A Moorish Filling

The "War authors history, Peace creates civilizations" scenario has played out through the ages all over the world but Portugal, along with Spain, must be one of the strongest cases in point, because both countries had been profoundly affected by Moorish invasion.

Just like beauty, history is often in the eye of the beholder. While everybody agrees that the invasion started in 711 CE when a Berber army led by Tariq Ibn Ziyad (who promptly named the most prominent mountain in sight after himself - "Jabal Tariq") crossed the strait connecting North Africa with Europe, much of the rest depends on where you are and what you were taught. Arguably, most Europeans would believe that the "green wave" swept over what's now the Iberian Peninsula, crushing armies and laying cities to waste, and moved inland, towards the heart of the continent. It was not before 732 CE that valiant Charles Martel/"the Hammer" met and destroyed the advancing Umayyad army under Abdul Rahman Algafiki at the Battle of Tours, thus saving the rest of Europe - yet the unfortunate Iberians remained under Islamic rule for about 500 years. However, the "unfortunate Iberians" themselves, as well as those who are familiar with several key facts, might see the matter in a somewhat different light. One such key fact is the so-called "Treaty of Theodemir" signed in 713 CE, only two years after the initial invasion. The parties to the Treaty were Count Theodemir, the Governor of Southeastern Iberia, and an Umayyad official representing the Caliphate. According to the key provision of the Treaty, Theodemir would remain the Governor, and his domain wouldn't be subject to Islamic rule - as long as he continued to pay a (presumably reasonable) tax, and hand over those rebelling against the Caliphate. In other words, a significant portion of the occupied country was allowed to keep practicing Christianity - a remarkable example of religious tolerance, if not a completely unique one!

As any form of human interaction, politics is often emotionally charged - that's why the Treaty of Theodemir must have set the tone for decades and centuries of coexistence between the formal antagonists. In reality, antagonism took the back seat to mutual interest and cooperation. As a result, about 19,000 of modern Portuguese words are either direct borrowings or derivatives from Arabic (including Algarve - allegedly, Portugal's most famous and sought after region whose name derives from "Al Gharb" meaning simply "the West"); Iberian cities are unimaginable without numerous examples of Islamic architecture, the most prominent of them being Alhambra in Spain and the Palace of Sintra in Portugal, nicknamed "Portuguese Alhambra". Even Jeronimos in Belem - a monastery! - has a variety of elements originated in Islamic architectural tradition. The Moors improved local agriculture in Portugal, and - as for the their scientific contributions - it was them who introduced the astrolabe to the country (among many other things). In other words, Portuguese Golden Age based on navigation necessary for negotiating the oceans, would have likely been impossible without a little help from their frenemies. Portuguese flag would have looked very different, too... 

It might sound too cynical to call a foreign invasion a windfall - so, scholars came up with a more palatable version of the same statement: "The Moors significantly contributed to the intellectual environment that helped fuel the European Renaissance"