkina Faso , also known by its short-form name Burkina, is a landlocked nation in West Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the south east, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the south west.Its size is 274,000 km² with an...
that was carried to Iberia through the merchant routes of the
SaharaThe Sahara , , "The Greatest Desert") is the world's largest hot desert. At over 9,000,000 square kilometres , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as the United States or the continent of Europe. The desert stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean...
.
The last Muslim threat to the Christian kingdoms was the rise of the Marinids in Morocco during the 14th century, who took Granada into their sphere of influence and occupied some of its cities, like
AlgecirasAlgeciras is a port city in the south of Spain, and is the largest urban area on the Bay of Gibraltar . It is the busiest port in Spain. It is situated on the Río de la Miel 20 km north of Tarifa, which is the southernmost town of the Iberian peninsula and continental Europe. It has a population in...
. However, they were unable to take
TarifaTarifa is a small town on the southernmost coast of Spain. It is part of the province of Cádiz, which, in turn, is part of the Andalusia region. The town is located on the Costa de la Luz and across the Straits of Gibraltar from Morocco, from which the lights of Tarifa are visible at night...
, which held out until the arrival of the Castilian Army led by Alfonso XI. The Castilian king, helped by
Afonso IV of PortugalAfonso IV , called the Brave , was the seventh king of Portugal and the Algarve from 1325 until his death. He was the only legitimate son of Dinis of Portugal by his wife Elizabeth of Aragon....
and Pedro IV of Aragon, decisively defeated the Marinids at the Battle of Salado in 1340 and took Algeciras in 1344.
GibraltarGibraltar is a self-governing British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula and Europe at the entrance of the Mediterranean overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar. The territory covers and shares a land border with Spain to the north...
, then under Granadian rule, was besieged in 1349-1350, Alfonso XI along with most of his army perished by the
Black DeathThe Black Death was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. It is widely thought to have been an outbreak of bubonic plague caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, but this view has recently been challenged...
. His successor,
Pedro of CastilePeter or Pedro , sometimes called the Cruel or the Lawful , was the king of Castile from 1350 to 1369. He was the son of Alfonso XI and Maria of Portugal, daughter of Afonso IV of Portugal...
, made peace with the Muslims and turned his attention to Christian lands, starting a period of almost 150 years of rebellions and wars between the Christian states that secured the survival of Granada.
In 1469 the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile signaled the launching of the final assault on the Emirate of Granada (Gharnatah). The King and Queen convinced the Pope to declare their war a crusade. The Christians crushed one center of resistance after another and finally, in January 1492, after a long siege, the Moorish king,
Muhammad abu AbdallahAbu 'abd-Allah Muhammad XII , known as Boabdil , was the twenty-second and last Nasrid ruler of Granada in Iberia. He was also called el chico, the little, or el zogoybi, the unfortunate...
, surrendered the fortress palace, the renowned
AlhambraThe Alhambra , the complete form of which was Calat Alhambra , is a palace and fortress complex of the Moorish rulers of Granada in southern Spain , occupying a hilly terrace on the...
, itself.
Society
The society of Al-Andalus was made up of three main religious groups: Christians, Muslims and Jews. The Muslims, though united on the religious level, had several ethnic divisions, the main being the distinction between the Berbers and the
ArabArab people or Arabs are an ethnic group whose members identify along linguistic, cultural or genealogical grounds...
s.
MozarabThe Mozarabs were Iberian Christians who lived under Moorish Muslim rule in Al-Andalus. Their descendants remained unconverted to Islam, but did however adopt elements of Arabic language and culture...
s were Christians that had long lived under Muslim rule and so had adopted many Arabic customs, art and words, while still maintaining their Christian rituals and their own Romance languages. Each of these communities inhabited distinct neighborhoods in the cities. In the 10th century a massive conversion of Christians took place, so that
muladiThe Muladi or muwallad, from arabic مولدون , were Muslims of ethnic Iberian origin who lived in Al-Andalus during the Middle Ages...
es (Muslims of ethnic
IberiaThe Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes modern-day Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Gibraltar and a very small area of France. It is the westernmost of the three major southern European peninsulas—the Iberian, Italian, and Balkan peninsulas...
n origin) comprised the majority of the population of Al-Andalus by the century's end.
The Berbers, who made up the bulk of the invaders, lived in the mountainous regions of what is now the north of Portugal and in the Meseta Central, while the Arabs settled in the south and in the Ebro Valley in the northeast. The Jews worked mainly as tax collectors, in trade, or as doctors or ambassadors. At the end of the fifteenth century there were about 50,000 Jews in Granada and roughly 100,000 in the whole of Islamic Iberia.
Non-Muslims under the Caliphate
Treatment of non-Muslims
The non-Muslims were given the status of
ahl al-dhimmaA dhimmi is a non-Muslim subject of a state governed in accordance with sharia law...
(the people under protection), adults paying a "
JizyaUnder Islamic law, jizya or jizyah is a per capita tax levied on a section of an Islamic state's non-Muslim citizens, who meet certain criteria...
" tax, equal to 1 Dinar per year with exemptions for old people, women, children and the disabled, whenever there was a Christian authority in the community. When there was no Christian authority, the non-Muslims were given the status of
majusMajūs was originally a term meaning Zoroastrians . It was a technical term, meaning magus, and like its synonym gabr originally had no pejorative implications.In the al-Andalus the pagan non christian population were called majus and could either have the status of mozarab or of...
.
The treatment of non-Muslims in the Caliphate has been a subject of considerable debate among scholars and commentators, especially those interested in drawing parallels to the coexistence of Muslims and non-Muslims in the modern world.
María Rosa MenocalMaría Rosa Menocal is a scholar of medieval culture and history. Menocal earned a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Before joining the Yale University faculty in 1986, she taught Romance philology at the University of Pennsylvania....
, a specialist in Iberian literature, has argued that "tolerance was an inherent aspect of Andalusian society". In her view, the Jewish and Christian
dhimmiA dhimmi is a non-Muslim subject of a state governed in accordance with sharia law...
s living under the Caliphate, while allowed fewer rights than Muslims, were much better off than in other parts of Christian Europe.
JewsSpanish Jews once constituted one of the largest and most prosperous Jewish communities under Muslim and Christian rule in Spain, before they were expelled in 1492...
constituted more than 5% of the population. Jews from other parts of Europe emigrated to Al-Andalus, where they were treated with dignity, as were Christians of sects regarded as
hereticalHeresy is proposing some unorthodox change to an established system of belief, especially a religion, that conflicts with the previously established opinion of scholars of that belief such as canon. It is sometimes confused with apostasy which is disaffiliation from orthodoxy and blasphemy which is...
by various European Christian states. Al-Andalus was a key center of Jewish life during the early
Middle AgesThe Middle Ages of European history is a period of European history covering roughly a millennium in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus...
, producing important scholars and one of the most stable and wealthy Jewish communities. But there is no consensus among scholars that the relationship between Jews and Muslims was indeed a paragon of interfaith relations.
Bernard LewisBernard Lewis, FBA is a British-American historian, Orientalist, and political commentator. He is the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University...
takes issue with this view, arguing its modern use is ahistorical and apologetic. He argues that Islam traditionally did not offer equality nor even pretended that it did, arguing that it would have been both a "theological as well as a logical absurdity."
Rise and fall of Muslim power
The Caliphate treated non-Muslims differently at different times. The longest period of tolerance began after 912, with the reign of
Abd-ar-Rahman IIIAbd-ar-Rahman III was the Emir and Caliph of Córdoba of the Ummayad dynasty in al-Andalus. Called al-Nasir , he ascended the throne when he was twenty-two years of age and reigned for half a century as the most powerful prince of Iberia...
and his son,
Al-Hakam IIAl-Hakam II was Caliph of Cordoba, in the Al-Andalus , and son of Abd-ar-rahman III . He ruled from 961 to 976....
where the Jews of Al-Andalus prospered, devoting themselves to the service of the
Caliphate of CordobaThe Caliphate of Córdoba ruled the Iberian peninsula and North Africa from the city of Córdoba, from 929 to 1031. This period was characterized by remarkable success in trade and culture; many of the masterpieces of Islamic Iberia were constructed in this period, including the famous Great Mosque...
, to the study of the sciences, and to commerce and industry, especially to trading in
silkSilk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from cocoons made by the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
and
slavesSlavery is a form of forced labor in which people are considered to be the property of others. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to receive compensation...
, in this way promoting the prosperity of the country. Southern Iberia became an asylum for the oppressed Jews of other countries.
Christians, braced by the example of their coreligionists across the borders of
al-Andalus, sometimes asserted the claims of Christianity and knowingly courted martyrdom, even during these tolerant periods. For example, 48 Christians of Córdoba were decapitated for religious offences against Islam. They became known as the
Martyrs of CórdobaThe Martyrs of Córdoba were forty-eight Christian martyrs living in the 9th century Muslim-ruled Al-Andalus, in what is now southern Spain; their hagiography describes in detail their executions for capital violations of Muslim law in Al-Andalus...
. These deaths played out, not in a single spasm of religious unrest, but over an extended period of time; dissenters were fully aware of the fates of their predecessors and chose to protest against Islamic rule.
Under the
AlmoravidsThe Almoravids are a Berber dynasty of Sahara, which lived between the current Senegal and south of the current Morocco It is affiliated to the Berber tribe of Sanhadja and Lemtuna...
and the Almohads there may have been intermittent persecution of Jews, but sources are extremely scarce and do not give a clear picture, though the situation appears to have deteriorated after 1160.
During these successive waves of violence against non-Muslims, many Jewish and even Muslim scholars left the Muslim-controlled portion of Iberia for the then-still relatively tolerant city of
ToledoToledo is a municipality located in central Spain, 70 km south of Madrid. It is the capital of the province of Toledo and of the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha...
, which had been
reconqueredThe Reconquista was a period of 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula succeeded in retaking the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslims...
in 1085 by Christian forces. Some Jews joined the armies of the Christians (about 40,000), while others joined the
AlmoravidsThe Almoravids are a Berber dynasty of Sahara, which lived between the current Senegal and south of the current Morocco It is affiliated to the Berber tribe of Sanhadja and Lemtuna...
in the fight against
Alfonso VI of CastileAlfonso VI , nicknamed the Brave or the Valiant, was King of León from 1065, king of King of Castile and de facto King of Galicia from 1072, and self-proclaimed "Emperor of all Spain"...
.
The 11th century saw Muslim pogroms against Jews in Spain; those occurred in Cordoba in 1011 and in
Granada in 1066On December 30, 1066 , a Muslim mob stormed the royal palace in Granada, which was at that time in Muslim-ruled al-Andalus, assassinated Jewish vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela and massacred most of the Jewish population of the city...
.
The
AlmohadThe Almohad Dynasty , was a Berber, Muslim dynasty that was founded in the 12th century, which conquered all of northern Africa as far as Libya, together with Al-Andalus .Between 1130 and his death in 1163, Abd al-Mu'min al-Kumi, the only one Berber from Nedroma among the Masmudas...
s, who had taken control of the Almoravids' Maghribi and Andalusian territories by 1147, far surpassed the Almoravides in fundamentalist outlook, and they treated the
dhimmis harshly. Faced with the choice of either death or conversion, many Jews and Christians emigrated. Some, such as the family of
MaimonidesMoses Maimonides, also known as Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon or the acronym the Rambam , was born in Cordoba, Spain on March 30, 1135, and died in Egypt on December 13, 1204....
, fled east to more tolerant Muslim lands, while others went northward to settle in the growing Christian kingdoms.
Medieval SpainAfter the disorders of the passage of the Vandals and Alans down the Mediterranean coast of Hispania from 408, the history of Medieval Spain begins with the Iberian kingdom of the Arianist Visigoths , who were converted to Catholicism with their king Reccared in 587...
and
PortugalThe history of Portugal, in most of the 12th and 13th centuries, is chiefly that of its origin as a separate state, in the process of the Christian reconquest of the Iberian peninsula.-Background:...
was the scene of almost constant
warfareWarfarerefers to the conduct of conflict between opponents, and usually involves escalation of aggression from the proverbial "war of words" between politicians and diplomats to full-scale armed conflicts, waged until one side accepts defeat or peace terms are agreed on.Warfare between groups, and...
between Muslims and Christians. Periodic raiding expeditions were sent from Al-Andalus to ravage the Christian Spanish and Portuguese kingdoms, bringing back booty and
slavesSlavery is a form of forced labor in which people are considered to be the property of others. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to receive compensation...
