Henry Kamen: Muslim Roots Run Deep in Spain

Henry Kamen, the author of Empire: How Spain Became a World Power, 1492-1763, in the LAT (March 21, 2004):

More than any other Western country, Spain has lived on intimate terms with Islam. For 700 years, from the 8th century to the 15th century, Muslims ruled the greater part of the country. They profoundly changed its culture, its food and its art. But they gradually lost their political hold and by the 13th century were in retreat. The last Muslim king in Spain left his capital, the city of Granada, in 1492, the year that Christopher Columbus set out on his voyage of discovery to the New World. That was the end of Muslim power, but hundreds of thousands of Muslims continued to live in Christian Spain until they were expelled in the 17th century. Spaniards thought that it was the end of their experience of Islam. The ancient Moorish palaces were allowed to crumble into rubble.

Spanish interest in the Muslim past was awakened in the 19th century, and then, quite improbably, by an American. Washington Irving had already attained considerable success with his books in the United States. His visit to Spain in 1815 so inspired him that he remained in Europe for 17 years, publishing first a history of the"Conquest of Granada" (1829) and then"Alhambra" (1832), which was about the history and legends of Moorish Spain. When Irving visited the palace of the Alhambra in Granada, it was nothing but a ghostly ruin. But his romantic evocation of its past caught the imagination of the public everywhere and stirred the Spanish authorities to take a renewed interest in their heritage.

Realizing that they had once had a Muslim destiny, Spanish writers, artists and, above all, politicians set out to recover it. Their view was a wholly idealized one. Writers of the Romantic school produced plays and novels about a past that had never really existed, in which Christians and Muslims lived together like brothers, frequently warring but always respecting each other. Historians represented Spain as a crucible of civilizations, in which the coexistence of Christians and Muslims set an example of a tolerant society. In their annual celebrations, still seen today, towns staged mock combat of Christians against Moors.

There was, however, an aggressive side to this historical re-creation, because Spaniards were always taught that they had" conquered" the Muslims. Politicians started looking for territories to conquer, and the closest candidate was Muslim Africa. Since the 15th century, Spain had occupied a couple of small towns on the African coast. In 1859, Spanish generals led a military campaign into Morocco to give Spaniards pride in their imperial prowess. The commitment to war against the Muslims absorbed Spanish leaders for more than 50 years but came to an abrupt end when the army was annihilated by Muslim tribesmen in 1921."Morocco," a politician wrote,"was our last chance to hold our heads high in Europe."

Morocco did not retain good memories of the Spaniards, which must be borne in mind when assessing why the terrorists chose Madrid as a target....