Story Of Andalus In Muslim Spain
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Channel: Yaser Birjas
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LP Javi in his book, Muslims in Spain, between 1500 to 1614 says,
elsewhere in the Islamic world, and he was describing the Muslim experience and Andros, in particular was talking about the intellectual experience they had an under, as he said, elsewhere, in the Islamic world, there are no exact parallels to what happened in Spain,
which is all the more reason for students of Islam, and fallen mystics, to pay more attention to the analyse experience, I believe, reading a history of Islam, everywhere, almost in the east, in the west, north or south. Indeed, something like we have today here in the West, and America in particular, there is no such thing. So parallel to our experience here in America than the andalusi experience.
Check in the books that wrote about the subject, the subject of Al Andalus. And the Islamic experience in Al Andalus. Unfortunately, literally no, from an Islamic sources. most if not all, these sources, all these books written about that particular period, coming from non Islamic sources, which means scholars who take specific specialty in history, European history, and they take that particular specialty in Spain, and analysts in particular, few Muslim students, or students or scholars would go and study that particular area. For some reason, history seems to be nationalized.
So if you would like to study the history of the history of a specific era, you have to be part of that earlier. And if you're not from Europe, then why should you even study the history of Spain. So we see most of Muslims, when they study the history of Spain, they just stopped by the narratives of the events, what exactly happened there, and how the glorious, you know Islam
represent was represented in Spain to Europe. And then after that, the decline.
And in between just beautiful stories, tales, inventions, memories, and that would be it. literally see people going deep into the Muslim experience, specifically, after what happened after the capitulation of Grenada or Grenada in 1492.
Last night, he started his history class, basically, about immigration to America, from 1492. This lecture was supposed to proceed his lecture, to talk about Muslims from 17, from 711 711 until 1492, before he even started his talk, but I'm bringing it back over here to you to see what exactly happened during that same period, somewhere else in the world. And that's in Spain.
We have so many misconceptions when it comes to study of the issue of the history of Spain. say that, you know, Spain is not a Muslim land anymore. So why should we be concerned about it? Well, look at what's going on in Europe. And even in America.
For the first time in history, really, for the first time in history, these massive movements of emigration from Muslim land to non Muslim land, on voluntary basis never happened in history before.
In the past, a large number of Muslim population will fall under non Islamic role because of war, Muslims, they those lands, and then all of a sudden, most of they find themselves under non Islamic role, and they have to adapt to that new system. Therefore, you see in Europe, so many Muslims live in Romania, Czechoslovakia, even somebody called Bulgaria and others by 10s of 1000s, if not even more than that, and they'll be living there for generation and generation.
No one considers them outsiders. No one says they are immigrants. No one said anything like that, because they are locals. They are considered Europeans from that same land.
But for the first time, from the history of Muslims who have read massive now immigration waves, coming from the Muslim land, looking for opportunities in the West, in Europe and in America. And they created a totally different story. It's totally different from the story of the local Muslims who were born, who belong to that area and that and that land, they were part of it. So they have no other choice. We have to assimilate, we have to find our way within the culture. Now of course now becoming prevalent over them. And our situation is a little bit different. There are some parallels and some lessons that we can
learn from the experience. In order to prevent one event one, I would I would call it really, of the Saturday events, not just for Muslims, even for history of mankind ever happened, that massive or forcible conversion of the Muslims into Christianity in Spain that took years and years and decades force limiters lamp. And then at the end when they thought that they cannot be truly Christians, they decided, after contemplating so many other solutions, if you read them, you will be appalled by how the people they were thinking, Pamela shefali, the scene was talking about the issue of tourism. And sometimes we feel that this is some kind of other religious terrorism, and even even state
tourism in the form that we have to get rid of all those people thinking of taking limit the ships and sink the ships in the sea, so that they don't go to anywhere to assess the Muslims, against the people in Spain. Eventually, they didn't do that. What they did was something else, they decided to expel all the Muslims out of Spain, between 1609 and 1614 waves of ships taken Muslims or the moriscos, basically, from Spain, and taking them to the North African shore, this event
happened and until this day, you will find some people who are apologetic about it. Say you know what Muslims cannot survive a non Muslim land, they cannot assimilate perfectly, they cannot be loyal, they cannot be citizens, they cannot be this. So they have the all their opinions regarding how Muslims can be really assimilated or should be rejected. The issue of coexistence is it now coming back to the surface in America, the Muslims or Muslims are facing the same problem the history of the Spanish people, or are we facing something different, and probably another unique a chapter in the history of Islam in the West.
One of these latest events, that is considered very, very parallel to some of them important events happened in Spain, was has recently happened in France. In the past few months, if you remember, the some kind of uprising in France, from the poor,
who started refusing their
baby to actually put on the margin of the life in Spain and France. And this are revolting against the society trying to prove their existence, they are trying to find the recognition and became so violent.
Now the French government starts putting the issue of immigration, the question is not right now blocking immigration, it is actually what are we going to do with those people?
If they're not going to assimilate how we're going to deal with the issue of the hijab. If they want to live in France, in Europe, then what should we do? They have to have to obey and follow these rules. Now even the issue of
the cartoons of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was every single Muslim would really feel the pain of how Rasul Allah be portrayed in these in these areas, not knowing who was the Mohammed sallallahu alayhi wasallam. And now we feel that it's a matter of challenge. It's a matter of challenge now they're trying to speed up the process of clash of civilization. So is there is any way to avoid that and stay away from that destiny of the Muslims in Spain back in 1614. Here is 2020 21st century.
