Ismail Kamdar – History of al-Andalus #01
AI: Summary ©
The history of the Muslim Empire is discussed, including the fall of the first-ever-ever-ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever- ever-AI: Transcript ©
Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa Salatu was Salam ala Nabi al Karim Ali, he was heavy arch marine. Welcome back to Islam intensive Islamic history where we are going to continue looking at the history of the Muslim Empire. But this week we going back a century to look at the foundations of Islamic Spain. So we spent the past few weeks looking at the myriad and the Abbasid empires. And I mentioned that at some point, they split off into two separate empires, with the marriage continuing in Spain, while the abbasids flourished in the rest of the Muslim world. As we said, the history of these two empires now ran concurrently. So now that we're
done with the abbasids, we need to take a step back and look at made Spain, because Romania, Spain is a very important and glorious part of our history. And it's a very forgotten part of our history. It's sad to see that the majority of people, not just majority of Muslims, but majority of people do not know that Muslims ever ruled Spain,
leave alone knowing that there was a golden age in Islamic Spain, that lasted for 300 years. And that during those 300 years, Al Andalus, Islamic Spain was the most advanced and dominant
civilization in all of Europe. It was the best civilization in Europe at that time, we are looking at a point in time, where the rest of Europe was still in the dark ages. And Al Andalus was a beacon of science, technology, religion, culture, everything else. And this is forgotten, this is lost to most people don't even know it happened, which is a tragedy really, you know, this is an important part of our history. It's also a sad part of our history, because what you're going to see is that the maids built up Spain into one of the most glorious empires in the history of this world. But after the downfall of the oma, Spain fell apart so quickly, that it was the first Muslim land to
fall back into non Muslim hands. Right? We know in recent history that happened to a lot of our lands, are we seeing it now with Israel, we see it before with India. But we talking about 500 600 years ago, the only example you could really give of that would be Spain. It was the only major empire that had fallen back into normalcy. And so it's really, really sad that we lost what was once the crown jewel of the Muslim Empire. But it's important that we study its history, understand what happened, benefit from the good, and learn lessons from the mistakes as well. So let's get started with what happened. How did Spain become a Muslim land. And with that, we go right back to the rain
of worried even Abdul Malik. Now, if you remember, we stated that during the reign of Walid even Abdul Malik, of the oma expanded faster than any other point in history, right, he had appointed some of the most amazing commanded of the Muslim army that conquered land upon land until the Muslims were ruling multiple countries across North Africa and Asia. And they also ended up taking over a part of Europe, that is Spain. So what happened? What happened was that
Musa even knew say, who was the Chief Commander of worried in North Africa, he had taken over Morocco and the surrounding areas, and brought about a strong sense of justice and religiosity in those areas. And just across the ocean, in southern Europe, we had the Jews and Christians who were suffering under a tyrannical king, king Roderick. Now note, Roderick is a Christian. But the Christians of spring couldn't stand his tyranny. And they looked across the ocean to see the kind of justice that the Muslims were bringing, and they wanted that as well. So the Christians and the Jews of the
of this part of the world, they reached out to the Muslims in North Africa, and they asked for help. They ask for help so Moosa, even resale he sent his freed slave, direct, even Ziad at the head of an army of 7000. To to assist the oppressed people in Spain. I know I'm using the word Spain because that's the word that that we know. We understand today. But remember, borders have shifted a lot and named have changed a lot over history. So just like the word Syria today, doesn't mean what it meant 1000 years ago, Spain is the same. When I'm talking about Spain, or
Well, yeah, I'm talking primarily about the Iberian Peninsula, which today includes both Spain and Portugal, right to this part of the world. I'm talking about Spain and Portugal, that back then they were one land that the Muslims took over. And it was one country under the Muslims. It only became two separate countries much later on in history. So when you're talking about Spain, here we are, including Portugal, as well, as we're looking at the ancient definition not the modern borders. Right.
So what happens this story is quite legendary and there may be some exaggerations in it as well, along those best, nonetheless, we will read it as it is known in most of our history books, during even Ziad this are not African commander, he takes his army of 7000 they cross over into Spain, and he has a dream in which the prophets or in some towns in that he is going to be victorious. Right. And so he burns all of his ships, so his forces have no choice but to fight. They can't run away from the battlefield. And they clash with rodricks army of 100,000. And they defeat them. This is one of these. This is the strongest victory of the Muslims against a superior army since he moved
all the way back in the time of Omar Abdul hottub when the armies of Khalid even Waleed Abu Zubaydah, injera, priests, the armies of the peasant teams and defeated them. This is this is like
80 years later, and something similar happens in Spain. Now, again, I think there are some exaggerations in the story, because they are reports that the Christians and the Jews who wanted the Muslims to take over, they sided with the Muslims, and they joined the Muslim army, and they fought alongside Tarik evensi. So 7000 Muslims, but more realistically, there will be at least 10,000 people fighting on the side of justice. Right? So that would make a bit more sense, right.
