The History of Andalucia - What the Arabs did for Andalucia

What the Arabs did for Andalucia (part 1)

Cordoba
Cordoba

Around 400 AD the Romans started to withdraw from Andalucia leaving a 'power vacuum' that was filled first by the Vandals until 428 AD, then from around 500 AD by the Visigoths. Between 554 AD and 626 AD there were brief incursions by the Byzantines, the eastern descendants of the Roman Empire. Then in 711 AD the Arabs and Moors arrived and rapidly established control of not only Andalucia but also, practically, the entire Iberian Peninsula. They were to remain until 1492. This series of occasional articles will look at the history of the Moors and take you to places where you can see what the Arabs did for Andalucia.

Until the mid 20th Century this period, between the withdrawal of the Roman Empire, and the re-creation of political stability and a resumption of written historical records in European history was known as the Dark Ages, implying a period when there was no centralised control, superstition, plague and ignorance. This period lasted for different lengths of time depending on the country, typically from the departure of the Romans to the Renaissance around 1450. Spain was the most fortunate country in Europe, the 'Dark Ages' here lasting a mere 300 years. Nowadays much more is known and the period is called the Early Mediaeval or Early Middle Ages.

Most of us have at least heard of Socrates, Ptolemy, Galen and Pythagoras, all around in Roman and pre-Roman times, and of their contributions to philosophy, astronomy, physics and mathematics. But how many of us have heard of Al-Kindi, Ibn Sina, Al-Razi, Ibn Al-Shatir, Ibn Al-Haytham or Al-Tusi? They are all Muslim scientists who made equally great contributions to science, between the 7th and 15th centuries.

Following the abrupt departure of the Romans from Western Europe various less civilised tribes preyed on the remaining inhabitants of previously occupied countries, and argued between themselves. Those inhabitants were more interested in survival than continued learning so, over a period of time, the intellectual treasures of the Ancient Greeks and Egyptians were forgotten along with more practical skills like maintaining aqueducts, drains and buildings. Much of the fine architectural material used by the Romans was dismantled for use in other less grand dwellings. Clerical records vanished as the need for accurate record keeping disappeared and administrative control reduced from a central control to control by an overlord over a tribe often reduced to serfdom. Trade between nations all but ceased so these important lines of communication also stopped. Superstition and paganism again found a foothold. So it was in Andalucia.

Acinipo
Cordoba

Over a politically disturbed but relatively peaceful period of about 300 years the civilising influence of the Romans was forgotten. The landscape of the Romans, with irrigated and cultivated fields neatly bisected by decent tracks and roads and occasional villas in rural areas and fortified towns with brick and stone houses, the larger with under floor heating, running water and sewers, were gone. In many places like Acinipo (near Ronda), and Baelo Claudia (near Bologna) stark ruins stood over a landscape that had largely returned to nature.

Where previously Roman towns were still occupied the fabric had crumbled with once fine houses now repaired in a rude fashion or used as animal shelters. The architectural skills of the Vandals, Visigoths and resident Iberians were not a patch on those of the Romans. Villages of wattle and daub huts with only an occasional stone building, were connected, if at all, with mud tracks that often followed the sensible route of a previously paved road.

The Visigoth control of the Iberian Peninsula is a vast subject in itself but by 711 AD they had sown the seeds of their own defeat. For some time the Catholic bishops that controlled the Visigoth monarchy, the last king being Roderic, had been persecuting Arians and Jews, forcing many to convert to Catholicism and many more to flee to Ceuta. There they united under the banner of a legendary figure, Count Julian. There are also indications that Roderic, although a strong king, was losing control of his nobles and that the Visigoth kingdom was in a state of civil war. There was certainly a degree of dissention in the ranks.

Meanwhile, from the 7th Century onwards, Islamic Arabs were spreading their faith amongst the nomadic tribes along the north coast of Africa, converting them, (the Moors), as they went. Their mission was to spread the Islamic faith around the world. The Islamic faith in those days was not as we think of it today. Religious, racial and sexual tolerance was preached and practised. The value of learning in all fields, the sciences and arts, was encouraged and those with knowledge and skills were revered no matter what their station in life. It was taught that every person no matter which sex, colour or race was equal before Allah and they had total control over their own destiny. It is little wonder that the spread of Islam resembled a forest fire amongst the poor and deprived. The Arabs of the Middle East had for centuries, since the days of the Phoenicians, traded with the Far East, China and India, into central Africa and with European countries around the Mediterranean. They had inherited all the knowledge of the ancient world, including the remains of the libraries of Alexandria and had built upon it through their contact with other nations and their own enquiring minds.

