GOD’S CRUCIBLE
ALSO BY
DAVID LEVERING LEWIS
W. E. B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919–1963
W. E. B. Du Bois: A Reader (editor)
W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868–1919
The Race to Fashoda: European Colonialism and African Resistance
When Harlem Was in Vogue
District of Columbia: A Bicentennial History
Prisoners of Honor: The Dreyfus Affair
King: A Biography
The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader (editor)
A Small Nation of People: W. E. B. Du Bois and African American Portraits of Progress (coauthored
with Deborah Willis)
GOD’S CRUCIBLE
ISLAM AND THE MAKING OF EUROPE,
David Levering Lewis
W. W. NORTON
New York London
570 TO 1215
Some images in this ebook are not displayed owing to permissions issues.
Copyright © 2008 by David Levering Lewis
All rights reserved
First Edition
Excerpt from The Song of Roland, translated, with an introduction and notes by Glyn Burgess. Penguin
Classics, 1990. Copyright © Glyn Burgess, 1990. Reproduced by permission of Penguin Books Ltd.
Excerpt of “Battle of Alfuente,” from Medieval Iberia:
Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources. Olivia R. Constable, ed.
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997. Reprinted by permission of the University of Pennsylvania
Press.
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, W. W.
Norton & Company, Inc.,
500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lewis, David L., 1936–
God’s crucible: Islam and the making of Europe, 570 to 1215 /
David Levering Lewis.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN: 978-0-393-06790-3
1. Europe—History—476–1492. 2. Europe—Civilization—Islamic influences. 3. Civilization,
Medieval. I. Title.
D117.L48 2008
940.1—dc22
2007038000
W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110
www.wwnorton.com
W. W. Norton & Company Ltd.
Castle House, 75/76 Wells Street, London W1T 3QT
234567890
To Marissa
Contents
LIST OF MAPS
CHRONOLOGY
NOTES ON USAGE
PREFACE
1. The Superpowers
2. “The Arabs Are Coming!”
3. “Jihad!"
4.The Co-opted Caliphate and the Stumbling Jihad
5. The Year 711
6. Picking Up the Pieces after Rome
7. The Myth of Poitiers
8. The Fall and Rise of the Umayyads
9. Saving the Popes
10. An Empire of Force and Faith
11. Carolingian Jihads: Roncesvalles and Saxony
12. The Great Mosque
13. The First Europe, Briefly
14. Equipoise—Delicate and Doomed
15. Disequilibrium, Pelayo’s Revenge
16. Knowledge Transmitted, Rationalism Repudiated: Ibn Rushd and Musa ibn Maymun
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
NOTES
GLOSSARY
GENEALOGIES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CREDITS
Images in this book are not displayed owing to permissive issues
List of Maps
Middle Eastern Empires, Late Sixth Century CE
Terminal Conflict between Eastern Roman Empire and Sassanian Iran
The Conquest of Spain and Portugal
The Ta’ifa Kingdoms of Iberia
Christian Spain and Muslim Enclave
Chronology
53 BCE: Marcus Licinius Crassus attacks the Parthians
260 CE: Shapur defeats and captures Publius Licinius Valerian
325: Council of Nicaea
378: Tervingi and Greuthingi, barbarians, destroy Roman legions; Emperor Valens commits suicide
380: Theodosius declares Christianity official faith of Roman Empire
409–410: Barbarians cross Pyrenees into Iberian peninsula
410: Sack of Rome
451: Battle of Châlons: Roman coalition of Franks and Visigoths withstands Attila’s Huns
476: Downfall of Western Roman Empire
482–511: Clovis I founds, rules (Catholic) Merovingian Frankish kingdom
507: Clovis defeats Gothic ruler Alaric II at Vouillé
527–565: Reign of Justinian I, “last Roman emperor”
531–579: Khosrow I rules as king of Sassanian Empire
570: Birth of Muhammad
589: Third Toledo Council; Visigoth monarchy embraces Catholicism
591: Peace between Maurice of Eastern Roman Empire and Khosrow II
603: Iran (Khosrow II) declares war on Eastern Roman Empire