compared to how it looks, when you just say 7100, of course, we know as Muslims 7000 defeating 100,000 isn't the law is completely possible, as anything is possible with the permission of Allah. But just to be historically accurate, it is possible that the way 1000s of Jews and Christians in their ranks as well. And that also gave them an advantage. So the Muslims conquered very quickly. And they took over many, many Porsche parts of that of what used to be the Iberian Peninsula, and the established Al Andalus. So what is today Spain and Portugal was during the Muslim land called underdose, which was divided into provinces like guru Toba and a few other provinces as well. And
before that, it was just called the Iberian Peninsula. And they take over this land, and he managed to expand the borders, all the way to the borders of France. Now, it's interesting that France, and the Muslims have always had it in for each other. The Muslims of Spain were, continuously engage in a jihad against the French. Throughout history, it's like a back and forth back and forth for hundreds of years, with neither being able to gain the advantage until the Inquisition of Spain, which not the French but the Christians of what hundreds of years later rise up and kick the Muslims out of the land. Okay, so the first governor put in charge of Spain was Musa Ibn lusail son, Abdul
Aziz even Musa and he ruled justly, and people began to convert to Islam, and Islam became established in that region. However, the early omiya particularly Waleed and his brothers, really, man, they did not give much attention to Spain.
Why? Number one, it's far away. So all the way in Europe. Right? It's not a priority to them. Number two, they will engage their own internal power struggle. So we know that Suleiman was trying to show me what he was trying to prevent women from becoming the next king. And so the man was pushing back against that. And so they were kind of negligent of the greater Empire as they were involved in this power struggle. Eventually, Superman comes into power, and he takes revenge on any governor or commander who was loyal to his brother, and that unfortunately includes Musa Ibn Hussein, Tariq Ibn Abdul Aziz Ibn Musa. All of them suffer at the hands of Solomon. Even Abdul Malik and Musa Ibn nusil
is imprisoned and tortured he sent Abdul Aziz is assassinated.
Cinnamon appoints a nother governor in
Charge of, of Syria, I'm sorry underlords. But that Governor loses his. He didn't gain support from the people who are very angry. But what happened to Abdul Aziz, because they loved him. He was a just ruler. And so that person is quickly replaced. And within a few short years, surely man dies. Omar Abdulaziz comes into power. And now for the first time in our history, Spain is given actual attention, really, Spain is conquered in the reign of Walid. But it really begins to show with potential in the reign of Omar Abdulaziz. And he only really begins to grow into its full potential in the reign of Abdul Rahman even more. So it takes a long time for Spain to really flourish. It
really struggled in the beginning, Omar Ibn Abdul Aziz, he did something that was unprecedented in our history at that point in time, and that is, he halted the expansion of the military. And he halted the military expansion of the oma to focus on the development of the various lands that they had conquered. So he appointed sama bin Malik as the governor of Spain. And he put him in charge of doing a census of Spain of writing out and recording the towns, the provinces, the populations, the religions, the races, the languages, the rovers, the mountains, basically every possible detail he could get about their part of the world, because remember, this is an unknown land to the Arabs,
they don't know anything about this language is conquered. So Omar Abdullah as his number one priority, let's learn what we can about this land so we can see what work needs to be done. And so this huge task is taken up by Samar, urban Malik. And this forms the blueprint upon which the development of Spain will grow, that later on marriage will have access to the information to know what Spain is, what are its weaknesses, what are its strengths, what is its potential, and they could grow it from there. Now, of course, Ahmed bin Abdul Aziz does not root for very long, he's killed after two and a half years to poisoning, and his cousin yazeed comes into power. And then we
know what happened after that, between the beds fighting each other, as well as the abbasids. fighting the taking over. So Spain basically is continued to be neglected, right until the Abbas is coming to power. So the civil wars take place between the Romans and the Romans and the Abbas it, no one's cares about Spain, which is all the way in Europe.
The Muslim world
is in a state of anarchy, and Spain is as well, this new governors are coming in all the time, people are fighting each other. And it's only when the abbasids take over the Muslim world. And Spain became a separate country, that we have the rise of a true
civilization in Spain. So to recap, the early hominids, they ruled Spain through governance, but they weren't really successful due to politics in both Arabia and Spain. We know somehow even Malik and his successor Mombasa were just but they were involved in the jihad against France. They were martyred while fighting the French.
Spain was involved in this time primarily in a jihad against the French and this just went on and on and on for years.
