00:00:03.792 --> 00:00:06.975
-Granada...

00:00:06.999 --> 00:00:09.810
Seville...

00:00:09.834 --> 00:00:11.935
Córdoba...

00:00:11.959 --> 00:00:13.768
and Toledo --

00:00:13.792 --> 00:00:16.185
the storied cities
of southern Spain,

00:00:16.209 --> 00:00:20.185
centers of some of the most
extraordinary art,

00:00:20.209 --> 00:00:23.999
culture, literature,
and music ever created,

00:00:25.334 --> 00:00:29.500
all forged in the crucible
of a remarkable time and place.

00:00:31.292 --> 00:00:34.518 line:20%
♪♪

00:00:34.542 --> 00:00:36.101
-Spain is particularly
interesting because

00:00:36.125 --> 00:00:38.268
it's one of the places
where Christians,

00:00:38.292 --> 00:00:40.685
Muslims, and Jews
confronted each other

00:00:40.709 --> 00:00:42.999
over a long period of time
and in very, very basic ways.

00:00:43.999 --> 00:00:47.018 line:20%
♪♪

00:00:47.042 --> 00:00:48.852
-Under many different
political configurations,

00:00:48.876 --> 00:00:52.435
you had the ongoing creation

00:00:52.459 --> 00:00:55.209
of many different great
cultural forms

00:00:55.999 --> 00:00:59.560 position:20%
that would not have existed

00:00:59.584 --> 00:01:01.143
except for these
complicated ways

00:01:01.167 --> 00:01:04.018
in which Jews and Christians
and Muslims

00:01:04.042 --> 00:01:07.351
were living in
the same time and place.

00:01:07.375 --> 00:01:11.226
-They were using
each other's languages,

00:01:11.250 --> 00:01:13.894
reading each other's poetry,

00:01:13.918 --> 00:01:15.685
arguing each
other's philosophies

00:01:15.709 --> 00:01:18.894
in a way that was productive,

00:01:18.918 --> 00:01:21.542
in a way that helped create
the world that we live in today.

00:01:22.709 --> 00:01:25.935 line:20%
♪♪

00:01:25.959 --> 00:01:27.518
-Nowhere else in Europe
did the three religions

00:01:27.542 --> 00:01:29.918
so thoroughly share
a society and a culture.

00:01:30.542 --> 00:01:34.018
It was period of coexistence,

00:01:34.042 --> 00:01:36.310
now known as La Convivencia,

00:01:36.334 --> 00:01:39.292
that lasted
almost 800 years...

00:01:39.876 --> 00:01:43.560
a time of
unprecedented collaboration,

00:01:43.584 --> 00:01:46.975 position:20%
but also frequent violence.

00:01:46.999 --> 00:01:49.975
-Ah!
[ Horse neighs ]

00:01:49.999 --> 00:01:51.852
-There are endless conflicts.

00:01:51.876 --> 00:01:54.268
There are huge numbers
of attacks against Jews.

00:01:54.292 --> 00:01:58.250
-There were martyrdoms.
There were executions.

00:01:58.584 --> 00:02:01.975
There were betrayals.

00:02:01.999 --> 00:02:04.435
-It was not perfect.

00:02:04.459 --> 00:02:06.143
There was tolerance
rather than pluralism,

00:02:06.167 --> 00:02:09.268
but there was an openness
to difference

00:02:09.292 --> 00:02:12.999
that was extraordinary
in the medieval world.

00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:17.810
-And that openness made
possible

00:02:17.834 --> 00:02:19.975
the creation of a culture
so wondrous

00:02:19.999 --> 00:02:22.975 position:20% line:20%
that it was called
the Ornament of the World.

00:02:22.999 --> 00:02:26.209 line:20%
♪♪

00:02:32.500 --> 00:02:35.834 line:20%
-Major funding for this program
has been provided by

00:02:35.999 --> 00:02:39.976 line:20%
the National Endowment
 for the Humanities,

00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:42.999 line:20%
"Bringing you the stories
that define us."

00:02:45.999 --> 00:02:49.976 line:20%
Additional funding
has been provided by...

00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:53.334 line:20%
O0 C1 P

00:02:58.459 --> 00:03:03.459 line:20%
O0 C1 P

00:03:08.542 --> 00:03:11.768 line:20%
♪♪

00:03:11.792 --> 00:03:15.584 line:20%
-The story of medieval Spain
began here in a palace

00:03:16.042 --> 00:03:19.975 line:20%
outside Damascus
in what is now Syria.

00:03:19.999 --> 00:03:23.018 line:20%
♪♪

00:03:23.042 --> 00:03:24.894 line:20%
The year was 750,

00:03:24.918 --> 00:03:26.975 line:20%
and the long-standing rulers
of the Muslim Empire

00:03:26.999 --> 00:03:29.727 position:20% line:20%
have just been overthrown.

00:03:29.751 --> 00:03:32.709 line:20%
-In 750, there was
a massive coup,

00:03:33.125 --> 00:03:36.727 line:20%
and it was a bloody coup.

00:03:36.751 --> 00:03:38.975 line:20%
-The palace was now occupied

00:03:38.999 --> 00:03:40.935 line:20%
by the victorious
Abbasid family.

00:03:40.959 --> 00:03:43.435 line:20%
The clan they defeated,
the Umayyads,

00:03:43.459 --> 00:03:45.975 line:20%
had been in power
for nearly 100 years

00:03:45.999 --> 00:03:48.975 line:20%
and had overseen
the Muslim Empire's expansion

00:03:48.999 --> 00:03:51.894 line:20%
to the farthest reaches
of the known world.

00:03:51.918 --> 00:03:55.351 line:20%
The Umayyads were the second
caliphate, or ruling dynasty,

00:03:55.375 --> 00:03:58.975 line:20%
established after
the death of Muhammad.

00:03:58.999 --> 00:04:02.143 line:20%
This royal lineage made them
a continuing threat

00:04:02.167 --> 00:04:04.935 line:20%
to the new rulers.

00:04:04.959 --> 00:04:06.560 line:20%
-Because the caliphate was
a dynastic phenomenon

00:04:06.584 --> 00:04:09.727 line:20%
in which a son
could turn up later and claim

00:04:09.751 --> 00:04:13.310 line:20%
that he was the true heir
to the Muslim world,

00:04:13.334 --> 00:04:16.435 line:20%
the Abbasids decided
they needed to kill everyone,

00:04:16.459 --> 00:04:18.975 line:20%
to destroy everyone in the house
of the Bani Umayyah.

00:04:18.999 --> 00:04:22.143 line:20%
♪♪

00:04:22.167 --> 00:04:24.143 line:20%
-According to lore,
after the coup,

00:04:24.167 --> 00:04:26.810 line:20%
the Abbasids invited
the Umayyads back to the palace

00:04:26.834 --> 00:04:29.999 line:20%
in a gesture of reconciliation,
but it was all a ruse.

00:04:31.375 --> 00:04:34.935 line:20%
[ Laughter]

00:04:34.959 --> 00:04:36.268 line:20%
-There was one particular
moment when it seemed

00:04:36.292 --> 00:04:39.143 line:20%
that there might be
some sort of reconciliation,

00:04:39.167 --> 00:04:42.334 line:20%
the Umayyads coming humbly
to beg to be spared.

00:04:43.999 --> 00:04:47.602
[ Indistinct talking ]

00:04:47.626 --> 00:04:50.643
-According to the story,
at a certain point,

00:04:50.667 --> 00:04:53.042
the Abbasids arose and beheaded
almost every Umayyad there.

00:04:53.999 --> 00:04:57.768
[ Indistinct shouting ]

00:04:57.792 --> 00:05:00.393
-Ah!

00:05:00.417 --> 00:05:01.975
-With the clap of a hand,

00:05:01.999 --> 00:05:03.876
in one fell swoop, virtually,
the entire upper rank

00:05:05.667 --> 00:05:09.393
of the Umayyads
had been extinguished.

00:05:09.417 --> 00:05:12.101
[ Wine dripping ]

00:05:12.125 --> 00:05:15.852
-One young Umayyad prince,
Abd al-Rahman,

00:05:15.876 --> 00:05:19.018
escaped the onslaught and fled.

00:05:19.042 --> 00:05:22.560
An account of his journey
survives to this day.

00:05:22.584 --> 00:05:25.393
[ Water rushing ]

00:05:25.417 --> 00:05:27.143
-The incredible thing about
this account is it's told

00:05:27.167 --> 00:05:29.935 position:20%
in the first person,
and at one point, he says,

00:05:29.959 --> 00:05:33.226 line:20%
"We were encamped
on the banks of a river,

00:05:33.250 --> 00:05:36.167 line:20%
and my young son
came to me crying, and I said,

00:05:36.792 --> 00:05:40.351 line:20%
'Come on.
You should be strong,'

00:05:40.375 --> 00:05:42.976
you know, 'You're my son,'
but I looked behind him,

00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:46.542
and I saw the black flags
of the Abbasids."

00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:50.975
He speaks about picking up
his young son

00:05:50.999 --> 00:05:53.435
and grabbing his younger brother

00:05:53.459 --> 00:05:56.018
and flying to the banks
of the river...

00:05:56.042 --> 00:05:58.435
[Splash ]

00:05:58.459 --> 00:06:01.268
...and he has his young son
on his back,

00:06:01.292 --> 00:06:03.125
and he starts to swim
across the river...

00:06:03.292 --> 00:06:07.310
and his little brother
keeps up with him for a while

00:06:07.334 --> 00:06:09.975
but then can't swim,

00:06:09.999 --> 00:06:11.310
and he's afraid of drowning
and starts to go back.

00:06:11.334 --> 00:06:14.459 position:20%
-And the cavalrymen
standing there on the bank

00:06:14.667 --> 00:06:18.059 position:20%
beckoned him back, saying,

00:06:18.083 --> 00:06:20.209
"Not to fear, we've just
come to take you to safety."

00:06:20.999 --> 00:06:24.894
-Abd al-Rahman I makes it
to the other side

00:06:24.918 --> 00:06:27.268 position:20%
and drops off his son and turns
around to get his brother,

00:06:27.292 --> 00:06:30.876
and he sees his brother on
the far bank with the Abbasids,

00:06:31.959 --> 00:06:35.727
and he says he watches
his brother's head

00:06:35.751 --> 00:06:38.018
tumble into the water.

00:06:38.042 --> 00:06:39.435
[Sword unsheathes,
head splashes ]

00:06:39.459 --> 00:06:41.476
The Abbasids beheaded him
immediately.

00:06:41.500 --> 00:06:44.459 line:20%
♪♪

00:06:48.834 --> 00:06:50.125
[ Bird cries ]

00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:54.083 position:20%
-For Abd al-Rahman,
there was no turning back.

00:06:54.375 --> 00:06:57.975
-The Abbasids were determined

00:06:57.999 --> 00:06:59.894
that no Umayyad
of significance would survive,

00:06:59.918 --> 00:07:04.000
and so he was the most hunted
man in the entire Muslim Empire.

00:07:07.375 --> 00:07:10.626 line:20%
♪♪

00:07:12.876 --> 00:07:16.351
-Twenty-year-old Abd al-Rahman

00:07:16.375 --> 00:07:18.310
fled south
several hundred miles,

00:07:18.334 --> 00:07:20.727
then west across North Africa.

00:07:20.751 --> 00:07:24.667
-Where he was heading
was for the tribe of his mother.

00:07:25.417 --> 00:07:29.018 line:20%
His mother was
a Berber concubine

00:07:29.042 --> 00:07:31.518
of one of the Umayyads,

00:07:31.542 --> 00:07:33.393
and so he had Berber relatives
and tribal affiliations.

00:07:33.417 --> 00:07:36.768 line:20%
♪♪

00:07:36.792 --> 00:07:38.810
When he finally reached
what is today Tunis,

00:07:38.834 --> 00:07:41.334
he was taken in by the tribe
and given their protection.

00:07:42.959 --> 00:07:44.167
-When he gets there,

00:07:46.250 --> 00:07:47.999
he doesn't just want to live his
life out as some protected guy.

00:07:48.999 --> 00:07:52.999 line:20%
He's a young man, and he was
bred to the caliphate.

00:07:54.167 --> 00:07:57.975
He understands
that these Abbasids

00:07:57.999 --> 00:08:00.999
are not the legitimate
successors of Muhammad,

00:08:01.250 --> 00:08:04.894 position:20%
that he is the real caliph

00:08:04.918 --> 00:08:07.476
and that legitimacy
lies with him.

00:08:07.500 --> 00:08:10.226 line:20%
♪♪

00:08:10.250 --> 00:08:11.643
-To reclaim that legitimacy,

00:08:11.667 --> 00:08:13.476
the last surviving heir
to the Umayyad caliphate

00:08:13.500 --> 00:08:16.435 position:20%
would need to leave Africa.

00:08:16.459 --> 00:08:18.393 line:20%
♪♪

00:08:18.417 --> 00:08:20.975
Across the narrow
Straits of Gibraltar,

00:08:20.999 --> 00:08:23.310
Abd al-Rahman could see
the Iberian Peninsula

00:08:23.334 --> 00:08:26.393
and what is today
southern Spain.

00:08:26.417 --> 00:08:29.975
The territory was controlled
by Muslim armies

00:08:29.999 --> 00:08:32.894
who had seized it back
in the year 711

00:08:32.918 --> 00:08:35.250
from Christians
called Visigoths.

00:08:35.417 --> 00:08:37.918
The Muslims named it al-Andalus.

00:08:38.999 --> 00:08:42.518
It was officially part
of the caliphate,

00:08:42.542 --> 00:08:44.852
ruled from Damascus
and then Baghdad,

00:08:44.876 --> 00:08:48.518
but its distance
from those capitals

00:08:48.542 --> 00:08:50.334
allowed its people
relative autonomy.

00:08:50.542 --> 00:08:54.310
Abd al-Rahman's supporters
encouraged him

00:08:54.334 --> 00:08:56.643
to travel
to al-Andalus and claim power.

00:08:56.667 --> 00:08:59.975
The young prince
had to weigh the risks.

00:08:59.999 --> 00:09:03.393
-Should he be in North Africa

00:09:03.417 --> 00:09:04.975
and run a small business
in leatherwork,

00:09:04.999 --> 00:09:07.435
or should he listen
to these people

00:09:07.459 --> 00:09:09.101
who came to him from Spain
saying to him,

00:09:09.125 --> 00:09:11.975
the most legitimate figure
on the scene,

00:09:11.999 --> 00:09:14.018
"Come to Spain.
We want you to rule over us.

00:09:14.042 --> 00:09:17.685
You bear the name.
You are a genuine Umayyad"?

00:09:17.709 --> 00:09:20.975
I think
that's almost irresistible.

00:09:20.999 --> 00:09:24.768
-His relatives raise him
a small army,

00:09:24.792 --> 00:09:27.018
and he goes across
the Straits of Gibraltar

00:09:27.042 --> 00:09:29.975 position:20%
onto the Iberian peninsula.

00:09:29.999 --> 00:09:31.894
[ Horse neighs ]

00:09:31.918 --> 00:09:33.643 line:20%
♪♪

00:09:33.667 --> 00:09:36.018
-Al-Andalus was
in some disorder.

00:09:36.042 --> 00:09:40.042
There had been one emir,
ruling emir, after another.

00:09:40.375 --> 00:09:44.226
-The Abbasids putatively
held it by this time,

00:09:44.250 --> 00:09:47.268
but it was so far away
from the center of power

00:09:47.292 --> 00:09:49.975
for the Abbasids
that really easily

00:09:49.999 --> 00:09:52.999
was able to conquer
the forces that were there.

00:09:53.375 --> 00:09:56.602 line:20%
♪♪

00:09:56.626 --> 00:09:58.810
[ Indistinct shouting,
 swords clanging ]

00:09:58.834 --> 00:10:01.999
-At the end of the day,
he was able to occupy Córdoba,

00:10:03.500 --> 00:10:06.975
enter the Amiral Palace,

00:10:06.999 --> 00:10:09.709
then proclaim himself
the new emir.

00:10:09.999 --> 00:10:13.167 line:20%
♪♪

00:10:14.167 --> 00:10:17.975 line:20%
-When al-Rahman arrives
in Córdoba,

00:10:17.999 --> 00:10:21.334 line:20%
he encounters
a rather sleepy city,

00:10:21.584 --> 00:10:25.185
a city that is really
in decline

00:10:25.209 --> 00:10:26.975
with walls
that are falling down

00:10:26.999 --> 00:10:28.935
and a bridge that has crumbled,

00:10:28.959 --> 00:10:31.975
and they were living in the city
sort of in that state,

00:10:31.999 --> 00:10:34.626
not really having the funds or
the wherewithal to improve it.

00:10:35.542 --> 00:10:39.143
Abd al-Rahman,
he knows Damascus.

00:10:39.167 --> 00:10:41.602
He knows what a really good city
ought to look like,

00:10:41.626 --> 00:10:44.101
and he sets about making Córdoba

00:10:44.125 --> 00:10:46.768
into a kind of new Damascus.

00:10:46.792 --> 00:10:50.185
-Córdoba has some great bones,

00:10:50.209 --> 00:10:53.042 position:20%
Roman streets and aqueducts

00:10:53.500 --> 00:10:56.976
and elements of Roman culture

00:10:57.000 --> 00:10:59.810
that have fallen out of use
but are still there,

00:10:59.834 --> 00:11:03.310 line:20%
and one can see how a prince
coming from Damascus

00:11:03.334 --> 00:11:06.643 line:20%
can look at this and recognize
something valuable there.

00:11:06.667 --> 00:11:09.999
-So Abd al-Rahman I does
what any good Umayyad would do

00:11:11.167 --> 00:11:14.935
upon taking the city of Córdoba

00:11:14.959 --> 00:11:16.727
is that he makes
a new center of the city,

00:11:16.751 --> 00:11:18.810 position:20%
and he makes the center
of the city into a mosque.

00:11:18.834 --> 00:11:21.435 line:20%
♪♪

00:11:21.459 --> 00:11:23.518
-Abd al-Rahman built
the Great Mosque of Córdoba

00:11:23.542 --> 00:11:26.435
over the top of what had
previously been a church,

00:11:26.459 --> 00:11:30.310
where Christian Visigoths
and Romans before them

00:11:30.334 --> 00:11:33.226
had been praying
for generations.

00:11:33.250 --> 00:11:36.435
-On fairly good evidence,

00:11:36.459 --> 00:11:38.000
we think that they legitimately
rented that space

00:11:39.459 --> 00:11:43.250
and then eventually
bought the building.

00:11:43.918 --> 00:11:47.852
-Abd al-Rahman, looking around
at this landscape,

00:11:47.876 --> 00:11:50.999
decides that he's going
to appropriate the ruins

00:11:51.999 --> 00:11:55.518 position:20%
of this former Roman Empire

00:11:55.542 --> 00:11:58.751
into his new imperial mosque.

00:11:59.459 --> 00:12:03.268
-You have all of these columns
and capitals

00:12:03.292 --> 00:12:06.268
from old Roman buildings

00:12:06.292 --> 00:12:08.143 line:20%
that were scattered probably
all over the countryside,

00:12:08.167 --> 00:12:12.185
and they were brought into
and made a central part

00:12:12.209 --> 00:12:15.018
of the architecture
of the mosque itself.

00:12:15.042 --> 00:12:17.999 line:20%
♪♪

00:12:20.999 --> 00:12:24.975 position:20%
-A hypostyle mosque has
a kind of dispersed space.

00:12:24.999 --> 00:12:27.975
There's not a sense
of hierarchy.

00:12:27.999 --> 00:12:30.101 line:20%
There's no altar at which
a priest might stand

00:12:30.125 --> 00:12:32.768 line:20%
or have an image of Christ
that would give you a sense

00:12:32.792 --> 00:12:34.975 line:20%
that that was
the most important place.

00:12:34.999 --> 00:12:38.459
Instead, it's this broad hall
in which every member

00:12:38.999 --> 00:12:42.959
of the community
prays individually and equally.

00:12:43.584 --> 00:12:47.560
It didn't matter if you were
the caliph or the imam

00:12:47.584 --> 00:12:50.310
who led prayer.

00:12:50.334 --> 00:12:51.810
Everyone was equal
in the eyes of God.

00:12:51.834 --> 00:12:54.101 line:20%
♪♪

00:12:54.125 --> 00:12:56.999
So its forest of columns
really exemplifies that notion

00:12:58.042 --> 00:13:01.852
of a community
in which religion

00:13:01.876 --> 00:13:04.727
was celebrated
very democratically.

00:13:04.751 --> 00:13:08.101
-Construction of the Great
Mosque firmly established Islam

00:13:08.125 --> 00:13:11.999
at the heart of
Abd al-Rahman's new kingdom,

00:13:12.292 --> 00:13:16.059
but the ruling Umayyads
made allowances

00:13:16.083 --> 00:13:18.476
for their Jewish
and Christian subjects.

00:13:18.500 --> 00:13:20.975
[ Indistinct talking ]

00:13:20.999 --> 00:13:23.310
-Certainly, the Umayyads
looked upon

00:13:23.334 --> 00:13:26.125
Christians and Jews in Spain
as a subject population

00:13:26.459 --> 00:13:30.226
that they were going
to govern and rule.

00:13:30.250 --> 00:13:32.975
Wise administration, though,

00:13:32.999 --> 00:13:34.975
tells you that you don't want to
disrupt the local populations.

00:13:34.999 --> 00:13:38.643
You don't want to cause
grievances

00:13:38.667 --> 00:13:40.975 line:20%
that would make
for unstable situations,

00:13:40.999 --> 00:13:43.226 line:20%
rebellions and the like,

00:13:43.250 --> 00:13:45.393 line:20%
and so they took a very
hands-off sort of attitude.

