Tribute of 100 virgins

The tribute of 100 virgins (Spanish: tributo de las cien doncellas) is a Spanish national myth as part of the Reconquista ideology. The legend rests on a narrative of annual tribute of one hundred virgin maidens paid by the Christian kingdom of Asturias to the Muslim emirate of Córdoba. The narrative also suggests that fifty were to be of noble birth and fifty commoners.[1] The myth of tribute has been described "historically apocryphal but ideologically accurate" because it played important propaganda role in the formation and affirmation of the Reconquista ideology in the later Middle Ages, and it still figures prominently to this day in Spanish national cultural memory.

  1. ^ de Cirre, M. Manzanares (1966). "Las cien doncellas: trayectoria de una leyenda". PMLA. 81 (3): 179–184. doi:10.2307/460802. ISSN 0030-8129. JSTOR 460802. S2CID 251028402.