I was asked to talk about Al-Andalus. It is one of the most extraordinary portions of our great Islamic history and in reviving the spirit of Al-Andalusia it's important that we first of all look at
what Al-Andalusia means to the Muslims and Andalus is the greatest European expression of Islam.
Islam has been in Europe for centuries. Islam was in Eastern Europe for centuries but the Islam that Andaluz is a Western European phenomenon and we should remember that that for over 800 years Islam begins in Spain in 711 in Christian era and it does not end until the final expulsion in 1609.
People forget they think of 1492 as the end of the Muslim experience in Spain the reality is is that the Muslims continued to exist in large numbers in Spain until 1609 which is the final expulsion and in 1568 for two years 1568 and fifteen - fifteen seventy that was the last actual resistance, the war of Mijares or the alfajores mountains which are just east of Grenada.
And this was led by a Muslim Ferdinando or whose Muslim name the Muslims by that time had both Spanish names and their Islamic names just like many converts here have their Western names and their Islamic names these Morisco's, who were living in Spain as Muslims and
they were actually Spanish Muslims they
spoke Spanish they wrote in Spanish that
you often used Arabic script this man
who's named his Muslim name was Muhammad
bin umeå led a two-year resistance
against the Spanish in 1568 to 1570 so
it's important to remember that that
nine hundred years over nine hundred
years the Muslims were in Spain now I
want you to imagine America is a country
that's over 200 years old and we feel
like we've been there a long time even
though we're all newcomers
I have ancestors that came very early
and then I have ancestors that came as
late as 1896 through Ellis Island my
grandfather my great-grandfather and
with him his son who was my grandfather
came through Ellis Island he's my
mother's father as late as 1896 so I
want you to imagine that the Canadians
who were really the loyalists of the war
of independence they did not split off
from the United States or rather from
England and many of the loyalists in
America in the United States of America
fled to Canada because the Canadians
remain loyalist when I was reading
Canadian history I was shocked to find
out that we were the bad guys in the war
of 1812 I always thought we were the
good guys but I was reading Canadian
history and they looked at it very
differently and we're neighbors so I
want you to imagine that the Canadians
decide that the Americans are out of
control this is just an imaginary
scenario so don't worry that the
Americans are out of control they're
threatening the world with proliferation
of weapons of mass destruction they're
cheerin izing and terrorizing and doing
all these horrible things and also the
fact that they're burning the vast
majority of fossil fuels they're causing
permafrost in Canada to melt and the
permafrost is very important for the
stability of the atmosphere and now we
know that the polar bears which our
Canadian citizens are really suffering
right now so the Canadians are fed up
they say we're going to drive the
Americans out of America into Mexico so
they they basically invade America
imaginary scenario they invade America
the Canadian Mounties on their horses go
down into America and drive the
Americans into Mexico and the Mexicans
being the generous people and warm
people that they are they embrace the
Americans as refugees from economic
deprivation and loss of housing and all
other things so they embrace them and
say nuestra casa es tu casa no I
problema
so there's your scenario now what would
the Americans do they I think personally
you know being from America I really
think they would begin a resistance
movement in Mexico and start operations
to get their country back because
they've they've been there for 200 years
200 years now imagine the Muslims in
Spain 900 years 900 years and they're
driven out of their homes by an invading
force from the north that called the
Reconquista which is not a valid term it
wasn't a reconquest the northern
Spaniards were never they weren't from
southern Spain they weren't from
attended OU's so you imagine what would
happen in that scenario it's a very
interesting problem now the Spanish have
basically denied the 900 years of Muslim
Spain really they've completely denied
it they see it as arab invaders and i
want to talk a little bit about that
first of all thought up in Ziad was
actually encouraged Musa even Messiah
who was the governor then of the
Umayyads of the East badhak bin zayed
was his general but they were encouraged
to cross over to Spain the reason for
that is because there was a count in
suta swetha which is part of Morocco
it's actually Spanish Morocco it's still
part of Spain but it's in Morocco this
count Julian and
he's called urban as well had a daughter
Florinda and he it was the habit of the
the nobility at that time to send their
children to the courts of the Visigothic
Kings in order for them to become
culture so he sent his young daughter
she was 14 or 15 to the court of King
Roderick which was in Toledo and in that
court she was raped by the king
