

The following timeline presents a survey of Muslim presence in Europe from the 7th century CE until the 20th century. It lists the various and different contacts that shaped the relations of Muslims with Western Europe.
By Omar Mubaidin*
The following timeline [1] presents a survey of Muslim presence in Europe from the 7th century CE until the 20th century. It lists the various and different contacts that shaped the relations of Muslims with Western Europe and gave rise to perceptions and labels of Muslims in the West during several centuries. These relations were various, religious, military, diplomatic, through trade and commerce, by intellectual exchanges in different domains. It is by thinking about these events of the past that we can understand the actual state of complexity of the relationships between these two major components of our world.
Table of contents
1. Introduction
2. Conquest of Spain and campaigns into France
3. Andalusian caliphate
4. Post Caliphal Spain through the Reconquista
5. The last Muslim power in Spain
6. Muslims in the Iberian peninsula after Granada’s fall
7. Early Excursions into Sicily and Other Mediterranean Islands
8. Muslim Sicily
9. Muslims in non-Muslim Sicily
10. Mediterranean Islands after Sicilian conquest
11. Muslims in Italy
12. Nordic-Muslim relations
13. Muslims in Britain
14. Franco-Muslim relations
15. Muslims in Alpine nations
16. Benelux-Muslim contacts
17. German-Muslim contacts
18. Converts, corsairs, renegades and rebels (14th-20th centuries)
19. Monks, historians, scholars
20. Literary and artistic presence
21. Glossary
22. References
Figure 1: Remains of Fabriano (Italy) paper mill where handmade paper is still produced. This paper mill was one of the first to produce paper in Europe since 1276, after it was introduced by direct contact with the Muslim world (source). |
The image that results from such a survey builds a rich and somewhat colorful scheme of a forgotten shared history, that of 14 centuries of exchanges and mutual enrichment between two major civilisations of the ancient and modern world.
Since the majority of the timeline revolves around Middle Eastern Muslims in Western Europe, the timeline uses the term ‘Muslims’ instead of ‘Islam’ to emphasize the persons and cultural contacts. Also, the word ‘presence’ was preferred as a good portion of the timeline does not necessarily include Muslims as people but Muslim presence as a cultural entity (i.e. scholarship, scientific contributions).
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Figure 2: Part of the permanent exhibition Al-Andalus y la Ciencia on the Andalusian scientific heritage at the Fundación El legado Andalusí and el Parque de las Ciencias de Granada in Spain (source). |
Both the designations Muslim and Western Europe frequently prove to be very loose definitions that serve to divide and create exclusivist tensions that are historically exaggerated. Often the exchange between Muslims and Western Europe will be redefined as Islam vs. Christendom, Islam vs. the West, East vs. West, etc.; all being both useful and useless in their own way. In this work, the terms are employed as conventional means of expressing historical connection between worlds that, due to varying (vastly political) reasons, are unfairly separated. Muslims from one era obviously will not have everything in common with Muslims of another era, including certain religious values, especially regarding political goals. To say that the Barbary corsair raids against European and American shipping are ancestors to the contemporary War on Terror would be a misconception and an overemphasis on an aspect of identity. Similarly, countries designated as Western Europe are often not homogenous in many realms (political, economic, etc.), especially not over the course of a millennium. Many regions of Western Europe share more in common with Eastern Europe (especially true historically) than with each other.
The term Muslim used in this work is utilized as a dynamic aspect of identity and not to necessarily imply political unity or inherited cultural values. Although the subject of this timeline revolves around some kind of Muslim identity within the history of Western Europe, the intention is to exhibit a continuity of history between the Muslim world and Western Civilization when often their histories are seen as mutually exclusive. This work does not claim to be a sum total of all the significant events regarding Muslims in Western Europe; it is limited in its exclusive use of English sources. Its intended use is a somewhat comprehensive starting point and leisure reference regarding the subject. The time period dealt with is the 600s CE to 1900s. Just a listing of books printed within this period in Western Europe regarding Islam and its followers would take up numerous more pages. The timeline is not the total history, but hopes to be a sufficient vindicationalist history from which further inquiry may stem.
The subdivisions of the timeline are loose guidelines by which to follow an inconsistent history more easily. The majority of the subdivisions include national or regional specifications (such as Muslim Sicily, Spain’s Caliphate, etc.) In these groupings, the interaction between/presence of Muslims has primarily been restricted to diplomatic, commercial, military, and political spheres. Due to the existence of an extensive recognized Muslim political unit within the lands, Spain and Sicily each have a number of subdivisions split up based on shifts in power. Muslims in Britain, in Italy, Franco-Muslim, and German-Muslim contacts are self-explanatory and based on a specific national experience. The Nordic region refers to the Scandinavian nations of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, and Finland. Benelux is the term used for Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg. Although including more countries, the term Alpine Nations, for the purposes of this work, refers primarily to Austria and Switzerland. Certain events in Eastern European history have been included where they bear relevance to Western European history in matters of Muslim presence. Islam in Eastern Europe could be a large project all in itself. Due to Greece’s role in Western European tradition, as well as many other Mediterranean islands not considered part of Western Europe, it has been included in the timeline.
Figure 4: Front cover of Rethinking World History: Essays on Europe, Islam and World History by Marshall G. S. Hodgson (Cambridge University Press, 1993, Paperback). |
The section titled “Converts, Corsairs, Renegades, and Rebels” simply showcases a few key individuals from only 14th-20th centuries that were on the forefront of the Islamic-Western European exchange. A section on “Monks, Historians and Scholars” intends to present the dynamics of discourse regarding such an exchange through a short description of the role of various academics on both sides of the experience. The section on “Literary and Artistic Presence” seeks to identify key masterpieces and popular works of cultural value that both facilitated a more harmonious social environment or perpetuated discriminatory myths.
2. The conquest of Spain and campaigns into France
The Arabs, under the Ummayad dynasty, continued their rapid westward expansion with the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula early in the 8th century. Following the Abbasid rise to power in the middle of the same century, the Ummayads saved their base in Spain establishing an emirate. France was able to withstand the coming of the Muslim power and establish its strongholds and dynasties, among the most famous the Carolingians.
648 | In the first reference of Muslims in Spain, Abdullah ibn Nafe ibn Haseen lands on the shores of the future al-Andalus. |
710 | As one account relates, after the dishonoring (rape) of his daughter Florinda in Toledo, Ceuta’s Byzantine governor Julian appeals for aid to Umayyad official Musa ibn Nusayr against the Visigothic usurper, Roderick, in Spain. Musa dispatches a reconnaissance force under Tarif ibn Malluk to Spain’s southern coast. |
711 | Muslims (largely Berber), under Tariq ibn Ziyad, land on Gibraltar (the name Gibraltar is a corruption of Jabal Tariq, Arabic for Mountain of Tariq) and begin the conquest of Spain. Tariq’s force of 12,000 defeats the 25,000 strong force of Roderick at the Battle of Guadalete; large contingents of the Visigothic army led by Bishop Oppas, the uncle of the ruler dethroned by Rodrick, break away contributing to the Muslim victory. Musa ibn Nusayr comes to complete Spain’s conquest and becomes the first Muslim governor of al-Andalus (the Arabic’s name for southern Spain).
Mughith Rumi is appointed governor of Cordova (Qurtubah). |
712 | Muslims first begin to raid north of the Pyrenees. |
714 | Musa, believed to have been conceiving plans for an eventual crossing into Italy, and Tariq are recalled to Damascus by Caliph al-Waleed. This move by the Caliph hurts the progress of the Islamic armies; the lands immediately bordering the newly conquered Spain are left vulnerable to attack and it gives Pelayo of Asturias the opportunity to recover and consolidate his holdings for later use against the Muslims.
