In the VIII century, the territory of modern Spain was captured by the Arabs, who occupied the entire Iberian Peninsula almost unhindered, except for the implacable Asturias. From the moment King Rodrigo fell under the Damascus blade, and before the Catholic sovereigns Ferdinand and Isabella hoisted the cross over Granada, eight centuries passed. This eight-hundred-year-old expulsion of the Arabs from the Iberian Peninsula is called in history the Reconquista - the Reconquest.

In the summer of 1492, a middle-aged sailor rushed in despair along the Spanish coast, trying in vain to hire a ship's crew. There were no free hands in any port. Thousands of people randomly loaded onto any floating means, whether it be a ship or a miserable boat. In the hot southern air there was a great weeping that had no end. The panic in this human anthill was such that the Iberian Peninsula was about to go under water: this is how they flee from a sinking ship.

Meanwhile, in Granada, recently occupied by Christians, festive fireworks flew up into the sky, drums thundered victoriously, and the Spanish troops rejoiced. Queen Isabella, tidy and washed, every day, to the delight of her subjects, changed her already snow-white undershirt.

The name of the unknown sailor who was knocked down in search of a team was Christopher Columbus. And in order to understand what caused the stampede from Spain of a whole people - this truly biblical exodus, which almost indirectly prevented the discovery of America - to find out what Granada has to do with it and what the queen's underwear has to do with what is happening, we will have to flip back eight pages of history , each of which is a century.

The culprit of La Cava

“The West is the West, the East is the East, and they cannot come together,” the poet remarked an eternity after the events described. He was not mistaken - poets in general rarely make mistakes. The West and the East have different attitudes, different philosophies - in this sense they are indeed dissimilar. If we talk about the history of mankind, then the East sometimes happened to converge with the West, more precisely, to collide foreheads, boil in a single cauldron, melting new, unprecedented forms of culture and life from steel and wax of human relations.

By the time the Arabs invaded the peninsula, no concept of "Spain", of course, existed. Here at that time the kingdom of the Visigoths was located. Little is known about them. Let's say that these were not those wild Germans who came from the north who smashed ancient Rome, but tribes already crushed and partially cultivated by this same Rome. Back in the 4th century, the Visigoths adopted Christianity, though not canonical, but of the Arian persuasion, where the human nature of Christ came to the fore. It is honorable to conduct your family from ready. Until now, speaking of the antiquity of the family and its undoubted nobility, the Spaniard will say: "This one is ready." The last ruler of this mysterious people was the ill-fated King Rodrigo.

Old Spanish romances brought to us a dramatic story of love and betrayal, as a result of which the Visigothic kingdom fell and Spain was dominated by the Arabs for eight centuries. This happened, of course, because of a woman who, as sung in folk Spanish romances, was called La Cava. She was the daughter of the ruler of Ceuta, the powerful Count Julian. The Visigoth king Rodrigo fell in love with her:

“What is Troy! What Elena
next to this beauty.
Probably all of Spain
I would burn it in the fire like Troy…”
(Here and below - translation by A. Revich).

It is not good for kings to say such words! Especially if before that they dreamed of ominous - prophetic! - dreams about the invasion of foreigners. Burning with passion, Rodrigo lost his head so much that he committed a very unroyal act: having lured the beauty into a trap, he took her by force. Sobbing bitterly, La Cava told her father about everything, and he swore revenge on Rodrigo. At night, he secretly opened the gates of the guard fortress on Gibraltar to the Arabs, and their hordes poured into Spain. Rodrigo fell in the first battle. The chronicles tell about what happened in a slightly different way, building a historical building not on the follies of passion, but on a major game of political interests. It is known that the unlucky King Rodrigo ruled for only a year: from 710 to 711. Before him, the king of the Visigoths was a certain Vitsa, who before his death bequeathed the kingdom to his son Agila, unloved by the Visigothic nobility. Dissatisfied feudal lords rebelled and proclaimed Rodrigo king. The country actually started a civil war. This is where the Arabs come on stage, who have long encroached on the fertile lands of Andalusia. The Arab caliphate with its center in Damascus was powerful and truly immense. They were ruled by the Umayyad dynasty, which increasingly expanded its possessions. By the beginning of the 8th century, the Arabs had conquered all of northwestern Africa, the indigenous population of which was made up of the warlike tribes of the Berbers. It was with the Arab and Berber commanders that a supporter of the Crown Prince of Agila, Don Julian, commandant of the Ceuta fortress, which actually controlled the strait, which is now called Gibraltar, entered into an agreement. Then no one imagined that the consequences of a simple military agreement would be so catastrophic. The allies were asked to defeat the army of Rodrigo, and as a reward to receive the treasury of the capital city of Toledo.

In the spring of 711, a seven thousandth Arab army under the command of Tariq entered the European continent. Of course, it crossed on ships provided by Julian, since the Arabs did not have their own fleet at that time. The rock on which Tarik landed was given his name: Gibraltar means "mountain of Tarik"... But then something incomprehensible happened: Agila suddenly offered Rodrigo to join forces in the fight against a common enemy. What was it? Lack of communication between Aguila and Julian, who did not have time to inform the prince that he was acting in his interests? Or did Aguila turn out to be a decent person and the methods of the Ceuta commandant seemed unacceptable to him? Or is everything simpler, and the noble proposal only masked the trap set for Rodrigo? It seems so: after all, having moved the army to the south to help the royal army, Aguila himself evaded command and for some reason preferred to stay in the north.

Until now, in the schools of the Arab countries, Tarik's appeal to the soldiers before the battle is memorized as an example of eloquence: “O people, where to run? The sea is behind you, the enemy is in front of you, you have nothing but steadfastness and patience ... ”Between July 19 and 26, 711, a battle took place, the name of which, for the hearing of the Spaniards, sounds like the hum of a funeral bell: the battle of Guadaleta. Rodrigo was completely defeated. The flanks of his troops were led by the brothers of the late King Vitica - Agila's uncle. Onito did not survive the blow. Most likely there was a banal betrayal. Rodrigo was killed, according to some sources, in this battle, according to others - in the next. In any case, traces of him are lost here. As for La Cava, the chroniclers are silent about it. For some reason, I still think that it existed.

"Look around, Don Rodrigo,
Where is your land and your glory?
All of Spain was destroyed
Your whim and La Cava…”

So in the Spanish romance, the death of the unlucky king is reproachfully lamented.

Meanwhile, the Arabs on light horses, and mostly on mules, fulfilling the terms of the allied treaty, moved to Toledo by a direct road. From 711 to 718 they occupied almost all of Spain. True, Christian uprisings sometimes broke out in their rear, but on the whole the campaign unfolded successfully. Refugees brought sad news to the Pope: Christianity in the Iberian Peninsula has come to an end.

How could this happen? How did a Christian state in a few years almost completely come under the rule of Muslims, and how did many of its inhabitants exchange the cross for a crescent without much rushing? The answer to this mystery sounds somewhat paradoxical: the natives converted to Islam because no one forced them to do so...

Asturias - a stronghold of the irreconcilable

The caliphs of the Umayyad dynasty were far from Islamic fanaticism. By the time of the capture of Spain, Islam was a very young religion - not even a century had passed since the death of the prophet Mohammed. Lovers of the joys of life, patrons of free secular poetry and various sciences, the Umayyads were not aggressive towards the peoples of the occupied territories. They did not seek to forcibly convert the inhabitants of the conquered lands into Mohammedanism: they did not cut off the heads of civilians, did not pour molten lead into their throats, in a word, did not do anything that, say, Russia had gotten used to during the Mongol-Tatar invasion.

A few decades after the conquest of Spain, the Umayyad dynasty fell. It was replaced by the Abbasid dynasty. The capital of the Caliphate was moved from Damascus to Baghdad. The surviving Umayyad, nicknamed the Stranger, or Disinherited, took possession of Cordoba and in 756 proclaimed himself the ruler of an independent Cordoba emirate. His name was Abdarrahman I.

As historians say, in foreign policy, the Arabs of that era were not inclined to bloodshed in the occupied lands: it all came down to more or less regular fleecing. The inhabitants were taxed, which, in essence, was the main economic goal of the Arab military campaigns. The Islamic poll tax turned out to be much easier than the burdensome taxes that the Visigothic nobility levied from the local population. It was reconciling. Women, children and other socially unprotected elements were automatically exempted from the tax. And most importantly, all those who converted to Islam were equal in rights with the winners and did not pay any tribute. In addition, the commandments of Mohammed, in the opinion of the Romanesque and Visigothic natives with their weakly rooted Christianity, differed little from the commandments of Christ. Even the polygamy of the Arabs did not strike the inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula with a shocking novelty: here everyone had seen enough of the free morals of the Visigothic elite, where even representatives of the clergy openly appeared with their concubines, not paying much attention to the trials that Rome from time to time initiated on this delicate issue. If we add to all that has been said that Spain at that time was sparsely populated and in many places there was simply no one to repulse the tireless Arab cavalry, we will understand how the Muslims rapidly advanced north in such a short time.

However, the fate of peoples, like the fate of individual people, is difficult to predict. Who will play the next decisive move in the great and exciting game of life? Maybe for those who do not relax, having grabbed the jackpot, and do not lose heart, having lost in the smoke?

One small area in the north remained unconquered - Asturias.

Partisan Kings

The heir to the Spanish throne and today bears the honorary title of Prince of Asturias. In the city of Oviedo in Asturias, the prestigious Prince of Asturias Prize for achievements in the field of science and art is annually awarded - the national analogue of the Nobel Prize. Laureates arriving at the award ceremony traditionally stay at the best hotel in the city. It's called "Reconquista". All this is a tribute to and memory of those distant times, when from here, from Asturias, the conquest of Spain from the Arabs slowly but steadily began.

