Muslim Invasion and Occupation of

Spain

Islam• In the 7th century the prophet Muhammad

started the religion of Islam

• Islam quickly spread throughout Africa and Tariq, the leader of the Muslims, wanted to spread into Spain. He got the fierce Berber tribes of North Africa to help.

Iberia•Spain and Portugal are on the Iberian peninsula.

•They were not united countries at this point, but were broken up into little kingdoms.

Rodrigo the Traitor

711 Rodrigo (the greedy king of

Southern Spain) wanted to defeat

the Basques so he let the

Umayyad Muslims in to “help.” They killed him and took over.

The Basques

• The Basques were fierce warriors from Northern Spain. They were never defeated by the Romans. Their language is one of the oldest known languages on Earth.

The Party Kings

• The Umayyad Muslims (or Moors as the Spaniards called them) took over Spain and tried to go into France. They were stopped by the Basques. They settled in Spain and ruled. They were known as the Party Kings because they lived lives of excess.

2nd Muslim Wave• Muslims in Africa were getting mad that

the Party Kings were not being “good” Muslims. The things they were not doing included:

• Praying 5 times a day

• Not drinking

• Helping the poor

• Not living in excess

•A 2nd group of Muslims came into Spain and took over.

•This group followed Muslim laws, but they persecuted the Christians and Jews unlike the Umayyad.

La Reconquista

• The Christians and Jews fought back and slowly won back Spain.

• The Reconquista lasted until 1492 when King Fernando and Queen Isabel defeated the last Muslim power base in Granada.

Muslim influences today

• Architecture- The Muslim introduced the idea of large fortress castles to Europe and the use of the arch

• Food- Many Andalusian foods are based on Muslim influence. These include:

• Paella

• Chickpea stews

• Gazpacho

• Saffron

• Couscous

They used better irrigation techniques to grow

• Rice

• Cotton

• Orchards

• Silk

(from silk

worms)

• Music-

• Sitar gave inspiration to create the guitar

Language

• Many Spanish words come from Arabic mostly Al, Am and An words

• Alcoba

• Alfalfa

• Anaranjado

• Alhambra