España desde el aire - Al- Andalus, la España musulmana
Tan pronto como entraron en la Península Ibérica desde el extremo sur, Gibraltar, frente al Magreb, la conquista de la Península Ibérica por parte de las tropas árabes y bereberes fue deslumbrante.
En 711, la derrota del rey visigodo Rodrigo en la batalla de Guadalete, a 150 kilómetros al norte de Gibraltar, marcó el comienzo de la expansión musulmana. En apenas 5 años, las tropas musulmanas se extendieron por la península y lograron establecerse hasta 900 kilómetros más al norte, en Galicia. Estos territorios se llamarán Al-Andalus y permanecerán bajo dominación musulmana durante casi 8 siglos.
En 711, la derrota del rey visigodo Rodrigo en la batalla de Guadalete, a 150 kilómetros al norte de Gibraltar, marcó el comienzo de la expansión musulmana. En apenas 5 años, las tropas musulmanas se extendieron por la península y lograron establecerse hasta 900 kilómetros más al norte, en Galicia. Estos territorios se llamarán Al-Andalus y permanecerán bajo dominación musulmana durante casi 8 siglos.
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00:00Spain from the air, its history.
00:30At the beginning of the 8th century, Spain was a territory ruled by the Visigoth kings for 300 years.
00:39In the year 711, a Muslim army crossed the strait that separates North Africa from the Iberian Peninsula,
00:46and began an invasion that would change the geographical and cultural landscape of Spain forever.
00:53Al-Andalus, the Muslim Spain.
00:57Throughout the eight centuries, which historians call the Golden Age of Islam,
01:02Muslims built imposing fortresses and spectacular mosques.
01:06They reorganized cities and created exuberant gardens.
01:13Flying over Spain, today we can observe the traces that witness the influence of Muslims in the Iberian landscape.
01:27Professor Susana Calvo-Capilla is a specialist in Islamic history and architecture.
01:34Go ahead, clear view.
01:43Susana has traveled through numerous archaeological sites in the Mediterranean, but now she is focused on Al-Andalus,
01:50the period in Spanish history during which Muslims dominated almost the entire Iberian Peninsula.
01:57Are you ready?
02:00Yes.
02:02Let's go!
02:04Today, Susana is going to discover the episodes that marked this episode of history from a new angle.
02:10It is a good experience to find the field and see the history of Al-Andalus from the air, moving a little bit with the wind.
02:24Just a century after the death of the prophet Muhammad, Muslims began to build a mosque in Al-Andalus.
02:32Just a century after the death of the prophet Muhammad, Muslims had conquered territories from Central Asia to North Africa.
02:41On April 29, 711, the head of the Umayyad army, Tariq ibn Ziyad and about 7,000 soldiers
02:49landed on the coasts of the Strait of Gibraltar, determined to defeat King Visigoth Rodrigo.
02:55And it is exciting to see Tariq, that mount that received the name of Tariq,
03:01the first chief of the Berber troops to cross the strait.
03:06This strait was the gateway to all the cultures to the peninsula.
03:11At that time, in 711, it was once again the gateway to all the cultures to the peninsula.
03:18At that time, in 711, it was once again the gateway to all the cultures to the peninsula.
03:31At that time, the Visigoth kingdom, which dominated Spain,
03:35was weakened by corruption and the struggles between its rulers.
03:39While King Rodrigo and his troops were busy suppressing the riots in the north of the peninsula,
03:45the Muslims launched their attack.
03:48Although they were not numerous, the soldiers of Tariq ibn Ziyad
03:52quickly crushed the Visigoth resistance and took control of a small town, Algeciras.
04:00In Algeciras, which bears an Arab name, Yasir al-Hadra, which was the Green Island,
04:06it will be one of the first places where the troops, those Arab and Berber troops,
04:11are going to settle, they are going to form a kind of camp,
04:16and there they are going to make one of the first prayers,
04:19in a place that today we more or less do not know,
04:23but that would be what was later called the Mosque of the Flags.