After the defeat of the Visigothic troops, their remnants took refuge in the Asturian mountains. It was then that a new hero soon appeared, the legendary Don Pelayo. Who he is is not really known. Now they would say "charismatic leader", "passionate personality". It was he who rallied the Visigoths who survived the battles to fight the invaders and already in 718 inflicted a severe defeat on the Arabs at the Battle of Covadonga.

The Vascons are another people on the territory of modern Spain who did not succumb to the victorious Muslim conquest. The Vascons were the ancestors of the Basques, semi-wild inhabitants of the Pyrenees. Noble Visigothic counts with their family pride, court etiquette and swords passed down by inheritance, and Vasconian mountaineers dressed in homespun shirts, whose favorite weapon is hefty boulders rolling from rocks onto the heads of the enemy - these two forces did not allow the Arabs to rest on their laurels, disturbing them with unexpected guerrilla attacks.

“Somewhere this unbroken donkey, Don Pelayo, was imposed on our heads! the Muslims exclaimed. - Surrounded, he is able to do without food. His warriors are starving, but do not give up. For weeks they live on nothing but wild honey!” It happened that the Arabs lifted the siege and left, consoling themselves: “Three dozen stubborn donkeys, Allah is with them! What danger can they pose to the all-powerful Caliphate?” However, there was a danger. And it consisted in the fact that Christians felt: these countless and invincible can and should be beaten! In 724, the Visigothic nobility, together with the Basques, defeated the Muslims near the city of Ainsa. There are rumors among the people about a miraculous phenomenon at the site of the battle of the Virgin Mary.

Arabic march

At that time, Spain, conquered by the Arabs, was called Al-Andalus or Andalusia. The capital of Andalusia was Cordoba. It was ruled by an emir, subordinate to the caliph sitting in Damascus.

But being the Emir of Cordoba, oh, how difficult! In the distance is the unsleeping eye of the caliph, who, not without reason, fears that the remote emirate may wish for autonomy. Local leaders also strove to secede from Cordoba and become independent emirs in Toledo or Zaragoza. The Christians were raising their voice, and then there was the complicated international situation: the Vikings would come from the sea and burn the flowering Seville, then the Franks would pull their forces to the Pyrenees.

By the way, it was after the terrible devastation of Seville by the Vikings in 845 that the Emir of Cordoba Abdarrahman II made a great decision: to build a fleet capable of protecting Andalusia from attacks from the sea. Soon the Arab fleet of Spain became one of the strongest in Europe. Alas, for many centuries it gave birth to a new scourge of the Christian world - Saracen piracy. Arabs everywhere made Christian captives into galley slaves for life. Later, during the Reconquista, the wealthy Christian monasteries took upon themselves the task of ransoming the unfortunate. Until now, passing by the Toledo Cathedral of San Juan de los Reyes, one can see garlands of rusty shackles on its walls. Each such chain testifies to the rescued prisoner.

But back to the Arab rulers. Another trouble for them is the heterogeneity of the Arabs themselves, the secret and open confrontation of the Syrians, Yemenis, and Berbers. The emir of Cordoba managed to sit in his place for a short time. As they would say in our time, there was a high turnover of staff. All that was heard was: the emir was recalled, removed, executed, expelled, killed right in the mosque ... Naturally, the emir's special anger was caused by the association of his own, Muslim, conspirators with Christians. Here everyone was punished indiscriminately.

One of these punitive expeditions was the march of Arab troops to the territory of modern France. The operation, initially directed against the Duke of Aquitaine, who had guilty before the emir, was distinguished by hitherto unprecedented cruelty. The Arab army advanced along the route Zaragoza - Pamplona - Ronceval - Bordeaux - Poitiers - Tours. Villages and cities were on fire. Murder, looting and all sorts of outrages have become commonplace. Now it's hard to imagine, but the emir's army stood almost near Paris - from Poitiers to Paris is a stone's throw! Approximately as from Tver to Moscow. The next acquisition of the caliph in Damascus could be France - there was something to gasp at!

And here the Frankish commander Karl Martell comes into play. In 732, a grandiose battle took place near Poitiers, a real battle of peoples, where the emir's troops were defeated and driven back by the Franks, and the emir himself was killed. And although the Arabs more than once made sorties against the Christians, they never managed to advance so far into Europe, much less to gain a foothold there for a long time.

In 736, the rebellious Basques expelled the Arabs from Pamplona for a while. In 750, the Christian king Alfonso I, as a result of a series of victories, recaptures all of Galicia. Sixteen years later, the Christians successfully repulse the raid of the Muslim cavalry near Alava.

But the year 778 unexpectedly showed how difficult the situation in the Pyrenees really was and how conflicting interests competed on the peninsula. The clanging of swords and the death rattle of the battle horn merged into one woeful word - Ronceval.

Roncevalsky detective, or the Case of the looted convoy

The battle of Roncevalle is legendary. The French epic, created in the 11th-12th centuries, tells about the campaign of the Frankish emperor Charlemagne against the Spanish Moors, about the heroic death of Charles's nephew, the noble Count Roland, in the Ronceval Gorge of the Pyrenees, and about the terrible revenge of Charles on the insidious Saracens for his death. The events described are most directly related to the Reconquista: Christians are trying to oust Muslims from European territory. The heroic epic presents us with a bloody conflict of two religions, two worldviews and, ultimately, the same clash of East and West.

The governor of Zaragoza, the Arab Suleiman ibn Arabi, appeared in 777 with an embassy to the king of the Franks Charles. Suleiman asked Charles for help in the fight against the Emir of Cordoba Abdarrahman I. The Zaragoza governor swore by Allah that, as a reward for support, the gates of Zaragoza would be opened without a fight - you just need to immediately set out on a campaign. Karl moved south. Overgrown with dense forest, the pass in the Pyrenees and the gloomy Ronceval Gorge of the paladins of the king passed safely - the mountain spurs were deserted. Only in Pamplona did Charles' soldiers meet people. They were half-wild Basques, silently observing the magnificent foreign army from under their brows. Having stocked up on goat cheese, the army moved on. Alas, the gates of Zaragoza were closed. The embarrassed Suleiman continued to swear that they would certainly be opened, it was only necessary to besiege the city and wait until it ran out of food and water. Days passed after days, and the stubborn Zaragoza did not give up. Finally, intelligence reported to Charles that the Emir of Cordoba had sent a large army to Zaragoza. The king sensed something was wrong: behind, behind the wide yellow river, the city bristled in defense, in front - the advancing troops of the emir. Isn't this a trap? Isn't it a provocation from the very beginning?

Karl ordered Suleiman to be seized and put in chains, and his sons to be sent as hostages with a convoy to France. After which he turned his army around and rushed back to the Pyrenees. The return from this quite inglorious campaign seemed to be successful. The French warriors had already set foot on the green hills of Gascony, but the straggler convoy, commanded by the king's beloved nephew, Roland, was still missing. A day later, worried Karl ordered to turn the horses. In the Ronceval Gorge, called the "valley of death" by the chroniclers, a terrible sight opened up to the French. Empty overturned wagons, horses dying under the rubble of rocks and piles of dead bodies, mutilated and naked. Among them was found the body of Count Roland. It was evident that he and his companions repulsed the attack to the last, back to back. Nearby lay Roland's richly ornamented horn, covered in blood, which he was supposed to blow in case of danger. The robbers, who took away everything, for some unknown reason, did not touch him. Who so treacherously attacked a stray convoy in the narrowest part of the Ronceval Gorge? They were hardly Arabs - the Pyrenees are not their territory. And the savage nature of the attack - throwing boulders down, and the fact that the dead were robbed clean and even undressed, everything - pointed to the Basques. But something else is even more mysterious: the sons of Suleiman were not found among the dead. What happened anyway? Was the Zaragoza governor a provocateur? Did the Muslims collude with the Basques to rescue their own? Or did they just unleash the freedom-loving highlanders on the warriors of Charles, hinting to them that the Franks had come to the local forests to encroach on the primordial rights of the local inhabitants? Or maybe the Basques acted independently, and took the hostages with them in order to dictate their conditions to the Muslims on occasion? Or did the highlanders simply take pity on the captives and let them go?

Be that as it may, history tied a tight knot in Ronceval in 778: Christians who came at the call of Muslims to fight other Muslims were killed by Christians!

However, there is another version, mystical. According to legend, somewhere near the Ronceval Gorge, in the mountains, the famous Grail full of Christ's blood is kept secret from people. The Franks actually made their trip in search of her, and all the ups and downs with the Arabs are just a cover for the true goal. However, according to legend, no one can approach the Grail with impunity, and therefore it is not surprising that the detachment led by Roland fell victim to unknown forces under very vague circumstances ...

The riddle of Ronceval has not been solved to this day. The Song of Roland speaks only of the struggle of the Christians against the Saracens. This is natural, given that it was created much later, in an era when the Christian world was more and more united, supporting the Spanish Reconquista.

Santiago - Matamoros

The Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset was inclined to doubt the fighting spirit of his compatriots. He noted, not without malice, that among a people endowed with a thirst for military feat, the reconquest of their own country does not stretch for eight centuries. One can disagree with this, if only because the Spanish people, as such, did not yet exist in the first centuries of the Reconquista. It was an Ibero-Romano-Gothic population. As a people endowed with unique national characteristics, the Spaniards were formed precisely in the process of the Reconquista. The fight against a common enemy hardened and rallied them, left its mark on the type of character. They say "proud as a Spaniard", why would that be? Almost all travelers in Spain noted the freedom of the Spaniards from class prejudices: the peasant in this country always behaved with the dignity of a grandee, and in relation to the servant to the master, not a trace of humiliation or fawning was ever noticed. In general, the distinction between peasants, artisans and knights was not as obvious in Spain as in other countries of medieval Europe. The reasons should be sought precisely in the times of the Reconquista, when all sectors of society fought with the Muslims on an equal footing, and the cities and peasant communities that found themselves on the border and were forced to protect this border received special rights and freedoms enshrined in the codes of laws - fueros. Freed from feudal dependence, the peasants formed independent unions - begetries. The free and rebellious spirit of Begetria laid the foundations of an independent folk character. In a word, this country was not crippled by the vices of serfdom.

