The Muslim Jihad and annihilation of Romano-Christian civilisation in Spain, had ‘phases’ of activity and ‘waves’ of Jihadic war.  The first invasion occurred in 711 AD by Arab and Berber armies, more numerous, motivated and faster than the Visigothic forces who were betrayed, as so often was the case in the medieval era when Muslim forces faced Christian, by corrupt generals and faint-hearted troops.  From the time of Don Pelayo’s seminal victory at Covadonga in 722 AD, to 1085 when Christians had reconquered Toledo, the ancient Visigothic capital of Christian Spain, the Muslim tide of war and destruction had slowly waned, the purity of Jihad watered down by the luxuries of the conquered and superior Christian civilisation, effeminate tastes displacing the allure of booty and the hard work of participating in raids to obtain sex-slaves, the delights of the harem and the material replacing the intensity of the spiritual and immaterial.  By the end of the 11^th century the laxity of the ruling Muslims in Spain elicited a ferocious response from their co-cult members in Africa.

The Christian ‘swine’ or pigs as the Muslims called them, ranging from the ‘north’ were proving by 1085 to be a real threat.  The woes enacted by Christian arms, and the success of the Christian Reconquista, evoked lamentations from Muslims, who identified the causation of this impossible state of affairs to be impiety, a lack of devotion to the Al Lah and his mad profiteer Muhammad, and the surrendering of once intolerant Muslim orthodoxy to the sensual pleasures of amoral living and luxury.  The Muslim Emirs or ‘Taifa Kings’ therefore asked their militant African brethren for help in rolling back the Christian forces.  These Muslim adherents were called the ‘Almoravids’, fanatical zealots, who dedicated their lives to waging Jihad, and were active in the Niger and Senegal river basins, slaughtering, enslaving and converting.  The civilised attractions of Spain versus the infertility of West Africa must have been incredibly enticing to the Almoravids. 

In 1086 the Black, non-White Almoravid Muslims were in Spain and a large host defeated Alfonso of Castile, the victor at Toledo, crushing his forces at Sagrajas.  The Black Almoravids built a pyramid with Christian skulls to celebrate their victory.  Alfonso barely escaped with his life, and most of his army was either killed, taken prisoner or fled to safety.  Fortunately for Spanish Christians a rebellion in North Africa recalled the Almoravid leader Tashufin, who spent 3 years putting down the rebels, returning to Spain in 1089.  Pope Urban II understood that this new Jihad was a threat to southern France and beyond.  In 1089 he exhorted all Christians to conduct a Crusade in Spain to throw back the latest Muslim wave.  Presaging his colossal speech at Clermont in 1095, which initiated the Holy Land Crusades, Urban promised a full remission of sins for any Christian who fought against the Mahometan in Spain. 

The existing Muslim ‘Taifa Kings’, viewed the Almoravids with almost as much horror as they did the Christians.  For the Taifa rulers, the North Africans were too devout, too pious and fanatically deranged and focused on war.  They were unresponsive and indifferent to Tashufin’s call for war.  Ignoring the weak Taifa King’s, Tashufin attacked the strongly held Christian capital at Toledo without them, failing to take the city.  He blamed this defeat on the immoderate weakness of the existing Muslim aristocracy who were insufficiently war-happy.  For the next 10 years or so Tashufin conquered and absorbed these Muslim statelets, enforcing a strict and binding Sharia.  Christian Dhimmis or second class citizens within Muslim domains were persecuted, some killed and many of their churches pulled down.

The borders between Christian and Almoravid Spain had not changed much since 1089.  In 1118 another King Alfonso of Aragon restarted the Reconquista.  He attacked the Ebro valley, retaking Saragossa in 1118.  Tens of thousands of Christian Dhimmis were repatriated and saved.  They became indispensable in re-populating the border lands between Christian and Muslim held territory.  In reprisal the Muslims did the usual, increasing the persecution of Christians and the demolition of churches.  Many Christian Dhimmis lost their property, scores were imprisoned and put to death.  There were mass deportations of Christians to North Africa, with many tens of thousands expulsed.  Entire areas of cities in Spain, once populated by Christians, were now emptied. 

In 1138, the Christians were still in the ascendant.  Alfonso VII of Leon, ravaged the norther parts of Muslim held territory, burning down mosques and setting fire to any copy of the Koran which was found.  Muftis or any ‘learned’ men of the Mahometan cult were put to death.  In 1139 in Portugal, Afonso Henriques and his mixed army of Spanish and Portuguese, destroyed a large Muslim force at Ourique, one of the most devastating defeats suffered by Muslims in Spain.  This created the nation of Portugal.  In 1146 for the first time since 711, the Christians retook Cordoba.  In 1147 with the help of the 2^nd Crusade, Lisbon, Tortosa and Almeria were liberated.  By 1150 it was clear that the second ‘great wave’ of Muslim war mongering and Jihad had failed in Spain.  The Christians were on the path to reconquering the peninsula.  This elicited a third rabid response from Muslims in Africa, leading to the invasion by the Mahometan Almohads, as vicious, blood thirsty and rapacious as the Almoravids had been in 1086.