Editing Reconquista (section)

==Concept and duration==
{{Campaignbox Reconquista}}
The term ''Reconquista'', used to describe the struggle between Christians and Muslims in the Iberian peninsula during the [[Middle Ages]], was not used by writers of the period. Since its development as a term in medieval historiography occurred centuries after the events it references, it has acquired various meanings. Its meaning as an actual reconquest has been subject to the particular concerns or prejudices of scholars, who have sometimes wielded it as a weapon in ideological disputes.{{sfn|García Fitz|2009|pp=144–145}}

A discernible [[Irredentism|irredentist]] ideology that would later become part of the concept of "Reconquista", a Christian reconquest of the peninsula, appeared in writings by the end of the 9th century.<ref name="CambridgeMedieval">{{cite book |last=McKitterick |first=Rosamond |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZEaSdNBL0sgC&pg=PA289 |title=The New Cambridge Medieval. History 1 |author2=Collins, R. |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1990 |isbn=978-0521362924 |page=289 |quote=By the later ninth century some of the distinctive ideology of the later 'Reconquista' had come into being. Christian writers, such as the anonymous author of the so-called 'Prophetic Chronicle' of 883/4, could look forward to the expulsion of the Arabs from Spain, and a sense of both an ethnic and a religious-cultural divide between the inhabitants of the small northern kingdoms and the dominant elite in the south was marked in the writings of both sides. On the other hand, it is unwise to be too linear in the approach to the origins of the 'Reconquista', as tended to be the way with Spanish historiography in the earlier part of the twentieth century. Periods of peaceful co-existence or of limited and localised frontier disturbances were more frequent than ones of all-out military conflict between al-Andalus and the Christian kingdoms. As has been mentioned, the former never made any serious effort to eliminate the latter. Moreover, as in the case of relations between the Arista dynasty in Pamplona and the Banü Qasi, the mutual interest could be a stronger bond than ideological divisions based on antagonistic creeds. These tendencies were, if anything, to be reinforced in the tenth century. |author-link=Rosamond McKitterick |access-date=26 July 2012}}</ref> For example, the anonymous Christian chronicle ''[[Chronica Prophetica]]'' (883–884) claimed a historical connection between the [[Visigothic Kingdom]] conquered by the Muslims in 711 and the [[Kingdom of Asturias]] in which the document was produced, and stressed a Christian and Muslim cultural and religious divide in Hispania, and a necessity to drive out the Muslims and restore conquered territories. In fact, in the writings of both sides, there was a sense of divide based on ethnicity and culture between the inhabitants of the small Christian kingdoms in the north and the dominant elite in the Muslim-ruled south.<ref name="CambridgeMedieval" />

[[File:ChristianAndMuslimPlayingChess-cropped2.jpg|thumb|One of the arguments challenging the concept of ''Reconquista'' is that for the majority of the 781 years of Islamic rule in Iberia, Muslims and Christians coexisted and were not at war with each other.<ref name="CambridgeMedieval" /><ref name="AlfonsoX1283">{{cite web |last1=Alfonso X |first1=Rey de Castilla |title=Libro del axedrez, dados e tablas [Folio 64R (croppped)] |url=https://rbdigital.realbiblioteca.es/s/rbme/item/13125 |website=rbdigital.realbiblioteca.es |publisher=Real Biblioteca del Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial |access-date=24 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211123235323/https://rbdigital.realbiblioteca.es/s/rbme/item/13125 |archive-date=23 November 2021 |date=1283}}</ref>]]

