The People of Gibraltar

2020 – Once upon a time in Islamic Gibraltar

An illustration in an Islamic manuscript showing a gathering of unnamed literary men (12th century)

Quite a few people have given me a hand researching some of the thousand odd articles I have written about Gibraltar. Generally, I have tended to thank and acknowledge their help at the end of each particular essay. In this case, however, I will break with my own tradition and offer my acknowledgment at the very start of this series of no less than 50 odd articles – none of which I would have been able to write without the help of Rafael Fernández

Social media friendships tend to be superficial - we came across each other on several Facebook groups - and I am still not sure whether he is a professional historian or just a gifted amateur. Whatever he is, there is little doubt in my mind that what he doesn’t know about the history of Islamic Spain just isn’t worth knowing.

The truth is that he didn’t just correct my many mistakes - he practically rewrote my efforts, suggesting alternatives and supplying me with digital copies of a wealth of appropriate literature that I would never have been able to lay my hands on otherwise.

Gracias Rafael, no sabes cuanto he aprendido durante estos últimos meses. La verdad que todavía me sorprende que seguiste ayudándome, a pesar de mis continuos y múltiples errores.

So, what is this series all about?

Well . . . the way I see it as a very amateur historian, many of the main arguments about the role of Gibraltar in the Islamic conquest of Iberia - and its later interventions as part of al-Andalus - are mostly based on what can be learned from manuscripts complied by Islamic and Christian medieval writers and geographers.

Modern historians have of course attempted to back up their interpretations with whatever archaeological evidence might be available. Unfortunately, in the case of Gibraltar, this hands-on approach has always proved difficult to carry out - results tending to be relatively ambiguous with one or two exceptions.

An important dig - by Gibraltar standards at any rate - carried out in Casemates Square – site of the Islamic Dar-al-Sinaha – or arsenal. It produced hard-copy proof of the existence of a galley house - or atarazana – as mentioned more than once in medieval literature.

My extended article is simply an attempt to describe the Islamic history of the Rock - as viewed from several different perspectives - starting off from 711 AD now more or less acknowledged as the year in which the Islamic conquest began. Gibraltar then remained in Muslim hands - other then from 1309 when it was captured and kept by Christian forces for about twenty odd years and was then retaken by the Muslims.

The Islamic presence in Iberia gradually decreased until the end of 15th century when the Catholic Monarchs finally managed to reclaim the entire peninsula after having lost most of it 700 years previously.