now she was blamed for this but when she
came back what happened was her father
was completely alienated from the
visigothic king of Spain and so he sided
with the Arabs and helped them to cross
over into Spain so they had
expeditionaries when they sent these
reckon ordering groups over into Spain
to look around and when thought of the
things he had finally crossed over in
711 and the famous story that he burnt
the ships is just fantasy it's first of
all it's just a stupid thing to do you
don't burn your Navy down if you're
gonna send it back you send it back we
have a problem in our history is we have
what are called the pool sauce and the
puffs were people that told stories to
encourage people in the mosques and
things like that and they often
embellish stories what the Arabs call
you the head of the Slav to spice up the
story and so that's a spicing up of the
story so far occupancy ad when he
crossed over and quickly really it was
quite an extraordinary conquest begins
to really take over this country and
within this first period
the Omegas basically
control of a large segment of Spain now
this initial million period will last
until 756 so from 7-eleven to 756 which
is when a brahmana dolphin who was the
grandson of the hanifa Hisham who ruled
in the seven 40s he actually moved from
the 724 to 743 I think and he had
trained his grandson he actually
believed because I'm profound a dolphin
was very brilliant young man he believed
that he would be a caliph at one time
but when the abbasids took over in 750
he flees and he goes to Morocco he
actually had relatives from the burghers
in Morocco and they took him in and then
he crosses over and establishes an
amazing capital in Corcovado a brilliant
man really unusual a highly gifted
general and statesman and the Omegas had
a great deal of intelligence the the Oh
merde rulers they didn't last long
and one of the things that I've noted in
Islamic history is that intolerant
dynasties in Islam are very short-lived
one of the really interesting things
about Islamic dynasties is that the
intolerant ones never last more than a
hundred years and the great dynasties of
Islam that either were intolerant in the
beginning but learn tolerance quite
quickly the Abbasid dynasty is a good
example of that or the Ottoman and the
Ottoman is the most extraordinary in
terms of tolerance and they're the
longest-lived
dynasty in human history there is no
Theo smiley is the longest live
family dynasty that we know of in human
history so it's really quite
extraordinary that they lived as long as
they did if you look at the the period
the Umayyad period when the Umayyad
dynasty collapses in the east with the
takeover of the Abbasids
that most of the Umayyad family were
wiped out and the few that got away
among them are brahmana Dafa fled he
goes to Spain sets up this extraordinary
dynasty and it is a reasonably short
live dynasty I mean it doesn't it
doesn't go on for long because well
there's a number of reasons for that
that I don't want to go into this
because I really want to get to the
point of this of what's so extraordinary
about this but here's the second of that
man of the man the second is another
very extraordinary ruler he basically
creates a court that is a completely
multicultural court he has people coming
from all over the ins and out they bring
Persians are imported from Persia
brought in Shiraz was one of the cities
that a large contingency of Persians
came from and one of the things they
brought to Spain was the knowledge of
Persian winemaking and there's a area
just outside of Seville today's day
Frontera which is where they grew their
grapes and and it's actually Shiraz de
fronteira and which is where we get the
Western world sherry from
and I know none of you know what that
means because you're Muslims but sherry
is considered a very fine type of line
in the West so that actually came from
Persian Muslims that brought that
knowledge to Spain now during this
period in 950 in Cordoba just to give
you an example of what type of city this
was in 950 and for Taba and we have very
strong documentation of this there were
six hundred thousand people living in
this city which is an extraordinary
number for that period in human history
six hundred thousand over half a million
people a very large city there were
ninety two thousand seven hundred shops
and trade establishments in that city
can you imagine the the wealth that that
city possessed ninety two thousand seven
hundred and that means most people were
self-employed and were doing quite well
they had 50 hospitals 50 hospitals in a
city of 600,000 people they had one
university and they had 300 colleges I'm
just imagine that the university had
20,000 students full-time 20,000
students and that does not overlook the
fact that people were allowed into
because classes were held openly and so
people were allowed to come in what they
call in Western universities auditing a
course people were allowed to come in
and audit without actually being
registered at the universities but
20,000 out of 600,000 the population
just an extraordinary number of people
and they were coming from many many
places there were 300 public baths 300
public baths in that city and 72 public
libraries 72 public libraries imagine