Musa appoints his son Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa to the governorship of al-Andalus. Abd al-Aziz forms a council for introducing Islamic law from the settlers coming from Hijaz, in southern Arabia. He promotes the intermarriage of the native peoples and the Muslims; the governor himself wedded Roderick’s widow, Egilona (Umm Aasim to the Muslims). Muslim rule is very much accepted by the non-Muslim subjects of Spain: taxes are light or nonexistent, freedom of religion is granted to all, and former serfs and slaves are given lands. Arabs from all over the Arabian peninsula and Egypt as well as Persians have settled throughout the newly gained territory. |
715 | Umayyad Caliph Suleiman begins what seemed to be a prosperous reign, but falls to suspicions of intrigue; his reign sees the execution of the conqueror of northern India Muhammad ibn Qasim, the banishment of Musa ibn Nusayr and Tariq ibn Ziyad, the assassination of Central Asia’s conqueror Qutayba ibn Muslim, and the murder of Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa. |
716 | Ayyub al-Lakhmi governs al-Andalus before being deposed this same year.
Musa ibn Nusayr dies performing the Hajj. |
717 | Al-Hurr al-Thaqafi attains the governorship of al-Andalus. He transfers the capital from Seville to Cordova. |
717-719 | Muslim armies penetrate into Aquitaine and the south of France. |
718 | Visigothic Prince Pelayo, ruler of the Asturias, defeats Muslims at the Battle of Covadonga. This victory endures through the ages more for its symbolism as a nationalistic victory rather than a military one, considered by some to be the beginning of the Reconquista.
Mughith Rumi dies. |
719 | Al-Samah al Khaulani becomes governor of al-Andalus. Al-Samah brings order back to Spain and defeats many rebel forces in Septimania. |
720 | Tariq ibn Ziyad dies. |
721 | Duke Eudo of Aquitaine defeats the forces of Samah, who dies from wounds, at the Battle of Toulouse, also known as the Plateau of the Martyrs. The Muslim army is driven back. Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi marches the remnants back to Narbonne and governs Muslim Spain until the arrival of Anbasah. This battle is considered of high significance in halting the expansion of Muslim power further into Europe. |
725 | Under the leadership of Anbasah, Muslims invade southern France and subjugate Carcasonne and all Septimania reaching up the Rhone Valley as far as the Vosges. Following the death of Anbasah at the hands of an ambush up until the reappointment of Abd al-Rahman as governor, affairs in Spain will be in disorder during the reign of the next five governors. |
726 | Adhrah al-Fihri reigns as governor of al-Andalus. |
727 | Reign of Uthman ibn Abi Nasah as al-Andalus governor begins. |
728 | Hudhaifah al-Qaisi governs al-Andalus. |
729 | Haithem al-Kalbi ascends to the seat as governor of al-Andalus. Lyons, Macon, and Chalons-on-the-Saone are captured by Muslims. |
731 | Muhammad al-Ashja‛ becomes al-Andalus’s governor. Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi soon returns to the governorship. The citizens and soldiers like Abd al-Rahman, who is considered the best and most patriotic ruler of this Umayyad dominion at the time. He makes the leadership in Spain a meritocracy, revises the economy, and has mosques unjustly taken from the Christians reconverted into churches; he holds al-Andalus together.
The Muslim governor of Cerdagne, Uthman ibn Abu Nessa (Munuza to the Christians) weds Duke Eudo’s daughter Lampegie and is now in alliance with Aquitaine. Abd al-Rahman crushes Uthman’s attempted insurrection at al-Bab, near Puycerda west of Mount Louis. |
732 | Arles capitulates and the Muslims, under Abd al-Rahman, take Bordeaux. Duke Eudo is defeated at the Battle of Dordogne. Muslims entered Burgundy, Lyons, Besancon, and Sens. The victory over Eudo may have had adverse results, as now the Muslims force him to ally with his rival Charles Martel; effectively, this forges a Christian unification against a Muslim army that had been exhausted by battles by the time it reaches Tours. |
733 | Battle of Tours, known by the Muslims as the Pavement of the Martyrs, takes place. The Franks, under Charles Martel, defeat the Muslim army under Abd al-Rahman. Abd al-Rahman dies while attempting to restore order after his troops became occupied with protecting the loot gained in previous battles instead of fighting. Lacking a leader to maintain control, the Muslim army retreats.
Abd al-Malik al Fihri becomes al-Andalus governor. |
734 | Deputy governor of Narbonne, Yusuf, allies with Maurontius, Duke of Marseilles, and captures St. Remi and Avignon.
Uqbah al-Saluli replaces the deposed Abd al-Malik as al-Andalus governor. He enters France many times with attacks on Dauphiny and capturing St. Paul, Trois Chateaux, Donzère, Valence, and New Lyons. Narbonne is made into a large citadel and Languedoc is fortified. Muslims invade Burgundy. |
737-739 | Charles Martel repulses Muslim attacks in France. Martel’s forces take the fortified city of Avignon and rout the Muslims at the Battle of Berre near Narbonne. Martel cannot finish consolidating his victories as he has to quell disturbances in his northern lands. Before he leaves, he destroys Nimes, Maguelone, and other towns, some Christian that may have been sympathetic to the Muslims. On his trip back, Martel takes not just Muslim prisoners, but Christian ones as well. |
740 | Dissension between Arabs and Berbers in Spain allows Christian kingdoms to mount some recovery.
Visigothic Princess Sara, granddaughter of penultimate king of Visigoths Witiza, travels to Damascus to plead her case to the Caliph for restitution of estates in Spain that had been confiscated by her uncle. Islamic law confirmed her right of inheritance. Later, she marries Isa ibn Muzahim at the Caliph’s court. Abd al-Malik seizes power in Spain. His rebels kill Uqbah. |
741 | Balj al-Qushairi, escaping the wars in Northern Africa, takes the governorship in Spain by killing Abd al-Malik. Balj soon dies from wounds sustained in fighting Abd al-Malik’s son. |
742 | Thalaba ibn Sallamah becomes governor of al-Andalus. Between the Syrians (who support Balj and Thalaba), the supporters of Abd al-Malik’s sons, and the Berbers, Muslim Spain is wrought with disunity. |
743-759 | Pepin the Short drives Muslims from France. |
745 | Abul Khattar Husam ibn Zarar Kalbi attains governorship of al-Andalus.
A civil war between the Mundhar and Yemeni tribes in Spain breaks out. The Yemenis support the rising Abbasid movement of the east. |
747 | The governorship of al-Andalus passes to Yusuf al-Fihri following the death of his predecessor. |
748 | War rages between Mundhar and Yemeni tribes with heavy losses on both sides. |
755 | The Basques defeat a Muslim army sent against them. |
756 | The Umayyads, under the fugitive prince Abd al-Rahman I, maintain power as an emirate (after their deposition by the Abbasids) in Spain after Abd al-Rahman defeats Yusuf at the battle of Masarah. |
758 | At the Battle of Loxa, the forces of Abd al-Rahman I defeat the army of Yusuf al-Fihri, who dies in battle. |
759 | Muslims lose Narbonne to the Franks. |
763 | The Abbasids send Ala ibn Mughith Yahsubi against Abd al-Rahman I in Spain. At the Battle of Seville, Abd al-Rahman defeats the Abbasid forces. Abd al-Rahman comes to be known as the Falcon of Andalus. |
764 | Emir Abd al-Rahman I suppresses a revolt in Toledo. |
765-768 | Abbasid Caliph Jafar al-Mansur and Pepin the Short exchange ambassadors. |
774 | Rulers of Barcelona and Saragossa revolt against Abd al-Rahman. |
776 | Abd al-Rahman founds the Grand Mosque at Cordova. This will be the largest mosque of Western Islam rivaling the sanctuaries in the East. In 1236, Ferdinand III will convert it into a cathedral. |
777 | Suleiman ibn al-Arabi, a rebel governor, crosses the Pyrennes and implores Charlemagne to fight against Abd al-Rahman. |
778-801 | Charlemagne leads attacks on Spain during this period. |
778 | Charlemagne delegates leadership to his nephew Roland while he goes and deals with rebels in the north. Basques ambush Roland and his party in the pass of Roncesvalles. The fallen Roland and his knights will be commemorated in one of best known Old French epics the Chanson de Roland. In this piece, written around 1100, the Muslims of Spain (depicted as idolatrous pagans) play the role of the ambushers. |
788 | Abd al-Rahman I dies. The reign of the charitable Hisham I (788-796) in Spain commences. |
792 | In the war against the Franks, Hisham’s forces recapture Narbonne, defeat the Count of Toulouse, and gain a victory over the Galician tribesmen. |
793 | Abdullah ibn Farukh, a prominent jurist of al-Andalus, dies.
