Roman empire: *fallen* Every country: It's free real estate.

Judaism, christianism, Islam Long ago the three religions lived in harmony, but everything changed when the Almoravid Empire attacked...

“I am firmly convinced that Spain is the strongest country of the world. Century after century trying to destroy herself and still no success.” -Otto Von Bismark

Cordoba: The reason why ojala is a common word in Spanish.

If there's one thing I've learned from these videos its that history may be filled with monsters, heroes, and heroes who become monsters. But there's always those who just decide not to F%&k everything up and just build something cool.

"Catholics had no problem celebrating mass in Arabic." We still don't. There are 23 different traditions within the Church that say mass in languages as ancient as Aramaic, Greek and Ge'ez.

Cool video. The medieval history of my country, Spain, is very complicated but also very interesting.

*Islam in your Medieval Western Europe?* It's more likely then you think.

Nobody expects the Squarespace Spnsorship!

Spanish here. After Red's take on "Don Quixote", it's fun to see Blue's take on Medieval Spain (although there are other periods in Spanish history it would be cool to see you talk about). Although, as other people have already pointed out, you over-idealized the tolerance of Muslim Spain. Christians and Jews had to pay an extra tax to practice their faith, otherwise they had to either convert, go to exile or die. Sure, that was far, FAR better than what was happening in other territories at the time, both Muslim and Christian, but the way you explain it, you make it sound like the three religions were considered almost equals, when it was not that in the slightest. Other than that, I think it's a pretty well put together video. In Spain we hold our Muslim heritage in a pretty high regard, and monuments like the Alhambra and the Mosque of Córdoba (and yes, nowadays it's considered a mosque, not a cathedral) are considered national treasures. And there are TONS of words in Spanish that come from Arabic, particularly those that start with "al-". For example, "Algodón" ("Cotton"), "Aldea" ("Village"), "Alcalde" ("Mayor") or "Almohada" ("Pillow"). Some of them even became part of English through Spanish influence, like "Alcohol", "Algebra" or "Algorithm" ("Algoritmo" in Spanish). Anyway, as I've told you on Twitter... PLEASE, MAKE A VIDEO ABOUT EL CID! He's one of the most interesting topics you can have about Spain. He's both a historical AND a mythological figure. In the sense that he was a real person who really lived, but his deeds made people to make up tons of legends about him. Now, that makes it a little difficult to separate fiction from reality, which makes people to either over-idealize him or over-demonize him, but he's a fascinating subject nonetheless. He was admired by both Christians AND Muslims alike. As a matter of fact, "El Cid" was a nickname that the Muslims themselves gave to him, which means "The Lord" (His real name was Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar). If you do, don't forget to look for an epic poem called "El cantar del Mío Cid" (I think it's known in English as "The Poem of My Cid", although "Cantar" means "Song" in this context). That was a poem that bards sang about him, and although it's not historically accurate, it was the main reason why he became a mythological figure, and where most of the myths about him come from. We all study that poem in Spanish Literature class in school, too. (I'd LOVE to see Red talking about it!)

Spaniard here. You got some things wrong. For one, Abd-al-Rahman, who we call Abderramán, did not create al-andalus, it was a province of islam before he arrived, long before. Second, the mosque of Córdoba was turned into a cathedral by king Saint Fernando III when he reconquered the city and kinda liked the architecture too much to demolish it. It was never both kinds of temple.

The Abbasids weren’t Persians. They had support from the Persians, and practiced some Persian traditions and architectural styles, but they were Arab in origin.

Yeah, Spain was one of the most interesting poltical creations of the middle ages. With many cultures and religions all living on the land, it seems nuts, that a few hundred years later it would be one of the most exclusively Catholic countries in Europe. The history of Spain is fascinating, and I'm so glad you made a video about it. Thanks, Blue!

Back then Spain and Portugal were *Juan* country

"Our story begins in the same place that all my nightmares do--with the fall of Rome." I feel you, man. So much.

12:21 "But if YOU want to reconquer Iberia, - ...wait, no..." subbed

I'm Mexican and got a DNA test, I'm gonna show this to my sisters because they where so confused we had ashkenazi Jew and Arab in our genetic history. Edit: Thanks for the likes and comments. Y'all gave me some stuff to read up about.

