Concept in Definition ABC

At the beginning of the seventh century, Arabs from the Umayyad Caliphate occupied much of the territory of the Iberian Peninsula, until then dominated by the Visigoth kingdoms. Muslim rule lasted until 1492. Throughout this period a new social order was created. At that time, there were Muslims, Christians and Jews, but also other groups, such as the Muladis or the Mozarabs.

The population Muladi was made up of those who were originally Christians and eventually converted to Islam and the Mozarabs were the Christians who kept their faith in Muslim territories.

The Christians of Al-Andalus

In the Iberian Peninsula there were Muslim territories and Christian territories. In the latter, a part of the population used the language Arab and dressed in Arab clothing, but did not practice the religion of Islam.

Basically their beliefs were Christian but they had a Muslim appearance. These people were known as Mozarabs. They were Arabized Christians who came from Al-Andalus, the vast territory of the peninsula that the Muslims had conquered.

The Mozarabs descended from those Hispanics who did not flee to the lands of the north of the peninsula and did not resist the Muslim invasions.

This group accepted the impositions of a new social and political order, but continued with their religious beliefs.

Analyze that in the Koran it is stated that religion should not be imposed and, for this reason, Christians and Jews were respected. Thus, they could practice their religion as long as they did not proselytize. We could say that there was a kind of social pact: non-Muslims had freedom of worship and could organize legally, but they had to respect the law. authority Muslim civil and military.

Although non-Muslims had a certain freedom, they had to pay a special tax, the yizia (This tax was paid by the so-called "people of the Book", that is, those who do not practice the religion of the Islam).

A paradoxical situation

The Mozarabs of medieval Spain were a curious group: they were Christians, but at the same time they adopted some traditions typical of Islam (they did not eat pork, they practiced circumcision and spoke Arabic). This community was creating its own culture, especially in cities such as Córdoba, Seville, Granada and Toledo.

Mozarabic culture has left an important legacy in the architecture, the music and the literature.

Fotolia photos: Kavalenkava / Kapona