The Forgotten Memories of Al-Andalus: Re-Examining What Conversion to Islam Meant in 9th-Century Cordoba.

Conversion to Islam within Cordoba during the 9th-century was one of great complication, interwoven with obscure and concealed intentions due to the complex political and social structure of Muslim rule, whereby conversion could mean ascending in terms of social status or, at least, avoiding ‘mistreatment’. But what defined ‘mistreatment’? Outlining the degree of mistreatment is significant in uncovering what conversion to Islam meant within 9th century Cordoba, as it would go some way in revealing their true intentions. Another factor to consider is that conversion had different perspectives for different categories of people; there are those who converted, those that resisted, and those that openly converted, and secretly resisted. But identifying the meaning of conversion is complicated further by the contrasting interpretations regarding Muslim rule over Cordoba; was it one of severe class discrimination whereby non-Muslims were placed at the very bottom of society, and forced to adhere to Arab aristocracy and Muslim law? Or was it one of considerable toleration and cultural assimilation amongst Jews and Christians? The essay will argue that while there were many instances of converts hoping to avoid social indignity, conversion to Islam within ninth-century Cordoba was a process that was primarily due to the religious appeal of Islam, and this is due to two main reasons; firstly, the unyielding obligations upon Muslims and what it actually meant to be deemed a “Muslim”, and secondly, non-Muslims were still protected sub-communities in Cordoba, given considerable legal autonomy, unparalleled to any other heterogeneous society in Middle Age Europe.

One must remember that the process of conversion to Islam is one that has been taking place across the globe for 14 centuries, since the Prophethood of Muhammad in the 7th century. Therefore, focusing on the certain political and social structure of a specific place and time period risks ignoring what the process of conversion truly meant, and what it involved and required of a person. By establishing the true meaning of conversion to Islam, it will in turn allow for better understanding of the conversions that were taking place within 9th century Cordoba. Conversion to Islam meant believing that Muhammad, a man who was previously a merchant in Mecca, was the Prophet of God and had received divine revelation. This was by no means a small ask, as he was not only persecuted and rejected by many polytheists within Mecca, but was hated after his death by many Christians and Jews outside of Arabia, claiming him to be a liar, soothsayer, poet, madman and even a lecher, that had brought a false religion, spread by the sword, to oppose their religions. Furthermore, the testimony of faith – the shahada – is one that necessitates the negation of worship of all other deities – as was the practice of many Jews and Christians – and this cannot merely be said with the tongue, but with the heart. Another of the several conditions of the shahada is uncompromising obedience and adherence to the teachings of the Prophet, which was strict monotheism and the compulsory five daily prayers. This again is not a matter that could be taken lightly, even by the least committed of Jews, Christians or polytheists, who were devoted to their current way of life and social practices. But what was perhaps more telling of a person’s conviction of faith in Islam was the complete abandonment of one’s previous way of life if it did not act in accordance to the sharia, which meant in many cases, the abandonment of wealth or kinship. Conversion was an individual act, not communal, and those that converted for social mobility were titled munafiq (hypocrite), and were regarded as lower those that disbelieved outright, and were not only deemed to be deserving of punishment for their deception and perjury but are not regarded as Muslims. Islam itself means ‘submission’, and therefore conversion cannot be seen as an act that can be said merely be the tongue in order to ascend status or avoid indignity, rather it must be recognised as an act of submission, which can only be fulfilled if all the conditions are met.

Having established what conversion to Islam truly meant, the conversions within 9th century Cordoba can be seen with a brighter light. The rapid Islamic conquest of Spain has various different reasons, and of those is the resentment towards the existing Roderic and Visigothic monarchy as few cities resisted the Muslim invaders, preferring the favourable surrender terms and autonomy they granted – as opposed to the harsh treatment of the Visigoth’s. However, those that witnessed the conquest believed it to be a demonstration of God’s satisfaction; the Muslim’s believed it to be God’s favour upon them, whereas the Christians saw it to be punishment for the Visigoth’s wrongdoings. The Hispanic population converted to Islam in numbers during the 800s and 900s, such to the point that by the 1100s, the Christians made up 20% of the population. Indeed, there were people that converted for the sake of social mobility, but to do deem such numbers of conversion purely down to this factor would be erroneous, especially when taking into consideration the unyielding submission required of Islam. Rather, genuine religious appeal and magnetism towards the teachings of the Qur’an, hadith and elaborate Arabian culture are more appropriate explanations for such mass conversions. However, many historians tend to ignore the religious appeal of Islam – perhaps due to inadequate records – and prefer to focus on the social and economic factors. Although they undoubtedly did play a role, the following generation of the ‘Umayyad golden age’ is facilitative proof of the religious appeal of Islam being a fundamental factor for the 9th century converts, as the outburst of Islamic knowledge and scholars, such as Averroes and Ibn Hazm, would not have appeared had the majority of Andalusian converts done so for social mobility. Furthermore, the golden age was not just confined to Muslims, and saw astronomers, theologians and mathematicians of all religions produced, such as the Jewish scholar Maimonides, which is also evidence for the significant toleration within Cordoba.^[7]