Good Moor-Ning everyone! Please kill me.

It's kind of ironic Blue presents the Iberian wars & those of the Middle East as opposites to contrast when, in reality, they shared far more than they differed. Christians & Muslims allied and lived in harmony in the Holy Land under Christian rulers for the same reason that Christians were tolerated in Islamic Iberia - pacification & pragmatism. You see similar with the Normans in Sicily too. The victorious Christians in Iberia also take the same route as the victorious Muslims in the Levant; once the balance of power is totally shifted, tolerance ends.

Respect for shedding light on this. As a Muslim, this warms my heart to see knowledge about this time brought to the world. Thank you 🙏🏽

Thanks, i have an exam of Al-Andalus this monday, this is really good. Saludos desde España!

I love Andalucia and it's culture and history, and this is probably one of the best takes I've ever seen on them. Thank you so much for doing all this research and sharing this!

"I don't think anybody loved history as much as the Normans. Wherever they go, they're just so dang happy to be there. It's adorable." I mean, if you're going to conquer several countries, you should at least take some interest in the culture and history of the places your conquering. What's the point of doing a thing if you don't actually care? I love discussions of obscure facets of history like this one because it shows just how grand world history really is compared to what we usually sort of think. Great video!

OH MY GOD I OPENED MY MODERN WORLD HISTORY ASSIGNMENT AND ALMOST SCREAMED WHEN I RECOGNISED YOUR VOICE Sorry for text screaming, but still! I knew my new history teacher was amazing, but like- I've been watching y'all for fun (and to procrastinate homework) for years! Now I get to listen *for homework*

Spanish history between the end of the Spanish Habsburg line and the Spanish civil war would be pretty interesting.

Spanish history, is like a soap opera drama mixed with really weird decisions and no stability at all ever. Like for example Isabel II. life was... interesting, she married her gay cousin and had a children with the man that harassed and violated her, had 11 children of which most of them died, never got a proper education and most if not all of Spain hated her, until she left. And that’s only one weird queen/king. There have always happened weird things in Spain. Also, I am studying for my industrial period of Spain exam, this is why I know all of this. We are always doing whatever compared to most of Europe, why do you leave us out of it guys? Like we do everything you do half a century later?

This story doesn't only include Spain... Portugal also took a place in it, being independent in 1139 and conquering it's share

Okay Blue, I'm sorry, but there's an important mistake at 1:47. The Umayyads did not try to convert their subjects; in their eyes Islam was meant to be an exclusively Arab religion. Non-Arabs converted anyway (they were called Mawali) but the Umayyad ruling class didn't like that and tried to discourage them. This is important because the Mawali sided with the Abbasids who opened up the religion to non-Arabs without obstruction. Source: my class's textbook The Formation of Islam by Johnathan Berkey, page 77.

God of War looks different in this video...is this a new mod?

One of my favourite Popes - Sylvester II (999-1003) previously known as Gerbert de Aurillac, was one of the Christian scholars coming in that period to al-Andalus to learn from the Muslim ones. Also, while talking about lost and underappreciated great European realms, characterised by cultural diversity and unusual for their time tolerance, why not take a look at Poland-Lithuania?

The fact that you've mentioned Lisboa multiple times, but didn't talk about Portugal makes me sad.

Moroccan here with Andalusi/Amazigh(Berber) heritage, born and raised in Denmark, so never got to learn too much about my ancestors history. Thank you so much for covering this so brilliantly! I'd love to see you cover both Pre and Post Islamic Maghreb.

I really want a History Summarized episode on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth because 1/ I'm Polish and my country has a really cool history that would make a great topic for an OSP episode, 2/ it's always funny when people who don't speak Polish try to pronounce Polish words. I feel like that's something our language has in common with Welsh

I lived in Spain and, while I was invited to spend time in Córdoba, I decided to give Asturias a visit instead. Still had great beaches and warm weather, but few tourists. Also learned a lot about the Goths. Toledo has a Catholic synagogue built by Muslims. Tl;dr España era tan cool.

When Portugal participates but he only talks about Spain :'(

You're using the words "north african mercenaries" a little too frivolously, to call the Almoravids mercenaries is a little misleading, it makes them sound like some tribal warlords fighting for a payday, they actually were a very well established state and controlled a huge chunk of Africa when they marched onto Spain.

