Toledo War

Toledo Strip

H5N1 long-running border dispute betwixt Michigan in addition to Ohio was eventually settled through a metro operation. At 1 A.M. on 7 September 1835, Colonel Mathias Van Fleet chose 30 of his best Ohio militiamen, each armed alongside a musket in addition to 2 pistols.

They rode into Toledo alongside members of the Lucas County Court to enforce the orders of Governor Robert Lucas. By candlelight in addition to alongside guards standing watch, the courtroom conducted its concern inward secret session.

This covert coming together of Ohio officials exercising jurisdiction inside the disputed Toledo Strip virtually settled the boundary disceptation that had raged for years alongside numerous skirmishes threatening confrontation betwixt the militias of the nation of Ohio in addition to the territory of Michigan.


The number that led to hostilities over the Ohio–Michigan boundary resulted from an inaccurate survey in addition to conflicting linguistic communication inward 4 documents. As Michigan moved closer to statehood, the precise boundary became increasingly important.

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 provided for the admission of iii states, Ohio, Indiana, in addition to Illinois, in addition to specified that “if Congress shall uncovering it expedient, they shall conduct keep the authorisation to shape i or 2 [additional] states inward that share of the said [Northwest] Territory, which lies due north of an eastward in addition to W employment drawn through the southerly curvature or extreme of Lake Michigan” (1 Stat. 51).

The Ohio Enabling Act of 30 Apr 1802, every bit passed past times Congress in addition to signed past times the president, laid the northern boundary of Ohio as: “an eastward in addition to W employment drawn through the southerly extreme of Lake Michigan, running eastward after intersecting the due due north employment from the oral cavity of the Great Miami River, until it shall intersect Lake Erie, or the territorial line, in addition to thence alongside the same through Lake Erie to the Pennsylvania line” (2 Stat. 173).

On the advice of an onetime fur trapper who was familiar alongside the remote expanse inward question, the Ohio Constitutional Convention added department 6 to Article VII of its novel constitution, proclaiming:

That if the southerly curvature or extreme of Lake Michigan should extend so far south, that a employment drawn due eastward from it should non intersect Lake Erie, or if it should intersect said Lake eastward of the oral cavity of the Miami river of the Lake, so in addition to inward that case, alongside the assent of the Congress of the United States, the northern boundary of the State shall travel established by, in addition to extend to, a direct employment running from the southerly extremity of Lake Michigan to the most northerly cape of the Miami Bay, Maumee, after intersecting the due due north employment from the oral cavity of the Great Miami river every bit aforesaid, thence, northeast to the Territorial employment in addition to past times the said Territorial employment to the employment of Pennsylvania. (2 Stat. 201)

When Congress admitted Ohio to statehood, it accepted the Ohio Constitution alongside the improver of department 6, but it did non expressly approve the added section.

Louis Joliet’s eighteenth-century map of the Great Lakes created the error. John Mitchell, a Virginia botanist, physician, in addition to swain of the Royal Society, accepted Joliet’s plot when he mapped western America for the British Lords of Trade. His drawing became the authorisation for the Proclamation Line of 1763 in addition to the Peace Treaty of 1782. Thomas Hutchins, geographer-general of the United States, endorsed it.

The mistake inward the maps arose from the false belief that a employment of latitude drawn eastward from the southern tip of Lake Michigan would nail Lake Erie somewhere due north of Maumee Bay. Lake Michigan genuinely extends so far that a employment of latitude drawn eastward from its southern extremity strikes Lake Erie southeast, non north, of Maumee Bay.

In 1807, 1809, in addition to 1811 the Ohio legislature instructed the state’s congressional delegation to conduct keep the national authorities ready its boundary line. On 20 May 1812, Congress directed the surveyor-general to score the boundary on a due east-west line, but the War of 1812 prevented immediate action.

After the war, on 22 August 1816, Deputy Surveyor William Harris discovered that a employment due eastward from the most southern indicate of Lake Michigan intersected Lake Erie 7 miles due south of the most northerly cape of Maumee Bay.

Harris plotted a employment direct from the southern tip of Lake Michigan to the northern cape of Maumee Bay inward conformity alongside department 6 of the Ohio Constitution, non inward accordance alongside the state’s enabling act.

The adjacent yr Governor Lewis Cass of the Michigan Territory protested that the employment took a strip of land, including the urban substance of Toledo, “seven miles in addition to forty-nine chains” broad from Michigan in addition to gave it to Ohio. On 24 June 1818, Secretary of the Treasury William H. Crawford agreed alongside Cass in addition to directed the commissioner of the Land Office to conduct keep the northern boundary of Ohio redrawn to handgrip alongside the social club of 1812.

The disceptation continued for years. Then, every bit progress halted inward Congress, a newly appointed acting governor of the Territory, twenty-seven-year-old, Virginia-born Stevens T. Mason, sent a alphabetic lineament to Ohio governor Lucas, stating that his legislature had passed a constabulary on 26 Dec 1834 opposing whatsoever measures to rob Michigan of its soil.

He said he had appointed iii commissioners to run into alongside a similar number from Ohio to accommodate the boundary. On 6 Feb 1835, Governor Lucas informed his legislature of Mason’s proposal. He said he did non wishing to appoint whatsoever commissioners in addition to requested the legislature to declare Ohio authorisation all the means to the Harris employment in addition to to direct local officials to practise jurisdiction over the Toledo Strip.

Michigan responded alongside a statute of 12 Feb 1835 “to preclude unusual jurisdiction” inside the limits of its territory, providing penalties of $1,000 fine or v years’ difficult project or both for persons other than Michigan officials exercising authorisation inward the area.

The confrontation grew. Both sides anticipated armed conflict. On nine March, Governor Mason wrote to General Joseph W. Brown, commander of the Michigan Militia Third Division:

[Y]ou volition perceive that a collision betwixt Ohio in addition to Michigan is instantly inevitable, in addition to yous volition thence travel prepared to run into the crisis .... You volition role every exertion to obtain the earliest data of the military machine movements of our adversary, every bit I shall assume the responsibleness of sending yous such arms, etc., every bit may travel necessary for your successful operation, without waiting for an social club from the Secretary of War, so shortly every bit Ohio is properly inward the field. (Killits, 140)

Governor Lucas alongside members of his staff in addition to General John Bell, commanding the 17th Division of the Ohio Militia, marched into Perrysburg inward the disputed territory alongside surveyors to attain down mark the Harris employment on 31 March.

Michigan conducted iii raids. Between midnight in addition to 3 A.M. on the morning time of 8 April, the sheriff of Monroe County in addition to his posse rode into Toledo, broke into 2 homes, in addition to seized a twosome of people.

Three days afterward they returned, pulled downward Ohio’s flag, dragged it through the streets, threatened around of the residents, in addition to indicted several persons for belongings Ohio office. Another laid on of nearly 200 posse men failed to bring whatsoever prisoners since most officers had fled.