In order to understand that, we need to get back a little bit in history and see how Islam came to Spain, and what Islam really contributed to the European land.
Just to give you an idea, that if there is really fairness, if there is justice, in giving Muslims the opportunity to live, given them the opportunity to express themselves, given the opportunity to to produce and be active, they will be very positive citizens, and they contribute not just to Islam and Muslims, to mankind and to humanity. Let's see how the story began.
In studying Spain, or at least in this lecture in sha Allah, Allah, we are going to be dividing the history of Spain, at least through the Islamic periods of Spain into two different distinct periods. The first period is the Muslim reign would start from 711 until 1492. This is the official Islamic reign in Spain, from 711 and 10 1492. Exactly, actually, it's January the second 914 90 to the capitulation of Granada.
Then the second period, which is post Islamic rain or Muslim rain, which began from 1492 until the final The Last Ship
that departed from the Iberian Peninsula towards
The north in shores of Morocco, North Africa, which was in 1614.
So even after the official existence of the political role of Muslims in Spain, Muslims still existed for another 100. And so years before they were completely expelled officially, from the Iberian Peninsula.
Let's take the first step, the first period, which is the period of the Muslim reign, and the beer, the period of the Muslim reign, it started in 711. And we all know probably so many people know this story, which become like, like a legend won't.
He went all the way to Morocco. And then when he started looking beyond the boundaries of the of the desert, he saw the ocean and didn't know where to go next, because he wanted to continue spreading the message of Allah Spano within Islam and so on. And then he looked up north, and he found some kind of mountains there, which is, which is Europe.
So he said, Okay, then if there is no other way, we should go there, and they crossed the sea. So they went across the Mediterranean.
And then they hit the land, where they have the mountain that is called Jebel Tara, in the Arabic language, Gibraltar, it's actually afterthought at the museum himself. So he went there. And then the religion continued on says that he went and he burned the ships. And he starts calling his own soldiers, saying, Listen, Alba Herman, what are the seas from behind you, and the enemy's form in front of you, which means you have no other escape, you have to fight, whether you win, or you die. This story is very popular in books of history, but doesn't have any legitimate basis to say that that's exactly what happened. Just to fantasize the issue of you know, Islamic
enthusiasm to spread into our through the Jihad and so on. Actually, the other parallel stories explain what exactly had happened. What happened is that during that same period, and the Arabic sources, they use the name of the royal family in Spain, which is richer, or wisdom. So with that royal family, been betrayed by some other rivals there, and they have some allies on the North African shore. And they assist this they sow the assistance of thyrotropin Zia, which was the emerging power of North Africa, saying we need your assistance to help restore order and the royal family in Spain. And they volunteered they offer them their ships, that part of NZ took with his,
with his soldier with his army to go across the sea, towards the Iberian Peninsula. It was an alliance between both parties.
And he went across to the sea. They tried to restore all the corrupted more wars. And then they had consulted Mousavi. No, sir. You see, we went there. It's very dangerous, Shall we continue? He was given the green light, he will continued fighting and because the Visigoths were actually in decline. And we're now getting weaker and weaker and their power. They almost lost it in front of the Muslims and the Muslims. They took almost the whole Iberian Peninsula swiftly, except for a pocket on the north, which was the beginning of taking back the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslims. But eventually, this now lasted between 711 until 756, which was called the period of the Emirates
and imara in the Arabic language, or imara, was rolling at the governor of Spain at that time, the Muslim governor of Spain was rolling for the Obama years in the maskers in the east, so it was part of the Omega dynasties rule.
When the Romanians lost their power and their reign for the bassetts,
one of the Amir's he escaped the east and he ran away to North Africa, or North Africa. When he arrived there, he was going as far as possible away from that Baptist power, so he could go as far as possible to restore that woman's power again. There he arrived at the North Shore of Africa, about to cross the sea, the Strait of Gibraltar, through through there to go to his supporters and some of his supporters were waiting for him. And that's when under a man known by Abdurrahman, shamrock, National Soccer, Porush, he swam, he crossed the distance, the whole the whole, actually, about 10 miles. He crossed that swimming with his son, his son couldn't make a dog. But he continued
swimming, swimming from the northern shore, until he arrived at the Iberian Peninsula.
Today, when people do that, they take the TV with them, cameras, and they set records and all these kind of things and so on. And they never none did that probably before them. Abdul Rahman was the first person who as far as we know, at least in our history, was the first person to do that swimming. He went and he swam the whole the whole actually distance, and when he arrived there, he got that support and he restored another
naiads dynasty to continue in Spain. After some time, his one of his
probably his offspring, Abdur Rahman, the third, he established what has become known history as Al khilafah. Another rival khilafah, called or hereafter omonoia, vs La La bassia in the east, so they establish a whole range of the halo for the caliphate in Spain. During that period of the caliphate, on khilafah
Caliphate in Spain is considered the Golden Age. That was the golden age for Islamic civilization. Most of what you hear about, you know, the glory of Islam, and the inventions and all the discoveries and mathematics and medicine and astronomy and all these kind of things happened during the most of them. Most of these actual events took place in the lava of the umayyads in Spain, which lost between 756 until 1031.
What happened next,
at the end of that, of that era of the caliphate,
when the final halifa died, he didn't leave a successor, he left a young boy. So they had to create this royal Regency to protect the crown or the throne until he reaches age, which qualifies him to rule that even empower the Regency against the Mayans. So when the Regency could not continue, after one generation, people of all the Iberian Peninsula start revolting, and trying to take over.