In 710 Count Julian approached Musa ibn Nusair who had just conquered the area surrounding Ceuta. In return for land Julian agreed to supply transport ships and intelligence to help the Arabs take the Iberian Peninsula. On the 30th April 711 a force of 300 Arabs and 6,700 Moors landed at Carteia under the command of Tarif ibn Malluk. The Arabs had arrived and Spain, in particular Andalucia, would never be the same again.

Tarifa
Tarifa

Historical footnote:- In the previous year, July 710, Tarif had led a small raid into Andalucia to test the strength of the Visigoths, he landed at Tarifa, now named after him.

Back to Top

What the Arabs did for Andalucia (part 2) The Islamic Agricultural Revolution.

The first article brought us to the invasion of Visigothic Spain, through Carteia, by Tarif ibn Malluk with his 300 Arabs and 6,700 Moors in 711.

By 732, in an incredibly short time, the Arabs were firmly in control of most of the Iberian Peninsula, only one pocket of resistance remained in the north and east of Spain. For the residents and conquerors, things would never again be the same.

Perhaps the most visible legacy of the Arabs, observed every day in Andalucia, is in the countryside. During the Roman period the area now known as Andalucia grew a surplus of crops that were sent back to Rome. After the Romans left the trade disappeared and, along with every other technological and administrative device, their agricultural methods fell into disuse and ruin. By 711 agriculture had reduced to a subsistence level with, at most, one crop per year being taken from only the most fertile land.

Water wheel
Water wheel

The Arabs meanwhile had been honing their irrigational skills in the Middle East and North Africa. They brought those skills to Spain. Furthermore they had a religious need to expand their already considerable knowledge of soil management and growing techniques such as grafting. This knowledge was recorded and spread around the Islamic nations. But perhaps the most crucial factor in the Islamic Agricultural Revolution was the introduction of new crops, many from their trading partners in the Orient.

Figs
Figs

Some of the commercial and edible plants and domestic animals introduced during the first two centuries of Islamic rule include: oranges, figs, peaches, prunes, sheep of 'Barbary' lands, goats, silk (along with the Mulberry bush) and cotton. Other crops that required extensive irrigation also appeared such as rice and sugar cane. Bear in mind that in the rest of Europe these plants were unknown.

Figs are an excellent example of how intensified agriculture became under the Arabs. By the 10th century Malaga was the leading exporter of innumerable varieties of fig (as recorded in the Calendar of Cordoba in 961). The varieties had been developed using cross pollination and grafting techniques developed and recorded by agronomists such as Al Tignari of Granada. Malaga figs were exported to Baghdad and from there to India and China. Andalucia was similarly self sufficient in cotton and exported a large surplus.

Mill walls
Mill walls

New crops and new intensive irrigation techniques allowed previously fallow land to be made productive; the Cabo de Gata region is a good example. Water was a very important commodity and its use was strictly regulated. Within Spain there were 224 water distribution outlets. The water was used more than once as it made its way down channels and between canals. A brilliant example of this multiple use of the same water can be seen in the water supplies to the mills of the Manilva valley and wherever you look inland you will see the imprint on the hills of the terracing system then employed to carry rainwater in a zig zag manner from the top of a ridge to the bottom. A court, whose judges were chosen by the farmers themselves, dealt with all disputes over water. The Court was named the 'Tribunal of the Waters' and met every Thursday at the door to the principal mosque. Today the same tribunal still sits in Valencia but at the door to the cathedral.

Whilst the serfs in the rest of Europe had no say about anything, the 'serfs' in Spain had considerable say. In fact, contrary to what happened elsewhere i.e. serfdom and slavery, there were no serfs in Islamic Spain. The land was granted to tilling farmers who lived in villages. Such was the advance in soil management that, rather than the land producing just one crop per year, much of it produced two or even three different crops, grown in rotation. Ibn Bassal, an agronomist whose treatise was based entirely on personal experience, identified ten types of soil and assigned each one different life sustainability according to the season of the year. It cannot be over emphasised that, in a time when very few elsewhere could read never mind write, all this knowledge of soil, crops and irrigation was recorded along with works on fertilisation, animal husbandry, agricultural machinery, food preservation and recipes. The knowledge was then passed on through schools and universities in the great cities such as those in Granada, Cordoba and Seville.

The results? At the height of Islamic rule in Spain, such was the amount of food produced that the valley of the River Guadalquivir alone supported 12,000 villages (Joseph McCabe).

Much of what was learnt over 1,000 years ago is as valid now as it was then. Many agronomists at Universities today would be surprised to learn that they are actually reading translations of farmers manuals originally written by Ibn Mammati (d.1209), or Djamal Eddin al-Watwat (d. 1318) or that methods used today to preserve corn, fruits and olive oil were those proposed by Ibn al-Awwam, a native of Seville around 1150 in his book 'Kitab Al-Falahat', or the Book of Agriculture.

