The Reconquista: Christian Spain Against Al-Andalus

The Reconquista — the long reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula by the Christian kingdoms of the north — was one of the longest and most consequential military campaigns of the medieval world. Spanning nearly eight centuries, from the first Christian resistance in the eighth century to the fall of Granada in 1492, the Reconquista shaped the political, religious, and cultural life of the Iberian Peninsula and left a profound legacy for the history of Spain and Europe. The Reconquista was a central feature of medieval Spanish identity, and it provided the context for the expulsion of the Jews in 1492, the voyages of Columbus in the same year, and the rise of Spain as a major European power.

This cluster explores the Reconquista. The articles in the related long-tail pages provide deeper examinations of specific aspects of the topic.

The standard English-language treatment is Joseph F. O’Callaghan, “Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain” (2003). Brian A. Catlos, “Kingdoms of Faith” (2018), is the indispensable modern account of the Andalusi side of the story. The page below uses both, and the Cronica of the Asturian and Castilian chroniclers as primary material. The “Reconquista” as a single sustained campaign is a later construction; the actual events are a patchwork of alliances, truces, and raids, and the page treats them so.

The Origins of the Reconquista

The Reconquista began with the Umayyad conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in 711. The Umayyad army, crossing from North Africa, defeated the Visigothic king Rodrigo at the Battle of Guadalete, and the conquerors established a Muslim state in most of the peninsula. The state, known as Al-Andalus, was ruled initially by the Umayyad caliphs of Damascus, and after the collapse of the Umayyad caliphate in the eighth century, by an independent Umayyad emirate based in Córdoba.

The Christian resistance to the Muslim conquest centered in the northwest of the peninsula, in the mountainous region of Asturias. The Christian kingdom of Asturias, founded by Pelayo (a Visigothic noble) around 718, provided the nucleus of the Christian resistance to the Muslim conquest. The kingdom of Asturias was joined by the kingdoms of León, Castile, Navarre, Aragon, and Catalonia in the ninth and tenth centuries, and these kingdoms gradually expanded at the expense of the Muslim state.

The early phase of the Reconquista was marked by fluctuating fortunes. The Christian kingdoms made significant gains in the ninth and tenth centuries, especially in the northwest (the reconquest of Galicia and Portugal), but the Muslim state was strong enough to launch counter-offensives that brought the Christian kingdoms to the brink of destruction. The Battle of Simancas in 939, the Battle of Sagrajas (or Zallaqa) in 1086, and the Battle of Alarcos in 1195 were all major setbacks for the Christian cause, and they reminded the Christian leadership of the military strength of the Muslim state.

The Great Period of the Reconquista

The twelfth and thirteenth centuries were the great period of the Reconquista. The Christian kingdoms made significant territorial gains in this period, and the Muslim state was gradually reduced to the southern third of the peninsula. The great military orders — the Order of Santiago, the Order of Calatrava, the Order of Alcántara, the Order of the Temple, and the Order of the Hospital — played a major role in the Reconquista, defending the frontier and participating in the campaigns of conquest.

The thirteenth century was a decisive period. The Christian kingdoms won a major victory at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212, opening the way for the conquest of Andalusia. The conquest of Córdoba in 1236, the conquest of Jaén in 1246, and the conquest of Seville in 1248 — the great campaign of Ferdinand III of Castile — brought most of Andalusia under Christian rule. The kingdom of Granada, the last Muslim state in the peninsula, survived as a vassal of Castile until 1492, but it was gradually reduced in territory and influence.

The thirteenth century also saw the rise of Castile and Aragon as the dominant Christian kingdoms of the peninsula. The kingdom of Castile — united with León in 1230 — became the largest and most powerful Christian state, and it played the leading role in the Reconquista. The kingdom of Aragon — united with Catalonia in 1137 and later with Valencia (1238) and the Balearic Islands (1235) — became a major Mediterranean power with interests in southern Italy and Greece.

El Cid and the Heroes of the Reconquista

The medieval period produced a rich tradition of heroic literature, and the heroes of the Reconquista were the subjects of some of the greatest works of medieval Spanish literature. The most famous of the heroes was Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (c. 1043–1099), known as El Cid (from the Arabic al-sayyid, “the lord”). El Cid was a Castilian knight who served first the king of Castile and then the Muslim ruler of Zaragoza before establishing himself as an independent ruler of Valencia in 1094. The Cantar de Mio Cid — the greatest of the medieval Spanish epics — celebrates the heroic deeds of El Cid and presents him as a model of Christian chivalry and Spanish identity.