And by doing so, no one acknowledged that universal central Philip and kotoba anymore.
So they start splitting, creating their own independent principalities, they call the motto of the tyfa. Even in the Spanish language, there is the word tyfa, which is thought in the Arabic language, and that means independent principality, or group of people. Because these principality the official number actually have in many, many historical sources say they broke the whole Iberian Peninsula to 39 independent principalities. Can you imagine that Spain was broken to 39, independent states, small, tiny states, some of these states even was just one single one single fortress. And that was it. So there's one governor one ruler was own, probably household and family around him and his
animals and declares independence.
And they start fighting against each other.
Allah subhana wa, tada
taught us in the story ahead.
And afterwards, as well, you know, that if you split
rotten eggs out of shallow waters,
that if you split, what's gonna happen, you get weaker, whatever it is, you fail, and then your power, just, we'll just go with the one. And that's it, no one recognized you. And that's what exactly happened.
So they became very weak and start fighting against each other. They even start alliance with the Christian crown up north against one another.
So they start fighting against each other. And even then, they trade land, for the power to take piece of the land, they give up some lands for an order to get some support from up north or from other alliances for more than those principalities themselves. Just to give you an idea on how things went so bad actually, during that time, people even paler became completely inconsiderate, and they were very spoiled. Mother lavish Li rich Spain was was a great place actually to live in. And even during that time of the of these independent principalities, Allah continued to flourishing and science continued going on. And so it never stopped, kept going on. Because these now
independent principalities, they were fighting against each other. And they won the support of scholars. They want to support the scientists, they were supportive, all signs that they can get in order to help them fight against their enemies and their rivals. So even these non fights contributed a lot to science and knowledge. So they built most of what you see in Spain of these beautiful forts, beautiful business structures were done during that age. So when you go you get fascinated by the invention power of these weak and small, tiny groups.
Just to show you how lavishly there they lived, actually, and they were so rich during that time.
I have Ashby, Liam, who was the governor or the leader of Seville, and he was probably leading one of the largest and the biggest of these principalities.
One time it is narrated in his biography of his family and household that his wife, she was one time walking or basically riding in the, in the countryside. And she noticed some of these villagers, Virgin villages. You know what
working in the field and they're slipping in the mud.
And just carrying these scumbags on the shoulder and their backs. So big of course the Queen right now Seville, she designed to do something like this, which is wow, this is look cool look cool. I mean, I wish I can do that. But for her prestige, she could not do it. So she asked her husband, who grants her wish he ordered in the backyard of the castle, a piece of land to be done. And then watered with water becomes muddy, and sticky. They added the saffron and all the perfumes and then whatever you wish, actually to smell there. And then they made all these nice
skin bags. And then they even they saw them with with gems and with silk. And she called they called her, of course was with the ladies of the castle, and they start playing around in the mud.
That was a time of weakness like this, and they were acting in that attitude. We're not saying that this is why they lost it. But indeed, it was more than this. It was more than this, however, something that needs to be corrected. But it's because of him that Allah subhana wa Taala allowed this lamb to stay another at least probably 343 100 years in Spain.
Because during his time, he was threatened by the alliance of the North Christians and also some other rival principalities. So he he's our assistant and help from his on wass and ministers who advised him to go and seek help from North Africa.
And the closest to him was on Morabito, the morava it's in the English resources. And the mirages were kind of, you know, considered very conservative community, very, very conservative community converted now the lifestyle of the province was Seville and Spain. It's completely contradictory lifestyle.
But he was they told him that listen, it might be really threatening because of the Moroccans coming here, they might not they might never come get back again to Morocco. So you better just keep them there. He decided no, it's better that we seek Alliance for them than just in a fall to the Christian crown, which he did. So he went and he called them rabbits.
Rabbits, they came and they won the battle against the Northern Alliance. They they, of course, obeyed the deal between the between them, and they withdraw to North Africa, eventually leaving, of course some
pieces of their army there for protection. After some time they went they came back again. And they took under those from all these principalities. So they wiped him out completely and they establish order back again under one leadership.
Now the morale the morale was between 1090 and 1146 actually didn't last too long. Because there's more hidden order more has in the English resources. They came and they took it over from them. And they also extended the presence of Islam until 1224. When another generation of Muslims coming from North Africa by new Marine, they took over and they were the last dynasty that ruled in Spain. The role stayed only in one particular region, and that's the south end belt of the Iberian Peninsula. What we know today as underverse their capital was Vernazza, Granada,
shallowness, talking yesterday, about that period of Spain. It was during that age, the final age of the Muslims presence officially again, in the Iberian Peninsula. Burma Marine, later on another state was was established under a different title than after its kingdom. They became the last Muslim dynasty ruling in Spain, they rose between 1224 until 1492, exactly January 2 1492, when the capitulation of rotta was signed, and the keys were handed by Abu Abdullah or rockdale, as they call them, English resources given to Isabella and Fernando.
Now the Muslims
during that age, of course, there is a lot that we can talk about, but it's not. I would think it's not very, very relevant to our time. Because that time when the Muslims were the majority, it's easy to say how much Islam or Muslims contributed to Europe and to that civilization. One of the most beautiful things and even
non Muslim historians acknowledge that fact, how Muslims contributed to the to the progress and diversity of Europe is the lifestyle of tolerance between all these cultures.
