Al Andalus, a land of Islam for a thousand years

KHADIJA MARTINEZ argues, citing authoritative sources, that there was no ‘invasion’ of Spain by the Muslims as is widely claimed. When Tariq ibn Ziyad landed on the peninsula, there was already a Muslim presence in Spain.

IN 1936, a military coup took place to unseat the left-wing Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic.

After a bloody civil war, which cost a million lives, the Republicans surrendered on April 1, 1939, to the forces of General Francisco Franco who went on to establish a military dictatorship.

Franco, whose dictatorial rule lasted 40 years, was a militant Catholic. He imposed the Catholic creed as the only one allowed and wiped out any last remains of the Muslim heritage still present in the people.

He forbade festivals in villages which still had some connection with the Islamic past and demolished sites where people still knew that walis of Allah were buried – we could say that he was the last of the Crusaders.

He was so keen on reinforcing the Christian version of history that he gave the responsibility of rewriting the history of Spain to a well known Christian historian.

He facilitated him in every way to access hidden archives, instructing him not to copy the official history as it was written up to that date but to engage in a thorough investigation, especially regarding the 800 years that Islam was present in the lands.