As the armies prepared to engage, the president appointed 2 commissioners, Richard Rush of Pennsylvania in addition to Colonel Benjamin C. Howard of Maryland, who arrived inward Perrysburg on 6 April.

They conferred alongside the governors, examined a few witnesses, ordered running the Harris line, in addition to recommended to the residents of the expanse that they should select which authorisation to obey. But on 25 Apr a Michigan forcefulness of over 50 men captured nine members of the survey political party after firing nigh xl shots, i piercing the wearing clothing of a surveyor.

Hostilities continued. On xv July the deputy sheriff of Monroe County, Michigan, rode into Toledo in addition to made 150 arrests. When the deputy tried to arrest Two Stickney, the homo drew his knife in addition to inflicted a 4-inch slash to the manus of the Michigan officer. Later that twenty-four hours Michigan forces returned, broke into the local newspaper, demolished its press, in addition to arrested Stickney in addition to vi or 7 others.

On 6 September Governor Mason invaded Toledo alongside an armed militia of 1,200. They threatened to give notice the town, shot a horse, i time again damaged the paper office, in addition to laid give notice to a cornfield. Even after the secret 7 September coming together a few skirmishes continued. For example, on nine September a Michigan sheriff captured an Ohio sheriff inward a 100-shot battle inward which i homo was wounded.

President Jackson removed Mason from share in addition to appointed a novel territorial governor to attain harmony. Then, inward Oct the people of Michigan petitioned Congress for statehood, adopted a constitution, in addition to elected Mason their get-go governor. On 2 March 1836, the House Judiciary Committee reported a mouth to acknowledge Michigan to the Union, minus the 500-square-mile Toledo Strip but alongside the 20,000-square-mile Upper Peninsula.

The mouth became enmeshed inward the slavery controversy, so that Michigan, a costless state, was eventually paired alongside Arkansas, a slave state. Finally, on 7 Jan 1837, Toledo held a gala celebration every bit share of Ohio, in addition to Michigan was admitted to statehood on 26 Jan 1837.

Diego de Almagro

Diego de Almagro

A leading figure in the conquest of Peru Diego de Almagro launched a rebellion against the Pizarro brothers around Cuzco that convulsed the newly conquered Andean territories in civil war (1537–38) and led to his own death by garroting at the hands of Hernando Pizarro.

Almagro’s mestizo son, also named Diego de Almagro (Almagro the Younger), nominally headed the Almagrist faction that murdered Francisco Pizarro in 1541, but he, too, was captured and executed in 1542. The name Almagro thus has come to be associated with internecine conflicts among Spaniards during the most tumultuous years of the conquest of the New World.

Both sides held substantial encomiendas in Panama, and in 1524 Diego de Almagro and Francisco Pizarro formed a partnership for exploration and conquest along the Pacific coast of South America. After two exploratory expeditions (1524 and 1526–28), Pizarro returned to Spain in mid-1528 and in Toledo received sanction for conquest from King Charles.

The seeds of later dissension were sown in this Toledo agreement, as Pizarro was named governor and captain-general of Peru, and Almagro given the much lesser title of commandant of Tumbez, an Incan city they had encountered in the Gulf of Guayaquil and the anticipated site of a new bishopric.


During the third expedition, which resulted in Pizarro’s capture of the Incan Atahualpa in Cajamarca in November 1532, Almagro stayed behind in Panama, where he had taken ill. He rejoined Pizarro in April 1533 at Cajamarca, bringing some 150 Spanish reinforcements.

Almagro’s men received a much smaller share of Atahualpa’s ransom than did Pizarro’s, sharpening the factionalism between the two leaders and their followers. After their combined forces had taken and ransacked Cuzco, Pizarro sent Almagro and Sebastián de Benalcázar north to defeat the last substantial Inca military force and to prevent rival conquistador Pedro de Alvarado from seizing Quito first.

They succeeded. Alvarado returned to Guatemala with a handsome bribe to ensure his departure; Almagro returned to Cuzco; and Pizarro went to the coast to found the new capital city of Lima. About this time, in early 1535, news arrived that King Charles had divided Peru, with Pizarro awarded the northern portion and Almagro the southern.

The actual document not yet in hand, rumors flourished among partisans of both camps that their leader had been awarded Cuzco. Open civil war was avoided by Francisco Pizarro, who persuaded his old comrade Almagro to head an expedition south into Chile.

Almagro’s Chilean campaign (July 1535–April 1537) turned out to be a disaster, with no treasure but much hardship, many cruelties against the natives, and much native resistance. Upon his return to Cuzco in April 1537, Almagro was determined to wrest the city from Hernando and Gonzalo Pizarro.

His forces took the city, for a year. A bitter civil war ensued between the two factions and their Indian allies. Hernando Pizarro was released, Gonzalo escaped, and both joined forced with Francisco on the coast.

Marching inland, the forces of the Pizarro brothers roundly defeated the Almagrist faction in the Battle of Las Salinas, just outside Cuzco, on April 26, 1538. In July 1538, in Cuzco, Hernando Pizarro had Almagro garroted. Almagrist feeling against the Pizarros still ran high, however, culminating in the faction’s murder of Francisco Pizarro in Lima in June 1541.

Diego de Almagro the Younger, a figurehead, ruled Lima for the next year, until the new viceroy, Vaca de Castro, definitively crushed the Almagrist faction on September 16, 1542 in the Battle of Chupas, just outside the city of Huamanga, and had its young mestizo leader executed. Thus ended the bitter civil war between the Pizzarist and Almagrist factions in Peru.

The conflict was emblematic of intra-Spanish divisions in the conquest of the Americas, in its violence and factionalism comparable to the civil wars between the conquistadores of Central America a few years earlier.

Conquest of Peru

Conquest of Peru

Following on the heels of the Spanish conquest of the Caribbean, conquest of Mexico, and conquest of Central America, the conquest of Peru was a long, complex, and bloody process marked by recurrent civil wars among factions of Spaniards and fierce Native resistance against Spanish efforts to subjugate them.

The conquest’s beginnings in 1532 with the first Spanish incursions into the Andean highlands are easier to mark than its ending, which is conventionally dated to 1572 with the destruction of the remnant Inca state of Vilcabamba and the execution of the last Inca, Tupac Amaru.

Some scholars maintain that the conquest was never fully completed, as Peru’s indigenous peoples resisted Spanish domination throughout the colonial period, sometimes in armed rebellion, more often in less violent and more subtle ways, including the retention of many cultural and religious beliefs and practices. Few would disagree that the conquest of Peru represents one of the bloodiest chapters in the history of the Americas.


In the early 1520s, with the conquest of Central America well under way and a launching-off point at Panama City on the Pacific side of the isthmus, the Spanish were poised to turn their attention to the Pacific coast of South America.