00:13:45.417 --> 00:13:49.393
-Abd al-Rahman governed
non-Muslim populations

00:13:49.417 --> 00:13:52.310
according to a code,
or dhimma,

00:13:52.334 --> 00:13:54.792
established a century earlier
by Muhammad and his successors.

00:13:55.751 --> 00:13:59.667 line:20%
-When Muhammad encountered
a community of Jews

00:14:00.542 --> 00:14:04.018
or a community of Christians,

00:14:04.042 --> 00:14:06.310
his policy was they did
not have to convert.

00:14:06.334 --> 00:14:10.375 position:20%
If they submitted, he guaranteed
them religious protection.

00:14:10.667 --> 00:14:14.435
They were free to practice
their religion

00:14:14.459 --> 00:14:16.476 position:20%
under certain restrictions.

00:14:16.500 --> 00:14:17.935 position:20%
They could not proselytize.

00:14:17.959 --> 00:14:19.143
They could not hold positions
over Muslims.

00:14:19.167 --> 00:14:21.268 position:20%
They couldn't rule Muslims.

00:14:21.292 --> 00:14:22.560
They couldn't build
new churches.

00:14:22.584 --> 00:14:24.101
They couldn't spread
their religion,

00:14:24.125 --> 00:14:25.975
but otherwise,
they were free to practice,

00:14:25.999 --> 00:14:27.852
and then they paid tribute
to the Muslim community,

00:14:27.876 --> 00:14:30.143
the sign of submission.

00:14:30.167 --> 00:14:31.709 line:20%
-This is far from the kind
of pluralistic society

00:14:32.125 --> 00:14:36.334 line:20%
in which everyone in a sense
lives at peace with each other.

00:14:37.959 --> 00:14:41.918
You pay a certain price
for being allowed to live

00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:45.685 position:20%
within Muslim civilization.

00:14:45.709 --> 00:14:48.185
What you have is
just a strange phenomenon

00:14:48.209 --> 00:14:50.518
where Christians and Jews

00:14:50.542 --> 00:14:53.643 position:20%
may retain their religion,

00:14:53.667 --> 00:14:56.727
but they will
become acculturated

00:14:56.751 --> 00:14:59.643 position:20%
into Islamic civilization.

00:14:59.667 --> 00:15:02.476
That is to say,
they will speak Arabic.

00:15:02.500 --> 00:15:04.935 position:20%
They will write in Arabic.

00:15:04.959 --> 00:15:06.518 position:20%
They will eat like Muslims,

00:15:06.542 --> 00:15:08.584
all those practices of the
dominant group within society.

00:15:08.999 --> 00:15:12.518
[ Laughter]

00:15:12.542 --> 00:15:14.351
-But for the Jewish population
in Spain,

00:15:14.375 --> 00:15:16.975
the implementation
of the Islamic dhimma

00:15:16.999 --> 00:15:19.435
offered a distinct improvement

00:15:19.459 --> 00:15:21.059
over life under the previous
Christian rulers.

00:15:21.083 --> 00:15:24.727
-The Visigoths who had been
ruling in Spain

00:15:24.751 --> 00:15:27.975 position:20%
before the Muslims arrived

00:15:27.999 --> 00:15:29.999
were very harsh toward Jews
in particular.

00:15:30.459 --> 00:15:34.602
They had very strict rules about
how much Jews could operate

00:15:34.626 --> 00:15:38.018
in the public sphere,
basically very little.

00:15:38.042 --> 00:15:41.975
-The Visigoths, over the period
of their reign,

00:15:41.999 --> 00:15:45.185 position:20%
had become harsher and harsher
with the Jewish community.

00:15:45.209 --> 00:15:48.975
There were many different
legal restrictions

00:15:48.999 --> 00:15:51.185
against owning land.

00:15:51.209 --> 00:15:52.643
There were types of occupations

00:15:52.667 --> 00:15:54.560
they could and could not
maintain,

00:15:54.584 --> 00:15:56.975
who they could marry,

00:15:56.999 --> 00:15:58.226
what type of wealth
they could have.

00:15:58.250 --> 00:16:00.101
So they were really

00:16:00.125 --> 00:16:01.518
in tremendously
reduced circumstances.

00:16:01.542 --> 00:16:05.310
-Jews probably welcomed
the change of regime

00:16:05.334 --> 00:16:08.643
because it enhanced their status

00:16:08.667 --> 00:16:10.810
from a despised and recently
suppressed minority

00:16:10.834 --> 00:16:14.709
to a community that could use
its skills of literacy,

00:16:15.876 --> 00:16:19.643 position:20%
of scholarship
and traditions of learning

00:16:19.667 --> 00:16:22.435
as ways to incorporate
in the political culture

00:16:22.459 --> 00:16:25.643
and political administration
of the Umayyads.

00:16:25.667 --> 00:16:28.435
-As long as Jews and Christians

00:16:28.459 --> 00:16:30.685 line:20%
are paying
the necessary poll tax

00:16:30.709 --> 00:16:33.959 line:20%
in a timely way
and understanding of their place

00:16:34.667 --> 00:16:38.476
as second-class citizens
in a Muslim country,

00:16:38.500 --> 00:16:42.059
then they have complete freedom

00:16:42.083 --> 00:16:44.059
to engage
in their political economy,

00:16:44.083 --> 00:16:46.975
their communal
and religious affairs

00:16:46.999 --> 00:16:49.101
as they see fit,
and they did so.

00:16:49.125 --> 00:16:52.310
[ Indistinct talking ]

00:16:52.334 --> 00:16:53.975
-One sees the beginning
of what

00:16:53.999 --> 00:16:55.975 line:20%
will be called later
La Convivencia,

00:16:55.999 --> 00:16:59.292 line:20%
the marvelous collaboration
of faiths and races

00:16:59.959 --> 00:17:03.626
that was distinctive
in al-Andalus.

00:17:03.999 --> 00:17:07.584
[ Indistinct talking ]

00:17:07.834 --> 00:17:11.602
-Convivencia --
Spanish for "coexistence"

00:17:11.626 --> 00:17:15.018
or "living together."

00:17:15.042 --> 00:17:16.976
Nowhere else in Europe
would the three religions

00:17:17.000 --> 00:17:19.476
share a society
and a culture so thoroughly.

00:17:19.500 --> 00:17:22.768 line:20%
♪♪

00:17:22.792 --> 00:17:25.542
Convivencia contributed to
great prosperity in al-Andalus.

00:17:26.999 --> 00:17:30.476
Córdoba became a luminous city

00:17:30.500 --> 00:17:32.852
filled with the buzzing
of outdoor markets

00:17:32.876 --> 00:17:35.143
and the cacophony
of new construction.

00:17:35.167 --> 00:17:37.643 line:20%
♪♪

00:17:37.667 --> 00:17:41.268
Even the countryside
was transformed with extensions

00:17:41.292 --> 00:17:44.626
and improvements to the old
Roman irrigation system.

00:17:45.375 --> 00:17:49.101
-Because they were able
to control water

00:17:49.125 --> 00:17:51.059 line:20%
and actually store it for use
during the summer months

00:17:51.083 --> 00:17:53.435 line:20%
and even into the fall,

00:17:53.459 --> 00:17:54.894 line:20%
they were able
to grow more crops,

00:17:54.918 --> 00:17:56.810 line:20%
and they were able to grow crops
that demanded more water

00:17:56.834 --> 00:17:59.999
than were naturally available
in that kind of an environment.

00:18:00.792 --> 00:18:04.476
-In the newly bountiful
countryside,

00:18:04.500 --> 00:18:06.999
Abd al-Rahman built a lavish
estate that he named Rusafa,

00:18:07.709 --> 00:18:11.435
recollecting the palace
outside Damascus

00:18:11.459 --> 00:18:13.894
where he had spent time
in his youth.

00:18:13.918 --> 00:18:16.643
-Rusafa was this country estate

00:18:16.667 --> 00:18:18.643
that Abd al-Rahman built
outside of the city.

00:18:18.667 --> 00:18:20.602
It was a retreat,
an escape from urban life

00:18:20.626 --> 00:18:23.834 position:20%
and the congestion
and the noises of Córdoba.

00:18:24.375 --> 00:18:28.101
-Abd al-Rahman's retreat
overlooked fields

00:18:28.125 --> 00:18:30.975
of wheat and fruit trees.

00:18:30.999 --> 00:18:33.935
We know about it only
from written accounts

00:18:33.959 --> 00:18:36.310
of its irrigated gardens
and exotic plants,

00:18:36.334 --> 00:18:39.685
its opulence and beauty.

00:18:39.709 --> 00:18:42.792
-He plants very interesting
species of rare plants,

00:18:43.999 --> 00:18:47.975
some of which were actually
imported from the East.

00:18:47.999 --> 00:18:51.975
He's using it as a kind of
botanical exchange point

00:18:51.999 --> 00:18:55.584
for the domestication of rare,
unusual plant varieties.

00:18:57.042 --> 00:19:00.518
[ Birds chirping ]

00:19:00.542 --> 00:19:02.351
-In Rusafa, he planted
palm trees

00:19:02.375 --> 00:19:05.560
like the ones so common in Syria

00:19:05.584 --> 00:19:07.976
but previously unknown
in al-Andalus.

00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:10.975 line:20%
♪♪

00:19:10.999 --> 00:19:13.143
-A palm tree stands in Rusafa,

00:19:13.167 --> 00:19:15.894
born in the West,
far from the land of palms.

00:19:15.918 --> 00:19:19.999
I said to it, "How like me
you are, far away and in exile,

00:19:21.792 --> 00:19:25.560
in long separation
from family and friends.

00:19:25.584 --> 00:19:28.975
You have sprung from soil
in which you are a stranger,

00:19:28.999 --> 00:19:32.626
and I, like you,
am far from home."

00:19:33.626 --> 00:19:37.351
-It's this incredibly
nostalgic poem.

00:19:37.375 --> 00:19:40.768
It's just heartbreaking
because you're watching

00:19:40.792 --> 00:19:43.375
this young prince,
last survivor of his family,

00:19:43.999 --> 00:19:47.975
try to recreate something
that is, of course,

00:19:47.999 --> 00:19:50.584
never going to be
fully recreated.

00:19:51.417 --> 00:19:54.975
-And yet -- and yet --

00:19:54.999 --> 00:19:56.375
I think what is impressive
and powerful is his ability

00:19:57.417 --> 00:20:00.975
to not let that keep him

00:20:00.999 --> 00:20:03.685 position:20%
from building a new future.

00:20:03.709 --> 00:20:06.976 line:20%
He doesn't spend his life
militating

00:20:07.000 --> 00:20:10.351 line:20%
to get back his homeland.

00:20:10.375 --> 00:20:12.626
He creates a different
version of it,

00:20:13.751 --> 00:20:17.584
and I think he does that
with great success.

00:20:18.542 --> 00:20:21.792 line:20%
♪♪

00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:29.602
-Abd al-Rahman died
in the year 788.

00:20:29.626 --> 00:20:32.768 line:20%
♪♪

00:20:32.792 --> 00:20:35.935 position:20%
But the new homeland
that Abd al-Rahman created

00:20:35.959 --> 00:20:38.292
in al-Andalus
continued to thrive.

00:20:38.999 --> 00:20:42.975
Within two generations,
the Umayyad community

00:20:42.999 --> 00:20:45.976
outgrew the mosque
Abd al-Rahman constructed

00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:49.059
when he first arrived in Córdoba
30 years earlier.

00:20:49.083 --> 00:20:52.975 position:20%
-They need to expand
the congregational mosque.

00:20:52.999 --> 00:20:55.894
This is where the community
as a whole gathers on Fridays,

00:20:55.918 --> 00:20:58.768
so it really is a measure
of the size of that community.

00:20:58.792 --> 00:21:02.999
-The expansion of the mosque
reflects the growth of Córdoba,

00:21:03.459 --> 00:21:07.351
and the growth of Córdoba
is being fueled partly

00:21:07.375 --> 00:21:10.518 line:20%
by this flux of migration
from the countryside

00:21:10.542 --> 00:21:14.042 line:20%
from outlying villages into the
city as people convert to Islam.

00:21:15.834 --> 00:21:19.709
Converts to Islam
often choose an Arabic name

00:21:19.999 --> 00:21:23.918
so that if you look
at a Muslim's genealogy

00:21:24.667 --> 00:21:28.268 line:20%
when you see that his name
is Ahmad

00:21:28.292 --> 00:21:29.975 position:20% line:20%
and his father's is Mohammad,
his father's name was Ali,

00:21:29.999 --> 00:21:33.999
and his father's name was Lopez
or Ruiz or something like that,

00:21:35.999 --> 00:21:39.976
then you can conjecture
that that is the generation

00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:43.727
where the conversion took place.

00:21:43.751 --> 00:21:46.560
If you take a lot of these
genealogies,

00:21:46.584 --> 00:21:49.518
you can assign
a date of conversion,

00:21:49.542 --> 00:21:52.292
and you get a graph
of the growth of the community.

00:21:52.918 --> 00:21:56.852
It starts very slowly and then
at a certain point

00:21:56.876 --> 00:21:59.976
has a kind of a chain reaction
or a going viral,

00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:03.083
and it suddenly appears
everybody is becoming a Muslim.

00:22:03.292 --> 00:22:06.542 line:20%
♪♪

00:22:06.834 --> 00:22:10.685 line:20%
-As you might imagine,
as happens even today,

00:22:10.709 --> 00:22:14.727 line:20%
there were many people who were
very unhappy about this process,

00:22:14.751 --> 00:22:17.999
about the intermarriage,
about the conversion,

00:22:18.292 --> 00:22:22.101
about the fact that
the Christian population

00:22:22.125 --> 00:22:24.602
seemed to be shrinking
so dramatically,

00:22:24.626 --> 00:22:28.268 position:20%
and in particular for them,
melancholy lay in the fact

00:22:28.292 --> 00:22:32.000
that in the early Middle Ages,
under the rule of the Visigoths,

00:22:32.167 --> 00:22:35.975
the church was enormously
powerful.

00:22:35.999 --> 00:22:38.894
-The memory of the time
when the church

00:22:38.918 --> 00:22:40.810
was enormously powerful
made them chafe

00:22:40.834 --> 00:22:43.292
even more against
the hegemony of the Umayyads.

00:22:44.500 --> 00:22:47.975
So a group of churchmen

00:22:47.999 --> 00:22:50.643
begin a kind of
resistance movement.

00:22:50.667 --> 00:22:54.059
[ Indistinct talking ]

00:22:54.083 --> 00:22:55.685
-The movement was led by
the Christian monk Eulogius

00:22:55.709 --> 00:22:58.852
and encouraged by a layman,
Paul Alvarus.

00:22:58.876 --> 00:23:02.268
Alvarus was upset,
not just by conversion,

00:23:02.292 --> 00:23:05.143
but by the fact that even
the remaining Christians

00:23:05.167 --> 00:23:07.918
seemed unduly influenced
by Arabic culture.

00:23:08.792 --> 00:23:12.768
-"Alas, all talented young
Christians read and study

00:23:12.792 --> 00:23:16.143
with enthusiasm
the Arab books.

00:23:16.167 --> 00:23:19.185
They have forgotten
their own language.

00:23:19.209 --> 00:23:21.975
For everyone who can write
a letter in Latin to a friend,

00:23:21.999 --> 00:23:25.643
there are a thousand who can
express themselves in Arabic

00:23:25.667 --> 00:23:28.560
with elegance
and write better poems

00:23:28.584 --> 00:23:31.602
in this language
than the Arabs themselves."

00:23:31.626 --> 00:23:34.975
[ Indistinct talking ]

00:23:34.999 --> 00:23:36.310
-Where's the next generation
and the generation after that

00:23:36.334 --> 00:23:39.185
of the priesthood
going to come from

00:23:39.209 --> 00:23:41.143 line:20%
if young Christian men
are increasingly of the belief

00:23:41.167 --> 00:23:44.643 line:20%
that they can continue
to be good Christians,

00:23:44.667 --> 00:23:47.334
but Arabo-Islamic in all of
their other cultural visages?

00:23:49.209 --> 00:23:53.000
-Paul and Eulogius saw this
as a crisis.

00:23:54.250 --> 00:23:58.042 line:20%
-Islam represented clearly
a higher culture

00:23:58.792 --> 00:24:02.727 position:20%
than the Latin culture
of the Spanish Christians.

00:24:02.751 --> 00:24:06.101
Everything that the Muslims
did was better --

00:24:06.125 --> 00:24:08.685
the art, the literature,
their agricultural techniques.

00:24:08.709 --> 00:24:12.518
The whole lifestyle
was more attractive.

00:24:12.542 --> 00:24:16.459
-It becomes a culture of
extraordinary seduction

00:24:17.083 --> 00:24:20.852
and attraction for many people.

00:24:20.876 --> 00:24:24.351
[ Indistinct talking ]

00:24:24.375 --> 00:24:25.727
-So for the Christian
community, it becomes a problem.

00:24:25.751 --> 00:24:29.268
They begin to lose
their culture.

00:24:29.292 --> 00:24:31.351
It's rolled over by
this cultural juggernaut

00:24:31.375 --> 00:24:34.226
that is Arabic.

00:24:34.250 --> 00:24:36.101
[ Indistinct talking ]

00:24:36.125 --> 00:24:37.751
-The resistance movement became
known as the Córdoban Martyrs.

00:24:38.459 --> 00:24:42.268
-They would go in front
of a Muslim judge.

00:24:42.292 --> 00:24:44.351
They would go in front of
a Muslim ruler,

00:24:44.375 --> 00:24:46.018
and they would start saying
the most horrible things

00:24:46.042 --> 00:24:48.101
they could think of
about the prophet Muhammad.

00:24:48.125 --> 00:24:50.101 line:20%
-And these are things
that they know very clearly

00:24:50.125 --> 00:24:52.894 line:20%
are punishable by death,
and they seek death.

00:24:52.918 --> 00:24:55.975
-So what you see
in the Córdoban Martyrs movement

00:24:55.999 --> 00:24:58.518 position:20%
is this last-ditch attempt

00:24:58.542 --> 00:25:01.226
to halt
this cultural interpenetration,

00:25:01.250 --> 00:25:04.834
to halt this process by which
large numbers of Christians

00:25:06.751 --> 00:25:10.393
under Muslim rule were
converting.

00:25:10.417 --> 00:25:13.685
-The voluntary martyrs

00:25:13.709 --> 00:25:15.101 position:20%
had a kind of
deep cultural frustration,

00:25:15.125 --> 00:25:18.059
and this very
rhetorical movement

00:25:18.083 --> 00:25:20.059
seemed to answer their need
to put Christianity

00:25:20.083 --> 00:25:23.975
in the center of the spotlight.

00:25:23.999 --> 00:25:27.476
-Beginning in the year 850,
48 Andalusi Christians

00:25:27.500 --> 00:25:31.083
were executed
for offenses against Islam.

00:25:31.876 --> 00:25:35.768
Eulogius himself,
one of the last to be killed,

00:25:35.792 --> 00:25:38.894
was beheaded in 859.

00:25:38.918 --> 00:25:42.185
-He was martyred in
mid-afternoon

00:25:42.209 --> 00:25:44.226
of Saturday, the 11th of March,

00:25:44.250 --> 00:25:47.101
oh, blessed and wonderful man
of his age

00:25:47.125 --> 00:25:49.935
who, in many martyrs,

00:25:49.959 --> 00:25:51.334
sent the fruit of his work
ahead of him.

00:25:51.542 --> 00:25:55.310
-But the deaths of the martyrs
did little

00:25:55.334 --> 00:25:57.709
to stop the surge of Islam
on the Iberian peninsula.

00:25:59.792 --> 00:26:01.125
In fact, Muslim Córdoba was
about to witness

00:26:03.626 --> 00:26:06.768
something Abd al-Rahman
could only have dreamed of.

00:26:06.792 --> 00:26:09.999
[ Chanting in Arabic ]

00:26:10.417 --> 00:26:13.667 line:20%
♪♪

00:26:15.250 --> 00:26:19.292
On a Friday in January
in the year 929, Spanish Muslims

00:26:20.125 --> 00:26:24.143
gathered to pray inside
the Great Mosque of Córdoba.

00:26:24.167 --> 00:26:27.810
[ Praying in Arabic ]

00:26:27.834 --> 00:26:31.226
There, they heard
an extraordinary pronouncement.

00:26:31.250 --> 00:26:34.602
The ruler of al-Andalus,
Abd al-Rahman III,

00:26:34.626 --> 00:26:38.059
declared himself caliph,

00:26:38.083 --> 00:26:40.709
the legitimate sovereign of all
of the Islamic territories.

00:26:41.999 --> 00:26:44.125
The center of the Islamic world,
he proclaimed, was Córdoba,

00:26:46.876 --> 00:26:50.959
and he, seven generations
removed from Abd al-Rahman I,

00:26:52.000 --> 00:26:55.560
was Islam's true leader.

00:26:55.584 --> 00:26:59.417
This directly defied a rival
Islamic dynasty in North Africa

00:27:00.459 --> 00:27:04.101
as well as the Abbasid
leadership,

00:27:04.125 --> 00:27:06.059
which ruled from Baghdad.

00:27:06.083 --> 00:27:08.834 line:20%
-He says, "Look, I've been
kowtowing to the Abbasids

00:27:08.999 --> 00:27:12.435 line:20%
down there in Baghdad,

00:27:12.459 --> 00:27:13.975 line:20%
but the reality is this is
a caliphate as much as that.

