As I promised, let's start with the bookscans:
Al-ANDALUS. PERSONAJES HISTÓRICOS
(Al Andalus. Historical figures)
Concepción Masiá
Summary
Introduction.................................. 9
The precursors of al-Andalus.....13
Count Don Julián....................13
Tarif ben Malluk. ....................15
Musa ben Nusayr and Tariq ben Ziyad: the conquerors of Spania...........16
Abd al-Aziz: a good governor with an unfortunate fate ..........................25
The Odyssey of Prince Abd al-Rahman the Immigrant......................................29
Abd al-Rahman was only twenty-five years old.........................................36
Sulayman ben Yaqzan ben al-Arabi: Charlemagne's deceived "deceiver" ........................... ...........41
Amrus ben Yusuf: the muladí of Huesca
.............................................................47
The “rabadies”: adventurous spirits.. ..............................................53
Ziryab: the singer of Baghdad........61
Tarub: the favorite of Abd al-Rahman II...............,...........................................67
Abbas ben Firnas: the first aviator............................ ......................73
Yahya ben Hakan al-Bakri: the miserly poet.....................................................77
Abd al Chabbar and Sulayman ben Martin: the rebels of Mérida..........................81
Eulogio and Álvaro de Córdoba:
pursuing martyrdom..........................85
The Andalusian Vikings..................... 95
The emir Abd Allah distrust and death...............................….................... 101
Musa ben Musa ben Qasi: the third king of Spain.......................................................107
Ibn Hafsun: the unredeemed rebel.....115
Abu Alí al-Sarrach: the Andalusian missionary. ...........................................125
Ibn Masarra: a freethinker in Spanish Islam.......,...........,...................................131
Abd al-Rahman III:
the first independent caliph of al-Andalus. ...........,................................137
Hasday ibn Shaprut:
the Jewish doctor of Abd al-Rahman III............ ....... ...................... ................... 145
Andalusians in France: the “Moorish kingdom” of Fraxinetum....................... 151
Rabbi ben Zayd: Bishop Recemundo............................................. 157
Al-Hakam al-Mustansir bi-llah:
passion for culture.................................. 161
Ibn Abd Rabbhi, the encyclopedist,
and Ibn Futais, the collector.................. 167
Al-Mansur “the Victorious” ...................171
Hisham II and Sanchuelo: misrule. .......191
Abu Muhammad Ali ibn Hazm:
The pigeon neackle................................209
Hisham III al-Mu'tadd: the end of the Umayyad caliphate...............................215
Ibn al-Wafid: the gardener doctor.....221
Avempace. The supreme good: wisdom...................................................225
Zaida: the Moorish Queen of Leon and Castile........................................................227
Ibn Tufayl of Guadix:
the best disciple of Avempace................. ............................ .231
Averroes: the universal Andalusian....233
Moseh ben Maimon: Maimonides..... ..239
Abu Yusuf Yaqub: the winner of Alarcos......................................................243
Ibn Arabi: the Sufi mystic.....................249
Avenzoar: a long dynasty of doctors. ...................................................253
Al-Ahmar: Abenámar, Moor of the Morería. ...,...............................................255
The Abencerrajes. ..................................261
Boabdil the Younger: the last Moorish king ............................................................267
Aben Humeya: the last Muslim leader of Spain................ ..........................................275
Bibliography .............................................285
Note: The spelling of Muslim names is taken from the works of: Levy Provençal,
Muslim Spain, and González Ferrín, General History of al-Andalus.
Introduction
In the long eight hundred years that the Muslims remained in Spain, there were many personalities who, in all the fields of knowledge, sciences, letters and arts, stood out unequivocal, marking a milestone not only in the culture of al-Andalus, but that had a relevant character in universal culture.
On the other hand, the almost constant struggle between Christians and Muslims would also generate a whole series of great warriors who, for example, the infante Don Juan Manuel considered the best gifted for the war of all those who existed in the East and the West of their time.
