The periods in Spanish history go something like this: Celtiberians, Romans, Visigoths, Moors, Christians, Conquistadores, Border wars with Portugal, the Peninsula War, Hunger Years, Civil War and Regeneration. I got completely bogged down studying the history of Spain, there is just too much, so I decided to choose a few areas to focus on: the Visigoths, the Moors and the Conquistadores. The Conquistadores made the list only because I just have to see Extremadura, where the Conquistadores came from. Extremadura, which borders Portugal, is a land that was the backwater of Spain for years and is certainly off the beaten track. In studying the Conquistadores, I got a lot more than I bargained for, but more about that later, as Extremadura will be the last area we visit on this trip.
Very simply, the Iberians, whose origins are subject to debate, lived in the Pyrenees, the east and in parts of the south of Spain. While the Celts, who came via the Pyrenees, lived in the northwest and west, modern day Galacia and Portugal. The two groups intermingled and became known as the Celtiberians. These were tribal cultures that united for military purposes in larger confederations.
Prior to the Roman conquest, the Phoenicians set up posts and took up mining and commerce, the Carthaginians and the Greeks also settled in Spain. Hannibal began his long march into Italy to battle the Romans from Carthaginian settlements in Spain. Eventually the Romans conquered Spain and occupied the country for six centuries. Then came the Visigoths.
The Visigoths
As usual, there is debate among historians regarding the origin of the Visigoths. All we really know is that the Visigoths were a confederacy of various ethnic groups that were brought together in the Balkans in the fourth century. The Visigoths were continually on the move, possibly pushed west by the Huns. They formed a mercenary army and fought for imperial Rome. The Visigoths fell out with the Romans and proceeded to capture and sack Rome in 410. They then moved to southern Gaul (France) and made peace with the Romans. The Visigoths first appeared in Spain to rid the country of the alliance of Alans, Sueves and Vandals that had crossed the Pyrenees after travelling from the Rhineland and across Gaul (France). The Visigoths destroyed the Vandals and Alans in Spain and were then withdrawn to Gaul in 419. The Sueves remained in control in the west and south of Spain.
In early Medieval times, a decisive defeat in a single battle had serious consequences. The confederacies were rather fragile as the ruling families had to succeed in battle in order to hold the allegiance of their noble followers, that allegiance was bought with land, slaves and booty from conquered peoples. Unfortunately for the Visigoths, they were defeated in battle by the Franks in Gaul and were subsequently driven out.
The Roman empire in the west was in rapid decline and the Roman army in Spain was disintegrating, having been siphoned off to battle the Franks in Gaul. The Visigoths entered Spain, destroyed the Sueves and took control of Spain. The Sueves held on to Galacia in the north.
The seat of the Visigoth kingdom was in Toledo, which is a 30 minute train ride from Madrid. Rule was difficult for the Visigothic kings, the majority of the population was Hispano-Roman and regional revolts would break out with local nobles taking power. The territory controlled by the Visigoths was in steady decline from 507 to the 570's until a strong ruler, King Leovigild, took back many cities and started to defeat the local ruling elites. He also forced the Sueves in Galacia to pay tribute and in 585, he crushed the Sueves and brought Galacia under Visigoth rule.
Leovigild died in 586, leaving a united peninsula, but that did not last long. Amid continuing threats from the neighbouring Franks, and conflicts with the Byzantines (Roman eastern empire) which held land in the south, there were many revolts and challenges of the ruling kings, this resulted in plots, murders and relatively brief periods of reign. The Byzantines were finally ejected from Spain in 625.
The Visigoths tend to be viewed in an unfavourable light by many, as they were not the great builders and administrators that defined the Romans and there really is not much Visigothic art or architecture left in Spain. However, what is really interesting about the Visigoths, was that a key legal element in their law code was to ensure separation between the personal property of the ruling king and the royal property that was administered by the ruling king and was to be handed down to the next king. As well, the Visigoths would not allow long-term royal dynasties. To achieve this, a small aristocratic elite of the royal court had a powerful role, they chose the next king from among themselves. Often, the second generation of a ruling family was terminated by the members of the very group from which they had risen.