00:27:13.999 --> 00:27:18.018 position:20% line:20%
-Declaring himself the caliph
didn't mean that suddenly,

00:27:18.042 --> 00:27:21.000 line:20%
Muslims, you know, in Persia
recognized him as their leader,

00:27:21.292 --> 00:27:25.435
but what it meant is that in
order to make this claim stick

00:27:25.459 --> 00:27:29.101
or seem reasonable,
he had to act like a caliph

00:27:29.125 --> 00:27:31.975
and also create
a glamorous capital

00:27:31.999 --> 00:27:34.476
that was worthy of
that status and title.

00:27:34.500 --> 00:27:37.602 line:20%
♪♪

00:27:37.626 --> 00:27:40.685
-Abd al-Rahman III
ruled over a city

00:27:40.709 --> 00:27:43.542 position:20%
that by the 10th century
was the largest in Europe.

00:27:44.250 --> 00:27:48.459
Córdoba boasted sophisticated
amenities like paved streets,

00:27:49.083 --> 00:27:52.935
lighting systems
and running water.

00:27:52.959 --> 00:27:55.393 line:20%
♪♪

00:27:55.417 --> 00:27:58.959
-The introduction of water
transforms the city.

00:27:59.125 --> 00:28:02.727
The city becomes cleaner.

00:28:02.751 --> 00:28:04.976
They have bathhouses.

00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:06.560
People can bathe at any time.

00:28:06.584 --> 00:28:10.101
They also have a system
of sewers that runs underground

00:28:10.125 --> 00:28:13.935 position:20%
that washes away the waste.

00:28:13.959 --> 00:28:16.894 line:20%
So if you can imagine walking
through a medieval city

00:28:16.918 --> 00:28:19.393 line:20%
that did not smell,

00:28:19.417 --> 00:28:21.810 line:20%
that is
an extraordinary indication

00:28:21.834 --> 00:28:24.268 position:20%
of high standard of living,

00:28:24.292 --> 00:28:25.852 position:20%
and that is the kind of thing
that people from elsewhere

00:28:25.876 --> 00:28:28.393 position:20%
commented upon
when they came to Córdoba,

00:28:28.417 --> 00:28:30.560
that it was beautiful,

00:28:30.584 --> 00:28:31.975
partly because it appealed
to the senses,

00:28:31.999 --> 00:28:34.393
all of the senses.

00:28:34.417 --> 00:28:36.999
-The reports of the glamour
of the city

00:28:37.500 --> 00:28:40.975
reached far and wide,

00:28:40.999 --> 00:28:43.101
and it's at that point

00:28:43.125 --> 00:28:44.435 position:20% line:20%
when Córdoba
really does feel to itself

00:28:44.459 --> 00:28:47.727 line:20%
and to other visitors
from both the East and the North

00:28:47.751 --> 00:28:51.000
it is very much the center
of the civilized world.

00:28:53.083 --> 00:28:55.000
-The German nun and poet
Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim

00:28:57.000 --> 00:29:00.101
never visited Córdoba,

00:29:00.125 --> 00:29:02.143
yet the stories that reached
her inspired her

00:29:02.167 --> 00:29:04.643 position:20%
to call it
the Ornament of the World.

00:29:04.667 --> 00:29:08.250
-The brilliant Ornament
of the World shown in the West,

00:29:08.751 --> 00:29:12.626
a noble city newly known
for the military prowess

00:29:12.918 --> 00:29:16.685
that its Hispanic colonizers
had brought.

00:29:16.709 --> 00:29:20.083
Córdoba was its name,
and it was wealthy and famous

00:29:20.959 --> 00:29:24.999
and known for its pleasures
and resplendent in all things.

00:29:26.459 --> 00:29:30.393
-Nothing better exemplified
Córdoba's ascendancy

00:29:30.417 --> 00:29:33.852
than the opulent palace complex

00:29:33.876 --> 00:29:35.959
Abd al-Rahman III
built outside the city.

00:29:36.417 --> 00:29:39.975 position:20%
He called it Medina Azahara

00:29:39.999 --> 00:29:42.143
and made it
the new seat of government.

00:29:42.167 --> 00:29:45.500
-Medina Azahara was built
on the side of a hill

00:29:45.999 --> 00:29:49.643
overlooking a vast landscape,

00:29:49.667 --> 00:29:52.310
and, of course, overlooking
the landscape was very important

00:29:52.334 --> 00:29:55.185
because that view exemplified

00:29:55.209 --> 00:29:56.560
in many ways your power
over that land.

00:29:56.584 --> 00:30:00.334
-He builds it,
not as a single palace

00:30:00.542 --> 00:30:04.459
but as a sprawling complex
of multiple palaces,

00:30:05.792 --> 00:30:09.417
multiple mosques,
multiple gardens.

00:30:10.667 --> 00:30:14.000
It is absolutely huge.

00:30:14.209 --> 00:30:18.209
-The palace had things
that are spoken of by poets

00:30:19.167 --> 00:30:22.852 position:20%
for generations afterwards.

00:30:22.876 --> 00:30:24.975
It had fountains with
little statues of animals

00:30:24.999 --> 00:30:28.143
who spewed water into its pool.

00:30:28.167 --> 00:30:30.975 line:20%
♪♪

00:30:30.999 --> 00:30:33.143
-You know, you were
almost godlike in your powers.

00:30:33.167 --> 00:30:36.975
If you could control nature,

00:30:36.999 --> 00:30:38.268
and part of that would be
to control water,

00:30:38.292 --> 00:30:40.602
to send it spewing
through little canals and

00:30:40.626 --> 00:30:43.459
to have it travel vast amounts
of territory on aqueducts

00:30:43.999 --> 00:30:47.602
and to spew out of the mouths

00:30:47.626 --> 00:30:49.834
of precious, jewel-studded
or gilded animals.

00:30:49.999 --> 00:30:53.059 line:20%
♪♪

00:30:53.083 --> 00:30:55.768 line:20%
That showed not only
beautiful taste

00:30:55.792 --> 00:30:58.935 position:20% line:20%
and luxurious appointments,

00:30:58.959 --> 00:31:00.751 line:20%
but it also showed
a kind of awesome power.

00:31:01.918 --> 00:31:04.975 line:20%
♪♪

00:31:04.999 --> 00:31:06.975
-The city's resplendence

00:31:06.999 --> 00:31:08.435
extended beyond
its architecture.

00:31:08.459 --> 00:31:11.894
It was also a place of learning,
home to great book collections

00:31:11.918 --> 00:31:15.852
that stood in marked contrast
to the small monastic libraries

00:31:15.876 --> 00:31:19.351
scattered throughout
the rest of Europe.

00:31:19.375 --> 00:31:22.999
-The grandeur of the city
lay in great measure

00:31:23.167 --> 00:31:26.999
because of the enormous
numbers of books.

00:31:27.999 --> 00:31:31.602
There is a legendary recounting

00:31:31.626 --> 00:31:35.042
that says there were as many
as 400,000 books in Córdoba.

00:31:37.667 --> 00:31:41.101
There's a complete inability

00:31:41.125 --> 00:31:42.975
to judge the literal truth
of this,

00:31:42.999 --> 00:31:46.185
but I think the statement
is meant to reflect

00:31:46.209 --> 00:31:48.810
what was a reality,

00:31:48.834 --> 00:31:50.185
which is, it's a culture
that highly valued books

00:31:50.209 --> 00:31:53.602
as part of the overall culture.

00:31:53.626 --> 00:31:56.975
-One young Córdoban who emerged
from this vibrant culture

00:31:56.999 --> 00:32:00.584
was the Jewish physician and
intellectual Hasdai ibn Shaprut.

00:32:02.167 --> 00:32:05.975 line:20%
-Most of the intellectuals
in those days

00:32:05.999 --> 00:32:09.393 line:20%
were physicians
and philosophers.

00:32:09.417 --> 00:32:12.226 line:20%
That is, they were scientists,
and they were thinkers,

00:32:12.250 --> 00:32:15.476
and Hasdai ibn Shaprut became
a physician to the caliph

00:32:15.500 --> 00:32:18.268
for the caliph's court.

00:32:18.292 --> 00:32:20.226 line:20%
♪♪

00:32:20.250 --> 00:32:22.226
-Hasdai rose through the ranks,

00:32:22.250 --> 00:32:24.351
eventually becoming
the right-hand man

00:32:24.375 --> 00:32:26.476
to Abd-ar-Rahman III

00:32:26.500 --> 00:32:28.709
and the highest-ranking Jew
in al-Andalus.

00:32:29.292 --> 00:32:32.976 line:20%
-Things had never been
so comfortable

00:32:33.000 --> 00:32:36.042 line:20%
for a Jewish community
that they were aware of.

00:32:36.500 --> 00:32:40.476
Jews' influence in the social
and political realm

00:32:40.500 --> 00:32:44.143
as well as their social,
economic accomplishments

00:32:44.167 --> 00:32:47.727
and their creative
and productivity

00:32:47.751 --> 00:32:50.584
as authors of all of the Hebrew
humanities had no parallel.

00:32:52.584 --> 00:32:56.393
-Inspired by Abd-ar-Rahman's
determination

00:32:56.417 --> 00:32:58.975
to make Córdoba
the center of Islam,

00:32:58.999 --> 00:33:01.685
Hasdai ibn Shaprut

00:33:01.709 --> 00:33:03.209
set out to make it
the heart of Jewish life, too.

00:33:03.918 --> 00:33:07.602
He launched an attempt
to wrest power

00:33:07.626 --> 00:33:09.268 position:20%
from the rabbis in Baghdad,

00:33:09.292 --> 00:33:11.476
which had been the seat of
Jewish learning for centuries.

00:33:11.500 --> 00:33:15.584
-You have this Jewish community
in Córdoba that says,

00:33:15.834 --> 00:33:19.643
"Nah, guys, we're not
subservient to you.

00:33:19.667 --> 00:33:21.975
We are actually better
than you are.

00:33:21.999 --> 00:33:24.975
We have achieved more than
you have.

00:33:24.999 --> 00:33:28.560
We are more central."

00:33:28.584 --> 00:33:30.976
-Hasdai ibn Shaprut established
the first center

00:33:31.000 --> 00:33:34.602
of rabbinical learning
in medieval Spain,

00:33:34.626 --> 00:33:36.999 line:20%
and so Sephardic Jewry
had their own academy

00:33:37.667 --> 00:33:41.500 line:20%
as a center of Jewish
religious learning.

00:33:41.751 --> 00:33:44.167
-And Hasdai was just beginning
his campaign to promote Córdoba.

00:33:46.542 --> 00:33:50.226
-I think one of the most
important things

00:33:50.250 --> 00:33:52.101
that you learn about Hasdai
through his writing

00:33:52.125 --> 00:33:54.500
is his sense
of the centrality of Spain.

00:33:55.250 --> 00:33:58.476 line:20%
♪♪

00:33:58.500 --> 00:34:00.727
-A delegation
came to Córdoba

00:34:00.751 --> 00:34:02.518
from what was called
at the time Khazaria

00:34:02.542 --> 00:34:05.685
in what is today Croatia.

00:34:05.709 --> 00:34:07.935
This was a Turkic kingdom

00:34:07.959 --> 00:34:10.125
that legend had it was
a Jewish kingdom.

00:34:10.999 --> 00:34:14.935
-Hasdai ibn Shaprut asked
the Turkic delegation

00:34:14.959 --> 00:34:17.976
to carry a letter back
to the Jewish king.

00:34:18.000 --> 00:34:22.018
-"Our land is called Sepharad
in the holy tongue

00:34:22.042 --> 00:34:25.351
while the Ishmaelite citizens
call it al-Andalus,

00:34:25.375 --> 00:34:28.876
and the kingdom
is called Córdoba.

00:34:29.417 --> 00:34:32.975
It is a land of grains,

00:34:32.999 --> 00:34:34.894
wines and purest fruits,
rich in plants,

00:34:34.918 --> 00:34:38.518
a paradise of every sort
of sweet and with gardens

00:34:38.542 --> 00:34:42.334
and orchards where every
kind of fruit tree blossoms."

00:34:43.250 --> 00:34:47.059
-It gives you a taste of his
and, I think,

00:34:47.083 --> 00:34:51.059 line:20%
the rest of the community's
great love of this place

00:34:51.083 --> 00:34:55.000
that nourished them,
that not only tolerated them,

00:34:55.209 --> 00:34:58.975
which is one thing,
but which provided

00:34:58.999 --> 00:35:01.975 position:20%
the wherewithal
for this great well-being.

00:35:01.999 --> 00:35:05.852
The true flourishing
of the Jewish community,

00:35:05.876 --> 00:35:08.018
which could be said
to begin with Hasdai,

00:35:08.042 --> 00:35:10.375
at least, as a symbolic moment,
will continue and will, in fact,

00:35:11.709 --> 00:35:15.500
survive the destruction
of the caliphate.

00:35:17.999 --> 00:35:18.959
-The years of Abd-ar-Rahman III

00:35:21.667 --> 00:35:23.975
were the zenith
of Córdoban power,

00:35:23.999 --> 00:35:27.476 position:20%
but the Umayyad caliphate's

00:35:27.500 --> 00:35:28.975
brilliant star
was about to fade.

00:35:28.999 --> 00:35:31.894 line:20%
♪♪

00:35:31.918 --> 00:35:34.894
Abd-ar-Rahman III died
in the year 961,

00:35:34.918 --> 00:35:38.393
followed 15 years later
by his son.

00:35:38.417 --> 00:35:42.643
Next in the line of succession
was his 12-year-old grandson,

00:35:42.667 --> 00:35:46.125
Hisham, but the young Hisham,
though caliph in name,

00:35:47.375 --> 00:35:50.935
was just a figurehead.

00:35:50.959 --> 00:35:52.976
True power was seized
by his ambitious chamberlain,

00:35:53.000 --> 00:35:56.209 position:20%
who called himself
Al-Mansur, The Victorious.

00:35:57.167 --> 00:36:01.018
-Al-Mansur is kind of an
interesting character.

00:36:01.042 --> 00:36:03.975
Extremely despotic.

00:36:03.999 --> 00:36:05.999 position:20%
He claims for a while to rule
in the name of the caliph,

00:36:06.417 --> 00:36:10.393
but in fact the young caliph
is made impotent by him,

00:36:10.417 --> 00:36:14.125
and he's kind of a strongman
in a lot of ways.

00:36:14.626 --> 00:36:18.268
-Al-Mansur,
like his predecessors,

00:36:18.292 --> 00:36:20.999
carried on Córdoba's tradition
of architectural resplendence,

00:36:21.167 --> 00:36:24.852 position:20%
expanding the Great Mosque,

00:36:24.876 --> 00:36:27.976
but he also had
a militaristic bent.

00:36:28.000 --> 00:36:31.518
He led a series of raids against
Christian territories

00:36:31.542 --> 00:36:34.975
that went beyond any carried out

00:36:34.999 --> 00:36:36.975
since the beginning
of the Islamic conquest.

00:36:36.999 --> 00:36:39.310
[ Indistinct shouting ]

00:36:39.334 --> 00:36:41.935
-Spain, during
the Muslim period,

00:36:41.959 --> 00:36:43.727
was divided into three zones.

00:36:43.751 --> 00:36:46.101 position:20%
There was the Muslim south,

00:36:46.125 --> 00:36:47.975
and then there were the
Christian principalities

00:36:47.999 --> 00:36:50.685 line:20%
in the north,

00:36:50.709 --> 00:36:51.975 line:20%
and in between the two,
the whole central area of Spain,

00:36:51.999 --> 00:36:55.310 line:20%
was a kind of no-man's-land
with sparse settlements

00:36:55.334 --> 00:36:58.101
but which they constantly being
raided one side or the other.

00:36:58.125 --> 00:37:01.792
What Mansur did was to turn
these raids

00:37:02.125 --> 00:37:06.000
into full attacks
upon the Christian north...

00:37:06.999 --> 00:37:10.393
[ Horse neighs ]

00:37:10.417 --> 00:37:12.894 line:20%
♪♪

00:37:12.918 --> 00:37:14.602
...and he ran
a great number of them.

00:37:14.626 --> 00:37:16.685
[ Horse neighs,
 swords clang ]

00:37:16.709 --> 00:37:19.975 position:20%
But more seriously perhaps

00:37:19.999 --> 00:37:22.143
in terms
of the long-range consequences,

00:37:22.167 --> 00:37:24.476
it was Mansur began to invoke
the ideology

00:37:24.500 --> 00:37:27.727 position:20%
of the Holy War, the jihad.

00:37:27.751 --> 00:37:29.935
-Al-Mansur is the first player
in this history

00:37:29.959 --> 00:37:32.999
who makes ideology
and religious ideology central.

00:37:35.334 --> 00:37:39.185
He rides out to battle against
the Christians

00:37:39.209 --> 00:37:42.268
as a Muslim
anti-Christian thing.

00:37:42.292 --> 00:37:45.476
[Horse neighing ]

00:37:45.500 --> 00:37:48.435 line:20%
♪♪

00:37:48.459 --> 00:37:50.226
-But these recurrent battles
took a toll

00:37:50.250 --> 00:37:52.185
on Al-Mansur's armies,
and he needed an infusion

00:37:52.209 --> 00:37:55.143
of new blood
to defeat the northern kingdoms.

00:37:55.167 --> 00:37:57.999
[Swords clanging]

00:37:58.209 --> 00:38:01.768
To bolster his forces,

00:38:01.792 --> 00:38:03.310
he turned to Berber mercenaries
from North Africa.

00:38:03.334 --> 00:38:06.810
-And the Berbers
have to be paid.

00:38:06.834 --> 00:38:09.975
That's the thing
about mercenaries.

00:38:09.999 --> 00:38:11.393
They want to be paid.

00:38:11.417 --> 00:38:14.685
-It was a dangerous game
in which Al-Mansur

00:38:14.709 --> 00:38:17.393
paid his troops
with the loot they plundered.

00:38:17.417 --> 00:38:21.226
-Ah!
[Thunder crashes]

00:38:21.250 --> 00:38:22.935
-Emboldened by his successes,

00:38:22.959 --> 00:38:24.727
Al-Mansur turned his attention

00:38:24.751 --> 00:38:26.351
to the Church of Santiago
de Compostela,

00:38:26.375 --> 00:38:29.250 position:20%
a famous pilgrimage destination
in the northwest of Spain.

00:38:30.500 --> 00:38:34.459
-In 910, the first pilgrim
from across the Pyrenees

00:38:34.626 --> 00:38:37.975
came on a pilgrimage,

00:38:37.999 --> 00:38:39.975 line:20%
and then it became a river
of pilgrims

00:38:39.999 --> 00:38:42.876 line:20%
that descended
from France and Germany,

00:38:43.000 --> 00:38:46.602
from the low countries,

00:38:46.626 --> 00:38:48.185
all the way to Saint James
of Compostela.

00:38:48.209 --> 00:38:51.435
-The pilgrims believe
the remains

00:38:51.459 --> 00:38:53.476
of Saint James the Apostle
were buried at the site,

00:38:53.500 --> 00:38:56.351
which made it one of
the most sacred in Christianity.

00:38:56.375 --> 00:38:59.226
[ Indistinct shouting,
 bell tolling ]

00:38:59.250 --> 00:39:01.643
But in 997, Al-Mansur made it

00:39:01.667 --> 00:39:04.643
the target of one of his
most brazen raids.

00:39:04.667 --> 00:39:07.685
[ Fire crackling ]

00:39:07.709 --> 00:39:09.250
-He takes the church bells,
the bells of Santiago,

00:39:09.417 --> 00:39:13.476
and makes Christian prisoners
carry them on their backs

00:39:13.500 --> 00:39:17.143
on the march back to Córdoba...

00:39:17.167 --> 00:39:19.768 line:20%
♪♪

00:39:19.792 --> 00:39:22.584
...and then Córdoba makes them
into mosque lamps.

00:39:23.751 --> 00:39:26.976
[ Fire crackling ]

00:39:27.000 --> 00:39:29.143 position:20%
-The significance of bells

00:39:29.167 --> 00:39:30.975
is that they were
the sign of Christianity.

00:39:30.999 --> 00:39:33.751
Muslims have minarets from where
the muezzin calls to prayer.

00:39:33.999 --> 00:39:38.042
Christians have bells
from which they call to prayer,

00:39:38.334 --> 00:39:42.018
and therefore,
by bringing the bells

00:39:42.042 --> 00:39:43.999
it shows a dominance of Islam
over Christianity.

00:39:44.792 --> 00:39:48.768
-What it was about was
who controlled the airwaves,

00:39:48.792 --> 00:39:51.810 line:20%
who controlled the sounds
that you heard

00:39:51.834 --> 00:39:53.685 line:20%
because the call to prayer
and the bells had come

00:39:53.709 --> 00:39:56.292 line:20%
to represent the ascendance
of one or another faith.

00:39:57.584 --> 00:40:00.810 line:20%
♪♪

00:40:00.834 --> 00:40:02.999
-In total, Al-Mansur led
57 successful campaigns

00:40:03.292 --> 00:40:06.975
against the Christian north,

00:40:06.999 --> 00:40:09.083
but the string of victories
soon came back to haunt him.

00:40:09.626 --> 00:40:13.518 line:20%
-The consequences are that
the kings of Galicia

00:40:13.542 --> 00:40:17.209 position:20% line:20%
and León and Castile
and Navarra and Catalonia,

00:40:17.959 --> 00:40:21.310
who could never get on,

00:40:21.334 --> 00:40:23.000
after 25 years of this guy
roaring into their kingdoms

00:40:24.125 --> 00:40:27.975
and taking their people
for ransom

00:40:27.999 --> 00:40:30.975 position:20%
and pillaging their wealth,

00:40:30.999 --> 00:40:33.310 position:20%
they begin to collaborate.