The first exploratory expedition was in 1522 under Pascual de Andagoya, who sailed 200 miles south along the Colombian coast in search of a people called the Viru or Biru, a name later corrupted to Perú. Further expeditions followed.

In November 1524, Francisco Pizarro, Diego de Almagro, and the priest Hernando de Luque sailed as far south as the Port of Hunger along the Colombian coast before turning back. A second Pizarro-Almagro expedition sailed two years later and discovered tantalizing hints of an advanced civilization in the interior. Pizarro returned to Spain to seek royal authority for an expedition of conquest.

His arrival coincided with Hernán Cortés’s return from his dazzling successes in Mexico, which whetted the appetite of the Crown and drew many adventurers to Pizarro’s side. On July 26, 1529, the queen granted Pizarro the authority he had sought, along with the title governor and captain-general of Peru.

Almagro was named commandant of Tumbez, a lesser title that sowed the seeds of future conflict between the two men. Pizarro and Almagro returned to Panama and launched their third expedition on December 27, 1530.

After a slow and cautious beginning, on November 8, 1532, Pizarro began his march into the Andean mountains. By this time, much of the Andean population had been ravaged by virulent European diseases, especially smallpox, that had spread overland from Central America and northern South America years before the Spanish set foot in the Andes.

By weakening the Inca Empire, these diseases proved to be one of the Spaniards’ most important allies. Pizarro’s turn into the mountains could not have been more propitiously timed.

The recent death of the Inca Huayna-Capac from an unknown disease had created crisis of dynastic succession and civil war among the Inca, leading his sons Huascar and Atahualpa to contend for supremacy. Huscar headed the Cuzco faction of the Inca royal family; Atahualpa, the Quito faction.

By stunning good fortune, Atahualpa’s 7,000-strong army was camped in the mountain valley of Cajamarca, near Pizarro’s line of march. Pizarro and his 150 men boldly marched straight into the valley.

After some initial friendly interactions with the Inca, Pizarro launched a surprise attack on November 16, 1532, and slaughtered the Inca’s entire force. As was the case throughout the Peruvian campaign, Inca weaponry proved no match for Spanish steel, armor, and horses.

The arquebus, the most sophisticated firearm in the Spanish arsenal, played little role in the conquest. Swords, pikes, and horses proved their most valuable weapons. Time after time, small numbers of Spaniards proved able to defeat vastly larger native armies.

With the Inca Atahualpa now his prisoner, Pizarro demanded a huge ransom of gold and precious objects for his release. Over the next eight months, trains of native porters carted massive amounts of treasure into Cajamarca.

Meanwhile, convinced that the Spaniards represented no threat to the empire, Atahualpa arranged for the murder of his brother Huascar, thus eliminating his brother’s claim to the Inca throne. Pizarro had no intention of honoring his part of the bargain. On July 26, 1533, after a month of melting down and distributing the loot among his men, he executed Atahualpa.

One of the signal events of the conquest, Atahualpa’s execution remained a key moment in divergent Spanish interpretations regarding the morality of the conquistadores’ actions. Almagro’s force of 150 men arrived soon after the division of spoils, of which they received a small share. The unequal distribution of loot generated lasting animosities between the Almagro and Pizarro factions.

By this time, Pizarro’s scouts had probed the vulnerabilities of the Inca capital in Cuzco. Recognizing the need for a puppet Inca to invest political legitimacy into the Spaniards’ anticipated domination of Peru, Pizarro arranged the crowning of Huascar’s younger brother, Tupac Huallpa, as Inca.

It was a pattern repeated numerous times in the coming years. Meanwhile, Francisco Pizarro’s brother Hernando returned to Spain with the Crown’s requisite “royal fifth” of the treasure.

News of the events spread quickly throughout Spain and Europe. Recruiting drives for additional soldiers saw great success, while also planting the seeds of future conflict between Spaniards who had profited from the initial successes and fresh arrivals whose hunger for treasure would go unfulfilled.

Back in Peru in August 1533, Francisco Pizarro, Almagro, and their men began their march toward Cuzco, 750 miles south along the Inca road. En route, in October, the puppet Inca Tupac Huallpa died.

After numerous battles in which the vastly outnumbered Spanish roundly defeated their Inca attackers, Pizarro’s force of several hundred men entered Cuzco on November 15, 1533. Two days earlier the same day that Pizarro burned alive the leading Inca general Chalcuchima, a second puppet Inca presented himself—Manco Inca, son of Huayna-Capac.

In Cuzco on November 16, 1533, one year after executing Atahualpa, Pizarro appointed Manco Inca as Inca. In December, he was officially crowned. Presenting themselves as liberators, backers of the Cuzco faction in the civil war, the Spaniards quickly took over the city’s most important buildings and palaces.

From this point, divisions among and between Spaniards combined with a series of mass Indian uprisings against the invaders. Almagro, still stinging from the paltry share of treasure received in Cajamarca, was sent south into Chile in search of further riches. Pedro de Alvarado, fresh from his successes in Mexico and Central America, arrived in Ecuador in February 1534 and headed toward Quito.

Hoping to head off Alvarado’s unauthorized invasion, Pizarro’s captain Sebastián de Benalcázar marched on Quito, took the city, and defeated the remaining Inca armies in the north. With looted treasure he bought off Alvarado, who returned to Guatemala, though many of his men remained.

Soon after, in January 1535, Francisco Pizarro founded a new capital city on the coast, Ciudad de los Reyes, later known as Lima, a corruption of its indigenous name.

Meanwhile, disillusioned by the invaders’ avarice and violence, Manco Inca escaped from Cuzco and in early 1536 led a mass uprising against the Spanish, laying siege to Cuzco with some 100,000 troops. The siege faltered as the rainy season began and his army began drifting away.

Manco Inca retreated into the jungle fastnesses of Vilcacamba, where a rump Inca state resisted Spanish incursions until its selesai destruction in 1572. Soon after Manco Inca lifted the siege of Cuzco in early 1537, Almagro’s expedition returned from Chile, exhausted and empty-handed. Open civil war soon erupted between the Almagro and Pizarro factions.

Almagro was defeated in the Battle of Las Salinas near Cuzco in 1538, after which Hernándo Pizarro executed him, but the war raged on under Almagro’s son, also named Diego de Almagro. In 1541, the Almagrists killed Francisco Pizarro, while a year later Pizarro loyalists under the king’s newly appointed governor Cristóbal Vaca de Castro defeated and killed Almagro the younger.

That same year of 1542 the Crown issued its New Laws, designed to limit the abuses of the encomienda system and prevent the encomenderos from becoming an independent aristocracy beyond royal control. Bridling against these new restrictions on their authority, many encomenderos gravitated toward Gonzalo Pizarro, who violently opposed the New Laws.

After killing the king’s viceroy Blasco Núñez de la Vela in 1546, Gonzalo Pizarro effectively ruled Peru until royalist forces captured, tried, and executed him in 1549. The new viceroy, Pedro de la Gasca, effectively staunched further major challenges to royal authority.

