Introduction

Al-Andalus was the term used by Muslims to refer to the Iberian Peninsula, and from it comes the name Andalucía, the southern region of Spain where Muslim rule lasted the longest. The Visigothic kingdom that succeeded Roman rule in the region of Hispania collapsed with the Muslim conquest of 711, led by Arab and Berber troops. Direct Muslim control was established over the majority of the Iberian Peninsula, except for the mountainous areas in the north and northwest, where Christian kingdoms were eventually formed. A process of Arabisation and Islamisation ensued, such that by the eleventh century the majority of the population were Arabic-speaking Muslims. The number of Christians living in al-Andalus diminished through emigration, deportation and conversion, while the Jewish communities flourished, except during the early Almohad period when forced conversion to Islam took place. In 756, following the Umayyads’ defeat at the hands of the Abbasids, an Umayyad prince from Syria arrived in the Iberian Peninsula. His arrival signalled the beginning of autonomous Muslim rule in al-Andalus, with Cordoba as the capital, first of the Umayyad emirate (756–929) and then of the Umayyad caliphate (929–1031). Cordoba became then the largest, most populated and richest city in Latin Europe due to the flourishing of agriculture and trade that went together with cultural splendour, epitomised by the rich caliphal library.

By the end of the tenth century, internal tensions caused by the legacy of the powerful chamberlain al-Manṣūr b. Abī ʿĀmir, who had become the de facto ruler, erupted in civil wars that led to the abolishment of the Umayyad caliphate in 1031 and the appearance of the short-lived caliphate of the Ḥammūdids, descendants of the Prophet Muḥammad. Al-Andalus was then divided into a number of petty (Taifa) kingdoms ruled by local notables from different backgrounds. Because of their military weakness, they eventually had to pay tribute to the Christian kingdoms to stop the latter's territorial advance. The fall of Toledo to the Christians in 1085 led the Taifa kings to seek the military aid of the Almoravids, Berber camel-drivers from the Sahara who had conquered the far Maghreb (present-day Morocco) and founded Marrakech.

The Almoravids defeated the Christians at the battle of Zallāqa in 1086 and eventually banished or killed the Taifa kings in order to incorporate al-Andalus into their empire.