00:40:33.334 --> 00:40:35.975 line:20%
♪♪

00:40:35.999 --> 00:40:38.018
-To fight this ever-stronger
Christian adversary,

00:40:38.042 --> 00:40:41.417
Al-Mansur recruited
more Berber mercenaries,

00:40:41.918 --> 00:40:45.643
but the Berbers
were more conservative

00:40:45.667 --> 00:40:47.393
than most Muslim Córdobans,
and they were troubled

00:40:47.417 --> 00:40:50.334
by the growing materialism
all around them.

00:40:50.959 --> 00:40:54.751
-There is a sense of splendor
and wealth

00:40:54.999 --> 00:40:58.959
that begins to create
political opposition

00:40:59.042 --> 00:41:03.167 line:20%
within the Islamic community
that had not existed before.

00:41:05.999 --> 00:41:09.059 line:20%
♪♪

00:41:09.083 --> 00:41:11.143 position:20%
-When Al-Mansur died,
Córdoba was further rocked

00:41:11.167 --> 00:41:14.310
by another succession crisis.

00:41:14.334 --> 00:41:17.185
He had managed to maintain
his charade of legitimacy

00:41:17.209 --> 00:41:20.059
despite his lack
of Umayyad blood,

00:41:20.083 --> 00:41:23.101
but when his son tried to claim
the title of caliph,

00:41:23.125 --> 00:41:26.185
the citizens
of Córdoba rebelled.

00:41:26.209 --> 00:41:28.602
[ Indistinct shouting ]

00:41:28.626 --> 00:41:30.768
In 1010,
as chaos enveloped Córdoba,

00:41:30.792 --> 00:41:34.125
Berber mercenaries descended
on the palatial Medina Azahara,

00:41:34.667 --> 00:41:38.226
the symbol of everything
they felt

00:41:38.250 --> 00:41:39.894
had gone wrong in al-Andalus.

00:41:39.918 --> 00:41:42.226 line:20%
♪♪

00:41:42.250 --> 00:41:44.918
-You can imagine what those
marauders would've seen

00:41:45.999 --> 00:41:49.685
when they entered the palace.

00:41:49.709 --> 00:41:51.999 line:20%
They would've been absolutely
stupefied by the luxury

00:41:52.584 --> 00:41:56.018 line:20%
that they encountered there,

00:41:56.042 --> 00:41:57.894
every surface covered
with carved stucco,

00:41:57.918 --> 00:42:01.667
every floor paved in beautiful,
opalescent marble.

00:42:04.542 --> 00:42:07.417 position:20%
It must have been a treasure
house, and they sacked it.

00:42:10.542 --> 00:42:13.768 line:20%
♪♪

00:42:13.792 --> 00:42:16.101
-When the destruction
was complete,

00:42:16.125 --> 00:42:18.018
the Umayyad dynasty was finished

00:42:18.042 --> 00:42:20.999
and, with it,
the era of Córdoba's greatness.

00:42:24.292 --> 00:42:27.560
With the dawn of
the 11th century

00:42:27.584 --> 00:42:29.975
and the end
of the Umayyad reign,

00:42:29.999 --> 00:42:32.101
al-Andalus
was on the cusp of a new era.

00:42:32.125 --> 00:42:36.310
-The 11th century is this
wonderful, paradoxical period

00:42:36.334 --> 00:42:40.459
where you have this virtually
catastrophic political situation

00:42:41.167 --> 00:42:44.975
in that the caliphate
has broken up,

00:42:44.999 --> 00:42:47.894
and it's been replaced
by a series of city-states,

00:42:47.918 --> 00:42:50.852
which are called taifas,

00:42:50.876 --> 00:42:52.602
and they're all fighting
amongst themselves

00:42:52.626 --> 00:42:55.059
plus the Christian kingdoms
in the north,

00:42:55.083 --> 00:42:58.975
but in the middle
of this political chaos,

00:42:58.999 --> 00:43:01.999
you have this sudden
flourishing of culture.

00:43:02.334 --> 00:43:06.375
-It begins indeed in many ways
the most remarkable time

00:43:07.500 --> 00:43:11.167
in the Muslim
presence in Iberia.

00:43:11.375 --> 00:43:15.292
These independent cities
competed with each other,

00:43:16.417 --> 00:43:19.975
and in that competition,

00:43:19.999 --> 00:43:21.999
they produced a great upswell
of commercial activity

00:43:23.751 --> 00:43:27.226
and even greater
Convivencia.

00:43:27.250 --> 00:43:29.975
[ Indistinct talking ]

00:43:29.999 --> 00:43:32.351
This is the time when
the pluralism that is supposed

00:43:32.375 --> 00:43:36.709
to distinguish this experiment
in al-Andalus really takes hold.

00:43:38.959 --> 00:43:41.975 line:20%
♪♪

00:43:41.999 --> 00:43:44.351
-Instead of having
one central court,

00:43:44.375 --> 00:43:47.167
there were now a whole variety
of different city-states

00:43:48.042 --> 00:43:51.643
that were in competition.

00:43:51.667 --> 00:43:53.626 line:20%
These different courts competed
for singers

00:43:54.083 --> 00:43:57.999 line:20%
and performers
and poets and writers.

00:43:58.626 --> 00:44:02.101
-It's almost like Athens when,

00:44:02.125 --> 00:44:03.602
in its darkest days
in the Peloponnesian War,

00:44:03.626 --> 00:44:06.685
it produced Sophocles
and Aristophanes.

00:44:06.709 --> 00:44:10.518 line:20%
Out of political turmoil
frequently comes

00:44:10.542 --> 00:44:12.999 line:20%
extraordinary literary
and artistic productions,

00:44:13.125 --> 00:44:16.975
and the same is true here
with the taifas.

00:44:16.999 --> 00:44:18.976 line:20%
♪♪

00:44:19.000 --> 00:44:21.226
-One of the art forms
to reach new heights

00:44:21.250 --> 00:44:23.393
under the taifa kingdoms
was Andalusian music.

00:44:23.417 --> 00:44:26.727 line:20%
♪♪

00:44:26.751 --> 00:44:28.768
-The most characteristic form
of Andalusian music,

00:44:28.792 --> 00:44:31.852
the muwashshah, really
begins to spread

00:44:31.876 --> 00:44:34.810
and become popular
in the 11th century.

00:44:34.834 --> 00:44:37.417 line:20%
♪♪

00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:43.810
-The muwashshah is a form
of music

00:44:43.834 --> 00:44:45.685
that's still played today

00:44:45.709 --> 00:44:47.351
because the melodies
have been passed down

00:44:47.375 --> 00:44:49.351
from generation to generation.

00:44:49.375 --> 00:44:51.518 line:20%
♪♪

00:44:51.542 --> 00:44:54.083
-The songs have a very simple,
powerful structure,

00:44:54.999 --> 00:44:58.768
and that means
when you listen to a song

00:44:58.792 --> 00:45:01.375
that you can really rather
quickly pick up the melody.

00:45:01.834 --> 00:45:04.999 line:20%
♪♪

00:45:06.999 --> 00:45:10.810
A typical scene would be set
at a garden

00:45:10.834 --> 00:45:13.602
where the voice
within the lyric

00:45:13.626 --> 00:45:15.792
is talking about the distance
between him and his beloved.

00:45:16.125 --> 00:45:19.709 line:20%
-[ Singing in Arabic ]

00:45:40.167 --> 00:45:43.393 line:20%
♪♪

00:45:43.417 --> 00:45:45.000
-The lover often describes how
he has grown thin or grown pale

00:45:45.500 --> 00:45:48.976
because he's no longer eating

00:45:49.000 --> 00:45:51.351
because he has received
no signal

00:45:51.375 --> 00:45:53.101 position:20%
that his love has returned.

00:45:53.125 --> 00:45:56.810
These are not happy love songs.

00:45:56.834 --> 00:45:58.310
These are unrequited love songs.

00:45:58.334 --> 00:46:00.999 line:20%
♪♪

00:46:01.459 --> 00:46:04.709 line:20%
♪♪

00:46:04.999 --> 00:46:08.852
-The muwashshah was sung
in Classical Arabic

00:46:08.876 --> 00:46:11.476
while a related form,

00:46:11.500 --> 00:46:12.975
called the zajal,
was sung in Andalusi Arabic,

00:46:12.999 --> 00:46:16.375
which was the vernacular
language of the day.

00:46:30.999 --> 00:46:34.894
-The vernacular
is what people speak

00:46:34.918 --> 00:46:37.560
as opposed
to what people write.

00:46:37.584 --> 00:46:40.876
I think Mark Twain is one of
the great examples

00:46:40.999 --> 00:46:44.935
of a writer that stood out
in his own moment

00:46:44.959 --> 00:46:47.810
because he attempted
to give a written version

00:46:47.834 --> 00:46:50.834
of what would've been
the Southern black vernacular.

00:46:51.334 --> 00:46:55.459
-This kind of music was popular
not only in al-Andalus,

00:46:55.626 --> 00:46:59.059
but also in southern France,

00:46:59.083 --> 00:47:01.476
where the troubadours
were writing their lyrics

00:47:01.500 --> 00:47:03.999 position:20%
not in Latin, but in Occitan,
the local spoken language.

00:47:04.959 --> 00:47:08.334 line:20%
-[ Singing in Occitan ]

00:47:18.918 --> 00:47:22.999 position:20% line:20%
-In both traditions, the Arabic
and the troubadour poetry,

00:47:23.500 --> 00:47:27.000
there is a sort of wild frenzy

00:47:27.292 --> 00:47:31.209
of writing complicated,
complex rhyme schemes.

00:47:49.792 --> 00:47:53.876
It's very striking, the number
of structural elements,

00:47:54.876 --> 00:47:58.185
the number of themes,

00:47:58.209 --> 00:47:59.999
the number of motifs
that the two traditions share.

00:48:00.709 --> 00:48:04.768
-Despite these common elements,
no one is really sure

00:48:04.792 --> 00:48:07.935
how the two traditions
came to be so similar.

00:48:07.959 --> 00:48:11.393 line:20%
-One of the problems
historically has always been

00:48:11.417 --> 00:48:14.999 line:20%
that people imagined that these
were two very separate worlds,

00:48:15.375 --> 00:48:19.459
that you had the high courtly
world of southern France,

00:48:20.167 --> 00:48:23.976
and then you had this
somehow very distant

00:48:24.000 --> 00:48:26.667
and utterly removed world
of Islamic Spain.

00:48:26.918 --> 00:48:30.685
This division is almost
totally illusory.

00:48:30.709 --> 00:48:34.268
These were worlds
that interpenetrated each other.

00:48:34.292 --> 00:48:37.975
Things like musical instruments

00:48:37.999 --> 00:48:40.018
as well as the music played
on musical instruments

00:48:40.042 --> 00:48:43.351
travel very easily.

00:48:43.375 --> 00:48:44.975
There's no language barriers,
nor is there much for song,

00:48:44.999 --> 00:48:48.727
which is something
that you can appreciate

00:48:48.751 --> 00:48:50.602
if you pay close attention
to the ways in which people

00:48:50.626 --> 00:48:53.292
who speak no English whatsoever
can sing Beatles songs.

00:48:54.751 --> 00:48:57.999 line:20%
♪♪

00:48:58.167 --> 00:49:01.975
-As music flourished,
so did other arts.

00:49:01.999 --> 00:49:05.351
Some of medieval Spain's most
important thinkers and writers

00:49:05.375 --> 00:49:08.975
lived during the 11th century.

00:49:08.999 --> 00:49:11.768
-The most famous
of these figures

00:49:11.792 --> 00:49:14.059
in the Arabic-speaking world
is Ibn Hazm,

00:49:14.083 --> 00:49:17.727
who's extraordinarily
prolific man

00:49:17.751 --> 00:49:20.226
and wrote hundreds
and hundreds of books

00:49:20.250 --> 00:49:22.417
and was a ferocious polemicist.

00:49:25.083 --> 00:49:26.584
His counterpart
with whom in fact

00:49:28.959 --> 00:49:31.393
he had a great
polemical relationship

00:49:31.417 --> 00:49:33.894
is Samuel the Nagid.

00:49:33.918 --> 00:49:37.476
-These two great intellectuals
fled Córdoba

00:49:37.500 --> 00:49:40.643
after the fall of the caliphate.

00:49:40.667 --> 00:49:44.018
-If you think of two figures

00:49:44.042 --> 00:49:46.143 line:20%
that emerged from
the collapse of Córdoba,

00:49:46.167 --> 00:49:49.518 line:20%
Ibn Hazm, a Muslim
on the one hand,

00:49:49.542 --> 00:49:52.143 line:20%
and Samuel ibn Naghrillah,
a Jew on the other,

00:49:52.167 --> 00:49:55.459
both are struggling
to make careers in the wreckage.

00:49:55.709 --> 00:49:59.852
-They shared much in common,
but the course of their lives

00:49:59.876 --> 00:50:03.185
could not have been
more different.

00:50:03.209 --> 00:50:06.059
Ibn Hazm was born in 994

00:50:06.083 --> 00:50:08.459
into a wealthy
and influential Córdoban family.

00:50:09.083 --> 00:50:12.975
The son of a powerful
government official,

00:50:12.999 --> 00:50:15.768 position:20%
he expected to follow
in his father's footsteps,

00:50:15.792 --> 00:50:18.975
but the collapse of Córdoba
derailed his plans.

00:50:18.999 --> 00:50:22.876 position:20%
-In his early years,
he was deposed from office

00:50:23.918 --> 00:50:27.059
and imprisoned

00:50:27.083 --> 00:50:28.768
and eventually retired
from public life

00:50:28.792 --> 00:50:31.042
at a relatively young age
to devote himself to scholarship

00:50:31.500 --> 00:50:35.351 line:20%
and to a kind of an intellectual
rabble-rousing

00:50:35.375 --> 00:50:39.101 line:20%
against all that he thought
had gone wrong

00:50:39.125 --> 00:50:42.685 line:20%
with Islam in al-Andalus.

00:50:42.709 --> 00:50:46.667
-"Prosperity has been changed
into a sterile desert,

00:50:47.375 --> 00:50:51.018 position:20%
society
into frightful loneliness,

00:50:51.042 --> 00:50:54.602
beauty into rubble-strewn
plains,

00:50:54.626 --> 00:50:58.209
tranquility into
terrifying difficulties."

00:50:59.375 --> 00:51:02.935
-Well, Ibn Hazm in exile

00:51:02.959 --> 00:51:04.417
is a cranky
roaming philosopher-writer.

00:51:07.083 --> 00:51:10.975
He wrote very bitterly
and harshly

00:51:10.999 --> 00:51:13.999
against his enemies
of every sort,

00:51:14.125 --> 00:51:17.975
and yet he's remembered
for one book,

00:51:17.999 --> 00:51:19.975 position:20%
which is a book about love,

00:51:19.999 --> 00:51:21.975
and it's this wonderful book
that is called

00:51:21.999 --> 00:51:25.834 position:20%
"The Neck-Ring of the Dove,"
or "The Dove's Neck-Ring."

00:51:26.876 --> 00:51:30.834
-"I've a sickness doctors
can't cure inextricably

00:51:31.542 --> 00:51:35.310
pulling me
to the well of my destruction,

00:51:35.334 --> 00:51:39.417
consented to be a sacrifice
killed for her love,

00:51:40.500 --> 00:51:44.542
eager like the drunk
gulping wine mixed with poison.

00:51:46.584 --> 00:51:50.101
Shameless were those my nights,

00:51:50.125 --> 00:51:52.751
yet my soul love them
beyond all passion."

00:51:54.209 --> 00:51:57.999
-It's a book about
the different ways

00:51:58.417 --> 00:52:01.975
in which people fall in love

00:52:01.999 --> 00:52:04.083
and how and where
and when and why,

00:52:04.500 --> 00:52:08.500
but on the other hand,
it's also a book about loss.

00:52:09.792 --> 00:52:13.226 position:20%
It's got embedded within it

00:52:13.250 --> 00:52:14.975
some of his pretty
explicit meditations

00:52:14.999 --> 00:52:17.709 position:20%
about the tragedy of the loss
of first love, of Córdoba.

00:52:20.167 --> 00:52:24.167
It's just filled with a certain
kind of nostalgia.

00:52:25.626 --> 00:52:29.226
-"Those rooms full of
epigraphy,

00:52:29.250 --> 00:52:31.935
those adorned boudoirs
that used to shine like the sun

00:52:31.959 --> 00:52:35.810
and which, with the sole
contemplation of their beauty,

00:52:35.834 --> 00:52:39.101
sadness fled.

00:52:39.125 --> 00:52:41.667
Now they are like
the open jaws of savage beasts

00:52:41.999 --> 00:52:45.959
that announce the decline
that is this world."

00:52:46.000 --> 00:52:49.226 line:20%
♪♪

00:52:49.250 --> 00:52:51.226
-He writes of how heartbreaking
it is to see

00:52:51.250 --> 00:52:53.975
the remains of what was once,

00:52:53.999 --> 00:52:55.602
you know, a beautiful palace
or a beautiful villa,

00:52:55.626 --> 00:52:58.393
and all of it is just flattened,

00:52:58.417 --> 00:53:01.643 line:20%
so he has this sense
that Córdoba

00:53:01.667 --> 00:53:03.143 line:20%
is just a kind of ghost
of its former self.

00:53:03.167 --> 00:53:06.542 line:20%
You get the sense of a beautiful
city that's just...gone.

00:53:08.667 --> 00:53:10.918
-"My eyes wept.
My heart was pained.

00:53:13.584 --> 00:53:17.292
My bosom was saddened
by these stones.

00:53:17.876 --> 00:53:21.351
My soul has risen in anguish."

00:53:21.375 --> 00:53:24.268 line:20%
♪♪

00:53:24.292 --> 00:53:27.292
-He never got over the loss
of the Umayyad hegemony,

00:53:29.209 --> 00:53:33.167
and he wandered all over,
never found another home,

00:53:35.000 --> 00:53:38.999
never reconciled himself
to his own exile,

00:53:40.042 --> 00:53:43.999
I think, in many ways,
grew increasingly bitter.

00:53:44.999 --> 00:53:48.999
He's an example of the ways
in which even though there was

00:53:50.125 --> 00:53:54.167
this great poetic flourishing
that is the 11th century

00:53:54.999 --> 00:53:58.999
that, for the Muslims,
this is a bad period.

00:54:01.500 --> 00:54:04.727 line:20%
♪♪

00:54:04.751 --> 00:54:07.626
That loss of that caliphate
and that unity

00:54:09.125 --> 00:54:12.810
and that political stability

00:54:12.834 --> 00:54:15.975
is never recouped.

00:54:15.999 --> 00:54:18.959 line:20%
♪♪

00:54:20.584 --> 00:54:23.834 line:20%
♪♪

00:54:24.999 --> 00:54:28.727
-Ibn Hazm's counterpart
in exile,

00:54:28.751 --> 00:54:30.999
a Jew named Samuel the Nagid,
followed a very different path.

00:54:33.250 --> 00:54:36.894 position:20%
After the fall of Córdoba,

00:54:36.918 --> 00:54:38.626
he fled to the Mediterranean
port city of Málaga.

00:54:38.999 --> 00:54:43.000
The story of his rise has been
passed down through generations.

00:54:44.292 --> 00:54:48.250
-Samuel the Nagid was a very
brilliant intellect

00:54:48.999 --> 00:54:52.685
and an extraordinary
Arabic stylist

00:54:52.709 --> 00:54:56.268
working in a spice shop
in Málaga.

00:54:56.292 --> 00:55:00.292
According to this tale,
his fame in this spice shop

00:55:00.542 --> 00:55:04.292
extended beyond his
selling of spices.

00:55:05.250 --> 00:55:09.059
-The maidservant of the scribe
of the king

00:55:09.083 --> 00:55:12.975
was sent to that shop
to buy spices,

00:55:12.999 --> 00:55:16.250
and when she saw how eloquent
his computation and writing was,

00:55:18.667 --> 00:55:22.476 line:20%
she conveyed that information
to her boss,

00:55:22.500 --> 00:55:25.143 line:20%
who then conveyed
that information up the line,

00:55:25.167 --> 00:55:28.959
and he became a person of
interest in the positive sense.

00:55:31.542 --> 00:55:32.834
-Word of Samuel's talents
reached the king of Granada,

00:55:35.584 --> 00:55:38.959
and he was invited
into the royal entourage.

00:55:39.542 --> 00:55:43.268
Granada
was one of the taifa kingdoms,

00:55:43.292 --> 00:55:46.560
the small city-states
that had emerged

00:55:46.584 --> 00:55:48.768
in the wake
of the collapsed caliphate.

00:55:48.792 --> 00:55:50.975 line:20%
♪♪

00:55:50.999 --> 00:55:53.351
The political, economic
and cultural competition

00:55:53.375 --> 00:55:56.518
among these taifas was intense.

00:55:56.542 --> 00:56:00.101
-The taifa king of Granada
found himself

00:56:00.125 --> 00:56:02.518
in the difficult position

00:56:02.542 --> 00:56:04.018
of having many rival
Muslim factions,

00:56:04.042 --> 00:56:08.018
none of whom he could really
trust to administer his kingdom

00:56:08.042 --> 00:56:12.167
or to delegate power to,
so he struck upon the solution

00:56:13.584 --> 00:56:17.268
of appointing
a Jewish administrator

00:56:17.292 --> 00:56:19.018
and giving this Jewish
administrator much more power

00:56:19.042 --> 00:56:22.101
than previous
Jewish administrators

00:56:22.125 --> 00:56:24.059
had tended to have.