Meanwhile, enormous deposits of silver were discovered in Potosí in 1545, which soon became one of colonial Peru’s main economic pillars. By this time, most Indians had acceded to Spanish authority, though numerous pockets of resistance endured through the 1550s and 1560s, most notably the rump state of Vilcabamba.

In 1572, the new viceroy Francisco de Toledo finally found and crushed Vilcabamba. On September 24 of that year, in the central square of Cuzco, Toledo oversaw the execution of the last Inca, Tupac Amaru.

His execution effectively ended this first phase of organized armed resistance against Spanish domination, though more covert forms of resistance continued for nearly 300 years, while a new round of rebellions, inspired by the first and led by Tupac Amaru II, erupted in the 1780s.

It is not known how many Indians died during the 40 years between the executions of the Incas Atahualpa and Tupac Amaru, though the most conservative estimates range from 3 to 5 million, from a preconquest population of around 7 to 9 million.

As elsewhere, the combination of warfare, atrocity, forced labor, enslavement, and disease caused a precipitous demographic decline, from which populations did not begin to recover until well into the 18th century. As the conquests of the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America that preceded it, the conquest of Peru represents one of the most horrifically violent and destructive episodes in the history of the world.

El Cid

El Cid with Alfonso VI

The title El Cid was given to a Spanish early medieval warrior called Rodrigo (or Ruy) Díaz de Vivar, also known as El Campeador (“the Champion”). After his death, he became a folk jagoan with many Spanish ballads written of his rise from obscurity to lead the Castilians against the Moors.

He was born at Vivar, near Burgos, in the kingdom of Castile; his father a minor Castilian nobleman, but his mother was well connected and ensured that from a young age he attended the court of King Ferdinand I as a member of the household of king’s eldest son, Sancho.

When Sancho succeeded his father as King Sancho II of Castile, he appointed the 22-year-old Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar as his standard bearer as he had already achieved a reputation for valor in battle, taking part in the Battle of Graus in 1063. When Sancho attacked Sargasso in 1067, Rodrigo accompanied him and took part in the negotiations that led the ruler of Sargasso, al-Muqtadir, to acknowledge the overlordship of Sancho.


In 1067 Sancho went to war with his brother Alfonso VI, who had been left the kingdom of León. Some ballads portray El Cid as unwilling to support this invasion, which went against the will of Ferdinand I, but he was likely a willing participant. During the following five years El Cid was a vital military leader on behalf of Sancho. Sancho was killed when laying siege to Zamora. Alfonso, deposed from León, was the heir, and the new king found himself in a difficult political position.

Count García Ordóñez, a bitter enemy of El Cid, became the new standard bearer, but El Cid was able to remain at court, as Alfonso did not want such a tough opponent. It was probably Alfonso who planned the marriage of El Cid to Jimena, daughter of the count of Oviedo. They had a son, Diego Rodriguez, and two daughters. In 1097 Diego was killed in battle in North Africa.

Castilians who had supported Sancho were naturally nervous about Alfonso’s becoming king, and these simmering resentments began to be expressed through El Cid, who served as a conduit for them. In 1079 El Cid was sent to Seville on a mission to the Moorish king.

Coinciding with this trip, García Ordóñez aided Granada in their attack on Seville, but El Cid defeated the forces from Granada at Cabra, capturing García Ordóñez. His easy victory gained him enemies at court. When El Cid attacked the Moors in Toledo (who were allied to Alfonso), the king exiled him, and although he returned some years later, he was never able to remain for long.

El Cid went to work for the Moorish king of Sargasso, serving him and his successor for several years. This gave him a better understanding of Muslim law, which would help him in his later career. In 1082 he led the forces of Sargasso to victory over the Moorish king of Lérida and the count of Barcelona; two years later, undefeated in battle, he defeated the forces of the king of Aragon, Sancho Ramirez. When the Almoravids from Morocco invaded Spain in 1086 and defeated Alfonso’s army, the two were briefly reconciled but soon afterward El Cid returned to Sargasso and did not help prevent the Christians from being overwhelmed.

Instead El Cid focused his attention on becoming the ruler of Valencia. This required political machinations and El Cid had to reduce the influence of other neighboring rulers. The importance of the counts of Barcelona came to an end when Ramon Berenguer II’s forces were decisively defeated at Tebar in May 1090 by El Cid’s Christian and Moorish forces.

El Cid then utilized loopholes in Muslim law when Ibn Jahhaf killed al-Qadir, the ruler of Valencia. He besieged the city, which was controlled by Ibn Jahhaf, and when an Almoravid attempt to lift the siege in December 1093 failed, the city realized it could not hold out for much longer, and in May 1094 it surrendered.

El Cid then proclaimed himself the ruler of Valencia, serving as the chief magistrate and governing for both Christians and Muslims. In law El Cid still owed fealty to Alfonso VI, but in practice he was totally independent of the king. El Cid’s victories encouraged many Christians to move to Valencia and a bishop was appointed. El Cid ruled Valencia until his death on July 10, 1099.

Had El Cid’s only son survived him, there would have been a dynasty, and possibly a new royal house. However that was not the case, and Valencia was ruled by Muslims again until 1238. As he had never been defeated in battle, the story of El Cid, with increasing literary license, became a great ballad for Christians, who overlooked his years working for Moors and hailed him as the jagoan for the “Reconquista”—the retaking of Spain from the Moors.

Christian States of Spain

Christian States of Spain

When the Moors from Morocco invaded Spain in 711, they easily managed to capture most of the Iberian Peninsula with the exception of the area around the Asturian Mountains in the north. When they did get around to attacking that region in 718, the Christians defeated the Moors at the Battle of Covadonga, near Asturias.

The Moors decided to leave that part of Spain unconquered, marking what became the first battle in what the Spanish called the “Reconquista,” or Reconquest of Spain for Christendom. Over the next centuries several Christian kingdoms emerged in Spain, notably Asturias, León, Castile, Aragon, and Navarre.

These gradually expanded and eventually managed to defeat the Moors using their alliances. They ejected them from the Iberian Peninsula in 1492, when Isabella, heir to the throne of Castile, and Ferdinand II, king of Aragon, captured Granada, the last Muslim possession on the peninsula.


Kingdom of Asturias

The kingdom of Asturias was, in origin, a Visigoth kingdom of Spain created by Pelayo (Pelagius), a grandson of King Chindaswinth, who had been defeated by the Moors. Pelayo established his capital at Cangas de Onis, securing his independence with a victory at the Battle of Covadonga. The Moors, rather than sending more soldiers into Asturias, headed into France and in 732 were defeated at the Battle of Tours.

For the next century the Moors were on the defensive and this allowed Pelayo and his successors to rebuild their strength. Pelayo’s son, Favila, became king on his father’s death in 737 but died two years later in a boar hunt. He had no son so his brother-in-law was proclaimed King Alfonso I.

