Al-Andalus also showed a collaboration of Muslim, Jewish and Christian scholars, unlike anywhere else in Europe. Aristotle's lost philosophy, churches and temples that strongly resemble Muslim mosques, the pinnacle of Hebrew literature's Golden Age, the roots of modern medicine and mathematics, and the transmission of Greek philosophy into Western Europe are just a few of the collaborative achievements that form the legacy of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim cultures interacting in Islamic Spain. Farming, scientific methods of irrigation, shipbuilding, the graver, the hammer, the potter’s wheel and the mason’s wheel were all brought to perfection in al-Andalus (Burckhartd, 69). Whatever makes a kingdom grand and prosperous was found in Islamic Spain.
In general, religious cooperation, political and economic stability was seen in al-Andalus unlike anywhere else in the European continent. It was there that that the “profoundly Arabized Jews rediscovered and reinvented Hebrew” (Menocal, 11). It produced great Jewish philosophers and theologians such as, Ibn Gabirol, Ibn Pakuda and Maimonides, whose works have greatly impacted the Jewish faith (Burckhardt, 28). Nearly all Christians embraced Arabic writing, philosophy and architectural styles of mosques. In al-Andalus, Christians alongside Jews and Muslims pursued the truth, whether scientific, philosophical or religious truth (Menocal, 11). In other words, people of these three religions worked together in al-Andalus to create a profound and productive civilization unlike anywhere else in Europe during the “Dark Ages.” Perhaps the scholar of medieval culture and history, Maria Rosa Menocal, phrases it in better words, “al-Andalus… [is] a potential model for Christian, Jewish and Muslim coexistence in an increasingly multicultural European community” today (Boone 13).
So far, we have seen that the Muslims successfully built a nation of high culture and learning in Spain. It was a society where Christians, Jews and Muslims harmoniously co-existed. In fact, for the first century of their rule in Spain, there was no religious rebellion. The question is, why were the Muslims so successful in building a society where Jews, Christians and Muslims harmoniously lived together in the Dark Ages? Perhaps the answer lies in the jurisprudence of the first emir of al-Andalus, Abd-er-Rahman I, whose regime lasted from 756 to 788. His rule was the transition of Spain from its Visigothic social structure to an Islamic or Arabic one.
Abd-er-Rahman, whose name means “servant of the Merciful,” came into power almost fifty years after the Muslim conquest of Spain. After fleeing Damascus as a political refuge, he came to Spain and successfully took the throne. In the year 756, Abd-er-Rahman formally announced Spain’s independence from the Abbasid caliphate.
Under the caliphate, when Spain was conquered in 711, it remained a remote province of the Islamic empire, and nothing was changed from its previous Visigothic rulers. For the first few years there were about twenty thousand Arab and Berbers# who migrated to al-Andalus. They took the place of the preceding ruling Visigoth nobility and everything remained the same as it was before. However, when Abd-er-Rahman took the throne and successfully announced Spain’s independence, changes from the preceding Visogothic social structure took place. This change was the main factor for Abd-er-Rahman’s success in building a community in Spain where Jews, Christians and Muslims peacefully lived together. Abd-er-Rahman’s jurisprudence accorded the people with far better conditions than that of the Visigothic rulers.
In order to better understand Abd-er-Rahman’s jurisprudence we must first explore the jurisprodunce of the previous ruler of Spain, King Roderick. After the Roman Empire fell, Vandals, Alans and Visigoths entered the Iberian peninsula at about the first one or two decades of the 5th century. The Visigoths ruled supreme in 584, and announced Christianity as the official religion. Roderick succeeded King Witiza in the year 710 and died in the year 712. Due to his short reign of about a year, Roderick followed the order of the previous kings. He was “a prince who seems to have begun his reign well,” writes Stanley Lane-Poole the 19th century British historian, “but ...presently succumbed to the temptations of wealth and power” (Lane-Poole 8). Under his rule and the previous rulers Spain was a “culturally and materially dreary place” (Menocal 11). Moreover, he and the previous rulers showed no religious tolerance.
Since Christianity was the official religion, any other religion was intolerable under Visigothic rule. As a result, the Jews a significant number of the Spanish population, were persecuted. They were flogged, executed, had their properties confiscated, were subjected to ruinous taxes, forbidden to trade and, at times, dragged to the baptismal font under Roderick and other Visigoth rulers. Many Jews were obliged to accept Catholicism but continued to observe the Jewish laws privately (Boone 42).
The persecution of the Jews began with King Recared I (586-601). Under his rule Spain became a Catholic or Christian land and established series of laws that restricted the practice of Judaism and the daily lives of the Jews. The celebration of the Passover and the Sabbaths and other celebration in the customary manner were interdicted. The solemnization of marriage and circumcision of Children were prohibited as well. The Jews were not allowed to offend Christians in deeds or words nor could theytestify against a Christian in the court of justice or request a trial against a Christian. The penalty for breaking these laws were burned or stoned to death.