After a victory at the battle of Villedaigne, Muslims advance up to Carcassonne in France. |
795 | A Christian navy from south France invades Alexandria in Egypt, under the Abbasids, in response to Ummayyad victories. |
796 | This year begins Umayyad Emir al-Hakam’s reign. He extends the grand mosque of Cordova and founds Cordova’s first university.
During this period, many Muslims intermarry with Christians; the offspring were known as muwallad. The Spanish version of this Arabic word is mulatto. Muslim chief of Huesca conspires with Louis of Acquitaine, son of Charlemagne. |
797 | Charlemagne sends an emissary to Harun al-Rashid.. |
798 | Revolts in Spain by the uncles of al-Hakam break out. |
801 | In the midst of internal rebellions from al-Hakam’s uncles and attacks from the Christians in the north, Charlemagne is able to seize Barcelona. |
802 | Isaac the Hebrew, one of Charlemagne’s emissaries to Baghdad, returns to Europe. With him is the elephant Abul Abbas, a gift from the Abbasid Caliph. |
805 | Al-Hakam suppresses a revolt in Cordova. |
807 | Abd al-Rahman, son of al-Hakam, relieves Tortosa from the siege of Charlemagne’s son Ludwig.
Charlemagne receives a diplomatic mission from Baghdad. |
809 | Al-Hakam takes Gascony, one of Charlemagne’s footholds in Spain. |
810 | Abul Abbas the elephant dies. Coming from India, he wasn’t used to the Rhineland weather. The Frankish monarch mourns his death. |
811 | Al-Hakam again defeats the Franks. His numerous military victories earned him the title of al-Muzaffarr, or the Victorious. |
813 | A famine breaks out in northern Andalus. Al-Hakam provides relief. |
814 | Riots ensue again in Cordova. This time a mob besieges al-Hakam in his palace. The Emir’s forces defeat them forcing many to flee. |
816 | The Umayyads and the Franks agree to a short peace. |
822 | Abd al-Rahman II of Spain begins his thirty-year reign. Patronage of arts and prosperity mark his reign. |
827 | A Muslim naval attack occurs at Brittany. |
837 | A revolt in Toledo is crushed. |
844 | A Viking fleet sacks Lisbon, Seville, Cadiz, and Algeciras in the Emirate of Cordova and Asilah in Morocco. In retaliation, the forces of the Emir trap the Viking fleet on the River of Guadalquivir destroying 30 ships and killing 1,000 Vikings. Most of the 400 captured Vikings are executed. Vikings would make numerous raids against both Muslim and Christian states in the Iberian peninsula. Eventually, a community of settled Vikings, who converted to Islam in southeast Seville, would be famous for supplying cheese to Cordoba and Seville.
During the Battle of Clavijo, St. James the Apostle is said to have appeared in beautiful robes upon a white charger to the Christian force. Henceforth, St. James, Santiago, will be known as Moor Slayer, or Matamoros. |
845 | Emir Abd al-Rahman II sends the poet al-Ghazal on a diplomatic mission to the Vikings. |
846-849 | Muslims attack the Southern coast of France, especially the area around Arles. |
850 | The Christian “martyr” movement begins in Spain. A group of Arabs in Cordova instigate a monk named Perfectus into verbally attacking the Prophet Muhammad. When the monk slanders the Prophet, he is taken to the Qadi for judment. The Qadi decides not to pass the death sentence after deciding that the monk was unfairly provoked; however, Perfectus continues to insult the Prophet leaving the Qadi with no choice but to order his execution. Some see him as a martyr and follow in his footsteps slandering Islam and receiving the death penalty. This “martyrdom” is seen as a response to the gradual Islamization and Arabization of Spanish society. The movement ends when the native Christians of Spain, such as Bishop Reccafred of Seville, denounce the movement as false martyrdom on the grounds that these men and women were purposely looking for death. |
852 | Muhammad I assumes the throne as Emir of al-Andalus. The Toledans, at the instigation of the chief of Leon, revolt. |
859 | Hastein and Bjorn Ironside lead another Viking fleet through the Straits of Gibraltar, pillaging the coasts of Spain, Morocco, Provence, and Italy. A Moorish fleet catches the two during their return. Only 20 ships make it back to the Viking base in Loire and significant attacks on Muslim Spain discontinue. |
861 | The Umayyad forces overrun Navarre and its capital Pamplona. Abbas ibn Fadl dies of illness. His uncle Ahmad ibn Yaqub succeeds him. The army deposes him after a few months for Abbas’ son Abdullah. The Aghlabid emir in North Africa appoints Khafaja ibn Sufyan to the governorship. |
865 | The ruler of Leon sues for peace with the Muslims. |
879 | Omar ibn Hafsun, a neo-Muslim from a Visigothic line in Spain, leads a rebellion from the stronghold at Bobastro. |
884 | Numerous rebellions break out all over Spanish Emir Muhammad’s realm. In Aragon, the Muslim Musa takes over Saragossa, Tudela, and Huesca. Ibn Merwan of Merida raises a rebellion with the assistance of the ruler of Leon; in Bobastro, Omar ibn Hafsun leads the most formidable resistance. Omar, now openly a Christian, begins negotiating with the Abbasid Caliph and his vassal states in Africa. |
886 | Mundhir besieges Omar ibn Hafsun at al-Hama when Muhammad dies; Mundhir now comes to power in Spain. |
888 | Abdullah succeeds the deceased Mundhir as Emir of Cordova. |
889 | Muslims conquer fortress at Fraxinetum (La Garde-Freinet) in Provence and will remain in control until 983. |
891 | Abdullah’s general Ubaidullah defeats Omar ibn Hafsun (who takes the name Samuel upon apostatizing from Islam), whose sights were set on Cordova. This victory prompts rebels of other provinces in al-Andalus to submit. |
906 | Muslims occupy Piedmont, Liguria, and parts of Switzerland. Soon Grenoble, Frejus, Marseilles, and Nice will fall to them. |
912 | The reign of Abd al-Rahman III in Spain begins. This brilliant leader and patron of the arts will become a champion of Islam in his time. |
913 | Abd al-Rahman offers an ultimatum to the many insurgents that he has inherited upon ascension to power in Spain: submit and receive a pardon or continue to rebel and receive exemplary punishment. Many rebels instantly submit and are given honorable treatment; however, some have to be subdued. |
914 | King Ordono II of Leon attacks the province of Merida and sacks Alange. Abd al-Rahman, who is busy fighting with the Fatimids of Africa, sends his vizier Ahmad to tend to the problem. Ahmad meets some initial success but is checked near San Estevan. |
915-918 | Muslims carry campaigns in the areas of Embrun, Maurienne, and Vienne. |
917 | Omar ibn Hafsun dies.