The linear approach to the origins of a ''Reconquista'' taken in early twentieth-century historiography is complicated by a number of issues.<ref name="CambridgeMedieval" /> For example, periods of peaceful coexistence, or at least of limited and localised skirmishes on the frontiers, were more prevalent over the 781 years of Muslim rule in Iberia than periods of military conflict between the Christian kingdoms and al-Andalus.<ref name="CambridgeMedieval" /> Additionally, both Christian and Muslim rulers [[#Infighting|fought other Christians and Muslims]], and cooperation and alliances between Muslims and Christians were not uncommon, such as between the [[Íñigo Arista of Pamplona|Arista dynasty]] and [[Banu Qasi]] as early as the 9th century.<ref name="CambridgeMedieval" /><ref name="Keefe" /> Blurring distinctions even further were the mercenaries from both sides who simply fought for whoever paid the most.<ref name="Keefe" /> The period is seen today to have had long episodes of relative religious coexistence and tolerance.<ref name="Menocal2009">{{cite book |last1=Menocal |first1=Maria Rosa |title=The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain |date=2009 |publisher=Little, Brown |isbn=978-0-316-09279-1 |pages=214, 223 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4dxbqEmU-OkC&pg=PT214 }} (see [[Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain]]).</ref> The idea of a continuous ''Reconquista'' has been challenged by modern scholars.<ref name="Fernández-Morera2016">{{cite book |last1=Fernández-Morera |first1=Darío |title=The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise |date=2016 |publisher=Open Road Media |isbn=978-1-5040-3469-2 |page=50 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PJNgCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT50 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="O'Callaghan2013">{{cite book |last1=O'Callaghan |first1=Joseph F. |title=Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain |date=2013 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-0-8122-0306-6 |pages=18–19 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6fPSBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA18}}</ref>

[[File:Almohad1200.png|thumb|The [[Islami]]c [[Almohad dynasty]] and surrounding states, including the Christian Kingdoms of [[Kingdom of Portugal|Portugal]], [[Kingdom of León|Leon]], [[Kingdom of Castile|Castile]], [[Kingdom of Navarre|Navarre]], and the [[Crown of Aragon]], c. 1200.]]

The [[Crusades]], which started late in the 11th century, bred the religious ideology of a Christian reconquest. In [[al-Andalus]] at that time, the Christian states were confronted by the [[Almoravids]], and to an even greater degree, they were confronted by the [[Almohads]], who espoused a similarly staunch Muslim [[Jihad]] ideology. In fact, previous documents which date from the 10th and 11th centuries are mute on any idea of "reconquest".<ref name="O'Callaghan2013" /> Propaganda accounts of Muslim-Christian hostility came into being to support that idea, most notably the ''[[Chanson de Roland]]'', an 11th-century French ''[[chanson de geste]]'' that offers a fictionalised retelling of the [[Battle of Roncevaux Pass]] dealing with the Iberian ''[[Saracen]]s'' (''Moors''), and centuries later introduced in the French school system with a view to instilling moral and national values in the population following the 1870 defeat of the French in the [[Franco-Prussian War]], regardless of the actual events.<ref>{{cite journal|title='Pagans are wrong and Christians are right': Alterity, Gender, and Nation in the ''Chanson de Roland''|last=Kinoshita|first=Sharon|journal=Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies|volume=31|issue=1|date=Winter 2001|pages=79–111|doi=10.1215/10829636-31-1-79|s2cid=143132248}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=DiVanna |first1=Isabel N. |year=2010 |title=Politicizing national literature: the scholarly debate around La Chanson de Roland in the nineteenth century |journal=Historical Research |volume=84 |issue=223 |pages=109–134 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-2281.2009.00540.x |url= }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Lucken |first=Christopher |title=Actualité de la Chanson de Roland: Une épopée populaire au programme d'agrégation |date=2019-04-16 |url=http://books.openedition.org/pur/52857 |work=Le savant dans les Lettres |pages=93–106 |editor-last=Bähler |editor-first=Ursula |series=Interférences |place=Rennes |publisher=Presses universitaires de Rennes |isbn=978-2-7535-5783-3 |access-date=2022-11-18 |editor2-last=Cangemi |editor2-first=Valérie |editor3-last=Corbellari |editor3-first=Alain}}</ref>