04:28From the city of Algeciras, the troops of Tariq ibn Ziyad
04:32launched a conquest of the peninsula along the south coast.
04:35In July 711, they defeated King Rodrigo and his men
04:40in the Gaditan field during the Battle of Guadalete.
04:46The Visigoths no longer had a leader.
04:49Tariq ibn Ziyad and his army continued north, taking one city after another.
04:56Almost seven years after landing in Gibraltar,
05:00the Muslims extended the Caliphate to almost the entire peninsula,
05:03which they baptized Al-Andalus.
05:07An Arabization of the name chosen by the Visigoths to designate Spain.
05:15The Muslims, new masters of a land that was totally strange to them,
05:19imposed their culture, something that would be reflected in the architecture of the cities.
05:26Toledo, the old Visigoth capital,
05:29would become one of the most important centers of power in Al-Andalus.
05:33From the air it looks very good because the city was chosen as a capital on multiple occasions,
05:40because the truth is that it has an absolutely strategic situation,
05:46with the river around as a ring.
05:50To leave its mark on the city, the Muslims built a fort,
05:54built mosques and created a labyrinth of alleys.
05:58But they also demonstrated their tolerance,
06:01allowing the population to practice their faith freely.
06:06Here you can see, on this side, the very small alleys,
06:10with a very tight house.
06:13This is where all the jewelry of the city was.
06:21Known today as the city of the three cultures,
06:23Toledo witnessed in the mid-eighth century
06:26how Muslims, Jews and Christians cohabited in its streets.
06:31Despite the tensions,
06:33the intellectuals and the Muslim hermits merged in the city,
06:37which ended up becoming one of the most important religious and cultural centers of Al-Andalus.
06:45An emblematic example of this transformation is the mosque of Bad al-Mardum.
06:54Well, here we have already reached the north gate of the city.
06:59It is a bit like the natural entrance to the city,
07:02because just on the other side of the city,
07:05all around the city, on the other side, is the river.
07:13And of course, anyone who entered through this door,
07:16what they saw was the mosque of Bad al-Mardum,
07:19with its white and red domes,
07:21with its arched arches.
07:26It is a peculiar mosque,
07:28it is not like the rest of the neighborhood mosques,
07:31because it has very beautiful facades,
07:34the others were not so decorated.
07:39Well, we are already inside the mosque,
07:42and a little what surprises in this space
07:45is that, well, on the ground level we do not see anything extraordinary,
07:48however, when we look up,
07:51we will see that in each of the spaces of this square,
07:55of this small oratory,
07:58there is a dome with nerves that intersect,
08:01making stars,
08:03which is a bit the most spectacular thing about this space.
08:07Following the model of the small mosques built in Toledo
08:11between the 8th and 11th centuries,
08:14the architecture of Bad al-Mardum was conceived for prayer,
08:16but also for teaching.
08:20If you look at this square space,
08:23it also adapts very well
08:26to what were the teaching sessions inside a mosque.
08:30Normally the teachers would sit supported in a column,
08:34we have to think that he would sit in one of these columns,
08:38and around him would be the students listening to them,
08:41including his children and the members of his family,
08:43listening to their classes.
08:51Although he controlled important cities like Toledo,
08:54the Umayyad Caliphate was mined by incessant internal disputes,
08:58and had to face the Christian resistance of the north of the territory.
09:03In the middle of the 8th century,
09:06Christians had extended the kingdom of the Asturians,
09:09while Muslims settled their dominion in the two thirds of the south of the peninsula.
09:14During this period of instability,
09:17a new Muslim leader appeared,
09:20the Alcón de Al-Andalus,
09:23Prince Abderramán I.
09:26To make his power clear,
09:29in 756 he rebaptized the Umayyad Caliphate as the Emirate of Córdoba.
09:33Well, now from Toledo we are going to start the way to the south,
09:37because although Toledo was always an important city
09:40within what was Al-Andalus,
09:43the capitals of everything that was the Emirate and the Umayyad Caliphate,
09:47and then all the subsequent history,
09:50were located in the south.
