Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Two Views of the Moorish Conquest of Toledo: The Mozarabic Chronicle of 754 and Al-Hakam's History of the Conquest of Spain


 

 The Moorish conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in 711 confronted certain chroniclers writing in the traditional "universal chronicle" format with the problem of how to include these non-Christian peoples into the general story of Christendom. This problem becomes even more acute when these Islamic invaders of Spain conquer a Chrisrtian kingdom as that of the Visigoths. John of Biclaro and Isidore of Seville expended much effort on casting the Visigothic rulers of Spain in a providential light. This becomes much harder to do when confronted with a conquering  invader who does not share the Christian faith with the chronicler.
            Many of these problems are not lost on the anonymous writer of the Mozarabic Chronicle of 754. It is more Iberian in focus (Wolf, 26), but it falls in line with the genre of the universal chronicle, with a reference to the campaign of the Emperor Heraclius against the Persians in 611. The chronicler relates that Heraclius' failure to "give glory to God", and as a consequence he had a dream that he would be "ravaged by rats from the desert". The curious thing about this account, however, is that he makes no attempt to assign any similar shortcomings to the Visigothic rulers of Spain, speaking of the conquest of the Spain by Tariq in purely political and military terms, without reference to any providential causes. It is as though the main cause of the successful invasion of the peninsula is placed on the shoulders of Heraclius, and the Visigoths are exonerated. In some ways he seems to have to accept the verdict of his predecessors, Isidore and John of Biclaro, concerning the place of the Visigoths in the divine order of things, forcing him to explain how they could be conquered by a non-Christian people. He does this not by "moralizing Rodric's rebellious assumption of power", but again, by simply laying it all on the feet of the Emperor Heraclius at the beginning of his account. Thereafter, rather than condemn the entire Cordoban caliphate en masse as intruders and invaders, he concentrates on the strengths and weaknesses of individual rulers. He focuses on the political and military matters, and most importantly, the ability of the prince to keep peace and order in the kingdom (as, for example, in the case of Abu al-Khattar, Chronicle of 754, 88). His profound knowledge of the Cordoban court demonstrates some intimacy with the court, and his identification with the Arabic rulers is reflected in the disdain he shows for the Berbers. My own personal theory is that part of his reticence to condemn the Islamic invaders en masse is perhaps because he is somehow holding out for the possibility of their future conversion, and as John of Biclaro somehow overlooked the Arianism of Leovigild, the anonymous chronicler will praise Islamic rulers who can keep peace in the peninsula for the same reason. Not only does he date events according to the reigns of Byzantine Emperors and the "year since the creation of the world", but also takes into account the years of the Hijra.
            Abd al-Hakam's History of the Conquest of Spain provides us with an Arabic account that is almost entirely focused on North African, Syrian and Egyptian politics. Like the anonymous chronicler, he shares a general Arabic distaste for the Berbers, often casting them as rebellious barbarians. His account is organized on the basis of hadiths, or authoritative works of previous historians: "As Abd-Errahman has related…on the authority of his father Abd-Allah Ibn El-Hakem…" (p. 20). Unlike the anonymous Christian chronicler, however, al-Hakam has no reticence in assigning to divine providence the victory of Tariq over the Christian kingdom of the Visigoths. Indeed, Rodric's own moral shortcomings are spotlighted, as a reason for  a certain "Count Julian" to  ally himself with Tariq in his overthrow. This, along with the tradition of hadith that al-Hakam is writing in, combine to demonstrate the achievements of Islam, in spite of the shortcomings and warfare between the various Islamic rulers of North Africa and Egypt.

1 comment:

  1. A real historian after Heroodotus and not Marcuse. I love reading old Latin, Arabic and Greek Texts because they often paint a different picture than was taught in school.

    I would love to live in the Old World and put these narratives to empirical testing - but the most I can accomplish is Civil, Revolutionary and Indian War investigations.

    A good read sir.

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