In Islamic Spain, Muslims are specific during the time of the Haleakala the Umayyad Caliphate, or a lava Alhaji
Mastani he established huge libraries of hundreds of 1000s of books. inconceivable in the minds of Europeans at that time. They had all these beautiful libraries, universities were established, hospitals were established houses of translations were established all around the Islamic Center, and specifically the closest the closest to the, the Christian land was to lado autolite Allah,
tala tala was one of these urban areas that fell early into the hands of Alfonso the sixth, and unformed. So he was a wise man. And in some sources, they say that he even knew Arabic language. He himself was a knowledgeable person, amount of knowledge. And he admired this, you know, civilization somehow, and he was religious in his own course, fashion. But when he wanted to lead on he saw all these beautiful books and manuscripts and so on, he immediately ordered that these books to be translated into the language, the Latin language, in particular. And when they translated these books, they were fascinated about how much these Arabs or Muslims how much knowledge they got from
from, from the Roman, and the Greek philosophy and knowledge. And they reproduce that into their own language. And now it's because of the Muslims in Spain, and the Arabs and all of them Spain, that these now, these actually sciences are these noses were preserved, and then were transformed back to their own language, European languages, and those are spreading all over the land. There was the Muslims who really contribute for that. And during that time, over hukam, Astana you see in these libraries and these houses of translation, scholars from all over Europe, Muslims, Jewish people, Christians, all of them, they work together, they used to come and learn from one another, you see
the same thing happening here in America.
And we wish that this to stay like this. And we don't want this to change. Because people have a specific agenda, trying to create another parallel of the 1614.
What happened after 1492? She also spoke about Columbus. Now, that takes us towards the west. But what is that it was going on? While they were discovering these, they were lost, and America discovered them. So after they discovered America, what was exactly going on happened to the Muslims in the Arab sources, at least a source in the Arabic language regarding the history of Spain.
I read so many of these books, unfortunately, all the books I read, except for few, they stop at 1492. Which means that's it.
So they gave him he just submitted in ornata. And they left too fast or phase in Morocco. And that was it. What happened? I mean, I cannot imagine 1000s of Muslims who lived in Spain, all of a sudden, they just, you know, just disappeared. Something happened to them, whether it's positive or negative, but we have to understand see what exactly happened to these Muslims who lived in Spain afterwards? Well, part of the truth is part of the ethics of that of the capital regime Renata in 19 1492, is that Muslims should live freely and should preserve their religion is to practice their religion and keep their massages and houses of worship intact.
They should not be harassed by enemies. And I want you to learn and know and know that granata ornata andalusi, the state of the Nazi state was a very, very rich state.
Don't think of him they lost because they were poor? No. They were lavishly rich. And they will they have a lot of scientists and olema amongst them. So a lot of good things happening and going on there is just for other reasons. Specifically, the rivalry between boo Abdullah Abdullah Abdullah, a severe and his uncle that led to this now alliance between Bob Dylan himself and Isabel and Ferdinand, which led Of course, again to fight against his uncle who lost the battle for them. And that was a deal afterwards, that he would submit Renata to them, which he did.
So what happened to the Muslims after the capitulation of Granada historians say there were three major events, three major events that led to the expulsion of Muslims from Spain. The first event happened almost nine years, it's just you just less than nine years after that treaty was signed around 1500. The second event major event was in 1568 until 1571, it's called the second gun on war, because the first one was called the first actually war is called Total bears in miserable
One of the buyers in algo horas. And then they have the second one in the 1568. And then the last one was in the early 1600s. So between 1616 or 916 14, they decided that all these moriscos should be expelled out from Spain. But what exactly happened? I mean, what are these events anyway, the first event, when the Muslims signed the treaty, they said that they're going to preserve their religion, and they're going to continuously they're worshipping Allah subhanho wa Taala. So they were should, at least they really shouldn't be intact. But one of these acts of missioners, who was the head of the
office, who came with this now, with this idea of bringing all the Iberian Peninsula to Catholicism, they were very religious people on their own religion. And they were very, very active. And to some some extent you consider them extremists.
They wanted to take all possible measures, to take those people out of their religion, to Catholicism to create one religion for I've been on peninsula should be no other religion.
Or it was talking about how disinhibition Allah Salam keep in one religion in the Arabian Peninsula. And in Spain, they were trying to keep one religion in the Iberian Peninsula. So there should be no Muslims left at all, they should all change whether they become Christians or not. They try a certain way that didn't work. Eventually, that led to a revolution, the first Revolution, the first revolt of the people of Grenada.
After the end of that revolution, which was unsuccessful.
They decided that the Muslims broke the treaty. And now, they are under no obligation to keep those now, points of peace with them. So therefore, they were given one option, those who revolted in Granada, they were forced to become Christians. And that was the first forcible conversion in the 1500 15, or one, they were forced to become Christians. So they bet they were baptized. And I want you to imagine that those people were born in Islam, they have been living in muslims for for hundreds of years before that, even and some of them probably they're 50 years old, 60, younger or older, a little bit. And they speak the Arabic language. They still speak Arabic language, Spanish
was not very popular for them at that time, still in the south. But for those Muslims who kept stayed in up north, they spoke also Spanish, but for those people that still speak in Arabic right now, and you want them to become Christians. So they were baptized, so professional, of course, registered as Christians, right now, all Catholics, and they were given a Muslim or Spanish names, but the thing that's going to be very easy for them to accept that. So they are acting, you know, superficially as Christians, and then in their own personal gatherings or acting as Muslims. This led to the presence of three different I would say, groups of Muslims in Spain.