I want adorable Norman plushies. They would love to conquer the world and your heart!

A few extra details about this, from a fellow historian that study Spanish History with a teacher whose specialty was medieval Spain. First, after the Almoravid conquest, the Spanish ended up forming their own orders of chivalry like the ones from the crusade. They were the Knights of Calatrava, the Knights of Santiago, the Knights of Alcántara and finaly the Knights of Montesa. This marks a shift to a more intolerant view from the Christian side as well. Second, the Edict of Expulsion was a response to a muslin rebellion in the south (so half consolidating power and half Ottoman scare). It gave the option of either convert or leave. The Inquisition was form when the kings realized that a lot of people had taken the option to convert… but hadn’t actually converted. Their job was to find “false converts”. This later evolved in what we all know and never expect. Lastly, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar a.k.a. the Cid Campeador is usually described as having an amazing long beard, as shown on his statue. His nickname meant "my lord the conqueror".

Whoever you is, sir, you manage to pull off that middle ground between humour and information. I enjoy your lightness of being while stacking up the numbers of lost history classes. And trust me that is no mean gift. More strength to you and long may you sail the waters of entertainment

The over-romanticized idea of medieval muslim "tolerance" in this video is over 9000

Nobody expects the Spanish supremacy villager rush.

"Where is your beard and where is your axe"

Alright, let's not make things too rosy, The age of tolerance ended in 1391 with the massacres against the Jews, the 1492 edict was 101 years after that. you rushed the end there a bit.

Personally, I'm not really comfortable with evaluating history from this kind of moralistic lens, especially pre-modern history. I feel it tends to project way too much of our modern socio-political anxieties onto cultures that, for any modern person in them, would probably be pretty alien. More significantly, it gets peoples nationalistic/political hackles up, and that's not the kind of historical debate I'm into. But, hey, personal preference...

Ah yes what they call, Spain and Not Spain

Al Andalus wasn't as peacefull as depicted ere, it was very unstable from the start, and shattered by political infighting. That allowed the reconquista to beginn with.

You've made it sound too perfect. There were lots of rebellions during the rule of the Ummyyads as well as the Almoravids and the Almohads

Blue’s voice literally makes me happy just hearing it

I can't believe you left out when the Moops invaded in the 8th century.

Alhambra is the Hagia Sophia of the West.

Great video, though, as a Portuguese, seeing my country displayed as Spain kills me a little inside. Portugal was already a country before Spain became the country we know today.

This is an amazing video. Easily my favourite on the channel so far.

It’s crusade time bois

Nobody expects *THE SPANISH INQUISITION*

Of the many periods of history I would've loved to go back in time to, Al Andalus is in my top 10. Also the Spanish Inquisition starting in France is some of the best irony I've seen in a long time.

I hope you know, Blue, that I was so interested in this topic i paused the video halfway through, bought the book you recommended, finished it, and then rewatched the video

Actually didn’t expect the Inquisition this time. Well done!

It hurts me everytime you say Spain when you mean the whole peninsula. You re talking about a pre-spain era and Portugal is part of that territory too.

Just moved to andalucía, such a unique and beautiful land! Glad to be learning more about the history (: Great video!

I love you blue! You make even the "boring" parts of history great! Thanks for these videos.

Just saying, you are missing a country there

Thanks red, as a Portuguese I didn’t get access to this side of the story during my history classes, so this is amazing :3 I feel like I learned about myself today! :D

My favorite episode so far, although I keep saying that with every new episode. The quality is superb. I feel so happy that I am able to live in an age when I can just simply look up your videos. Thanks for all of your hard work.

I don't know if you've always done this and I'm just now noticing, but I really like that you've put the dates things are happening on some shots in this video. It really helps me contextualize whats going on here with the larger historical narrative.