The date that we all know as the arrival of the Muslims to Gothic Spania dates back to the year 711. Its expansion throughout the territory was so rapid as had been the conquest of the Persian empire and its presencein large areas of Asia or North Africa, but from a cultural point of view, the 8th century was totally sterile. The new conquerors who arrived from beyond the Strait of Gibraltar, were men at arms, mostly illiterate, who could do little contribute to a Christian Spania whose culture continued to develop under the dictates of the wisdom of Saint Isidore of Seville. Still they were left on the Peninsula
many areas where Christianity had not taken root and its importance regarding the assimilation of Islam.
The first governors of al-Andalus, dependent on Caliphate of Damascus, during the first years of occupation
had to face many enormous internal problems, originated by the different origins of their own people, Arabs
and berebers, mostly, while cultural issues occupied a very secondary level. But, possibly for purely practical reasons, Arabic as a language was introduced into the Christian field. According to Juan Vernet, it is possible to find
some codices from times as early as the 9th century, that in its margins appear apostilles or comments in Arabic,
and it seems that this language was already rooted among the Mozarabs,
that is, the Christians who continued to live and preserve their religion in Muslim-dominated territories, in times
before Abd al-Rahman II.
But it will be Abd al-Rahman I the Immigrant, who arrived in al-Andalus from Syria as the only survivor of the exterminated Umayyad dynasty, the one who will be concerned with introducing the principles of oriental culture in
Spain, limiting itself to the legal-religious sciences that, in those moments, were the most important for the newly Muslims
arrived. It was during the time of Abd al-Rahman II that the first wise men, who can be called that, enrich the cultural landscape of al-Andalus.
Poets, doctors, philosophers, mathematicians, geographers, undefeated generals...All of them will give al-Andalus and Europe a series of works that, by their importance will be translated, searched, accepted and will serve as a basis for the western culture and Renaissance ideas, in such a way that many of the great sages of the Italian Renaissance considered that all knowledge of the time came from Muslim Spain, which all the wise men were of Andalusian origin. And when the political decline and the disintegration of the caliphate, will not stop birth, grow and develop distinguished minds that will continue to maintain,for a long time, the prestige of al-Andalus. Curiously, this situation will be repeated throughout the history of Spain, when the Arab occupation just be a memory. The Spanish Golden Age will coincide with decadence of the Austrias, when the country loses its pre-ponderance in Europe, and with the disaster of '98, with the loss for Spain of its last colonies, will produce a cultural and scientific renaissance that has been called the Silver age.
Through the pages of this book we want to highlight those figures who occupied a predominant place in the history of al-Andalus, although not all of them were necessarily Muslims, since that in that cultured and tolerant al-Andalus, many Jews and some other Christians showed their genius, and of those who, often, we know more about his works than about his biography. But whatever religion they had, they were all, after all, Andalusians, born and raised in the extensive lands of al-Andalus. As a matter of curiosity we will include some groups of characters
anonymous people who, due to their surprising
actions, on occasions dictated by necessity, they reveal the ingenuity or character of the Andalusians. Such would be the case of the "rabadíes", of the Moors who, for a time, established a small kingdom in France, or those Normans who ended up becoming Andalusians and Muslims to save their lives.
Perhaps this way we will learn a little more about that crossbred Spain, in which despite so many years of struggle, truces and battles, mutual loves and hates, numerous characters belonging to the three cultures, Moors, Christians and Jews shared knowledge, affinities and forms of
life, making al-Andalus the cultural beacon of the West.
The precursors of al-Andalus
Count Don Julián
The conquest of Morocco had been carried out quickly, but shallow. The Berbers were only subdued after a fierce resistance, defeated by an ambitious general who had just been appointed governor of Ifriqiya and Maghrib. His successes in these lands
They would prepare the ground for him to be the one to set his eyes and, also
his troops, over Gothic Spania. It was Musa ben Nusayr.