. In raid against
LisbonLisbon is the capital and largest city of Portugal. It is also the seat of the district of Lisbon and the main city of the Lisbon region...
in 1189, for example, the
AlmohadThe Almohad Dynasty , was a Berber, Muslim dynasty that was founded in the 12th century, which conquered all of northern Africa as far as Libya, together with Al-Andalus .Between 1130 and his death in 1163, Abd al-Mu'min al-Kumi, the only one Berber from Nedroma among the Masmudas...
caliph Yaqub al-Mansur took 3,000 female and child captives, while his governor of Córdoba, in a subsequent attack upon
SilvesSilves is a town and a municipality in the Algarve, southern Portugal. The city has a population of 10,800 inhabitants and the municipality reaches 33,830 . The municipality of Silves is part of the district of Faro...
in 1191, took 3,000 Christian slaves.
The last Muslim bastion, Nasrid
GranadaGranada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain.- Overview :The city of Granada is placed at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, Beiro, Darro and Genil, at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...
fell around 1492. By this time the
MoorsThe description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of Muslim people of Berber, Black African and Arab descent from North Africa, some of whom came to conquer and occupy the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. The North Africans termed it Al Andalus, comprising most...
in
CastileA former kingdom, Castile gradually merged with its neighbors to become the Crown of Castile and later the Kingdom of Spain with the Crown of Aragon and the Crown of Navarre...
numbered "half a million within the realm, 100,000 had died or been enslaved, 200,000 emigrated, and 200,000 remained as the residual population. Many of the Muslim elite, including
BoabdilAbu 'abd-Allah Muhammad XII , known as Boabdil , was the twenty-second and last Nasrid ruler of Granada in Iberia. He was also called el chico, the little, or el zogoybi, the unfortunate...
, who had been given the area of the Alpujarra mountain as a principality, found life under Christian rule intolerable and passed over into north Africa"
Culture
C.W. Previte-Orton writes in his Cambridge medieval history,
The brilliant SaracenSaracen was a term used by Europeans in the Middle Ages for Arabs at first, then later for all who professed the religion of Islam.-Etymology:...
ic civilization of Moslem Spain rendered the MoorsThe description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of Muslim people of Berber, Black African and Arab descent from North Africa, some of whom came to conquer and occupy the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. The North Africans termed it Al Andalus, comprising most...
, even during their declines under the Reyes de Taifas, the most cultured people of the West.
Many tribes, religions and races coexisted in al-Andalus, each contributing to the intellectual prosperity of Andalusia. Literacy in Islamic Iberia was far more widespread than any other country of the West.
From the earliest days, the Umayyads wanted to be seen as intellectual rivals to the Abbasids, and for Córdoba to have libraries and educational institutions to rival Baghdad's. Although there was a clear rivalry between the two powers, freedom to travel between the two Caliphates was allowed, which helped spread new ideas and innovations over time.
In the 10th century, the city of
Cordoba||-||-||}Córdoba is a city in Andalusia, southern Spain, and the capital of the province of Córdoba. Located at 37.88° North, 4.77° West, on the Guadalquivir river, it was founded in ancient Roman times as Corduba by Claudius Marcellus...
had 700
mosqueA mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. Muslims often refer to the mosque by its Arabic name, masjid, —...
s, 60,000
palaceA palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word itself is derived from the Latin name Palātium, for Palatine Hill, one of the seven hills in Rome...
s, and 70
librariesA library is a collection of sources, resources, and services, and the structure in which it is housed; it is organized for use and maintained by a public body, an institution, or a private individual. In the more traditional sense, a library is a collection of books. It can mean the collection,...
, the largest of which had up to 600,000 books. In comparison, the largest library in Christian Europe at the time had no more than 400 manuscripts, while the
University of ParisThe historic University of Paris was founded in the mid 12th century, likely between 1160 and 1170 , In 1970 it was reorganized as 13 autonomous universities...
library still had only 2,000 books later in the 14th century. In addition, as many as 60,000
treatiseA treatise is a formal and systematic exposition in writing of the principles of a subject, generally longer and more detailed than an essay...
s,
poemsArabic poetry is the earliest form of Arabic literature. Our present knowledge of poetry in Arabic dates from the 6th century, but oral poetry is believed to predate that. Arabic poetry is categorized into two main types, rhymed, or measured, and prose, with the former greatly preceding the latter...
,
polemicPolemics is the practice of disputing or controverting significant, broad-reaching topics of magnitude such as religious, philosophical, political, or scientific matters...
s and
compilationsAn anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...
were published each year in Al-Andalus. In comparison, modern Spain
publishedThe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization monitors both the number and type of books published per country per year as an important index of standard of living and education, and of a country's self-awareness. -Highlights:...
46,330 books per year as of 1996.
Andalusian philosophy
The historian
Said Al-AndalusiSaid al-Andalusí , was an Andalusi qadi, scientist and historian. He was born at Almería and died at Toledo.-References:*Said al-Andalusí, Science in the Medieval World: "Book of the Categories of Nations"...
wrote that Caliph
Abd-ar-Rahman IIIAbd-ar-Rahman III was the Emir and Caliph of Córdoba of the Ummayad dynasty in al-Andalus. Called al-Nasir , he ascended the throne when he was twenty-two years of age and reigned for half a century as the most powerful prince of Iberia...
had collected libraries of books and granted patronage to scholars of
medicineMedicine is the art and science of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
and "ancient sciences". Later,
al-Mustansir (
Al-Hakam IIAl-Hakam II was Caliph of Cordoba, in the Al-Andalus , and son of Abd-ar-rahman III . He ruled from 961 to 976....
) went yet further, building a university and libraries in Córdoba. Córdoba became one of the world's leading centres of medicine and philosophical debate.
However, when Al-Hakam's son
Hisham IIHisham II was the third Caliph of Cordoba, of the Umayyad dynasty. He ruled 976-1009, and 1010-1013 in the Al-Andalus ....
took over, real power was ceded to the
hajib,
al-Mansur Ibn Abi AamirAbu Aamir Muhammad Ibn Abdullah Ibn Abi Aamir, Al-Hajib Al-Mansur
أبو عامر محمد بن عبد الله بن أبي عامر الحاجب المنصور , better known as Almanzor, was the de facto ruler of Muslim Al-Andalus in the late 10th to early 11th centuries...
. Al-Mansur was a distinctly religious man and disapproved of the sciences of
astronomyAstronomy is the scientific study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere...
,
logicLogic, from the Greek λογική is the art and science of reasoning. More specifically, it is defined by the Penguin Encyclopedia to be "The formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning". As a discipline, logic dates back to Aristotle, who established its...
and especially
astrologyAstrology is a group of systems, traditions, and beliefs which hold that the relative positions of celestial bodies and related details can provide information about personality, human affairs, and other terrestrial matters. A practitioner of astrology is called an astrologer...
, so much so that many books on these subjects, which had been preserved and collected at great expense by
Al-Hakam IIAl-Hakam II was Caliph of Cordoba, in the Al-Andalus , and son of Abd-ar-rahman III . He ruled from 961 to 976....
, were
burned publiclyBook burning is the practice of destroying, often ceremoniously, one or more copies of a book or other written material. In modern times, other forms of media, such as phonograph records, video tapes, and CDs have also been ceremoniously burned, torched, or shredded...
. However, with Al-Mansur's death in 1002 interest in philosophy revived. Numerous scholars emerged, including Abu Uthman Ibn Fathun, whose masterwork was the philosophical treatise "Tree of Wisdom". An outstanding scholar in astronomy and astrology was
Maslamah Ibn Ahmad al-MajritiMaslama al-Majriti , was an Muslim astronomer, chemist, mathematician and scholar in Islamic Spain...
(died 1008), an intrepid traveller who journeyed all over the Islamic world and beyond, and who kept in touch with the
Brethren of PurityThe Brethren of Purity were a mysterious organization, whose identity has never been become clear, Muslim philosophers in Basra, Iraq - which was then the seat of the Abbasid Caliphate - sometime during the 10th century CE.Their esoteric teachings and philosophy are...
. Indeed, it is said to have been he who brought the 51 "Epistles of the Brethren of Purity" to
al-Andalus and who added the compendium to this work, although it is quite possible that it was added later by another scholar of the name al-Majriti. Another book attributed to al-Majriti is the
Ghayat al-Hakim "The Aim of the Sage", a book which explored a synthesis of
PlatonismPlatonism is the philosophy of Plato or the name of other philosophical systems considered closely derived from it. In a narrower sense the term might indicate the doctrine of Platonic realism. The central concept of Platonism is the Theory of Forms: the transcendent, perfect archetypes, of which...
with
Hermetic philosophyHermes Trismegistus is the representation of the combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth. In Hellenistic Egypt, the Greeks recognised the congruence of their God Hermes with the Egyptian god Thoth...
. Its use of incantations led the book to be widely dismissed in later years, although the Sufi communities kept studies of it.
A prominent follower of al-Majriti was the philosopher and geometer
Abu al-Hakam al-KirmaniAbu al-Hakam al-Kirmani was a prominent philosopher and scholar from the Muslim al-Andalus. A student of Maslamah Ibn Ahmad al-Majriti, he was a neoplatonic advocate, and seen as an influence on Ibn 'Arabi, but he also wrote extensively on Geometry and Logic. His exact date of death is not known as...
. A follower of his in turn was the great Abu Bakr Ibn al-Sayigh, usually known in the Arab world as
Ibn BajjahAbū-Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn al-Sāyigh , known as Ibn Bājjah , was an Andalusian-Arab Muslim polymath: an astronomer, logician, musician, philosopher, physician, physicist, psychologist, poet and scientist. He was known in the West by his Latinized name, Avempace...
, "Avempace"
The Andalusian philosopher
AverroesAbū 'l-Walīd Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Rushd , better known just as Ibn Rushd , and in European literature as Averroes , was an Andalusian Muslim polymath of Moroccan origins; a master of Islamic philosophy, Islamic theology, Maliki law and jurisprudence, logic, psychology, politics, Arabic music...
(1126–1198) is considered the father of secular thought in Europe and possibly the most important among them. He was the founder of the
AverroismAverroism is the term applied to either of two philosophical trends among scholastics in the late 13th century, the first of which was based on the Arab philosopher Averroës or Ibn Rushd's interpretations of Aristotle and his reconciliation of Aristotelianism with the Islamic faith...
school of philosophy, and his works and commentaries had an impact on the rise of
secular thoughtSecularism is the concept that government or other entities should exist separately from religion and/or religious beliefs.In one sense, secularism may assert the right to be free from religious rule and teachings, and freedom from the government imposition of religion upon the people, within a...
in
Western EuropeWestern Europe is the collection of countries in the westernmost region of Europe, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a cultural entity—the region lying west of Central Europe...
. He also developed the concept of "
existence precedes essenceThe proposition that existence precedes essence is a central claim of existentialism, which reverses the traditional philosophical view that the essence or nature of a thing is more fundamental and immutable than its existence...
".
Another influential Andalusian philosopher who had a significant influence on
modern philosophyModern philosophy is philosophy practiced in Europe and North America between the 17th and early 20th centuries. It is not a specific doctrine or school, although there are certain assumptions common to much of it, which helps to distinguish it from earlier philosophy.The 17th and early 20th...
was
Ibn TufailIbn Tufail was an Andalusian-Arab Muslim polymath: an Arabic writer, novelist, Islamic philosopher, Islamic theologian, physician,...
. His
philosophical novelPhilosophical novels are works of fiction in which a significant proportion of the novel is devoted to a discussion of the sort of questions normally addressed in discursive philosophy. These might include the function and role of society, the purpose of life, ethics or morals, the role of art in...
,
Hayy ibn YaqdhanḤayy ibn Yaqẓān was the first Arabic novel and the first philosophical novel, written by Ibn Tufail , an Arab philosopher and physician, in early 12th century Islamic Spain...
