Iâ??ve recently returned from some travels to the Andalusia province in Southern Spain. Under Muslim Rule in part or in whole from the arrival of â??the Moorâ? in 711 until the completion of the Reconquista in 1492, the region has a special claim on our attention today in light of present-day misunderstandings and conflicts between Islam and â??the West.â?
The name Andalusia is derived from the Arabic word Al-Andalus, which means the land of the Vandals (Vandalusia), the â??barbarianâ? people who thrived there before they were later overrun by the Visigoths. In its heyday under Muslim rule, ca. the 900s to 1200s, its capital city, Cordoba, was the â??ornament of the world,â? giving birth to the so-called convivencia, an era of relativeâ??and often Romanticizedâ??tranquility between Jews, Christians, and Muslims. The era witnessed the scholarly productions of the likes of Maimonides (ca. 1135-1204) and Averroes (1126-1188), who revived the thought of Aristotle, making it available for later Christian theologians such as Thomas Aquinas.
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