For unification, a certain common banner, a single shrine, was needed. That is why it is so important in the history of the Reconquista that in the 9th century the discovery of the relics of St. James - Santiago, in Galicia, in the town of Compostela. Saint James becomes the banner of the Reconquista. "Santiago!" is the battle cry of the Christians. The peaceful apostle receives the nickname "Santiago Matamoros", that is, "Santiago the Slayer of the Moors." He is still considered the heavenly patron of Spain.

Santiago de Compostela was raided. The Arabs destroyed the church dedicated to Santiago, but they did not desecrate the tomb itself, they did not even touch the monk who guarded it. "What are you doing here?" they asked him. "I pray to the saint," was the calm reply. The attackers appreciated the courage of the foreigner and treated the Christian shrine with respect. True, the bells were removed from the bell tower and taken on the shoulders of Christian slaves to Cordoba to be melted down into the lamps of the famous mosque. When, on June 29, 1236, King Fernando III of Castile finally took Cordoba, the lamps cast from the bells were sent back to Santiago - already on the shoulders of Muslim slaves.

To this day, the pilgrimage route from France runs to Santiago de Compostela. The first pilgrims walked along it, leaning on a staff and singing songs about the death of the brave Count Roland.

Another banner of the Reconquista was Sid the Warrior, who led the fight against the Moors in the 11th century. Ruy Diaz de Bivar, or Cid Campeador, the hero of the Spanish epic "Song of the Cid", is a real person. With his exploits in the war against the Muslims, he glorified the Spanish weapons. Both epic and folk romances pay tribute to him, describing him as a man of honor, a fighter for justice, an invincible warrior-hero. The real Sid was not such a model of virtue as the storytellers imagine him to be. Defending Christianity, he nevertheless willingly served both the Spanish kings and the Muslim emirs. However, the growing self-consciousness of the people, increasingly feeling like a single nation, simply needed a hero-symbol, a vivid example to follow.

As for Sid's courage, even the hostile side unconditionally recognized it. The Arab chronicler wrote: "This man was the scourge of his time, but in his love of glory, wise firmness of character and heroic prowess, he was a true miracle of the Lord."

Return of Toledo

The Reconquista was on its way. The frontier of Christendom moved slowly but steadily from north to south. Some areas several times passed from hand to hand: either Christians paid tribute to Muslims, or vice versa. On the conquered lands, new Christian kingdoms arose: Aragon, Navarre, Castile, Leon, Catalonia. It happened that their kings were at enmity with each other, often attracting one or another Mauritanian ruler to their side to resolve the dispute. But it happened that the kingdoms entered into alliances, formed all sorts of unions on a family or business basis: the union of Navarre and Aragon, Aragon and Catalonia, Castile and Leon.

Alas, sometimes the unity achieved with such difficulty suddenly collapsed due to someone's political short-sightedness. So, King Fernando I (1037-1065), who united under his rule two large Christian kingdoms of Castile and Leon and even took the title of emperor, dying, unexpectedly divided his possessions between his children.

The eldest son Sancho got Castile, the middle Alfonso - Leon, the youngest Garcia - Galicia. The old man did not offend his daughters either, leaving each of them a flourishing city. The results were not slow to affect: Sancho, in the service of which, by the way, the legendary Sid was at that time, went to war at once on everyone. In the course of numerous military ups and downs, the ill-fated Garcia died in prison, Sancho himself was killed by a man sent by his sister, and the middle brother Alfonso became king. It is easy to imagine what advantages such strife gave the Muslims!

True, the middle brother, having become Alfonso VI, ruler of Castile, Leon and Galicia, resolutely took up the sword and won the glorious city of Toledo from the Muslims. On May 25, 1085, the combined troops of the Spaniards triumphantly entered the former capital of the Visigothic kingdom. It was a significant milestone in the centuries-old history of the Reconquista. But Alfonso VII, the ruler of Leon, was not satisfied with the title of king and in 1135 was crowned in the Leon cathedral as emperor of all Spain, although, of course, not all of Spain was conquered by Christians.

Crossing of three religions

It would be, however, the deepest delusion to believe that war and enmity are the only condition for the coexistence of peoples on the Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages. Here, in spite of everything, during the stay of the Arabs, an extremely harmonious way of life developed, the richest Andalusian culture was born.

Almost the entire population was bilingual: they spoke the language of El Romanse and colloquial Arabic. Many knew classical Arabic, Latin, Hebrew. Arabs, Jews, Spaniards freely communicated, traded, entered into marriage alliances. This went on for centuries, almost until the very end of the Reconquista. In this Spain, it would be absurd to talk about purity of blood and show religious intolerance.

In addition to Christians, Muslims and Jews, the Muwallads lived here - Christian Spaniards who converted to Islam. Mozarabs are Christian Spaniards living in the Arab Emirates and the Caliphate, but retaining their religion, while assimilating the Arab culture and language. Mudejars are Arabs who remained in the Spanish territories after the reconquest, retained their faith, but became carriers not so much of a purely Arab, as of an Arab-Spanish, Andalusian culture. Finally, the Moriscos are Arabs or Muwallads who, after the final expulsion of the Arabs from Spain, adopted Christianity. Cultures mixed, peoples mixed.

For an example, let's go back a little, to the beginning of the 10th century, to Cordoba, where Emir Abdarrahman III came to power. good emir. Orthodox. But he has blue eyes and brown hair. He paints them so as not to embarrass his subjects.

By the way, this same blond emir will break the formal dependence on Baghdad, announcing in 929 the creation of an independent Caliphate of Cordoba. It will be a great kingdom. What is one Cordoba mosque worth: a magical forest of columns and intertwining arches, in which a person is lost, as in eternity, with a happy feeling, as if he had wanted this alone all his life.

The University of Cordoba also enjoyed great respect. People came here to study from France, England, Germany. Cordova was famous all over the world for its libraries. The library of Caliph al-Hakam II consisted of at least four hundred thousand volumes. Here, in Cordoba, was born the poet Ibn Hazm, author of The Dove's Necklace, one of the best books about love. Here lived the famous philosopher Averroes, the translator of Aristotle into Arabic, who also left works on physics, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, religion and law.

Beautiful and rich were the Arab cities of Seville and Granada with the luxurious Moorish palace of the Alhambra, where the soul rests among the fountains, pools and myrtle gardens, and the honeycombs of carved ceilings and niches seem to reproduce in their entirety the molecular structure of the Universe and the complex, but not at all chaotic connection between themselves of its inhabitants.

Different groups of the population as a whole existed in harmonious balance. If it was not an earthly paradise, then, in any case, a kind of reflection of a heavenly city, which, as you know, exists outside of religious strife. Cathedral, mosque, synagogue - this is the normal urban landscape of Granada or Toledo. During the reconquest, the Catholics, however, were inclined to open their cathedrals in mosques and synagogues. Until now, in Toledo, the phrase strikes the ear: the synagogue of the Assumption of the Mother of God! And yet, the Castilian kings, starting with the enlightened sovereign Alfonso the Wise, for a long time called themselves "kings of the three religions." The monarch, returning from a campaign, was greeted by the people who came out to meet them in three languages: Arabic, Spanish, Jewish.

In Toledo, the famous school of translators was created, which enriched Europe with the works of Averroes and Avicenna.

The Spaniards say: "Where the olive does not grow, the border of Arab rule passes." The olive grows almost all over the country, as well as wonderfully smelling orange groves, peach, and almonds. All over the country, water still murmurs melodiously in asekias - local ditches. Here, on a hot day, as never before, you suddenly realize: this murmuring sound and life itself are one. A trickle of water, the bitterness of an olive, an orange filled with sweetness - this is the merit of the Arabs, the fruit of their scientific knowledge, painstaking centuries-old work. A merit, about which the "Christ-loving army", moving further and further south for decades, preferred to safely forget.

papal blessing

Since the 11th century, the Reconquista has been irresistibly striving forward. In view of the obvious Christian threat, the Mauritanian emirs turned for help to the new political force of the Muslim world - the militant union of the tribes of the Saharan Berbers, who call themselves the Almoravids. They were cruel and fanatical rulers. The name of their strong-willed and ruthless commander Yusuf ibn Teshufin (Tashfin) terrified everyone without exception. In 1086, Yusuf inflicted a crushing defeat on the troops of the Leonese king Alfonso VI the Brave on the Rio Salado (Salt River). For the first time, militant Islam reigned on Spanish soil. Even local Muslims preferred to fall under the rule of the king of Castile and pay tribute to him, rather than endure the oppression of the Almoravids. Yusuf unhesitatingly deposed the local emirs and proclaimed himself ruler of Spain (1090-1091). By 1111, all Muslim Spain, except for Rueda, was subject to Almoravid rule.

The Almohads ("united"), who replaced the Almoravids, turned out to be even more fanatical. They oppressed Christians, staged Jewish pogroms, burned priceless Arab libraries.

Christians opposed the new invasion with varying success - they, as always, were hampered by internecine strife.

Finally, the Pope responds to the calls of the Spanish king for help. In the spring of 1212, Pontiff Innocent III proclaims a crusade against the infidels with absolution for all crusaders. On July 16, at the battle of Las Navas de Tolos, the most numerous Christian army utterly defeats the army of the Almohads. The power of Muslim Spain is undermined forever. This is the turning point of the Reconquista.

Turning the pages of history, you discover a paradoxical truth: kings are not born - they are made.

In the last three centuries of the Reconquista, the sovereigns of Castile and Aragon were in the foreground. The Aragonese ruler Jaime I the Conqueror in 1229 began the reconquest of the Balearic Islands, completing it in 1235. In 1238 Jaime I entered Valencia. He also expelled the Muslims from Murcia.