Abd al-Rahman becomes increasingly involved with wars in North Africa against the growing Fatimid power. |
918 | Hajib Badr defeats the Leonese army. |
920 | Abd al-Rahman III takes the field personally and defeats Ordono. Subsequently, Osma, San Estevan, Clunia, and other places fall to the Muslims.
Muslims attack the Italian Piemonte in the east and upon Marseille in the west. |
921 | Ordono of Leon and Sancho of Navarre resume war with the Muslims of Spain. |
924 | Abd al-Rahman III captures Pamplona, capital of Navarre. |
925 | Civil War breaks out in Leon. |
928 | Abd al-Rahman captures Bobastro. |
929 | Sunni Islam in the east is at a low point. The Abbasid Caliphs have become puppets to their advisors the Shiite Buwayids and the Fatimids have taken the Holy Cities (Mecca, Medina, and Jersualem). In response, Abd al-Rahman III establishes his capital at Cordova and sees it fitting to revive the Umayyad title of Caliph. |
Abd al-Rahman III revived the title of Caliph for the Umayyads and brought the Hispano-Muslim power to its height. Culture, arts, architecture, and superior naval power marked al-Andalus’s success. Minor Muslim campaigns went into France but nothing militarily significant. The city of Cordova becomes a seat of culture where men of many faiths, nationalities, and allegiances meet. At the end of the first millennium, the power of the Caliph weakened and became a subordinate to that of the chamberlain. Eventually, after the chamberlain’s power weakened also, the Caliph was overthrown in 1031. In the power vacuum that ensues, Christian powers to the north and Muslim powers from the south (based in North Africa) take advantage.
929 | Sunni Islam in the east is at a low point. The Abbasid Caliphs have become puppets to their advisors the Shiite Buwayids and the Fatimids have taken the Holy Cities (Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem). In response, Abd al-Rahman III establishes his capital at Cordova and sees it fitting to revive the Umayyad title of Caliph. |
930 | Badajoz falls to Abd al-Rahman III after a siege of over one year. |
931 | The Byzantines carry out an unsuccessful attack on Franxinetum. |
932 | Caliph Abd al-Rahman suppresses the last of the rebels after the capitulation of Toledo. |
933 | Ramire II emerges as ruler of Leon and goes to war with the Muslims of Spain. |
936 | Abd al-Rahman begins construction of the palace at Madinat al-Zahra. After its completion about fourteen years later, the structure will include a mosque, barracks, gardens, and quarters for merchants, civil servants, and dignitaries. |
937 | The Christian nations of Spain found an ally in the rebel governor Muhammad ibn Hisham of Saragossa. Saragossa falls to Abd al-Rahman, but the governor is pardoned and reappointed to his post. Around this juncture, Abd al-Rahman invests heavily into soldier slaves –of German, Frankish, Italian, Russian, etc. backgrounds– called Mamluks (not to be confused with the Mamluks of India or Egypt which came from other ethnicities) purchased from Genoese, Venetian, and Pisan traders. |
939 | Abd al-Rahman’s forces, under the Slav (Iskalabi, the generic term for the Mamluk soldiers) leader Najd, receive their first defeat after losing to the Christian forces of the King of Leon and the Queen of Navarre at the battle of al-Khandak (The Ditch). Suggestions exist that the jealousy of the Arab leaders against the favored Slavs led to disunity and ultimately loss. The warring nations soon sign a truce and establish friendly relations. Queen Tota of Navarre will eventually send her son Sancho the Fat to Cordova for obesity treatment. The renowned Jewish physician Hasday ibn Shaprut will attend Sancho. |
940 | Ahmad ibn Ila, governor of Badajoz, crushes Ramire’s army and devastates the land.
Abd al-Rahman builds a great aqueduct. Umayyad Spain is famous for its technological advancements in irrigation. |
946 | Isaac Velázquez translates the Gospels into Arabic in Cordova. A need for Arabic Gospels exists since the first language of many of Muslim Spain’s Christian population was Arabic. |
947 | An influx of ambassadors comes to the court of Abd al-Rahman from Constantinople, the ruler of the Slavonians, Charles the Simple of France, and the King of Germany. |
949 | Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porpyrogenitus sends a manuscript of the famed pharmacologist of antiquity Dioscorides as a present to Abd al-Rahman III. |
950 | Ramire II dies. |
952 | Battle of Orbe between Muslims and Huns takes place.
Conrad of Burgundy massacres Muslims. |
953 | Otto I of Germany sends John of Gorze, Abbot of Gorze in Lorraine (960-974), on an embassy to Cordova to request that the Caliph cease his support for the Muslims based at Franxinetum (the settlement included not just Muslims but Christian, Jewish, and “pagan” mercenaries). Abd ar-Rahman will send a return envoy in the person of Recemundus, bishop of Elvira, three years later. |
954 | Muslims sack Abbey at St. Gallen and Grenoble. |
955 | Ordono III sues for peace with Abd al-Rahman. Abd al-Rahman founds Almería. |
956 | Al-Masudi, a renowned geographer, writes in his Muruj adh-Dhahab of Cordova native Khashkhash ibn Saeed ibn Aswad sailing from Delba (Palos), crossing the Atlantic, possibly to the American continent.
In response to a Fatimid attack on Spain by a Sicilian fleet, Abd al-Rahman sends his navy, which at the time was among the best of the world, to bombard parts of the North African coast. |
957 | Ahmad ibn Ila, now governor of Toledo, defeats the Galicians and Leonese under Sancho. |
959 | A coup expels Sancho from leadership. He flees to his relative in Navarre. In this year, after their requests to the Caliph, Abd al-Rahman reinstalls Sancho to his throne. |
961 | Abd al-Rahman III dies at age 73. Industry, agriculture, arts, sciences, and the navy all flourished under his rule. A Saxon nun called Cordova the world’s ornament. It boasted an enormous population, contained over 3,000 mosques, a university that rivaled the best in the world, lighted streets, and 80,000 shops.
The reign of Umayyad al-Hakam II begins. He greatly patronized scholarship and disliked warfare. He was also a bibliophile who was said to have amassed a library of 400,000 volumes. In the capital, he established 27 schools for the children of poorer citizens. Literacy rate prospers under his rule. |
962 | Hakam leads an expedition against rebel forces. |
966 | Sancho of Leon submits to the Umayyads.
The Danes, under Harald Blatand (Bluetooth), defeat Andalusian Muslims near Lisbon. The Jewish Khazar kingdom in Eastern Europe collapses. Many of its citizens go to Muslim Spain. |
972 | Hakam sends a successful expedition to Mauritania in North Africa to combat the Fatimids. |
973 | William, Count of Arles, moves for local feudatories to band together against Muslim invasion. Fraxinetum is lost to the Muslims. |
976 | Al-Hakam II dies leaving his eleven-year old son Hisham II as heir to the caliphate. Muhammad ibn Abu `Aamir, the secretary of state, overtakes the leadership of Spain and assumes the title Hajib al-Mansur (“The Victorious Lord Chamberlain”). The Hajibs will retain the real power of the state. The Galicians and the Basques revolt. Hajib’s forces crush them sacking Barcelona in the process. |
985 | Hajib’s forces sack the monastery of San Cugat. |
988 | Hajib sacks Leon. |
991 | Hajib al Mansur declares his office to be hereditary. |
997 | Hajib seizes the church of Santiago de Compostela and sacks numerous churches and monasteries during his military campaigns more because of their wealth–monasteries sometimes rendered banking services–rather than their religious symbolism. He employs Christians in his armies. |
999 | Gerbert is consecrated as Pope Sylvester II. Around 952, he entered an abbey. After growing tired of monasticism, he is said to have gone to Muslim Spain (around 960) where he learned the sciences. He became so learned in these sciences that many in his homeland accused him of acquiring this knowledge via a pact with the devil.
