The Cordoba mosque, known to locals in Spain as Mezquita-Cathedral, is one of the oldest structures remaining from the age when Muslims ruled much of the Iberian Peninsula.

       What happened to the Muslims of Spain?

      Spanish Catholics gradually reclaimed the important Muslim cities of Toledo (1085), Cordoba (1236), and Seville (1248), with the Nasrid kingdom in Granada holding out until 1492. Determined to purge the land of any taint of infidel faith, Ferdinand and Isabella gave remaining Muslims and Jews the choice of conversion, exile, or death. Muslim converts to Christianity, called Moriscos, continued to live in small communities, but after 1500 Spanish Islam was little more than a memory. Today some Muslims are emigrating to Spain from North Africa, though in much smaller numbers than to France.

      What is the meaning of the term convivencia and why is it applied to medieval Spain?

      Convivencia is Spanish for “living together,” and it refers to a period from the eighth to the fifteenth centuries because of the often romanticized notion that Christians and Jews lived together in peace under Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula. Some have referred to the “medieval” period in Spain as a Golden Age, and it is true that the early Middle Ages in Spain were in many ways a period of Muslim-Christian harmony. But these seven centuries witnessed more than enough difficulties, along with a genuinely remarkable cultural flourishing, during several periods within that long stretch of history in a land known as al-Andalus. In the area of juridical matters, Christians and Jews held the status of “protected minorities,” or dhimmis—a status accorded to “peoples of the Book,” that is, members of the Abrahamic faiths. All Jews and Christians were required to pay the jizya, or poll tax, in lieu of freedom from Muslim almsgiving requirements and military service. In exchange they were also guaranteed protection for their lives and possessions, freedom of livelihood, and religion. Christians and Jews were forbidden to proselytize among Muslims.

      What are some examples of the benefits of convivencia?

      In the realm of cultural affairs, many important connections occurred. Intermarriage was not unusual and Muslim rulers often married Christian women from the north of Spain. Many Spanish words have Arabic influences, words beginning with “al” and those associated with agriculture, crafts, and civil administration. Christian and Jewish architecture borrowed many formal and decorative conventions from Islamic buildings, such as the horseshoe arch, colored voussoirs (the periphery of arches), and stalactite-like features on vaulting called muqarnas. Perhaps most importantly, the city of Cordoba’s intellectual life was rich with poetry, music, and science, offering educational opportunities that attracted members of all faiths from across Europe. This cross-pollination was essential in facilitating the transfer of much “Islamic” learning and scholarship to Europe by encouraging translation into Latin from Arabic. Living not far from the famous Muslim philosopher Ibn Rushd (Averroes) was a noted contemporary, the legendary Rabbi Maimonides. On the negative side, Jews and Muslims were often segregated in religious and ethnic ghettos called juderias and morerias, respectively; and slavery was very common in medieval Spain.

      What was the reconquista?

      Throughout much of the period in question, Christian rulers were engaged in the reconquista, attempting to “reconquer” the peninsula in the name of Christian monarchs, and this occasionally caused tension among those still under Muslim governance. With his fifty-seven campaigns, Caliph al-Mansur was very active militarily and often held captives in lengthy imprisonment. Under later Muslim sovereigns, Christian prisoners of war contributed to the Kutubiyya mosque in Marrakesh. On the other hand, victorious Christian rulers returned the favor, and Muslim prisoners of war helped build the pilgrimage center of Santiago de Compostela in the 1100s. Christianity’s Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 addressed issues regarding Jews and Muslims, and included a number of harsh conditions for non-Christians enacted across much of Europe.

      By the tenth century, the Iberian Peninsula was divided more or less in half, Christian kingdoms in the north and Muslims in the south. All sorts of curious social and religious changes followed. Muslim tolerance of Christians and Jews marked a high point in the tenth century, but many Christians converted, and the Arabized Christians were called Mozarabs (from an Arabic root meaning roughly “adopting Arab ways”). Shifts in religious allegiance were a cause of grave concern for both Muslims and Christians. A prominent Christian leader named Eulogius, archbishop of Cordoba, for example, raised alarms over what he perceived as dangerous signs of “Islamization.” He lamented that Christians seemed to prefer Arabic to Latin. Christian women began veiling their faces, stopped eating pork, and appreciated Arabic culture, music, and poetry. With the decline of Cordoba, official toleration of Christians declined also: their houses had to be lower than those of Muslims, and they could not study the Quran, build new churches, or display crosses outdoors. Both Muslim and Christian attitudes hardened towards each other, and the conquering Christians persecuted and expelled Muslims from land they recaptured.

      What are some examples of how Christian scholars thought of Islam and engaged their Muslim counterparts in the greater Mediterranean world of the Middle Ages?

      Beginning as early as the late seventh century, Christian leaders and scholars of the central Middle East addressed seriously the phenomenon of Islam as a system of thought and belief. John of Damascus (c. 675–749) was one of the first Christians to devote himself to the formal study of Islam. His father and grandfather had both occupied high posts in the administration of the Umayyad dynasty in Damascus, though both remained Christian. John knew Arabic and had a solid understanding of fundamental Muslim texts and beliefs. In a major work, John discusses the “heresy” of Islam and calls the Prophet the Antichrist. But the mere fact that he took Islam seriously was enough to get him condemned by his fellow Christian authorities in 754 as “Saracen-minded.” Subsequent generations of eastern Mediterranean Christian scholars became increasingly negative in their assessments of Islam, identifying Islam as the “Anti-Christ” and a harbinger of the apocalypse (and thus a tool of divine punishment of Christians for their infidelity), and inventing a lexicon of stunningly uncomplimentary epithets for Muhammad. During early medieval times, however, even as the Crusades were ramping up, some influential Christian scholars sought to present Islam more accurately. For the most part, they continued to regard Islam as a form of heresy—a step up from rank paganism. Peter the Venerable,