When a new king was chosen, he would take away land and offices from the previous ruling family, after that new king was killed or kicked out, there would be restitution and the family would be given back their lands and offices.
The Visigothic period was turbulent, but they managed to ensure a balance of power among themselves while electing non-dynastic kings who could not use their reign to gain material advantage for themselves, at the expense of the state.
The End of the Visigoth Kingdom
We need a bit of background with regard to the Arabs who, along with Berber tribes of North Africa, conquered Spain and ended Visigoth rule. In the east, the Arabs began to take on their northern neighbours, the Byzantines (eastern Roman empire) and the Sassanians, the last pre-Islamic Persian empire (Iran). Both the Byzantines and the Sassanians were in a weakened state due to a war with each other, the Byzantines were also dealing with raiders in the Balkans. Byzantine lost Syria to the Arabs in 635, Damascus, then Jerusalem fell, then Egypt and Alexandria was conquered in 642. The main military power base of the Arabs was in the Nile delta and the coastal plain of Tunisia. Alexandria had extensive naval resources which greatly assisted Arab expansion, the early raids in Sicily in 664 would have originated in Alexandria.
The Arab expansion west involved small coastal settlements and urban areas. Long stretches of marginal land in between large settlements were of little economic benefit and the tribes in these harsh lands were difficult to control.
The Berber tribes in North Africa provided the Arabs with slaves who were to convert to the Muslim faith, the Berbers also provided the Arabs with military strength as the Berbers were tough and good fighters. The historical record of the Arab conquest of the Byzantines in North Africa is sketchy, after a considerable period, the Arabs took Carthage in 698, thus ending 800 years of Roman presence in North Africa. Carthage was a major shipping port, this provided the Arabs with a naval base from which to conduct raids in Sicily and Sardinia. Arab expansion continued west, conquering Tangiers in 705-710.
Back in Spain, the Visigothic kingdom was starting to unravel, it was not an uncommon occurrence to experience a lack of cohesion just when an external threat was about to put a kingdom at great risk. Any student of history will read about this phenomenon over and over again, dissension destroys empires.
The historical record for this period is rather unreliable and some history books take a bit of a leap here, transforming legend into historical fact. You know when you have found a truly fine history book when the historian will not accept anything as fact without some archaeological or other corroborating evidence. Based on the coinage at the time, we only know that the Visigoth kingdom was split into two and was ruled by two kings. King Roderick was killed in battle against the Arab and Berber forces which were raiding southern Spain. The other king, Achila, ruled the northeast for three years but his reign ended when the Arabs conquered the Ebro Valley and Zaragoza. His successor, Ardo, ruled what was left of the kingdom until the Arab and Berber armies crossed the Pyrenees and ended the Visigothic kingdom. Ardo, was the last Visigothic king.
It seems as though the Visigothic kingdom fell rather easily to the invading Arabs and historians cannot really definitively answer why it was so. Since the ruling elite were a very small group, they may not have had a very large military force which would have been raised from among themselves. They likely did not require a large military to suppress raiders and bandits and to defend against incursions from the Franks. After Toledo fell, the political system of electing one of their own may have been impossible. Also, since the regional nobility had no part in selecting the king, they may have just considered their own personal interests and formed treaties with the Arabs to retain their own property and political offices.
The Arab conquest concluded in 711, the Muslim rule of Spain had a huge impact on the economy, culture, architecture, art, literature and scholastic achievements in Spain. The Islamic influence makes Spain such an interesting land to travel in today.
Visigothic Architecture
I am going to stick a few words regarding Visigothic architecture in here as we need to think about what predated Moorish architecture in Spain. I started out with the history of the Visigoths, and even though my change in itinerary did not take us to Toledo first, the sequence should still make sense.