Under another Visigothic king, Sisebut (612-620), lives of the Jews became even more restricted. Under his reign more restrictions for the Spanish Jews followed. Sisebut ordained that every Jew who would abstain from converting to Christianity or baptizing himself or his children will be punished with one hundred lashes and banished from the land and deprived of his possessions. Almost ninety thousand Jews were forced to accept Christianity. For those who showed great resistance to Christianity and wanted to flee Spain, Sisebut blocked the borders so no Jew could escape. However, as previously mentioned, even though many Jews were forced to convert, they secretly followed the laws of Judaism. All of the successors of Sisebut, from Recared II to Roderick, generally followed the laws of Sisebut and Ricared I with more or less restrictions (Graetz 45).
The Visigothic reign of Spain clearly was not favored by the Jews, neither was it by the Christians themselves. The general Visigothic social structure was as follows. At the top of the hierarchy were the kings and counts and a Christian ecclesiastical structure headed by bishops. The counts or nobles were few and held huge estates. These people, the richer classes, were “given away to luxury, eating, drinking, and gambling” (Lane-Poole 6) . Then followed the small middle class or bourgone who alone paid the taxes, and at the bottom of society were the mass of serfs and slaves.
The majority of the people were either slaves or serfs bound to the soil that were owned by the counts. They could not detach from the land but passed from master to master. They also could not marry without their master’s permission, and if different estates intermarried, the children were divided between the masters. The slaves were often ill-treated and the only way to freedom was death. “The very clergy, who preached about the brotherhood of Christians,” writes Lane-Poole, “now that they had become rich and owned great estates, joined the traditional policy and treated their slaves and serfs as badly…” (Lane-Poole 6). Thousands of slaves that worked on the great estates owned by the bishops and nobles were often treated badly.
The small middle class or bourgone that existed in Gothic Spain were in ruin. They were the only one that paid the tax and supplied the money for civil and municipal functions. This heavy taxation often led them to bankruptcy. In other words, the middle class was not in favor of this social structure just as the serfs and slaves (Lane-Poole 6-11).
To summarize the Visigoth society in Spain, the highest position was held by the kings, nobles and church officials, then came the middle class and at the bottom were the slaves and serfs. Then there were the Jews who were persecuted. Such was the condition of Spain when the Muslims came. “A corrupt aristocracy,” according to Stanely Lane-Poole “divided the land among themselves; the great estates were tilled by wretched and hopeless race of serfs; the citizen classes were ruined” . As a result, in “a society so demoralized there were no elements of opposition to a resolute invader.” Stanley-Poole further writes that “ What they [the Spanish people] wanted was, not a creed, but the power to live their lives in peace and prosperity.” And that is what Abd-er-Rahman gave in his reign, he made such reforms that it allowed for the peace and prosperity of Muslims, Christians and Jews (Lane-Poole 1-44).
To return to the reason for Abd-er-Rahman’s success in Spain, he accorded the Spanish people with far better conditions than victorious armies usually did. His jurisprodunce towards Jews and Christians provided a foundation where religious co-existence was inevitable. Part of the greatness of Muslim rule in Spain is this peaceful religious co-existence, which on the whole was seen before under the jurisdiction of Jews nor Chrisitians.
To understand this attitude of Abd-er-Rahman and the Muslims we must view it from their perspective. The Muslims did not regard Judaism or Christianity as alien religions, but rather the older versions of Islam. According to Muslims, Islam is the restoration of the religions both Jesus and Moses propagated ( or renewal of the Abrahamic faiths). Therefore, Muslims consider Jews and Christians as “the people of the book” (Burkhardt 29). As a result, when the Muslims conquered the Visigothic Christian land, they showed tolerance. This tolerance, as previously mentioned, caused the success of Abd-er-Rahman and the co-existence of Islam, Christianity and Judaism.
Under Abd-er-Rahman the Christians were allowed to keep their Churches and the Jews their Synagogues. Most importantly, they were given the freedom to worship whomever or whatever they wanted. Instead of persecuting them and enforcing upon them a compulsory conversion, as the Goths had upon the Jews, the Muslims gave them the freedom to choose. Thus, al-Andalus under Abd-er-Rahman had religious freedom. The Jews even helped the Muslims conquer the Iberian Peninsula.
Once a major city was captured, the defense of it was left to a mix of Jewish and Muslim army. The Chronicle of Lucas de Tuy# records that "when the Christians left Toledo on Sunday before Easter to go to the Church of the Holy Laodicea to listen to the divine sermon, the Jews acted treacherously and informed the Saracens#. Then they closed the gates of the city before the Christians and opened them for the Moors." It is quite obvious why the Jews helped the Muslims. The Jews, as previously mentioned, were under great restriction and persecution by the Visigoths, therefore, they happily helped the Muslims, hoping for a friendlier regime (Burkhardt 48).