09:53So we are now heading towards Córdoba,
09:56which the Muslims are going to choose as their capital,
10:00also for strategic reasons,
10:03because it allowed them to control the entire region of the Bethesda.
10:07At the beginning of the 10th century,
10:10Córdoba became an independent caliphate.
10:13While Toledo and other prestigious cities of Al-Andalus were weakening,
10:17the power of Córdoba is at its peak.
10:20Overthrowing the city today,
10:23we immediately find the symbol of this era of splendor,
10:27the Great Mosque of Córdoba.
10:37Historian Carmen González Gutiérrez grew up in Córdoba,
10:41and has always been fascinated by the history and architecture of the Great Mosque.
10:46It is a highly complex building,
10:49which contains all the keys to not only the history of Córdoba,
10:52but perhaps even the history of Al-Andalus,
10:55through details that we can find in this building,
10:58and that is why I am surprised every time I see it.
11:03According to ancient texts,
11:06the mosque was built at the end of the 8th century,
11:09on an ancient Visigothic church.
11:12Throughout the following centuries,
11:15the nobles did not stop expanding and transforming the building.
11:18At the end of the 10th century,
11:21the mosque had doubled in size and became the core of Córdoba.
11:25Córdoba becomes a court
11:28to which wise people from all over come,
11:31and this will result in an improvement of medicine,
11:34literature, philosophy,
11:37all these arts that begin to be practiced here,
11:40all these sciences that begin to develop.
11:43Therefore, it is a reflection of a different political dignity.
11:48The mosque, a place of prayer and devotion,
11:51also satisfies political, social and cultural functions.
11:59The mosque was equipped with a courtyard
12:01where many activities were held.
12:04Many merchants came to the courtyards of the mosque
12:07to sell their merchandise.
12:10Also, in the shadows of the porticoes,
12:13many judges were sheltered to impart justice
12:16when they did not do it inside.
12:19The courtyard was also a very lively area of the city.
12:21The Great Mosque is today a place of Catholic worship,
12:24but during the Umayyad Caliphate,
12:27the faithful Muslims gathered under these majestic arches.
12:31Its architects built it in granite,
12:34onyx and colored marble.
12:39In order to give breadth to the prayer room,
12:42the mosque was built in the shape of a pyramid.
12:45The architects of the mosque
12:48built the architecture in the shape of a pyramid.
12:51In order to give breadth to the prayer room,
12:54they crossed the arches in horseshoes
12:57held by a forest of 856 columns.
13:00At the end of the prayer room,
13:03there is the mi'rab, abundantly decorated.
13:06As all Muslims must look at the Mecca,
13:09all Muslims, when they go to pray, look here.
13:12And the caliph knows that.
13:14The mosque is built in a shell.
13:18Here, the caliph will capture
13:21a series of ideological messages
13:24that will allow him to make propaganda.
13:27That is why we have a series of Koranic inscriptions,
13:30a vegetal and geometric decoration,
13:33perfectly thought out, very well designed,
13:36which evokes the idea of paradise.
13:39Paradise for Muslim believers is a garden,
13:41a garden of flowers, plants, water,
13:44flowery, with a lot of shade.
13:54For Muslim princes,
13:57exuberant gardens symbolize life after death.
14:00They are also a good place for rest and meditation.
14:05To create this impression of paradise on earth,
14:08gardens were conceived throughout the territory.
14:11One of these treasures can still be visited
14:14a few kilometers from Cordoba,
14:17at the foot of the city of Caliph Abderrahman III.
14:20Medina Azahara.
14:24Created in the mid-10th century,
14:27the three terraces of this sophisticated garden
14:30offer a framework of tranquility.
14:33But above all, a fertile source of food,
14:36spices and medicinal plants
14:38for the kitchens and pharmacy of the caliph.
14:43Muslim gardeners introduced spices,
14:46plants and trees until then absent in the territory of Andalusia.
14:50Cinnamon, artichoke or watermelon.