Abu Bakr ibn Omar al-Gutiya, an Andalusian historian and descendent of Gothic Princess Sara, states that Ibn Faruq of Granada sailed from Cadix into the Atlantic, landed in the Great Canary Islands, and went west to Capraria and the Pluitana islands. |
1002 | Hajib al-Mansur dies and is succeeded by his son Abd al-Malik, under the title Hajib al-Muzaffar. |
1008 | Hajib Abd al-Rahman Sanchol (meaning little Sancho, after his maternal grandfather who was the King of Navarre) begins his reign in Spain. He poisons his brother Abd al-Malik to attain the throne. This act will result in his execution. |
1009 | Muhammad II ascends as Umayyad ruler in Spain. Suleiman al-Musta’in succeeds him that same year with the help of the Christian Castile and Leon. |
1010 | Muslim chroniclers call this the year of the Catalans because of the region’s intervention in the civil strife of the Muslims.
Muhammad II begins his second reign in Spain. Again he loses his power within a year, this time to Hisham II who also begins his second reign. |
1013 | Suleiman assumes power for a second time in Spain. |
1016 | Ali al-Nasr of the Hammudid dynasty ascends to power in Spain (the caliphate will alternate between families in Spain until the ultimate fall of the Umayyads in 1031). |
1018 | Abd ar-Rahman IV becomes Umayyad ruler of Spain. Al-Qasim al-Mamun, a Hammudid, replaces him this year. |
1021 | Yahya al-Mutali, a Hammudid, assumes power in Spain. |
1022 | The Hammudid al-Qasim begins his second reign as Caliph in Spain. |
1023 | Abd ar-Rahman V returns the Umayyads to the throne of Caliph in Spain. He proves to be one of the more apt, but still unfortunate, rulers during this turbulent period for the dynasty with the scholar ibn Hazm as his vizier. Abd ar-Rahman will be dragged from his hiding place in a bathroom heater and executed in front of his successor Muhammad. |
1024 | Muhammad III al-Mustakfi ascends to power as Spain’s caliph. He will try to avoid assassination by disguising himself as a singing girl in a veil. In a frontier village, one of his officers discovers and poisons him. Al-Mustakfi’s daughter is the beautiful and renowned poetess Walladah. |
1025 | Hammudids gain the caliphate again in Spain with the second ascension of Yahya. |
1027 | Hisham III, an Umayyad, rules as Caliph in Spain. |
1031 | Umayyads lose control of Spain with the deposition of Hisham III. Muslim Spain is split up into petty kingdoms. |
4. Post Caliphal Spain through the Reconquista
After the overthrow of the Umayyads, Muslim Spain was broken up into many petty states. The temporary interventions and unifications by the Almoravid and the Almohad dynasties from North Africa served only to delay the inevitable fall. The Christian states of the Iberian Peninsula took advantage of this and conquered each state one by one. Many Spanish national heroes flourished during this period with El Cid being among the most notable. Christian monarchs brought the Reconquista to full swing following the 1085 capture of the former Visigothic capital of Toledo.
1055 | Taking advantage of a disunited Muslim Spain, Ferdinand I drives many of the Muslims from various cities. The attacks at Bobastro are considered especially atrocious. Mutazid, ruler of Seville, agrees to pay tribute and saves his kingdom.
Ismail ibn Naghzalah dies. This Jewish vizier of the Zirids in Spain wielded almost supreme authority in Granada. |
1063 | King Ramiro I of Aragon attacks al-Muqtadir of Saragossa and captures Graus. The King of Castile sends his son Sancho to help al-Muqtadir recover the city. In his first significant military affair Rodrigo Díaz–later known as El Cid, a national hero in Spain–fighting on the side of Sancho, sees action. The Aragonese meet defeat as King Ramiro falls in battle. |
1064 | A large French cavalry joins the Spaniards for the first time against the Muslims during attacks on Barbastro. |
1069 | Sancho IV of Navarre and al-Muqtadir of Saragossa (Zaragoza) negotiate a treaty. |
1070 | Abu Walid Ahmad ibn Zaydun (born 1003), the renowned Andalusian poet, dies. He was active in the Cordovan court affairs but had a falling out after he fell deeply in love with the Caliph al-Mustakfi’s daughter, the poetess Walladah, which resulted in ibn Zaydun spending time in jail and exile. After several years in this state, al-Mutadid al-Abbadi appointed ibn Zaydun as vizier and commander of the troops with the title of dhu-al-wizaratayn, he of two vizierates (one of the sword and one of the pen). Under ibn Zaydun’s influence, al-Mutamid sent an army in 1068 to take Cordova from Jahwarid control. |
1072 | Alfonso VI spends nine months in exile in Toldeo under Muslim protection of al-Mamun. |
1075 | Al-Mamun, ruler of Toledo and Valencia, now controls Cordova. He dies later this year. Mutamid, ruler of Seville, sacks Cordova and reduces Toledo. |
1081 | After a falling out, Alfonso VI of Castile banishes El Cid. The latter spends the next five years as a mercenary soldier of the Muslims in Zaragoza. |
1082 | Al-Muqtadir dies leaving his kingdom between his sons Yusuf al-Mu’tamin (who received the western half based on the capital Zaragoza) and Mundhir al-Hayib.
El Cid defeats an attack by al-Hayib (whose allies included the Christian realms of Aragon and Barcelona) at Almenar. |
1084 | El Cid routs the attempted invasion of Zaragoza by the joint army of the kingdom of Aragon and al-Hayib. |
1085 | Al-Musta’in succeeds his dead father al-Mutamin as ruler of Zaragoza.
Toledo falls to King Alfonso VI of Castile. Incidentally, Alfonso took a Muslim Queen named Zayda, who became mother of his son Sancho. |
1086 | Yusuf ibn Tashfin and the Almoravids cross into Spain from North Africa in October to aid the Muslims. At the battle of Zallaka, the forces of Mutamid and Yusuf ibn Tashfin crush Alfonso’s army (which was three times larger). In the winter, Alfonso and El Cid reconcile. |
1087 | The poetess Walladeh, daughter of Spain’s Umayyad Caliph Al-Mustakfi, dies. She owed her fame to her eloquence, as she could rival any poet in the court and also to her nobility. Her home in Cordova saw gatherings of poets, wits, and savants.
Al-Zarqali (Arzachel, born 1028) dies. This Andalusian Muslim excelled in the field of astronomy developing an astrolabe and producing his Toledan Tables. |
1089 | At the request of Mutamid of Seville, Yusuf ibn Tashfin crosses into Spain for a second time to aid the ailing Muslim principalities. Many Spanish Muslims begin to rally around and defect to Yusuf seeing him as a unifier of the weakened regions.
Alfonso banishes El Cid again, although the latter remained a subject of the king. Tribute from Muslim states normally going to the king ends up in the treasury of El Cid. |
1090 | El Cid exacts tribute from al-Hayib and al-Qadir of Valencia.
Yusuf ibn Tashfin returns to Spain this time conquering it and annexing it to his African holdings. The Almoravids annex the states of Granada (the Zirid ruler is deported to Morocco) and Baza. |
1091 | Cordova and Seville fall to Yusuf ibn Tashfin. The Almoravids deport Mu’tamid, ruler of Seville, to Morocco where he remains until his death in 1095. Alfonso’s forces fail in dislodging the Almoravids this year. |
1092 | El Cid renews an alliance with Musta’in of Zaragoza and brings peace between the latter and the King of Aragon.
