Traditional historiography has stressed since the 19th century the existence of the Reconquista,[1] a continuous phenomenon by which the Christian Iberian kingdoms opposed and conquered the Muslim kingdoms, understood as a common enemy who had militarily seized territory from native Iberian Christians.[2] Some contemporary authors consider it proved that the process of Christian state-building in Iberia was indeed often defined by the reclamation of lands that had been lost to the Moors in generations past. In this way, state-building might be characterised –at least in ideological, if not practical, terms– as a process by which Iberian states were being 'rebuilt'.[3]

The concept of a Christian reconquest of the peninsula first emerged, in tenuous form, at the end of the 9th century.[4] A landmark was set by the Christian Chronica Prophetica (883–884), a document stressing the Christian and Muslim cultural and religious divide in Iberia and the necessity to drive the Muslims out. About the same time, the Crónica Albeldense cites the notion of reconquering Iberia from its Muslim occupants in order to restore a united Christian Iberian polity such as it existed under the Visigothic Kingdom.[3]


The Islamic Almohad dynasty and surrounding states, including the Christian Kingdoms of Portugal, León, Castile, Navarre, and the Crown of Aragon, c. 1200.
Both Christian and Muslim rulers fought amongst themselves. Alliances between Muslims and Christians were not uncommon.[4] Blurring distinctions even further were the mercenaries from both sides who simply fought for whoever paid the most. The period is seen today to have had episodes of relative religious tolerance.[5]

The Crusades, which started late in the 11-12th century, bred the religious ideology of a Christian reconquest, confronted at that time with a similarly staunch Muslim Jihad ideology in Al-Andalus by the Almoravids, and to an even greater degree by the Almohads. In fact, previous documents from the 10th and 11th centuries are mute on any idea of "reconquest".[6] Propaganda accounts of Muslim-Christian hostility came into being to support that idea, most notably the Chanson de Roland, a fictitious 11th-century French version of the Battle of Roncevaux Pass (778) dealing with the Iberian Saracens (Moors), and taught as historical fact in the French educational system since 1880.[7][8]

The modern idea of the earlier concept of Reconquista is inextricably linked to the foundational myths of Spanish nationalism in the 19th century, and consolidated by the mid-20th century during Franco's National-Catholic dictatorship, based on a strong underlying Castilian ideological element.[9] The idea of a "liberation war" of reconquest against the Muslims, depicted as foreigners, suited well during the Spanish Civil War the anti-Republican rebels agitating the banner of a Spanish fatherland threatened by regional nationalisms and communism.[9] Their rebellious pursuit was thus a Crusade for the restoration of Church's unity, where Franco stood for both Pelagius of Asturias and El Cid.[9]

Some recent historians dispute the whole concept of Reconquista as a concept created a posteriori in the service of later political goals. A few historians point out that Spain and Portugal did not previously exist as nations, and therefore the heirs of the Christian Visigothic Kingdom were not technically reconquering them, as the name suggests.[10][11][12][13][14][15] One of the first Spanish intellectuals to question the idea of a "reconquest" that lasted for eight centuries was José Ortega y Gasset, writing in the first half of the 20th century.[16] However, the term is still widely in use.

Background
Islamic conquest of Christian Iberia
Further information: Umayyad conquest of Hispania and Battle of Guadalete
In 711, Muslim Moors, mainly North African Berber soldiers with some Arabs, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and began their conquest of the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania. After their conquest of the Visigothic kingdom's Iberian territories, the Muslims crossed the Pyrenees and took control of Septimania in 719, the last province of the Visigothic kingdom to be occupied. From their stronghold of Narbonne, they launched raids into the Duchy of Aquitaine.

At no point did the invading Islamic armies exceed 60,000 men.[17] These armies established an Islamic rule that would last 300 years in much of the Iberian Peninsula and 770 years in Granada.

Islamic rule
Main articles: Berbers and Islam and Berber Revolt
After the establishment of a local Emirate, Caliph Al-Walid I, ruler of the Umayyad caliphate, removed many of the successful Muslim commanders. Tariq ibn Ziyad, the first governor of the newly conquered province of Al-Andalus, was recalled to Damascus and replaced with Musa bin Nusair, who had been his former superior. Musa's son, Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa, apparently married Egilona, Roderic's widow, and established his regional government in Seville. He was suspected of being under the influence of his wife and was accused of wanting to convert to Christianity and of planning a secessionist rebellion. Apparently a concerned Al-Walid I ordered Abd al-Aziz's assassination. Caliph Al-Walid I died in 715 and was succeeded by his brother Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik. Sulayman seems to have punished the surviving Musa bin Nusair, who very soon died during a pilgrimage in 716. In the end, Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa's cousin, Ayyub ibn Habib al-Lakhmi became the emir of Al-Andalus.

The conquering generals were necessarily acting independently, due to the methods of communication available. Successful generals in the field and in a distant province would gain the personal loyalty of their officers and warriors and their ambitions were likely watched by certain circles of the distant government with a degree of concern and suspicion. Old rivalries and perhaps even full-fledged conspiracies between generals may have had influence over this development. In the end, the formerly successful generals were replaced by a younger generation considered more loyal to the government in Damascus.

A serious weakness amongst the Muslim conquerors was the ethnic tension between Berbers and Arabs.[18] The Berbers were indigenous inhabitants of North Africa who had only recently converted to Islam; they provided most of the soldiery of the invading Islamic armies but sensed Arab discrimination against them.[19] This latent internal conflict jeopardized Muslim unity.

After the Islamic Moorish conquest of most of the Iberian Peninsula in 711–718 and the establishment of the emirate of Al-Andalus, an Umayyad expedition suffered a major defeat at the Battle of Toulouse and was halted for a while on its way north. Odo of Aquitaine had married his daughter to Uthman ibn Naissa, a rebel Berber and lord of Cerdanya (maybe of current Catalonia too), in an attempt to secure his southern borders in order to fend off Charles Martel's attacks on the north. However, a major punitive expedition led by Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, the latest emir of Al-Andalus, defeated and killed Uthman, and the Muslim governor mustered an expedition north across the western Pyrenees, looted areas up to Bordeaux, and defeated Odo in the Battle of the River Garonne in 732.

A desperate Odo turned to his archrival Charles Martel for help, who led the Frankish and remaining Aquitanian armies against the Umayyad armies and defeated them at the Battle of Tours in 732, killing Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi. While Moorish rule began to recede, it would remain in parts of the Iberian peninsula for another 760 years.

Beginning of the Reconquista
Main article: Kingdom of Asturias

Coat of arms of Alcanadre. La Rioja, Spain. Depicting heads of slain Moors
The first victory in resistance to Muslim rule occurred in Asturias in 722. A drastic increase of taxes by the emir Anbasa ibn Suhaym Al-Kalbi provoked several rebellions in Al-Andalus, which