14:57In the same way, they imported their knowledge
15:00in the matter of irrigation.
15:03This domain of agriculture still has influence in modern Spain.
15:06500 kilometers east of Cordoba,
15:09we discover vast extensions of greenhouses
15:12that cover the region along the Mediterranean coast.
15:15While the neighboring city of Elche
15:18still houses the largest palm grove in Europe.
15:22Our culture and our identity,
15:26the identity of modern Spain,
15:29also has to take into account that Islamic past.
15:33Today, Elche's palm grove
15:36has more than 70,000 date palms.
15:39Created by the Carthaginians
15:42and later preserved by the Romans,
15:45the Muslims installed, between the 7th and 10th centuries,
15:48a wide irrigation system
15:51and created an authentic oasis in the heart of the city.
15:54It is very interesting to see the fields from above
15:57and imagine a little how it happened
15:59in all these lands.
16:08At the beginning of the 11th century,
16:11corrupted by civil wars,
16:14the Umayyad dynasty was divided into numerous hostile kingdoms
16:17called taifas, including the taifas of Toledo,
16:20Cordoba, Seville and Granada.
16:22At that time, the attacks of the Christian armies
16:25coming from the north
16:28were increasingly brutal and decisive.
16:31To defend and protect their peoples,
16:34the rulers of the taifas built imposing fortifications
16:37around their cities.
16:40300 kilometers south of Elche's palm grove,
16:43we discover one of these impressive defensive structures
16:46on the top of a hill on a small coastal city.
16:48The Alcazaba de Almeria.
16:55Further west, in the Andalusian mountains,
16:58the city of Ronda underwent a transformation
17:01as extraordinary as fast.
17:08José Manuel Castaño Aguilar is an archaeologist
17:11and specialist in the history of this city,
17:14which occupies a very important position
17:16in terms of geography.
17:20What impresses me most about Ronda
17:23is to see it from the outside.
17:26Because from the outside you can really appreciate
17:29that it is a city that emerges
17:32around a great mountain circus
17:35that was the Serranía de Ronda.
17:38So much so that if you had to define the city of Ronda
17:41by a singular characteristic,
17:43you would have to say that it is mainly a fortified city.
17:47Under the reign of the Romans
17:50and after the Visigoths,
17:53the natural defense system offered by these cliffs
17:56has always attracted populations in search of security.
17:59When Ronda and its surroundings
18:02became the seat of an independent taifa in 1039,
18:05its masters decided to expand their walls.
18:08Despite their exceptional fortifications,
18:10in the middle of the 11th century,
18:13Ronda capitulated to the troops of the Taifa of Seville.
18:17A century later,
18:20a new Muslim dynasty, the Almohads,
18:23took control of almost the entire south of the peninsula.
18:26The rise of Ronda
18:29began, of course, in the Almohad era.
18:32From a fairly consolidated germ
18:35of an Islamic city, of a Medina,
18:37which is set in the Taifa era,
18:40the Almohads will continue to develop the city
18:43with the generation of neighborhoods, of arrabales.
18:46For example, Arrabal Bajo,
18:49where the Arab baths are currently located,
18:52is generated in the Almohad era.
18:55What is true is that the Almohads
18:58bring with them a way of organizing the territory,
19:01which will provide that Ronda, let's say,
19:04has a renewed prominence.
19:07Until the end of the medieval era.
19:15Ronda is not the only city that experienced
19:18spectacular changes under the Almohad dynasty.
19:21100 km further south,
19:24Al-Andalus had a new capital.
19:28We will pass through Seville later
19:31to see that new capital that in the 12th century
19:34the Almohads are going to grow
19:37with a whole series of important monuments.
19:46In 1198, the new Almohad Caliphate
19:50ends the construction of the symbol of its power.
19:53An imposing mosque whose minaret
19:56culminates at 94 meters high,
19:59today called the Giralda.
20:08At the beginning of the 13th century,
20:11internal struggles and endless wars
20:14with the Christian armies weakened
20:17the Almohad dynasty.