He enlarged the kingdom of Asturias by annexing Galicia in the west, and León in the south. He also extended his lands in the east to the borders of Navarre. When Alfonso died, his cruel son Fruela I came to the throne. One of Fruela’s first acts was to kill his own brother, Bimarano, who he thought wanted the throne. After reigning for 11 years, Fruela was murdered on January 14, 768, and was succeeded by his cousin Aurelius (son of Alfonso’s brother Fruela).

He was, in turn, succeeded by Silo, a nephew, who had married Alfonso I’s daughter. Aurelius had managed to prevent the Moors from attacking by paying them tribute, and all that is known about Silo is that he moved the kingdom’s capital from Cangas de Onis to Pravia. This period coincided with Charlemagne’s invasion of Spain, and his capture of Barcelona.

Silo’s successor, Mauregato, was an illegitimate son of Alfonso I (his mother allegedly being a slave) (r. 783–788) and was alleged to have offered 100 beautiful maidens annually as tribute to the Moors. The next king, Bermudo I, a brother of Aurelius, had been ordained deacon and reluctantly accepted the position as king, abdicating three years later and allowing Alfonso II “The Chaste,” a son of Fruela I, to become king.

Initially people were worried that Alfonso might try to avenge the murder of his father—instead he ruled for 51 years. He had been married to Berta, said to have been a daughter of Pepin, king of the Frankish tribe, but they had no children as he had taken a vow of celibacy.

During his long reign he stabilized the country’s political system amd attacked the Moors, defeating them near the town of Oviedo, which they had recently sacked. Alfonso II was so impressed by the beauty of Oviedo that he moved his court there and proclaimed it his capital. It was to remain capital of the kingdom of Asturias until 910, when León became the new capital.

Work began on the construction of the Oviedo Cathedral, where Alfonso II was eventually buried. Alfonso’s main achievement was that he conquered territory from the Moors, moving the reach of his Christian kingdom into the edges of central Spain. The Moorish king Abd ar-Rahman II (r. 822–852) was, however, able to check the advances of Alfonso, drive back the Franks, and stop a rebellion by Christians and Jews in Toledo.

The next king of Asturias was Ramiro I, a son of Bermudo I. He began his reign by capturing several other claimants to the throne, blinding them, and then confining them to monasteries. As a warrior he managed to defeat a Norman invasion after the Normans had landed at Corunna, and also fought several battles against the Moors. His son, Ordono I, became the next king and was the first to be known as king of Asturias and of León.

Ordono extended the kingdom to Salamanca and was succeeded by his son Alfonso III “The Great.” Alfonso III reigned for 44 years (866–910) and during that time consolidated the kingdom by overhauling the bureaucracy and, then fought the Moors. He managed to enlarge his lands to cover the whole of Asturias, Biscay, Galicia, and the northern part of modern-day Portugal. The southern boundary of his kingdom was along the Duero (Douro) River.

Kingdom of León

Alfonso had three feuding sons who plotted against each other and then against their father. To try to placate them all, Alfonso divided his kingdom into three parts. Garcia became king of León, Ordono became king of Galicia, and Fruela became king of Oviedo (ruling Asturias). This division was short-lived as wars among the young men resulted in all the lands eventually coming together under one ruler.

García only reigned for four years before he died, without any children. Ordono II ruled in Galicia before dying 14 years later and eventually Fruela II “The Cruel,” Alfonso III’s fourth son, who had outlived the others, reunited the kingdom in 924. However he died of leprosy in the following year, with Ordono II’s son’s becoming King Alfonso IV.

He did not want to rule and abdicated in order to spend the rest of his life as a monk. This allowed Alfonso IV’s brother to become King Ramiro II. Soon after this, Alfonso tried to regain the throne, only to be taken by his brother, blinded, and left at the Monastery of St. Julian, where he died soon afterward.

Ramiro II was succeeded by his elder son, Ordono III, and then by a younger son, Sancho I “The Fat.” There were two years when Ordono IV “The Wicked,” a son of Alfonso IV, was king, but then Sancho I’s only son became King Ramiro III. He was five when he became king and the Normans decided to attack again, destroying many coastal towns. Eventually he abdicated and allowed his cousin, Bermudo II, son of Ordoo III, to become king.

It was during the reign of Bermudo II that the Moors attacked and managed to get as far as León. When Bermudo II died in 999, his son Alfonso V was only five, and Don Melindo González, count of Galicia, became regent. In his 20s Alfonso V led his armies into battle against the Moors, recaptured much of León, but was killed in battle with the Moors at Viseu in Portugal, on May 5, 1028.

His only son, Bermudo III, was 13 and during his nine year reign faced more threats from the neighboring Christian kingdom of Castile. In 1037 he was killed at the Battle of the River Carrion fighting King Ferdinand I of Castile, and the kingdom of León, as it was then known, was absorbed into Castile.

Kingdom of Castile and Granada

The kingdom of Castile began as a dependency of León and was controlled by counts. However in 1035 Ferdinand I “The Great” was proclaimed king of Castile and two years later after defeating and killing Bermudo III, became king of Castile and León, ruling for the next 27 years.

These new kings saw themselves as lineal descendants of the heritage of Asturias, even if not by blood. When Ferdinand I died he divided his lands among his children and Sancho received Castile, Alfonso received León and Asturias, García was given Galicia and northern Portugal, his daughter Urraca was given Zamora, and Elvira was given Toro.

This was meant to end squabbling by them but only ended up with much fighting. At this time, a nobleman, Rodrigo Díaz de Bibar, emerged as the great Spanish pahlawan El Cid. Interestingly he later tried to set up his own kingdom of Valencia, which ended in his death. Eventually Alfonso ruled all the lands as Alfonso VI “The Brave,” king of Castile.

Alfonso VI launched a number of attacks on the Moors but most of these were overshadowed by the efforts of El Cid. In 1085 the Christians were able to capture the city of Toledo, and Alfonso reigned until his death in June 1109 at the age of 70. He had five or six wives. His daughter Urraca succeeded Alfonso VI. She married first Raymond, count of Burgundy, and later Alfonso I, king of Aragon.

Her successor was Alfonso VII (r. 1126–1157), titling himself as “Emperor of All Spain.” When he died his lands were divided between his eldest son, Sancho III “the Desired,” who was given Castile; and his second son, Ferdinand II, who was given León.

Sancho III only reigned for a year and his only surviving son became Alfonso VIII, r. 1158–1214. In 1212 he defeated the Moors at the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, giving Castile control over central Spain. When he died, Henry I, his youngest but only surviving son, succeeded him. He died and was succeeded as king of Castile by his nephew Ferdinand III.