Back to Top

What the Arabs did for Andalucia (part 3) Preserving Science and Civilisation

Cordoba Bridge
Cordoba Bridge

It is very difficult to imagine or understand the political and religious situation in Europe in the 10th Century AD. Outside Spain, both the Christian Church and political or military leaders were vying for control, both political and religious, of the various countries within Europe. The Church had a strong grip on the education of everybody, from monarch to serf and, unfortunately, interpreted the teachings of the ancient Greeks, to a certain extent that of the Romans and Egyptians, and most certainly that of Islam and, in particular because it was the nearest threat, Islamic Spain, as contrary to the scriptures. The Church was not however that convinced of the accuracy of strict interpretations of the scriptures so were reluctant to allow debate on the subject and positively discouraged any form of knowledge advancement in areas that may conflict with the scriptures, the sciences being considered the most subversive subjects. It was therefore in the Church's own interests to keep control over any form of education. In most of Europe they succeeded to a greater or lesser extent from the time the Romans left until, in some countries, the 15th Century. This is the period that used to be known as the Dark Ages although that description has to be re-evaluated in view of research undertaken during the late 20th Century, but that is definitely another story and does not impact on this article.

Fortunately for Europe, within the area now known as Andalucia, the authority of the Christian Church held little sway. Islamic belief tolerated all dhimmi (literally People of the Book), in other words believers of Judaism, Christianity or Islam itself. Within Andalucia people of all three religions had equal opportunities and there was a great deal of cross fertilisation of ideas between the three and, indeed on many occasions, conversions of faith. For instance many people could speak all three languages of those religions, Hebrew, Latin and Arabic as well as their own native language and, in the case of Arab speakers, Greek as well. Many could also read and write and actively translated books and manuscripts from one language to the others including ancient Greek texts on all scientific subjects from astronomy to maths and medicine to zoology. Furthermore the Islamic creed called for a deeper and better understanding of every subject based on experiment and debate. It is now acknowledged that most decisive scientific inventions were made between the 8th and 13th Centuries within the Islamic sphere of influence.

Fortunate it is too that on the perimeters of Islamic Spain the military rulers of Leon, Navarre and Barcelona, although Christian, were well aware of the civilisation within Andalucia. Over the period of Islamic rule those same rulers had, at various times allied themselves, for a price of course, with various taifas, or tribal chiefs in control of city states within Spain, during their incessant battles for supremacy. On occasion the taifas allied themselves to the Christian rulers for a similar purpose. The situation was therefore extremely fluid with no fine demarcation line between the two cultures. Independent travel between the two was also easy and there was constant trade. Whenever the Christian rulers needed a surgeon, an architect, or even a dressmaker, they applied to Cordoba and they were as likely to be presented with a Moor or a Jew as with a Christian. So, over a period of 300 years or so, the 'barbaric west' was given tantalising glimpses of progress made in Spain. Even so the full extent of Islamic genius was not realised until Toledo was retaken in 1085 and its buildings, libraries, and universities were found intact.

So it is to Cordoba that we travel this month to see what the Arabs did for Andalucia and for examples of how they saved science and civilisation. In Septembers' article we mentioned the network of aqueducts, canals and dams used to provide fresh water for cities and agriculture. Over the river Guadalquivir at Cordoba there was a stone bridge of seventeen arches, and an elaborate dam, the oldest surviving Islamic dam in Spain. The dam was built of Qibtiyya stone and incorporated marble pillars. Its zig zag course across the river was to create the longest possible crest to increase its overflow capacity. The remains today, visible from the walls and the bridge, are about 3 metres lower than when the dam was built in the 10th Century.

Within the walls you can visit Arab baths. These are just a few of the original 900 public baths that were in this city. There were also about 70 public libraries. The streets were paved much as you see them today and, if you visit the old residential quarter, you will notice lamps on the side of houses. During the days of the Caliphate, Islamics paid no taxes but they had to provide illumination for the street outside their homes. It was said to be possible to walk at night for 10 miles along well-lit streets.

If imagination is not enough then take a visit to the museum housed in the Calahorra Fort at the south end of the Puente Romano. There you will find a recreated schoolroom within a mosque complete with Islamic teacher. The audio device allows you to listen to his teachings (in English) that explain the attitudes and principles of Islam. Further in the museum are accurate models of housing of the period, plus real examples of some of the scientific instruments developed during the period from mathematical tools to navigational aids and medical instruments that are unchanged in design today.