that in 950 this is their one average
house in for Koba at that time had more
books than all of Europe contained at
the same time I mean so imagine that
there was lighting there were actually
lights in the streets so there was
lighting and you could see the lights of
buh-buh-buh from 40 miles away according
to accounts at the time later they
introduced indoor plumbing and they
actually in Granada where they had
gravity they had very sophisticated
systems of gravity they actually had
running water with faucets and you can
imagine the level of civilization that
was there now during this period one of
the things that the Muslims were noted
for was their tolerance of other
religions and this is obviously because
the prophets of varieties that have
taught us about the venmo system and I
want to say a few words because the
dimmest system is considered very
negatively now in the modern world of
global community what they call the
global community where everybody cares
about everybody else and nobody steals
from anybody else's wealth or property I
mean I'll give you an example of them
Mattoon
now in the Gulf War go for one right the
United States protected Kuwait when and
protect and it was a good thing because
Kuwait was unjustly but it wasn't for
free it cost a lot of money really like
several hundred tens of billions of
dollars so it costed a lot of money in
the kwaity
government paid quite dearly for that
protection so things aren't free
protections not free I mean that's just
the way the world works so you can call
it paying for our weapons or whatever
you want to call it but in Islam it's
just them my means responsibility it's
much cheaper than America charges for
protection I guarantee you it's a much
better deal and it's all out in the open
it's just there right in the open just
sign on the dotted line enter into an
agreement and we'll protect you you
don't have to do anything and what's
amazing the justice of the Muslims is
that when the Muslims retreated from
certain areas in Syria because they were
unable to protect the Christians and
Jews of that area they actually returned
their money to them and this is
documented historically so they weren't
squeezing people out and we even know
that Saint Omar said if they can't pay
it don't force it from them in other
words it was paid if you're able to you
have that capacity there were all people
that could no longer
and saying Alma would excuse them from
that so then the truth was not a
negative thing
in fact some will whom saw your own have
two heads for Al Jazeera and hidden
wahoo solve your own which is in the
Quran there's a big debate about what's
all gear means and I really find it
dangerous to say in a state of
humiliation which is how many of the
tafseer say it salvia is also something
that somebody who's under somebody else
so we could look at it as a minority
they pay with their hands because
they're a minority they're in a weakened
position and then my means
responsibility what who's them are they
in there in the limit of Allah and His
Messenger the limit alayhi wa rasuluh he
and that's your responsibility the
Muslim to protect and defend their
mosque that their synagogues their
churches and according to the monarchy
and hanafis schools that were operative
in the majority of the Islamic lands
also the Buddhist temples the Hindu
temples because the chef is restricted
to the three major al khattab Jews
Christians and then the miju's but the
monarchies and hanafis extended it to
anybody who was willing to enter into a
covenant with the Muslims and in fact
one of my teachers said Slava valeriani
includes in his word el buana Anja Dida
which is a book he wrote on manic effect
he includes secularists that they would
also enter into that covenant to be
protected and the prophets Edmond
Adderley the median for Ana hospital we
AMA p.m. whoever harms a thin knee a Jew
a Christian or anybody else in a
covenant with the Muslims
whoever harms then
I will be the advocate of that than me
on the day of judgement the Prophet will
be the advocate of that Vimy now one of
the things I want - one of the fantasies
that many Muslims have about Muslim
history is that when the Muslims came
everybody just said Allahu Akbar la
ilaha illallah muhammad rasool allah
we're Muslims that that's the fantasy
that Muslims have in fact Imams ate once
remarked that when you read Islamic
history you have to take a double dose
of Eman vitamins because it can be
actually quite disturbing to see some of
the things that occurred in Muslim
history now according to dr. Hana
Blankenship who I regard is probably one
of the greatest living historians that's
my own personal opinion but I really
he's the even harden of his time dr.
Colin Blankenship said that in Egypt it
took 300 years before the Muslims
reached 50% of the population in Syria
it took five hundred years so during all
of that early period the majority of
people in those countries were not
Muslims and if you read in the history
and all just one example of this because
it's very important in relation to
Andalusia one example of this is the
extraordinary scholar tragedy no suki
who wrote a really beautiful book or
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