King Alfonso makes alliance with maritime Italian cities for naval assistance against Valencia in return for trade concessions. Alfonso lifts the siege of Valencia to deal with an invasion of his territories by El Cid. Murcia and the castle Aledo fall to the Almoravids. The unpopular al-Qadir of Valencia is deposed and executed; Ibn Jahhaf takes the throne. |
1093 | El Cid begins attacks on Valencia which falls the next year. |
1094 | El Cid repulses an Almoravid attack, under Yusuf’s nephew Muhammad, on Valencia at the Battle of Cuarte. The Almoravids meet defeat for the first time in Spain at this battle. |
1095 | In what was considered the harshest act of El Cid’s regime, Ibn Jahhaf is burned alive for deceit and the crime of regicide. |
1097 | El Cid, with his ally King Pedro I of Aragon, defeats the Almoravids, again under Muhammad, at the Battle of Bairén. |
1098 | Murviedro falls to El Cid.
Muslims participate in Count Roger’s attacks on Amalfi and Capua. |
1099 | El Cid dies in Valencia; many mourn his demise. Even some of his Muslim enemies respected his ability as a soldier; the name El Cid is a derivative of the Arabic sayyid, meaning “master”. |
1102 | Almoravids reconquer Valencia |
1104 | Peter I, king of Aragon, dies. It was said that he only knew how to write in Arabic script. |
1106 | Yusuf ibn Tashfin, the first Almoravid ruler, dies. His son Ali, known as Abul Hassan, ascends to power. |
1118 | The Christians capture Saragossa and other important strongholds. |
1122 | The confraternity of Belchite, an Aragonese town, comes into existence to thwart Muslim attack in eastern Spain. Historians know the order will exist up to 1136 and then fade as Christian power in the area becomes secure. |
1138 | The Andalusian philosopher Ibn Bajjah (Avempace, born 1106) dies. He was a physician, poet, astronomer, and vizier in the Almoravid court. |
1139 | The Count Alfonso Henriques of Portugal defeats the Muslims at the Battle of Ourique. |
1143 | The Almoravid Ali ibn Tashfin dies. Tashfin Ibn Ali succeeds him. |
1145 | The Almohades, another power out of North Africa, take control of the Moroccan empire after Tashfin is killed (incidentally, in 1160 they would be responsible for kicking the Normans out of North Africa). Abdul Moumin becomes their first ruler. |
1147 | Abdul Moumin sends troops to aid the Almoravids against the Christians and virtually annexes al-Andalus to his realms. The Almohad realms will extend from the border of Egpyt all the way to the Atlantic and southern Spain. |
1151 | Abdul Moumin takes Mahdieh from the Franks |
1163 | Abdul Moumin dies. His son Muhammad succeeds him but is deposed in favor of his brother Abu Yakub Yusuf. |
1169 | Muslim forces capture Alfonso Henriques at Badajoz. He is later released. |
1171 | Alfonso Henriques captures Santarem from the Muslims |
1184 | Abu Yusuf Yakub dies leaving the throne to his son, the celebrated Yakub. Almohade power attains its height.
Alfonso Henriques repulses a Muslim attempt to recapture Santarem. |
1195 | Yaqub defeats Alfonso VIII of Castile at the Battle of Alarcos |
1196 | Yaqub besieges Toledo. He agrees to lift the siege after the mother of Alfonso IX of Castile implores him to spare the city. Yakub is moved by her emotions and sends her back with jewels and other valuables. |
1198 | Ibn Rushd, the famous Averroes, dies. He was the most original philosopher of the Andalus, and an influential scholar on medieval Europe. |
1199 | Yakub al-Mansur dies. He was a great ruler who fostered scholarship, established hospitals, and organized the army. Yakub was even in contact with the great Saladin. His son Muhammad succeeds him. |
1204 | The renowned Jewish thinker and native of Cordova Musa ibn Maymun dies. Amidst political turmoil, he had left Spain for the court of Saladin. |
1212 | Alfonso VIII with Crusaders from France, Germany, and Italy defeat the Almohades at the Battle of al-Aakab (known as Las Navas de Tolosa by the Spaniards). |
1214 | Almohade ruler Muhammad dies. His son Yusuf assumes power at age sixteen.
Alfonso VIII founds the university at Palencia which employs Muslim and Jewish instructors. |
1223 | Sid (the title of the Almohade chief) Abu Muhammad Abdul Wahid comes to power after the death of Yusuf. |
1224 | Sid Abdul Wahid is assassinated. The Almohades elect Abu Muhammad to power. |
1227 | Yahya al-Mutasim becomes the Almohads’ new ruler. |
1228 | Seville, under Muhammad ibn Yusuf ibn Hud, breaks away from the Almohades while Idris is on an expedition in Africa. More separation occurs as Zayyan assumes power in Valencia. |
1229 | Idris ascends to Almohad leadership. |
5. The last Muslim power in Spain
The Nasrids held the only viable Muslim state on the peninsula in the south known as Granada. Early in this period the former Muslim seats of power such as Valencia, Seville, and Cordova all fell to the Castillians. More than ten leaders with the name Muhammad ascended to the throne in this dynasty, some more than once. Granada paid tribute to the Castillians until internal turmoil allowed the latter to take complete control of the last vestige of the Muslim political unit in Spain.
1230 | Muhammad ibn Yusuf ibn Nasr, known as Ibn al-Ahmar (son of the red, due to his red hair), establishes Nasrid dynasty (1230-1492) in southern Spain with Granada as the capital. Muhammad I will begin construction of the famous Alhambra palace. He enters into alliance with the King of Castile Ferdinand III against Ibn Hud. Civil war cripples Muslim Spain. |
1234 | After conquering Chivert, the Knights Templar attempt to lure back Muslims by allowing them to recover all property and possessions. |
1236 | Cordova falls to the Castilians. |
1238 | Valencia falls to the Castilians. Despite the success of the Reconquista, the Spanish end up having to colonize many of their conquered lands with Muslims to keep up productivity and minimum population requirements for military security. Subsequently, many mudejars, Muslims living within Christian domains, receive tax exemptions and freedom of religion in order to continue to contribute to Spanish lands. A push for colonizing Jews also occurs but the population does not meet the quota.
During this crusading period many festivals will evolve celebrating the Christian re-conquest with mock battles including Fiesta de Moros y Cristianos. |
1239 | Castilians take Acira. |
1242 | The Almohade Idris dies. His successors for a time fall to internal dissension and assassination. |
1245 | The Tarragona metropolitan appeals to Pope Innocent IV to excommunicate all those in Valencia who continue to colonize the area with Muslims. |
1246 | With the fall of Murcia, Zayyan is driven to Tunis. |
1248 | Seville falls to the Castillians.
