Please note that the EHL
does NOT portray that this video or its content is historical
fact. This is merely a historical film in (biased) American
cinema showing the legitimate cultural and religious antagonism
between the invading Arabs and the native Iberians.
Before the 8th century, "Spain"
did not exist, but was ruled by a foreign Germanic Visigothic
empire. "Spain" was only born as a unified state
under native rule by 1492 with the merger of Iberian kingdoms
during the Reconquista, especially Aragon and Castile. The
ancient Visigothic Christian state was obliterated, without
provocation, by an invading army of Muslim Mujahidin from
Morocco (the Umayyad state in Damascus). The Portuguese and
Iberian people spent the next half-millennium as subjects
of a foreign power. All Spanish (Iberian) states in the south
were destroyed and laid to ruin, including numerous churches.
A breakaway emirate, al-Andalus (the namesake of today's autonomous
region of Spanish Andalusia), then created a unique system
of magnificent architecture that preferred money to religion,
and granted extensive religious freedom so long as native
subjects paid exorbitant taxes. Tremendous scientific achievements
were established by both Jews, Christians, and Muslims. This
tolerant state collapsed into regional, warring states as
radical, hard-line Muslims (Almohads and Almoravids) crushed
both the Christians and the liberal Muslims and ostensibly
barred all religions except Islam. Now under nearly 800 years
of foreign conquest (without provocation), the many Iberian
native states rallied together (more or less) in the Reconquista
to expel their Mujahidin occupiers. This is the traditional
romanticized interpretation of Spanish reunification and "liberation."
In reality, the evolution of unified Spanish statehood was
a complex process of political intrigue, dynastic marriage,
and internecine war between Iberian polities until the establishment
of the personal union of Queen Isabella of Castile and King
Ferdinand of Aragon by 1492.
One famous figure, in this
film, was one Spaniard (Iberian) called Rodrigo Diaz. He was
hunted by both Christian and Muslim, and created his own army
with some of both religions, and was called "al-Sayyid"
by the Muslims. In the film, he is depicted as a lion of Christendom.
In reality, it is typically assumed that he was a freelance
mercenary who worked with both Muslims and Christians in some
cases, but ultimately with the direction of defending the
Christian faith against the shared enemy of corrupt Christian
leaders and Muslim holy warriors invading without provocation
from the sands of Gibraltar.
You can view our exclusive
map showing the history of Islamic conquest in Europe here.
________________________________________
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR:
James Mayfield is a historian
and the Chairman of the European Heritage Library. I have
a Cum Laude BA in History with a Minor in Germanic Studies
(language and history), am presently working for my Masters
in History, and plan to immediately progress to my PhD Doctorate.
I have a special academic interest in Europe's diverse ethnic
identities, languages, and cultures, and the political struggles
of native European and immigrant minority identities. See
my staff entry for more information.
BIBLIOGRAPHY/SOURCES
USED:
The film "El Cid",
directed by Anthony Mann, with the copyright expired due to
age.
Copyright ongoing since 2008-,
European Heritage Library®. www.euroheritage.net.
All Rights Reserved. The European Heritage Library is a non-profit academic
organization owned by
Chairman James Mayfield.
No email addresses or personal information is redistributed. No articles
or content on this site may be redistributed without approval or a
full citation and credit to the EHL as the original source.