So the last governor appointed over Spain before it becomes an independent country his use of even Abdurrahman theory, and he's the last governor, because after the Spain becomes its own country with its own hollyball separate from the opposite Empire. So let's talk about that because that's one of my favorite stories in our history. The story of Abdur Rahman even more are we prohibit hula? Really the story of Abdul Rahman is amazing. This is a story you can make a movie about or a TV series about it's it's really, really fascinating. So what happened when the abbasids took over Syria, they invited all of your remaining homemade princes for a feast to show that there's no hard feelings,
and they hid behind the curtains assassins one assassin for each Prince. And while the princes were eating the Abbas, it's had him all assassinated. Every descendant of the omiyage in Syria was murdered that day, except for one, Abdul Rahman, even more, also known as Abdul Rahman the first. So why would Abdul Rahman
sped they are different durations something he was sick and he did not attend
Most of the generations that he was there, but he spotted the assassins and he managed to escape. So let's look at what this book has to say. By the way, it's lost Islamic history for us. One of the main books I'm using for this course. So he says in Syria most members of the immediate family were jailed or executed. One young woman managed to escape the carnage. Abdul Rahman, a 20 year old Prince escaped from Damascus in 750. c, just ahead of the Abbasid Empire, and began an epic journey across the Muslim world in support of help in search of help and support after the rest of his family had been killed. His mother was a burble. So he went to North Africa seeking help. And he was
always just one step ahead of the pursuing aborted agents. Finally, he found help in Al Andalus. In the year 755. And year, he established in a way your state would call to buy at this capital, separate from the Abbasid Empire far away in pocket that his journey began in Syria. And it ended up all the way in kotoba. And this is why he was given the nickname the immigrant. So
fascinatingly, it took six years, for six years. Abdul Rahman is on the run. For six years, he goes into exile, he's hiding, he's changing his name, he moving from land to land. The Abbas's know that he escaped. They have spies looking for him everywhere. They have armies looking for him everywhere. And he's moving further and further away from Arabia into Africa, trying to find support. His mother is from North Africa. So he moves towards Morocco, right. And of course, this is a guy who is on the wrong he's, he can't just, you know,
take a horse and ride openly, he has to quietly at night, moved from land to land, while still trying to take care of himself. And so he makes his way all the way to Morocco. And when he is there, he learns that the people of Spain are not happy that the Abbas's have taken over and the average person in Spain is still loyal to do my words. And so Abdul Rahman, realizing that the average person in Spain is still loyal to his family, he crosses the ocean from North Africa, into Spain. And he sets himself up as an opposition to YouTube Alfie Hurry, a series of battles take place between this group of rebels, red Abdul Rahman, and the governor use of and eventually use of
gives up. Abdul Rahman takes over all of Islam explain all of Al Andalus and he declares it the new mega Empire. And so will Abdul Rahman even when we see the rise of the third and final major Empire, and this is the one that lasts the longest. We know when Mao era Delano and his descendants, it was just three generations would.
Marwan he would have come in his descendants, it was about 70 years, Abdul Rahman even more, and his descendants would go on to ruled Spain for 290 years. 290 years this is a lengthy Empire and not just a lengthy Empire, but a glorious Empire. that the majority of these 290 years is a time of productivity, of growth, of development of really becoming a beacon
of civilization.
That during the reign of Abdul Rahman, the second Abdul Rahman the third,
which coincides with the reigns of Herod Rashid and his descendants, we see the abbasids and the Romanians at the same time experiencing a golden age. So the golden age of Islam actually took place in two separate empires at the same time.
Now, you may ask that, you know, what do we support in this? I mean, this when you read the story of Abdul Rahman, and his family being killed and him going on the run, do you support the abbasids who were
seemingly better than you my age, but I had the murderers. The support Abdul Rahman was battling against the governor and taking over so then reality is that's politics. That's politics. It's it's never straightforward. It's always a gray area. Politics is a place where people's hands get dirty. Politics don't doesn't not necessarily have good guys and bad guys.
Everybody sees themselves as the good guy. Everybody sees themselves as the hero in the mind. Abdur Rahman he is the hero reviving the Omega Empire, preserving his legacy, saving his family, bringing back the reputation giving the omegas one more chance to establish themselves and grow, bringing hope and prosperity to Spain. The ambassade see him as a rebel, the one who got away a man who took a piece of their land and turned it into his own Empire. Watching
interesting is that the Abbas's don't pursue Abdul Rahman after this, you know, he's not in Arabia, he's not in Africa, he's already in Europe, they decide to just let it go. Right, the next generation of Abbas is coming to power. And remember, he spent six years on the run. So when he runs away, it's a boss who is in charge. Right? By the time of the romantic super spin, a boss has died and his brother has taken over. And
the rest of the way our bosses they weren't as bloodthirsty as a boss, the butcher. So they decided it's not worth their time going to Europe, where and and dealing with Abdul Rahman, decided to just let it go. And both civilizations coexisted peacefully for the bulk of their history, to such an extent that if you were living in Egypt, and you wanted to go to live in Spain, nobody would say anything. Nobody would do anything. You didn't need a passport, you didn't need a visa, it wasn't considered treason against the Abbasid Empire, nothing. They just operated open borders, right between these two empires. And it was during the period that our golden age takes place. So why does
the Golden Age take off Spain take place when it becomes a separate land? My theory is that because the Romanians ruled a very small part of the Muslim world, they could focus all of their time and effort and energy and money into developing that land. So the Abbas's had to deal with many countries at the same time. And often areas would go neglected and faraway countries would go neglected and rebellions will take place and smaller kingdoms will pop up. The Romanians, for the first few 100 years didn't have to deal with that. They ruled a relatively small country.
All of the energy and resources went into developing their country. So they could really focus on turning it into the absolute best country in the world, because they were wealthy. They had decades of experience in leadership and administration. They brought all of that, that they had learned in Makkah and Medina and in Syria, they brought all of that to Europe. And remember, Europe was going through the dark ages, Spain at that time was uncapped potential. If you go to Spain, and you look around, it's a land that has everything. It really has everything to become a dominant civilization in the world. And the image recognize that and they build upon it, and they developed around it and
they build it into this glorious, glorious Empire. Abdul Rahman himself after everything he went through in his 20s you know, the murder of his family going into exile crossing the ocean rebellion taking over, he ended up ruling Spain peacefully for 32 years, from his mid 20s.
