Editing Reconquista (section)

==== Beginning of the ''Reconquista'' ====
{{Main|Kingdom of Asturias}}
A drastic increase of taxes on Christians by the emir [[Anbasa ibn Suhaym Al-Kalbi]] provoked several rebellions in al-Andalus, which a series of succeeding weak emirs were unable to suppress. Around 722, a Muslim military expedition was sent into the north in late summer to suppress a rebellion led by [[Pelagius of Asturias]] (Pelayo in Spanish, Pelayu in Asturian). Traditional historiography has hailed Pelagius's [[Battle of Covadonga|victory at Covadonga]] as the beginning of the ''Reconquista''.<ref>{{Citation |title=Covadonga, la batalla que cambió la historia de España |date=2022-05-27 |url=https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/panorama-regional/covadonga-la-batalla-que-cambio-la-historia-de-espana/6549431/ |language=es |access-date=2022-08-11}}</ref>

Two northern realms, Navarre<ref>{{cite book | author = Collins, Roger| year = 1989 | title = The Arab Conquest of Spain 710–797 | publisher = Blackwell |location = Oxford, UK / Cambridge, US|isbn= 978-0-631-19405-7|page=181}}</ref> and Asturias, despite their small size, demonstrated an ability to maintain their independence. Because the Umayyad rulers based in [[Córdoba, Andalusia|Córdoba]] were unable to extend their power over the Pyrenees, they decided to consolidate their power within the Iberian peninsula. Arab-Berber forces made periodic incursions deep into Asturias, but this area was a ''cul-de-sac'' on the fringes of the Islamic world fraught with inconveniences during campaigns and of little interest.<ref>{{cite book | author = Collins, Roger| year = 1989 | title = The Arab Conquest of Spain 710–797 | publisher = Blackwell |location = Oxford, UK / Cambridge, US|isbn= 978-0-631-19405-7|page=156}}</ref>

It comes then as no surprise that, besides focusing on raiding the Arab-Berber strongholds of the Meseta, [[Alfonso I of Asturias]] centred on expanding his domains at the expense of the neighbouring Galicians and Basques at either side of his realm just as much.<ref>{{cite book | author = Collins, Roger| year = 1989 | title = The Arab Conquest of Spain 710–797 | publisher = Blackwell |location = Oxford, UK / Cambridge, US|isbn= 978-0-631-19405-7|pages=156, 159}}</ref> During the first decades, Asturian control over part of the kingdom was weak, and for this reason it had to be continually strengthened through matrimonial alliances and war with other peoples from the north of the Iberian Peninsula. After Pelayo's death in 737, his son [[Favila of Asturias]] was elected king. Favila, according to the chronicles, was killed by a bear during a trial of courage. Pelayo's dynasty in Asturias survived and gradually expanded the kingdom's boundaries until all of northwest Hispania was included by roughly 775. However, credit is due to him and to his successors, the ''Banu Alfons'' from the Arab chronicles. Further expansion of the northwestern kingdom towards the south occurred during the reign of [[Alfonso II of Asturias]] (from 791 to 842). A king's expedition arrived in and pillaged Lisbon in 798, probably concerted with the Carolingians.<ref>{{cite book | author = Collins, Roger| year = 1989 | title = The Arab Conquest of Spain 710–797 | publisher = Blackwell |location = Oxford, UK / Cambridge, US|isbn= 978-0-631-19405-7|page=212}}</ref>

The Asturian kingdom became firmly established with the recognition of Alfonso II as king of Asturias by [[Charlemagne]] and the Pope. During his reign, the bones of [[James, son of Zebedee|St. James the Great]] were declared to have been found in Galicia, at [[Santiago de Compostela]]. Pilgrims from all over Europe opened a channel of communication between the isolated Asturias and the Carolingian lands and beyond, centuries later.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-07-31 |title=The Way of St. James – Bodega Tandem |url=https://tandem.es/en/camino/ |access-date=2022-08-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210731161327/https://tandem.es/en/camino/ |archive-date=31 July 2021 }}</ref>