Other heroes of the Reconquista included Fernán González (c. 910–970), the count of Castile who established the independence of Castile from León; El Cid and his compatriots; Alfonso VI of León and Castile (1040–1109), the king who reconquered Toledo in 1085; Ferdinand III of Castile (1199–1252), the king who conquered Córdoba and Seville; James I of Aragon (1208–1276), the king who conquered Valencia and the Balearic Islands; and Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic Monarchs who completed the Reconquista with the conquest of Granada in 1492.

The literature of the Reconquista was closely tied to the political and religious aspirations of the Christian kingdoms. The Cantar de Mio Cid, the Cantar de los siete infantes de Lara, the Poema de Fernán González, and the other epics of the Reconquista celebrated the heroic deeds of the Christian knights and present the Reconquista as a religious duty and a national mission. The literature was often anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish in tone, and it contributed to the development of a distinctive Spanish Christian identity.

The Fall of Granada

The fall of Granada in 1492 was the culmination of the Reconquista. The Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile launched a campaign against the emirate of Granada in 1482, and after a ten-year war the last Muslim ruler of Granada, Muhammad XII (known to the Spaniards as Boabdil), surrendered the city on January 2, 1492. The surrender of Granada marked the end of the Muslim presence in the Iberian Peninsula and the completion of the Reconquista.

The fall of Granada was a major event in the history of Spain and Europe. It was followed by the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in the Alhambra Decree of 1492, the expulsion of the Muslims from Castile in 1502, and the establishment of the Spanish Inquisition in 1478. The events of 1492 — the fall of Granada, the expulsion of the Jews, and the voyage of Columbus — together shaped the early modern history of Spain and the world.

The Reconquista left a profound legacy for the history of Spain. It produced the Christian Spain of the modern era, with its distinctive religious identity, its close connection between church and state, and its expansionist imperial ambitions. It produced the Spanish Inquisition, the expulsion of the Jews and the Muslims, and the persecution of the conversos and moriscos who remained in Spain. It produced the Spanish Empire in the Americas, with its missionary zeal, its extraction of wealth, and its cultural transformation of the New World. The legacy of the Reconquista continues to shape the debates about Spanish identity, religion, and nationalism in the modern era.

The Cultural Impact of the Reconquista

The cultural impact of the Reconquista was profound and far-reaching. The Christian kingdoms of Spain developed a distinctive culture that combined Christian, Muslim, and Jewish elements, and the convivencia — the coexistence of the three religions in medieval Spain — was a major feature of Spanish cultural life. The Toledo School of Translators, founded in the twelfth century by Archbishop Raymond of Toledo, translated Arabic texts of philosophy, science, and medicine into Latin, and transmitted the knowledge to the rest of Europe. The Alhambra palace in Granada, the Great Mosque of Córdoba, and the Alcázar of Seville are architectural monuments to the Muslim civilization of Al-Andalus, and they continue to attract visitors from around the world.

The Christian culture of medieval Spain developed a distinctive architectural tradition that combined Romanesque, Gothic, and Mudéjar elements. The cathedrals of Toledo, León, Burgos, and Seville are monuments to the Christian reconquest, and they combine Gothic elements from France with Mudéjar elements (the Spanish term for the Muslim style used in Christian architecture). The Christian culture of medieval Spain also developed a distinctive literary tradition, with epics like the Cantar de Mio Cid, lyric poetry in the Galician-Portuguese and Castilian traditions, and prose works like the Estoria de España of Alfonso X the Wise.

Sources

Principal sources used in this article:

Joseph F. O’Callaghan, Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain (University of Pennsylvania, 2003).

Further reading:

Brian A. Catlos, Kingdoms of Faith: A New History of Islamic Spain (Basic, 2018) — for the Andalusi side.

For a recent single-volume synthesis with full scholarly apparatus, see the relevant chapter of Barbara H. Rosenwein, A Short History of the Middle Ages (University of Toronto Press, 2014).