00:56:24.083 --> 00:56:26.768
-Samuel the Nagid quickly rose
to the position

00:56:26.792 --> 00:56:29.643
of vizier of Granada,

00:56:29.667 --> 00:56:31.292
second in power
only to the king.

00:56:32.125 --> 00:56:33.918
-Now this is truly
extraordinary.

00:56:35.999 --> 00:56:37.975
According to Islamic law,
non-Muslims

00:56:37.999 --> 00:56:40.918 line:20%
are forbidden from holding
executive office over Muslims,

00:56:42.167 --> 00:56:46.250 position:20% line:20%
but here you have the Nagid
exercising executive power

00:56:46.834 --> 00:56:50.143
over Muslims in Granada.

00:56:50.167 --> 00:56:52.476 line:20%
♪♪

00:56:52.500 --> 00:56:54.685
-Indeed, one of Samuel's
most famous poems

00:56:54.709 --> 00:56:57.685
asserted that he was
the general of a Muslim army.

00:56:57.709 --> 00:57:00.685
[ Indistinct shouting ]

00:57:00.709 --> 00:57:03.751
-"My friend for me
in my straits, the rock rose up,

00:57:04.834 --> 00:57:08.792
therefore, I offer praises,
my poem to the Lord.

00:57:10.709 --> 00:57:14.584
He recognized fear in my heart
and erased it,

00:57:15.375 --> 00:57:18.976
so my song
is sung to the healer.

00:57:19.000 --> 00:57:22.999
He ravaged my enemies with pain,
easing my own.

00:57:24.000 --> 00:57:27.999
Someone objected,
'Who are you to pay homage?'

00:57:28.375 --> 00:57:32.250
'I am,' I answered,
'The David of my age.'"

00:57:34.292 --> 00:57:38.334
-Samuel's poetry marked
an extraordinary innovation.

00:57:38.999 --> 00:57:42.918 line:20%
-What he does is,
he takes the Arabic meter

00:57:42.999 --> 00:57:46.959 position:20% line:20%
and Arabic rhyme,
and he puts it into Hebrew

00:57:47.500 --> 00:57:51.209
and takes the language
of the synagogue

00:57:51.999 --> 00:57:55.810
out of the synagogue,
into the salon

00:57:55.834 --> 00:57:58.999
and into the vineyard
and into the garden.

00:57:59.125 --> 00:58:02.768 position:20% line:20%
-So beginning with Samuel,

00:58:02.792 --> 00:58:04.959 line:20%
you really have this golden age
of the new Hebrew poetry.

00:58:06.999 --> 00:58:10.810
-"Gazing through the night
and its stars

00:58:10.834 --> 00:58:13.393
or the grass and its bugs,
I know in my heart

00:58:13.417 --> 00:58:17.459
these swarms are the craft
of surpassing wisdom.

00:58:18.626 --> 00:58:20.876
Think. The skies resemble

00:58:22.000 --> 00:58:24.435
a tent stretched taut
by loops and hooks

00:58:24.459 --> 00:58:28.310
and the moon with its stars
a shepherdess on a meadow

00:58:28.334 --> 00:58:32.292
grazing like beasts
in their ample stalls

00:58:33.500 --> 00:58:36.975
fleeing our terror of death,

00:58:36.999 --> 00:58:40.476
like a dove, its hawk in flight,

00:58:40.500 --> 00:58:43.185
though we'll lie in the end
like a plate

00:58:43.209 --> 00:58:46.209
hammered into dust and shards."

00:58:47.999 --> 00:58:49.125
-Samuel died of natural
causes in 1056.

00:58:51.918 --> 00:58:55.476
The extraordinary thing
about Samuel the Nagid --

00:58:55.500 --> 00:58:57.975
truly unprecedented
in Jewish history --

00:58:57.999 --> 00:58:59.975
is that he transferred power
to his son,

00:58:59.999 --> 00:59:02.975
and his son, Yusef,
took over his office

00:59:02.999 --> 00:59:06.643
as the prime minister
of Granada.

00:59:06.667 --> 00:59:10.209
-Joseph had all the talents
of his father except one.

00:59:11.459 --> 00:59:15.250
Joseph lacked the humility
of his father.

00:59:16.000 --> 00:59:20.167
-That shortcoming was about
to have terrible consequences.

00:59:21.083 --> 00:59:24.975
-When one is a vizier
of a kingdom,

00:59:24.999 --> 00:59:28.852
you have to have
a pretty strong ego,

00:59:28.876 --> 00:59:31.643
so it's not surprising
that someone like Shmuel HaNagid

00:59:31.667 --> 00:59:34.768
would write a poem
in which he would say,

00:59:34.792 --> 00:59:36.810
"I'm the David
of my generation."

00:59:36.834 --> 00:59:39.560
He might write that in poetry,
but he would be much more humble

00:59:39.584 --> 00:59:43.375
when addressing a Muslim
of his class or status

00:59:44.999 --> 00:59:48.602
or certainly the royal family.

00:59:48.626 --> 00:59:51.101
That might not be the case
with his son.

00:59:51.125 --> 00:59:54.435
-Joseph lacked the political
suavité of his father

00:59:54.459 --> 00:59:58.435 position:20%
because he was -- this word
is often used -- arrogant.

00:59:58.459 --> 01:00:01.560
-There was great resentment
of the prominence

01:00:01.584 --> 01:00:05.459 position:20%
of the Jewish community on the
part of the lower classes,

01:00:07.500 --> 01:00:11.018
but not exclusively only there.

01:00:11.042 --> 01:00:14.143
-The very fact
of Jewish success

01:00:14.167 --> 01:00:16.852
created new discourses,

01:00:16.876 --> 01:00:18.626
new ways
of criticizing Jewish power.

01:00:18.792 --> 01:00:22.602
-In any event,
there was a major uprising,

01:00:22.626 --> 01:00:25.560
and there was a massacre
in which Joseph was killed,

01:00:25.584 --> 01:00:29.351
and the Jewish community
was really slaughtered.

01:00:29.375 --> 01:00:31.976
[ Horse neighs ]

01:00:32.000 --> 01:00:33.975
[ Swords clang ]

01:00:33.999 --> 01:00:36.268
This was 1066, and it marks
the first case

01:00:36.292 --> 01:00:39.975
of real serious Muslim violence

01:00:39.999 --> 01:00:42.999 position:20%
against Jews
as Jews in medieval Spain.

01:00:43.999 --> 01:00:47.500
[ Rain falling ]

01:00:48.125 --> 01:00:49.667
-We have uprisings and revolts
and assassinations

01:00:52.751 --> 01:00:56.560
in the history of al-Andalus
all the time,

01:00:56.584 --> 01:00:59.351
most of which have nothing
whatsoever to do with the Jews.

01:00:59.375 --> 01:01:01.975
So in a certain sense,

01:01:01.999 --> 01:01:03.975
Joseph was the wrong person
in office at the wrong time,

01:01:03.999 --> 01:01:07.226
and his community
was an easy target.

01:01:07.250 --> 01:01:10.602
But from a more narrow
perspective of Jewish history,

01:01:10.626 --> 01:01:13.751
it reacquaints one with the
precariousness of Jewish life

01:01:16.834 --> 01:01:20.101
as a small minority.

01:01:20.125 --> 01:01:21.975 line:20%
♪♪

01:01:21.999 --> 01:01:25.334
-The most important
explanation of this is,

01:01:25.709 --> 01:01:29.185
it's kind of a release valve.

01:01:29.209 --> 01:01:31.894
It's part of this view
that medieval Spain

01:01:31.918 --> 01:01:34.560
works in these contradictions

01:01:34.584 --> 01:01:36.999
by having these little
periodic explosions,

01:01:38.292 --> 01:01:41.975
and it's also true
that even though

01:01:41.999 --> 01:01:44.310
you have this massacre
of the Jews

01:01:44.334 --> 01:01:47.643
towards the end
of the 11th century,

01:01:47.667 --> 01:01:50.167
that the Jews of that period
still understand

01:01:50.999 --> 01:01:54.584
this to be a good moment.

01:01:55.999 --> 01:01:57.500
That attitude that Hosdi
first articulates

01:02:00.500 --> 01:02:04.143
in the middle
of the 10th century

01:02:04.167 --> 01:02:06.059
that, you know,
Córdoba al-Andalus

01:02:06.083 --> 01:02:08.685
is the center of the universe.

01:02:08.709 --> 01:02:10.226
This is the best place Jews
or anybody else

01:02:10.250 --> 01:02:13.810
has ever lived in, etc.
etc., is still held onto.

01:02:13.834 --> 01:02:17.709
You'd rather be a Jew
in an Islamic universe

01:02:18.626 --> 01:02:22.709
certainly than you ever would
in the Christian north.

01:02:22.876 --> 01:02:25.999 line:20%
♪♪

01:02:26.459 --> 01:02:29.975 position:20%
-In the late 11th century,

01:02:29.999 --> 01:02:31.999
the Christian kingdoms in
the north were growing in power.

01:02:32.417 --> 01:02:36.059
They turn their attention
to Toledo,

01:02:36.083 --> 01:02:38.667
one of the most prominent
Muslim city-states.

01:02:39.918 --> 01:02:43.185
In 1085, Alfonso VI,

01:02:43.209 --> 01:02:46.351
the Christian ruler
of Leon Castile,

01:02:46.375 --> 01:02:48.975
brought Toledo
under his control.

01:02:48.999 --> 01:02:51.975
-It's not just any old city.

01:02:51.999 --> 01:02:54.476
It is also, and heavily symbolic
for the Christians,

01:02:54.500 --> 01:02:57.975
is the old Visigothic capital.

01:02:57.999 --> 01:03:00.852
It's like getting
the capital back.

01:03:00.876 --> 01:03:03.709
This is a great turning point
in the history of medieval Spain

01:03:04.500 --> 01:03:08.417
because it's the first large
Islamic city-state

01:03:08.751 --> 01:03:12.584
taken by the ascendant
Christian kingdoms.

01:03:14.125 --> 01:03:18.143
-And Alfonso accomplished this
momentous power shift

01:03:18.167 --> 01:03:21.351 position:20%
without spilling any blood.

01:03:21.375 --> 01:03:24.975
Toledo's Muslim leader,

01:03:24.999 --> 01:03:26.852
weakened by years of conflict
with rival taifas,

01:03:26.876 --> 01:03:29.810
gave Alfonso the keys
to the city

01:03:29.834 --> 01:03:31.876
in exchange for a safe escape.

01:03:32.459 --> 01:03:33.959
The cultural richness of Toledo
amazed the arriving Castilians.

01:03:38.167 --> 01:03:41.975
-These Castilians come
out of a rugged,

01:03:41.999 --> 01:03:45.459
relatively primitive universe,

01:03:45.792 --> 01:03:49.143
relatively mono-cultural,

01:03:49.167 --> 01:03:52.685
and now they walk into Toledo,

01:03:52.709 --> 01:03:54.560
and it's a city filled
with other languages,

01:03:54.584 --> 01:03:57.709 position:20%
other religions,
other kinds of Christians.

01:04:01.667 --> 01:04:05.709
-There was no city like Toledo
in the north of Spain,

01:04:06.083 --> 01:04:09.602
no cosmopolitan city

01:04:09.626 --> 01:04:11.810
teeming with goods
from around the world,

01:04:11.834 --> 01:04:14.768 position:20%
with all this diversity
of knowledge and learning.

01:04:14.792 --> 01:04:17.894
So coming into this city
and possessing it

01:04:17.918 --> 01:04:20.918
was an extraordinary
cultural change.

01:04:22.792 --> 01:04:23.999
-Alfonso VI called himself
the Emperor of All the Spains.

01:04:27.918 --> 01:04:31.560
-So that means that Alfonso
respects

01:04:31.584 --> 01:04:34.975
the status quo he finds.

01:04:34.999 --> 01:04:36.935
There are guarantees of freedom
of worship

01:04:36.959 --> 01:04:38.975 position:20%
in the same way
that the Muslims had done.

01:04:38.999 --> 01:04:41.584
Really, what has changed
is the guy who occupies

01:04:41.959 --> 01:04:45.667
Toledo rather
than the culture itself.

01:04:47.626 --> 01:04:51.643
-But Muslims in the taifa
kingdoms surrounding Toledo

01:04:51.667 --> 01:04:54.792
saw Alfonso's seizure of power
there as a direct threat.

01:04:55.999 --> 01:04:59.810
-The conquest of Toledo
by Alfonso VI

01:04:59.834 --> 01:05:02.351
worried the leaders
of the other taifas

01:05:02.375 --> 01:05:05.476
because it did
change the paradigm.

01:05:05.500 --> 01:05:08.059
Very often, you might lose
a military battle

01:05:08.083 --> 01:05:10.685
and now you would have to pay
tribute to a different overlord,

01:05:10.709 --> 01:05:14.310
but you always maintained
your own small kingdom

01:05:14.334 --> 01:05:17.476
and authority
within it to some extent.

01:05:17.500 --> 01:05:20.975 position:20%
The conquest of Toledo
really changed the balance

01:05:20.999 --> 01:05:24.643
and seemed a much
more drastic move

01:05:24.667 --> 01:05:27.042
that threatened
their political autonomy.

01:05:29.459 --> 01:05:33.435
-With Toledo in hand,
Alfonso's army stood poised

01:05:33.459 --> 01:05:36.685
to attack
the great taifa of Seville.

01:05:36.709 --> 01:05:40.101
Al-Mu'tamid,
the King of Seville,

01:05:40.125 --> 01:05:42.685
contemplated his options.

01:05:42.709 --> 01:05:45.560
-There's this
Alfonso juggernaut.

01:05:45.584 --> 01:05:48.602
So Al-Mu'tamid, as the most
powerful of the taifa kings

01:05:48.626 --> 01:05:52.185 position:20%
and as the head of Seville,

01:05:52.209 --> 01:05:53.975
appeals against
some of their better judgment,

01:05:53.999 --> 01:05:57.375
perhaps, to the Almoravids,
the Muslim group that

01:05:57.667 --> 01:06:01.709
is in power across the streets
of Gibraltar in Morocco.

01:06:03.876 --> 01:06:07.059
-Fierce warriors,

01:06:07.083 --> 01:06:08.709
the Almoravids had already
conquered much of North Africa.

01:06:09.292 --> 01:06:13.101
-The Almoravids had
a particular puritanical

01:06:13.125 --> 01:06:15.976
reforming brand of Islam.

01:06:16.000 --> 01:06:18.560
It had emerged initially
as a religious movement

01:06:18.584 --> 01:06:21.518
that grew in political power.

01:06:21.542 --> 01:06:23.975
They saw the Andaluses
as immoral Muslims,

01:06:23.999 --> 01:06:28.000
and they imagined that their
military and political weakness

01:06:28.834 --> 01:06:32.999
was partly due to their having
lost the true dictates of Islam

01:06:33.292 --> 01:06:37.018
and growing lax
in their practice of it.

01:06:37.042 --> 01:06:40.643
Al-Mu'tamid's son
warned his father

01:06:40.667 --> 01:06:42.852
that the Almoravids
were risky allies,

01:06:42.876 --> 01:06:45.852
but the king felt
he had no choice.

01:06:45.876 --> 01:06:49.602
-I have no desire to be
branded by my descendants

01:06:49.626 --> 01:06:53.268
as the man
who delivered al-Andalus

01:06:53.292 --> 01:06:55.975
as prey to the infidels,
and for my part,

01:06:55.999 --> 01:06:59.351
I would rather be
a camel driver in Africa

01:06:59.375 --> 01:07:02.500
then a swine heard in Castile.

01:07:04.999 --> 01:07:07.975
-Soon after the Almoravids
arrived on Andalusian soil,

01:07:07.999 --> 01:07:11.975
they defeated Alfonso's army
in a battle so savage

01:07:11.999 --> 01:07:15.975
it was named al-Zallaqa,
or slippery ground,

01:07:15.999 --> 01:07:19.500
for the tremendous amount
of blood shed that day.

01:07:20.626 --> 01:07:22.250
-The Almoravids do,
in that sense,

01:07:24.292 --> 01:07:26.685
save Seville for the moment,

01:07:26.709 --> 01:07:29.167
but they also understand,
having been there,

01:07:29.584 --> 01:07:33.542
that this is a place
that's ripe for the picking.

01:07:38.334 --> 01:07:41.518
-A few years after their
successful battle

01:07:41.542 --> 01:07:43.560
against Alfonso VI,

01:07:43.584 --> 01:07:45.209
the Almoravids come across
again, this time uninvited.

01:07:45.459 --> 01:07:49.268
-Now not to help Al-Mu'tamid
or the taifas,

01:07:49.292 --> 01:07:52.751
but to take them over.

01:07:52.999 --> 01:07:56.435
Al-Mu'tamid appeals.

01:07:56.459 --> 01:07:58.351
Who does he appeal
to to help him out

01:07:58.375 --> 01:08:00.709
by the swine heard himself,
Alfonso, and Alfonso,

01:08:01.999 --> 01:08:05.894
in fact,
which is even more interesting,

01:08:05.918 --> 01:08:07.999
heads out to go and help
Al-Mu'tamid to defend him

01:08:08.083 --> 01:08:12.083
against this predatory raid
now of the Almoravids,

01:08:12.792 --> 01:08:16.709
but too little too late,
and not only is Seville

01:08:17.083 --> 01:08:20.975
and the rest of what remained
of al-Andalus

01:08:20.999 --> 01:08:23.999
taken as the colony
now of the Almoravids,

01:08:24.375 --> 01:08:28.059
but poor Al-Mu'tamid
is taken prisoner

01:08:28.083 --> 01:08:31.292
and eventually sent to Morocco
to rot and die in a jail there.

01:08:36.999 --> 01:08:39.975
-The Almoravid Empire
would help to forestall

01:08:39.999 --> 01:08:42.292
for centuries the ultimate
Christian conquest of Spain.

01:08:44.459 --> 01:08:45.834
But under Almoravid influence,
the culture of al-Andalus

01:08:48.751 --> 01:08:52.059
was beginning to change.

01:08:52.083 --> 01:08:54.810
-The Almoravids brought
with them

01:08:54.834 --> 01:08:56.999
the more rigorous,
religiously austere

01:08:57.876 --> 01:09:01.500
and legalistically
serious culture,

01:09:01.999 --> 01:09:06.042
and this is the kind of culture
that they imposed on al-Andalus.

01:09:07.375 --> 01:09:11.334 position:20%
-The Almoravids regarded
the state of Spanish Islam

01:09:12.375 --> 01:09:16.125
as deplorable,
as corrupt, as a softened

01:09:17.918 --> 01:09:21.310 position:20%
and as altogether too much

01:09:21.334 --> 01:09:23.518
wedded to the notion
of Convivencia.

01:09:23.542 --> 01:09:25.334
Convivencia
was a dirty word.

01:09:25.999 --> 01:09:29.975
In practical terms, it meant
something of an end

01:09:29.999 --> 01:09:33.000
to the free movement
across religious boundaries,

01:09:33.834 --> 01:09:37.918
participation in a common
high-culture of music and art,

01:09:38.209 --> 01:09:42.334
things that made Andalusia
distinctive as a Muslim society.

01:09:45.626 --> 01:09:47.584
-With the Almoravid rulers
controlling the south of Spain,

01:09:49.792 --> 01:09:53.310
many Jews, Christians
and even other Muslims

01:09:53.334 --> 01:09:56.975
fled those territories
for the diversity

01:09:56.999 --> 01:09:59.292
and religious tolerance still
found in Toledo to the north.

01:10:01.125 --> 01:10:05.143
But the unique openness
of religious life in Toledo

01:10:05.167 --> 01:10:08.476
would soon be threatened
as well, not by Muslims,

01:10:08.500 --> 01:10:12.375
but by a puritanical current
within Christian Europe itself.

01:10:13.209 --> 01:10:17.334 position:20%
-There was no embedding within
Christianity of any notion

01:10:17.709 --> 01:10:21.518 position:20%
of what you did
with minority communities.

01:10:21.542 --> 01:10:25.101
There was no expectation
that a Christian state should

01:10:25.125 --> 01:10:28.834
or could have these
minority populations,

01:10:29.792 --> 01:10:32.975
except in Spain.

01:10:32.999 --> 01:10:36.101
The rest of Christendom
doesn't do this.

01:10:36.125 --> 01:10:39.975
People say, "Are you kidding me?

01:10:39.999 --> 01:10:41.602
You've got, you know,
the Jews live here,

01:10:41.626 --> 01:10:43.185
the Muslims...
What is this?"

01:10:43.209 --> 01:10:44.685
I mean, many of them are in fact
fascinated by this,

01:10:44.709 --> 01:10:47.542
but it is an oddity
within the Christian world.

01:10:48.042 --> 01:10:52.018
In the 11th century,
this oddity came under attack

01:10:52.042 --> 01:10:55.292
by conservative reformers
within the church hierarchy.

01:10:58.792 --> 01:11:01.852
The reformers targeted
the most Mozarabs,

01:11:01.876 --> 01:11:04.393
Andalusian Christians

01:11:04.417 --> 01:11:05.975
who had adopted Arab language
and culture in the 7th century

01:11:05.999 --> 01:11:10.042
but had remained true to their
own faith for over 400 years.

01:11:11.667 --> 01:11:15.476
-Pope Gregory VII,
the great reformist Pope,

01:11:15.500 --> 01:11:18.584
stood for Christian orthodoxy
of a very severe type

01:11:20.042 --> 01:11:23.975
and regarded the Mozarabs
not as heroic Christians

01:11:23.999 --> 01:11:27.542
who had held out under
enemy occupation for 400 years,

01:11:28.209 --> 01:11:31.602
but as heretics.