The first group of original Muslims who did not participate in these in these revolts or these revolutions, there was they they kept they were kept Muslims. So you had the Muslim they would call them more
than those people who became forcefully Catholics, they were called moriscos.
And then there was a third category, an earlier category before these two categories, probably called Alamo Dodgers, Almeida offers some wood Dodgers. And they are because they call them that jenine. And medallion or mudaraba, are those Muslims who lived as Muslims spoke the local language of the places where they used to live in under the Christian Christian crown. So when the when the Christian counselor retrieving the beer connoisseur from the hands of Muslims, many Muslims fell into, of course, you know, to the heart of the hands of the Christian crown, and they stay there. They live there, they kept their lands, they kept their house, they kept their businesses, they kept
their loyalty to the to the, to the state over there. So they stood all this time, living there surviving and acting and interacting normally with a society. Many of them are successful merchants, one of the most successful doctors, one of the most successful farmers and artisans, they were very famous or known for the good work that they do. So basically, they live there and they will Cosmo Dodgers, they flourish, the economy of the Christian stayed there. So they will consider one independent category they spoke the language of that land.
According to this definition, most Muslims who live in under non Islamic rule, and including here in the US would probably fall under this category muda jobs.
So they live there as law citizens, they act normally and they preserve their religion, they practice freely, and they never had they were never harassed because of being Muslims. Until now, the Catholic tradition
Granada and now the forceful convey the first forceful conversion against the Muslims before the most of the Jewish were forced into Catholicism By the way, but the most of them that started after the capitulation of Granada then generation later Muslim, they tried to preserve their identity. And now there's a lot of wishful thinking among the church, and and the Vatican to, to not right now create one religion for all the Iberian Peninsula. So they start slowly and gradually forcing the Muslims into Christianity until the official announcements of this conversion in 1520 1521. All should become Christians, including the Middle Ages.
Some of the members of the royal family, they rejected that, or at least they objected to it briefly for economic and political reasons. But eventually, it happened, that they were all forced into Christianity, and some of them to tell us on historical factors, some of them, you know, willingly, they just participate and immediately entered Christianity, because for them, it was a lost battle anyway, or maybe because they just didn't know they had some kind of identity crisis. So they would grow up becoming Catholics and becoming part of the whole society. However, in the eye of the Spaniards, they were looked upon as moriscos. And they were still called moriscos. There are four
generations as moriscos. These Muslims during that time, they were banned from showing any signs of Islam, or Arab culture. Arabic language speaking was banned, using the Arabic characters and writing was banned. Dressing somehow, gradually and slowly was banned. And even they forced Christian families to come from up north to live down south in Granada for in order to make sure that those now new new Christians learn Christianity. They help them at the beginning before 1520 to preach Christianity or Catholicism, and in the Arabic language. So the priests will speak in Arabic language to these new members of the parishes. And when it didn't work in 1520s, they just stopped
doing that. So eventually, they had to try to change those people take them out of their way using their language and their culture. One fascinating thing I learned a lot from reading this history is that the Islamic culture, which is something we need to learn from, from this, the Muslim identity, and Islamic culture was so strong, so strong that all these forces of changing and conversion, could not really wipe out everything completely. As a matter of fact, some of these families who went that came down south to Granada, some of them there were some reports that they converted to Islam.
And even, of course, a few number and some of these issues that even entailed our oil and the powerful decision or decree to ban the practice the practices considered the Moorish practices like the dress.
You know, when the people came from up north, they came down south to Grenada. They were fascinated by the Nasir his dress or style or fashion, because of another was just probably like New York in the house of fashion. So when they came down, they start dressing like them, the creases are this in either Muslims now the opposite, submitted after 10 years, if they came or oil or or decree, no Spaniards allowed to wear like the moriscos it took them another 10 years for a pap of the tree comes out saying no Spanish are allowed to even to do that. And even they start finding the tailors. Anyone who is found to do also all these kind of apples similar to the to the morish will be fine.
So it was so powerful that people could see the Muslim cultures are so strong and could even survive in difficult times, like the times they were going through.
During this time
what had happened.
Muslims are to preserve their identity as much as possible. And I'm not saying this, because we are facing the same scenario today here in America because of hamdulillah. This we are not forced to be become Christians, you are now free to live as a Muslim. And you should keep it that way. means you should act you should practice and as Muslim freely. And Muslims they were recognized through specific, specific, let's say practices that preserve their identity and they tried to keep that as much as possible. Even when they were forced after not after 1520 into Christianity, the massive forcible conversion right now manage themselves acting, practicing Islam, underground, Islam was
completely underground. So what they did they start observing these
Traditional dresses under the ground, the practice of halal meat was become a source of identity for the Muslims, those who seek halal meat were considered Muslims. When the Inquisition office was established in order to go after these religious heresies, Islam was put as one of these heresies as well. So they would go after the Muslims, even they check their houses, they go on, they want to make sure that there was no moriscos instead of using olive oil in their cooking, they have to use lard.
They force them to do so.
