Alfonso VI and the Christian war to save civilisation in Spain

During the Muslim slaughter, rape and desecration of Spain, during the 8^th and 9^th centuries, with millions of Christians out of the total population of some 5 million, being forcibly converted to Muhammadanism, enslaved, raped, or reduced to second-class Dhimmi status, the conflict was viewed by both sides as existential and final.  The remnants of Christian Spain, occupying the mountainous regions in the north-west rightly viewed the ‘Moorish’ onslaught as evil, a darkness, and its ‘prophet’ a demon, one who established a ‘carnal’ paganism, a malignant heresy whose main purpose was to destroy Christianity.  As one Christian writer at the time commented, ‘Muslims were ordered to rob, to make prisoner, and to kill the adversaries of God (Allah) and their prophet, and to persecute and destroy them in every way.’  It was not just a Jihad for Muslims, to win control over land or wealth.  The objective was to annihilate all vestiges of Christianity.

In Muslim pagan theology, Christians are contemptible infidels who associated a mere mortal named Jesus with God.  The enemies of the Muslim Allah or Baal (the Meccan moon deity caretaken by Muhammad’s family), must fight such ‘blasphemy’ until the ‘idolators’ are liquidated.  Whereas the Muslims facing the Byzantine empire named the Christian Byzantine Emperor the ‘dog of the Romans’, in Spain, the Muslims declared Christian Kings to be the ‘pigs’ of the Romans.  Both dogs and pigs are unclean in Muhammadanism.  The former to be killed.  The latter to be avoided.

Don Pelayo’s heroic defence of Christendom, eventually resulted in the creation of a many somewhat small Christian kingdoms covering the north, the east and the centre of Hispania including Galicia, Leon, Castile, Navarre and Aragon.  For more than 3 centuries these kingdoms were beset by an endless and almost yearly Jihad, often coming close to eradication.  In 793 for example, 100.000 Jihadis, some from Arabia, attacked the smaller Christian kingdoms, raping women, pulling down churches and cities, and burning the countryside.  The booty and number of slaves attained was immeasurable.  In the 10^th century the celebrated Muslim Jihadi Caliph, ‘al-Mansur’ (the victorious, 938-1002 A.D.) led 57 Jihad expeditions against the northern Christians.  Tens of thousands were slaughtered and enslaved, hundreds if not thousands of churches destroyed, and cities and villages torched and annihilated.  Al-Mansur was famous for his piety, always carrying a Koran and engaging in ritual prayer and ablution.  In 997 he sacked Santiago de Compostello and took the large Church bells back to Cordoba to adorn the Grand Mosque as lights  – on the backs of Christian slaves.  This pilgrimage site which contained the relics of Saint James the Apostle, was razed to the earth.  The monks who defended the cathedral and sanctuary were slaughtered or tortured to death.  In spite of this carnage and ruination, al Mansoor predicted before his death that the Christian states would strike back and that not completely destroying them would result in the eventual demise of Muslim Spain.  This may be apocryphal, but if it is true, it was prophetic.

By 1031 the Muslim Caliphate at Cordoba splintered due to the usual infighting and civil dissensions.  Ferdinand I of Castile in 1050, had forced the Muslims into payments to guarantee their existence, exacting tribute and land, and bleeding them financially.  His son Alfonso VI followed the same policy.  Having bled them for 30 odd years, Castile under Alfonso VI invaded and took over Toledo the ancient Christian-Visigothic capital, in 1085.  This is the formal start of the Reconquista.  It was a highly symbolic victory and caused much consternation and lamentation within the Muslims of Hispania.  Alfonso VI explained the importance of his victory:

“The city (Toledo), by the hidden judgement of God, for there hundred and seventy-six years had been held by the Moors who commonly blasphemed the name of Christ…in the place where our holy fathers adored the God of faith, the name of the cursed Muhammad was invoked…I took up arms against the barbarous peoples…if I, Alfonso, the emperor, under the leadership of Christ, were able to restore to the devotees of his faith, the city which wicked people under the evil guidance of their leader Muhammad had taken from the Christians.”

The Christian duty to reclaim Hispania, was far more important than war for war’s sake, or to acquire land, booty or power.  It was a Holy War to expel the demonic forces of Muhammad’s cult and to stop the extirpation of civilisation.  The yearly ‘razzia’, Jihad, the annual plunder, rapes, and desecrations, the massive numbers of enslaved and killed, compelled a Christian response.  The Christian counter-attack in Spain was a religious duty, a necessity to reclaim once Christian lands and mandatory for survival.