The Hospitallers, another order of knights, settle a hundred Muslim families at the Albufera lagoon. Bernard of Juneda receives permission from King James I to settle Muslims in the Spanish holdings of Artesa, Tales, and Cavallera. Simon Pérez of Foces receives a charter from King James to establish a village for Muslims in Benejama of the Almizra district. King James exempts from tax the Muslims settled in the village of Alcocer. |
1256 | Alfonso X orders the translation of the Picatrix. This book of magic originates from the Ghayat al-Hakim fi’l sihr (The Function of assay in magic), a work attributed to the 10th-century mathematician and astronomer al-Madjriti. The Picatrix becomes one of the West’s most celebrated works on magic. Due to works like this and others, Muslims will often be associated with sorcery and necromancy. Other Arabic works, of more scientific content, especially in astronomy and engineering, are translated into Catillan and Latin in the court of Alfonso X. |
1258 | The Knights of Calatrava colonize their Burriana (in Spain) estates with Muslims. |
1260 | The Christian state of Castile, with all other Spanish Muslim states conquered, makes Granada a vassal and thus only nominally independent. |
1261 | Ibn al-Ahmar repulses an attack on Granada by the King of Castile. |
1262 | The Marinid ruler of Morocco Abu Yusuf Yaqub dispatches a force to Granada to aid it against Castille. |
1264 | Mudejars of Andalusia and Murcia revolt against Alfonso X upon the incitation of Granada. |
1266 | The Mudejar revolt in Murcia is put down. |
1267 | Christian conquest of Portugal is complete. |
1268 | King James I charters William of Rocafull to colonize his Fortaleny holdings with Muslims. |
1272 | Muhammad I dies. He is succeeded by his son Abu Abdullah, who adopts the name Muhammad II, also known as “Al-Faqih,” or the Jurist. |
1274 | With the help of the Marinids, Muhammad II defeats the Castilian attack on Granada. |
1282 | Marinid ruler Abu Yusuf Yaqub sends aid to Alfonso of Castile against his son Don Sancho. |
1284 | Alfonso X of Castile and Leon dies. He patronized Muslim academics even bringing in the scholar Abu Bakr al-Raquti to his court. |
1285 | During the French invasion, Spain uses six hundred mudejar troops from Valencia to defend Gerona.
Abu Yusuf Yaqub leads a campaign against Don Sancho. The two powers sign a peace treaty; one of the terms states that all the Arabic manuscripts in Castile’s libraries are to be transferred to Fez. |
1286 | Ibn us-Said (Abul Hassan Ali) dies; the Granada native was born in 1214.
Marinid ruler Abu Yusuf Yaqub dies in Spain. |
1302 | Muhammad II dies and is succeeded by his son Muhammad III. |
1309 | After fiascos with Morocco and Castille, a revolt led by his uncle Abul Juyush, Nasr overthrows and imprisons Muhammad III. Nasr reestablishes peace with the Moroccan powers bringing Granada into conflict with Castille and Aragon. |
1314 | Abul Walid Ismail I deposes his uncle Abul Juyush Nasr. |
1316 | The military order of Montesa, succeeding order in Valencia to the Templars, colonizes several districts of Perpunchent with Muslims. |
1319 | Ismail defeats a Christian army at the battle of Sierra d’Elvira and annexes some towns. |
1325 | In a palace revolution, instigated by the Christian kingdom, Ismail is assassinated. His reign was a highlight of Granada power in a dynasty full of intrigue. Muhammad the IVth comes to the throne as successor. |
1333 | Muhammad IV recaptures Gibraltar. He falls to assassins as another victim of court conspiracy. His brother –Abul Hajjaj Yusuf I, a patron of the arts, succeeds him. Yusuf I expands the Alhambra palace and builds the Alcazar Palace. |
1340 | Christian forces gain victory over Granada and the Marinids at the battle of Salado. |
1347 | Mudejars form part of the troop drafted by the Crown to subdue Christian nobles in Valencia.
The mudejars of Valencia are said to petition the Crown to allow the death penalty, without monetary compensation, for any Muslim woman who has an affair with a non-Muslim man. |
1354 | Yusuf I becomes the fifth ruler of Granada to be assassinated (stabbed while praying in the mosque). His son Muhammad V comes to the throne. |
1359 | Muhammad V flees to Morocco after a palace revolution led by his stepmother. His stepbrother Ismail ibn Yusuf comes to the throne, but after a few months is assassinated. |
1360 | The tyrannical Abu Said, reigning as Muhammad VI, occupies the throne of Granada following Ismail’s II assassination. |
1361 | Ibn Khaldun, a renowned historian, enters the service of the ruler of Granada.
Muhammad V leaves North Africa for Seville where Pedro I “the Cruel” receives him. Here, it is said, Pedro offers Muhammad V troops to regain his throne in Granada. |
1362 | Nasrid leaders invite Muhammad V back to the throne due to the cruel policies of Abu Said. The latter flees to Castille where Pedro I puts him and his party to death. Muhammad V’s second reign of twenty-nine years is marked by the patronage of art, the building of public works, promotion of trade, and encouragement of education. |
1367 | In a battle of the Hundred Years War, Muslim genitors fight under Don Tello, brother of King Henry (Enrique) of Castille, against Edward the Black Prince and Pedro the Cruel at Najera. The battle is won by Edward and Pedro. Because popular support in Spain lay with King Henry, Pedro will appeal to Granada for support. Muslims fight under Pedro’s banner against Henry and Bertrand Du Guesclin. Pedro will lose this battle and because of the large number of Muslims, Guesclin gave the orders that no prisoners are to be taken. |
1368 | Pedro “the Cruel” and soldiers from Muslim Granada besiege the pro-Henry Cordova. Inclement weather forces the allied army to withdraw. |
1369 | Pedro “the Cruel” marches on Toledo from Seville with forces comprised of many Granadine Muslims. He will die at the hands of his half-brother Enrique. |
1391 | Muhammad V death causes universal mourning. Due to his pro-Castile policies, Muhammad’s son and successor, Abu Hallaj Yusuf II, garners enemies in Morocco. |
1392 | Abu Hallaj Yusuf II falls victim to poison after hardly a year in office. Muhammad VII seizes power from his older brother Yusuf. |
1405 | Christian powers in Spain resolve to end Muslim rule in Granada. The subsequent attacks end in a stalemate with the powerful army of Muhammad VII. The powers settle on a truce. |
1408 | Muhammad VII dies. Yusuf III takes power; his reign is marked by both an economical and political rise of Granada. Harmony between the Castilians and the Muslim in Spain exists throughout his reign. |
1423 | Yusuf III dies, his son Muhammad VIII succeeds him. |
1427 | Following a revolt, Muhammad VIII flees to Tunis. Muhammad IX, a Nasrid prince, occupies the throne. |
1429 | Muhammad VIII recaptures the throne of Granada. |
1432 | After a loss at Hinguervuda to the Castilians, Muhammad VIII escapes to Malaga. With the help of Castile, Yusuf IV comes to power; he dies within a few months. For a third time, Muhammad VIII ascends the throne of Granada.
Castilians annex the border towns of Jimena, Huesca, and Humela. |
1445 | Muhammad X overthrows and imprisons Muhammad VIII. |
1454 | The pro-Castile Saad ibn Ismail dethrones Muhammad X. |
1462 | Saad ibn Ismail fails to pay tribute to Castile provoking an attack on Granada that sees the loss of Muslim territory. |
1465 | Saad dies and his son Abul Hassan comes to power. Abul Hassan strengthens the army and refuses to pay tribute to the Castilians. He is able to capture some border towns, like Zahra. |
1469 | Queen Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon wed uniting Christian Spain under one banner. |
1482 | War between Granada and Castile breaks out. Al-Hamah (Alhama) falls to the Castilians. To add to the worries of Abul Hassan, his son Abu Abdullah Muhammad XI, through Abul Hassan’s Christian wife, revolts in Granada.
The pope begins granting funds to King Ferdinand that aid in the eventual expulsion of Muslim power. |
1483 | Ali reassumes leadership as Nasrid ruler in Spain. |
1484 | Christian and Muslim blacksmiths are said to establish a union named after St. Eligius. |
1485 | Muhammad XII az-Zaghall begins his rule in Spain. |
1486 | Loxa and Malaga fall to the Castillians. |
1487 | Christian powers install Muhammad XI, also known as Boabdil and oldest son of Abul Hassan, to the throne of Granada. Muhammad XII flees to Morocco.