And Fernando III the Saint, ruler of Castile and Leon, rejected the proposal of the French king Louis IX on Spanish participation in the campaign against the Eastern Muslims, explaining briefly: “I have enough of my Moors!” And in 1236 he victoriously entered Cordoba, and in 1248 - in Seville.

Here the evidence of the chroniclers diverge. Some assure that the capture of Seville passed decorously and nobly. Others ... Others say that after a long siege, when the inhabitants, exhausted by hunger and epidemics, finally capitulated, they were ordered to leave their homes without property. From three to five thousand people - look for more such populous cities in that era! - homeless wandered along the roads. And the Christian sovereign, the destroyer of the Moors, entered the ghost town. Four years later, he died in it from the plague. Fernando the Saint founded the most beautiful cathedrals in Burgos and Toledo, as well as the famous Salamanca University. I would like to think that he was subsequently canonized precisely for this.

To the sound of swords

XIII and XIV centuries - the height of the Reconquista. The Christian population of the Iberian Peninsula is increasingly aware of themselves as Spaniards, Catholics and loyal subjects of kings. It can be said that during this period the conquest becomes a conscious, purposeful movement, the task of which is the final expulsion of Muslims from Europe. Orders of chivalry begin to play a significant role in the defense of the recently conquered areas.

The events of that era include many feats and examples of valor, both on the one hand and on the other. Treason, betrayal, manifestations of extreme cruelty and fanaticism also left their bloody mark on the history of the Reconquista.

In 1292, for six months, the Spaniards besieged the fortress of Tarifa on the Mediterranean Sea. In the end, the starving Arabs were forced to surrender. The knight Alonso Perez Guzman, nicknamed the Good - El Bueno, volunteered to defend the fortress in the event of new attacks. His name thundered throughout Spain, but for this he paid a truly exorbitant price.

The Muslims did not keep themselves waiting: pretty soon they laid siege to Tarifa, and they were commanded by a Spaniard, a certain don Juan, who boasted that with small forces he would take the fortress by him alone and already proven way. This method was as follows: Don Juan seized the son of Guzman the Good and, standing under the walls of the fortress, publicly promised to cut his throat if the commandant refused to open the gate. Alonso Guzman did not flinch at the sight of a crying child and answered this way: “I raised my son to fear the enemies, and not so that he would become an instrument in their hands! What are you delaying? Maybe you don't have a knife? Here, take mine!" And he contemptuously threw his dagger from the wall to the blackmailer. The enraged don Juan cut the boy's throat in a rage in front of everyone, and the horrified Muslims were ashamed and retreated from the walls of the fortress.

True, the misadventures of Tarifa did not end there. In 1340 it was again besieged. This time from the side of the Moroccans. On October 30, Christian troops met with the enemy on the Rio Salado (Salt River). Here one of the largest battles of the Reconquista took place, in which the Moors were completely defeated.

On August 21, 1415, the Portuguese troops took Ceuta almost without a fight - that same ill-fated fortress from which the capture of the Iberian Peninsula began seven hundred years ago.

And in 1487 it was the turn of Malaga.

Granada "colours of Isabel"

Rome, meanwhile, demands tougher measures from the Christian rulers of Spain in relation to the infidels in the newly conquered territories: what does it mean - they don’t want to kiss the cross? Force by any means!

But the Spanish sovereigns hesitate, and not at all out of the kindness of their souls - it simply seems unnatural to them to oppress a good half of their subjects. But everything changes with the accession of Fernando of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, who went down in history under the name of the Catholic kings. Their marriage in 1469 united the two largest kingdoms of Christian Spain. Since that time, the Spanish kings have finally ceased to be "kings of the three religions." From now on, they represent only one faith and are completely subject to Rome.

In 1487 King Fernando besieges Malaga. The siege and capture of this major port is an endless series of daring sorties, heroic attacks and equally valiant resistance. This is an endless list of the wounded, killed and died of disease in the camps of both opponents, this is a famine in the walls of Malaga, individual deadly attempts by the besieged to conclude a separate truce, and even a failed armed attempt by a half-mad Muslim dervish on the life of Queen Isabella, who came to support her knights.

Unexpected military and economic assistance to the Christians was provided by the Emir of Granada, Boabdil, who hoped in this way to secure himself in the future. But - he did not know the Catholic kings well.

Four years after the fall of Malaga, this couple, in which the leading role belonged to Isabella, began to prepare for a campaign against the last stronghold of Islam - Granada. The preparation took the whole of 1491. The Emirate of Granada, which found itself in a hostile circle of Christians, was doomed. Christian rulers borrowed money for the military campaign from terrified Jews, imposing excessive taxes on the synagogues, or even simply robbing them to the skin. In 1491, a protracted siege began, during which Queen Isabella shared with the soldiers all the hardships of camp life. Her appearance on horseback under the walls of the besieged city caused cries of delight. The queen vowed not to change her shirt until the Castilian flag was raised over Granada. Days followed days. The snow-white royal underwear gradually decayed, acquiring a grayish-yellow color. The Spaniards have since called this exquisite shade “color isabelle”. In January 1492, Boabdil, the last emir of Granada, left the Alhambra weeping. He left through an inconspicuous door in the back wall of the fortress. This door can still be seen today. It has been locked since the moment the inconsolable emir stepped over its threshold. And high in the mountains there is a village called Moor's Sigh. From there, the exile turned for the last time to the beautiful city below, and his mother allegedly said: “Weep like a woman over what she could not protect like a man.” True, historians dryly comment: "The phrase is fictitious."

From the heroic Mount Tariq in Gibraltar to the mournful Sigh of the Moor near Granada, the circle is complete. An era has ended.

We're back to where we started. To the stampede of the Moors and Jews, to whom the Catholic kings set a strict condition: to leave the country within three months. The Jews, by the way, were expelled somehow at the same time, having fallen under a hot hand. Or maybe everything was much simpler, and they got rid of them so as not to repay their debts? The first wave of exiles was followed by a second, a third: Moriscos, Mudéjars, crosses - all those without whom Andalusia was orphaned. At the same time, “brilliant poetry, astronomy, architecture, which had no equal in Europe, were doomed to death,” Federico Garcia Lorca would say several centuries later. Ahead of the country were the Inquisition and an unprecedented scale of mass repressions. Could something like this have once dreamed of Don Pelayo, the brave initiator of the Reconquista? At what point do the persecuted turn into persecutors, and is this inevitable? This is truly the mystery of history. However, in the significant year of the capture of Granada, along with the end of the Reconquista, the formation of the Spanish people and the Castilian language was completed: 1492 was also the year the first Spanish grammar was published. The country is finally united. America was discovered, since Columbus nevertheless set off on his great voyage from the provincial port of Palos, recruiting a team of prisons. Colonial gold and the Spanish Golden Age lay ahead, but that's another story with other mysteries. By the way, Spanish champagne is called Cava. With a hint of the name: they say, drink, but do not lose your head, otherwise you can be left without a kingdom.