Visigothic architecture started to evolve during the sixth century, in the seventh century, a new way of constructing architecture is termed Visigothic. The few examples of Visigothic church architecture are in rural areas. Visigothic architecture in cities was destroyed, no examples exist even in Toledo, the capital of the Visigoths.
Visigoth architecture is not to be confused with Gothic architecture which evolved between the 12th and 15th centuries.
When considering church architecture, you have to think back to the Roman forum and the basilica which was usually adjacent to the forum. The basilica was a public court flanked by a colonnade, the magistrate sat at the far end on a raised platform. The early Christian churches were of a similar pattern to the basilica, they were open spaces.
The space in Visigothic church architecture is compartmentalized while Roman spaces at the time were open. Elements of separation include full walls, chancel barriers, choir screens and chambers in the east side of churches, such as sacristies. I am treading in unknown territory that I did not research, there would have been religious reasons for the barriers in Visigothic church architecture, suffice to say, the form kept the clergy separate from the people, a hierarchy developed. The building material used by the Visigoths was roughly cut stone without mortar.
It is interesting to note that during the sixth century, people from Britain established a colony in Galacia in northern Spain, called Britonia. Elements of Visigothic Spain church architecture are evident in Anglo-Saxon Britain churches, this may have come about via contacts between Britonia in Galacia, Spain and Britain.
The Horseshoe Arch
The horseshoe arch in Spain was developed during the Visigothic period, although other known examples were in use in Ethiopia and Syria. It has been suggested that the shape was learned from the Romans or from the east, but we don’t really know. The horseshoe arch features prominently in Moorish architecture; however, the Visigothic horseshoe arch predates the Moorish horseshoe arch in the Grand Mosque in Damascus. The horseshoe arch was in use from the sixth century and flourished as an architectural and decorative element, then builders and masons abandoned its use in the thirteenth century.
In the Visigothic arch, the lower curve of the arch is lengthened to 1/4 of its radius and the exterior curve of the arch falls vertically from the centre, the weight is supported by the exterior curve. Therefore, the elongation of the interior curve is purely decorative.
Early Visigoth sculpture were of the Roman style, the use of Roman inspired Corinthian capitals was also common. In the sixth and seventh centuries, imagery was drawn from the nature, things like pine cones, foliage, animals and birds.
The Moorish Conquest
By 720, the Moors extended the conquest to include all of the Iberian peninsula which had been previously controlled by the Visigoths.
The invading Moors included both Arabs and Berbers. The tribal Berbers from North Africa were regarded as second class citizens by the Arabs; therefore, they were allotted land of poor quality while the Arabs received the most fertile land. In 739, the Berbers in North Africa revolted, this spread to Spain.
In the middle east, the Umayyad dynasty had been governing from Damascus since 661. By 750, the Umayyad dynasty was ousted by the Abbasids, who shifted eastward and founded a new capital in Bagdad in 762. Abd al-Rahman, a member of the Umayyad dynasty escaped and fled to Spain, where he established himself in Cordoba. Umayyad rule in al-Andalus was fragile, but they gradually gained control. The centre of power moved south to Cordoba, from the old Visogothic seat of power in Toledo.
A pocket of Christian resistance remained in the north of Spain, a buffer zone of mainly unsettled land separated the Christians from the Muslims. The Moors carried out military campaigns against the Christian north.
Islam tolerated Jews and Christians, therefore, the population was not subject to forced conversion. However, non-Muslims were taxed more heavily. The conversion to Islam gained momentum in the 900's and by 1000, those practising Islam may have been as high as 75%, there was also a lot of intermarriage.
The ninth century was rather turbulent with rebellions taking place and strong families ruling independently in areas far from Cordoba. In the tenth century, Moorish Spain reached the peak of its power under Abd al-Rahman III, who ruled for 50 years.
The Moors introduced numerous new crops to al-Andalus, including rice, hard wheat, sugar cane, cotton, citrus fruits, spinach, artichokes and eggplant. Basic irrigation had exited during the Roman era, but the Moors introduced complex irrigation systems which used waterwheels to raise water up from its source. Irrigated agricultural land and new crops brought tremendous economic and social benefits to al-Andalus. There was less famine, a healthier population, population growth, supply and price stability.