The issue one of the marketable things of Han Allah the issue of cleanness
to be clean to take bath was one of these these issues that that made Muslims recognizable in the society. Those moriscos were banned from taking showers on Fridays. Anyone if they hear trickles of water you know in their houses do be reported. And if they come on Sundays because they have to go to the mass, if they come on Sunday, smell fresh means they have taken a bath and are subject to prosecution. So be set to jail and interrogation. If they were found taking showers even on Sunday. Why because they got some photos of their time. That it's okay because your force right now this is the Aurora when you go to Sunday Mass make your intention to attend Serato Juma.
So people they will take shall prepare themselves for Juma and go to the Sunday to the church.
Most of them Muslims were very, very innovative at that time.
They have invented the language. They have invented the language that didn't that didn't last too long. It just survived as long as most of existed in Spain. Between those those difficult times the 1520s until the 1614 when the Muslims were expelled out that language died with them. This language was speaking the Spanish language and writing it in Arabic characters. They called Elijah Mia pero
el hombre de la Jamia and the Arabic Allah jameelah. Jamia misses the foreign language. So they use the Arabic characters to speak to write the Spanish language. And even they even they change they change a lot of the a lot of the Spanish actually verbs and words to fit the Arabic grammar.
So just they added even they add a lot of words to the Spanish language, which is very famous and well known. You know, even before that time, the Arabic language, furniture, it actually even infiltrated a lot of the Spanish dictionaries, many words that starts with lol is a contribution of Islamic source.
in that language
on this day, more than a lot of above 100 the manuscripts survived.
And they have beautiful books of how long I mean, I personally try to read some because I'm not an expert in Spanish language is very hard and difficult to read them. But you can find them even on the internet, they have some database, you can even check some of these manuscripts. And some of the books they have also copies of these manuscripts, you check them you'll be amazed. Some of them they have pieces pages from the Quran,
books and folk and Sharia. You know, she also called yesterday was talking about how African Americans they tried to preserve this Muslim identity from memory. So they write their books, in their language in the Arabic language, even they did the same thing. They were not allowed to keep books. So they keep them and they save them for themselves.
That language again, unfortunately died after Muslims to depart from Spain.
Some of the remarkable things which we don't recommend, of course, for us to do here, but at least speak in fact, of the history of Spain, Muslim Spain is that even the innovation the beta,
the vision innovations, helped keeps upon the legacy of Islam longer. Because people they were not allowed to practice anything of the famous Sharia. Salah is very hard even to practice come for Juma, so impossible to fast even was very difficult and hard. So they had to go through a lot of things. So what they need to do to preserve preserve their religion, whatever they can do. So they invented Specific Practices in order to keep their identity as Muslims and it kept for them kept the identity for them for some time. Most of these of course innovations would go around some spiritual practices and sometimes the issue of weddings and even births like among families, so they do
specific practices that help make them different distinct from the from the general population.
One thing about the Muslims, they were very well known to be good artisans, and good craftspeople, which is hamdulillah Muslims here in America. You know, I know many, many Muslims. They are well known for this as well.
And they were very good workers and in the job excellently even they were employed to work and building palaces for the for in Granada and south of Spain as well because of the quality of work that they can provide. So the Muslims, they knew how to do this things perfectly because this is part of the religion. And I wish that the Muslims today here in America can keep also this legacy when Elijah barakaatuh.
Some of these Buddha jobs, at least they participate in the political, political realm of their societies. So they joined offices, and even they were members of the of the local councils. And they try to help the general cause of the community, not just the Muslim cause.
One thing that happened because of this massive expulsion, or the loss of the south of Muslim Spain, was the evac the evacuation, basically, of Spain,
in what I call it,
not it's a science, I would say, well, Islamic vacuum was created by the departure of many Muslim scholars, many of them, they left the country, and some of them they died. And some of them simply just weren't hiding. Of course, they didn't, they could not take it, you know, on themselves to become Christians or Catholics. So they went hiding, or escaping, or even deposit emigrating outside of Spain, that left a huge vacuum for the Muslims, how are we going to preserve our identity? So the issue of Islamic sciences, and specifically, the knowledge in the Arabic language became very, very, very important to them.
And there are some manuscripts survived from these adhamiya manuscripts, teaching people Arabic grammar, and teach them a little bit of the basics of the Sharia. And that's what we see even here today in America and the West in general. The young generation has a lot of brown, I mean, right now, they're actually walking on this. They would like to be more knowledgeable in their Deen, you know, before September 11, many, many people they were just busy earning for life, because there was a time of opportunity. And now people they fell into the course, identity crisis, they don't know what's going on. We have been American all this time. And now all of a sudden, we look, people look
upon us differently. So what exactly the problem, who am I? What should I be? I mean, should What should I call myself so besides going back again, to see and explore the Islamic identity, and that's what exactly happened. And there are some examples of very famous examples of books of history of that period, the young man from a revival, or Macedo of a revival or their elevado. Basically, he is very well known and famous for being one of these young people who are pursuing knowledge and they tried their best even to go outside spend to go for Hajj, which is a very risky would be would be journey for him and learn Sharia and then come back again to service people. This
young man he left Richard legacy, few books of his own war, of course, critical works. Some people they consider the was, it was a plagiarism from some kind of Christian source, but regardless, he was trying to bring some Islamic legacy and unrelieved his own community.