Reconquista - chronology

30 April 711- a mixed Arab-Berber (Moorish) army under the command of the tribal leader Tariq ibn Ziyad crosses from Africa to the Iberian Peninsula through Gibraltar (the modern name comes from the distorted Arabic Jabal-Tariq, "Tariq mountain").
19 July 711- Battle of Guadaleta. Death of King Rodrigo. The collapse of the Visigothic kingdom, which existed from the beginning of the VI century.
711-718- the peninsula falls under the rule of Muslims completely - with the exception of only a narrow strip in the north, the current province of Asturias, where the remnants of the Visigothic nobility have strengthened.
718- Don Pelayo, allegedly the former bodyguard of King Rodrigo, elected by the Asturian king, defeats the Muslims in the Covadonga Valley. The reconquista begins.
732- Battle of Poitiers. The Muslim offensive is repelled by Charles Martell in the heart of the Frankish kingdom. The further advance of the Arabs into Europe was stopped forever.
738-742- taking advantage of the military clashes between the Berbers and the Arabs, Alfonso I, king of Asturias, made a number of successful raids on Galicia, Cantabria and Leon.
791-842- reign of Alfonso II of Asturias. Numerous skirmishes between Christians and Muslims go on with varying success, but in the end the Christians manage to gain a foothold on the banks of the Duero River.
874- Vifredo Shaggy, Count of Barcelona, ​​achieves actual independence from the Franks and begins to actively oppose the Moors, whose possessions are located south and southwest of modern Catalonia. Thus, a new focus of the Reconquista arises.
905-925- The Basque king Sancho Garces strengthens the Kingdom of Pamplona. This is another outpost of the Reconquista in the northeast of the peninsula.
939- Battle of Simancas. Ramiro II of León (930-950) defeats Abdarrahman III, Caliph of Cordoba. However, the rejoicing of Ramiro II is overshadowed by the uprising of the Castilians, led by Count Fernan Gonzalez (930-970), who declares himself the de facto ruler of Castile.
978-1002- the reign in Cordoba of Almansor (Muhammed ibn Abu Amir, nicknamed al-Mansur - "The Victor"), who seized the military initiative from the Christians and forced them to pay tribute to the Arabs.
1020- Alfonso V of Leon (994-1027), who took the title of King of Castile, Leon and Asturias, gathers a cathedral in Leon, which approves a set of constitutional laws (fueros).
1000-1035- consolidation of another part of Christian Iberia. Sancho III the Great, king of Navarre, expands the boundaries of his possessions to the south. True, after his death, many of his achievements were again lost. Christians begin regular pilgrimages to the relics in Santiago de Compostela.
1031- the collapse of the Caliphate of Cordoba.
About 1030 to 1099- the life and exploits of Count Ruy Diaz de Bivar, nicknamed Cid Campeador, the legendary warrior of the Reconquista, the hero of the epic "Song of the Cid", as well as numerous later works by Corneille, Herder and others.
1037-1065- Fernando I, King of Castile and Leon, captures Coimbra and forces the Muslim rulers of Toledo, Seville and Badajoz to pay tribute to him.
1065-1109- the reign of Alfonso VI the Brave, King of Leon (since 1065) and Castile (since 1072), one of the most famous warriors of the Reconquista era. Christian reconquest of Toledo (1085). Declaration of Tolerance towards Muslims.
1086- Concerned about the success of the Christians, the Muslim rulers of Granada, Seville and Badajoz appeal for military assistance to the Almoravides, an association of warlike tribes of the Saharan Berbers, who by the 11th century had created a vast empire that stretched from Senegal to Algeria. At the end of the 11th century, the outstanding commander Yusuf ibn-Teshufin (ibn-Tashfin) became the leader of the Almoravids.
1086- Battle of Salak. Yusuf defeats the army of Alfonso VI.
1090 -1091- Yusuf deposed the Andalusian emirs and proclaimed himself supreme ruler.
1094- The army of the legendary Cid occupies Valencia, where Cid will be an independent ruler until his death.
1111- Reconquista rolls back. Almost all of Muslim Spain is subject to the Almoravids.
1118- Alfonso I of Aragon took Zaragoza.
1135- Alfonso VII of León proclaims himself, in the face of a common danger, "emperor of all Spain" (in fact, this is far from the entire Iberian Peninsula).
Around 1140- the emergence of the Spanish national epic "Song of Side".
1151- the third and final wave of the Muslim invasion of Spain. This time the Almohads ("united") came - adherents of a special teaching within Islam, known as "unitarianism". Manifestations of extreme Islamic fanaticism. Persecution of Christians.
1162- Alfonso II of Aragon becomes Count of Barcelona at the same time. Thus, the northeastern "corner" of Spain is also united into a powerful state.
1195- the last heavy defeat of Christians during the Reconquista - the battle of Alarkos. Almohad troops attacked the sleeping Castilian camp.
16 July 1212- the climax of the Reconquest. The famous Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa. United Castilian-Leonese, Navarrese, Aragonese, Portuguese troops smash the Muslim army. Many knights who arrived from all over the Christian world also took part in the battle.
1229-1235- Jaime I of Aragon, the Conqueror, conquers the Balearic Islands.
1238- Jaime I of Aragon enters Valencia.
1230-1252- reign of Fernando III the Saint, king of Castile and León. Christian troops triumphantly occupy the main cities of southern Iberia - Cordoba, Murcia, Jaen and Seville. Only the Emirate of Granada remains in Muslim hands.
1218- Founding of the University of Salamanca.
1252-1284- Board in Castile Alfonso X the Wise. The flowering of sciences and arts, nurtured by the centuries-old interpenetration of religions and cultures. Publication of the first Code of Laws.
1309- Fernando IV of Castile (1295-1312) hoists a Christian banner on the Cape of Gibraltar.
1340- Battle of Rio Salado. The victory of the troops of Alfonso XI of Castile over the Muslims.
1350- Alfonso XI of Castile dies, who repeatedly tried to take Granada. The Spanish states seem to forget about the small Islamic enclave in the southern part of the peninsula for a century.
1469- Isabella I of Castile and Fernando (Ferdinand) II of Aragon enter into a marriage alliance. The actual foundation of the Kingdom of Spain, the establishment of an absolute monarchy.
January 2, 1492- the fall of Granada and the flight of the last emir Boabdil. Ferdinand and Isabella renounce the title of monarchs of the three religions and proclaim themselves Catholic kings. Muslims and Jews are expelled from Spain.

The main states that existed on the Iberian Peninsula during the Reconquista

Visigothic kingdom
The Visigoths entered the land of the Iberian Peninsula at the beginning of the 5th century. The capital of the Visigothic kingdom was the city of Toledo. In 711, the Visigothic state was destroyed by the Arabs who came from Africa.

Kingdom of Asturias
Founded around 718 by the Visigothic aristocrat Don Pelayo. During the first centuries, the Reconquista occupied a small patch of land in the north of the Iberian Peninsula.

Kingdom of Navarre
It was located in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula. Provided constant resistance to both Muslims and Franks. During the Reconquista, as a rule, opposed the Muslims in alliance with CastileLeon and independent Aragon.

Spanish Mark
At the beginning of the VIII century, the territory of modern Catalonia was occupied by the Arabs. Soon they were forced out by the Franks, who formed the state of the Spanish Mark on the conquered lands. In the 9th century, the Spanish Mark was divided into actually independent counties, but formally this territory was considered the possession of the French kings until 1258. The Arabs called this region Alfaranja - "the land of the Franks."

Kingdom of Leon
One of the oldest Christian states on the territory of modern Spain. Formed in 909-910. It got its name from the city of the same name (Roman "legion"). In 924, it also included the territories of Galicia and Asturias.

Kingdom of Castile
Castile was part of the Kingdom of León. In the 930s, Count Fernand Gonzalez proclaimed himself the head of a new entity - an independent Castile. In 1037 León and Castile were reunited. This union broke up and was restored again during the Reconquista.

Kingdom of Castile-Leon
Formally, it existed since 1037. The main driving force of the Reconquista and the core of the future Spain. It was his troops that played a key role in the battle of Las Navas de Tolos, during the capture of Cordoba, Murcia, Seville and, finally, Granada.

Kingdom of Aragon
Formally proclaimed in 1035. Aragon during the Reconquista proved to be a formidable military force. The troops of Pedro II of Aragon contributed greatly to the victory at Las Navasda Tolosa.

County and Kingdom of Portugal
The County of Portugal was created in 1095. In 1139, Count Alphonse Henriques won a major victory over the Moors, winning the battle of Oriki and proclaiming himself the first king of Portugal.

Emirate of Cordoba and Caliphate
Known in the Arab world under the name Al-Andalus. It existed as an emirate since the conquest of Spain by the Arabs, as a caliphate - since 929, when Emir Abdarrahman III proclaimed himself a caliph - a sovereign independent of the ruler of the faithful in far Baghdad. Until 1031, this state was perhaps the most prosperous in Europe. Under the blows of Christians moving from the north, as well as as a result of internal strife and invasions of semi-savage Berber hordes from Africa, the caliphate fell, disintegrating into emirates.

Reconquista in faces

Don Pelayo, first king of Asturias (died 737)
He came from a noble Visigothic family. Participated in the unfortunate battle of Guadaleta for his fatherland. He raised an uprising against the Muslim rulers, which ended in a successful battle for the Goths with a many times superior enemy at Covadonga.

Almansor (Muhammed ibn Abu Amir), the greatest of the rulers of the Caliphate of Cordoba (940-1002)
The man who almost caused the Reconquista to fail. He was nicknamed Almansor after the suppression of one of the rebellions. "Al-Mansur bi-Allah" means - "the winner, inspired by Allah." Not being a caliph, he ruled on behalf of the caliph, and during the 20 years of his unlimited dictatorship, he carried out significant civil and commercial reforms, and also carried out 57 successful expeditions against Christians.

Cid Campeador, legendary general of the Reconquista (circa 1030-1099)
His real name is Ruy Diaz de Bivar. Born near Burgos. He served King Sancho II, and after his death - his brother and political opponent Alfonso VI. He had serious disagreements with both kings, as a result of which Cid was twice expelled from the kingdom. In certain periods of his life he was in the service of the Muslim emirs, participating in their wars among themselves. Nickname Sid - from the Arabic "seid" (lord), Campeador in Spanish means "warrior". Hero of the national epic "Song of Side".

Yusuf ibn Teshufin (ibn Tashfin) (died 1106)
Muslim commander, leader of the Almoravids. At the end of the 11th century, at the call of the Andalusian emirs, he came to the Iberian Peninsula from the African coast to fight the Christian danger. In a decisive battle at Salak (1086) he inflicted a crushing defeat on the troops of the Leonese king Alfonso VI. He deposed the Andalusian emirs and proclaimed himself the supreme ruler of Muslim Spain (1090-1091). It became a serious obstacle in the way of the Reconquista.

Alfonso X the Wise, King of Castile and León (1221-1284)
He became famous for his great learning and wisdom. He openly proclaimed the synthesis of Jewish, Muslim and Christian cultures at his court. The Toledo poetic, scientific and translation school achieved such fame under him that even Batu Khan from the other side of the world asked to send him Spanish "literates". This monarch is known as a major legislator, a talented poet and the greatest chess player of his era. In alliance with Aragon, he fought successfully against the Arabs.

Boabdil, last emir of Granada (1460-c. 1527)
Boabdil is a corrupted Spanish word. His real name is Muhammad Abu Abdullah. In his youth, he was distinguished by a warlike disposition, as if not noticing the hopelessness of any active actions on the part of Muslims in Spain in the 15th century. As soon as he ascended the throne, he bravely invaded Castile and was immediately captured. Having lost Granada, he was forced to cross to North Africa, where he died.

Natalia Vanhanen

Reconquista (translated from Spanish and Portuguese as “reconquest”) is the process of returning by the Spaniards and the Portuguese the lands of the Iberian Peninsula, captured by the Mauritanian Islamic states.

This process was long and, naturally, bloody.

Suffice it to say that the reconquista began immediately, as the Arabs conquered the Iberian Peninsula, that is, in the VIII century, and ended only in 1492, when the Castilian king Ferdinand and Queen Isabella expelled the last Moors from the territory of the peninsula.

The struggle of the Pyrenean Muslims and Christians went on with varying success, the main reason for which was feudal strife on both sides.

As a result of such rivalry, Christian feudal lords entered into temporary alliances with Muslims, and they, in turn, turned to the Spaniards and Portuguese for help.

A long-term European "hot spot" was formed, in which military operations were carried out not only for the purpose of liberation, but also for selfish reasons.