, translated into Latin as
Philosophus Autodidactus in 1671, developed the themes of empiricism, tabula rasa,
nature versus nurtureThe nature versus nurture debates concern the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities versus personal experiences The nature versus nurture debates concern the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities ("nature", i.e. nativism, or innatism) versus personal experiences...
,
condition of possibilityCondition of possibility is a philosophical concept made popular by Immanuel Kant.A condition of possibility is a necessary framework for the possible appearance of a given list of entities. It is often used in contrast to the unilateral causality concept, or even to the notion of interaction. For...
,
materialismThe philosophy of materialism holds that the only thing that exists is matter; that all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions. In other words, matter is the only substance. As a theory, materialism is a form of physicalism and belongs to the...
, and
Molyneux's ProblemMolyneux's problem is an unsolved problem in philosophy. Referenced in John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, scientist and politician William Molyneux proposed a problem in a correspondence with Locke that involves the differences between modes of perceptions and true understanding...
. European scholars and writers influenced by this novel include
John LockeJohn Locke was an English physician and philosopher regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered the first of the British empiricists, he is equally important to social contract theory. His work had a great impact upon the development of epistemology and political...
,
Gottfried LeibnizGottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a German philosopher, polymath and mathematician who wrote primarily in Latin and French....
,
Melchisédech ThévenotMelchisédech Thévenot was a French author, scientist, traveler, cartographer, orientalist, inventor, and diplomat...
,
John WallisJohn Wallis was an English mathematician who is given partial credit for the development of modern calculus. Between 1643 and 1689 he served as chief cryptographer for Parliament and, later, the royal court. He is also credited with introducing the symbol ∞ for infinity...
,
Christiaan HuygensChristiaan Huygens, FRS was a prominent Dutch mathematician, astronomer, physicist, horologist, and writer of early science fiction...
,
George KeithGeorge Keith was a Scottish missionary.Born in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, to a Presbyterian family, he received an M.A. from the University of Aberdeen...
,
Robert BarclayRobert Barclay , one of the most eminent writers belonging to the Religious Society of Friends and a member of the Clan Barclay. He was also governor of the East Jersey colony in North America through most of the 1680s....
, the
QuakersThe Religious Society of Friends is a religious movement, whose members are known as Friends or Quakers. The roots of this movement are with some 17th century Christian English dissenters, but today the movement has branched out into many independent national and regional organizations, called...
, and
Samuel HartlibSamuel Hartlib was a German-British polymath. An active promoter and expert writer in many fields, he was interested in science, medicine, agriculture, politics, and education. He settled in England, where he married and died...
.
Jewish philosophy and culture
With the relative tolerance of
al-Andalus and the decline of the previous centre of Jewish thought in Babylonia,
al-Andalus became the centre of Jewish intellectual endeavours. Poets and commentators like Judah Halevi (1086-1145) and
Dunash ben LabratDunash ha-Levi ben Labrat was a medieval Jewish commentator, poet, and grammarian of the Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain and a student of Rabbi Saadia Gaon. He was born in the city of Fes, Morocco....
(920-990) contributed to the cultural life of
al-Andalus, but the area was even more important to the development of Jewish philosophy. A stream of Jewish philosophers, cross-fertilizing with Muslim philosophers, (see
joint Jewish and Islamic philosophiesThis article covers the influence of Jewish and Islamic philosophy on each other, focusing especially on the period from 800-1400 CE.- Early philosophy :...
) culminated in a widely celebrated Jewish thinker of the Middle Ages,
MaimonidesMoses Maimonides, also known as Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon or the acronym the Rambam , was born in Cordoba, Spain on March 30, 1135, and died in Egypt on December 13, 1204....
(1135-1205), though he did not actually do any of his work in
al-Andalus, as, when he was 13, his family fled persecution by the Almohads.
Astronomy
In the 11th-12th centuries, astronomers in Al-Andalus took up the challenge earlier posed by Ibn al-Haytham, namely to develop an alternate non-Ptolemaic configuration that evaded the errors found in the
Ptolemaic modelIn astronomy, the geocentric model or the Ptolemaic worldview of the universe is the theory, now superseded, that the Earth is the center of the universe and other objects go around it. Belief in this system was common in ancient Greece...
. Like Ibn al-Haytham's critique, the anonymous Andalusian work,
al-Istidrak ala Batlamyus (
Recapitulation regarding Ptolemy), included a list of objections to Ptolemic astronomy. This marked the beginning of the Andalusian school's revolt against Ptolemaic astronomy, otherwise known as the "Andalusian Revolt".
In the late 11th century,
al-Zarqali' , Latinized as Arzachel, was a leading Arab mathematician and the foremost astronomer of his time. He lived in Toledo in Castile, Al-Andalus .The crater Arzachel on the Moon is named after him.-Instruments:...
(Latinized as Arzachel) discovered that the orbits of the
planetA planet , is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science,...
s are
elliptic orbitIn astrodynamics or celestial mechanics an elliptic orbit is a Kepler orbit with the eccentricity greater than 0 and less than 1. In a gravitational two-body problem with the eccentricity in this range both bodies follow similar elliptic orbits with the same orbital period around their common...
s and not circular orbits, though he still followed the Ptolemaic model.
In the 12th century,
AverroesAbū 'l-Walīd Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Rushd , better known just as Ibn Rushd , and in European literature as Averroes , was an Andalusian Muslim polymath of Moroccan origins; a master of Islamic philosophy, Islamic theology, Maliki law and jurisprudence, logic, psychology, politics, Arabic music...
rejected the
eccentric deferentsIn the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, the epicycle was a geometric model used to explain the variations in speed and direction of the apparent motion of the Moon, Sun, and planets...
introduced by
PtolemyClaudius Ptolemaeus , known in English as Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Greek ancestry. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer and a poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under the Roman Empire, and is believed to have been born in the town of...
. He rejected the Ptolemaic model and instead argued for a strictly
concentricConcentric objects share the same center, axis or origin with one inside the other. Circles, tubes, cylindrical shafts, disks, and spheres may be concentric to one another...
model of the universe. He wrote the following criticism on the Ptolemaic model of planetary motion:
Averroes' contemporary,
MaimonidesMoses Maimonides, also known as Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon or the acronym the Rambam , was born in Cordoba, Spain on March 30, 1135, and died in Egypt on December 13, 1204....
, wrote the following on the planetary model proposed by
Ibn BajjahAbū-Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn al-Sāyigh , known as Ibn Bājjah , was an Andalusian-Arab Muslim polymath: an astronomer, logician, musician, philosopher, physician, physicist, psychologist, poet and scientist. He was known in the West by his Latinized name, Avempace...
(Avempace):
Ibn Bajjah also proposed the
Milky WayThe Milky Way, or simply the Galaxy, is the galaxy in which the Solar System is located. It is a barred spiral galaxy that is part of the Local Group of galaxies...
galaxyA galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system that consists of stars and stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and an important but poorly understood component tentatively dubbed dark matter. The name is from the Greek root galaxias [γαλαξίας], meaning "milky," a reference...
to be made up of many stars but that it appears to be a continuous image due to the effect of
refractionRefraction is the change in direction of a wave due to a change in its velocity. This is most commonly observed when a wave passes from one medium to another...
in the
Earth's atmosphereThe Earth's atmosphere is a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth that is retained by Earth's gravity. The atmosphere protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation, warming the surface through heat retention , and reducing temperature extremes between day and night...
. Later in the 12th century, his successors
Ibn TufailIbn Tufail was an Andalusian-Arab Muslim polymath: an Arabic writer, novelist, Islamic philosopher, Islamic theologian, physician,...
and
Nur Ed-Din Al BetrugiNur ad-Din al-Betrugi was an Arab astronomer and philosopher of the Islamic Golden Age . Born in Morocco, he settled in Seville, in Andalusia...
(Alpetragius) were the first to propose planetary models without any
equantEquant is a mathematical concept developed by Claudius Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD to account for the observed motion of heavenly bodies....
,
epicycles or eccentricsIn the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, the epicycle was a geometric model used to explain the variations in speed and direction of the apparent motion of the Moon, Sun, and planets...
. Al-Betrugi was also the first to discover that the planets are
self-luminousLuminosity is a measurement of brightness usually denoted in Lumens.-In photometry and color imaging:In photometry, luminosity is sometimes incorrectly used to refer to luminance, which is the density of luminous intensity in a given direction...
. Their configurations, however, were not accepted due to the numerical predictions of the planetary positions in their models being less accurate than that of the Ptolemaic model, mainly because they followed
AristotleAristotle was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology.Together with Plato and Socrates , Aristotle is one of...
's notion of perfect circular motion.
Earth sciences
In the late 11th century, Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ma'udh, who lived in Al-Andalus, wrote a work on
opticsOptics is the branch of physics which studies the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behavior of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light...
later translated into Latin as
Liber de crepisculis, which was mistakenly attributed to Alhazen. This was a short work containing an estimation of the angle of depression of the sun at the beginning of the morning
twilightTwilight is the time between dawn and sunrise, and the time between sunset and dusk. Sunlight scattered in the upper atmosphere illuminates the lower atmosphere, and the surface of the Earth is neither completely lit nor completely dark. The sun itself is not actually visible because it is below...
and at the end of the evening twilight, and an attempt to calculate on the basis of this and other data the height of the atmospheric moisture responsible for the refraction of the sun's rays. Through his experiments, he obtained the accurate value of 18°, which comes close to the modern value.
In the early 13th century, the Andalusian-
ArabArab people or Arabs are an ethnic group whose members identify along linguistic, cultural or genealogical grounds...
ian biologist Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati developed an early
scientific methodScientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific...
for
botanyBotany, plant science, phytology, or plant biology is a branch of biology and is the scientific study of plant life and development...
, introducing
empiricalThe word empirical denotes information gained by means of observation, experience, or experiment. A central concept in science and the scientific method is that all evidence must be empirical, or empirically based, that is, dependent on evidence or consequences that are observable by the senses...
and
experimentIn scientific research, an experiment is a method of investigating causal relationships among variables, or to test a hypothesis. An experiment is a cornerstone of the empirical approach to acquiring data about the world and is used in both natural sciences and social sciences...
al techniques in the testing, description and identification of numerous
materia medicaMateria medica is a Latin medical term for the body of collected knowledge about the therapeutic properties of any substance used for healing . In Latin, the term literally means "medical material/substance"...
, and separating unverified reports from those supported by actual tests and
observationObservation is either an activity of a living being , consisting of receiving knowledge of the outside world through the senses, or the recording of data using scientific instruments. The term may also refer to any datum collected during this activity.-Observation in science:A scientific method...
s. His student Ibn al-Baitar published the
Kitab al-Jami fi al-Adwiya al-Mufrada, which is considered one of the greatest botanical compilations in history, and was a botanical authority for centuries. It contains details on at least 1,400 different
plantPlants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. They include familiar organisms such as trees, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The scientific study of plants, known as botany, has identified about 350,000 extant species of plants, defined as seed plants,...
s,
foodFood is any substance, usually composed of carbohydrates, fats, proteins and water, that can be eaten or drunk by an animal, including humans, for nutrition or pleasure. Items considered food may be sourced from plants, animals or other categories such as fungus or fermented products like alcohol...
s, and
drugA drug, broadly speaking, is any substance that, when absorbed into the body of a living organism, alters normal bodily function. There is no single, precise definition, as there are different meanings in drug control law, government regulations, medicine, and colloquial usage.In pharmacology, a...
s, 300 of which were his own original discoveries. The
Kitab al-Jami fi al-Adwiya al-Mufrada was also influential in
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
after it was translated into
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
in 1758.
Medicine
Córdoba alone was reported to have had as many as 50
BimaristanBimaristan is a middle Persian and modern Persian word meaning hospital, with Bimar- from Pahlavi of vīmār or vemār, meaning "sick" plus -stan as location and place suffix....
hospitals at the time of Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (Abulcasis). Sir
John Bagot GlubbLieutenant-General Sir John Bagot Glubb KCB, CMG, DSO, OBE, MC better known as Glubb Pasha , was a British soldier best known for leading and training Transjordan's Arab Legion 1939-1956 as its commanding general...
wrote:
Muslim
physicianA physician — also known as medical practitioner, doctor of medicine, medical doctor, or simply doctor — practices the ancient profession of medicine, which is concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease or injury...
s from Al-Andalus contributed significantly to the field of
medicineMedicine is the art and science of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
, including the subjects of
anatomyAnatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy and plant anatomy...
and
physiologyPhysiology is the science of the functioning of living systems. It is a subcategory of biology...
. Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (Abulcasis), regarded as the "father of modern surgery", contributed greatly to the discipline of medical
surgerySurgery is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, to help improve bodily function or appearance, or sometimes for some other reason...
with his
Kitab al-TasrifThe Kitab al-Tasrif was an influential Arabic medical encyclopedia on medicine and surgery, written near the year 1000 CE by Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi , the "father of modern surgery"...
("
Book of Concessions"), a 30-volume medical
encyclopediaAn encyclopedia is a comprehensive written compendium that holds information from either all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge. Encyclopedias are divided into articles with one article on each subject covered...
which was later translated to
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
and used in European and Muslim
medical schoolA medical school is a tertiary educational institution—or part of such an institution—that teaches medicine.In addition to a medical degree program, some medical schools offer programs leading to a Master's Degree, Doctor of Philosophy , or other post-secondary education. Medical schools can also...
s for centuries. He helped lay the foudations for modern
surgerySurgery is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, to help improve bodily function or appearance, or sometimes for some other reason...
, with his
Kitab al-TasrifThe Kitab al-Tasrif was an influential Arabic medical encyclopedia on medicine and surgery, written near the year 1000 CE by Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi , the "father of modern surgery"...
, in which he invented numerous
surgical instrumentsA surgical instrument is a specially designed tool or device for performing specific actions of carrying out desired effects during a surgery or operation, such as modifying biological tissue, or to provide access for viewing it. Over time, many different kinds of surgical instruments and tools...
, including the first instruments unique to women, as well as the surgical uses of
catgutCatgut is a type of cord that is prepared from the natural fiber in the walls of animal intestines. Usually sheep or goat intestines are used, but it is occasionally made from the intestines of a hog, horse, mule, pig or donkey...
and
forcepsForceps are a handheld, hinged instrument used for grasping and holding objects. Forceps are used when fingers are too large to grasp small objects or when many objects need to be held at one time while the hands are used to perform a task. The term forceps is used almost exclusively within the...
, the
ligatureIn surgery or medical procedure, a ligature consists of a piece of thread tied around an anatomical structure, usually a blood vessel or an other hollow structure to shut it off...
, surgical needle,
scalpelA scalpel is a small but extremely sharp bladed instrument used for surgery, anatomical dissection, and various arts and crafts. Scalpels may be disposable or re-usable. Re-usable scalpels can have attached, resharpenable blades or, more commonly, non-attached, replaceable blades...
,
curetteA curette is a surgical instrument designed for scraping biological tissue or debris in a biopsy, excision, or cleaning procedure. In form, the curette is a small hand tool, often similar in shape to a stylus; at the tip of the curette is a small scoop, hook, or gouge...
,
retractorA retractor is a surgical instrument by which a surgeon can either actively separate the edges of a surgical incision or wound, or can hold back underlying organs and tissues, so that body parts under the incision may be accessed. The two are each available in many shapes, sizes, and styles...
, surgical
spoonA spoon is a utensil consisting of a small shallow bowl, oval or round, at the end of a handle. A type of cutlery , especially as part of a place setting, it is used primarily for serving. Spoons are also used in food preparation to measure, mix, stir and toss ingredients...
,
soundIn medicine, sounds are instruments for probing and dilating passages within the body, the best-known examples of which are urethral sounds and uterine sounds. Some men and women enjoy using them for urethral play.-Urethral sounds:...
, surgical
hookA fish hook is a device for catching fish either by impaling them in the mouth or, more rarely, by snagging the body of the fish. Fish hooks have been employed for centuries by fisherman to catch fresh and saltwater fish. In 2005, the fish hook was chosen by Forbes as one of the top twenty tools...
, surgical
rodRod may refer to:*Rod , a straight and slender stick; a wand; a cylinder; hence, any slender bar*Rod cell, a cell found in the retina that is sensitive to light/dark...
, and
speculaA speculum is a medical tool for investigating body cavities, with a form dependent on the body cavity for which it is designed. In old texts, the speculum may also be referred to as a diopter or dioptra...
, and bone
sawA saw is a tool that uses a hard blade or wire with an abrasive edge to cut through softer materials. The cutting edge of a saw is either a serrated blade or an abrasive...
.
From the 10th century, Muslim physicians and surgeons were applying purified
alcoholIn chemistry, an alcohol is any organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom of an alkyl or substituted alkyl group. An important group of acohols is formed by the simple acyclic alcohols, the general formula for which is C
nH
2n+1OH...
to wounds as an
antisepticAntiseptics are antimicrobial substances that are applied to living tissue/skin to reduce the possibility of infection, sepsis, or putrefaction...
agent. Surgeons in Islamic Spain utilized special methods for maintaining antisepsis prior to and during surgery. They also originated specific protocols for maintaining
hygieneHygiene, refers to the set of practices associated with the preservation of health and healthy living. Hygiene is a concept related to medicine, as well as to personal and professional care practices related to most aspects of living, although it is most often associated with cleanliness and...
during the post-operative period. Their success rate was so high that dignitaries throughout Europe came to
Córdoba||-||-||}Córdoba is a city in Andalusia, southern Spain, and the capital of the province of Córdoba. Located at 37.88° North, 4.77° West, on the Guadalquivir river, it was founded in ancient Roman times as Corduba by Claudius Marcellus...
,
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
, to be treated at what was comparably the "
Mayo ClinicMayo Clinic is a non-profit organization and internationally renowned group medical practice headquartered in Rochester, Minnesota. Its headquarters consist of the Mayo Medical School, the Mayo Graduate School, the Mayo College of Graduate Medical Education, and several other health science schools...
" of the Middle Ages.
Ibn ZuhrAbū Merwān ’Abdal-Malik ibn Zuhr was an Arab Muslim physician, pharmacist, surgeon, parasitologist, Islamic scholar and teacher in Al-Andalus.-Early life:...
(Avenzoar) was the earliest known
experimentIn scientific research, an experiment is a method of investigating causal relationships among variables, or to test a hypothesis. An experiment is a cornerstone of the empirical approach to acquiring data about the world and is used in both natural sciences and social sciences...
al surgeon. In the 12th century, he was responsible for introducing the
experimentIn scientific research, an experiment is a method of investigating causal relationships among variables, or to test a hypothesis. An experiment is a cornerstone of the empirical approach to acquiring data about the world and is used in both natural sciences and social sciences...
al
scientific methodScientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific...
into surgery, as he was the first to employ
animal testingAnimal testing, also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and in vivo testing, is the use of non-human animals in experiments. It is estimated that 50 to 100 million vertebrate animals worldwide — from zebrafish to non-human primates — are used annually...
in order to experiment with surgical procedures before applying them to human patients. He also performed the first
dissectionDissection is usually the process of disassembling and observing something to determine its internal structure and as an aid to discerning the functions and relationships of its components...
s and postmortem
autopsiesAn autopsy–also known as a post-mortem examination, necropsy , autopsia cadaverum, or obduction–is a medical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse to determine the cause and manner of death and to evaluate any disease or injury that may be present...
on humans as well as animals. He also established
surgerySurgery is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, to help improve bodily function or appearance, or sometimes for some other reason...
as an independent discipline of medicine, by introducing a
trainingThe term training refers to the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and competencies as a result of the teaching of vocational or practical skills and knowledge that relate to specific useful competencies. It forms the core of apprenticeships and provides the backbone of content at institutes of...
course designed specifically for future surgeons, in order that they be qualified before being allowed to perform operations independently, and for defining the roles of a
general practitionerA general practitioner or GP is a medical practitioner who provides primary care and specializes in family medicine. A general practitioner treats acute and chronic illnesses and provides preventive care and health education for all ages and both sexes...
and a surgeon in the treatment of a surgical condition.
In Islamic Spain,
Abu al-QasimAbu al-Qasim Khalaf ibn al-Abbas Al-Zahrawi, also known in the West as Abulcasis, was an Andalusian physician, surgeon, chemist, cosmetologist, and scientist. He is considered the father of modern surgery, and as Islam's greatest medieval surgeon, whose comprehensive medical texts shaped both...
and
Ibn ZuhrAbū Merwān ’Abdal-Malik ibn Zuhr was an Arab Muslim physician, pharmacist, surgeon, parasitologist, Islamic scholar and teacher in Al-Andalus.-Early life:...
, among other Muslim surgeons, performed hundreds of
surgeriesSurgery is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, to help improve bodily function or appearance, or sometimes for some other reason...
under inhalant
anesthesiaAnesthesia, or anaesthesia , has traditionally meant the condition of having sensation blocked or temporarily taken away. This allows patients to undergo surgery and other procedures without the distress and pain they would otherwise experience...
with the use of
narcoticThe term narcotic is believed to have been coined by the Greek physician Galen to refer to agents that benumb or deaden, causing loss of feeling or paralysis. It is based on the Greek word ναρκωσις , the term used by Hippocrates for the process of benumbing or the benumbed state...
-soaked sponges which were placed over the face. Muslim physicians also introduced the anesthetic value of
opiumOpium is a narcotic formed from the latex released by lacerating the immature seed pods of opium poppies . It contains up to 12% morphine, an opiate alkaloid, which is most frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade...
derivatives during the
Middle AgesThe Middle Ages of European history is a period of European history covering roughly a millennium in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus...
.
Ibn Sina, known as Abū Alī Sīnā or Ibn Sīnā , and commonly known in English by his Latinized name Avicenna , was a Persian polymath and the foremost physician and philosopher of his time...
(Avicenna) wrote about its medical uses in
The Canon of MedicineThe Canon of Medicine is a 14-volume medical encyclopedia written by Islamic scientist and physician Ibn Sīnā...
, which later influenced the works of
ParacelsusParacelsus was a Renaissance physician, botanist, alchemist, astrologer, and general occultist...
.
Sigrid HunkeSigrid Hunke was a German author. She received her PhD from the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin in 1941. She is known for her work in the field of religious studies....
wrote:
During the
Black DeathThe Black Death was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. It is widely thought to have been an outbreak of bubonic plague caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, but this view has recently been challenged...
bubonic plaguePlague is a deadly infectious disease caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis . Plague is a zoonotic, primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas. Plague is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death and devastation it brought...
in 14th century Al-Andalus, Ibn Khatima and
Ibn al-KhatibLisan al-Din ibn al-Khatib or Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Said ibn Ali ibn Ahmad al-Salmani Lisan al-Din ibn al-Khatib or Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Said ibn Ali ibn Ahmad al-Salmani Lisan al-Din ibn al-Khatib or Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Said ibn Ali ibn Ahmad al-Salmani (1313 (in Loja near...
hypothesized that infectious diseases are caused by minute "contagious entities" which enter the human body.
Psychology and sociology
Abu al-QasimAbu al-Qasim Khalaf ibn al-Abbas Al-Zahrawi, also known in the West as Abulcasis, was an Andalusian physician, surgeon, chemist, cosmetologist, and scientist. He is considered the father of modern surgery, and as Islam's greatest medieval surgeon, whose comprehensive medical texts shaped both...
(Abulcasis), the father of modern
surgerySurgery is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, to help improve bodily function or appearance, or sometimes for some other reason...
, developed material and technical designs which are still used in
neurosurgeryNeurosurgery is the surgery discipline focused on treating the central nervous system, peripheral nervous systems and spinal column diseases amenable to surgical intervention....
.
Ibn ZuhrAbū Merwān ’Abdal-Malik ibn Zuhr was an Arab Muslim physician, pharmacist, surgeon, parasitologist, Islamic scholar and teacher in Al-Andalus.-Early life:...
(Avenzoar) gave the first accurate descriptions on neurological disorders, including
meningitisMeningitis is inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, known collectively as the meninges. The inflammation may be caused by infection with viruses, bacteria, or other microorganisms, and less commonly by certain drugs...
