How Did Iberia And Islam Influence Spanish Culture

Sandra Moriana Ms. Scoggin March 3rd, 2015 Social Studies 8
In the year 7011 the Muslims disembarqued in Tarifa Cape in Southern Spain, starting a period of more than 700 years of Islamic ruling over the Spanish peninsula. The Spanish Catholic Kings conquered back Granada in 1492, finishing with the Muslim control of Iberia. This long period of Muslim domination left a strong influence over the spanish culture and language. This because hundreds of thousands of Muslims decided to stay Iberia and many of them converted to Christianity, but kept their traditions and they kept using their language (Arabic).
When the Muslims settled in Iberia, they called these lands Al-Andalus. And they quickly built some important cities like Cordoba, Sevilla, Granada or Toledo. The Umayyad family took over the power and established their Caliphate in Cordoba, which became the most important city at that time. This having half a million inhabitants, around 113,000 houses, 700 mosques and 300 public baths that spread throughout the city. Thanks to one important man called Abd al-
In fact the Muslims treated them better than they would expect from conquerors at that time. “ They were not slaves. They were not forced to convert to Islam. And they could have all sorts of jobs, even the most socially attractive ones. ”This said, they had to acknowledge the Islam superiority, paying a tax called Jizya and comply with the rules like not marrying muslim women. Over time, some Christians adopted some Islamic habits. These Christians were called Mozarabs. An example being that some Christian women started wearing veils or other pieces of Arab clothes. Or people started using Arabic language. In fact we still use many Arabic words today, such as algodon (cotton), algofifa (mop), algebra (math). Many geographical features have Arab names as well, like river Guadalquivir or Andalusia