Consequences of insult

The Arab conquest of the Pyrenees was made possible for a number of reasons, one of which was a personal insult inflicted by one Christian ruler on another. When the Arab commander Musa ibn Nusayr approached Spain, Ceuta stood in his way, the inhabitants of which put up fierce resistance.

Ceuta belonged to the Byzantine Empire, but was far from the capital, so the governor Julian had to defend the city on his own. In parallel with this, his daughter Kava was growing up, whom he sent to Toledo for education. Toledo then belonged to the Visigoths.

The local king Roderic was captivated by the beauty of Kava and dishonored her. When Julian found out about this, he was furious. He surrendered to the Arabs and offered Musa his help in conquering all of Spain. From this moment, the successful advance of the Arab troops deep into the peninsula begins.

Beginning of the Reconquista

King Roderich tried to resist the Arab invasion, but his army was defeated, and he himself died. The resistance ceased, and part of the Visigoths fled from the peninsula. The other part remained in the territories conquered by the Arabs, having received rich land allotments and other gifts for their alliance.

However, the situation changed when Pelayo, a representative of the Visigothic nobility and, according to one version, the former bodyguard of Roderich, returned from captivity. He was proclaimed king of Asturias, which angered the Arabs. When they sent a punitive detachment, Pelayo began to resist and destroyed the detachment of Alcama, the Andalusian emir, and himself. This battle, called the Battle of Covadonga, opens the long and hard process of the Reconquista.

Significance of the Reconquista

• The resistance of the Christian population of the Pyrenees eventually liberated the peninsula from the conquerors. However, the significance of the Reconquista is much greater.
• The performance against the Arabs stopped their advance further into Europe.
• The Spanish and Portuguese rulers became a serious opponent for the Muslim world, because of which the positions of the previously invincible Arab Caliphate were shaken.
• The struggle against the Arabs intensified the crusades. The Christian knights had a truly noble mission - the liberation of the conquered European territory from the Muslim yoke.
• After the expulsion of the Muslim Arabs, "moriscos" appeared. This was the name of the Arabs who remained to live in the Iberian Peninsula, now Christian, and themselves converted to Christianity (when voluntarily, but more often by force). In addition, "Marranos" appeared here - baptized Jews.

The Holy Inquisition followed how the Moriscos joined the Christian religion. Such surveillance was especially important. The fact is that the Islamic religion establishes the principle of "taqiyya", which consists in the fact that under certain circumstances, a true Muslim is allowed to hide his true faith and outwardly take on the guise of a non-believer.

In a Christian environment, a Muslim can, for example, imitate conversion to Christianity, can attend church services, but in his soul he still remains an adherent of his faith. Arabs performing "taqiyya" could well have appeared on the liberated Iberian Peninsula, where they were able to resist. Therefore, supervision by the inquisitors was necessary.

The Iberian Peninsula (where Spain and Portugal are now located) has long been famous for its advantageous geographical position and good climate. In the early Middle Ages, many states located by the sea were in great danger - the Arab invasion. The caliphates grew in strength and captured one tribe after another. And if the state was still torn apart by internal conflicts, it was fertile ground for conquest. Spain was inhabited by the Christian tribes of the Visigoths (since 410 AD), who founded their state here. The capital was the city of Toledo. However, in addition to the Visigoths, other tribes also lived there, striving to seize the lands of their neighbors. An even stronger threat lurked in the south - in North Africa. By the beginning of the 8th century, the Arab Caliphate came close to the borders of the peninsula.

Why not expand the borders even more, the ruler of the Caliphate Walid I decided. And he took up this issue. He assembled an army consisting of Berbers and local soldiers and in three years conquered almost the entire territory of Spain and Portugal. For the Christian world, it was a catastrophe - after all, they encroached on the sacred - faith. No one thought that the Iberian Peninsula would surrender so quickly. But there were reasons for that. As mentioned above, conflicts between kings raged within the country. The ruler of the Visigoths, Roderic, revolted the Spanish Jews, as well as the Byzantine city of Ceuta, which was the only deterrent to the Arabs (the emperor gave the city to the Arabs after he learned that his daughter had been dishonored by Roderick). The king of the Visigoths, having learned about the invasion, gathered an army and met the enemy near the Guadaleta River (near Cadiz).

The battle lasted several days and ended with the victory of the Moors. Roderick died in battle. Spain found itself face to face with the Arabs, who sought to spread Islam in these territories. The leader of the army, Tariq ibn Ziyad, established control over all of Spain, except for a small northern piece - the modern province of Asturias. His successful sorties and victories on the battlefield ensured his glory through the ages (the rocky area where Tariq gathered his warriors as he arrived in Spain bears his name - Jabal al-Tariq, but Gibraltar is more familiar to our ears). This was in 711.

The beginning of the reconquista

Of course, the Visigoths were not going to simply submit to the conquerors. Some of the local nobility chose to go over to the side of the enemy and thus receive land, power and life. Many Visigoths retreated to Asturias, where they began to plan the reconquest of their native lands. Pelayo, an aristocrat (perhaps a former bodyguard of King Roderick), was chosen as the leader. In 718, a small detachment of Pelayo approached the borders of the caliphate to give battle.

The Spanish governor-viceroy Minus sent his horsemen to show who was the boss here. In a battle in the Covadonga Valley, a small number of Pelayo's warriors were able to defeat the Arabs. Although the forces were unequal, and the Visigoths lost many soldiers, suffered hardships, the Christians living in the conquered lands began to hope for a prosperous outcome. The Battle of Covadonga is considered the beginning of the Reconquista, from the Spanish word Conquistar, to conquer. Particle Re meant reconquest. The struggle of Christians against Muslims has begun.

History of the Reconquista briefly

It should be noted that the Catholic Church played an important role here - it raised the Spaniards to fight against the infidels. Prosperous life was another incentive - the southern provinces of Spain were much richer and more fertile than the northern ones, so it was necessary to return them as soon as possible. A cry for help was also issued to all European Christian states.

We can say that it was the prototype of the first crusade, only instead of Jerusalem there was Spain. The feuds of the Muslim rulers on the ground also played into the hands. The Berbers rebelled against their masters, which was taken advantage of by the king of Asturias, Alfonso (son-in-law of Pelayo). He raided the provinces of Galicia, Cantabria, Leon, the cities of Porto, Braga, Zamora, Salamanca were captured.

The king of the Franks did not stand aside either. In 778, he crossed the Pyrenees and took from the Arabs the territories of modern Barcelona, ​​the Basque country and northern Catalonia. But the Arabs did not just give up and soon returned with reinforcements. Karl had to retreat.

For several centuries, local centers of conflict between Arabs and Spaniards flared up in different parts of Spain and Portugal, which lasted with varying degrees of success. During the 12th century, the Portuguese retook Lisbon and created the County of Lisbon. The Berbers who came from Africa in the fight against the Moors conquered all their territories. In the north of Spain, the regions of León and Castile united under the rule of the king of Asturias. The kingdom itself began to be called Leon, after the name of the city nearby. In 1135, King Alfonso VII was crowned as the ruler of all of Spain, and from 1139 begins a full-fledged struggle against the invaders. The Moorish capital of Toledo came under the control of the Spaniards.

The 13th century becomes the turning point of the reconquista. The battle of las Navas de Tolosa united the rulers of Portugal, Navarre, Castile, and Aragon under their banners. The Muslims were defeated in this battle. Soon the island of Mallorca also came under the control of Barcelona. For 20 years - from 1230 to 1250. - The Spaniards conquered Seville, Cordoba, Valencia, Murcia, the island of Menorca from the Moors. Only the Caliphate of Granada remained in the possession of the Arabs.

The beginning of the 14th century marks the capture of Gibraltar. The Arabs understand that the forces are becoming unequal - the Spaniards gradually regained all the lands that once belonged to the Visigoths (that is, them). The city of Granada remained the last stronghold of the Muslims. The Spanish kings have unsuccessfully tried to take it for many years, but so far to no avail. Granada is forgotten for a while, because in the middle of the 15th century, King Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile marry and unite all of Spain under their command. In 1492, the decisive battle for Granada takes place, as a result of which the city is liberated from the Muslims. Spain becomes Christian again. All residents are offered (voluntarily-compulsorily) to accept Catholicism. Those who do not agree can leave the country.

Reconquista in Spain

Despite the fact that the reconquest of land took place in Portugal, it is the Spanish Reconquista that is most famous. The Portuguese cities were in tandem with the Spanish, but in view of the greater territory, Spain took more part in the battles for freedom.

Completion of the Reconquista

The year 1492 was really rich in events - the discovery of America by Columbus, the completion of the Reconquista in Spain. After 7 centuries of Arab conquest, the Iberian Peninsula was finally able to breathe freely. From the Arab influence, only the cultural heritage in the cities remained. Now we are reminded of those distant events by the legendary palace complex of the Alhambra in Granada and several local monuments that could not be replaced by Catholic kings and priests.

Christian Reconquista - This is a continuous centuries-old war against the Moors, launched by part of the Visigothic nobility led by Pelayo.

In 718, the advance of the expeditionary corps of the Moors at Covadonga was stopped.

Pelayo's grandson Alfonso I (739-757), son of the first Cantabrian duke Pedro and Pelayo's daughter, connected Cantabria with Asturias.

In the middle of the VIII century. Asturian Christians under the leadership of King Alfonso I, taking advantage of the Berber uprising, occupied neighboring Galicia. In Galicia, the tomb of Saint James (Santiago) was claimed to have been discovered, and Santiago de Compostela becomes a center of pilgrimage.