610: Angel Gabriel visits Muhammad
614: Shahrbaraz occupies Jerusalem and removes True Cross from Church of the Resurrection
622:Hijra: Muhammad goes to Yathrib, initiating struggle with Mecca; Heraclius defeats Iranians in
Cappadocia, first in series of Graeco-Roman victories
624: Battle of Badr
625: Battle of Uhud
627: Battle of the Trench; Battle of Nineveh: Heraclius defeats Sassanian army
628: Treaty of Hudaybiyya
629: Jews of Khaybar oasis put to the sword; Muhammad sends invasion force into Jordan
630: Muhammad enters Mecca; peace treaty ratified between Iranians and Graeco-Romans
632: Muhammad dies, sparking struggle for succession
634: Abu Bakr, the first caliph, dies, after having started to assemble the Qur’an
636: Caliph ‘Umar’s armies commence conquest with the Battle of Jabiya-Yarmuk against GraecoRomans
641: ‘Amr ibn al-As occupies Alexandria
642: Zoroastrian Iran collapses with battles of al-Qadisiyya (636–37) and Nihawand (642)
644: ‘Umar, second rashidun caliph, stabbed to death by Iranian slave; ‘Uthman becomes third caliph
650–656: Definitive Qur’an produced under ‘Uthman ibn Affan
656: Ali becomes caliph; first Muslim civil war (fitna); so-called coup d’état by Grimoald
661: Ali dies; Dar al-Islam divides into warring clans; Mu’awiya becomes first Umayyad caliph
680: Mu’awiya’s son Yazid becomes first caliph through heredity rather than deliberation; death of
Muhammad’s grandson Husayn at Karbala
682: Berbers defeat and kill Uqba ibn Nafi, roll Arabs back to Qayarawan (Kairouan)
684: Battle of Marj Rahit
686–741: Rule of Charles Martel
690: Arabs fight Graeco-Romans, taking Carthage and removing Roman superpower from Africa
711: Conquest of Iberia: Tariq ibn Ziyad crosses Strait of Gibraltar; Battle of Guadalete
712: Musa ibn Nusayr arrives in southern Spain, June–July
716: Battle of Amblève: Martel secures his power base
717–718: Covadonga: Pelayo and followers skirmish with Arab unit; siege of Constantinople
721: Battle of Toulouse: Frankish Duke Odo defeats Umayyad army; Arabs take Carcassonne and
Nîmes
731: Duke Odo of Aquitaine’s defeat; Arabs and Berbers invade southwestern Gaul
732: Battle of Poitiers (Moussais-la-Bataille)
739–740: Uqba ibn al-Hajjaj al-Saluli invades Charles Martel’s Francia
741: Battle of the Nobles
749: Abu Muslim’s forces capture Kufa; Aistulf becomes Lombard king
750: Overthrow of Umayyad Caliphate
750–1258: Abbasid Caliphate: al-Mansur moves capital from Damascus to Baghdad
751: Battle of Talas in T’ang China; Arabs discover China’s papermaking secrets; end of Merovingian
dynasty
754: Pippin the Short crowned king by Pope Stephen II, starting Carolingian dynasty; invades
Lombard stronghold at Pavia
756–788: ‘Abd al-Rahman I, amir of al-Andalus
759: Arabs lose Narbonne
763: Battle of Carmona: ‘Abd al-Rahman I attacks Yemeni forces
768: Death of Pippin I, succeeded by his sons Charlemagne and Carloman
771: Death of Carloman: Charlemagne becomes sole ruler
772/775–780: Charlemagne’s campaigns against Saxons
773/74: Charlemagne’s conquest of the Lombard kingdom; first expedition to Rome; Charlemagne
names himself king of the Franks and the Lombards
778: Roncevalles (Roncevaux): Charlemagne’s campaign to al-Andalus
782: Saxon revolt under Widukind; massacre at Verden; ‘Abd al-Rahman I takes Zaragoza
785: Construction of La Mezquita started under ‘Abd al-Rahman I; baptism of Widukind at Attigny
786: Harun al-Rashid, greatest of Abbasid caliphs, begins his reign
788: Charlemagne, with Pope Adrian’s blessing, takes Tassilo’s lands; ‘Abd al-Rahman I dies 792–
793: Revolt of Pippin the Hunchback against his father, Charlemagne
793: Muslims, under Hisham I, invade Asturias, Navarra, Septimania, and Languedoc
795: Avar kingdom destroyed; Charlemagne’s Spanish March
800: Christmas Day coronation of Charlemagne as emperor by Pope Leo III
805: Al-Rabad conspiracy in Cordoba
814: Death of Charlemagne, succeeded by his son Louis the Pious