Women role
women role in the society
was very, very important. Since men could not do anything outside to show their identity as Muslims, it was left for women to keep the traditional legacy of Muslims alive in the house. My name was the woman according to historians, they even they were the they were basically hiding the books inside their houses, they built double double walls and their houses and they will be hiding these books in between they even they build some kind of hiding places in their own houses and in the basements. So whenever they need in the covenant there I wonder what some kind of inspection unexpected inspection women they immediately and affordably they were mentioned in an inquisition actually records of our
wherever they find these books, the women, they take these books emitted and they hide them in their clothing immediately, because they know regardless, they will not be asked to remove the cause no to to inspect, of course their bodies. But some incidents happen that discover these issues are recorded and Inquisition records that women were hired in these books. But it was left for women really, to carry the legacy of the Muslim community in that area. From all of this and more. And I wish we can talk even more about that some of these parallels that we learned from that experience, actually, that the issue of
of what we call Natalia, the fear of minorities. It's unprecedented our time here, speaking about the deal
Dealing with the Muslim issues and the minorities, you know from classical works of would be misleading. And I know many young men martial on women brothers and sisters, they're actively working on these traditional works have to understand how to deal with our societies. But believe me, all the works of our great Muslim scholars, what they did what how they wrote, might not be might not be reflecting what we see here in this age, because they were talking into environments completely different from ours. And therefore, there should be some kind of huge effort not just individually for the awesome few individual efforts, some Muslim scholars series of knowledge,
writing on the subject independently. But I believe there should be some kind of massive work by Muslim scholars and students of knowledge in order to discuss many of the issues people face today. And hamdulillah. It is going on right now through some other organizations. And I just even heard from Shaka village as well, that even amda is working on some workshop coming in Charlottetown at the end of this coming month, and they are going to be discussing some of these very important issues regarding the war field in the West.
young men and women are looking for identity.
What should be the practice as simulation? or rejection? Can we ask for a third? Could it be coexistence? Which means Can you be a Muslim, American and feel feel free to be both at the same time? Or is it hard and difficult to be a Muslim? Without you know, and being American the same time what should be our position? This is an issue Muslims are facing today. And some people are trying to create written say, this is impossible to happen. You cannot be a Muslim, and American at the same time and people sometimes they put you to the test by picking and choosing of what exactly is going on in the world today, to see your loyalty if you're American or not. Show me your identity,
either Muslim, or Muslim American or American Muslim. What is it exactly? These issues needs to be addressed thoroughly in order for people to understand what is the meaning of all these terminologies.
The issue of assimilation doesn't mean that you completely melt down in the society, it doesn't mean that you go and you just adapt all the habits and all the culture that is available around you whether it's positive or negative to you. This is now this is the land of opportunity, a lot of cultural diversity, which means you can still keep part of your culture and also enjoy being part of this whole massive, you know, melting pot in this area. As for the contribution to the society Alhamdulillah most of the already be contributing for the past generations. And there's still more generations to come. Many of our country, many of our country contribution as Muslim to this
community, and this society is coming and in the tactical field. But unfortunately, we don't have enough in the intellectual field. We don't have enough Muslims going, let's say and study history, study humanities, study psychology, sociology, in order to contribute to the whole field of humanity in this culture, most of our Muslims been directed to go and become doctors, become engineers become a Regional High paid positions. And they think if they go towards humanity and studying these fields, they're going to get lost in this society. We need some Muslims who will take care of this area and bring the legacy of our great Muslim scholars in psychology and sociology and other other
fields also and contribute and bring it back with them to this society and add like the early Muslims did to this culture. Bala who Tanana Why did the Muslims label Angelo's to get away from forcible conversions? Well, first of all, I don't want really to project the 21st century view of immigrating from one place to another place on their time, because we're talking about hundreds of 1000s of people, there'll be well established in that society for so long. And they were under contract and treaty to preserve the religion and of course, their identity. But once that was broken, and because of that revolt that happened in advance in our modern era, they were forced into
Christianity. And, by the way, by the law back then they were not even allowed to depart. They were not given the chance to report, they gave them specific terms. Some people, they were given the chance at the beginning, if they want to leave, you can leave. And that's when most people start leaving. So the left in the first few years, and then after that all the borders were closed. Why for a minute, for two reasons, religious reasons, because some of these Catholics, they were very extreme in their views say that you we should not allow these people of course to depart, because they want because they consider them of course, lost souls, and they want to save them. So you
cannot give them like this, they have to be saved. And that's why forcible conversion, and the other beaker for political reasons. They didn't want the Muslims to leave and go to North Africa. Otherwise they might be they might recruit over there and come back again to fight and try to retrieve the land that they lost from them.
About a series of the scholar from Egypt who spoke about the history of Spain I actually listened to that. And it's it's another addition to the narratives of Al Andalus. Nothing really profound in the analysis.
Could you refer to create the books? clarify this topic? I really recommend the book of LP Harvey he had a beautiful series. And when you LP Harvey, learner Patrick Harvie Muslims in Spain he had two series basically, one starts from the beginning of Islam until the beginning of the the emergence of Islam in Spain, and the other one begins from the capitulation of Spain until the expulsion from Spain. I recommend this book really, and he has a beautiful Bibliography at the end. You can go and select and choose books in Spanish language and also in English language as well. Do you agree with that creation of the best filler for the creation of two khilafah? Why was it separated? Why not
just follow one philosopher? Isn't it justified? First of all, we cannot ask why because it happened. So does not happen in history. Why these are political issues. It's not that they were the most righteous people fighting to establish one another. The issue of establishing one philosopher is a dream all Muslims, you know, they live they live with, however, is it something practical in the history of Islam, the leader, this single leader actually or single helaba was gone was lost after the assassination was mentally allowed on.