So, given that the Islamics were so advanced, why then did they not progress to become the pre-eminent western power? There is no easy answer. Firstly, although they collectively made huge advances in knowledge in all subjects they were not a united people, more a loose collection of tribes that had a common religion, and even that towards the end fragmented into different fundamentalist sects. Although nominally ruled from Baghdad each taifa considered itself independent and often hostile to other taifas so there was constant friction and no central guiding policy, either at home or abroad. Over a period of some 400 years each taifa in Spain, was 'picked off' in turn because of this lack of cohesion. Secondly, although the Islamics made enormous advances they made no effort to take exclusive advantage of them. The opposite in fact, they encouraged foreign nationals to visit their university cities and learn their secrets which of course, over a period of time, helped those foreign powers. Thirdly and perhaps most crucially, by the time the Arabs were expelled from Spain in 1492, all their manuscripts and texts had been translated into the new European languages and all their constructions and inventions had been copied or noted by various western powers over a period of about 400 years, since the fall of Toledo. During that same period the Christian Church in the west (including in Spain) had tried and failed to suppress that knowledge, too many people knew too much. In so doing they had also helped alienate monarchs and people who, unlike the Arabs, were united in purpose through nationality and politically inspired national policies. The final nail occurred in the same year the Arabs left Spain, 1492. Columbus sailed to America and suddenly the world was a bigger place. Crucially it was shown beyond doubt that the world, as the Islamics had originally proved and since insisted, was rounder and larger than the Christian Church would have it. The race to grab portions of the New World was on and the only competitors were the new western European nations who had just benefited from an influx of knowledge that was not only showing itself to be very reliable but also circumvented 800 years of natural evolution.

Back to Top

What the Arabs did for Andalucia (part 4) The Introduction of Gunpowder and the Cannon

Cannon
Cannon

For centuries Arabs had been trading with the Chinese and by 880 AD there were an estimated 120,000 Muslims, Jews and Persians living in Canton. As mentioned last month the Islamic faith required everybody to better their own education and knowledge no matter what their race or sex. Furthermore that knowledge was recorded and distributed around the Islamic nations to allow others to benefit and compound the knowledge.

By the 11th Century the Chinese had discovered gunpowder but did not know the correct proportions, nor how to purify potassium nitrate sufficiently, to obtain an explosion. It was not until 1412 that the first Chinese book to detail the explosive proportions of sulphur, carbon and potassium nitrate was written by one Huo Lung Ching and he probably copied texts written by Arabs in the intervening period in a curious example of double technology transfer. Still, even inefficient gunpowder, called deflagrating powder, produces fire and smoke and can be used as a propellant. The Chinese invented the fire lance, a bamboo tube filled with a deflagrating powder and various projectiles. This was discharged via a fuse at the muzzle, like a modern roman candle. If the lance were turned round it became a rocket to which a metal spike could be fixed. These developments were eagerly reported back through the network of Islamic scholars and traders.

In Islamic Europe the fire lance technology met that of the iron forge and bell foundry so that metal replaced bamboo. The earliest machines we would recognise as cannon were made from iron bars welded together to make a cylinder and strengthened by metal hoops. The first cannonballs were made of stone and some early cannon also fired arrows or quarrels.

The story now becomes contentious since a number of countries claim they invented and used the first cannon including France, Italy and Germany. It all depends on the definition of the word cannon and its translation, principally from contemporary Islamic texts, whether or not it is acceptable for cannon to use deflagrating powder as opposed to an explosive mix, which in turn depends on the technology required to purify nitrates, mainly potassium nitrate, saltpetre, which only exists very rarely in a nearly pure form. Coincidentally Spain was the only country in Europe known at that time to have natural deposits of saltpetre.

The earliest reference to cannon being used in warfare so far found is that by Peter, Bishop of Leon, a contemporary historian who may have actually witnessed the event at the defence of Seville in 1248. Since Peter was on the receiving end he may be describing the use of fire lances or rockets. A more reliable report is from an account of the siege of Niebla in 1262. It is reported that "Almohads in defending the city used machines that resembled cannon, which projected stones and fire accompanied by thundering noises" (Enan). Cannon as we know them were certainly used at Granada in 1319 and Algeciras in 1342.

In 1280 a Syrian scholar, Hassan Al-Rammah, collected together all the information available and produced a remarkable book on military technology that became famous in the west. He detailed the correct proportions and the necessary purification processes to make gunpowder for a range of purposes. This book included the first documented rocket, a model of which is on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington.

Al-Rammah also described in his book various kinds of incendiary arrows and lances and describes how to make a torpedo. Two oval iron pans were filled with naptha, metal fillings and gunpowder, sealed together with felt, and propelled by a large rocket. He called it 'a self moving and combusting egg'.

Word spread via the universities, principally that at Cordoba, to scholars and traders who took the information and expertise to Italy, France and finally Germany.

Back to Top