All the way into his late 50s up to Rahmani r we are ruled over Spain, and he uses this time to develop it, he develops it, and it grows into one of the most glorious countries in the history of this world, that Islamic Spain now becomes a superpower of its own, separate from the opposites. So now 100 years, or other 130 years, 150 years after Islam comes into existence, Muslims are now ruling two of the major superpowers in the world, the Abbasid Empire, and may explain with the present teams perhaps being the third superpower. But again, the present teams were on the decline at that time do we no longer powerful as they were before Islam.
And this is America. This really is a very cold the fact that Islam grew death fast, from a single town in Arabia, to two massive civilizations that are more powerful than any other civilization in the world at that time, across three continents.
This is unparalleled in history.
And this really should make us think about just how amazing the history of Islam truly is. There's a lot of darkness in our history, but it's a lot of glory in our history as well.
So, Spain continues to grow under the reign of Abdul Rahman son, a sham. He also here he will rule for a long time in fact, the entire family's rains put together works out to 290 years. This is one of the longest
dynasties in the history of Islam, after the Abbas's, and the Ottomans, the image of Spain probably be the third longest dynasty in the history of Islam. 290 years this family rules over Spain, he shall rule for eight years and he Sham is someone who the history
Look upon favorably. And they actually compare him to Omar ibn Abdullah says that he is considered a just ruler, a pious ruler, a genius ruler, a great man.
The benefit he had is that unlike Ahmed bin Abdulaziz he shoved in half cousins trying to remove him from power. Right so Omar bin Abdulaziz rain last only two and a half years before his cousins have been poisoned. He Sham manages to rule for eight years before he dies in actual debt from sickness or basically he wasn't killed or anything like that.
One of the most fascinating developments in the reign of a sham is the construction of the kotoba Masjid, the Cordova mosque. This must be the construction began during the reign of Abdul Rahman, and it was a massive project. This is one of the most glorious buildings ever built by the Muslims.
This building is so beautiful and so majestic. That when the Christians eventually conquered Spain hundreds of years later, and they were destroying all the masjids, they couldn't bring themselves to destroying the Cordova mosque. Instead, they turned it into the Cordova Cathedral, which it remains to today. So if you go to choose to Cordova today,
and you go to the Cordova Cathedral, you will notice that its architecture is made. Its architecture is Arab. It doesn't have the architecture of later Spanish buildings. It has a distinct Arab look to it. And you can still visit this building today. And see just what a glorious architectural wonder, the image we're able to build in Spain, so so early on, and this wouldn't be the last one that they would build, right the parking but the building would come later, and many others as well. That hombre palace, but this right here is the one that remains. This right here is the one that that is still there, right till today. It's a huge, massive complex. For Salah, for four, there was a pocket
it is this library library way ahead of anything else in a row by the time school University, it was just this massive complex that was truly a wonder of the world. And this became like the sign that the omegas were now the dominant civilization of Europe, that they had constructed something of this nature, showing the genius showing the power, showing the intellect showing the technology showing that they were, you know, a civilization that was more powerful than anything else in Europe at that time.
So he managed to rule for eight years. And he faced some opposition from his brothers who wanted to be the king. Nothing really happened not like what happened with Omar Abdulaziz or the others before him. It was more discussions and arguments. But Spain remain stable. It continued to grow and continue to flourish and continue to become a massive Empire.
After him, his son have come in with a sham comes into power. And how come he was sharp. He rules for 26 years. And this is considered the period in which the maids consolidated their power
in Spain, so during the reign of Abdul Rahman and he Sham, this still fighting rebellious groups, they still have certain lands ruled by the Christians, which they are negotiating with and fighting with and trying to bring back on the Muslim rule. They still have
pockets of rebels here and there. How come he is the one who manages to take over all of Al Andalus and bring it under Wade rule. And he rules for a long time. 26 years, it is another glorious period of our history. I just want to read a little bit about the
Okay, I'll get to this when we get to about 130. But I just wanted to just give you some idea from the history books of just how powerful male analysis was. But I think I'll get to that when I come to Abdul Rahman the third, because he's the one who really really his during his real golden age of our history in that lead. So after Hong Kong dies, his son, Abdul Rahman even how come if you are counting This is Abdul Rahman the second he comes into power, another glorious ruler rules for 30 years. So you can imagine if you were born in Islamic Spain at this time, you would experience nothing but a golden age. Like if you were born during the reign of Abdul Rahman the first and you
live for 70 or 80 years, it would still be the golden age of Spain. You would experience just a lifelong Golden Age. This is like one of them.
Beautiful times in places for a Muslim to be born and ready a Weber was allowed to live in that time and place it was really a blessing to them. Allah had given them this chance to live in this glorious land. And so in the reign of Abdul Rahman even how come
we experienced another Golden Age continuing for 30 years, he dies, and he sang Mohammed comes into power, he ruled for 34 years. And notice that these rulers are ruling for a long time that we not, you know, when we look at the early Muslim rulers, we're looking at like 10 years, 13 years, five years, three years. With me, it's been people are rooting for 20 years, 30 years, 50 years, why?
Some historians tried to try to understand why we made rulers able to live so much longer than in other parts of the land. And the many reasons for this, number one, healthcare had had increased greatly, right. So the kind of medicine and hospitals that we developed in Spain, were way ahead of what was available in Arabia 100 years before that. So that naturally lead to a better quality of life and a longer life. Number two, they will less rebellions, and wars and civil wars in Spain. So because of that, the rulers went on opposed for decades. Number three, the people were happy, because the people were happy.