01:11:31.626 --> 01:11:33.310
-The Mozarabs had their own
distinctive religious

01:11:33.334 --> 01:11:36.476
and liturgical culture

01:11:36.500 --> 01:11:38.000
that they were eager
to maintain.

01:11:40.792 --> 01:11:43.876
-The liturgy was called
the Mozarabic Rite,

01:11:44.999 --> 01:11:48.560
and it is performed to this day

01:11:48.584 --> 01:11:50.292
in a chapel
in the Cathedral of Toledo,

01:11:50.876 --> 01:11:54.894
but in the 11th century,
traditionalists in the church

01:11:54.918 --> 01:11:58.584
put pressure on Alfonso VI
to stop the Mozarabs' practices

01:11:59.209 --> 01:12:03.310
and force them to conform
to the standardized Roman Rite.

01:12:03.334 --> 01:12:07.226
-This didn't go over well
with the Christian community.

01:12:07.250 --> 01:12:10.268
They had a distinctive identity
and a distinctive culture

01:12:10.292 --> 01:12:13.351
that they were eager
to preserve,

01:12:13.375 --> 01:12:16.250
so they resisted attempts to
change the way that they prayed.

01:12:18.167 --> 01:12:22.059
-This conflict within
the Christian community

01:12:22.083 --> 01:12:24.602
posed a problem
for Alfonso VI,

01:12:24.626 --> 01:12:26.999
who was beholden
to the Pope in Rome.

01:12:28.167 --> 01:12:29.417
According to lore, Alfonso VI
decided to resolve the dispute

01:12:32.834 --> 01:12:36.768
by subjecting both the Mozarabic
and the Roman Rite

01:12:36.792 --> 01:12:39.834
to what was called The Ordeal.

01:12:41.999 --> 01:12:45.999 position:20%
-During the Middle Ages,
very often trial by combat

01:12:46.083 --> 01:12:49.476
or trial by fire

01:12:49.500 --> 01:12:50.999
was a way to resolve
the truth of a situation.

01:12:51.542 --> 01:12:55.351
Which Latin Mass
was the correct or true one?

01:12:55.375 --> 01:12:58.310
And they subjected them
to the fire

01:12:58.334 --> 01:13:01.059
and decided
whichever one emerges

01:13:01.083 --> 01:13:03.375
unscathed will be the true one.

01:13:03.918 --> 01:13:07.435
-The story that was told
was that

01:13:07.459 --> 01:13:09.125
the Roman Rite
burned up immediately.

01:13:11.500 --> 01:13:14.999
The Mozarabic Rite
emerged unscathed.

01:13:16.709 --> 01:13:17.999
-This is a fanciful story
about the trial by fire,

01:13:20.626 --> 01:13:23.727
but what it reflects
is actually the strength

01:13:23.751 --> 01:13:26.143
of local resistance.

01:13:26.167 --> 01:13:27.975
The consensus of the community
was so strong

01:13:27.999 --> 01:13:31.143
that the Mozarabic Rite

01:13:31.167 --> 01:13:32.975
had actually passed
through this trial,

01:13:32.999 --> 01:13:34.518
that it was impossible

01:13:34.542 --> 01:13:36.059
for the new political
and ecclesiastical authorities

01:13:36.083 --> 01:13:38.999
to overcome popular loyalty
to that religious tradition.

01:13:41.751 --> 01:13:45.476
-The history of Christianity
is not one

01:13:45.500 --> 01:13:47.768
of some uniform thing
from the beginning.

01:13:47.792 --> 01:13:49.894
On the contrary, it's a series
of both regional

01:13:49.918 --> 01:13:53.792
and philosophical quarrels
within the community itself.

01:13:56.042 --> 01:13:59.976
What is interesting about
medieval Spain is that,

01:14:00.000 --> 01:14:02.518
because of the peculiar
historical conditions,

01:14:02.542 --> 01:14:06.542
there is a pragmatic challenge
to the Roman version,

01:14:08.751 --> 01:14:12.417
if you will,
of what Christianity is.

01:14:12.792 --> 01:14:16.518
For me, this is what
makes it important

01:14:16.542 --> 01:14:19.185
as a historical period.

01:14:19.209 --> 01:14:21.975
You use it to shatter
these myths of monolithic

01:14:21.999 --> 01:14:25.459
understanding
of what that faith is all about.

01:14:31.542 --> 01:14:35.226
-As the 12th century
dawned in Toledo,

01:14:35.250 --> 01:14:38.059
the city's persistent
intellectual richness

01:14:38.083 --> 01:14:41.042
helped fuel profound changes
in the rest of Europe.

01:14:41.834 --> 01:14:45.876
-In the 12th century, there is
this revival of learning

01:14:45.999 --> 01:14:49.918
in certain centers in France
and in England,

01:14:51.250 --> 01:14:54.935
but this revival of learning

01:14:54.959 --> 01:14:57.083
is really
a revival of Roman learning.

01:14:58.250 --> 01:15:01.810
What these people lack

01:15:01.834 --> 01:15:04.083
is access
to Greek learning.

01:15:05.500 --> 01:15:07.999
-After the fall
of the Roman Empire,

01:15:09.209 --> 01:15:11.727
most of the scientific
and philosophical works

01:15:11.751 --> 01:15:14.042
of Ancient Greece
were unknown in Europe,

01:15:15.999 --> 01:15:17.042
but these works
could still be found

01:15:19.876 --> 01:15:21.667
in the libraries of Toledo,
which contained ancient texts

01:15:22.209 --> 01:15:26.250
that had been translated
into Arabic centuries earlier.

01:15:29.751 --> 01:15:32.792
-In 9th century Baghdad,
a school of translation

01:15:33.500 --> 01:15:37.250
was established
to translate into Arabic

01:15:37.542 --> 01:15:41.584
all of the great works
of the legacy of Ancient Greece,

01:15:41.876 --> 01:15:44.976
especially,

01:15:45.000 --> 01:15:46.542
of a medical, scientific
and philosophical nature,

01:15:47.667 --> 01:15:51.435
and these textual treasures
were copied

01:15:51.459 --> 01:15:54.435
and transmitted all throughout
the Islamic world,

01:15:54.459 --> 01:15:57.852
including North Africa,

01:15:57.876 --> 01:15:59.101
and eventually made there way
to al-Andalus.

01:15:59.125 --> 01:16:02.975
-These guys from London
or Paris, at a certain point,

01:16:02.999 --> 01:16:06.059
it comes to their attention that
there's these libraries there

01:16:06.083 --> 01:16:08.935
where people
are reading Aristotle,

01:16:08.959 --> 01:16:10.999
but you have to know Arabic
to be able to read it.

01:16:11.751 --> 01:16:15.185
-So a demand arose for Greek

01:16:15.209 --> 01:16:16.852 position:20%
works in a language
that Europeans could read,

01:16:16.876 --> 01:16:20.560
a demand that was met
in many cases by Jews

01:16:20.584 --> 01:16:23.999
who had fled the Almoravids
in the south.

01:16:24.042 --> 01:16:27.975
-The way the translations
seemed to have worked

01:16:27.999 --> 01:16:30.643
was it was done
orally by and large.

01:16:30.667 --> 01:16:33.292
Somebody translated orally
into a middle language,

01:16:33.918 --> 01:16:37.918
either Castilian or Hebrew,
and then a second person

01:16:38.792 --> 01:16:42.792
would translate from Hebrew
or Castilian into Latin.

01:16:44.751 --> 01:16:46.792 position:20%
-All of these efforts of
translation and production

01:16:48.999 --> 01:16:52.975
and dissemination
in al-Andalus and in Toledo

01:16:52.999 --> 01:16:56.375
produced what some historians
call a 12th century

01:16:56.834 --> 01:17:00.667
Renaissance in Spain,
and it is from there

01:17:01.709 --> 01:17:05.792 position:20%
that the intellectual legacy
of Ancient Greece and Rome

01:17:06.584 --> 01:17:10.417
was transferred from Islam
into Christendom.

01:17:11.876 --> 01:17:15.727
-Europeans were particularly
eager to become

01:17:15.751 --> 01:17:18.101
reacquainted with Aristotle.

01:17:18.125 --> 01:17:20.975
In the 12th century,
one of their sources

01:17:20.999 --> 01:17:23.560
were the writings of Maimonides,

01:17:23.584 --> 01:17:25.918
the great Jewish philosopher
and scholar.

01:17:25.999 --> 01:17:29.935
They also read commentaries
by Maimonides'

01:17:29.959 --> 01:17:31.975 position:20%
contemporary from Córdoba,

01:17:31.999 --> 01:17:34.209
Ibn Rushd, a Muslim intellectual
and legal scholar

01:17:34.626 --> 01:17:38.334
who became known
in the West as Averroes.

01:17:38.999 --> 01:17:42.894
-Everybody needs a commentary
on Aristotle

01:17:42.918 --> 01:17:44.435
because it's not
exactly pellucid, right?

01:17:44.459 --> 01:17:47.935
It's complicated stuff,

01:17:47.959 --> 01:17:50.185
and Averroes seemed
to have understood it

01:17:50.209 --> 01:17:52.976
in a particularly
trenchant fashion.

01:17:53.000 --> 01:17:56.643
-People didn't approach
philosophy by saying,

01:17:56.667 --> 01:17:59.560
"I want to find out
what Aristotle,

01:17:59.584 --> 01:18:01.018
the great ancient master,
had to say."

01:18:01.042 --> 01:18:03.560
What they said was, "I want
to understand Aristotle,"

01:18:03.584 --> 01:18:07.268
and the best way
to understand him

01:18:07.292 --> 01:18:09.143
is to follow in authoritative
commentaries,

01:18:09.167 --> 01:18:12.393
where they have explained
and analyzed

01:18:12.417 --> 01:18:14.975
and arrived at the true
understanding

01:18:14.999 --> 01:18:16.975 position:20%
or interpretation
of Aristotle's philosophy,

01:18:16.999 --> 01:18:20.999 position:20%
and so Averroes, far from having
a kind of secondary status

01:18:21.125 --> 01:18:24.685
as merely a commentator,

01:18:24.709 --> 01:18:26.351
was actually
an authoritative guide

01:18:26.375 --> 01:18:27.975
to understanding
what they were after.

01:18:27.999 --> 01:18:31.518
-Averroes tried to reconcile
the apparent discrepancy

01:18:31.542 --> 01:18:34.834 position:20%
between logic and belief,
philosophy and revelation.

01:18:36.584 --> 01:18:40.226
-I think there
was an understanding

01:18:40.250 --> 01:18:41.876
that philosophy really
contradicted revelation,

01:18:42.167 --> 01:18:46.185
and that's what Averroes
was trying to explain to himself

01:18:46.209 --> 01:18:50.101
how this can be,
how philosophy can say one thing

01:18:50.125 --> 01:18:53.643
and that revelation
can say another.

01:18:53.667 --> 01:18:56.975
-He wanted to harmonize
these two

01:18:56.999 --> 01:18:59.643
and ended up absolutely
coming down

01:18:59.667 --> 01:19:02.542
on the side
of the canons of reason.

01:19:03.083 --> 01:19:06.975
This was never
the orthodox position

01:19:06.999 --> 01:19:09.185
among Muslim theologians,

01:19:09.209 --> 01:19:10.975
and for that reason,
Ibn Rushd fell out of favor

01:19:10.999 --> 01:19:14.042
and really isn't studied
very often in the Muslim world.

01:19:14.999 --> 01:19:18.959
-In the Christian world,
however, his fame grew.

01:19:19.500 --> 01:19:23.560
He heavily influenced
the writings of Thomas Aquinas,

01:19:23.584 --> 01:19:26.975
the philosophy
and Christian theologian

01:19:26.999 --> 01:19:29.375
who famously argued that faith
and reason are complimentary.

01:19:31.834 --> 01:19:33.375
By the time of the Renaissance,
Averroes stature was so great

01:19:36.000 --> 01:19:39.975
that Raphael included him
in his Vatican fresco,

01:19:39.999 --> 01:19:43.101
"The School of Athens."

01:19:43.125 --> 01:19:44.999
-Very often when we think
of the translation movement,

01:19:47.250 --> 01:19:49.975
we think that Arabic culture
and the Arabic language

01:19:49.999 --> 01:19:52.709
preserved the Greek traditions
of philosophy and science

01:19:52.999 --> 01:19:56.852
that then were recovered
by Latin Europe

01:19:56.876 --> 01:19:59.059
in the 12th century.

01:19:59.083 --> 01:20:01.209
But this is, I think, a real
misperception of the situation.

01:20:01.999 --> 01:20:05.959
Arabic, as a language,
had among medieval Latin

01:20:06.500 --> 01:20:10.351
scholars a great deal
of prestige and status

01:20:10.375 --> 01:20:13.976
because it was identified
as a philosophical

01:20:14.000 --> 01:20:16.975
and scholarly language
in its own right,

01:20:16.999 --> 01:20:19.894
and so we can look at the Arab
period and Arab scholars

01:20:19.918 --> 01:20:23.334
as continuing a tradition
rather than just preserving it.

01:20:25.334 --> 01:20:28.894
-As the decades past,

01:20:28.918 --> 01:20:30.393
Toledo grew as a magnet
for scholars,

01:20:30.417 --> 01:20:33.518 position:20%
but its importance
as a center of translation

01:20:33.542 --> 01:20:36.143
also took on
a very different dimension.

01:20:36.167 --> 01:20:39.685
-The translation movement
is always cited

01:20:39.709 --> 01:20:41.602
as an example of Convivencia,

01:20:41.626 --> 01:20:43.018
of how the two sides
sort of reconciled.

01:20:43.042 --> 01:20:46.226
But there's more to
the translation movement.

01:20:46.250 --> 01:20:49.500
There is, for example,
Peter the Venerable.

01:20:50.459 --> 01:20:54.375
-In 1142, Peter the Venerable,
the great abbot

01:20:54.584 --> 01:20:58.435
of the most powerful
and important monastery

01:20:58.459 --> 01:21:01.018
in Latin Europe, Cluny,

01:21:01.042 --> 01:21:03.393
made a trip to Spain
and visited Toledo,

01:21:03.417 --> 01:21:06.727
and while there,
he conceived of the idea

01:21:06.751 --> 01:21:09.999
that there needed to be
some answer to Saracens,

01:21:10.125 --> 01:21:13.768 position:20%
as the Muslims were known,

01:21:13.792 --> 01:21:15.975
that seemed to him that
they were going unchallenged.

01:21:15.999 --> 01:21:18.584
Who was speaking up to challenge
these grave errors that he saw?

01:21:20.626 --> 01:21:24.351
-Up to this point,
not only has no one

01:21:24.375 --> 01:21:26.975
responded to this heresy,
which, more than any other,

01:21:26.999 --> 01:21:30.310
has led to the eternal damnation
of the bodies

01:21:30.334 --> 01:21:33.059
and souls of the great part
of the human race,

01:21:33.083 --> 01:21:36.435
but no one has taken
the least pains to research

01:21:36.459 --> 01:21:39.626
or study what this pestilential
heresy is or whence it has come.

01:21:42.375 --> 01:21:46.310
-He thought that the first
step towards providing

01:21:46.334 --> 01:21:50.000
an authoritative,
polemical refutation of Islam

01:21:50.334 --> 01:21:54.334
was the acquiring of genuine
knowledge about Islam.

01:21:55.250 --> 01:21:59.334
-Peter eventually finds
this man named Robert of Ketton,

01:22:00.334 --> 01:22:03.894
clearly an Englishman,

01:22:03.918 --> 01:22:05.584
and Robert was actually
a great scholar of mathematics,

01:22:05.959 --> 01:22:09.975
and he knew Arabic because,
as many of these scholars did,

01:22:09.999 --> 01:22:12.935 position:20%
he had to learn just enough

01:22:12.959 --> 01:22:14.393
to be able to read
the mathematical texts

01:22:14.417 --> 01:22:16.185
that he wanted
to be able to read.

01:22:16.209 --> 01:22:19.185
Peter was apparently able to,
in effect, bribe Robert

01:22:19.209 --> 01:22:23.143
to put aside the work
that he was really interested in

01:22:23.167 --> 01:22:26.768
so that Robert would take charge
of the project,

01:22:26.792 --> 01:22:30.226
the very difficult project,
it must be said,

01:22:30.250 --> 01:22:32.459
of translating
the Koran into Latin.

01:22:33.083 --> 01:22:36.975
-This is part of the kind
of interest

01:22:36.999 --> 01:22:39.685 position:20%
in new forms of knowledge,

01:22:39.709 --> 01:22:42.351
but it is also a way in which
you have access to a text

01:22:42.375 --> 01:22:45.975
so you can engage
it polemically,

01:22:45.999 --> 01:22:48.810 position:20%
that is to say, against it.

01:22:48.834 --> 01:22:51.975
-Now the Christians began to
have ammunition for polemics.

01:22:51.999 --> 01:22:54.852 position:20%
They knew something
about the life of Muhammad

01:22:54.876 --> 01:22:57.018
and could start
attacking his polygamy

01:22:57.042 --> 01:22:59.935
and his other practices
that they found objectionable.

01:22:59.959 --> 01:23:03.083
This is not exactly Convivencia.

01:23:03.417 --> 01:23:06.975
Peter the Venerable of Cluny

01:23:06.999 --> 01:23:08.602
is just the beginning of this
increasingly aggressive view

01:23:08.626 --> 01:23:12.417
on the part of Christianity
that the Muslims could be had.

01:23:14.125 --> 01:23:18.101
The Christian princes
of the north began to think,

01:23:18.125 --> 01:23:21.518
"We can win this,"
while at the same time,

01:23:21.542 --> 01:23:24.999
the Roman church was thinking
exactly the same thing.

01:23:26.918 --> 01:23:28.542
-The Church had launched
a crusade, or Holy War,

01:23:30.834 --> 01:23:33.643
in Jerusalem at the end
of the 11th century

01:23:33.667 --> 01:23:37.393
and made it clear that it
considered the Iberian conflicts

01:23:37.417 --> 01:23:40.417
to be religious crusades
as well.

01:23:41.334 --> 01:23:42.667
-The Church wants to create
this vision of a cosmos

01:23:45.375 --> 01:23:47.999
in which it's either
Christianity or nothing.

01:23:48.751 --> 01:23:52.435
The Christians,
of especially Rome,

01:23:52.459 --> 01:23:54.852
would like to see
a polarized battle

01:23:54.876 --> 01:23:57.351
which becomes a kind of emblem
of a battle of good

01:23:57.375 --> 01:23:59.768
against evil, of Christianity
against Islam,

01:23:59.792 --> 01:24:03.250
which is not at all how things
have been up until now.

01:24:03.792 --> 01:24:07.918
But with the coming of the
Almoravids from North Africa,

01:24:08.417 --> 01:24:12.018
then there became
the possibility

01:24:12.042 --> 01:24:14.209
to imagine black and white,
right and wrong,

01:24:14.375 --> 01:24:17.834
Muslim/Christian.

01:24:19.542 --> 01:24:22.560
-Despite these
festering political

01:24:22.584 --> 01:24:24.518
and religious conflicts,

01:24:24.542 --> 01:24:26.476
in Toledo, cultural life
continued to flourish,

01:24:26.500 --> 01:24:30.042
now under the reign of Alfonso
X, known as Alfonso the Wise.

01:24:32.667 --> 01:24:36.268
-Alfonso's
intellectual activity

01:24:36.292 --> 01:24:38.975
and his range of activity

01:24:38.999 --> 01:24:41.250
caused him to be referred
to as the wonder of the world.

01:24:44.999 --> 01:24:48.894
-There was a famous story told
of him in a later chronicle,

01:24:48.918 --> 01:24:52.143
that Alfonso had claimed
if he had been present

01:24:52.167 --> 01:24:55.351
at the creation of the world,

01:24:55.375 --> 01:24:56.894
things would have
been done better.

01:24:56.918 --> 01:24:59.999
-Alfonso X created
an enormous corpus

01:25:00.918 --> 01:25:04.351 position:20%
of new literature in Spain.

01:25:04.375 --> 01:25:07.975
One of his great productions
was known as the

01:25:07.999 --> 01:25:10.918 position:20%
"Cantigas de Santa Maria,"
the "Songs of Saint Mary,"

01:25:11.959 --> 01:25:15.999
and it's an incredibly
illuminated manuscript of songs

01:25:18.584 --> 01:25:22.018
dedicated to the Virgin Mary

01:25:22.042 --> 01:25:24.101
that are illustrated with scenes

01:25:24.125 --> 01:25:26.999
of 13th-century Iberia.

01:25:27.667 --> 01:25:29.999
What it does is
essentially show us a snapshot

01:25:31.584 --> 01:25:34.975
of many aspects of life
in the 13th century

01:25:34.999 --> 01:25:38.876
that we otherwise
might not have access to.

01:25:39.000 --> 01:25:42.975
-The scenes of daily life
include illustrations

01:25:42.999 --> 01:25:45.626
of Christians, Muslims and Jews
working together.

01:25:47.459 --> 01:25:49.083
-These scenes are amazing,
of course,

01:25:51.167 --> 01:25:52.975
because they explicitly show
Muslim and Jewish scribes

01:25:52.999 --> 01:25:56.894
sitting together
with a Christian scribe

01:25:56.918 --> 01:25:59.143 position:20%
and translating something,

01:25:59.167 --> 01:26:01.226
that translation
movement of Toledo.

