Al-Andalus

This article is about the historical region. For the modern-day region, see Andalusia. For the musical group, see Al-Andalus Ensemble.

Umayyad Hispania at its greatest extent in 719 AD
Caliphate of Córdoba c. 1000 AD, at the apogee of Almanzor
History of Al-Andalus
Muslim conquest
(711–732)
Umayyad state of Córdoba
(756–1031)
First Taifa period
(1009–1110)
Almoravid rule
(1085–1145)
Second Taifa period
(1140–1203)
Almohad rule
(1147–1238)
Third Taifa period
(1232–1287)
Emirate of Granada
(1232–1492)
Related articles

Al-Andalus[a] (Arabic: الأَنْدَلُس) was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The name describes the different Muslim[1][2] states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most of the peninsula[3][4][5] as well as Septimania under Umayyad rule. These boundaries changed constantly through a series of conquests Western historiography has traditionally characterized as the Reconquista,[1][2][6][7][8] eventually shrinking to the south and finally to the Emirate of Granada.

As a political domain, it successively constituted a province of the Umayyad Caliphate, initiated by the Caliph al-Walid I (711–750); the Emirate of Córdoba (c. 750–929); the Caliphate of Córdoba (929–1031); the first taifa kingdoms (1009–1110); the Almoravid Empire (1085–1145); the second taifa period (1140–1203); the Almohad Caliphate (1147–1238); the third taifa period (1232–1287); and ultimately the Nasrid Emirate of Granada (1238–1492). Under the Caliphate of Córdoba, the city of Córdoba became one of the leading cultural and economic centres throughout the Mediterranean Basin, Europe, and the Islamic world. Achievements that advanced Islamic and Western science came from al-Andalus, including major advances in trigonometry (Jabir ibn Aflah), astronomy (Al-Zarqali), surgery (Al-Zahrawi), pharmacology (Ibn Zuhr),[9] and agronomy (Ibn Bassal and Abū l-Khayr al-Ishbīlī). Al-Andalus became a conduit for cultural and scientific exchange between the Islamic and Christian worlds.[9]

For much of its history, al-Andalus existed in conflict with Christian kingdoms to the north. After the fall of the Umayyad caliphate, al-Andalus was fragmented into taifa states and principalities, some of which (such as the Taifa of Toledo, the Taifa of Zaragoza, the Taifa of Seville and the Taifa of Badajoz) reached considerable territorial extent. After the Christian capture of Toledo in 1085, the Almoravid empire intervened and repelled attacks on the region, then brought al-Andalus under direct Almoravid rule. For the next century and a half, al-Andalus became a province of the Muslim empires of the Almoravids and their successors, the Almohads, both based in Marrakesh.

Ultimately, the northern Christian kingdoms overpowered the Muslim states to the south. In the 13th century, most of the south quickly fell under Christian rule, with Gharb al-Andalus, the Guadalquivir Valley and Eastern al-Andalus [es] falling to Portuguese, Castilian, and Aragonese conquests. This left the Emirate of Granada, that was to become a tributary state of the Crown of Castile, as the remaining Muslim state on the Iberian Peninsula, and was surrendered in 1492 to the Catholic Monarchs.


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  1. ^ a b "Para los autores árabes medievales, el término Al-Andalus designa la totalidad de las zonas conquistadas – siquiera temporalmente – por tropas arabo-musulmanas en territorios actualmente pertenecientes a Portugal, España y Francia" ("For medieval Arab authors, Al-Andalus designated all the conquered areas – even temporarily – by Arab-Muslim troops in territories now belonging to Spain, Portugal and France"), García de Cortázar, José Ángel. V Semana de Estudios Medievales: Nájera, 1 al 5 de agosto de 1994, Gobierno de La Rioja, Instituto de Estudios Riojanos, 1995, p. 52.
  2. ^ a b Benito Ruano, Eloy [in Spanish] (2002). Tópicos y realidades de la Edad Media. Real Academia de la Historia. p. 79. ISBN 978-84-95983-06-0. Los arabes y musulmanes de la Edad Media aplicaron el nombre de Al-Andalus a todas aquellas tierras que habian formado parte del reino visigodo: la Peninsula Ibérica y la Septimania ultrapirenaica. ("The Arabs and Muslims from the Middle Ages used the name of al-Andalus for all those lands that were formerly part of the Visigothic kingdom: the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania")
  3. ^ Irvin, Dale T.; Sunquist, Scott (2002). History of the World Christian Movement: Volume 1: Earliest Christianity To 1453. A&C Black. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-567-08866-6.
  4. ^ Luis Corral, Fernando (2009). "The Christian Frontier against al-Andalus (Muslim Spain): concept and politics during the reigns of King Fernando I of Castile and Leon and his successors until 1230". In Natalie Fryde; Dirk Reitz (eds.). Walls, Ramparts, and Lines of Demarcation: Selected Studies from Antiquity to Modern Times. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 67. ISBN 978-3-8258-9478-8.
  5. ^ García Fitz, Francisco (2010). Rogers, Clifford J.; Caferro, William; Reid, Shelley (eds.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology. Oxford University Press. pp. 325–326. ISBN 978-0-19-533403-6. Barely eight years after the initial crossing of the Straits of Gibraltar, the Muslims had come to dominate almost the entire Peninsula with the exception of a few northern mountainous regions along Cantabrian and Pyrenean ranges. In these areas, indigenous populations, including the Asturians, Cantabrians, and Basques, who had been brought under Visigothic control, were able to escape Islamic domination.
  6. ^ Ríos Saloma, Martín Federico (2011). La Reconquista: una construcción historiográfica (siglos XVI-XIX). Marcial Pons Historia. México Madrid: Universidad nacional autónoma de México, Instituto de inversigaciones históricas M. Pons. ISBN 978-84-92820-47-4.
  7. ^ García Sanjuán, Alejandro (2020). "Weaponizing Historical Knowledge: the Notion of Reconquista in Spanish Nationalism". Imago Temporis: Medium Aevum. XIV. doi:10.21001/itma.2020.14.04. hdl:10272/19498. ISSN 1888-3931. S2CID 226491379.
  8. ^ Esposito, John L. (2003). The Oxford Dictionary of Islam. New York: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195125580.001.0001. ISBN 0195125584. OCLC 50280143.
  9. ^ a b Covington, Richard (2007). Arndt, Robert (ed.). "Rediscovering Arabic Science". Saudi Aramco World. 58 (3). Aramco Services Company: 2–16.