Nobody was ever trying to get rid of the king. You know, if the king stayed in power for 30 years, no one's gonna care because he's a good king. And you know, this really refutes the idea that we have these days that someone should only be in power for for eight years. I had this discussion with a Muslim lawyer A few years ago, when I explained to him that in Islam, someone can stay in power for the entire life. And he said, but that's tyranny. That was the word he used. And he said, that's that's tyranny. That's oppression. I was like, how is that oppression? If you have a good ruler that's working? Why would you want to get rid of him after for eight years and replacing someone who
might not do as good a job?
Right? Just because someone arbitrarily came up with that number?
Why would you not want to live under oma hotdog for 10 years, or smart even operand for 13 years or more? Even? I'll be stupid for 20 years. You prefer Donald Trump with four years?
I mean, think about it. It doesn't make sense, right? islamically this is something I noticed as a pattern in Muslim history. And I could be wrong. But this is a pattern I noticed in Muslim history. Whenever we had just rulers, for the most part, and every Lord is an exception for the most part. When do you adjust rulers. Allah put Baraka in daily reigns and the rule for a long time. And again, these are exceptions, Abu Bakar only abdulazeez only rules for two and a half years each, for things beyond their control. But in general, you know, people like like Omar bin, Al Khattab, Osman even our front yard,
the image of Spain, a lot with Baraka and the rains and the rule for a long time.
And I think this was a blessing from Allah to the people, because they were doing a good job, although left him in power for a long time. On the other hand, the tyrants the tyrants in general, and again, the exceptions, the reins are often cut short.
People like yazeed, even more Aria, and mattawan. But how come and you know, anyone who was known, even a boss, the butcher, right, these individuals, they never ruled for law, the way what we would, you know, they were like, four years, like Trump, you know, some range to that.
That zero coming to power, I wouldn't for years he died,
someone coming to power within four years they are killed. So again,
there are exceptions both ways. Right now, we are experiencing some tyrannical rulers that have been in power for way too long.
And we do know righteous rulers like Omar bin Abdulaziz and Abu Bakar, who only rule for two and a half years. But in general, there seems to be Baraka in the range of these rulers, and the mayors of Spain. They stayed in power for 290 years, because
people love them. And the lands were full of peace and prosperity, full of development. Nobody wants to get rid of a king who's giving them all of that. And once again, showing that the monarchy system itself is not necessarily a bad thing. really depends which families in power. I mean, what did you prefer ruling living under the age of Spain, or living under a democracy, like the ones we have today get a failing us around the world.
So we have the first negative
Get back in the range of the of the Omega IDs. So for the first 100 plus years of Umayyad era, there's just greatness. Right? Mostly greatness, Abdul Rahman and Shah and hukam. And Abdul Rahman the second, Mohammed is he over 100 years now of just development. And then Muhammad sanguine still comes into power. He and his brother Abdullah fight over the power. Within two years, monsoon is poisoned by his brother, Abdullah comes into power. Now. This is the first period of unrest. And this is where it begins to look like my experience is going to collapse, like the
minutes before them, because people are not happy with Abdullah. And the reason they're not happy with him is because he killed his brother. I mean, this was something that never happened to me explain it was a land of peace and prosperity. And yeah, we have a man coming to power to murdering his brother and getting away with it. So riots take place, revolts take place, or basically, somehow Abdullah manages to stay in power for 24 years, which is again, an exception to the rule, in general tyrants are killed or died much earlier than that. But in general, the image of Spain has a long lifespan. And
Abdullah stays in power for 24 years before he dies. And the
the
hillfort of Spain passes to his grandson.
Right. So his grandson, Abdul Rahman, even Mohammed, even Abdullah called Abdul Rahman the third, he comes into power.
And when he comes into power, he restabilized everything he is a righteous man, a great ruler, a great politician. And his reign is considered the real golden age of Islamic Spain. Like if you were born, in the reign of Abdul Rahman that did, you may have experienced the peak of Islamic civilization. Allah put so much Baraka in the reign of your hand after he ruled for 50 years 50 years, he builds the famous Medina to Sahara, the Sahara palace, one of the wonders of the Muslim world. He is known as the greatest ruler in the history of Islamic Spain, the greatest unparalleled that nobody
in the history of Islamic Spain even comes close to observe man, this is peak, I mean, after the peak comes a decline. But this 50 year period, these five decades, is the peak of Islamic civilization in Europe during those early years. And this is really the most glorious part of our history in under the show. Let me read for you from last Islamic history. What the author of this book has to say about me it's under loose.
So he says the Emerald established by Abdul Rahman became a cultural melting pot during the centuries after his rule, right. So Abdul Rahman is talking about his opposite of man, the first he says it becomes a cultural melting pot. Why? You have the natives of Spain, right? The Christians, the Jews, you have the Berbers of North Africa, we have people from other parts of Africa, you have the Arabs, your marriage and other Arab families that moved here. It's not a cultural melting pot, you have all these different cultures, and different religions living together in peace. People from the rest of the Muslim world continue to immigrate to this distant land, bring with them different
aspects of their culture. In addition to this, large portions of the native Hispanic population converted to Islam in the late 1800s and early 1900s. By 950, half of the population were Muslim.