The consolidation of the modern idea of a "''Reconquista''" is inextricably linked to the foundational myths of [[Spanish nationalism]] in the 19th century, associated with the development of a Centralist, Castilian, and staunchly Catholic brand of nationalism,{{sfn|García Fitz|2009|p=152}} evoking nationalistic, romantic and sometimes colonialist themes.<ref name="Fitz2009" /> The concept gained further track in the 20th century during the [[Francoist dictatorship]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.eldiario.es/andalucia/enabierto/elecciones_en_Andalucia_2018-reconquista-Vox_6_843125717.html |title=Vox, la Reconquista y la salvación de España |last= Alejandro García Sanjuán|website=eldiario.es|date=5 December 2018|language=es|access-date=15 February 2019 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190216094117/https://www.eldiario.es/andalucia/enabierto/elecciones_en_Andalucia_2018-reconquista-Vox_6_843125717.html |archive-date=16 February 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> It thus became one of the key tenets of the historiographical discourse of [[National Catholicism]], the mythological and ideological identity of the regime. The discourse was underpinned in its most traditional version by an avowed historical illegitimacy of al-Andalus and the subsequent glorification of the Christian conquest.<ref>{{Cite journal |page=133|last=García Sanjuán|first=Alejandro|year=2016|title=La persistencia del discurso nacionalcatólico sobre el Medievo peninsular en la historiografía española actual|journal= Historiografías|volume=12|issn=2174-4289|issue= 12 |doi=10.26754/ojs_historiografias/hrht.2016122367|url=https://papiro.unizar.es/ojs/index.php/historiografias/article/view/2367|publisher=[[University of Zaragoza|Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza]]|location=Zaragoza|doi-access=free}}</ref>

The idea of a "liberation war" of ''reconquest'' against the Muslims, who were viewed as foreigners, suited the anti-Republican rebels during the [[Spanish Civil War]], the rebels agitated for the banner of a Spanish fatherland, a fatherland which, according to them, was being threatened by regional nationalisms and [[communism]].{{Sfn|García Fitz|2009|pp=146–147}} Their rebellious pursuit was thus a crusade for the restoration of the Church's unity, where Franco stood for both [[Pelagius of Asturias]] and [[El Cid]].{{Sfn |García Fitz|2009|pp=146–147}} The ''Reconquista'' has become a rallying call for right and far-right parties in Spain to expel from office incumbent progressive or peripheral nationalist options, as well as their values, in different political contexts as of 2018.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.publico.es/politica/ultraderecha-vox-rescata-viejo-concepto-reconquista.html|title=¿Por qué Vox rescata ahora el viejo concepto de 'Reconquista'?|website= www.publico.es |date=15 January 2019 |access-date=15 February 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190216035443/https://www.publico.es/politica/ultraderecha-vox-rescata-viejo-concepto-reconquista.html |archive-date=16 February 2019 |url-status= live}}</ref><ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.europapress.es/nacional/noticia-casado-apelar-vox-reconquista-pp-empezado-reconquista-andalucia-acabara-asturias-20190111154752.html |title=Casado, tras apelar Vox a la Reconquista: El PP ha empezado la reconquista por Andalucía y la acabará en Asturias|publisher= Europa Press |date= 11 January 2019|access-date=15 February 2019|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190216035637/https://www.europapress.es/nacional/noticia-casado-apelar-vox-reconquista-pp-empezado-reconquista-andalucia-acabara-asturias-20190111154752.html |archive-date=16 February 2019|url-status= live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.eldiario.es/clm/vox-santiago-abascal-reconquista-toledo_0_863014649.html |title= Vox designa a Toledo como el punto donde comenzar la 'reconquista' del centro de España|last=Bravo|first= Francisca |website=eldiario.es|date=31 January 2019|language=es|access-date=15 February 2019|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190216035503/https://www.eldiario.es/clm/vox-santiago-abascal-reconquista-toledo_0_863014649.html|archive-date=16 February 2019|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url= https://www.elnacional.cat/es/politica/casado-reconquista-engano-independentismo_290181_102.html|title=Casado promete una 'reconquista' para que 'caiga el engaño independentista'|website=ElNacional.cat|date=21 July 2018|access-date=15 February 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190216040924/https://www.elnacional.cat/es/politica/casado-reconquista-engano-independentismo_290181_102.html|archive-date=16 February 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