9:21 _"[people like Aquinas who argued about] almost the exact same balance were pretty much banned until about 5 minutes before they were made saints"_ 1) Aquinas would defintely object to being consider as arguing about or for _same_ "balance" as Averroes, so thanks for "almost". 2) Contrary to a persistent rumour in English speaking Academia, the bans of early 1277 (or late 1276 as in after December and already beginning of March, nearly approaching New Year, you know) of Paris, by bishop Tempier in fact did _not_ ban one single sentence which Aquinas had subscribed to. Note, I am not sure he was not banned as a text on the full text portion I haven't dealt with, but I think not even that. 48 years later, there was no lifting of bans over his theses, just a declaration his theses should not be considered as banned by that earlier ban. Both bishops of Paris had the same name, Stephen II Tempier and Stephen III de Bouret, if you like a fun fact.

I like how you say the Catholics appropriated mosques but not that muslims appropriated churches. I am nitpicky I know

Funfact: the reconquista ended with the fall of Grenada in 1492, the exact same year Columbus sailed the ocean blue in the name of Spain.

6:00 my home town cameo

When I was watching this video at 8:17, when Alfonso was halfway to conquering Iberia, Living on a Prayer was playing in my playlist. Nobody expects the Spanish Coincidence!

Those churches/mosks were so beaufiful they damn near made me cry

So you're telling me... That I had an exam on medieval Spain and the Al Andaluz a few months ago, and NOW this video appears on my timeline? The world works in mysterious ways... Great video, guys. Absolutely love all your content.

4:08 I honestly thought he would say “it would be like having 2 popes!” and have major Pope Fights flashbacks.

The video was about the Iberian Peninsula, not just Spain 😢 Being from the smaller neighbor hurts sometimes...

That "it began with the fall of Rome like all my nightmares do" had me crying laughing that is hilarious

Being spanish myself i have to say you did an awesome job on illustrating this part of our history

Stories about "Noble empires that invade societally inferior backwaters to elevate the local savages" aren't very convincing. The French tried that narrative, the British tried that narrative, heck even the Dutch tried that narrative. And indeed, if you look at it closer, it becomes clear that Al-Andulas wasn't just unicorns and rainbows, but that it also featured things like, say, the occasional pogrom.

The timing of this video is actually incredible. I'm going to make a massive essay about how Jews were successfully integrated and able to prosper in Al-Andalus over the next few months for school, and would love to get some more sources (still pretty early stages), so I know that it's a longshot that you'll see this, but if you do... any chance to know what those sources are?

Please make a History Summarized video on the Majapahit Empire. Please accept my request.

El Cid was an absolute badass and pretty much deserves his own video. Once I read he never lost a battle.

"Not even SPAIN expected the Spanish Inquisition!" had me in stitches. But you skipped one thing in all that history: how did Portugal happen?

We just started covering Spain in my Islamic Art and Architecture course so this was perfect! Thanks for a great video!

I’d love to see an episode on the history of Morocco! It seems like it’s had a diverse history, and I’ve always wanted to know more!

One of the most interesting facts about Al-Andalus is that bisexuality and homosexuality were widely accepted, many of the caliphs even openly kept male harems. This is probably because Al-Andalus took heavy inspiration from Ancient Greek culture, who had this outlook for centuries and passed it on to many other cultures, such as the Romans and Al-Andalus.

I learned about this in college Our proffessor was very adamant about how we should be open and accepting of our arabic roots, just as we are of our spanish roots, as Puerto Ricans. He also was very judgemental about how islam is treated by our government.

The book cited in this video has been completely debunked by multiple renowned historians including Princeton’s William Jordan as simply inaccurate and wishful. Hate to say it, but convivencia in Spain was not nearly as big of a thing as this video makes it seem. For the most part, Muslims, Jews, and Christians strongly disliked each other in this period of the Iberian peninsula.

Well, I'm portuguese, so how much more of Iberia will Squarespace allow me to.... OH! It helps me create websites.... nevermind!!!