By 100, by 1100, remember talking Christian? Yes, yeah, right. 1100. So this is about 900 years ago, only 20% of the population were Christian. So what you're seeing here is a rapid growth of Islam in Europe. And I think this is why Europeans today I am so afraid of Islam, because this happened before Muslims migrated to Spain.
Just 100 years or so years after the date of Rasulullah saw Muslims are migrating to Spain, and within 300 years, they beat up 80% of the community. through immigration plus conversion 80% of Spain became Islamic. And
there is a is there is a genuine fear that that is going to happen again within the next 100 years. Because if you look at what's going on in European lands today, Muslims are migrating in large numbers to these lands. They are becoming prosperous in these lands. their culture is becoming part of these lands. They are having an impact in every aspect of
Life in these lands, and at the same time,
every single day, people born into these lands are converting to Islam. So the same thing is happening. The only difference is the Muslims are not politically in charge. the bedrock of Islam is whether Muslims are politically in charge or not Islam still grows.
And so, because the Muslims are not in charge, the government's in fear of seeing this happen again, the challenge to keep the Muslims down. And that's why Islamophobia happens. Because this was it. This was the history of Islamic Spain. The day went from 10% to 80% of the population in a period of 400 years.
So, the author goes on to say the Arabs, the Berbers and the Hispanic Muslims combined to create a unique Andalusian culture. They brought together diverse traditions under the banner of Islam. Even the Christians living in Al Andalus adopted Islamic culture and began adopting Arabic language arts and customs. This influence of culture and language is still seen today in the Spanish language with retains many words from Arabic. I find this very fascinating You know, when you when you meet people from Spanish descent who are Christians, they have names like Salma and Alia, and they have many words in the vocabulary that resemble Arabic words.
And if you ask him where these names came from, or where these words came from, they'll just say it's all cultural.
But what this indicates to me, is that hundreds of years ago, the family were Muslims. The hundreds of years ago before the Inquisition of Spain, these these people were either Muslims were influenced by Islam, so
on under loose has a unique culture.
You rarely see, you know, if you want to study the concept of ORF, and its impact on fake, you must study under loose, because the fake the Maliki and Zohar effect that developed in underlords, was pretty much based on the culture of the Atlantic. And it was uniquely different from the fate of all the other Muslim lands.
And this makes it a very important part of our history to study. And this is why I like reading the books of the like of Alcoa to be an even araby. Because they were Maliki Judas of Al Andalus, during this golden age, who really developed these ideas, in fact, and so we see the culture developing and this culture is a is a mixture of Arab culture,
European culture, not African culture, it's a unique new culture that comes about. And it becomes such a dominant culture that in other history books I read, they stated that even the Christians of Spain became so caught up in Muslim culture, that they began to dress like Muslims, they began to speak Arabic, and they even began to take second wives and indulge in polygamy. This is how dominant Muslim culture was in Spain. I want you to think about that. Look at how the world is flipped around. today. Muslims want to imitate the West, in our dressing. And that's not necessarily Haram. Again, it depends on your intention and what you're doing. We want to imitate them in our languages,
the fact that I'm speaking English, and that's my native language. It just shows what the dominant culture is today, right there. Most of us are monogamous, because that's the dominant culture today. Flip it around 1000 years ago, when Islam explained to us the opposite, it was the Christians and the Jews, learning Arabic, writing in Arabic, teaching in Arabic, studying in Arabic, dressing like Muslims, marrying like Muslims, following Muslim culture. Why? Because that was the dominant culture of the time. And, you know, this really shows us the importance of culture,
that the dominant culture will influence the average person, always.
The fact that that we speak English, and we dress the way that we do. It's an indication of what is the dominant culture today. And the fact that the Christians of Spain and the Jews of Spain have to learn Arabic, and and and
dress like Muslims because they wean off the Muslims. That shows you what was the dominant culture of gatt. dnh.
Another important point, Jews also benefited greatly from Andalusian society. throughout the rest of Europe's Jews were barely tolerated in the Middle Ages, and were constantly threatened. Actually, we know that the Christians of Europe used to oppress the Jews, right? They hated them. There was constantly battles between them, the Jews were minority. They often killed and tortured
This window right to recent history, we all know what happened recently a question 100 years ago, the one safe space that Jews always had throughout history with a Muslim that's because of our tolerance for the blue Kitab. The Jews had a safe space, at that point in time in weird Spain, and later on in the Ottoman Empire. So the way Spain became the land with Jewish culture, and religion thrived, it didn't just survive. It thrived. People like mama das, the famous Jewish mama knows the famous Jewish philosopher. He spoke Arabic, and wrote in Arabic, and he lived in Islamic Spain because what Islam did is it gave people full freedom of religion. If somebody was a Christian or a
Jew living in Andalus, they pay the jizya. And that's it. You know, they live their lives as they wanted according to their religions, they, they could write, they could teach in the churches, and they could practice freely, and nothing of Islam was enforced upon them. The only rules were like, Don't insult our religion. Right? I don't preach to Muslims. Those were like the boundaries of what of how far they could go. But as far as their own communities go, and what they did is they develop your own small towns like a Christian town in Jewish town, they had full freedom, they just practice the religions as they wished.
