Moorish Influence on Spanish Life

Moorish Influence on Spanish Life

Moorish Influence on Spanish Life

Spain enjoyed prosperity under the Romans until the collapse of their Empire which encouraged the sacking of many towns and cities by Vandals and Visigoths. Effectively, the landscape changed and was being bled of its resources until the Moors came in 711 AD.

The Moors started to rebuild the infrastructure from the base up. The agricultural techniques they introduced involved an advanced irrigation system that made good use of the natural landscape like the mountain snows that melted from the peaks and drained to the towns and valleys below. Their conquests of other countries and established trade links provided other fruit and vegetables that could be grown in the Iberian sub-tropical climates. The trade links also brought prosperity to many towns and cities with the buying and selling of commodities home grown and manufactured such as steel, silk, leather and glass.

Intellectuals like Averroes (a Moorish erudite) powered the brains behind the academic institutions which gave this country more substantive knowledge of medicine, philosophy and other sciences. Natives as well as foreigners shared in the knowledge of the Arab invaders and were encouraged to do so. When the Spanish Reconquest took control of the great library of Cordoba they were stunned by the knowledge, discipline and quality that this huge Arab seat of learning contained. So instead of destroying many books they were put aside for educational purposes and as a consequence the rest of Europe benefitted greatly.

Spain today is still heavily influenced by the Moorish occupation, its towns and cities like Granada and Cordoba retain magnificent architecture and they are often a focus point for many visiting tourists. Many towns and cities are also named or based upon those given by these historical predecessors. Some expressions typical of the Spanish people are based upon Moorish poetic one liners. Their introduction of other fruit and vegetables, herbs and spices into old Spanish dishes is one of the earliest forms of cooking that is now classically known as fusion. The traditional Spanish dances contain Arabian influences and likewise music that originated from the Renaissance too.

Nowadays the Spanish pay homage to this noble ancestry by holding the Moors and Christians annual festivals in many towns and cities.

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