how muslims conquested spain//part 1

How often in conversation with a Muslim, do they quote Spain as the crowning achievement of Islam, where Muslims, Jews and Christians lived in harmony for about 800 years?

And when you mention the killings and massacres, you are told that the Spanish Inquisition was much worse.
This is a misconception, since the Inquisition in Spain was responsible for only between 4,000 and 5,000 lives.

Yet in 1066AD, in a single day, muslims murdered over 4,000 Jews because Vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela had risen to a position greater than them, and of course, this upset the Muslim sensitivities.

History tells us that the Muslim invasion started in 711AD and that Spain, or al-Andalus, was Islamic until 1492 when Granad

a fell to King Ferdinand, the Christian king of Spain.

Spain then provides an excellent case for studying how Islam might work in a Western civilization today. It is both timely and relevant to examine this period in history, and we know that after the Madrid bombings in 2004, Osama bin Laden has called for the retaking of Spain for Islam.

Certainly it is true that the Muslim invaders of Spain believed in the Holy Trinity, the Islamic version, of course, 1) Booty, 2) Women and 3) Slaves!

Does a critical look at history support this romantic view that al-Andalus was a model of Islamic harmony, and what does it say about Jihad?

Scope

We shall investigate the motivation for invading Spain, how Jihad forged what Islamic Spain became, how the so called “Golden Age” developed, the relationships with the Caliphates back in the Middle East and the treatment of the Dhimmis, the Jews and Christians who had already made Spain their home. Spain boasts many fine examples of Islamic architecture including the beautiful Mezquita in Cordoba which was built over the original church of St Vincent and opened as a mosque in 785AD. It is believed to have been designed by Abdul Rahman I with the help of Syrian architects, and later extended by Abdul Rahman II, Al-Hakim II and even Al-Mansur. One of Mohammed’s arm bones is supposedly kept in the Mezquita.

Other fine achievements include the Alcazar in Seville, but for mine, the pinnacle of achievement is the Alhambra Palace complex and Generalife Gardens that overlook Granada in the south of Spain, in what is known as Andalucia.

The Alhambra palace complex with its amazing Generalife gardens stands majestically on a hill overlooking Granada with the white painted Albayzin district below.

The Nasrid dynasty is intertwined with the continuous development of this complex over many centuries, and it was the fall of Constantinople in 1453AD and the Islamic practise of breaking contracts that brought its demise.
Islamic Spain endured through three major dynasties or Caliphates that existed in the Middle East, the Umayyads (661-750AD), the Abbasids (750-1258AD) and finally the Ottomans, but was never directly ruled from Damascus or Baghdad at any time.