, intracranial
thrombophlebitisThrombophlebitis is phlebitis related to a blood clot or thrombus. When it occurs repeatedly in different locations, it is known as "Thrombophlebitis migrans" or "migrating thrombophlebitis".-Causes, incidence, and risk factors:...
, and
mediastinal germ cell tumorMalignant mediastinal germ cell tumors of various histologies were first described as a clinical entity approximately 50 years ago. Mediastinal and other extragonadal germ cell tumors were initially thought to represent isolated metastases from an inapparent gonadal primary site.-Etiology:Some...
s, and made contributions to modern
neuropharmacologyNeuropharmacology is concerned with drug-induced changes in the functioning of cells in the nervous system..Within the discipline of neuropharmacology there are two branches, behavioral and molecular....
.
AverroesAbū 'l-Walīd Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Rushd , better known just as Ibn Rushd , and in European literature as Averroes , was an Andalusian Muslim polymath of Moroccan origins; a master of Islamic philosophy, Islamic theology, Maliki law and jurisprudence, logic, psychology, politics, Arabic music...
suggested the existence of
Parkinson's diseaseParkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that often impairs the sufferer's motor skills, speech, and other functions....
and attributed photoreceptor properties to the
retinaThe vertebrate retina is a light sensitive tissue lining the inner surface of the eye. The optics of the eye create an image of the visual world on the retina, which serves much the same function as the film in a camera. Light striking the retina initiates a cascade of chemical and electrical...
.
MaimonidesMoses Maimonides, also known as Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon or the acronym the Rambam , was born in Cordoba, Spain on March 30, 1135, and died in Egypt on December 13, 1204....
wrote about neuropsychiatric disorders and described
rabiesRabies is a viral neuroinvasive disease that causes acute encephalitis in warm-blooded animals. It is zoonotic , most commonly by a bite from an infected animal but occasionally by other forms of contact...
and
belladonnaAtropa belladonna, commonly known as belladonna or deadly nightshade, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the family Solanaceae, native to Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia. The foliage and berries are extremely toxic, containing tropane alkaloids. These toxins include scopolamine and...
intoxication.
Said Al-AndalusiSaid al-Andalusí , was an Andalusi qadi, scientist and historian. He was born at Almería and died at Toledo.-References:*Said al-Andalusí, Science in the Medieval World: "Book of the Categories of Nations"...
(1029-1168) stated that people in all corners of the world have a common origin but differ in certain aspects: "
ethicsIslamic ethics , defined as "good character," historically took shape gradually from the 7th century and was finally established by the 11th century...
, appearance, landscape and language". He treated the
history of EgyptEgyptian history can be roughly divided into the following periods:*Prehistoric Egypt*Ancient Egypt**Early Dynastic Period of Egypt: 31st to 27th centuries BC**Old Kingdom of Egypt: 27th to 22nd centuries BC...
as part of the
universal historyUniversal history is basic to the Western tradition of historiography, especially the Abrahamic wellspring of that tradition. Simply stated, universal history is the presentation of the history of mankind as a whole, as a coherent unit.-Ancient authors:...
of all humanity, and he linked Egypt and
SudanSudan is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest country in Africa and in the Arab World, and tenth largest in the world by area...
to the history of the
ArabArab people or Arabs are an ethnic group whose members identify along linguistic, cultural or genealogical grounds...
s through a common ancestry. They linked ancient Egypt to
Muslim historyMuslim history involves the history of the Islamic faith as a religion and as a social institution. The history of Islam began in Arabia with Muslim Prophet Muhammad's first recitations of the Qur'an in the 7th century....
through
HajarHagar , according to the Abrahamic faiths, was an Egyptian handmaiden of Sarah, wife of Abraham. At Sarah's suggestion, she became Abraham's second wife. Her story is reported in the Book of Genesis in Judeo-Christian tradition. In Islam, her story is alluded to in the Qur'an, but her name is not...
(Hagar), the wife of Ibrahim (Abraham) and mother of
IsmailIn Islam, Ishmael is known as the first-born son of Abraham from Hagar, his second wife, and as an appointed prophet and messenger of God. It is believed that Ishmael lived between 120 to 143 years...
(Ishmael), the patriarch of the Arabs, thus making Hajar the mother of the Arabs.
Translation movement
Contributing to the growth of European science was the major search by European scholars for new learning which they could only find among Muslims, especially in Islamic Spain and
SicilyThe Islamic conquest and rule of Sicily, Malta, and parts of southern Italy was a process whose origin can be traced back through the general expansion of Islam from the 7th century onwards...
. These scholars translated new scientific and philosophical texts from
ArabicArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
into
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
.
One of the most productive translators in Spain was
Gerard of CremonaGerard of Cremona , was a Lombard translator of Arabic scientific works found in the abandoned Arab libraries of Toledo, Spain....
, who translated 87 books from Arabic to Latin,
including
Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī' was a Persian mathematician, astronomer and geographer, a scholar in the House of Wisdom in Baghdad.His Kitab al-Jabr wa-l-Muqabala presented the first systematic solution of linear and quadratic equations. He is considered the founder of algebra, a credit he shares with Diophantus...
's
On Algebra and Almucabala , also known under a shorter name spelled as Hisab al-jabr w’al-muqabala, Kitab al-Jabr wa-l-Muqabala and other transliterations) is a mathematical book written in Arabic, in approximately 820 AD by the Persian...
, Jabir ibn AflahAbu Muhammad Jabir ibn Aflah was an Arab Muslim astronomer, mathematician and inventor whose works, once translated into Latin , influenced later European mathematicians and astronomers...
's Elementa astronomica
,
al-Kindi' , also known to the West by the Latinized version of his name Alkindus, was an Arab Iraqi polymath: an Islamic philosopher, scientist, astrologer, astronomer, cosmologist, chemist, logician, mathematician, musician, physician, physicist, psychologist, and meteorologist...
's On Optics
, Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Kathīr al-Farghānī's On Elements of Astronomy on the Celestial Motions
, al-FarabiAbū Naṣr al-Fārābi , known in the West as Alpharabius Abū Naṣr al-Fārābi (أبو نصر محمد الفارابي - Abū Naṣr Muḥammad al-Fārābi; in some sources also mentioned as محمد بن محمد بن أوزلغ الفارابي - Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad (ibn Tarḫān) ibn Awzlaġ al-Fārābi), known in the West as...
's On the Classification of the Sciences
,
the chemical and medicalIn the history of medicine, Islamic medicine or Arabic medicine refers to medicine developed in the medieval Islamic civilization and written in Arabic, the lingua franca of the Islamic civilization. Despite these names, a significant number of scientists during this period were not Arab...
works of Razi,
the works of Thabit ibn Qurra' was an Arab astronomer, mathematician and physician who was known as Thebit in Latin.-Biography:...
and Hunayn ibn IshaqHunayn ibn Ishaq Hunayn ibn Ishaq Hunayn ibn Ishaq was a famous and influential Middle Eastern Christian scholar, physician, and scientist, known for his work in translating scientific and medical works in Greek into Arabic. Although Arabic historical...
,
and the works of Arzachel' , Latinized as Arzachel, was a leading Arab mathematician and the foremost astronomer of his time. He lived in Toledo in Castile, Al-Andalus .The crater Arzachel on the Moon is named after him.-Instruments:...
, Jabir ibn AflahAbu Muhammad Jabir ibn Aflah was an Arab Muslim astronomer, mathematician and inventor whose works, once translated into Latin , influenced later European mathematicians and astronomers...
, the Banū MūsāThe Banū Mūsā brothers were three 9th century Persian scholars, of Baghdad, active in the House of Wisdom:*Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir , who specialised in astronomy, engineering, geometry and physics.*Ahmad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir , who specialised in engineering and...
, Abū Kāmil Shujā ibn Aslam, Abu al-QasimAbu al-Qasim Khalaf ibn al-Abbas Al-Zahrawi, also known in the West as Abulcasis, was an Andalusian physician, surgeon, chemist, cosmetologist, and scientist. He is considered the father of modern surgery, and as Islam's greatest medieval surgeon, whose comprehensive medical texts shaped both...
, and Ibn al-Haytham (including the Book of OpticsThe Book of Optics was a seven-volume treatise on optics, physics, mathematics, anatomy and psychology written by the Iraqi Muslim scientist, Ibn al-Haytham , from 1011 to 1021, when he was under house arrest in Cairo, Egypt.The book...
).
With the fall of Islamic Spain in 1492, the scientific and technological initiative of the Islamic world was inherited by Europeans and laid the foundations for Europe's
RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe...
and
Scientific RevolutionIn the history of science, the scientific revolution was a period when new ideas in physics, astronomy, biology, human anatomy, chemistry, and other sciences led to a rejection of doctrines that had prevailed from Ancient Greece through the Middle Ages, and laid the foundation of modern science...
.
Agriculture and cuisine
As early as the 9th century, an essentially modern agricultural system became central to economic life and organization in the Arab caliphates, replacing the largely export driven Roman model. Cities of the Near East, North Africa, and Moorish Spain were supported by elaborate agricultural systems which included extensive irrigation based on knowledge of hydraulic and hydrostatic principles, some of which were continued from Roman times.
The introduction of new crops transforming private farming into a new global industry exported everywhere, including Europe, where farming was mostly restricted to wheat strains obtained much earlier via central Asia. Spain received what she in turn transmitted to the rest of Europe; many agricultural and fruit-growing processes, together with many new plants, fruit and vegetables. These new crops included sugar cane, rice, citrus fruit, apricots, cotton, artichokes, aubergines, and saffron. Others, previously known, were further developed. Several were later exported from Spanish coastal areas to the Spanish colonies in the New World. Also transmitted via Muslim influence, a silk industry flourished, flax was cultivated and linen exported, and
espartoEsparto, or esparto grass, also known as "halfah grass" or "needle grass", Macrochloa tenacissima and Stipa tenacissima, is a perennial grass grown in northwest Africa and southern Spain employed for crafts .-Esparto paper:It is also used for fiber production for paper making...
grass, which grew wild in the more arid parts, was collected and turned into various articles.
RestaurantA restaurant prepares and serves food and drink to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
s in medieval Islamic Spain served three-course meals, which was introduced in the 9th century by
ZiryabAbu l-Hasan ‘Ali Ibn Nafi‘ , nicknamed Ziryab , was a Persian or Kurdish polymath: a poet, musician, singer, cosmetologist, fashion designer, celebrity, trendsetter, strategist, astronomer, botanist and geographer...
, who insisted that meals should be served in three separate courses consisting of
soupSoup is a food that is made by combining ingredients, such as meat and vegetables with stock, juice, water or another liquid. Hot soups are additionally characterized by boiling solid ingredients in liquids until the flavor is extracted, forming a broth....
, the
main courseA main course is the featured or primary dish in a meal consisting of several courses. It usually follows the entrée course, and the salad course. In North American usage it may in fact be called the "entrée"....
, and
dessertDessert is a course that typically comes at the end of a meal, usually consisting of sweet food but sometimes of a strongly-flavored one, such as some cheeses...
.
As a result of the improved agriculture and cuisine, the average
life expectancyLife expectancy is the expected number of years of life remaining at a given age. It is denoted by e
x, which means the average number of subsequent years of life for someone now aged x, according to a particular mortality experience...
of the
scholarlyUlema refers to the educated class of Muslim legal scholars engaged in the several fields of Islamic studies. They are best known as the arbiters of shari‘a law...
class in Islamic Spain increased to 69–75 years by the 11th century.
Economics
The systems of
contractIn law, a contract is a binding legal agreement that is enforceable in a court of law. That is to say, a contract is an exchange of promises for the breach of which the law will provide a remedy....
relied upon by
merchantA merchant is a businessman who trades in commodities that they do not produce themselves, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
s was very effective. Merchants would buy and sell on
commissionThe payment of commission as remuneration for services rendered or products sold is a common way to reward sales people. Payments often will be calculated on the basis of a percentage of the goods sold...