Alphonse II (791-842) made devastating raids against the Arabs as far as the Tagus River and conquered the Basque country and Galicia as far as the Minho River. At the same time, in the north-west of Spain, the Franks, under Charlemagne, stopped the advance of Muslims into Europe and created the Spanish March in the north-east of the peninsula (the border area between the possessions of the Franks and the Arabs), which broke up in the 9th-11th centuries into the counties of Navarre, Aragon and Barcelona (in 1137 Aragon and Barcelona united to form the Kingdom of Aragon) and ensured, by numerous migrations, the dominance of Christianity in Catalonia. In the almost unceasing wars with the infidels, a brave feudal nobility developed. To the north of the Duero and the Ebro, four groups of Christian possessions gradually formed, with legislative assemblies and rights recognized by the estates (fueros):

1) in the north-west of Asturias, Leon and Galicia, which in the tenth century under Ordoño II and Ramiro II were united into the kingdom of León, and in 1057, after a short subjugation of Navarre, the son of Sancho the Great, Fernando, were united into the kingdom of Castile;

2) the Basque country, together with the neighboring region, Garcia, was proclaimed the kingdom of Navarre, which, under Sancho the Great (970-1035), extended its power to the whole of Christian Spain, was united with Aragon in 1076-1134, but then again freed;

3) a country on the left bank of the Ebro, Aragon, since 1035 an independent kingdom;

4) the hereditary margraviate of Barcelona, ​​or Catalonia, which arose from the Spanish brand. Despite this fragmentation, the Christian states were not inferior in strength to the Arabs.

Spain in 1000

Map of the Almoravid State

By 914 the kingdom of Asturias included León and most of Galicia and northern Portugal. The Spanish Christians expanded their possessions into the mountainous regions between Asturias and Catalonia, building many frontier fortresses. The name of the province "Castile" comes from the Spanish word "castillo", meaning "castle", "fortress".

The reconquista led to the fact that the Spanish peasants and residents of the cities who fought along with the knights received significant benefits. Most of the peasants did not experience serfdom, free peasant communities arose on the liberated lands of Castile, and cities (especially in the XII-XIII centuries) received greater rights.

When, after the fall of the Umayyad dynasty (1031), the Arab state fell apart, the county of Leon-Asturias, under the rule of Ferdinand I, received the status of a kingdom and became the main stronghold of the Reconquista. In the north, at the same time, the Basques founded Navarre, and Aragon merged with Catalonia as a result of a dynastic marriage. In 1085, the Christians captured Toledo, and then Talavera, Madrid and other cities fell under the power of the Christians. Summoned by the Emir of Seville from Africa, the Almoravids gave new strength to Islam with victories at Sallak (1086) and Ucles (1108) and again united Arab Spain; but the religious fervor and military courage of the Christians at the same time received a new impetus from the crusades.

Alphonse I of Aragon, by marriage with Urraca, heiress of Castile, temporarily (until 1127) united both kingdoms, took the title of Emperor of Spain (holding on until 1157), conquered Zaragoza in 1118 and made it his capital. After the separation of Castile from Aragon, both states kept an alliance with each other in the fight against the infidels; Aragon was soon greatly strengthened due to the marriage of the Aragonese heiress, Petronilla, with Raymond Berengar II of Barcelona, ​​which connected Aragon with Catalonia.

The Almoravides (1090-1145) briefly stopped the spread of the Reconquista. The period of their reign includes the exploits of the legendary knight Cid Campeador, who conquered the lands in Valencia in 1095 and became a national hero of Spain.

In 1147, the African Almoravides, overthrown by the Almohads, turned to the Christians for help, who took possession of Almeria and Tortosa on this occasion. The Spanish orders of chivalry (Calatrava from 1158, Santiago de Compostela from 1175, Alcantara from 1176) fought especially successfully against the Almohads, who subjugated southern Spain, who made up for the defeat at Alarcos (1195) with a victory at Las Navas de Tolosa (July 16, 1212). This was the most impressive victory against the Almohads, which was won by the united kings of León, Castile, Aragon and Navarre. This was soon followed by the fall of the power of the Almogads.

The Battle of Mérida (1230) took Extremadura from the Arabs; after the battle of Jerez de Guadiana (1233), Ferdinand III of Castile in 1236 led his army to Cordoba, and twelve years later to Seville. The Portuguese kingdom expanded almost to its present size, and the king of Aragon conquered Valencia, Alicante, and the Balearic Islands. Muslims moved in thousands to Africa and to Grenada or Murcia, but these states also had to recognize the supremacy of Castile. The Muslims who remained under Castilian rule more and more adopted the religion and customs of the conquerors; many rich and noble Arabs, having been baptized, passed into the ranks of the Spanish aristocracy. By the end of the 13th century, only the Emirate of Grenada remained on the peninsula, forced to pay tribute.

While the external power of Castile increased greatly due to the victories of Ferdinand III, turmoil raged inside the country, which, especially during the reign of the patron of science and art, Alphonse X the Wise (1252-1284) and his immediate successors, served as a source of unrest and increased the power of the nobility. Crown lands were plundered by private individuals; communities, unions and powerful nobles resorted to lynching and were freed from all power.

In Aragon, James I (James, 1213-1276) subjugated the Balearic Islands and Valencia and penetrated as far as Murcia; his son Pedro III (1276-1285) took Sicily from the house of Anjou; James II (1291-1327) conquered Sardinia and in 1319 at the Diet in Tarragona established the indivisibility of the state.

These conquests cost the Aragonese kings many concessions to the estates, of which the Zaragoza "general privilege" of 1283 is especially important. In 1287, Alphonse III added to it the "privilege of the union", which recognized the right of subjects to revolt in case of violation of their freedom. In both states the clergy were the most powerful class; victories over the infidels increased his rights and wealth, and his influence on the lower classes of the people aroused in them a spirit of persecution and fanaticism. The higher nobility included among its rights the right to refuse obedience to the king. All nobles were free from taxes. Cities and rural communities had their own special rights (fueros), recognized for them by special treaties. In both states, the estates gathered at the Diets (Cortes), conferring on the welfare and security of the country, on laws and taxes. Trade and industry were protected by provident laws; the court patronized the poetry of the troubadours. Most of all, the internal improvement of the state advanced in Aragon under Pedro IV (1336-1387), who eliminated some of the burdensome aspects of noble privileges, among other things, the right to war. Thanks to these measures, when the old dynasty died out (1410), the Castilian in the person of Ferdinand I (1414-1416) came to the throne, who retained power over the Baleares, Sardinia and Sicily and for a short time took possession of Navarre as well.

In Castile, on the contrary, the higher nobility and orders of chivalry dominated. The desire of cities for independence from the feudal aristocracy was not crowned with success due to the tyranny of Pedro the Cruel (1350-1369). The French and the British intervened in the strife caused by it. By the 14th century, the temporary alliances of the Christian kingdoms had disintegrated, and each began to pursue its own personal interests. Henry II (1369-1379), who took possession of Biscay, and Juan (John) I (1379-1390) weakened the kingdom with fruitless attempts to conquer Portugal, but the two-year war ended with the defeat of the Castilian army in 1385, when Portugal victoriously defended its independence at the Battle of Alhubarrota.

Aragon ceded control of Mediterranean trade to Genoa. Only Castile during this period is fully self-sufficient and profits from the wool trade with the Netherlands.

Cross of the Order of Alcantara

Nevertheless, victories over the Arabs went on as usual: in 1340, Alphonse XI won a brilliant victory at Salado, and four years later, with the conquest of Algeziras, Grenada was cut off from Africa.

Henry III (1390-1406) restored order and took possession of the Canary Islands. Again Castile was thrown into disarray by the long and feeble reign of Juan II (1406-1454). The unrest that grew under Henry IV ended with the accession to the throne of his sister Isabella. She defeated King Alfonso of Portugal and subdued her recalcitrant subjects with weapons.

In 1469, a significant event for the future of Spain took place: the marriage between Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, whom Pope Alexander VI called "Catholic kings." Ferdinand II of Aragon, after the death of his father, John II of Aragon, in 1479 inherited the Kingdom of Aragon, the union of the Castilian and Aragonese crowns marked the beginning of the Kingdom of Spain. Nevertheless, the political unification of Spain was completed only by the end of the 15th century; Navarre was annexed in 1512.

In 1478, Ferdinand and Isabella approved an ecclesiastical court - the Inquisition, designed to protect the purity of the Catholic faith. The persecution of Jews, Muslims, and later Protestants began. Several thousand suspects of heresy went through torture and ended their lives at the stake (auto-da-fe - initially the announcement, and then the execution of the sentence, in particular, public burning at the stake).

In 1492, the head of the Inquisition, the Dominican priest Tomaso Torquemada, convinced Ferdinand and Isabella to persecute non-Christian people throughout the country. Torquemada burned in the fires of the Inquisition anusim - (en: Anusim, אֲנוּסִים, "forced"), Jews who were forced to adopt another religion, but to one degree or another observed the prescriptions of Judaism. Many Jews fled from Spain, but the Jews still lived better than other Catholics and held high positions, for example, Don Yitzhak Abarbanel was the Minister of Finance at the court of the Spanish king.

To put an end to the offenses of the nobility, the ancient brotherhood of Hermandad was restored. The highest positions were placed at the disposal of the king; the higher clergy were subject to royal jurisdiction; Ferdinand was elected grand master of the three orders of chivalry, which made them obedient instruments of the crown; the inquisition helped the government keep the nobility and people in obedience. The administration was reorganized, the royal revenues were increased, part of them went to the promotion of sciences and arts in 1492.

Numerous Jews (160,000 thousand) were expelled from the state. The Reconquista ends with the conquest of Grenada (January 2, 1492). And in the same year, Christopher Columbus reaches America and establishes Spanish colonies there. The discovery of America provided Spain with a wide field of activity on the other side of the ocean.

General history. History of the Middle Ages. 6th grade Abramov Andrey Vyacheslavovich

§ 25. States of the Iberian Peninsula. Reconquista

Arab conquest of Spain and its aftermath

At the beginning of the 8th century, Arab conquerors invaded the Iberian Peninsula from North Africa. Despite the stubborn resistance of local residents, the Arabs seized most of their lands and established their power there. The Christian population was subject to high taxes, from which only those who converted to Islam were exempted. At first, Muslim Spain was part of the Arab Caliphate, but soon it turned into an independent state - the Caliphate of Cordoba. Its Muslim population was called the Moors.