So in Muslim Spain, Jews were given the freedom to practice their religion as they pleased, as I just mentioned, and integral and they became an integral part of society. Jewish philosophy reached its peak in Muslim Spain, producing scholars like Mama noids, who was who is known to this day as one of the greatest Jewish philosophers of all times, really, Jewish theology and philosophy flourished in the obeyed empire of Andalus because of the freedom of religion that Islam gave. And now we come to Abdul Rahman, the third, the greatest of all of the image of Spain.
The author says, the peak of Spain occurred during the reign of Abdul Rahman, the third, from 912 to 961. See,
49 years or 50 years, it rounded off.
This is mind blowing, that a man rule that long, and it was so great that they call it the peak of Spain. During his half century in power, he declared himself the Caliph of the Muslim world. Although he didn't have power outside of his Peninsula, he's reclaimed to the role of his homemade ancestors held in the seventh eighth centuries was meant to combat the growing power of departments in North Africa. The Abbas's of Baghdad by now were basically prisoners in their own palace under the command of the Turkish dynasties. And the fatimids were the real political threat that existed to both Sunni Islam and the politics of the Arab. So you take a step back, you realize how far we
come back into history, we've now caught up to where we are with the Abbas in history. Right? So the golden age of Islamic Spain lasted longer. In the golden age of the opposites. We mentioned that in the later part of the Abbasid Empire. They become puppet rulers. It's really the commanders of the armies. Right, who are in charge of the events. Furthermore, they lose Egypt and not Africa to the fatimids. I will discuss the party beats perhaps in another video, are they smiling Shia dynasty that took over the clan and try to enforce Shiism upon the people. And so Abdul Rahman he, you know, until this point in time do you may it's claimed to be the caliphate of Spain, Abdul Rahman call
himself the Caliph of the Muslim world. Why? Because the fatimids are claiming to be the Caliph of the Muslim well, India is Miley Shia, so you know, he, he's fighting for Sunni orthodoxy. He can't rely on the Abbas to do anything, because at this point in time, the abbastanza are useless. I To be blunt, the bassins are now absolutely useless. And they will remain like that for the rest of the history, that although the Abbasid Empire technically last for hundreds of years longer than my empire, they just puppets they don't have any power. So it falls on Abdul Rahman to really show the power and the authority of Sunni civilization. And so he called himself the Caliph of the Muslim
world. And he sets himself up as a rival to the fatimids. And he develops his land into the most glorious country in the entire world at that time.
That really during the reign of Abdul Rahman that third, Islamic Spain becomes the most powerful and glorious and developed country in the entire world. It isn't
Now the peak of human civilization at that time.
Why? What did he do? Well listen to some of the accomplishments of Abdul Rahman to truly understand what a peak of civilization the Muslims had reached at this point. And by the way, this is like
300 years after the death of Rasulullah Islam. So we now 300 years after the date of Rasulullah Salallahu salam, and on the edge Spain is now the peak of human civilization. Really, you know, whenever I read this, study this I want to just like jump with a time machine and go back and live in that world. To go back and just live in India in May. It's been under Abdul Rahman. Listen to the developments.
Abdul Rahman that was a true patron of the art and science parallel to moon Rashid and Suleiman the Magnificent, so they are three or four rulers in our history, who are primarily responsible for the development of arts and science, Harun Rashid and his son Muna Rashid in a Basset Empire, Abdul Rahman, the third in Spain, and Solomon the magnificent in the Ottoman Empire. These are the four main ones who developed arts and science. Over 600, libraries, dotted koruba, the Capitol, its largest library had over 400,000 books in a variety of different languages.
Think about this, we are talking about the year 900 C.
And one city booktuber has over 600 libraries, just one of those libraries has over 400,000 books. For hunters, almost half a million books in one library. Now imagine across all of Spain, how many libraries exist at that time, and how many books exists and you rarely get see from that the priority that you may have underneath and the amount of that lag, give to knowledge.
And by doing isn't just Islamic books, these are books on everything on science, or mathematics on philosophy on language or on Judaism and Christianity on everything. Any subject you wanted to study, you could find entire libraries of books about it. In Spain at that time, shops were numerous in the city producing goods they were valued throughout Europe. So it became not just the cultural center of Europe, but the economic center of Europe that made Spain develop products that were in demand everywhere else in Europe. And so the surrounding lands, had to maintain some kind of peace with them to benefit from them economically to get hold of these products through the trade routes.
It was a world class city that served as a bridge between the underdeveloped illiterate Europe and the great culture of the Muslim world. If Europe's wanted to be educated, they will travel to Andalus to be in the presence of its great scholars and libraries.
Even the leader of the Catholic Church, Pope's side, Vesey, the second studied in Al Andalus in his youth and was mesmerized by the scientific achievements of Muslim civilization.
So I'm not exaggerating when I say this was the greatest country and city in the world at that time. At the time of Abdul Rahman, the third,
Islamic Spain is the greatest country in the world. and Cuba is the greatest city in the world.
to such an extent that the pope himself has to go and learn Arabic and travel to Cuba to study where he is blown away and mesmerized by the the level of technology and development that the Muslims had at the time.