Historians debate, or even disregard, the tolerance within Cordoba focusing instead on the local level discrimination, believing this to undermine the centuries of religious homogeneity. But when one sees the wider picture and the how 9th century Europe had yet to experience such assimilation amongst three religious groups – instead persecution was far more prevalent, particularly for Jews in Middle Age Europe – this makes the acculturation of 9th century Cordoba far more noteworthy, as well as making local level discrimination and resistance – of which there were few instances recorded across the centuries – insignificant in comparison. There is the common claim amongst historians that Islamic political rule was built upon the basis that the Arab conquerors were at the top of any hierarchy, as said by Jessica Coope: “Muhammad and his immediate successors had a clear-cut image of how society in the conquered areas would work: Arabs would rule, and Islam would be an Arab religion”. But this far from the truth, as Muhammad himself said in his last sermon before his death: “There is no superiority of an Arab over a non-Arab or of a non-Arab over an Arab, or of a red man over a black man, or a black over a red man, except in terms of piety”. That being said, whenever talking about Islamic politics as a factor of conversion, it is necessary to take into consideration the political climate of the rest of the Islamic world. The Umayyads were not only competing with the Abbasids after being embroiled in sectarian conflict (between Sunnis and Shi’ites), but were governing factionalism amongst Muslim ethnicities, of those were the Berbers, leading to factions priding themselves on Arab lineage to assert themselves. Therefore, there was certainly an Arab-superiority complex – as seen by the case of Amr ibn Abd-Allah – as well as cases of prominent Arab’s being uncomfortable with non-Arabs attaining high places of power, such as Hashim Abd al-Aziz, but this must be accredited to the whims of the emirs, and not Islam. This is seen through the fluctuation of intolerance against non-Muslims from emir to emir. The Arab superiority-complex must also be seen within the context of the steady decline of the true practices of Muhammad – such as judging strictly on piety, and not race – which began ever since the death of the last ‘rightly-guided caliph’, Uthman ibn Affan in 656, and was only driven by sectarian divide and competing Islamic Empires. That being said, the Arabs and Berbers that carried out the conquest were a minority and were not interested in imposing their culture – due to the lack of wealth and time that could be devoted to this cause – but busied themselves consolidating control. Instead, the intermarrying of the Arabs, Berbers and Hispanics meant the largest demographic was the Muwallads – descendants of Muslim and Iberians – during the 9th century, reaching 80% of the population by the 10th century. Therefore, not only was the Arab-superiority complex not from the true teachings of Islam, but was insignificant at local level due to the confined Arab elite.

Believing that conversion to Islam took place primarily to avoid social indignity or tax is also flawed; the status of a dhimmi granted Jews and Christians to practice their religion freely, with the term deriving from ah-lul dhimma, meaning ‘protected peoples’. The overwhelming majority of Churches remained and monastic tradition continued – contrastingly with the persecution the Jews faced under the Visigoth’s, forcing many to convert to Christianity or be exiled in 613. Instead, under the Muslims they were united upon the worship of God, labelled as the ‘People of the Book’ in the Qur’an. The payment of the jizya poll tax were only for sane adult males, exempting elders, children, women, handicapped, the insane, the ill, monks and slaves, and dhimmi’s that joined the military service. Therefore, cases of social indignity, such as the conflicting case of circumcision (which is mentioned in no detail in either holy scripture), become trivial in the larger scale of the 9th century, and especially when looking at the intolerance of Middle Age Europe. The case that the dhimmi were not able to hold any position of authority over Muslims would only have affected career-orientated Andalusians, of which the majority of the population were not. In any case, Ibn Antonian’s career reflects the possibility of a non-Arab Christian rising to prominence within court, but the controversy behind his conversion in his later stages reflected the inherent problem within the Arab Umayyad aristocracy, rather than conversion to Islam itself.

The case of the 50 martyrs (850-859) has been used as an argument against the toleration with Cordoba but the anti-Islamic polemic of Eulogius – which is one of few contemporary sources – reveals quite the opposite. Eulogius’ word-for-word description of Isaac’s trial showed the extent to which radical Christians used lies to demean the “lying prophet”. Furthermore, when taking into consideration that the movement did not gain widespread support and was silenced after the execution shows the majority of Cordoban Christians did not agree with it, evidencing the autonomy and religious toleration. Furthermore, the qadi gave Isaac a way out, granting him the opportunity to claim he was drunk, and his refusal shows the implausibility of the martyrdom, as it was greatly invited. For these reason, it would be appropriate to deem the martyrs a zealous group of radical Christians. In fact, the event of the 50 martyrs as well as Eulogius’ concern of the Christians converting to Islam and adopting Islamic dress and language at an increasing rate is reflective of the toleration within Cordoba, as this was the first documented ‘revolt’ in Cordoba in over a century, furthering the argument that historians have overemphasised the incidents injustice in 9th century Cordoba at the expense of ignoring the religious appeal being the main driver of conversion.