Detail of a mosaic from a mosque in Cordoba

The capital of Arab Spain was Cordoba, one of the largest and most beautiful cities in medieval Europe. Up to half a million inhabitants lived here, many palaces and mosques towered. In total, there were about four hundred cities on the territory of the Iberian Peninsula. Glassware made in them, products made of precious metals, steel, leather, silk and woolen fabrics were famous all over the world. The Caliphate of Cordoba conducted a brisk trade not only with the countries of the Muslim world, but also with France, Italy, Byzantium. The Arabs taught the inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula to grow rice, cotton, sugar cane, oranges and lemons. The fields began to produce large crops, as the Moors used improved harrows and plows, and also used artificial irrigation. Educational institutions in Cordoba, Seville, Granada were famous throughout Europe. They had libraries where ancient manuscripts were kept. It was the Moors who introduced Europeans to the works of the Arab physician Avicenna, as well as to the works of ancient scientists, whose names the inhabitants of medieval Europe no longer remembered.

Courtyard of the Alhambra - the palace of Muslim rulers in the city of Granada

The most skillful architects of the Muslim world lived in Spain. The buildings built by them amaze with their beauty and luxury. They were distinguished by an abundance of arches and domes, intricate wall carvings and exquisite ornamentation. For building cladding, builders often used multi-colored ceramic tiles. Mauritanian Spain was one of the most prosperous countries in Europe.

Beginning of the Reconquista

The Arabs failed to capture the mountainous regions in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, which became the base Reconquests. Like the Crusades, the Reconquista became a holy war between Christians and Muslims. In the Pyrenees, spiritual and knightly orders were formed, the soldiers of which participated in battles with Muslims. The most famous of them was the Order of Sant Jago (Saint James).

The pope supported the struggle for the liberation of the Iberian Peninsula. Help for the Christians of Spain was provided by knights from France, England, Germany, and Italy. But the Reconquista was led not only by the feudal lords. A significant part of the Christian army were peasants who received freedom and plots of land in the conquered territories.

King of Castile and his retinue. Medieval drawing

The beginning of the Reconquista is considered to be 718, when the Christians won the first victory over the Arabs in the Covadonga valley. By the beginning of the 11th century, Christian states arose on the territory conquered from the Moors - the kingdoms of Navarre, Aragon and Leon. On the lands of the Spanish March, recaptured from the Arabs by Charlemagne, the county of Barcelona, ​​or Catalonia, was located. In the middle of the 11th century, the Caliphate of Cordoba broke up into two dozen small states. Taking advantage of this, in the second half of the 10th and early 11th centuries, Leon managed to capture new lands to the south. In the annexed area, many fortresses rose, so the strengthened Christian kingdom began to be called Castile - “the country of castles”. At the end of the 11th century, the Castilians captured the city of Toledo, which became the new capital of their state.

Pyrenean states in the 9th-11th centuries

What Christian states existed on the Iberian Peninsula by the beginning of the 11th century? What changes took place in the Iberian Peninsula by the end of the 11th century?

The medieval poem "The Song of Side" tells about the successes of Castile in the fight against the Moors. It tells about the life and exploits of the knight Rodrigo Diaz, nicknamed Sid - "Lord". The author of the poem, without hiding his admiration for the main character, colorfully describes the battles with the Arabs:

You should have seen how they prick with spears,

How shields are broken into pieces on the move,

How strong armor is cut off at a stroke,

How the badges on the spears turn red with blood.

In the first half of the XII century, a new stage of the Reconquista began. From Castile stood out the southwestern region, which later became an independent state - the kingdom of Portugal. Its capital was Lisbon conquered from the Arabs. The Kingdom of Aragon also expanded, the main city of which, Zaragoza, was also conquered from the Moors. In the second half of the 12th century, the Aragonese kings became masters of Catalonia.

At the beginning of the 13th century, the rulers of the Christian states of the Iberian Peninsula managed to unite their forces. On July 16, 1212, at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolos, the armies of the four kingdoms utterly defeated the troops of the Moors and their allies from North Africa. Shortly thereafter, the Castilians captured the Arab cities of Cordoba and Seville. Aragonese kings established their power in Valencia, the Balearic Islands, Sardinia, Sicily and southern Italy.

Completion of the Reconquista

By the end of the 13th century, the Arabs had only a region in the south of the Iberian Peninsula - the Emirate of Granada, which was opposed by four Christian states: Navarre, Portugal, Castile and Aragon. Navarre was a small mountainous country in the northeast of the Pyrenees. Its economic development was slow, and it did not play a big role in the liberation of Spain from the Moors in the XIII-XV centuries.

The battle between the armies of Christians and Moors. Medieval drawing

In the northwest of the peninsula, Portugal was located in a narrow strip along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. The favorable geographical position of the country was reflected in the occupations of its inhabitants. Portugal conducted a brisk trade with Northern Europe and the Mediterranean countries.

Pyrenean states in the XII-XV centuries

What changes took place on the Iberian Peninsula in the XII century, in the XIV-XV centuries? Find the places of the main battles of the Moors and Christians.

Castile and Aragon made a great contribution to the struggle for the liberation of Spain. Estate-representative monarchies gradually developed in these countries.

For the first time, the king summoned the feudal lords and the clergy to a council in Castile in 1188. Then representatives of cities and peasant communities were invited to the meetings. So arose Cortes(from the word "court" - the royal court). The Castilian Cortes had three chambers. They approved new taxes, participated in the publication of laws. In the XII-XIII centuries, estate-representative monarchies took shape in all the kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula.

King Fernando and Queen Isabella. medieval sculptures

In 1479, ten years after the wedding of the Aragonese prince Fernando and the Castilian princess Isabella, the two most powerful states in the Pyrenees united. The formation of a single state - the Spanish kingdom allowed to complete the Reconquista. In 1492, after long battles, the Aragonese and Castilian troops captured the Emirate of Granada. The completion of the Reconquista strengthened the power of the Spanish kings, which became even stronger at the beginning of the 16th century, when Navarre was annexed to the Spanish kingdom. Thus, the entire Iberian Peninsula was under the rule of the Spanish and Portuguese rulers.

Bonfires of the Inquisition

By the end of the Reconquista, hostility and religious intolerance between Christians and Muslims intensified. The "Catholic kings" (the so-called Fernando of Aragon and Isabella of Castile) forbade Christians to marry Muslims, and the Moors from holding public office. Many Moors and Jews living in the Iberian Peninsula were faced with a difficult choice: either leave Spain or abandon their religion and convert to Christianity.

But baptism did not always help. The Catholic clergy were suspicious of the "Moriscos" and "Morans" - Moors and Jews who converted to Christianity. They were suspected of secret observance of the old rites. To maintain the "purity of faith" by the decision of the Pope and the Spanish kings at the end of the 15th century, the Spanish Inquisition was created. It was headed by Thomas Torquemada, famous throughout Europe for his cruelty.

Remember what the Inquisition is and why it was created.

Those suspected of apostasy from Christianity faced severe punishment. The inquisitors threw them into prison, tortured them, and, having received the necessary "evidence" of guilt, sentenced them to auto-da-fé. The execution of heretics took place in the presence of the king, the clergy and crowds of people. The first Spanish auto-da-fé took place in February 1481 in the city of Seville. Soon the burning of heretics began to take place constantly, and a special platform was built for executions - the "brazier".

Summing up

Like the Crusades, the Reconquista was a clash between the Christian and Islamic worlds. In the course of the reconquest of lands, a new territory was developed and united under the rule of kings. As a result of the struggle against the Moors on the territory of the Iberian Peninsula, two strong states were formed - Spain and Portugal.

Reconquista (from the word "reconquest") - the liberation by Christians of the lands of the Iberian Peninsula occupied by Muslims, which lasted from the 8th to the 15th centuries.

Auto-da-fe ("a matter of faith") - the public burning of heretics at the stake by the verdict of the Inquisition.

Cortes - meetings of representatives of estates in the states of the Iberian Peninsula.

718 The battle of the Christians with the Moors in the valley of Covadonga. Beginning of the Reconquista.

1212 Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa. Defeat of the Moors.

1479 Unification of Castile and Aragon. Formation of the Spanish kingdom.

1492 Capture of the Emirate of Granada. End of the Reconquista.

1. When did the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by the Arabs take place and what was the significance of it?

2. What is Reconquista? How many periods can be distinguished in the Reconquista? What does it have in common with the Crusades and how do they differ?

3. What states were formed on the Iberian Peninsula by the end of the XIII century? What was common in the government of these states?

4. What similarities did the Cortes have with the Estates General in France and the Parliament in England, and how did they differ?

5. When and why did the unification of Castile and Aragon take place? What role did this association play in the liberation of the Iberian Peninsula?

6. How did the "Catholic kings" monitor the "purity of faith" in Spain?

1. The medieval chronicle describes one of the episodes of the Reconquista as follows: “This year, King Alphonse gathered a huge army, more than ever, and went to Toledo ... and the Moors were forced to surrender the city to King Alfonso ... And the Moors turned to the king with a request that left them in the city and that they keep their houses and property and all that they own, and the king don Alphonse allowed them to live ... and he commanded that the Moors pay the same poll taxes that were collected from them by the Moorish kings, and besides , he announced that the main mosque should forever belong to the Moors ... And after that this agreement was approved and sealed with signatures, and the Christians established themselves in the city; the king made a campaign against the cities and villages that lie in the vicinity of Toledo, and all the lands that he conquered became ours ... And the throne of the king was transferred to the royal palace of Toledo. What episode of the Reconquista are we talking about and what was its significance? What agreement with the Moors and why was the king forced to conclude?

2. Fill in the table "Periods of Reconquista":

This text is an introductory piece.