, with money
loanA loan is a type of debt. Like all debt instruments, a loan entails the redistribution of financial assets over time, between the lender and the borrower....
ed to them by wealthy
investorAn investor is any party that makes an investment.The term has taken on a specific meaning in finance to describe the particular types of people and companies that regularly purchase equity or debt securities for financial gain in exchange for funding an expanding company...
s, or a joint
investmentInvestment or investing is a term with several closely-related meanings in business management, finance and economics, related to saving or deferring consumption. Investing is the active redirection of resources: from being consumed today, to creating benefits in the future; the use of assets to...
of several merchants, who were often Muslim, Christian and Jewish. Business
partnershipA partnership is a type of business entity in which partners share with each other the profits or losses of the business. Partnerships are often favored over corporations for taxation purposes, as the partnership structure does not generally incur a tax on profits before it is distributed to the...
s would be made for many
commercial venturesA joint venture is an entity formed between two or more parties to undertake economic activity together. The parties agree to create a new entity by both contributing equity, and they then share in the revenues, expenses, and control of the enterprise...
, and bonds of
kinshipKinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin, through either biological, cultural, or historical descent. In anthropology the kinship system includes people related both by descent and marriage, while usage in biology includes descent and mating...
enabled
trade networkA trade route is a logistical network identified as a series of pathways and stoppages used for the commercial transport of cargo. Allowing goods to reach distant markets, a single trade route contains long distance arteries which may further be connected to several smaller networks of commercial...
s to form over huge distances. Networks developed during this time enabled a world in which
moneyMoney is anything that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts. The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange, a unit of account, a store of value, and occasionally, a standard of deferred payment...
could be promised by a
bankA bank is a financial institution licensed by a government. Its primary activities include borrowing and lending money.Many other financial activities were allowed over time. For example banks are important players in financial markets and offer financial services such as investment funds...
in
BaghdadBaghdad is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate, with which it is coterminous. Having a municipal population estimated at 6.5 million, it is the largest city in Iraq and the second largest in the Arab World....
and cashed in Spain, creating the
chequeA cheque, also spelled check , is a negotiable instrument[Although cheques are regulated in most countries as negotiable instruments, in many countries they are not actually negotiable, viz., the payee cannot endorse the cheque in favour of a third party...]
system of today. Each time items passed through one of the cities along this extraordinary network, the city imposed a
taxTo tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law.Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities...
, resulting in high prices once the items reached their final destinations. These innovations made by Muslims and Jews laid the foundations for the modern
economic systemAn economic system is the system of production, distribution and consumption of goods and services of an economy. Alternatively, it is the set of principles and techniques by which problems of economics are addressed, such as the economic problem of scarcity through allocation of finite productive...
.
Geography and exploration
Long distance travel created a need for mapping, and travelers often provided the information to achieve the task. While such travel during the medieval period was hazardous, Muslims nonetheless undertook long journeys. One motive for these was the
HajjThe Hajj is a pilgrimage to Mecca . It is currently the largest annual pilgrimage in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, an obligation that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so...
or the Muslim pilgrimage. Annually, Muslims came to Mecca in Arabia from
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
, Islamic Spain, Persia and
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
. Another motive for travels was commerce. Muslims were involved in trade with Europeans, Indians and the Chinese, and Muslim merchants travelled long distances to conduct commercial activities.
The baculus, used for nautical astronomy, originates from Islamic Spain and was later used by Portuguese navigators for long-distance travel. The origins of the
caravelThis article is about the Caravel boat. For the carvel type of boat building, see Carvel .A caravel is a small, highly maneuverable, two- or three-masted lateen-rigged ship, created by the Portuguese and used by them as well as by the Spanish for long voyages of exploration from the 15th...
ship, used for long distance travel by the Portuguese and Spanish since the 15th century, date back to the qarib used by explorers from Islamic Spain in the 13th century.
According to a controversial theory, explorers from Al-Andalus may have travelled to the
AmericasThe Americas, or America, are lands in the Western hemisphere or New World, comprising the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions. America may be ambiguous in English, as it is more commonly used to refer to the United States of America...
(see Pre-Columbian Andalusian-Americas contact theories).
Linguistics and literature
The "
ToledoThe Kingdom of Toledo was the juridical definition of a Christian medieval kingdom in what is now central Spain, created after Alfonso VI of León's capture of Toledo in 1085.-Background:...
School" was a famous center of medieval
linguisticsLinguistics is the scientific study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of meaning...
. Members of this school included; Yehudah ibn Tibbon,
Herman the GermanHermannus Alemannus translated Arabic philosophical works into Latin. He worked in Toledo around the middle of the thirteenth century and is almost certainly to be identified with the Hermannus who was bishop of Astorga in León from 1266 until his death in 1272.-Work:His translations have been...
,
Adelard of BathAdelard of Bath was a 12th century English scholar. He is known both for his original works and for translating many important Arabic scientific works of astrology, astronomy, philosophy and mathematics into Latin, as well as some ancient Greek texts in Arabic translation, which were then...
and
Gerard of CremonaGerard of Cremona , was a Lombard translator of Arabic scientific works found in the abandoned Arab libraries of Toledo, Spain....
.
In the 12th century, the Andalusian-
Arabian philosopherEarly Islamic philosophy or classical Islamic philosophy is a period of intense philosophical development beginning in the 2nd century AH of the Islamic calendar and lasting until the 6th century AH...
and novelist
Ibn TufailIbn Tufail was an Andalusian-Arab Muslim polymath: an Arabic writer, novelist, Islamic philosopher, Islamic theologian, physician,...
(known as "Abubacer" or "Ebn Tophail" in the West) first demonstrated
Avicenna, known as Abū Alī Sīnā or Ibn Sīnā , and commonly known in English by his Latinized name Avicenna , was a Persian polymath and the foremost physician and philosopher of his time...
's theory of
tabula rasaTabula rasa refers to the epistemological thesis that individuals are born without built-in mental content and that their knowledge comes from experience and perception....
as a
thought experimentA thought experiment, sometimes called a gedankenexperiment in German, is a proposal for an experiment that would test or illuminate a hypothesis or theory....
in his
Arabic novelArabic literature is the writing produced, both prose and poetry, by writers of the Arabic language. It does not usually include works written using the Arabic alphabet but not in the Arabic language such as Persian literature and Urdu literature...
, Hayy ibn Yaqzan
, in which he depicted the development of the mind of a feral childA feral child is a human child who has lived isolated from human contact from a very young age, and has no experience of human care, loving or social behavior, and, crucially, of human language...
"from a tabula rasa to that of an adult, in complete isolation from society" on a desert islandA desert island, or deserted island, refers to an island which is uninhabited or sparsely inhabited. Such islands are commonly invoked in metaphor, literature, and the popular imagination, as a place where individuals or small groups of people find themselves marooned or castaway, cut off from...
. The LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
translation of his work, titled Philosophus Autodidactus
, published by Edward PocockeEdward Pococke was an English Orientalist and biblical scholar.-Early life:He was the son of clergyman from Chieveley in Berkshire, and was educated at Lord Williams's School of Thame in Oxfordshire and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford...
the Younger in 1671, had an influence on John LockeJohn Locke was an English physician and philosopher regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered the first of the British empiricists, he is equally important to social contract theory. His work had a great impact upon the development of epistemology and political...
's formulation of tabula rasa in An Essay Concerning Human UnderstandingAn Essay Concerning Human Understanding is one of John Locke's two most famous works, the other being his Second Treatise on Civil Government. First appearing in 1690, the essay concerns the foundation of human knowledge and understanding. He describes the mind at birth as a blank slate filled...
, which went on to become one of the principal sources of empiricismIn philosophy, empiricism is a theory of knowledge which asserts that knowledge arises from sense experience. Empiricism is one of several competing views about how we know "things," part of the branch of philosophy called epistemology, or "the Theory of Knowledge"...
in modern Western philosophy, and influenced many Enlightenment philosophers, such as David HumeDavid Hume was a Scottish philosopher, economist, historian and a key figure in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment...
and George BerkeleyGeorge Berkeley , also known as Bishop Berkeley, was an Anglo-Irish philosopher whose primary achievement was the advancement of a theory he called "immaterialism" . This theory contends that individuals can only know directly sensations and ideas of objects, not abstractions such as "matter"...
.
Hadith Bayad wa RiyadHadith Bayāḍ wa Riyāḍ or Qissat Bayad wa Riyad is a 13th-century Arabic love story...
(The Story of Bayad and Riyad
) was a 13th-century Arabic love story written in Al-Andalus. The main characters of the tale are Bayad, a merchant's son and a foreigner from DamascusDamascus is the capital and largest city of Syria. It is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world and its current population is estimated at about 1,669,000...
, and Riyad, a well educated girl in the court of an unnamed HajibThe term "hajib" is not to be confused with the word "hijab", which is a headscarf for Muslim women.A hajib from Arabic الحاجب was a government official in Al-Andalus and Egypt. They began as Chamberlains but by 756 had evolved to be equivalent to a vizier....
(vizier or minister) of Al-Andalus who is referred to as the lady. The Hadith Bayad wa Riyad manuscript is believed to be the only illustrated manuscript known to have survived from more than eight centuries of Muslim and Arab presence in Spain.
Music
A number of
musical instrumentA musical instrument is an object constructed or used for the purpose of making the sounds of music. In principle, anything that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the beginnings of human culture...
s used in
Western musicWestern music is the genres of music originating in the Western world including Western classical music, American Jazz, Country and Western, pop music and rock and roll...
, particularly in
Spanish musicThe Music of Spain has a vibrant and long history which has had an important impact on music in Western culture. Although the music of Spain is often associated with traditions like flamenco and the spanish guitar, Spanish music is in fact incredibly diverse from region to region...
, are believed to have been derived from Arabic musical instruments used in Al-Andalus: the
luteLute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
was derived from the
al'udThe oud is a pear-shaped, stringed instrument, which is often seen as the predecessor of the western lute, distinguished primarily by being without frets, commonly used in Middle Eastern music.-Name:The words "lute" and "oud" are both suspected to be derived from the...
, the rebecThe rebec is a bowed string musical instrument. In its most common form, it has narrowboat shaped body, three strings and is played on the arm or under the chin, like a violin.- Origins :...
(ancestor of violinThe violin is a bowed string instrument with four strings usually tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello....
) from the rebabThe rebab , also rebap, rabab, rebeb, rababah, or al-rababa) is a type of string instrument so named no later than the 8th century and spread via Islamic trading routes over much of North Africa, the Middle East, parts of Europe, and the Far East...
, the guitarThe guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that adapts readily to a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six strings, but four-, seven-, eight-, ten-, eleven-, twelve-, thirteen- and eighteen-string guitars also exist. The size and shape of the neck and the base of the guitar...
from qitara
, nakerA naker or nakir is a small drum, of Arabic origin, and the forebear of the European timpani .The nakers were imported into Europe during the Crusades of the 13th century....
from naqarehThe naqqāra is a drum with a rounded back and a hide head. It is thus a membranophone.The term naqqāra , also naqqarat, naqqarah, naqqåre, nakkare, nagora comes from the Arabic verb naqr- that means "to strike, beat".-Construction:The rounded section of a naqqara is made of baked clay, while the...
, adufeThe adufe is a traditional square tambourine of Moorish origin, which is used in Portugal.-History:A Portuguese percussion instrument, it was traditionally used in the Beira and Trás-os-Montes regions. It was also used in many other regions across the Iberian Peninsula, and similar instruments are...
from al-duffA daf is a large-sized frame drum used to accompany both popular and classical music in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Kuhistoni Badakhshon of Tajikistan and other countries of the Middle East...
, albokaThe alboka is a double hornpipe or clarinet native to the Basque Country.Although the alboka is a woodwind instrument, its name is derived from the Arabic "al-bûq"...
from al-buq
, anafilNaffīr is an Arabic word used in parts of Sudan to describe particular types of communal work undertakings...
from al-nafir
, exabeba from al-shabbaba
(fluteThe flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind group. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
), atabal (bass drumA bass drum is a relatively large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. The bass drums are of variable sizes and are used in several musical genres . Three major types of bass drums can be distinguished: the large orchestral bass drum, the smaller kick' drum, and the...
) from al-tabl
, atambal from al-tinbal
,
the balabanThe balaban is an Azeri woodwind instrument. In western parts of Azerbaijan, it is sometimes referred to as balaman, mey or düdük.-Structure:The balaban consists of a stem, a reed, a regulator, and a cap....
