Let's Thank the Arabs

View from the kids' bus stop

Most days, after getting the kids off to school, Michael and I find some excuse to walk into the city down below.  Our neighborhood, the Albayzin, sits at the top of a hill. The walk down is steep and round-trip it’s about a mile and a half so all my muscles are nicely burning when I get back home for lunch and the required siesta.  And while we walk partly to burn off bread and cheese, we walk mostly because it’s a wonderland, a feast for the eyes and the imagination.  Every minute and a half I have to stop to take a picture.  The views are pretty killer.









And right after you walk past one old church, you come up on another.  Or maybe it's a convent.  Or a monastery.  Or maybe it's just a house that's put a big cross up on their roof.  They are intriguing.
















One of my favorite sightings is an ancient crumbling wall that's just sitting there in the middle of modernity.  Next to a newly renovated apartment or restaurant, perhaps.  I have a special place in my heart for things (and people, too) that are beautifully out of place.  I mean, would you look at this thing!  No doubt we have some enlightened individual to thank for protecting him from a bulldozer.










And every now and then there is a hint of the Middle East.  It's subtle.  It might just be an arch, or a tile, or a design. But it's there.

 

And I've come to realize that I only have some vague understanding that Arabs ruled here for a time.  In fact, that vague understanding is actually the entire extent of my knowledge on the subject.  I could go on feeling pathetic and shameful about that but instead I decided to crash-course myself into this period of history.  I've been reading, Googling, and YouTubing documentaries while the kids are in school.  And now, though only having scratched the surface, I am completely enamored.

Contrary to what traditional history books would like us to believe, the Muslims (generic term Moors) who conquered Spain in 711 were not treacherous, murderous savages.  And they did not violently assault a Christian Europe.  On the contrary, when they arrived on the shores of southern Spain, to an area they called al Andalus, they found cities on the brink of collapse.  Thankfully for Europe, their "conquerors" were an intellectually curious culture that placed a high value on learning and knowledge (think Barack Obama) that far surpassed that of the society of the inhabitants here (think Sarah Palin), or any other at the time.  While other religions, including Christianity, kept their masses uneducated and reserved literacy for the clerical elite, Islam encouraged education and literacy among all its followers, rich and poor.  Islamists studied the teachings of the ancient Greeks and Romans when no one else in Europe was interested.  They actively sought out teachings and information and knowledge from other cultures.  As a result, they were an incredible learned people, experts in architecture, science, mathematics, medicine, astronomy.

Willa & al-Rahman

Here's a quick story about how the Muslims took Europe from rags to riches.  The year is 750 and Abd al-Rahman, prince of an Arab dynasty (Umayyad), is the only survivor left after a coup in Damascus.  He is only 20.  He flees, barely escaping (fascinating and gory story), to Al Andalus.  Fight for power, fight for power, he ends up founding the Emirate of Cordoba.  When he arrives, the city is in disarray, bridges collapsing, etc., etc.,  He sets about rebuilding not only the bridges, but the rest of the city as well.  He improves the roads and constructs aqueducts, something he was well versed in from his learning back home.  He brings the "cutting edge" technology for irrigation into Cordoba and as a result, the land becomes fertile.  Fertile enough for some plants that Abd al-Rahman knows about from his sophisticated trade routes back home: orange and lemon trees, avocados, pomegranates, palm trees, artichokes, none of which had ever been seen in Europe.

Now Al Andalus has something to trade and now they have some cash.  In time, they'll have so much cash that Cordoba will become hugely wealthy.  The combination of the wealth, technology, and learning that the Arabs brought to Cordoba transforms it into "the ornament of the world."  People in London are still living in wooden houses, but here, houses have running water, roads are illuminated by street lights, and with 100,000 inhabitants, it becomes the largest city in Europe.  People flock here for jobs, education, and skills that they can then take back home with them.

Under Islamic rule, 800 years of it, this area flourished.  And yet this seems to be a period that has been written out of history.  The story told instead dilutes the Muslim contributions as immaterial and unimportant, though nothing could be farther from the truth.  Christians, Jews, and Muslims lived harmoniously side by side during this period and the indigenous people here converted to Islam in droves (again, something modern Spain would rather not acknowledge).  Some historians suggest the reason they converted was that they were taxed for being Christians or Jews.  But more likely it's because they wanted to be a part of all that Islam had to offer - a sophisticated, organized, inclusive, progressive and wealthy society.  It's also interesting to note that no one was forced to convert to Islam under threat of expulsion or death (ahem, Ferdinand and Isabel, ahem, ahem).

Right, so that's the beginning of my history lesson.  Everything else is going well.  The girls are doing well in school.  They love to come home and complain about the strict teachers and how they sneakily ate a granola bar on the bus where food is not allowed.  They both have a ton of friends, most of them are named Carmen.  And little by little they're using the Spanish they know.  Last night, using my 2 year old Spanish, I asked the waiter at the end of the meal "Tienes helado?"  He answered back in Speedy Spanish (which is where they talk so fast I don't understand any of it) and Clio turned to me and said "He says they only have what's on the menu."  I'm so lucky to have my own personal android.

We're sending lots of love and hugs and kisses back to family and friends!!  East Coast, please stay safe this weekend during the big snow.  (My kids are pissed that they are missing it!!)

xoxoxoxoxoxo
L.