Meanwhile in León, Ferdinand II had reigned for 31 years, and when he died in 1188, his brother, Alfonso IX, succeeded him. Alfonso IX’s first wife Teresa, from whom he was divorced, was later canonized as Saint Teresa in 1705. His eldest surviving son with his second wife was Ferdinand, who had already become king of Castile. When Alfonso IX died in 1230, the kingdoms of Castile and León were reunited.

Ferdinand III embarked on a series of wars against the Moors, managing to capture the cities of Córdoba (1236), Jaen (1246), and Seville (1248). With the capture of Seville, the “Reconquista” was almost complete—the Moors held only the city of Granada. The forces of Ferdinand were unable to take that city, although the emir of Granada did acknowledge his overlordship.

Ferdinand III also founded the University of Salamanca, died on May 30, 1252, and was buried in Seville Cathedral. In 1671 Pope Clement X canonized him, and he became St. Ferdinand (San Fernando). Ferdinand’s son, Alfonso X, had two titles, “The Wise,” and “The Astrologer.”

During his reign he codified the laws, wrote poems, and had a large number of scholars produce a great chronicle of Spanish history. One of his advisers, Jehuda ben Moses Cohen, wrote that the king was someone “in whom God and placed intelligence, and understanding and knowledge above all princes of his time.”

He was also elected as King of the Romans in 1257, renouncing the title of Holy Roman Emperor in 1275. However Alfonso X was faced with a dynastic succession crisis. His eldest son, Ferdinand de la Cerda, died in 1275, leaving two young sons, Alfonso X did not want a young boy on the throne so nominated as his successor his second son, Sancho. Ferdinand’s wife championed the cause of her two boys, and Alfonso X’s wife sided with her.

The conflict continued when the French—Ferdinand’s wife was a French princess—declared war on Sancho, who had the support of the Spanish parliament, the Cortes. War seemed inevitable, but when news arrived that Sancho was ill, Alfonso died of grief and despair.

Sancho IV “The Brave” became the next king, his illness being not as serious as was first thought, and after reigning for 11 years, he was succeeded by his son Ferdinand IV “The Summoned,” who was only nine when he became king—his mother ruled ably as regent. Little of note happened during Ferdinand IV’s reign and he gained his title from sentencing to death two brothers who had been accused of murdering a courtier.

They went to their execution protesting their innocence and “summoned” Ferdinand to appear at God’s court of judgment in 30 days. As Ferdinand was only 26 years old at the time he was unconcerned, but on the 30th day after the execution his servants found him dead in bed.

His one-year-old son, Alfonso XI “The Just,” became the next king and in 1337, when he was 13 years old, attacked the Moors of Granada. At the Battle of Río Salado on October 30, 1340, the Spanish, supported by the Portuguese, defeated a Moorish army. It was said to have been the first European battle where cannons were used. Alfonso XI reigned until 1350 when he was 39.

Alfonso was married to Maria of Portugal but spent most of his reign with Leonor de Guzmán, a noble woman who had recently been widowed. Alfonso and Leonor had a large family but when Alfonso died, Leonor was arrested on orders of the queen and taken to Talavera, where she was strangled. The next king was the son of Alfonso and Maria, Pedro I “The Cruel,” who reigned from 1350 until 1366.

During the reign of Pedro I he also married Blanche of Bourbon, cousin of the king of France, but fell in love with Maria de Padilla. Initially Pedro appointed Maria’s friends and family to positions of influence, but some nobles forced the dismissal of supporters and relatives of Maria.

In 1355 he had four of these noblemen stabbed to death, and apparently blood splattered over the dress of his wife, earning Pedro his title “The Cruel.” In 1366 he was deposed by his half brother Henry II of Trastamara, “The Bastard,” but managed to oust Henry and returned as king in the following year, spending the next two years in battles with his half brothers, and assisted by the English led by Edward the “Black Prince.”

These events formed the backdrop of the French novel Agenor de Mauleon (1846) by Alexander Dumas. Eventually Pedro was murdered and Henry II was restored to the throne. Over the next 10 years, until Henry died, attempts were made, ultimately successful, to prevent John of Gaunt from invading Spain.

Henry II’s only legitimate son, was John I, 21 years old, and he became king when his father died. Some 11 years later, while watching a military exercise, John I fell from his horse and was killed. His 11-year-old son, Henry III “The Infirm,” became the next king. When he died in December 1406, his one-year-old son was proclaimed John II. When he was 13 years old, the Cortes declared the teenager to be “of age,” and John II ruled in his own right.

The king had many favorites, one of whom was Don Alvaro de Luna, who later writers suggested was a boyfriend of the young king. John II reigned until his death in 1454, was succeeded by his son, Henry IV, who reigned until 1474. He had a daughter and before Henry IV died, the heiress, Isabella, married Ferdinand of Aragon, uniting Christian Spain.

Kingdoms of Aragon and Navarre

The royal House of Aragon, in northeastern Spain, traces its origins back to Ramiro I (r. 1035–1063). His father, Sancho III, king of Navarre, had left him Aragon, as Ramiro was illegitimate. Ramiro was a warrior prince and quickly extended his lands, even briefly taking part in forays into the land of his half brother Garcia III, who had inherited the rest of Navarre.

In a war with the Moorish emir of Saragossa over tribute, Ramiro was killed in battle on May 8, 1063. Ramiro’s successor was his eldest son, Sancho I, who managed to recapture lands from the Moors, pushing the boundaries of Aragon to the north bank of the river Ebro. In 1076 when his cousin, the king of Navarre, died, Sancho succeeded to the throne of Navarre.

In June 1094 Sancho was killed during the siege of Huesca. His son and successor, Pedro I, then became king of Aragon and Navarre, carrying on the siege of Huesca for another two years. In 1096 he defeated a large Moorish army and its Castilian allies, at the Battle of Alcoraz, with help, legends state, from St. George. Pedro’s two children died young, and in grief both he and his wife died soon afterward.

Pedro was succeeded by his brother Alfonso I “The Warrior.” Having no children he was succeeded by his younger brother, Ramiro II “The Monk.” Ramiro was only king for three years, abdicating to spend the remaining 10 years of his life in a monastery.

His only child, Petronilla, became queen, when she was one year old. When she turned 15 in 1151, she married Ramon Berenguer IV, count of Barcelona. Twelve years later she abdicated the throne in favor of her son Alfonso II (r. 1163–96).

His eldest son and successor was Pedro II, who was alleged to have kept scandalous company with many women. With the outbreak of the Albigensian Crusade in France, and the persecution of the Cathars in southern France, Pedro II led his army into the region to demonstrate the historical ties of Aragon to the region.

He tried to stop the carnage that was taking place around Carcassone and urged the pope to recognize the area as a part of Aragon, not France, which would have ended the crusade. He failed and on September 13, 1213, at the Battle of Muset, was killed in battle with the crusaders led by Simon de Montfort.

