Brian A. Catlos

My approach to things I know little or nothing about is to read as many books as possible about it; hence, after Hugh Kennedy’s Muslim Spain and Portugal, I picked up Kingdoms of Faith, by Brian Catlos. Catlos proposes that two myths about al-Andalus – that it was a place of peace and tolerance among Muslims, Christians, and Jews; and that the Reconquista by Christian Spain was an epic, heroic “clash of civilizations” – are exaggerated.

The first myth – “conveniencia” – has some truth to it; Christians and Jews were tolerated under Muslim rule, as long as they “knew their place” and payed the dhimmi tax. Some rose to high positions in the government, as advisers (although these were always convenient scapegoats if things went poorly). The Sunni Muslims of Spain were usually more interested in persecuting other Muslims – Shi’ites and Kharijites – who were considered apostates and therefore subject to the death penalty. (Interestingly enough, there was a similar controversy in the Jewish community in al-Andalus over Karaites, who were fundamentalists rejecting the Talmud). And the Sunni Muslims were frequently quite willing to fight each other – often using Christian mercenaries – for political ends; the most dramatic example was at the very end of Muslim Spain, where the last ruler of Granada, Abu ‘l-Hassan ‘Ali, had to fight his own son (Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad) and brother (Muhammad ibn Sa’d) at the same time he was trying to fend off Fernando and Isabel.

The flip side was the Christian kingdoms of the Iberia were also usually more interested in fighting their co-religionists – often using Muslim mercenaries – than “reconqusita”. Portugal, Leon, Castile, Navarre, Aragon, Valencia, Barcelona and Murcia were at each other’s throats as often as not, until the final union of the Castilian and Aragonese crowns. The Spanish national hero, Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar – El Cid – was just as likely to be fighting Christians on behalf of Muslims as fighting Muslims on behalf of Christians.

One thing Catlos covers that is left out of Kennedy is the post-Reconquista history of Spanish Muslims. Originally, they were promised they could continue to practice Islam; this was quickly withdrawn and they were given the choice of exile or conversion. The converts – “moriscos” or “New Christians” - attracted continuous attention from the Inquisition; finally, between 1609 and 1614, all around 320000 were expelled; some arranged their own passage but the poor were simply dumped on the shore in Africa (where they were rejected by the natives – they were Christians, after all).

Catlos is more readable than Hugh Kennedy, with better maps and explanations. He’s not adverse to a little cuteness – one chapter is titled “The Return of the King”, another is “The General, the Caliph, His Wife, and Her Lover”, and when al-Mansur bi-Llah raided as far north as Santiago de Compostela and returned to Córdoba with the ponderous chimes of the cathedral, Catlos comments he “…had grabbed Spanish Christianity by the bells”. Useful illustrations and maps are spread through the text, there’s an appendix with the amirs, caliphs and sultans of al-Anadalus, a handy glossary of Arabic words, and a good bibliography and index. Recommended.… (mehr)

Brian Catlos’ Kingdoms of Faith is a thorough history of Al-Andalus from its origins in the Umayyad conquests of the early 8th century, to the fall of the last Muslim kingdom in the late 15th century, and on to the final expulsion of the Moriscos (crypto-Muslims or Christians of recent Muslim ancestry) in the early 17th century. The book draws heavily on recent scholarship, and I can see it being very useful in prepping for classes at the undergraduate level on medieval Iberia. However, I would be hesitant to assign this as a textbook equivalent because Catlos has a tendency to confuse "dense litany" with narrative and because of the particular tack he takes. (While the subtitle refers to this as a “new” history of Islamic Spain, it is in truth a rather old-fashioned political narrative history, what I think of as the Catherine Morland school: “the quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences, in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all.") One for medievalists and very diligent general readers.… (mehr)