843: Treaty of Verdun
844: Battle of Clavijo
846: Arabs pillage Rome: St. Peter’s and St. Paul’s looted
850S: Death of Christian fanatics dubbed “Mozarabic martyrs”
909: Fatimids establish Shi’ite Tunisian caliphate
912–961: ‘Abd al-Rahman III reigns; assumes title of caliph in 929
928:Amir ‘Abd al-Rahman III conquers Bobastro
929: ‘Abd al-Rahman III constructs Madinat al-Zahra
976–1002: “Reign” of al-Mansur
1009: Cordovan revolt against Amirids; destruction of Madinat al-Zahra and death of Hisham II
1027: Ibn Hazm publishes The Ring of the Dove
1031: Formal dissolution of Cordoba’s Umayyad Caliphate; emergence of ta’ifas1040S: Ferdinand
invades Muslim region of Galicia
1064: Norman, French, and Italian troops attack Barbastro in northern Spain
1085: Muslim surrender of Toledo to Alfonso VI (“the Brave”) of Castile 1086: Almoravids arrive;
Yusuf ibn Tashufin defeats Alfonso VI in Battle of Zallaqa
1095: Pope Urban II summons First Crusade
1128: Portugal emerges from Castilian dominance
1143: Latin translation of Qur’an by Robert of Ketton
1147: Almohads arrive (Ibn Tumart)
1148: Moses Maimonides and family flee Cordoba for Almeria
1171: Averroës is gadi in Cordoba
1190: Maimonides’s Guide for the Perplexed
1198–1216: Papacy of Innocent III
1212: Battle of Las Navas de Toloso (battle in Iberia between Muslims and Christians)
1215: Fourth Lateran Council and sumptuary decree against Jews; Albigensian Crusade
Notes on Usage
TIME UNFOLDS in this book within two eras: Before the Common Era (BCE) and in the Common Era
(CE) in which we still live. The presumptuous “Before Christ” (BC) and “anno Domini” (AD) cede to
an ecumenism cognizant of historical interdependence and parity. I recognize, however, that the
convenience of this notation along with the pluralistic rationale animating it will not satisfy many
Muslim readers, for the compelling reason that “real time” begins in Islam with the hijra (anno
Hegirae)—the departure of the Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE. Ideally,
therefore, significant Common Era dates such as the defeat of the Iranian empire at al-Qadisiyya in
636 and the conquest of Visigothic Spain in 711 might have been rendered contiguously as AH 14 and
AH 92, respectively. Only in rare instances has this been done, however. Similarly, two or three
instances excepted, the reader will find no corresponding dates from the Hebrew calendar whose
foundational year (anno mundi) is computed 3760 AM years before the Common Era.
The time is fast approaching when Arabic names and terms, unfamiliar and difficult though they
are to people formed by Western culture, should be reproduced in historical works intended for a wide
readership avid for information and understanding precisely as they are written in Standard Arabic
with their diacritical notations. Because we are still some years away from such literacy, however, an
author’s challenge is to make the unfamiliar and difficult congenial without travesty or trivialization.
For the most part, diacritical marks have been omitted in the transliteration from Arabic. Exceptions
obtain in cases where recent academic literature in English discloses a degree of uniformity in
preserving certain prominent personalities, important place names, and significant terms and concepts
more or less close to the original Arabic. Readers acquainted with Spanish history may find it
occasionally necessary to think twice before recognizing ‘Abd al-Rahman or al-Mansur as the more
familiar Abderaman or Almanzor.
The reader will encounter Latin and an abundance of terms from European languages other than
English, doubtless some of which might better have served their purpose translated, notwithstanding a
loss in aural resonance. Most foreign words here are essential. They are integral to this book’s
narrative and, aided where needed by a comprehensive glossary, well worth the reader’s patience.