The same kind of propaganda was circulated during the [[Spanish Civil War]] by the [[Republican faction (Spanish Civil War)|Republicans]], who wanted to portray their enemies as foreign invaders, especially given the prominence of the [[Army of Africa (Spain)|Army of Africa]] among Franco's troops, an army which was made up of native North African soldiers.<ref>Bolorinos Allard, Elisabeth. "The Crescent and the Dagger: Representations of the Moorish Other during the Spanish Civil War." ''Bulletin of Spanish Studies'' 93, no. 6 (2016): 965–988.</ref>

Some contemporary authors{{who|date=June 2019}} consider the "''Reconquista''" proof that the process of Christian state-building in Iberia was frequently defined by the reclamation of lands that had been lost to the [[Moors]] in generations past. In this way, state-building might be characterised—at least in ideological, if not practical, terms—as a process by which Iberian states were being "rebuilt".<ref name="Purkis">{{cite book |title= Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Perspectives on State Building in the Iberian Peninsula |last= Purkis |first= William J. |year= 2010 |publisher= University of Birmingham |pages= 57–58 |access-date= 15 October 2017 |url= https://www.reading.ac.uk/web/files/GCMS/RMS-2010-05_W._J._Purkis,_Eleventh-_and_Twelfth-Century_Perspectives_on_State_Building_in_the_Iberian_Peninsula.pdf |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20171016070114/https://www.reading.ac.uk/web/files/GCMS/RMS-2010-05_W._J._Purkis,_Eleventh-_and_Twelfth-Century_Perspectives_on_State_Building_in_the_Iberian_Peninsula.pdf |archive-date= 16 October 2017 |url-status= live }}</ref> In turn, other recent historians dispute the whole concept of "''Reconquista''" as a concept created ''a posteriori'' in the service of later political goals. A few historians point out that Spain and Portugal did not previously exist as nations, and therefore the heirs of the Christian [[Visigothic Kingdom]] were not technically ''re''conquering them, as the name suggests.<ref>Eugènia de Pagès, "''La 'Reconquista', allò que mai no va existir''", ''La Lamentable'', 11 July 2014, [http://lamentable.org/la-reconquista-allo-que-mai-no-va-existir/ lamentable.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170828161547/http://lamentable.org/la-reconquista-allo-que-mai-no-va-existir/ |date=28 August 2017 }}</ref><ref>Martín M. Ríos Saloma, "''La Reconquista. Génesis de un mito historiográfico''", ''Historia y Grafía'', 30, 2008, pp. 191–216, [http://www.redalyc.org/pdf/589/58922939009.pdf redalyc.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304053429/http://www.redalyc.org/pdf/589/58922939009.pdf |date=4 March 2016 }}, Retrieved 12 October 2014.</ref> One of the first Spanish intellectuals to question the idea of a "reconquest" that lasted for eight centuries was [[José Ortega y Gasset]], writing in the first half of the 20th century.<ref>"''Yo no entiendo cómo se puede llamar reconquista a una cosa que dura ocho siglos''" ("I don't understand how something that lasted eight centuries can be called a reconquest"), in ''España invertebrada''. Quoted by De Pagès, E. 11 July 2014.</ref> However, the term ''Reconquista'' is still widely in use.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Horswell |first1=Mike |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KI6lDwAAQBAJ&dq=reconquista+nowadays&pg=PT64 |title=The Crusades in the Modern World: Engaging the Crusades, Volume Two |last2=Awan |first2=Akil N. |date=2019 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-25046-7 |language=en}}</ref>