Maps as anchor. To make Spain's history more immediately understandable: Find a map to locate the old boundaries - references to them recur throughout Spain's history and tour books. This is from a simple Images search - ://catavino.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/castillaleon_1360.jpg.
This map shows no "Ottoman Empire" incursion into Spain (Turkish roots), but apparently Arab-Berber. See ://www.dartmouth.edu/~gov46/ottoman-empire-1580.gif
Chronology of Muslim Rule. For an overview of Muslim rule, and further maps of that influence and expansion, go to ://www.raqs.co.nz/me/islam_history.html
Timelines understood so far. These to be filled in as to impact on pre-Christian, Christian, Jew, unaffiliated, and Muslim, as we go. Dates are from the islam_history site. Will also use this site - a medieval history source, from Fordham University ://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1d.html.
For a timeline on Jewish history, see ://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/8636/History.html
MUSLIM TIME LINE, ESPECIALLY AS IT PERTAINS TO SPAIN; OTHER CULTURES IN SPAIN
1. Pre-Roman times
2. Roman
3. Post-Roman
Visigoths
570 CE (Christian Era used here) Birth of the Prophet Mohammed in Mecca
632 CE Death of Mohammed. Islam had spread in that short time to most of Arabia in the west and central sections
642 CE Muslims control Egypt; and by 656, Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, Iran;
661 CE Death of the fourth caliph, 'Ali - succession issues led over time to a split between the Sunnis and the Shi'a. By this time, the spread was this:
"Arab Empire west to Tripoli (Libya), north to Taurus [did you know the origin of Ford's model car?] and Caucasus mountains (Turkey and Georgia) and east to Pakistan." See www. raqs.co.nz/me/islam_history.html;.
4. Muslims and Spain (mostly)
711 CE - Arab Muslims enter Spain through North Africa;
732 CE - Arab Muslims cross the Indus River into India. They also got as far as Tours [tours de France? please take a joke] in France, from their earlier entry into Spain. That was as far into Europe as the Muslim expansion extended. - France to India.
Were they Sunni or Shi'a?
Do we know where they came in? What the ships looked like? When did families follow armies, or did all come at once? Where was the central authority - still back in Arab lands or independent in Spain?
What were Christians doing in the 8th Century? What beliefs, what divisions.
756-1037 CE- The "Umayyad Dynasty" - in Spain
874-999 CE - The Umayyad Dynasty was in Cordoba, Spain
1037-1492 - Fatimid dynasty in northern Africa and Syria, based on Cairo
1254-1517 CE - Moorish Muslims are in Spain (is this Turk rather than Arab, and when and how did the transition happen?) - note the Reconquest in 1492 - it must have taken additional years to complete the process?
1453 - Meanwhile, back at the European Crusades, the Crusaders capture Jerusalem
1492 - Christian Constantinople fell to the Turks; the Mamluks rule in Egypt.
In Spain, Granada falls to the Christians, ending Arab rule (but I thought Moors were there by then?)
THE EDICT OF EXPULSION AGAINST THE JEWS. And, in Spain, the Christians expel the Jews completely - everybody out who will not convert. See ://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/1492-jews-spain1.html. Compare that to the legal status of dhimmi applied to non-muslims in muslim lands - they could stay under restricted economic and political conditions, but they could stay and practice their own religion.
1566 - The Ottoman Empire [did the Turkish branch break away from the Arab?] Ottomans "Turkic people from Central Asia - but continued to spread Islam", see www.raqs.co.nz/me/islam_history.html.
See map here - no Ottomans in Spain apparently. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~gov46/ottoman-empire-1580.gif
1858 - end of Mughal (Muslim) rule, India
1922 - Ataturk deposes last Ottoman* sultan
1947 - Pakistan was founded as Islamic state
1979 - Islamic regime, Khumeni; also al-Qadafi (Libya?)
.......................................................
Definitions:
*Ottomans: Turkic people from Central Asia, but they also spread Islam
Stats from 2005 - Muslims 26% of world population. Majority in Middle East, North Africa, 100 million in rest of Africa, over 500 million in rest of Asia, 90% of India and Pakistan are Muslim, Islam has spread to 184 countries at least. See again this recurrent site, see www.raqs.co.nz/me/islam_history.html.
5. The Reconquest 1492
6. Single Monarchy
7. Today
Why do all this? Spain's history is a different trajectory than the rest of Europe because of the Muslim rule for some 400 years. And relevant to our understanding of Muslim ways - what was the experience of Christians, Jews, the "unaffiliated," under the Muslims of that period. Who was extreme on any side, and who tolerated. What was life like under the Muslims, and how did their governing and belief system differ from contemporary Muslims, whether (like us) extremist, conservative, liberal, whatever.
Our interest here is in the chronology of the evolution of Spain through various very different kinds of rulers: and where they ruled, and when. Also the populations: Pre-Christian, Christian, Roman Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and especially the Dhimmi (Jews and Christians conquered by the Muslims, and living under economic, social and political restrictions known as "dhimmitude" until they converted, if they chose to so convert. Who was where, when, who kicked out whom, why.
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