Pedro’s son James I “The Conqueror” was only five when he succeeded his father. After a terrible regency, James took control and led his armies in taking the Balearic Islands (1229–35), conquering Valencia from the Moors in 1233–45, and also in the campaign against Murcia in 1266. When James died his son, Pedro III, succeeded him, leading his armies against the Moors.

He had a claim to the kingdom of Sicily through his wife and invaded the island in 1282, earning the title “The Great.” He was badly injured in the eye during fighting with the French and died soon afterward to be succeeded by his son Alfonso III “The Do-Gooder.” This interesting title came from the fact that he granted his subjects the right to bear arms.

His brother and successor James II “The Just” conquered more land from the Moors and was in frequent disputes with the papacy. In 1310 he conquered Gibraltar, and possibly to placate Pope Clement V, two years later he suppressed the Order of the Knights Templar.

James II was succeeded by his son Alfonso IV “The Debonair” or “The Good.” Most of his reign was spent in disputes over the islands of Corsica and Sardinia, which were captured by the Genoese. His son and successor, Pedro IV, held a huge coronation, apparently with as many as 10,000 guests, and earned the title “The Ceremonious.”

He managed to lead his army into Sicily, which he recaptured, and when he died in 1387, his feeble son John I succeeded to the throne. His wife, Iolande de Bar, was actually in control of the kingdom. John died after being gored by a boar during a hunt, and his younger brother Martin “The Humane” became king.

It was during his reign that the famous santo cáliz was transferred to Valencia Cathedral, where it is still revered by many as the Holy Grail. It was said that St. Peter took it from the Holy Land to Rome, and it was taken to Valencia. Martin lost the throne of Sicily and when he died in 1410, there was a brief interregnum until Ferdinand I “The Just” was proclaimed king.

Ferdinand I was the son of John I and was elected king by the nobles. When Ferdinand I died in 1416, after reigning for just four years, his eldest son, Alfonso V “The Magnanimous,” became king. There was a plot to overthrow him, and he refused to hear the names of the conspirators, allowing them to go unpunished.

He spent much of his time and energy in his possessions in Italy: Naples and Sicily. When he died, his lands in Spain went to his brother John, who had been king of Navarre, and he became king of Aragon and Navarre. His Italian lands went to his illegitimate son Ferdinand. John II reigned from 1458 until 1479.

His greatest achievement was arranging the marriage of his son, Ferdinand, to Isabella, heir to the throne of Castile. They were married in 1469 at Valladolid. When John died on January 19, 1479, the Christian kingdoms of Spain were united with Ferdinand and Isabella as joint rulers. In 1492 the armies of Ferdinand and Isabella finally took Granada, the last Moorish part of the Iberian Peninsula, ending the “Reconquista.”

Science and Technology in the Golden Age of Muslim World

Science and Technology in the Golden Age of Muslim World

Science, technology, and other fields of knowledge developed rapidly during the golden age of Islam from the eighth to the 13th century and beyond. Early Abbasid caliphs embarked on major campaigns seeking scientific and philosophical works from eastern and western worlds. Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid Empire, became the center of intellectual and scientific activity.

The first academy, Bayt al-Hikmah (House of Wisdom) was established by the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid and was expanded by his son the caliph al-Ma’mun (d. 833). By the ninth century, Baghdad had become a center of financial power and political prestige and intellectual pursuits flourished in numerous colleges, schools, hospitals, mosques, and libraries. Baghdad attracted visitors, ambassadors, and students from all parts of the empire.

The Beginning

During the seventh century the Arab empire and Islamic domain included the realm of the old Persian Empire and most of the Byzantine Empire. This resulted in access to the wealth and heritage of both Hellenistic and Eastern philosophy and knowledge.


During the immediate pre-Islamic period (fifth–seventh centuries), Hellenistic science and knowledge passed to the Arab people through Alexandria in Egypt, Nasibis in Syria, and Antioch and Edissa in northern Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. Through these centers much Greek philosophy and science was preserved by Coptic, Nestorian (Eastern Orthodox), and Jacobite Christians.

In Persia, Jundi-Shapur was another important pre-Islamic center for the quest of scientific knowledge. It was established during the Sassanian period and was located in Khuzistan, not far from the Abbasid capital of Baghdad. Home to many Nestorian and Zoroastrian scholars, it was conquered by the Arabs in 636. Abbasid caliphs summoned many of these scholars to serve on the faculty of the newly established Bayt al-Hikmah.

Harran was another important intellectual center. Situated in eastern Anatolia, Harran was a center for Sabaeans, a pre-Christian monotheistic Semitic people who preserved both Babylonian and Hellenistic heritages. Therefore several agencies worked to develop and extend Hellenistic and Eastern heritage.

Quest for Learning

During the seventh and eighth centuries as Arabs conquered new lands they preserved, assimilated, and transformed the cultures of their subjects. Beside the Arabic speaking scholars there were also Nestorians with knowledge of Greek and Syrian languages (dialect of Aramaic), Sabaeans who spoke a dialect of Aramaic, Zoroastrians who used Pahlevi (an old Persian language related to Aramaic), Indians knowledgeable in Sanskrit, and Jews fluent in Hebrew. However Arabic was the literary language of both the Umayyad and Abbasid Empires as well as the liturgy language of Islam.

Hence Arabic became the literary and scientific lingua franca of the time. By virtue of its root relation to the different Aramaic dialects, Arabic unified the collective intellectual effort of scholars into one dialect. Furthermore, the new Arab/Islamic authority related easily to these diverse groups and shared many of the same cultural values.

Records indicate that Nestorian scholars translated Greek philosophical treatises to Syriac and Arabic during the Umayyad period in the eighth century; they also studied Aristotelian logic, metaphysics, and medical and scientific works.

Empowered by the new Islamic state and fueled by the quest for knowledge that was encouraged by many Qur’anic verses and Hadiths advocating the pursuit of knowledge, Caliphs Harun al-Rashid and al-Ma’mun sponsored envoys to Byzantine and Christian authorities in Europe to gain access to Greek manuscripts, hitherto kept in basements and attics of churches and monasteries.

Countless manuscripts, especially in Greek, were collected and stored at Bayt al-Hikmah. Early scholars went to Baghdad from diverse areas and backgrounds and enjoyed considerable respect and religious tolerance from their Muslim colleagues.

Caliph al-Ma’mun encouraged the translation of Greek and other texts into Arabic. The caliph surrounded himself with learned men, legal experts, rationalist theologians, lexicographers, and linguists. Yuhanna bin Masawayh (d. 857) and his student Hunayn ibn Ishaq (d. 874) and a host of others headed the kegiatan at Bayt al-Hikmah.

Works of Greek philosophers such as Porphyry, Aristotle, Galen, and Hippocrates were translated to Syriac and then to Arabic. The bulk of these materials were exhaustively analyzed and consequently codifi ed and reintroduced with a particular Islamic Arabic identity.