The rest of Europe if anybody wanted to study medicine, or science, or philosophy, or any of these subjects, they had to learn Arabic, they had to travel to Cuba, they had to study under the Muslim scholars. Islam really was at that time, we can see what America is today. It was the dominant civilization. It was the land people traveled to to study was the land people traveled to to do work. It was the land that everybody else had economic ties with. It was a land whose language influenced the languages of all other lands of the world, Muslims at that point in time, with the world's most powerful civilization.
Hello, I'd like to talk about this because it makes me sad, really makes me sad how far we have fallen
from the glory of Islamic Spain.
In late two centuries, when the first few universities opened up in Italy, France and England, much of the libraries were made up of translations of work from kotoba. So eventually, obviously, people are traveling from France and Italy and England and all these other lands to study under the Muslims of Spain. They're going to take this back to
VLANs right, and they're going to start developing. And so this is where the, by the way, this is where the, the dark ages of Europe ends and the renascence takes place. Because what happens is that people from these lands travel to Al Andalus. And they learn philosophy from even rushed and and these other great philosophers, and they take that back to their countries and they develop it. And the renascence begins, and and these countries begin to grow into what they are today. But it all started with them having to travel to the Muslim world study in Cordoba, translate those books into Latin and other languages and bring it back to the lens.
Islamic Spain was the main thoroughfare through which the knowledge of the Muslim world made its way into Europe, sparking the renaissance of the 1400s swana whatever I'm saying the book is saying the same thing. Actually, by the way, I didn't read through this before during this lecture. I just decided it would be good to read what another watcher says about this and have the lights exactly what I'm saying. Right. So I said that this sparked a renascence he says the same thing. Coronavirus, magnificence was not limited to knowledge. So it wasn't just knowledge it went beyond that. Abdul Rahman and the early rules emphasize the power and wealth through building the most
beautiful masjids and palaces with the Cordoba Masjid being the main example. Originally built by Abdul Rahman the first he was expanded throughout the 1800s and 1900s. Becoming a vast building that could hold 1000s of worshipers. It has a huge forest of columns topped up with two huge arcs made of alternate alternating red and white stones made up making it an architectural marvel that was rivaled only by the Hagia Sophia. The is Sophia in Istanbul. Back then it was Constantinople in Constantinople. So
if you want to know just what a architectural wonder, the kotoba Masjid was, you compared to the is Sofia in coming in, which is currently in Istanbul, which is still there. By the way, all these buildings are still around.
And you can see just how far the Muslim has advanced and how far the Christian has declined at a time. Unlike the paintings and statues about Christian churches, calligraphy and geometric design with a main form of artistic impression throughout the building. So remember, Muslims in general did not build statues or make pictures of people. Our primary form of artistic expression throughout our history has been in geometry, and calligraphy. And Reichl today wherever you traveled throughout the Muslim world. Even right you're in trouble when you go to the most beautiful Masjid what stands out is the calligraphy and the geography the geometric designs it is it is just something like
you know that just beyond my geography, I mean geometry, right? That was that just absolutely amazing. verses in the Quran would be written in beautiful ways wrapped around the walls of the masjid, invoking the Islamic belief that the Quran was the highest form of expression, and just deserved to be in the most beautiful mosques. Architectural achievements also occurred in the secular realm. When Abdul Rahman the third built his palace outside go to bar called makia to Sahara.
The beautiful city and this would captivate visitors who came any diplomats who came to visit will be blown away by the size and the technology and the
the architecture of the monitors.
And this earned kotoba, the nickname the ornament of the world,
the ornament of the world. So the glorious golden age of of the rock man that was so so, so amazing.
You know, when I said this was the greatest city in the world and the greatest country in the world at that time, it's no exaggeration, it was actually called the ornament of the world.
Of course, this led to problems. Anytime a civilization reaches its peak, what happens next?
Great times, create soft, mania, softening, create difficult times. That's what happens, the decline begins causing the collapse. So unfortunately, the people of underlords the beauty and an emphasis on knowledge had negative consequences.
They stopped trying to expand into the French territories. As they began to look more comfortable lifestyles.
They became complacent and unwilling to leave the comforts of their home to defend your city. So of course,
Spain became such a beautiful, luxurious, comfortable land
that everyone becomes lazy. So when invaders enter when people come to fight when people try to take over no
Do you want to join the army?
Everyone's enjoying the luxuries of this dunya
the laziness of the population crept into the higher levels of society. By the 11th century, telomeres began to fight each other, and civil war broke out and eventually the collapse began. So Abdul Rahman when he died, his son Hakeem comes into power. He is the last great oma yet Heroes for 15 years. After that, civil war begins and the immediate Spain begins to crumble. How come such a sham comes into power is too young to rule, every city develops its own government, and people begin to fight each other. Eventually, within the next 40 years, you may get wiped out of the picture, they just disappear from the power scene altogether, as we enter the next phase of the history of
Andalusia, which is the period of civil war between many states and we will study that, along with the rest of the history of Spain next week. So this week, we looked at the glorious part of may it's been really where the Muslims became the greatest civilization in the world
and stayed there for 290 years.
Next week, we're going to look at the darker part of our history, where Islamic Spain crumbled, it fell apart. Eventually it was lost, the Muslims were massacred.
It's a lot more of a darker part of our history to study but it's just as important for us to study and just as much lessons that we can derive from that. With that we come to a conclusion for hanging out with us, Mr. Su Salah mousseline, will hamdulillahi Rabbil alameen wa salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakaatuh.
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