The Christians and Jews were also allowed to live wherever they wanted, unlike the rest of Europe, where Jews were forced to live in ghettos#. Moreover, the Christians and Jewish formed their own communities, where they were allowed independent jurisdiction on matters that did not involve the rights of Muslim subjects. They also had their own leaders, bishops or counts that represented them in the Muslim government. They were also allowed to participate in politics#, which the Visigoths did not allow for the Jews. The Jewish and Christian women were allowed to marry Muslim men, but not vice-versa. One of the significant marriages during the first century of Islamic rule in Spain was between the widow of the former ruler of Spain, Roderick, and the son of the African governor, Musa. This great religious tolerance that was seen under Abd-er-Rahman must have created some sense unity between the three monotheistic faiths.
Abd-er-Rahman also wisely implanted the laws of tax. In addition to the general tax paid by all subjects, Christians and Jews had to pay an extra poll-tax called jizya. The Muslims on the other hand were required to pay the zakah, two and a half percent of their savings in addition to the general tax, therefore it is a mistake of many modern historians such as Bernard Lewis, to think that only non-Muslims in Spain paid the extra poll-tax. In other words, people of all three faiths were required to pay an extra tax in addition to the general tax. Moreover, the jizya was only imposed upon the independent adult male. Women, children, monks, invalids, the sick, beggars and slaves were all exempt from. On the other hand, the zakah was paid by both independent women and men.
The jizya dependent upon the adult male’s profession and it usually was twelve to forty eight Dirhems, and the monthly installment made it easier to pay, unlike the zakah where the entire sum was to be paid in one sum during the Arabic month of Ramadan. The zakah was used for the welfare of the poor in al-Andalus, while the jizya was for the repairment and building of municipal structures such as roads and bridges. This process of taxation did not upset the Christians or Jews, rather unified them with the Muslims. And with this extra poll-tax the emir was able to help the poor of al-Andalus and build infrastructures, which improved the daily lives of the al-Andalusian people (Burkhardt 29-41).
So far we have seen tolerance of other religions by the Abd-er-Rahman and its contribution to unity. What about the slaves and the grand estates that were owned by the Visigoth nobles? We see tolerance there as well. When Abd-er-Rahman came into power, many of the estates were divided and handed over to local tenants. The slaves were for the most part set free, either by conversion to Islam, or by gradually buying themselves free, something that was impossible in the previous Visogothic law. Moreover, the new Muslim masters treated their slaves with far better conditions. The reason for it is their following of the teachings of the Arabic prophet, Muhammad. “God,” said he, “hath ordained that your brothers should be your slaves: therefore him whom God hath ordained to be the slave of his brother, his brother must give him of the food which he eateth himself, and of the clothes wherewith he clotheth himself, and not order him to do anything beyond his power....A man who ill-treats his slave will not enter into Paradise” (Lane-Poole, 48). This should be enough to explain why the Muslim man in al-Andalus treated his slaves so fine. Since, the new Muslim masters were required, by their religion, to treat their slaves as they would treat themselves, the slaves showed little or no resistance to a new Muslim rule. Most importantly, they preferred a Muslim master then a Visigothic one. Furthermore, the Muslims gave their slaves the status similar to that of a small tenant farmer, whereas the slave was left to cultivate the land on his own and in return the master asked for a fair profit. Winning over the hearts of the mass of slaves was easy for the new rulers.
Why were the Muslims so successful in building a nation where Muslims, Christians and Jews peacefully co-existed? Because the jurisprudence of the Muslim emir, Abd-er-Rahman I, provided the Spanish middle class, slave, serf, Jew and Christian with far better conditions then they had under Roderick, the Visigothic king. The emir showed great religious tolerance, where the Jews and Christians were not obliged to a compulsory conversion, bur rather given the freedom to worship whomever or whatever they wanted. The middle class was not burdened with heavy taxes and the slaves and serfs were liberated and far better treated. “Guaranteeing peaceful co-existence,” writes the German-Swiss 20th century historian Titus Burkahrdt “ between the three religions was not...so difficult.” Another aspect that might have contributed to this religious co-existence is the mass conversion of Jews and Christians to Islam. Slaves also frequently accepted Islam, some historians theorize the reason for it is that they were set free once a Muslim, others say Islam merely became attractive. Jews and Christians also gradually embraced Arabic writing and literature, and soon almost all Spaniards became Arabized. This also might have contributed to the success of Abd-er-Rahman in uniting the Christians and Jews with the Muslims. Over all, al-Andalus during the middle ages was the only country in Europe where Jews, Christians and Muslims prospered peacefully into one of the most productive civilizations of that era (Burkhardt 29-44). Al-Andalus is a great example of Jews, Christians and Muslims’ harmonious co-existence, where the people of these three faiths created a culture of high learning and discoveries, and this was made possible by the foundation Abd-er-Rahman built during his reign, which was carried on by his successors.
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