In 751 the Arabs learned the technology of papermaking from the Chinese; the first paper mill was established in Baghdad around 793. The knowledge soon spread to Jerusalem, Egypt, and the Andalus in Spain, which was instrumental in transmitting the technology to Europe. Bayt al-Hikmah developed a vast library and a systematic kegiatan of translation and study. For the next 300 years, Baghdad remained a center of knowledge. Córdoba in Spain was an equally active scientific center.

Science and Medicine

Islamic scholars expanded on the works of Greek physicians such as Galen. Al-Razi (Rhazes, d. 925) was an alchemist, physician, and clinician who wrote the first medical description of smallpox and measles; he combined psychological methods with physiological explanations. He also developed the discipline of pharmacology, found treatment for kidney stones, and used alcohol as an antiseptic.

In his medical encyclopedia he included 50 contraceptive methods for women. The Latin version of his work was published and used as a text in Milan, Venice, and Basle. Ibn Sina (Avicenna) was a philosopher, poet, and physician who wrote a vast canon of medicine. Ibn Sina’s writing was held in high repute in Europe and was appreciated by Saint Thomas Aquinas and Roger Bacon.

In Spain, Ibn al-Khatib (Ibn al-Jatib, d. 1375) of Granada composed a treatise on the theory of infection. Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar, d. 1162) of Seville was another prominent physician. Al-Zahraw (Alzahravius, d. 1013), a famous surgeon, left the first descriptive account of hemophilia. Ibn al-Nafis (d. 1288) was the first to describe the anatomy of the pulmonary vessels; his medical writing was translated to Latin.

Ibn al-Haytham al-Khazin (Alhazen, d. 1039) wrote The Book of Optics, in which he gave a detailed treatment of the anatomy of the eye and correctly deduced that the eye receives light from the object perceived, thereby laying the foundation for modern photography.

Pharmacology

In the field of therapeutics, Yuhanna bin Masawayh (d. 857) started a scientific and systematic method in Baghdad. Hunayn outlined methods for confirming pharmacological effectiveness of drugs by experimenting with them on humans. He also emphasized the importance of prognosis and diagnosis of diseases. Other famous names in this field were al-Biruni and Ibn Butlan.

Pharmacies were open in towns and cities and were regulated by the government. Much of the repertoire of modern pharmaceutical and chemical terminology derives from Arabic, including alchemy, alkali, alcohol, elixir, saffron, zenith, and zero. Famous Arab scientists in this field include Ibn al-Bitar (d. 1248), who was born in Malaga, worked in Damascus, and served as chief inspector of pharmacies in Egypt.

Pharmacology

Arab scientists introduced Greek medicine to India and Central Asia in the ninth century and that knowledge flourished under dynasties following the Mongol invasion through the 17th century. Islamic medical practice transformed the theological and superstitious and talismanic rituals inherited from medieval culture to methodical hospitals equipped with educated and certified physicians.

Hospitals in Baghdad, Damascus, Jerusalem, Cairo, and Córdoba were equipped with pharmacies and libraries; they incorporated innovations such as fountains to cool the air, storytelling to ease pain, and the sound of music to treat mental illness. Throughout the Islamic world mental institutions were built and were equipped with baths, drugs, music therapy, and occupational therapy.

Applied Science and Technology

The wealth of knowledge and scientific achievement spread to different centers in the Islamic world and was reflected in the lifestyle, public education, health service, commercial activity, and military as well as in art and architecture. Schools, libraries, hospitals—both permanent and mobile—courthouses, shopping centers, parks, and public baths were regular features of life in medieval Arab and Muslim cities.

Observatories, textile factories (Tiraz), metal and copperware manufacturing centers, and manuscript production centers were wide- spread. The astrolabe, pendulum, clock, sphere, and many other engineering tools and mechanical devices were commonly used.

In the field of science and mathematics, the three brothers Banu Musa—Muhammad, Ahmad, and al-Hasan—were pioneers and were the first to translate Greek mathematics in the ninth century. They extended their patronage to others and their work was later translated into Latin.

Jabir Ibn Hayyan (Geber, d. 815) was a pioneer in the field of applied science and was considered the father of chemistry. Among the achievements of Muslim scholars during this period were the invention of spherical trigonometry and advances in optics.

Famous scholars in this field were Averroës (Ibn Rushd) and Al-Kindi (Alkindus, d. 873). Al-Farabi (Alpharabus, d. 950) made notable contributions in the fields of mathematics, medicine, and music. Al-Khwarizmi (d. 840), with a Zoroastrian background and knowledge of Sanskrit, made major contributions in the fields of trigonometry, astronomy, and cartography.

He founded algebra and developed the concept of algorithms (which are named after him) and introduced the Arabic numeral system to the world. Al-Idris (d. 1166) was born and educated in the Andalus and was famous as a botanist, geographer, and medical scientist. He worked as the personal scholar for the Norman king Roger II and produced advanced maps of the world as well as an important geographical encyclopedia.

Mechanical Engineering

The Arabs also developed two types of mechanical inventions: for everyday use things such as mills, water rising devices, and war machines; and automat, devices for pleasure, novelty, and wonder. The latter category included innovations such as self-trimming lamps, multifluid dispensers, musical fountains, and calculating devices. Water clocks were major technological inventions.

In this field, the 13th-century scientist Al-Jaziri is well known for his book The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices. He also researched the development of steam engine and pumping machinery. Waterwheels to lift water from ground level to higher levels, based on the manipulation of the pressure of the water, were common in Syria, Egypt, and Spain during the golden age of Islam.

Elaborate underground water channels, qanats, were widespread. Islamic inventions and knowledge, along with artistic and architectural knowledge, passed to Europe though many channels. Inventions like paper, the silk loom, astrolabes, compasses, waterwheels, and windmills, as well as agricultural crops like cotton (qutn), sugar (sukker), rice (ruzz), oranges (burtuqal), tea (shai), and coffee (qahwa), were transmitted to Europe. The collective efforts of Muslim scholars helped pave the way for scientific development in photography, gunpowder, marine warfare, and mechanical engineering.

In 1258 the Abbasid Caliphate ended when the Mongols, under Genghis Khan’s grandson Hulagu Khan, conquered all of Central Asia, Iran, and Iraq. The Mongols massacred tens of thousands of people including many scientists; they destroyed Baghdad with its libraries, schools, mosques, and residential quarters.

The coming of the Mongols marked the end of the golden age of Baghdad as a center of scientific and literary achievement of the Muslim world. But the echoes of that renaissance continued to reverberate in other parts of the Islamic world.

Much of the ArabIslamic scientific heritage passed to Europe through the crusaders, the Normans in Sicily, and the Mozarabic (Musta’rabeen) in Spain. Arab-Islamic science, medicine, mathematics, and technology were transmitted to Europe in written forms, especially the translation of the Greek heritage into Latin that was generated by Arab scholars in Salerno, Palermo, Toledo, Seville, and Córdoba.