20:20A new Muslim leader appeared,
20:23Ibn al-Ahmar.
20:26In 1232, he would proclaim himself as
20:29Mohammed I, head of the Nazari dynasty.
20:32He settled in Granada and made it the capital of his kingdom.
20:36We have reached the end of the journey,
20:41not only geographical, but historical.
20:45Granada was the last capital of Al-Andalus,
20:49the last kingdom of Al-Andalus,
20:52and it was the final point of economic splendor,
20:56artistic splendor and cultural splendor.
21:01Seen from above,
21:03it is a fascinating city because
21:06there are several hills that mark
21:09the places where the government took office.
21:12The palaces of Alhambra,
21:15which are right on that red hill,
21:18which gives it its name,
21:21are the symbol of Islamic culture in the peninsula.
21:34Historian Barbara Boloix grew up in Granada
21:37and spent much of her university career
21:40studying this place in great detail.
21:44We really need to empty the Alhambra of tourists
21:48to imagine what life was like here
21:51in the palace of the lions.
21:54Here would develop both political life
21:57and family life of the Alhambra dynasty.
22:00Here would live not only the sultan,
22:03but also the women.
22:06Here would also develop the courtesan life.
22:09The sultan would surely receive the great political figures of his time.
22:15Originally, on the hills of the Alhambra,
22:18there was a small military base built in 899
22:22on the ruins of a Roman fort.
22:25When Mohammed I discovered this place three centuries later,
22:29he had a clear goal in mind.
22:32The first function of the Alhambra was military.
22:36Mohammed I looked for a place
22:39from where he could control all the territory.
22:42That's why in the Alcazaba area
22:45we have a 360-degree view of the whole of Vega
22:48and all the surrounding territory of Granada.
22:53Then, already in the 14th century,
22:56when there was a greater awareness of the dynasty,
22:58when the kingdom was more settled,
23:01there was prosperity
23:04to build the palace area.
23:08The Alhambra from the outside
23:11is a very sober game of cubes
23:14that does not reflect that inside
23:17there is that decorative profusion.
23:20The sound of the water, the vegetation, the decoration,
23:24all the elements that fill the senses.
23:27The water has always been essential
23:30in Muslim culture,
23:33both for its practical and religious uses.
23:36But for the Nazarene designers of the Alhambra,
23:39the water was also used for its aesthetic value.
23:42It is a very, very broad decorative program.
23:45They say that the Alhambra is the luxury edition
23:48of the Alhambra,
23:51the Alhambra of the Alhambra.
23:53The Alhambra is the luxury edition
23:56of Arabic poetry.
23:59In the Alhambra we have, obviously,
24:02a catalogue of inscriptions.
24:05Arabic is very broad.
24:08It is made up of inscriptions of the Qur'an
24:11that come to protect the place where it is written,
24:14or come a little to reflect the function
24:17that place has, religious policy, etc.
24:23In the second half of the 15th century,
24:26the internal divisions weakened the Nazarene dynasty.
24:29The Christian troops continued their conquest
24:32of territories throughout Andalusia.
24:35The fight maintained by the Nazarenes
24:38to defend the last bastion of their presence
24:41in the Iberian Peninsula would last 10 years.
24:44The Alhambra was never really attacked
24:47by the force of the weapons.
24:50They say that the surrender of the Alhambra
24:53was a sign that they would not be afraid
24:56and that the next day, when they woke up,
24:59they saw the first signs of Christianity in this palace.
25:02Therefore, the last emir of the Nazarene dynasty
25:05finally gave the keys of the Alhambra
25:08to the Catholic kings on January 2, 1492.
25:11That is the end of the Nazarene kingdom
25:14and also the end of the history of Al-Andalus.
25:16After eight centuries of domination in the Iberian Peninsula,
25:19the last Muslim kingdom in Western Europe would disappear.
25:22But the traces of this presence
25:25and the rich cultural and artistic influence of this civilization
25:28are still visible in today's Spain.
25:46Transcription by ESO. Translation by —