A lot of people here don't seem to get that the tolerance Blue is talking about is relative. Christians and Jews had to pay a special tax and there were periods of persecutions, especially towards the Jews, but they were allowed to practice their faith and work government jobs, in a time when Christian kingdoms enforced strict religious uniformity. In fact, the Jizya tax was a powerful motivator for Muslim rulers to not enforce conversion, because, they, like all kings, were always in need of cash. Of course there were persecutions and wars - I don't think there was a single ruler of Al-Andalus who never campaigned against their Christian neighbors - but there were also periods of peace and co-operation. What I wish Blue had mentioned were the other difficult relationships than the three religion divide. For example, Mozarabic Christians were frowned upon by the pope for not following the Latin rite, and the Berber population also suffered from persecutions, sometimes even pogroms, by the Arabic population. Nothing said here about Muslim campaigns, the Jizya or the occasional massacres belies the fact that a blending of cultures occurred, peaceful coexistence was made a reality and that the region flourished as a consequence, leading to art, science, and practical innovations alike. A comparison with Norman Sicily would have been very fitting here.

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and retain the ability to function" George Orwell wants to know your location

So , Portugal is right there ... like right there . Not a mention ? just " Medival Spain ?? Fine fine ..... You see this is why most of the world doenst know we exist ;-; and think were just Spain . We were a country even first than Spain cmon man ;-; Not even talked about Dom Afonso ... thats just sad ;-; Still fought your video was amazing tho !

There were more than visigoths in Spain. Suevians for example, had their own kingdom wich ocupied a big portion of the peninsula for a short period of time and then was swept away by the visigoths but stayed as it's own kingdom for a long time.

While it's true the Spanish Muslim emirate was quite successful, acting like it was centuries of peace is an outright lie. the emirate of Cordoba pre Almorhavad never stopped trying to take over the entire peninsula and carried on a centuries-long war with the Kingdom of Asturias, which was the remnants of visigothic Spain. The reconquista started literally the minute the umayyad emirate took over. the original emirate before the time of troubles wasn't nearly as peaceful as your source material claims, mostly because like a lot of flawed historical accounts it seeks to apply a 21st century lens of political and religious cooperation and idealism rather than reality. Sounds about part and parcel for a lot of historical sources that seek to oversimplify dynamic points of history. The emirate of Cordoba was not as welcoming of other cultures or religions as you claim either and in fact exacted heavy taxes on Christian and Jewish inhabitants and those who refused to pay at the sword. Christian kingdoms did the same against other religions in their territory. Pretty standard for most burgeoning empires

old Muslim structures are surprisingly very beautiful especially interiors. Its so unique and cool, something i haven't seen in a while.

The Ummayyad caliphate was not cruelly toppled they were racists who oppressed various ethnic groups they didn't like and there is only one option you can take in a monarchical system to fix that problem its a revolt

Wanna know something interesting? I went to highschool in Spain. Guess what we learned in history class. We went chronologically and literally skipped from the punic wars right ahead until the catholic kings. Isn't that great

11:08 As soon as I read the video title, I knew you were gonna make that joke. I must have been the first person in history to expect the Spanish Inquisition.

Great video as always, but I do have a few questions: 1. How was this an "inclusive" civilization when non-muslims were still made to pay the jizya tax? (effectively making them pay extra for a service that muslims got just for paying their taxes and relegating them to the status of 2nd class citizens) 2. What were these "handful of restrictions?" (Were christians banned from referring to Jesus as the son of God? Did jewish people have to refer to their own religious figures/prophets in a muslim context, or maybe include Muhammad's teachings as fulfillment to their own?) 3. How was this a good time for jewish people when they were still considered the lowest class on the social scale? (You mentioned Maimonides at 09:03, who was born in Cordoba under muslim rule, but had to flee early in life due to persecution of all non-muslim people in his homeland.)

I appreciate that you give as much credit to the Christians in their role of the cultural and intellectual boom in Iberia as you do the Muslims. Very often the Catholic kingdoms are swept under the rug in this time period and people simply focus on the Islamic aspect without realizing that it was a fusion of ideas and not just a complete appropriation.

I like this episode, but I think you missed out on talking about Asturias, the last Visigothic kingdom that remained unconquered and how they basically kicked off the reconquista with the Battle of Covadonga. That battle was instrumental in making sure that the Christian's still had a foothold in Iberia. It's actually really interesting to hear how the Asturias would slowly morph into one of the main Spanish kingdoms, Leon

I read the thumbnail title as “medieval spam” at first. I was expecting extremely old spam but got a history lesson instead. Thank you.

I love the fact that before this video I had no idea what happened to Spain after the fall of Rome but instead I was taught in history about how the 1920s American farmers struggled, fucking brilliant