, the castanetCastanets are percussion instrument , mostly used in Moorish, Ottoman, ancient Roman, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American music. The instrument consists of a pair of concave shells joined on one edge by string. These are held in the hand and used to produce clicks for rhythmic accents...
from kasatan
, sonajas de azófarA University Tuna is a musical group in Spain, Portugal, Central America or South America, made up of university students. It is also known as a Tuna or Tunas if it is in plural...
from sunuj al-sufr
, the conical boreThe bore of a wind instrument is its interior chamber that defines a flow path through which air travels and is set into vibration to produce sounds. The shape of the bore has a strong influence on the instruments' timbre.-Bore shapes:...
wind instrumentA wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator , in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into a mouthpiece set at the end of the resonator. The pitch of the vibration is determined by the length of the tube and by manual modifications of...
s, the xelami from the sulami
or fistulaIn medicine, a fistula is an abnormal connection or passageway between two epithelium-lined organs or vessels that normally do not connect. It is generally a disease condition, but a fistula may be surgically created for therapeutic reasons.-Location of fistulas:Fistulas can develop in various...
(flute or musical pipeAn organ pipe is a sound-producing element of the pipe organ that resonates at a specific pitch when pressurized air is driven through it. Each pipe is tuned to a specific note of the musical scale...
),
the shawmThe shawm was a medieval and Renaissance musical instrument of the woodwind family made in Europe from the late 13th century until the 17th century. It was developed from the oriental zurna and is the predecessor of the modern oboe. The body of the shawm was usually turned from a single piece of...
and dulzainaThe dulzaina is a Spanish double reed instrument in the oboe family. It has a conical shape and is the equivalent of the Breton bombarde.Many varieties of the dulzaina exist in Spain. In the Valencian Community it's known as a dolçaina or xirimita and is accompanied by a drum called the tabalet...
from the reed instrumentsA reed is a thin strip of material which vibrates to produce a sound on a musical instrument. The reeds of woodwind instruments are made from Arundo donax or synthetic material; tuned reeds are made of metal or synthetics.-Single reeds:Single reeds are used on the mouthpieces of clarinets and...
zamr
and al-zurnaThe zurna is a double reed outdoor wind instrument, usually accompanied by a davul in Anatolian folk music. The name is from Turkish zurna, itself derived from Persian سرنای surnāy, composed of sūr “banquet, feast” and nāy “pipe, flute”...
,
the gaitaThe gaita or gaita de foles is a traditional bagpipe used in Galicia, and Portugal.The name gaita is used in Galician, Spanish, Leonese and Portuguese as a generic term for "bagpipe"....
from the ghaitaThe rhaita or ghaita is a double reed instrument from Northern Africa. It is nearly identical in construction to the Arabic mizmar and the Turkish zurna....
, rackettThe Renaissance rackett is a double reed wind instrument related to the bassoon.There are several sizes of rackett, in a family ranging from soprano to great bass. Despite a relatively low tone, the rackett is actually quite small...
from iraqya
or iraqiyya
,
the harpA harp is a stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicular to the soundboard. As many other non-percussion instruments, it can also be used as a percussion instrument. All harps have a neck, resonator and strings. Some, known as frame harps, also have a forepillar;...
and zitherThe zither is a musical string instrument, most commonly found in Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, the southern regions of Germany, alpine Europe and East Asian cultures, including China...
from the qanunThe qanún or kanun is a string instrument found in Near Eastern traditional music based on Maqamat. It is basically a zither with a narrow trapezoidal soundboard...
,
canonIn music, a canon is a contrapuntal composition that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration . The initial melody is called the leader , while the imitative melody, which is played in a different voice, is called the follower...
from qanun
, geigeThe violin is a bowed string instrument with four strings usually tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello....
(violin) from ghichak
,
and the theorboA theorbo is a plucked string instrument. As a name, theorbo signifies a number of long-necked lutes with second peg-boxes, such as the liuto attiorbato, the French
théorbe des pièces, the English theorbo, the archlute, the German baroque lute, the angélique or angelica...
from the tarab
. It is also commonly acknowledged by flamenco performers that the vocal, instrumental, and dance elements of modern flamenco were greatly influenced by the Arab performing arts.
Pottery
Hispano-Moresque ware was a style of Islamic potteryPottery is the ceramic ware made by potters. Major types of pottery include earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain. The places where such wares are made are called potteries. Pottery is one of the oldest human technologies and art-forms, and remains a major industry today...
created in Islamic Spain, after the MoorsThe description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of Muslim people of Berber, Black African and Arab descent from North Africa, some of whom came to conquer and occupy the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. The North Africans termed it Al Andalus, comprising most...
had introduced two ceramicA ceramic is an inorganic, non-metallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...
techniques to EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
: glazingGlaze is a layer or coating of a vitreous substance which has been fired to fuse to a ceramic object to color, decorate, strengthen or waterproof it.-Use:...
with an opaqueOpacity is the measure of impenetrability to electromagnetic or other kinds of radiation, especially visible light. In radiative transfer, it describes the absorption and scattering of radiation in a medium, such as a plasma, dielectric, shielding material, glass, etc...
white tin-glazeTin-glazing is the process of giving ceramic items a tin-based glaze which is white, shiny and opaque, normally applied to red or buff earthenware.The opacity and whiteness of tin glaze make it valued by its ability to decorate with colour.-History:...
, and painting in metallic lusters. Hispano-Moresque ware was distinguished from the pottery of ChristendomChristendom, or the Christian world, has several meanings. In a cultural sense it refers to the worldwide community of Christians, adherents of Christianity. This community numbers in the billions of people of the world population. This community is spread across many different nations and ethnic...
by the Islamic character of it decoration.
The tin-glazingTin-glazing is the process of giving ceramic items a tin-based glaze which is white, shiny and opaque, normally applied to red or buff earthenware.The opacity and whiteness of tin glaze make it valued by its ability to decorate with colour.-History:...
of ceramicA ceramic is an inorganic, non-metallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...
s was invented by Muslim potters in 8th-century BasraAl-Baṣrah is the capital of Basra Province, and had an estimated population of 3,800,200 as of 2009. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it is incapable of deep water access, which is handled at the the port of Umm Qasr...
, IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
. The earliest tin-glazed potteryTin-glazed pottery is pottery covered in glaze containing tin oxide which is white, shiny and opaque. The pottery body is usually made of red or buff colored earthenware and the white glaze was often used to imitate Chinese porcelain...
thus appears to have been made in IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
in the 9th century. From there, it spread to EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
, Persia and Spain, before reaching ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
in the RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe...
, HollandRotterdam
The Hague
Haarlem
Dordrecht |} Holland is a name in common usage given to a region in the western part of the Netherlands. The name 'Holland' is also often informally used to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands...
in the 16th century, and EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
and other European countries shortly after.
LusterwareLusterware or Lustreware is a type of pottery or porcelain with a metallic glaze that gives the effect of iridescence, produced by metallic oxides in an overglaze finish, which is given a second firing at a lower temperature in a "muffle kiln", reduction kiln, which excludes oxygen.The first use...
was invented by GeberGeber is the Latinized form of "Jabir", with the full name of Abu Musa Jābir ibn Hayyān al azdi , a prominent polymath: a chemist and alchemist, astronomer and astrologer, engineer, geologist, philosopher, physicist, and pharmacist and physician...
, who applied it to ceramic glazes in the 8th century. After the production of lusterware became popular in the Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, it spread to EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
—first to Al-Andalus, notably at MalagaMálaga is a city in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, Spain. It is the second most populous city of Andalusia, the sixth largest in Spain and 43rd-most populous municipality in the European Union, with a population of 566,447 in 2008...
, and then to ItalyThe Islamic conquest and rule of Sicily, Malta, and parts of southern Italy was a process whose origin can be traced back through the general expansion of Islam from the 7th century onwards...
, where it was used to enhance maiolicaMaiolica designates Italian tin-glazed pottery dating from the Renaissance.The name is thought to come from the medieval Italian word for Majorca, an island on the route for ships bringing Hispano-Moresque wares from Valencia to Italy...
.
An albarelloAn albarello is a type of maiolica earthenware jar originally designed to hold apothecaries' ointments and dry drugs. The development of this type of pharmacy jar had its roots in the Middle East during the time of the Islamic conquests. Brought to Italy by Hispano-Moresque traders, the earliest...
is a type of maiolicaMaiolica designates Italian tin-glazed pottery dating from the Renaissance.The name is thought to come from the medieval Italian word for Majorca, an island on the route for ships bringing Hispano-Moresque wares from Valencia to Italy...
earthenware jar originally designed to hold apothecaries'Apothecary is a historical name for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses materia medica to physicians, surgeons and patients — a role now served by a pharmacist ....
ointments and dry drugs. The development of this type of pharmacyPharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences, and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of medication....
jar had its roots in the Islamic Middle East. It was brought to Italy by Hispano-MoresqueHispano-Moresque ware is a style of Islamic pottery created in Andalusia.Around 711, the Moors conquered Spain. They introduced two ceramic techniques to Europe: glazing with an opaque white tin-glaze, and painting in metallic lusters...
traders by the 15th century.
Technology
Industrial water mills were employed in the first large factoryA factory or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where workers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production...
complexes built in Al-Andalus between the 11th and 13th centuries. FullingFulling or tucking or walking is a step in woollen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of cloth to eliminate oils, dirt, and other impurities, and making it thicker. The worker who does the job is a fuller, tucker, or walker. The Welsh word for a fulling mill is pandy...
mills, paper millA paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from wood pulp and other ingredients using a Fourdrinier Machine or similar apparatus.A website that collects and distributes essay papers on the internet, either free or for a fee is known as "web paper mills"...
s, steel millA steel mill is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel.Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon. It is produced in a two-stage process...
s, and other mills, spread from Islamic Spain to Christian Spain by the 12th century. The first windmillA windmill is a machine which translates linear motion of wind to rotational motion by means of adjustable vanes called sails. The main use is for a grinding mill powered by the wind, reducing a solid or coarse substance into pulp or minute grains by crushing, grinding, or pressing...
s were built in SistanSīstān is a border region in eastern Iran and southwestern Afghanistan . Sistan derives its name from 'Sakastan', which Sistan was once the westernmost part of. The Sakas that were once native to Sistan were driven to the Punjab during the Arsacid era...
, AfghanistanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
, sometime between the 7th century and 9th century, as described by Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
geographers. These were vertical axleAn axle is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. In some cases the axle may be fixed in position with a bearing or bushing sitting inside the hole in the wheel or gear to allow the wheel or gear to rotate around the axle. In other cases the wheel or gear may be fixed to the axle, with...
windmills, which had long vertical driveshaftA drive shaft, driving shaft, propeller shaft, or Cardan shaft is a mechanical component for transmitting torque and rotation, usually used to connect other components of a drive train that cannot be connected directly because of distance or the need to allow for relative movement between...
s with rectangle shaped bladeA blade is the flat part of a tool, weapon, or machine that normally has a cutting edge and/or pointed end typically made of a flaking stone, such as flint, or metal, most recently steel...
s. These were introduced to Europe through Spain. The bridge mill was a unique type of water mill that was built as part of the superstructureA superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied both to physical structures like buildings, bridges or ships and to conceptual structures as well...
of a bridgeA bridge is a structure built to span a valley, road, body of water, or other physical obstacle, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle. Designs of bridges vary depending on the function of the bridge and the nature of the terrain where the bridge is constructed.-History:The first...
. The earliest record of a bridge mill is from Cordoba in the 12th century. The first forgeA forge is the workplace of a smith or a blacksmith. A forge is sometimes referred to as a smithy.The basic smithy contains a forge, also known as a hearth, for heating metals. The forge heats the workpiece to a malleable temperature or to the point where work hardening no longer occurs. The...
to be driven by a hydropowerHydropower, hydraulic power or water power is power that is derived from the force or energy of moving water, which may be harnessed for useful purposes....
ed water mill rather than manual labourManual labour is physical work done with the hands, especially in an unskilled job such as fruit and vegetable picking, road building, or any other field where the work may be considered physically arduous, and which has as a profitable objective, usually the production of goods.In ancient times...
