The Contest of Christian and Muslim Spain, 1031-1157

This book draws upon the latest research findings to chart 130 years of Spanish history, from the fall of the caliphate to the rise and decline of the Hispanic Empire. It is the first account of the period to integrate Christian and Muslim Spain. The author depicts and analyses the various societies, cultures and governments of Muslim and Christian Iberia in the centuries of their critical confrontation. Beginning with the disintegration of the caliphate at Cordoba in the early eleventh century, the author traces the decline of the Muslim taifa states, and describes and explains their conquest, first by the Murabit, and then the Muwahhid fundamentalist Muslim empires of North Africa. Bernard Reilly examines the reciprocal influence of North African and Muslim Andalucia upon each other. He also portrays the rising Christian kingdoms of Leon-Castilla, Aragon, Barcelona and Portugal and shows how they were engaged in a struggle on several fronts.
As they vied with one another for control of the old Islamic stronghold of the centre and north, they were also in continuous conflict with the Murabit and Muwahhid rulers, while striving to come to terms with the French, the Papacy and the Italian maritime powers. The author not only examines the politics and diplomacy of the confrontations, but also sets these in context. He describes the all-important geography of the peninsula, its demography, agriculture and technology, and the military possibilities inherent to the age.