Al Andalus: Moors in Spain

Moors were often depicted with dark skin and, at times, the word Moor was synonymous with black.

The Iberian Peninsula was the center of the Moorish territory, but the Islamic network stretched from there to what is today the Middle East.

The Iberian peninsula, what is today Spain and Portugal, was inhabited in some way for well over 700 years by Islamic people we call the Moors. From 711 A.D. to 1492 A.D. there was an Islamic rulership presence on the peninsula, an area the Moors called Al Andalus.

Who were the Moors?

René Basset, Ph.D., in her “Moorish Literature” books describes them this way:

“THE region which extends from the frontiers of Egypt to the Atlantic Ocean, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger, was in ancient times inhabited by a people to whom we give the general name of Berbers, but whom the ancients, particularly those of the Eastern portion, knew under the name of Moors. "They were called Maurisi by the Greeks," said Strabo, "in the first century A.D., and Mauri by the Romans. They are of Lybian origin, and form a powerful and rich nation." This name of Moors is applied not only to the descendants of the ancient Lybians and Numidians, who live in the nomad state or in settled abodes, but also to the descendants of the Arabs who, in the eighth century A.D., brought with them Islamism,…”

So, Moorish people would’ve come from as far south as what is today Western Africa, from the top of Africa—all the way from the Atlantic Ocean through Egypt— and from what is today Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. They would have had a similar belief system and practices and would have traveled across desert areas to trade and to reach either Spain or other parts of the Islamic world.

The Rock of Gibraltar is named after Tarik ibn-Ziyad, who captured the initial part of the Iberian Peninsula on behalf of the Moors. Today it is controlled by the British military as it is the only entrance into the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean.

The Moors first came to the Iberian peninsula in 711 A.D., and as the swarm of Islam swept across northern Africa, they brought with them an army of knowledge and books. While, the conquest of the peninsula included wars, there were many areas that gave up without a fight such that the invasion was not as bloody as some may have purported in history.

The thing that stands out the most to me is how the Moors contributed to the Renaissance that took place in Europe. The Renaissance is said to have begun in the 1300s and lasted into the 1600s, beginning in Italy and spreading throughout the rest of Europe. It was an explosion of thought and ideas—it included a revival of Greek thought, grammar, rhetoric, history and philosophy in Europe. These Greek foundations, however, have an Egyptian root as many of these ideas were studied in ancient Egypt and documented there in writing.

Egyptian Medical Papyrus

For example, the logical approach to medical treatments, that is often attributed to later societies, was already in use in ancient Khamit (Egypt) in 1,600 B.C. or earlier.

This medical papyrus, bought by an antiquities buyer, Edwin Smith, is an example of how to treat and approach trauma patients—reviewing 48 cases of various types of injuries, diagnoses and treatments.

This medical treatise, although written in 1600 B.C., was probably copied from an earlier document that dated back at least 900 - 1200 years earlier.

“Dating from the seventeenth century B.C., the Edwin Smith papyrus is the oldest known surviving trauma text in history. This ancient medical treatise is credited as containing the earliest known scientific writings on rational observations in medicine. A total of 48 cases are presented in the papyrus, of which six deal with injuries to the spine. “ (van Middendorp JJ, et. al.)

When the newly converted followers of Islam came into control of the library at Alexandria (Egypt), they were in possession of one of the most valuable repositories of knowledge in the world. There was, of course, destruction, but a lot of information was retained—which included ancient Egyptian and ancient Greek writings.

A Moorish Spark for the Renaissance

As they solidified their empire, from Bagdad to Damascus, from Cairo to Fez (Morocco) and into the Iberian Peninsula they also established centers of learning throughout their territories. Libraries were attached to mosques that contained thousands and thousands of manuscripts on everything from history to philosophy to mathematics and more. Arab scholars would translate these manuscripts into Latin and encouraged the study of these books. The use of the numeric system that we currently employ today was introduced—numbers written as 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 (they were already in use in civilizations further to the East). Imagine doing complex multiplication problems with Roman numerals? This made it easier to build complex buildings and to further the application of math.

The use of paper was also more freely brought to the Iberian Peninsula, as it was used regularly in Bagdad and throughout Islamic areas. This allowed for the transmission of ideas and for the analysis of thoughts, more readily, as paper was easier to transfer from one person to another.

The mosque in Cordova was converted to a cathedral, after the Moors were expelled from the Iberian Peninsula.