01:26:01.250 --> 01:26:04.727
-The "Cantigas de Santa Maria"

01:26:04.751 --> 01:26:06.975
depict a Spain of religious
and cultural diversity,

01:26:06.999 --> 01:26:10.459
a continuation of Convivencia
now under Christian rule,

01:26:12.792 --> 01:26:16.435
but the tide
of religious intolerance

01:26:16.459 --> 01:26:18.292
was gaining strength
on the Iberian Peninsula.

01:26:18.834 --> 01:26:22.999
-There can be a coincidence
between the sort of Convivencia

01:26:23.334 --> 01:26:26.975 position:20%
you find
in the Toledo translations

01:26:26.999 --> 01:26:30.435
and extremely sanguinary
dealings

01:26:30.459 --> 01:26:32.999
with not just Muslim kings
but with Christian kings too.

01:26:33.834 --> 01:26:37.268
A steady gaze at that period

01:26:37.292 --> 01:26:39.542 position:20%
would not principally describe
it as well as Convivencia.

01:26:40.334 --> 01:26:44.334
If this was Convivencia,
let me have something else.

01:26:44.999 --> 01:26:48.435
It was too dangerous.

01:26:48.459 --> 01:26:51.975
-Even in religiously diverse
Toledo,

01:26:51.999 --> 01:26:54.852
the battle against Islam
found a strong ally,

01:26:54.876 --> 01:26:58.375
the Archbishop
Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada.

01:26:59.417 --> 01:27:03.500
As archbishop, Jimenez de Rada
wrote a history of Spain.

01:27:03.999 --> 01:27:07.935
It was a history that would,
for centuries,

01:27:07.959 --> 01:27:09.999
shape the way Spanish Christians
viewed their past.

01:27:11.500 --> 01:27:13.375
-Rodrigo is responsible
for the narrative

01:27:15.292 --> 01:27:17.185
of the Reconquista,
the Reconquest,

01:27:17.209 --> 01:27:19.975
that is still very powerful
in Spain today.

01:27:19.999 --> 01:27:23.768
He is the man who is
responsible, in large part,

01:27:23.792 --> 01:27:26.268
for later understandings
of this period

01:27:26.292 --> 01:27:29.560
as simply the time
of great conflict

01:27:29.584 --> 01:27:32.268
between Christians and Muslims.

01:27:32.292 --> 01:27:34.975
-In his retelling,
the initial Muslim invasion

01:27:34.999 --> 01:27:37.852
of the Iberian Peninsula
back in 711

01:27:37.876 --> 01:27:40.935
was swift and thorough.

01:27:40.959 --> 01:27:43.834
The Muslims won
their battles decisively,

01:27:45.542 --> 01:27:46.667
but there was
one exception,

01:27:49.083 --> 01:27:50.975
a place where
the Christians resisted

01:27:50.999 --> 01:27:52.768
with astounding courage.

01:27:52.792 --> 01:27:55.393
In the valley of Covadanga,
in the mountains of Asturias,

01:27:55.417 --> 01:27:59.226
a fearless Christian king
named Pelayo

01:27:59.250 --> 01:28:02.268
held off a Muslim army

01:28:02.292 --> 01:28:03.918
thousands of times larger
than his own.

01:28:04.959 --> 01:28:06.209
-According to the story,
Pelayo,

01:28:08.542 --> 01:28:10.685
the one who turns
back the tide,

01:28:10.709 --> 01:28:12.459
preserves that enclave
of Spanish Christianity

01:28:12.999 --> 01:28:16.560
in the north
and sets in train

01:28:16.584 --> 01:28:18.999
this whole myth of the survival
of the true Spain,

01:28:19.042 --> 01:28:22.975
that this wave of Islam
comes over Spain,

01:28:22.999 --> 01:28:26.518
but there's one little island
that is preserved in the north,

01:28:26.542 --> 01:28:29.518
which is the real thing,
the authentic Spain.

01:28:29.542 --> 01:28:33.602
-He casts all this history
as having been from the outset

01:28:33.626 --> 01:28:36.975 position:20%
one of staunch ideological

01:28:36.999 --> 01:28:39.643
Christian resistance
to the Muslims.

01:28:39.667 --> 01:28:43.292
They landed in 711,
and from 712 until 1492,

01:28:45.459 --> 01:28:48.975 position:20%
this was our great mission.

01:28:48.999 --> 01:28:50.709
This is utter nonsense from
almost every single perspective,

01:28:51.417 --> 01:28:55.459
but we should be alerted
to the implausibility of this

01:28:55.792 --> 01:28:59.584
by the duration of time
that is involved.

01:28:59.999 --> 01:29:03.975
-Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada
was more than an archbishop

01:29:03.999 --> 01:29:07.310
and chronicler
of Spanish history.

01:29:07.334 --> 01:29:10.185
He was also a crusader.

01:29:10.209 --> 01:29:13.560
He saw that, with the help
of the Pope in Rome,

01:29:13.584 --> 01:29:16.351
Christian armies stood a chance
of ejecting Islamic rule

01:29:16.375 --> 01:29:19.310
from the peninsula
once and for all.

01:29:19.334 --> 01:29:22.876
-He wrote this incredible
letter to the people of Spain,

01:29:23.584 --> 01:29:27.435
telling them that they should go
seek their death

01:29:27.459 --> 01:29:29.667
against these Muslims
who are coming from abroad,

01:29:30.500 --> 01:29:34.459
because if they didn't,
they would be destroyed

01:29:34.792 --> 01:29:38.250 position:20%
by this scourge of Muslims.

01:29:42.250 --> 01:29:45.975
-in 1212, Rodrigo Jimenez
de Rada got his wish

01:29:45.999 --> 01:29:49.975
when a coalition
of Christian armies from Aragon,

01:29:49.999 --> 01:29:53.000
Navarre, Castile and France
met an army of Berber Muslims

01:29:53.709 --> 01:29:57.834
known as Almohads on the fields
of Las Navas de Tolosa.

01:29:59.709 --> 01:30:03.751
-Catholics and Muslims fight
as Catholics and Muslims,

01:30:04.999 --> 01:30:09.042 position:20% line:20%
not as warriors, some of whom
happen to be this or that,

01:30:09.999 --> 01:30:14.042
and so this great Catholic army
meets the Almohad army

01:30:15.417 --> 01:30:19.167
at Las Navas de Tolosa
and defeats it.

01:30:20.334 --> 01:30:23.976
-This was a very
significant victory.

01:30:24.000 --> 01:30:27.518 line:20%
It was a significant victory
because it was very clear that

01:30:27.542 --> 01:30:31.000 line:20%
from now onwards,
the Christians were on top.

01:30:32.709 --> 01:30:34.500
[ Bell tolling ]

01:30:35.999 --> 01:30:38.975
-Nine years after the Battle
of Las Navas de Tolosa,

01:30:38.999 --> 01:30:42.143
Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada

01:30:42.167 --> 01:30:44.226
came to the Church
of San Roman in Toledo

01:30:44.250 --> 01:30:47.250
to reconsecrate it as a holy
place for Castilian Christians.

01:30:49.834 --> 01:30:51.334
-This old church had been
a Visigothic church,

01:30:53.709 --> 01:30:56.975
but in addition to the
traditional Christian images,

01:30:56.999 --> 01:31:00.667
the church is covered with
iconography and inscriptions

01:31:01.334 --> 01:31:05.459 position:20%
that are clearly in conversation
with Islamic architecture.

01:31:08.209 --> 01:31:12.375
Surrounding many of these scenes
are inscriptions in Arabic,

01:31:14.999 --> 01:31:18.518
prosperity and good fortune,

01:31:18.542 --> 01:31:20.435
repeated again and again
and again and again.

01:31:20.459 --> 01:31:23.292
The Arabic writing was done
by Christians.

01:31:23.999 --> 01:31:27.435 line:20%
The church was reconsecrated

01:31:27.459 --> 01:31:30.768 line:20%
with the Arabic writing.

01:31:30.792 --> 01:31:33.000
-Some of this seems so
flagrantly contradictory to us

01:31:34.792 --> 01:31:38.167 position:20%
because we've fallen into
the trap of believing that

01:31:38.459 --> 01:31:42.185
because it's Arabic,
it must be Muslim,

01:31:42.209 --> 01:31:44.143
and thus it's foreign
to Christians

01:31:44.167 --> 01:31:46.209
whereas, you know, by the
beginning of the 13th century,

01:31:46.999 --> 01:31:50.975
stuff that's Arabic
is part of the definition

01:31:50.999 --> 01:31:53.185
of being a Castilian Christian.

01:31:53.209 --> 01:31:56.685
-Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada,
the churchman and warrior

01:31:56.709 --> 01:32:00.101
who championed the Spanish
Crusade at Las Navas de Tolosa,

01:32:00.125 --> 01:32:03.976
felt right at home
among these Arabic inscriptions.

01:32:04.000 --> 01:32:07.143 line:20%
♪♪

01:32:07.167 --> 01:32:09.351
-He is, himself,
a scholar of Arabic,

01:32:09.375 --> 01:32:12.584
and marvelously, when his body
is exhumed, it's discovered,

01:32:13.959 --> 01:32:17.768
which actually shouldn't
surprise us at all,

01:32:17.792 --> 01:32:20.709
that he's buried
in these wonderful gowns

01:32:21.334 --> 01:32:25.083
that have hems
that have Arabic writing.

01:32:25.792 --> 01:32:29.834
Even at this moment
of most sort of severe cultural

01:32:30.000 --> 01:32:33.560
and ideologically driven

01:32:33.584 --> 01:32:35.143
Christian sentiment
against Muslims,

01:32:35.167 --> 01:32:37.999
to be a high-end
Christian statesman

01:32:39.042 --> 01:32:42.999
is to be able
to wear Arabic gowns.

01:32:43.500 --> 01:32:47.351
-The Christian victory
at Las Navas de Tolosa

01:32:47.375 --> 01:32:50.393
was the first of many
over the next 60 years

01:32:50.417 --> 01:32:53.268
in which one Muslim city after
another, including Córdoba,

01:32:53.292 --> 01:32:56.999
fell to Christian rule under
King Ferdinand III of Castile.

01:32:59.542 --> 01:33:01.959
But one Muslim city-state
survived, Granada,

01:33:04.167 --> 01:33:07.975
which was able to maintain
its independence

01:33:07.999 --> 01:33:10.667
because Muhammad ibn Nasr,
the founder of the Nasr Dynasty,

01:33:11.334 --> 01:33:14.935
had helped King Ferdinand

01:33:14.959 --> 01:33:16.042
conquer the rival Muslim
city of Seville.

01:33:16.250 --> 01:33:18.918 position:20%
-We often forget,
why is it set up that way?

01:33:20.083 --> 01:33:22.727
Well, it's set up as
the last Muslim kingdom

01:33:22.751 --> 01:33:24.560
by the Castilian kings,

01:33:24.584 --> 01:33:27.018
and which will last 250 years.

01:33:27.042 --> 01:33:30.268 line:20%
♪♪

01:33:30.292 --> 01:33:33.685
-Granada is incredibly
prosperous

01:33:33.709 --> 01:33:36.125
because they have access
to the trade with North Africa,

01:33:36.792 --> 01:33:40.852
and the Port of Malaga,
which is the port of Granada,

01:33:40.876 --> 01:33:44.042
it's an incredibly important
port with mercantile connections

01:33:44.999 --> 01:33:48.643
to the entire Mediterranean.

01:33:48.667 --> 01:33:50.959
So they pay very heavy tribute
to the Castilian kings.

01:33:51.542 --> 01:33:55.751
As long as they pay, they are
exempted from a final attack.

01:33:58.417 --> 01:34:01.125
-They're embattled in one way
or another from the beginning,

01:34:02.626 --> 01:34:06.292
and yet -- and yet ---
even they, in this embattled,

01:34:06.834 --> 01:34:10.876
subservient sometimes cornered,
literally, position,

01:34:13.042 --> 01:34:16.999
exert extraordinary
cultural influence

01:34:17.125 --> 01:34:20.975
because at some turn,
the Nasrids,

01:34:20.999 --> 01:34:23.042
who begin to see the building of
the great architectural monument

01:34:23.209 --> 01:34:27.083
that is the Alhambra,
and it is the Alhambra

01:34:28.000 --> 01:34:32.167
and all the style that goes with
that that will set the style

01:34:32.667 --> 01:34:36.417
for the Castilian kings
for generations.

01:34:36.751 --> 01:34:39.999 line:20%
♪♪

01:34:42.083 --> 01:34:45.975
-A century
after Muhammad ibn Nasr

01:34:45.999 --> 01:34:48.602
helped Ferdinand
conquer Seville,

01:34:48.626 --> 01:34:50.810
two young princes
would rise to leadership.

01:34:50.834 --> 01:34:53.643
Sixteen-year-old Muhammed V
assumed power in Granada

01:34:53.667 --> 01:34:57.351
just 4 years after
16-year-old Pedro I,

01:34:57.375 --> 01:35:00.975
also known
as Peter the Cruel,

01:35:00.999 --> 01:35:02.975
was crowned king
of Castile in Seville.

01:35:02.999 --> 01:35:06.059 line:20%
-Peter was both, you know,
aesthetically impeccable

01:35:06.083 --> 01:35:09.852 line:20%
but also personally irascible
and a madman

01:35:09.876 --> 01:35:13.310 line:20%
and had all sorts
of people executed

01:35:13.334 --> 01:35:15.185
at different points in time,

01:35:15.209 --> 01:35:17.643
but even though he was
a homicidal maniac,

01:35:17.667 --> 01:35:21.310
Peter was also the last
of the Castilian kings

01:35:21.334 --> 01:35:24.894
who still views
Castilian identity

01:35:24.918 --> 01:35:28.667
as deeply entwined
with Jewish communities

01:35:28.999 --> 01:35:32.975
and learning and Jewishness,
if you will,

01:35:32.999 --> 01:35:35.709
as well as with Arabic culture.

01:35:37.999 --> 01:35:39.500
-In the mid-14th century,

01:35:41.584 --> 01:35:43.334
political intrigue forced
Muhammed V to flee the Alhambra.

01:35:44.500 --> 01:35:48.602 position:20%
The young leader sought asylum
in Seville at the Alcazar,

01:35:48.626 --> 01:35:52.101
the palatial home
of his friend, Pedro I.

01:35:52.125 --> 01:35:56.018
Their time together there had
a profound influence

01:35:56.042 --> 01:35:58.876
on its architecture.

01:35:59.167 --> 01:36:00.667
-When Muhammad comes,
he brings a taste

01:36:02.999 --> 01:36:05.185
that Pedro finds
very interesting,

01:36:05.209 --> 01:36:07.894 line:20%
and he and Pedro
walk around,

01:36:07.918 --> 01:36:09.810 line:20%
you know, looking at
what could happen in the palace

01:36:09.834 --> 01:36:12.975 line:20%
that belongs to Pedro,
talking about architecture,

01:36:12.999 --> 01:36:15.083
talking about ideas, some of
which came from the Alhambra.

01:36:15.876 --> 01:36:19.643
In the Court of the Maidens,
for example,

01:36:19.667 --> 01:36:21.852 position:20%
you see an open courtyard.

01:36:21.876 --> 01:36:25.250
Surrounding it is an arcade...

01:36:26.334 --> 01:36:29.894
the presence of water,

01:36:29.918 --> 01:36:32.250 position:20%
the presence of gardens,
the use of highly colored,

01:36:32.959 --> 01:36:36.643
really quite beautiful
ceramic tile,

01:36:36.667 --> 01:36:39.894
and the delicate columns.

01:36:39.918 --> 01:36:42.975
I think Muhammad helps Pedro

01:36:42.999 --> 01:36:45.226
to build that courtyard

01:36:45.250 --> 01:36:48.810
because the courtyard
looks very Islamic.

01:36:48.834 --> 01:36:51.476 line:20%
♪♪

01:36:51.500 --> 01:36:54.602
At some point, Muhammad is able
to return home, packs his bags.

01:36:54.626 --> 01:36:58.727
"Thank you. I've had a very nice
time at the Alcazar."

01:36:58.751 --> 01:37:00.975
He goes back to the Alhambra,
but he's still building.

01:37:00.999 --> 01:37:03.351
I mean, he's an architect.
He loves to build,

01:37:03.375 --> 01:37:05.417
and so he now undertakes
his own building intervention,

01:37:06.626 --> 01:37:10.310
and that is
the Court of the Lions.

01:37:10.334 --> 01:37:12.643
The Court of the Lions,
therefore, is, if anything,

01:37:12.667 --> 01:37:15.667
a copy
of the Christian Alcazar.

01:37:16.375 --> 01:37:20.351
We need to think of them
as being in a conversation,

01:37:20.375 --> 01:37:23.101
and in a conversation
when one person speaks,

01:37:23.125 --> 01:37:25.417
the other one answers, and then
the first one answers back,

01:37:25.792 --> 01:37:29.476
and that is exactly
what is happening

01:37:29.500 --> 01:37:31.393
between these two buildings.

01:37:31.417 --> 01:37:33.852
It's a kind of conversation
of architecture

01:37:33.876 --> 01:37:36.975
in which palace
speaks to palace,

01:37:36.999 --> 01:37:38.975
and they respond to each other.

01:37:38.999 --> 01:37:40.935 line:20%
♪♪

01:37:40.959 --> 01:37:43.935
-But as that conversation
continued,

01:37:43.959 --> 01:37:46.310
the Alhambra increasingly
became an expression

01:37:46.334 --> 01:37:49.268
of Muhammad's extravagant
architectural tastes,

01:37:49.292 --> 01:37:52.560
which reflected his beliefs
about the dominion

01:37:52.584 --> 01:37:54.976
over which he ruled.

01:37:55.000 --> 01:37:58.268
-The Alhambra is this
incredibly nostalgic monument

01:37:58.292 --> 01:38:01.834 line:20%
that musters 700 years
of Islamic cultural hegemony

01:38:02.667 --> 01:38:06.876
on the Iberian peninsula to make
a sort of last defiant statement

01:38:07.918 --> 01:38:11.792
to a world from which
the Nasrids are waning

01:38:12.125 --> 01:38:15.643
and Islam is waning.

01:38:15.667 --> 01:38:17.351 line:20%
♪♪

01:38:17.375 --> 01:38:20.143
A large number of the
inscriptions on the building

01:38:20.167 --> 01:38:22.975
are poetry expressing
the immutability

01:38:22.999 --> 01:38:25.751 position:20%
of the power of the sultan.

01:38:25.959 --> 01:38:29.959
The poems seem to be answering
an unvoiced threat,

01:38:30.292 --> 01:38:34.518
which is, of course, the threat
of a place which will soon be

01:38:34.542 --> 01:38:38.143
without power
very soon in history.

01:38:38.167 --> 01:38:40.685 line:20%
♪♪

01:38:40.709 --> 01:38:43.143
-I think it's important
to understand

01:38:43.167 --> 01:38:45.268
that it is a shared culture.

01:38:45.292 --> 01:38:47.975
It's not so much that you have
this separate Castilian culture

01:38:47.999 --> 01:38:50.643
that somehow borrows this stuff.

01:38:50.667 --> 01:38:52.935
All of our old terminology
is wrong,

01:38:52.959 --> 01:38:54.894
but rather that they have
this deeply intertwined,

01:38:54.918 --> 01:38:57.310
shared culture.

01:38:57.334 --> 01:38:59.476
It's that culture that you see
most gloriously perhaps

01:38:59.500 --> 01:39:02.310
in the Alhambra,
but that you also see

01:39:02.334 --> 01:39:04.975
in one of the great
surviving synagogues of Spain,

01:39:04.999 --> 01:39:08.310
which is called the Transito,

01:39:08.334 --> 01:39:11.101
the synagogue built
by Samuel ha-Levi,

01:39:11.125 --> 01:39:14.975
Peter's Jewish finance minister.

01:39:14.999 --> 01:39:18.768 position:20%
-Samuel stood at the end
of a long line of powerful

01:39:18.792 --> 01:39:21.999
and influential Jewish advisors
to Spanish rulers.

01:39:22.375 --> 01:39:26.125
-Samuel has a sumptuous house
in Toledo

01:39:26.292 --> 01:39:30.167 position:20%
and built adjacent
to that house a synagogue.

01:39:31.042 --> 01:39:34.643
It's a private synagogue,

01:39:34.667 --> 01:39:35.975
but he opens it
to the community.

01:39:35.999 --> 01:39:37.727
He lets them in to pray,

01:39:37.751 --> 01:39:40.975
and that building shows

01:39:40.999 --> 01:39:43.000
the same kind
of cultural complexity

01:39:43.626 --> 01:39:47.393
and openness
to other cultural traditions

01:39:47.417 --> 01:39:50.459 position:20%
that we see
at the Alcazar of Seville.

01:39:51.375 --> 01:39:54.975
It is, of course, a synagogue.

01:39:54.999 --> 01:39:56.727
It is, of course,
for Jewish prayer,

01:39:56.751 --> 01:40:00.018
but it has stucco work
that is very similar

01:40:00.042 --> 01:40:03.459
to the kind of stucco work
we see back in Seville,

01:40:03.999 --> 01:40:07.999
and it has not only
Hebrew inscriptions,

01:40:08.250 --> 01:40:11.852
but it also has Arabic,

01:40:11.876 --> 01:40:14.500
and it has the coat of arms
of Pedro of Castile.

01:40:15.999 --> 01:40:19.975
-When Samuel ha-Levi builds
this synagogue,

01:40:19.999 --> 01:40:22.209
he has a dedication plaque
put up in which he dedicates it

01:40:22.709 --> 01:40:26.792
to his wonderful monarch
who supported him in all things

01:40:27.334 --> 01:40:30.975
and who is extraordinarily wise.