Musa, with the help of one of his sons, took possession of Tangier, and demanded that the subjugated tribes hostage to educate them in the new faith, which in turn, became propagandists of Islam, leaving in the conquered Morocco
Arab lieutenants, including General Tariq ben Ziyad, he turned to Ifriqiya. But it seems that the Ceuta square remained
in the hands of a Christian, the so-called Count Don Julián, who would have a
determining role in this entire story. We could consider it as a precursor of that al-Andalus that was about to be born.
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If anyone wants to read new historical fiction related to the Abd al-Aziz chapter of the Al Andalus. Historical Figures book, recently a novel has been published. This novel is Egilona, Reina de Hispania (Egilona, Queen of Hispania), writen by José Soto Chica. The bulk of the story is based on the texts of the Mozarabic Chronicle and Arabic sources such as the Fath al-Andalus codex, the anonymous Ajbar Maimu'a or the works of the historian Al-Maqqari and the caliph Al-Hakam. In fact, all chapters begin with a fragment of these writings.
Synopsis
Egilona, the last queen of Hispania, a powerful woman between two cultures, between two eras, the Gothic and the Arab, fascinates us in this memorable historical novel.
Don Rodrigo, Duke of Bética, returns to his lands after being forced to pay homage to the new king of Hispania, Witiza, the murderer of his brother Favila. Now the smart thing is to lower his head; There will be time for revenge. Near Córdoba, he stops to rest in a noble house and there he sees for the first time Egilona, a fifteen-year-old girl with reddish hair, white skin and amber eyes, who that same night will become his wife.
Nine years later, in 711, near Tarifa, the hosts of the now king Rodrigo prepared to prevent the entry into Hispania of the new conqueror of the world: the Umayyad empire. In command of his army is Tariq ibn Ziyad, a freedman whom his patron Musa ibn Nusayr, vali of Africa in the new order of the caliphate, has sent on a raid. With this old soldier, ugly, cross-eyed and red-haired, hardened in a thousand battles, travels his concubine, Umm Hakim, a fascinating young woman, with doe eyes and magical knowledge, and Abd al-Aziz, one of Musa's sons. In and out, that's the order. But, in the heat of battle, Abd al-Aziz kills Rodrigo and sets his sights on Egilona, the most beautiful and haughty woman he has ever seen.
Woe to his eyes! They have just begun a story in which the sorceress and the queen will cross paths to end an empire, and for which Egilona, queen of Hispania, will be remembered "as the hand, the mind, the powerful spirit that sowed the "seed of a new era."
Some comments from the author of the novel about the historical figure of Egilona, the historical setting, the conquest and her marriage to Abd al-Aziz, from this interview:
"Events that have usually been told very poorly"
"She was a transitional character who was everything with the Visigoths and is everything again in the new world of the Muslims, but a lot of nonsense has been written about her"
"I have opted for an intermediate solution in the novel"
"After Rodrigo's death it stands as a symbol of resistance, but after the second defeat of the Visigoths in Écija I made Al-Aziz capture it. Let's think about Aztec Mexico: the Spanish were a very small force and they relied on the nobility. The Arabs did the same. This marriage was not the exception, but the norm, and there are the examples of Teodomiro's daughter or Witiza's granddaughters. It was a time when collaboration was needed"
"If I put on my historian's suit and limit myself to what the sources say, I am tied hand and foot. Now, a novelist does have licenses and I imagine that story of hate and love with Al-Aziz"
"But I think the result is very coherent: it is a novel by a historian who specializes in the period and which, literary speaking, proposes psychological solutions to the 8th century."
"For me, her forgetfulness is intentional from her own time: for those who resisted in Asturias she was a traitor; for the Arabs, she was responsible for the perfect Muslim warrior falling into the conspiracy. She was guilty for going over to the enemy or subverting the order, and this has greatly influenced nineteenth-century and current Spanish historiography"
"This novel, at the level of people who seek to learn history with fiction, is the story of the Islamic conquest of Hispania based on what we really know, which has changed a lot in the last twenty years"
"It's not about good ones and bad ones, but about people like us who have to survive by accepting that the world has changed or by rebelling against it."
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