, also known as a finery forgeIron tapped from the blast furnace is pig iron, and contains significant amounts of carbon and silicon. To produce malleable wrought iron, it needs to undergo a further process. In the early modern period, this was carried out in a finery forge....
, was invented in 12th century Islamic Spain. Stamp millA stamp mill is a type of mill machine that crushes material by pounding rather than grinding, either for further processing or for extraction of metallic ores. Breaking material down is a type of unit operation....
s were first used by miners in SamarkandSamarkand is the second-largest city in Uzbekistan and the capital of Samarqand Province. The city is most noted for its central position on the Silk Road between China and the West, and for being an Islamic centre for scholarly study. The Bibi-Khanym Mosque remains one of the city's most famous...
from as early as 973. They were used in medieval Persia for the purpose of crushing oreAn ore is a type of rock that contains minerals such as gemstones or metals that can be extracted through mining and refined for use. Samples of ore in the form of exceptionally beautiful crystals, exotic layering visible when sectioned or polished or metallic presentations such as large nuggets or...
. By the 11th century, stamp mills were in widespread use throughout the Islamic world, including Islamic Spain.
Many damA dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions...
s, acequiaAn acequia is a community-operated waterway used in Spain and former Spanish colonies in the Americas for irrigation. Particularly in the Andes, northern Mexico, and the modern-day American Southwest, acequias are usually historically engineered canals that carry snow runoff or river water to...
and qanatA qanat , kāriz or kahan is a water management system used to provide a reliable supply of water to human settlements or for irrigation in hot, arid and semi-arid climates...
water supplyWater supply is the process of self-provision or provision by third parties in the water industry, commonly a public utility, of water resources of various qualities to different users. Irrigation is covered separately.- Global access to water:...
systems, and "Tribunal of Waters" irrigationIrrigation is an artificial application of water to the soil. It is usually used to assist in growing crops in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...
systems, were built during the Islamic Golden Age and are still in use today in the Islamic world and in formerly Islamic regions of Europe such as SicilySicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is an autonomous region of Italy. Several much smaller islands surrounding it are considered to be part of Sicily....
and the Iberian PeninsulaThe Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes modern-day Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Gibraltar and a very small area of France. It is the westernmost of the three major southern European peninsulas—the Iberian, Italian, and Balkan peninsulas...
, particularly in the AndalusiaAndalusia Andalusia Andalusia ' onMouseout='HidePop("11270")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Aragon">Aragon
Aragon is an autonomous community of Spain. Located in northeastern Spain, the region comprises three provinces from north to south: Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza .Aragon's northern province of Huesca borders France and is positioned in the middle of the Pyrenees...
and
ValenciaValencia is a province of Spain, in the central part of the Valencian Community....
provinces of Spain. The Arabic systems of irrigation and water distribution were later adopted in the
Canary IslandsThe Canary Islands are a Spanish archipelago which, in turn, forms one of the Spanish Autonomous Communities and an Outermost Region of the European Union. The archipelago is located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the disputed border between Morocco and the...
and
AmericasThe Americas, or America, are lands in the Western hemisphere or New World, comprising the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions. America may be ambiguous in English, as it is more commonly used to refer to the United States of America...
due to the
SpanishSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
and are still used in places like
TexasTexas is the second-largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous United States.The name had wide usage among native Americans, meaning "friends" or "allies"...
,
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
,
PeruPeru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean.Peruvian territory was home to the Norte Chico...
, and
ChileChile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
.
Muslim cities such as Cordoba had advanced domestic water systems with
sanitary sewerA sanitary sewer is a type of underground carriage system, , for transporting sewage from houses or industry to treatment or disposal...
s, public baths, drinking
fountainA fountain is a piece of architecture which pours water into a basin or jets it into the air either to supply drinking water or for decorative or dramatic effect....
s,
pipedWater pipes are pipes or tubes, frequently made of polyvinyl chloride , ductile iron, polyethylene, or copper, that carry pressurized and treated fresh water to buildings , as well as inside the building....
drinking waterDrinking water or potable water is water of sufficiently high quality that it can be consumed or used without risk of immediate or long term harm...
supplies, and widespread private and public toilet and
bathingBathing is the immersion of the body in a fluid, usually water or an aqueous solution. It may be practiced for hygiene, religious or therapeutic purposes or as a recreational activity....
facilities. The first
street lampsA street light, lamppost, street lamp, light standard, or lamp standard is a raised source of light on the edge of a road, which is turned on or lit at a certain time every night. Modern lamps may also have light-sensitive photocells to turn them on at dusk, off at dawn, or activate automatically...
were built in the
Arab EmpireIslamic Empire may refer to*The Caliphates of the early Middle Ages:**Rashidun Caliphate **Umayyad Caliphate - Successor of the Rashidun Caliphate***Umayyad Emirate in the Al-Andalus...
, especially in Cordoba, which also had the first facilities and
waste containerA waste container is a container for temporarily storing waste, which is usually made out of metal or plastic. Common terms are dustbin, rubbish bin, litter bin, garbage can, trash can, trash bin, dumpster, Container Bin, Bin trash barrel, and rubbish barrel; the word can generally refers to a...
s for litter collection.
In 9th century Islamic Spain,
Abbas Ibn FirnasAbbas Ibn Firnas , also known as Abbas Qasim Ibn Firnas and العباس بن فرناس , was an Arabic-speaking Berber polymath, born in Izn-Rand Onda, al-Andalus , who lived in the Caliphate of Córdoba....
(Armen Firnas) invented a primitive version of the
parachuteA parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag. Parachutes are made out of cloth, most commonly nylon....
. John H. Lienhard described it in The Engines of Our Ingenuity as follows:
Ibn Firnas was also the first to make an attempt at controlled
flightFlight is the process by which an object moves either through the air, or movement beyond earth's atmosphere , by aerodynamically generating lift, propulsive thrust or aerostatically using buoyancy, or by simple ballistic movement.-Buoyant flight:Humans, although not apparently other animals, have...
, as opposed to earlier
glidingGliding is a recreational activity and competitive sport in which pilots fly unpowered aircraft known as gliders using rising air to gain altitude or speed. The word soaring is also used for the sport...
attempts in ancient China which were not controllable. Ibn Firnas manipulated the
flight controlsAn aircraft flight control system consists of flight control surfaces, the respective cockpit controls, connecting linkages, and the necessary operating mechanisms to control an aircraft's direction in flight. Aircraft engine controls are also considered as flight controls as they change speed.The...
of his hang glider using two sets of artificial
wingA wing is a surface used to produce lift for flight through the air or another gaseous or fluid medium. The wing shape is usually an airfoil. The word originally referred only to the foremost limbs of birds, but has been extended to include the wings of insects , bats, pterosaurs, and aircraft.A...
s to adjust his
altitudeAltitude is defined based on the context in which it is used . As a general definition, altitude is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object...
and to change his direction. He successfully returned to where he had lifted off from, but his
landingthumb|right|A [[Mute Swan]] alighting. Note the ruffled feathers on top of the wings indicate that the swan is flying at the [[Stall |stall]]ing speed...
was unsuccessful. According to Philip Hitti in History of the Arabs:
Ibn Firnas' glider was possibly the first
hang gliderHang gliding is an air sport in which a pilot flies a light and unmotorized foot-launchable aircraft called a hang glider.Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or composite-framed fabric wing...
, though there were earlier instances of manned
kiteA kite is a flying tethered aircraft that depends upon the tension of a tethering system. The necessary lift that makes the kite wing fly is generated when air flows over and under the kite's wing, producing low pressure above the wing and high pressure below it. This deflection also generates...
s being used in ancient China. Knowledge of Firman and Firnas' flying machines spread to other parts of
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
from
ArabicArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
references. Ibn Firnas' hang glider was also the first to have artificial
wingA wing is a surface used to produce lift for flight through the air or another gaseous or fluid medium. The wing shape is usually an airfoil. The word originally referred only to the foremost limbs of birds, but has been extended to include the wings of insects , bats, pterosaurs, and aircraft.A...
s, though the flight was eventually unsuccessful.
See also
- Timeline of the Muslim presence in the Iberian peninsula
This is a timeline of notable events in the Muslim presence in Iberia, which started with the Umayyad conquest in the 8th century.-Conquest :...
- Muslim conquests
Muslim conquests , also referred to as the Islamic conquests or Arab conquests, began after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad...
- Umayyad Caliphate
The Umayyad Caliphate was the second of the four Islamic caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. It was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty, whose name derives from Umayya ibn Abd Shams, the great-grandfather of the first Umayyad caliph. Although the Umayyad family originally came from the...
- Caliphate of Córdoba
- Al'Garb Al'Andalus
The Al-Gharb Al-Andalus , or just Al-Gharb , was the name given by the Moors of Iberia to the modern region of Algarve and, by extension, to most of Portugal....
- Almoravid dynasty
The Almoravids are a Berber dynasty of Sahara, which lived between the current Senegal and south of the current Morocco It is affiliated to the Berber tribe of Sanhadja and Lemtuna...
- Almohad dynasty
- La Convivencia
La Convivencia is a term used to describe the situation in Spanish history from about 711 to 1492 – concurrent with the Reconquista – when Jews, Muslims, and Catholics in Spain lived in relative peace together within the different kingdoms La Convivencia ("the Coexistence")...
- Reconquista
The Reconquista was a period of 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula succeeded in retaking the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslims...
- Islamic Golden Age
The Islamic Golden Age or the Islamic Renaissance, is traditionally dated from the 9th to 13th centuries for 400 years C.E., but has been extended to the 15th century by recent scholarship...
- Islam in Spain
Islam in Spain has had a fundamental presence in the culture and history of the nation. The religion was dominant in southern Spain from 711 until 1492 under the rule of the Arabs and Moors of al-Andalus. For key historical dates, see Timeline of the Muslim presence in the Iberian peninsula...
- History of Islam
- History of Spain
The history of Spain spans the period from Prehistoric Iberia, through the rise and fall of the first global empire, to Spain's current position as a member of the European Union.Modern humans entered the Iberian Peninsula more than 35,000 years ago...
- History of Portugal
The history of Portugal, a European and an Atlantic nation, dates back to the Early Middle Ages. In the 15th and 16th centuries, it ascended to the status of a world power during Europe's "Age of Discovery" as it built up a vast empire including possessions in South America, Africa, Asia and...
- Antisemitism in Al-Andalus
- History of the Jews under Muslim rule
- Golden age of Jewish culture in the Iberian Peninsula
The Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain, also known as the Golden Age of Arab Rule in Iberia, refers to a period of history during the Muslim rule of the Iberian Peninsula in which Jews were generally accepted in society and Jewish religious, cultural, and economic life blossomed.The nature and...
- Arab diaspora
|group = Arab Diaspora
العرب المغتربين |image = |caption = Palestinian Refugees evacuating their villages in 1948|population = approx...
- Spanish people
Spanish people or Spaniards constitute the nationality and ethnic group of natives of Spain, a European country in the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. The Spanish nationality is in essence made up of regional nationalities, reflecting the complex history of Spain...
- Andalucia
- Moors
The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of Muslim people of Berber, Black African and Arab descent from North Africa, some of whom came to conquer and occupy the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. The North Africans termed it Al Andalus, comprising most...
- Dhimmi
A dhimmi is a non-Muslim subject of a state governed in accordance with sharia law...
- Morisco
A morisco or mourisco , meaning "Moor-like", was a nominally Catholic inhabitant of Spain and Portugal of Muslim heritage. Over time the term was used in a pejorative sense applied to those nominal Catholics who were suspected of secretly practicing Islam...
- Mozarab
The Mozarabs were Iberian Christians who lived under Moorish Muslim rule in Al-Andalus. Their descendants remained unconverted to Islam, but did however adopt elements of Arabic language and culture...
- Muladi
The Muladi or muwallad, from arabic مولدون , were Muslims of ethnic Iberian origin who lived in Al-Andalus during the Middle Ages...
- Kemal Reis
Kemal Reis was a Turkish privateer and Ottoman admiral. He was also the paternal uncle of the famous Ottoman admiral and cartographer Piri Reis who accompanied him in most of his important naval expeditions....
- List of Moorish writers
Films
External links