The caliph was a patron of the arts and of scholars; therefore, Cordoba became a centre of learning and had one of the greatest libraries in the Muslim world.
Today’s Notes
We slept in today and got a rather late start, it was a gorgeous day, sunny and 22C, we were out without jackets of course, in contrast to the local population.
This was a day of walking and experiencing incredible architecture, two of our favourite activities. We wandered the winding streets and made our way to the Great Mosque of Cordoba.
Cordoba’s Great Mosque (Spanish: La Mezquita)
The Roman temple of Janus was previously situated on the site, the Visigoths then converted the temple into a church. There is no longitudinal axis in a mosque, as the people pray in rows, facing in the direction of Mecca, which is indicated by a niche in the wall, known as the mihrab. A mosque is a unified space with no hierarchical distinction in contrast to Christian churches.
The original mosque was built by Abd al-Rahman in 785, it comprises only about one third of the size of the mosque today. Three other building phases took place, expanding the size of the mosque as the population of Cordoba increased.
The mosque has been described as a magical forest of columns, lower horseshoe arches are on Roman columns, the arches are topped by two superimposed arcades whose arches alternate between red brick and stone voussoirs, which are the tapered stones forming the arch. The lower arcade supports upper tiers of columns which have open space above them, this provides a long view of overlapping arches. The Islamic designers gave the horseshoe arch a more pinched appearance than that of the Visigoths.
In the second phase built in the ninth century, 8 more bays of the pattern of repetitive simplicity of arches was added.
In the third phase, from 961 - 976, an area equal to the first phase was added to the south, giving a sense of depth. New design elements were also included: trefoil arch, multifoil arch, pointed horseshoe arch, intersection versions of trefoil and multifoil arches, three ribbed domes and a central octagon, a lantern ribbed dome with a central square, the upper portion of the mihrab wall was covered in gold mosaic with floral and vegetal motifs and the mihrab arch was decorated in gold calligraphy on a blue background. There was an integration of the structure of the mosque with magnificent decoration.
In the fourth phase ~ 990, the outer isles were completed and an orange tree courtyard was added.
The mosque was used as a cathedral after 1236 without alteration; however, in the 1520's, the Christians stuck a choir and high alter right in the middle of the mosque and then closed the mosque in, this makes for a rather gloomy effect. There would have been no wall between the mosque and the courtyard, trees in the courtyard would continue the line of columns, extending the interior to the outdoors. Also, all of the entrances on the other three walls would have been open to the streets, this would have allowed plenty of light into the mosque.
There is a skilful pattern of solids and voids, light and shade, providing a visual experience. The rows of horseshoe arches are beautiful in their simple, repetitive pattern, the scale of the mosque feels intimate, egalitarian and of a human scale. Walking into the cathedral area is absolutely jarring, the soaring vaults and gaudy ornamentation is really quite out of place, the space makes one feel like an ant. On the exterior, the cathedral rises out of the mosque like some alien form, supported by the flying buttresses to achieve height, ugh.
After visiting the mosque, we walked over the Roman bridge, although there won’t be much Roman construction left in it as it has been heavily reconstructed over the centuries. After crossing back over another bridge we made our way through the labyrinth of streets and found a department store with an excellent food store on one floor. We spend so much time in a grocery store it is crazy, trying to figure out the names of things and ordering cheese from the counter in our pathetic Spanish, but we make ourselves understood and laugh about it all.
Click on images to enlarge.
Outer wall of the mosque
Mosque courtyard, the 16th century bell tower was a minaret in the time of the Moors
These closed entrances would have been open to the courtyard
Wood ceiling
The wonderful arches
Mudejar arches, a Christian addition in 1377
Cathedral area with the soaring vaults
The Mihrab
The Mihrab dome of interlocking arches
The Cathedral emerging from the roof of the Mosque
The Roman Bridge
Typical street in the old area of Cordoba