Many, many people came from various places throughout Europe to study in Islamic learning centers, to translate books into their own languages and to carry that knowledge back to England, Germany, France and Italy, for example. This was at a time when mathematics, history, philosophy, art, etc…were not widely disseminated or discussed in Europe.

The Moorish people also built mosques on a grand scale and made improvements to bridges and agriculture that made what is today, Spain, the envy of the European world and encouraged pilgrims to visit Moorish areas to seek knowledge and education.

In one of many examples, a man named Gerbert, who would become the future Pope of the Catholic Church, was born in France around 940 A.D. He was sent to live in a monastery by his parents and grew up studying and learning in that nourishing environment.

“While Gerbert was still studying at Aurillac a Spanish nobleman, Count Borel of Barcelona, chanced to visit the monastery, and at his departure the youthful prodigy went in his train. In the tenth century the Moorish schools of Spain were already famous, particularly for their prowess in mathematics, and Gerbert, who was a born geometer, embraced eagerly the opportunity of imbibing all their lore. During his stay in Spain he studied at Barcelona, and also, it would seem, under Arab teachers at Seville and Cordova, and made unusual progress in mechanics and natural science. Because of his acquaintance with these recondite themes, then practically unknown in Western Europe, and also on a count of some marvellous mechanical inventions-for instance an organ driven by steam-that he was credited with, the future Pope was dubbed a necromancer, and it was gravely asserted that he had entered into a compact with the devil, bartering his salvation for high worldly estate and unholy knowledge.”

In an example of how undereducated the general population was in Europe, the man who would eventually become Pope Sylvester II (999 - 1003 A.D.) was considered to have dealt in devilish deeds for studying math and science under the Moors.

Stanley Lane-Poole in his 1886 book, The Moors in Spain, wrote:

“The history of Spain offers us a melancholy contrast. Twelve hundred years ago, Tarik the Moor added the land of the Visigoths to the long catalogue of kingdoms subdued by the Moslems. For nearly eight centuries, under her Mohammedan rulers, Spain set to all Europe a shining example of a civilized and enlightened State. Her fertile provinces, rendered doubly prolific by the industry and engineering skill of her conquerors, bore fruit an hundredfold. Cities innumerable sprang up in the rich valleys of the Guadalquivir and the Guadiana, whose names, and names only, still commemorate the vanished glories of their past. Art, literature, and science prospered, as they then prospered nowhere else in Europe. Students flocked from France and Germany and England to drink from the fountain of learning which flowed only in the cities of the Moors. The surgeons and doctors of Andalusia were in the van of science: women were encouraged to devote themselves to serious study, and the lady doctor was not unknown among the people of Cordova. Mathematics, astronomy and botany, history, philosophy and jurisprudence were to be mastered in Spain, and Spain alone. The practical work of the field, the scientific methods of irrigation, the arts of fortification and shipbuilding, the highest and most elaborate products of the loom, the graver and the hammer, the potter’s wheel and the mason’s trowel, were brought to perfection by the Spanish Moors. In the practice of war no less than in the arts of peace they long stood supreme. Their fleets disputed the command of the Mediterranean with the Fatimites, while their armies carried fire and sword through the Christian marches. The Cid himself, the national hero, long fought on the Moorish side, and in all save education was more than half a Moor. Whatsoever makes a kingdom great and prosperous, whatsoever tends to refinement and civilization, was found in Moslem Spain.”

The Renaissance was indeed an explosion of thought and ideas, but it had a Moorish spark!

References:

Basset, René. Moorish Literature. Colonial Press, 1901 (Special Introduction).

Kitchin, William, P.H., A Pope Philosopher in the Tenth Century: Sylvester II (Gerbert of Aurillac). The Catholic Historical Review: Volume 8, 4-1-1922.

Lane-Poole, Stanley. The Moors in Spain, G.P. Putnam and Sons, 1886.

van Middendorp JJ, Sanchez GM, Burridge AL. The Edwin Smith papyrus: a clinical reappraisal of the oldest known document on spinal injuries. Eur Spine J. 2010 Nov;19(11):1815-23. doi: 10.1007/s00586-010-1523-6. Epub 2010 Aug 10. PMID: 20697750; PMCID: PMC2989268. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2989268/

“When the Moors Ruled Europe,” by Bettany Hughes. Director, Timothy Copestake. Documentary, 2005.