01:40:30.999 --> 01:40:33.975
When we look at that plaque,
we see that the plaque

01:40:33.999 --> 01:40:36.560
is written in Hebrew,
but we also see it inscribed

01:40:36.584 --> 01:40:39.852
with the arms
of the king of Castile,

01:40:39.876 --> 01:40:42.351
the castle and the lion.

01:40:42.375 --> 01:40:44.935
That's very important because
it's showing us that this style,

01:40:44.959 --> 01:40:48.643
which looks incredibly
Islamic to us,

01:40:48.667 --> 01:40:51.167
is the style that represents
the king of Castile.

01:40:52.375 --> 01:40:56.626
-But Peter paid a price for his
close relationship to Samuel.

01:40:57.834 --> 01:41:01.852
-One of the propaganda lines
against Peter the Cruel

01:41:01.876 --> 01:41:05.351
was that he was a favorer
of Jews, again,

01:41:05.375 --> 01:41:08.143
a theme that's used against
every Christian king in Spain,

01:41:08.167 --> 01:41:12.083
that he's empowers Jews
too much over Christians.

01:41:12.792 --> 01:41:16.935
In fact, they even circulated
stories that Peter the Cruel

01:41:16.959 --> 01:41:19.250
wasn't actually the son
of his father, the king,

01:41:20.042 --> 01:41:23.768
but that he was a Jewish baby

01:41:23.792 --> 01:41:25.685
who had been smuggled
into the cradle

01:41:25.709 --> 01:41:27.560
by the queen to cover up
the fact that she was barren.

01:41:27.584 --> 01:41:31.059
So the way in which you
criticize a king you don't like

01:41:31.083 --> 01:41:34.685
is by calling him a Jew lover,
and against Peter the Cruel,

01:41:34.709 --> 01:41:38.226
this was deployed
at levels of intensity

01:41:38.250 --> 01:41:41.476
that we'd really
hadn't seen before.

01:41:41.500 --> 01:41:44.975
-Even Samuel became vulnerable.

01:41:44.999 --> 01:41:47.975
After the synagogue
was completed,

01:41:47.999 --> 01:41:50.393
Peter suspected him of
embezzling the funds to build it

01:41:50.417 --> 01:41:53.459
and, in 1360, had him executed.

01:41:53.959 --> 01:41:56.975 line:20%
♪♪

01:41:56.999 --> 01:41:59.667
A few years later,
Peter himself was killed.

01:42:00.459 --> 01:42:03.975
-Peter's bastard half-brother,

01:42:03.999 --> 01:42:06.768
whose name is Henry Enrique,

01:42:06.792 --> 01:42:09.018
murders him.

01:42:09.042 --> 01:42:12.626
It is Henry who, in fact,
cultivates and foments

01:42:12.999 --> 01:42:16.999 position:20%
what will be these terrible
massacres of Jews in 1391,

01:42:19.709 --> 01:42:23.667 line:20%
and after that,
nothing is ever the same again.

01:42:23.834 --> 01:42:26.975
-Ah! Ah!

01:42:26.999 --> 01:42:28.518
-And soon came the events
that marked the beginning

01:42:28.542 --> 01:42:30.727
of the end of Jewish life
in Spain --

01:42:30.751 --> 01:42:33.975
a series of massacres.

01:42:33.999 --> 01:42:36.810
-They begin in Seville in 1391

01:42:36.834 --> 01:42:39.351
where there's an attack
on the Jewish community

01:42:39.375 --> 01:42:41.351
that first starts on Easter
and then is frustrated

01:42:41.375 --> 01:42:43.975
and picks up again
a few weeks later.

01:42:43.999 --> 01:42:46.059
[ Indistinct shouting ]

01:42:46.083 --> 01:42:48.727
-As the rumor of that massacre
spreads,

01:42:48.751 --> 01:42:50.999
the same is done in cities
all over large parts of Spain,

01:42:51.417 --> 01:42:55.310
for example, in Valencia
and Barcelona and Eudona,

01:42:55.334 --> 01:42:58.975
big centers
of Jewish population.

01:42:58.999 --> 01:43:01.852 line:20%
♪♪

01:43:01.876 --> 01:43:04.209 position:20%
-Thousands of Jews were forced
to convert to Christianity

01:43:04.834 --> 01:43:08.059
or be slaughtered.

01:43:08.083 --> 01:43:11.042
-The factors that lead up
to this are not clear,

01:43:11.792 --> 01:43:15.560
but a big part of everything
that happens

01:43:15.584 --> 01:43:18.310
in the second half
of the 14th century

01:43:18.334 --> 01:43:21.185
has to be understood in
at least some general way

01:43:21.209 --> 01:43:25.250
as being a byproduct of the
devastation of the Black Death,

01:43:26.417 --> 01:43:29.975 position:20%
the plague of these years.

01:43:29.999 --> 01:43:32.310 line:20%
♪♪

01:43:32.334 --> 01:43:35.975
-The coming of the Black Death
was something new to Europe,

01:43:35.999 --> 01:43:39.268
a kind of scourge of God,
which needed explanation

01:43:39.292 --> 01:43:42.976
and precipitated
a massive crisis, of course.

01:43:43.000 --> 01:43:45.975
When a third of the population
dies, you need an explanation,

01:43:45.999 --> 01:43:49.727
and you tend to think if you're
thinking in Christian terms,

01:43:49.751 --> 01:43:52.560
in messianic terms,
in apocalyptic terms,

01:43:52.584 --> 01:43:55.393
and the apocalypse
is meant to bring with it

01:43:55.417 --> 01:43:57.351
certain kinds of events,
including the massacre

01:43:57.375 --> 01:44:01.018
and mass conversion of
the remaining Jews in the world.

01:44:01.042 --> 01:44:04.751
So in some ways,
1391 is an attempt to hasten

01:44:05.209 --> 01:44:08.975
or to participate
in the apocalypse

01:44:08.999 --> 01:44:11.351
by forcing the conversion
of the Jews.

01:44:11.375 --> 01:44:13.999
-Though Jews would remain
in Spain for another century,

01:44:15.125 --> 01:44:18.643
the golden age of Jewish
participation

01:44:18.667 --> 01:44:20.999
in Spanish society was over.

01:44:26.000 --> 01:44:29.250 line:20%
♪♪

01:44:30.042 --> 01:44:34.250
Like the Spanish Jews, Muslims
were living on borrowed time.

01:44:35.500 --> 01:44:39.685
Soon Granada, the independent
and protected Nasrid kingdom,

01:44:39.709 --> 01:44:43.476
would be embattled.
[ Swords unsheathing ]

01:44:43.500 --> 01:44:46.976
-There is an increasingly sharp
alignment of Spain

01:44:47.000 --> 01:44:49.999
as kind of the defender
of Europe against Islam

01:44:50.042 --> 01:44:54.250
and an increasingly powerful
ideology of the Christian kings

01:44:55.417 --> 01:44:59.334
as purifiers of Christian Spain
from the dangers

01:45:00.918 --> 01:45:04.375 position:20%
posed by Islam, by Judaism.

01:45:05.709 --> 01:45:07.292
-The final push to rid Spain
of non-Christians began in 1469

01:45:11.167 --> 01:45:14.975
when the two
most important kingdoms

01:45:14.999 --> 01:45:16.975 position:20%
united against the Nasrids.

01:45:16.999 --> 01:45:19.976
-What leads to the last act
in this drama

01:45:20.000 --> 01:45:22.975 line:20%
is really the coming together
of the two primary kingdoms

01:45:22.999 --> 01:45:26.834 line:20%
now of Spain
of Castile and Aragon.

01:45:27.375 --> 01:45:31.143
-It was a feat accomplished
not by war,

01:45:31.167 --> 01:45:33.935
but by the marriage
of Ferdinand II of Aragon

01:45:33.959 --> 01:45:36.935 position:20%
and Isabella I of Castile.

01:45:36.959 --> 01:45:40.268
-Through their marriage,
you finally achieve this thing

01:45:40.292 --> 01:45:43.602
that had not been
achieved before,

01:45:43.626 --> 01:45:45.918 position:20%
which is a real unification
of the Christian kingdoms.

01:45:46.999 --> 01:45:50.518
-Ferdinand and Isabella

01:45:50.542 --> 01:45:52.143
launched a 10-year siege
of Granada,

01:45:52.167 --> 01:45:54.268
ultimately forcing the Muslims
to surrender

01:45:54.292 --> 01:45:57.810
and marking the end
of Muslim rule in Iberia.

01:45:57.834 --> 01:46:01.999
-So the Muslims became subjects
of their Catholic majesties,

01:46:03.626 --> 01:46:07.518
a title given Ferdinand
and Isabella by the Pope

01:46:07.542 --> 01:46:10.643
after their victory at Granada.

01:46:10.667 --> 01:46:13.185
The Catholic majesties declared
that the Muslims

01:46:13.209 --> 01:46:15.351
would be their protected
subjects: Mudejars.

01:46:15.375 --> 01:46:18.975
-The capitulation stipulates
that the Muslims

01:46:18.999 --> 01:46:22.602
will be granted freedom
of religion, freedom

01:46:22.626 --> 01:46:26.018
to wear their own clothes,
in other words,

01:46:26.042 --> 01:46:29.999
continue to be
culturally Muslims.

01:46:30.709 --> 01:46:33.584
-But the Catholic monarchs
chose not to offer

01:46:34.584 --> 01:46:36.975
the same protection
to the Jews of Spain.

01:46:36.999 --> 01:46:40.626
In 1492, just 3 months
after conquering Granada,

01:46:41.125 --> 01:46:45.292
Ferdinand and Isabella issued
the infamous Alhambra Decree

01:46:45.584 --> 01:46:49.751
which gave Jews 90 days to
convert or leave Spain forever.

01:46:51.125 --> 01:46:54.351 line:20%
♪♪

01:46:54.375 --> 01:46:56.185
-If they do not conform
and comply with this command

01:46:56.209 --> 01:46:59.768
and should be found in our said
kingdom and lordships

01:46:59.792 --> 01:47:02.975
and should in any manner
live in them,

01:47:02.999 --> 01:47:05.476
they incur the penalty of death

01:47:05.500 --> 01:47:07.876
and the confiscation
of all their possessions.

01:47:08.542 --> 01:47:12.518
-Tens of thousands of Jews
packed their belongings

01:47:12.542 --> 01:47:15.459
and left Spain in search
of more welcoming shores.

01:47:17.083 --> 01:47:18.792
The Mudejar Muslims remained,
protected for the time being,

01:47:22.292 --> 01:47:25.975
but their troubles
were not over.

01:47:25.999 --> 01:47:28.976
-The powerful forces of
intolerance were growing

01:47:29.000 --> 01:47:32.709
so strong that eventually the
Mudejars' status was abrogated,

01:47:33.834 --> 01:47:37.518
which meant that
the Muslim population

01:47:37.542 --> 01:47:39.999
had to do the same thing as the
Jews were forced to do in 1492,

01:47:40.876 --> 01:47:44.602
that is to say,
either convert or leave.

01:47:44.626 --> 01:47:47.976
[ Hoofbeats ]

01:47:48.000 --> 01:47:51.083
-All the well-to-do Muslims
or the majority of them fled.

01:47:52.667 --> 01:47:55.894 line:20%
♪♪

01:47:55.918 --> 01:47:58.292
Those who remained converted
to Christianity only nominally.

01:47:58.999 --> 01:48:02.935
They retained the way in which
they dressed,

01:48:02.959 --> 01:48:06.059
the way in which they ate,
the manner in which they spoke.

01:48:06.083 --> 01:48:08.999
They spoke Arabic.
They retained their identity.

01:48:09.751 --> 01:48:13.810 position:20%
-But there was real anxiety
about the religious status

01:48:13.834 --> 01:48:16.976 line:20%
of the Moriscos,
as they were called,

01:48:17.000 --> 01:48:19.975 line:20%
the forcibly converted
former Muslims

01:48:19.999 --> 01:48:22.560
who had entered
into Christianity.

01:48:22.584 --> 01:48:25.792
Oddly, the Moriscos were
under greater threat

01:48:26.292 --> 01:48:29.852
to their way of life,

01:48:29.876 --> 01:48:30.975
their culture
and their practices

01:48:30.999 --> 01:48:33.727
after having converted
to Christianity

01:48:33.751 --> 01:48:36.143
than they were
as subjected Muslims.

01:48:36.167 --> 01:48:39.226
Use of Arabic
and the Arabic script,

01:48:39.250 --> 01:48:42.560
going to public bathhouses --

01:48:42.584 --> 01:48:45.999
These kinds of things were
invested with a kind of meaning

01:48:46.209 --> 01:48:50.143
that undermined their status
as good Christians,

01:48:50.167 --> 01:48:53.876
but we might even say
as good Spaniards.

01:48:54.292 --> 01:48:57.976
-So Christianity finds itself
faced

01:48:58.000 --> 01:49:00.435
with the fulfillment
of its dream,

01:49:00.459 --> 01:49:02.894
and the fulfillment of its dream
creates a vast anxiety.

01:49:02.918 --> 01:49:06.268
-Having forced people
to convert,

01:49:06.292 --> 01:49:08.685
they then doubted the sincerity
of the conversions.

01:49:08.709 --> 01:49:11.935
I mean, what else is new?

01:49:11.959 --> 01:49:13.975
And then had to find some sort
of mechanism

01:49:13.999 --> 01:49:16.185
to help themselves
out of this dilemma,

01:49:16.209 --> 01:49:20.101
and the mechanism was,
of course, the Inquisition.

01:49:20.125 --> 01:49:22.751 line:20%
♪♪

01:49:23.000 --> 01:49:26.975
-Ferdinand and Isabella had
first established

01:49:26.999 --> 01:49:29.667 position:20%
the Tribunal of the Holy Office
of the Inquisition in 1480

01:49:29.999 --> 01:49:33.999
to protect the purity
of the Christian faith.

01:49:35.167 --> 01:49:36.709
But after Muslims and Jews
were ordered to convert

01:49:39.167 --> 01:49:41.999
or leave, enforcement of
Christian orthodoxy intensified.

01:49:44.999 --> 01:49:46.459
The tribunal interrogated,
tortured and killed thousands

01:49:49.626 --> 01:49:52.975
of Spaniard suspected

01:49:52.999 --> 01:49:54.751
of continuing to harbor
allegiance to Judaism or Islam.

01:49:58.626 --> 01:50:01.999
-The Spaniards are the last
among the Christians of Europe

01:50:02.292 --> 01:50:06.018
to convert to the idea
that Christians

01:50:06.042 --> 01:50:09.351
don't co-inhabit territories
with Jews and Muslims

01:50:09.375 --> 01:50:13.209
and thus they become the most
rabid enforcers of that notion.

01:50:19.209 --> 01:50:22.975
-The idea of a purely
Christian kingdom

01:50:22.999 --> 01:50:25.476
or a purely Muslim kingdom
had always existed

01:50:25.500 --> 01:50:27.975
as an ideal
for both of these religions.

01:50:27.999 --> 01:50:30.975
What happens is that
in Christian Spain,

01:50:30.999 --> 01:50:34.292
that dream became something
of a reality,

01:50:34.584 --> 01:50:38.268
but the nature
of the dream changed.

01:50:38.292 --> 01:50:41.542
You might almost say it changed
from a dream into a nightmare.

01:50:51.334 --> 01:50:55.101
-Eight hundred years
after Muslim armies

01:50:55.125 --> 01:50:57.393
first invaded Spain,

01:50:57.417 --> 01:50:59.393
the period of Convivencia
drew to a painful,

01:50:59.417 --> 01:51:02.584
prolonged and bloody close,
and ending so traumatic,

01:51:04.959 --> 01:51:08.727
it has obscured
the more enduring story

01:51:08.751 --> 01:51:10.918
of medieval Spain,

01:51:12.626 --> 01:51:16.018
of a time and place
where Muslims, Jews

01:51:16.042 --> 01:51:18.500
and Christians created a
common culture that was unique,

01:51:19.250 --> 01:51:22.975
one whose legacy
still endures today.

01:51:22.999 --> 01:51:25.810
[Lyrics]

01:51:25.834 --> 01:51:28.999
[ Foreign ]

01:51:29.209 --> 01:51:32.935
Spain remains to this very day

01:51:32.959 --> 01:51:36.250
the product of the combination
of these three cultures,

01:51:37.417 --> 01:51:40.975
and the people themselves

01:51:40.999 --> 01:51:42.709
are ethnically part
of that mixture of people

01:51:43.834 --> 01:51:47.834 line:20%
that forge a new kind
of civilization and culture,

01:51:49.999 --> 01:51:52.976 line:20%
♪♪

01:51:53.000 --> 01:51:55.101
...one that still has
a lot of remnants

01:51:55.125 --> 01:51:58.999
and visual presence
of the past.

01:51:59.042 --> 01:52:02.292 line:20%
♪♪

01:52:05.792 --> 01:52:06.999
The presence of the past
in the present.

01:52:09.918 --> 01:52:12.975 line:20%
♪♪

01:52:12.999 --> 01:52:15.602
-The mosque Abd al-Rahman built

01:52:15.626 --> 01:52:17.727
when he first
came to al-Andalus is today

01:52:17.751 --> 01:52:20.226
known as
the Cathedral of Córdoba,

01:52:20.250 --> 01:52:23.310
a place where two great faiths
seem to collide,

01:52:23.334 --> 01:52:26.226
even as they coexist.

01:52:26.250 --> 01:52:29.435
-What you see is essentially
the appropriation

01:52:29.459 --> 01:52:33.125
of the sacred places
of the defeated as a way of,

01:52:34.999 --> 01:52:38.810
in a sense,
marking your victory.

01:52:38.834 --> 01:52:42.792
Nowhere is this more obvious and
more insulting and more horrid

01:52:44.417 --> 01:52:48.268
than in the construction
of a Gothic cathedral

01:52:48.292 --> 01:52:50.709
right smack in the center
of the Great Mosque of Córdoba.

01:52:52.626 --> 01:52:54.500
-The Great Mosque
started as a church.

01:52:56.751 --> 01:53:00.018
It became a mosque.

01:53:00.042 --> 01:53:02.975
It became a church again.

01:53:02.999 --> 01:53:05.476
Now, its primary draw is that
it is a former mosque,

01:53:05.500 --> 01:53:08.999
and everybody wants to come see
the former mosque.

01:53:09.709 --> 01:53:13.351
It's a monument that is
so complex

01:53:13.375 --> 01:53:16.975
in its cultural
and religious roots

01:53:16.999 --> 01:53:20.042 position:20% line:20%
that it's hard to extricate
one strand from the other.

01:53:22.999 --> 01:53:23.667 line:20%
-In medieval Spain,

01:53:26.417 --> 01:53:28.143 line:20%
different people
with different languages

01:53:28.167 --> 01:53:31.476 position:20% line:20%
and different world views
and different ways of life

01:53:31.500 --> 01:53:33.975
and different talents

01:53:33.999 --> 01:53:36.685
were somehow welcomed

01:53:36.709 --> 01:53:39.101
even with lots of problems
and lots of tensions.

01:53:39.125 --> 01:53:42.393
[ Indistinct talking ]

01:53:42.417 --> 01:53:43.975
-There were martyrdoms.
There were executions.

01:53:43.999 --> 01:53:46.643 position:20%
There were battles fought.

01:53:46.667 --> 01:53:47.975
There were betrayals.

01:53:47.999 --> 01:53:50.560
There were also alliances,
and there were moments

01:53:50.584 --> 01:53:53.143
that were truly moments
of Convivencia.

01:53:53.167 --> 01:53:56.959
-What's important about
the period we call Convivencia

01:53:57.792 --> 01:54:01.643
is that we see that every one
of these moments

01:54:01.667 --> 01:54:04.918
contains both a kind of drive
to coexistence...

01:54:06.999 --> 01:54:10.999
and a kind of drive
to the fulfillment of ideals

01:54:11.125 --> 01:54:14.975
that we might call
anti-coexistence --

01:54:14.999 --> 01:54:18.185
messianic purification,

01:54:18.209 --> 01:54:20.976
expulsion, conquest.

01:54:21.000 --> 01:54:24.435
-You have this culture created
that could not have been created

01:54:24.459 --> 01:54:28.226
by any one of these
three religious groups

01:54:28.250 --> 01:54:30.542
but that is very much a product
of this co-mingling of Muslims

01:54:33.083 --> 01:54:36.727 position:20%
and Christians and Jews...

01:54:36.751 --> 01:54:39.560 position:20%
and it has different forms,

01:54:39.584 --> 01:54:42.393
different monuments,

01:54:42.417 --> 01:54:44.685
different poems,

01:54:44.709 --> 01:54:46.602
different languages
at different points,

01:54:46.626 --> 01:54:48.959
but none of it exists
if you disentangle it

01:54:49.042 --> 01:54:52.727 position:20%
from the other communities.

01:54:52.751 --> 01:54:55.584
Culture is powerful
and often contradictory

01:54:56.999 --> 01:55:00.959
to political
and ideological narratives.

01:55:01.542 --> 01:55:05.018
It tells us a different story.

01:55:05.042 --> 01:55:07.935
Sometimes it tells
the more lasting

01:55:07.959 --> 01:55:10.768
and important
and enduring story.

01:55:10.792 --> 01:55:13.459 line:20%
♪♪

01:55:16.292 --> 01:55:19.542 line:20%
♪♪

01:55:22.334 --> 01:55:25.584 line:20%
♪♪

01:55:32.167 --> 01:55:35.417 line:20%
♪♪

01:55:41.459 --> 01:55:44.709 line:20%
♪♪

01:55:48.083 --> 01:55:51.334 line:20%
♪♪