So it's not it's way even before the ambassador existed. When a man was assassinated, there was no one Khalifa after that time, after all between the Muslims, even during the time, when it has settled a lot. I'm considered to Mahalia, which was called the annual Jama Museum of the unity. Still, we had
the coverage, they have their own leaders that have established their own leaders, other groups establish their own leaders, they were all fighting. So they're all fighting afterwards. We never had a one single sharifah after the sessions, both metal gelatin So the issue of that califa restore order to the oma olana It's a theory that really doesn't have any strong basis. What was the name of the family
that fought against each other, and one of them allied with Isabel and Fernando. They were from Bengal Atma, they call them the nasrid Kingdom and Adela Masseria, Allah can Masseria the nasrid Kingdom from vanilla Abdullah severe Oh, Abdul is the last king and his uncle was a several. We see a lot of scholars, students of knowledge who refuse to go to France because of the hardships to freely practice Islam, what should they do, I will suggest if they can really find a way of going there and help spread the message of Allah subhanaw taala peacefully, which will handle a very open to many public specifically educate the Muslims not to go that route, it's going to be very
dangerous. If they keep going through that route. They should be educated to become more productive in the society rather than just revolting and every once in a while because of economic injustice, and I agree there's a lot of injustice against them. But this is not a solution to solve their problems. How was the law performed during during that time?
And under the prosecution? Well, during that time Subhanallah the Muslim scholars are these Muslims in Spain, they couldn't really have any access to Muslim scholars easily. So what they do they sometimes they smuggle letters with people going out and even bribe Some even Spaniards who leaving and traveling to North Africa and so on. So they carry some letters for them. And there are two famous records we have. That brings us this an idea on what exactly was going on in inside spin. One of these sources is a huge encyclopedia written by a number one Sharif Rahim, Allah tala. And when should you see a scholar from North Africa, he collected the fatawa been asked for Muslims from
North Africa and from Spain at that time. And many of these Fatah while one cerec would go along with the most conservative opinions of the most pious people, these Muslims in Spain, they have to immigrate, but they could not. They were unable Muslims. And this is just you know, for the record. Some of the early some of the early missions of piracy and Mediterranean were established by Muslims.
And it's not to be proud of this. But they had a legitimate reason to establish that the illegitimate reason was to go and raid the Iberian Peninsula shores to find that access for Muslims so they can escape. And in one night, there was actually one mission, some of these pilots, they went to North East of the Iberian Peninsula, and they were able to evacuate more than 700 people in one single night The whole village was taken out. So basically, there were some attempts and that's why these most of these you know, piracy, early pirates in the Mediterranean were coming from North Africa.
So how they performed their Salah, we see some of these examples mentioned there, but some of the some of the other activity sources letters exchanged between Muslim scholars in North Africa and in Egypt as well. And the Muslims in Spain they were told that they can perform even will do without using term because even if they were seen making time on dry ablution it will be an offence
against them. So what they do, they were told just to stare at the wall with intention if
there was a thorough purification, SubhanAllah. And they were told that while they're walking in the market, they can make their Salah, just by not even nodding their heads, just blink their eyes for the movements of Salah, oroku, St. Jude, and so on. That's how they were asked to perform the salon. Now, whether you agree or not on this to say is this is a legitimate, let's say, form of Salah or an invasion beta, basically, that's totally out of the question right now. Because people they will live in such a, you know, extraordinary circumstance that we cannot judge in this age. Given the hardships Muslims were forced to endure, was it not incumbent upon them to make the digital? Well,
we answered that it wasn't easy for them to do so. And even when they at the time of the expulsion, by the way, when they were expelled, and between the 1969 and 1614. They allowed parents to leave and leave their kids.
Children 12 years old and under, they were forced to stay behind. Why because they don't want those sores to go to the Hellfire Lumsden. And they were, of course, the kids were distributed to some good Catholics to grow up, you know, and religion. Muslims in Spain, were a secluded community.
We live in an international community because of information age, how does that make our experience as minority different? Absolutely, somehow a great difference, because now the issue of minority and majority becomes something relative. Right now, it's not a matter of physical number. It's an age of information, how much you know how much you contribute, how much you can do, basically, all of this can really prove your size. And you can see that even in this society, some people have specific minority, they prevailed over so many of the areas of the society because of their performance. So it's not about you know, physical number. It's about your achievements, what exactly you're doing.
What happened to the massage is built in by Muslims at the time, of course, many of these massages were converted to different issues, different places, like churches, for the very famous
men measure the kotoba right now, actually, the measure of both of ours is so huge, because that was the capital of the Islamic caliphate in Spain. It is so huge, so huge that when they went when they took it from the Muslims, and they tried to convert that into Cathedral, they built the huge Cathedral within the limits of the method itself. So the zeros inside the message, these are the main code. And because the Mayans were originally Arabs coming from the Arabian Peninsula, they brought with them some of their culture. And one of these famous a culture that you see in Spanish architect basically, the art that they build with, and there was the dual colors, specifically red,
white colors, and so on. So when you look at the method of Portobello, when you check these pillars, like this, you will be amazed because you think that you'll be walking in all kinds of palm trees. They're all look like palm trees, how they actually been designed hundreds of killers in the masjid. Just to give the image of the Arabian Peninsula you go back again, see that you're living actually still in that in that area. Now that church, that cathedral is inside that just basically part of the whole Masjid of Kosovo, others unfortunately what compared to other other places like restaurants, and even bars and taverns and so on.