In Valencia, the Muslim son of a legist converts to Christianity and takes the name Juan Andres. In 1515, his book condemning Islam as a fraudulent and immoral religion will be published. |
1492 | On the second of January Granada capitulates to the Christians, thus ending over 750 years of Muslim rule. The subsequent spill of refugees into North Africa and bitter feelings between the Muslims and the Europeans will eventually lead to the infamous Barbary Wars. Isabella and Ferdinand wear Moorish clothing during the conquest as that and other Spanish Muslim cultural trends –such as food, makeup, architecture– are in vogue. Boabdil will die in exile in Fez in 1538.
Christopher Columbus receives his contract for his first voyage at Alhambra Palace in Granada. While in Gomera (Canary Islands), he falls in love with Beatriz Boabdilla (Abu Abdullah). Two of Columbus’s captains, the Pinzons (Bin Zayn), were of Muslim descent related to the Moroccan sultan Abu Zayn Muhammad III (1362-66) of the Marinid Dynasty. |
6. Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula after Granada’s fall
Following the expulsion of Muslim power from Spain, many Muslims were given the choice between expulsion and baptism. Those that only superficially converted eventually began to revolt until even all the Christianized Muslims sought refuge from the peninsula. The refugee Muslims, or their descendents, that sought safety in North Africa helped to start a new era in Mediterranean warfare which became known as the Barbary wars. Andalusian culture, as defined by its former Muslim residents, permeated into North Africa and some Ottoman domains.
1496 | Portuguese King Manuel I orders expulsion of all Muslims and Jews by October 1497 |
1499 | A minor revolt in Albaicin, Granada’s Muslim quarter, occurs against a policy of mass baptism. |
1500 | Minor Muslim rebellions break out in Spain. |
1501 | Spain takes more forceful steps in the mass conversion of its Muslim population. A royal decree orders a huge bonfire of Arabic books in October. |
1502 | Queen Isabella offers the Muslims of Castilian territory the option of baptism or exile; many choose baptism due to the strict conditions of emigration.
Francisco Boabdilla (Abu Abdullah), Royal Commissioner, puts Christopher Columbus in chains and brings him from Santo Domingo to Spain. |
1504 | A jurist from Oran issues a fatwa allowing Muslims of Granada to utilize taqiyya, outward renunciation of faith while maintaining inward loyalty, to withstand Christian pressure to covert. |
1524 | Pope Clement VII issues a bull to relieve Charles V of any obligations he has to the Muslims in Spain. |
1526 | A royal decree forces Muslims in Aragon, Spain to accept Christianity. These converted Muslims are known as moriscos. The Inquisition in Granada is established to ensure the sincerity of the Moriscos. |
1529 | Khairuddin Barbarossa brings Moriscos to Algeria from Spain. |
1546 | Suleiman and Charles V acknowledge a truce |
1557 | Moriscos are prohibited from using Arabic, wearing traditional clothes, using their surnames, public bathing, celebrating matrimonial rites, or listening to traditional music. |
1561 | Draghut Rais (Turghud Ali) destroys seven Spanish galleys. |
1568 | On Christmas Eve the moriscos of Granada revolt, led by Muhammad ibn Ummayya against Spanish rule. Support for this rebellion is drawn primarily from the Alpujarra region’s villages. The revolt rises from 4,000 members to possibly 30,000 by the summer of 1569. North African Muslims under the Sardinian-born Oloudj (Uluj) Ali begin to send aid to this movement. 4,000 Turks and Berbers are said to have been among the ranks of the rebels in 1570. |
1569 | Don Juan of Austria, the King of Spain’s half-brother, assumes leadership of the campaign to quell the morisco revolt. |
1570 | Don Juan suppresses the morisco revolt. The Spanish government decides in November to disperse the morisco population throughout Spain. Many die during the marches after being forced out of their home; even Don Juan of Austria considers their hardships one of the most tragic sights he has seen. |
1575 | Algerian corsairs capture Miguel Cervantes who is returning to Spain after years of fighting against the Ottomans. He will spend the next five years as a captive of the Barbary nation. Cervantes will reflect the traumatic experience in many of his works including The Dungeons of Algiers, The Gallant Spaniard, The Captive’s Tale, and his masterpiece Don Quixote. The Algeria of this time is said to be one of the most multicultural nations in the Mediterranean region. Converts to Islam (known as renegados) from every European nation, as well as Indians from America, reside there beside native Arabs, Berbers, and Turks. |
1579 | Moriscos are forbidden to live near the coasts of Andalusia and later Valencia (1586). |
1580 | Morisco conspiracy in Seville is revealed; authorities punish the leaders and enforce strict regulations on the Morisco population. |
1601 | Three members of the party of Husayn Ali Beg covert to Christianity during the Persian ambassador’s stay in Rome. The embassy moves on to Spain. |
1602 | The Persian ambassador leaves Spain for his native land returning a few members short. While in Spain, another three members of the Persian ambassador’s party abandon Islam for Catholicism: Ali Quli Beg, the ambassador’s nephew and now godson of Philip III; Uruch Beg, the First Secretary of Embassy; and Buniyad Beg, the ambassador’s cook. Their Christian names are Don Philip of Persia, Don Juan of Persia, and Don Diego of Persia, respectively. |
1603 | Don Juan of Persia completes his Relaciones in Spain. He divides the piece, an account of his experience, into three books: a description of Persia government, land, and history; recent battles between the Ottomans and the Persians; and his personal journey from Persia to Europe. |
1605 | Don Juan of Persia dies in Valladolid, Spain. |
1610 | The last Muslim revolt in Spain occurs; many Muslims are deported following this rebellion. |
1690-1691 | Hamet ben Hassu, ambassador of Moroccan ruler Muley Ismail, comes to Spain to negotiate the release of 500 Muslim captives and 5000 Arabic manuscripts. An account of his observations was kept at the Royal Library of Madrid. Hamet, about 10 years earlier, had served as ambassador to England as well. |
1769 | A report of the Spanish Inquisition to Carlos III claims verification of the existence of a mosque in Cartagena established by moriscos. |
1808 | 2nd May (in the infamous “Dos Mayo” riot), Napoleon’s Mamluk guard present in Madrid to suppress a local revolt against French invaders. The exotic garb of the Mamluk harkening back to the days of Moorish rule in Spain is seen as an exacerbating factor in Spaniard response. Francisco Goya painted a depiction of an attempted revolt against the Mamluk. They will participate in the battles of Medina del Rio Seco and Benavente this year. The Mamluk will have two more stints in Spain in 1810 and 1811. |
1936-1939 | The Spanish Civil War occurs. General Francisco Franco utilizes Moors (Moroccans) in his forces to fight off the Loyalists of the Second Republic. Known as the regulares, these volunteers were tribesman from the Rif commanded by Spanish officers. Widespread unemployment in Spanish Morocco prompted thousands of Moroccans to enlist. Regulares were known for their efficiency, stealth in “dead ground”, and brutality. Regulares also gained fear from them for their use of triangular knives and machine guns. Nationalists made the regulares “honorary Christians” and the troops were a significant part of Franco’s victory parade. |
7. Early excursions into Sicily and other Mediterranean islands
Muslims established their first navy seventeen years after the death of the Prophet Muhammad (in June 632). As these early Muslims consolidated their Arabian holdings, eventual conflict came about against the Byzantine Empire who controlled parts of northern Arabia. War raged between the rising power of the Arabs and the, at the time, the decadent power of the Byzantines (they would come to see a revival around the 10th and 11th centuries). Since the Eastern Roman Empire held many Mediterranean islands, the Muslims thought it strategically important to take some of these bases. While the Umayyad dynasty remained in power, the Arab-Byzantine wars spanned three continents with the Mediterranean serving as a major front. Even after the Abbasids reduced Umayyad holdings to the Iberian Peninsula, the latter dynasty still made occasional campaigns in the Mediterranean. Often at times tension between the Berbers and the Arabs in North Africa hindered more successful campaigning in the region during this period.
649 | Caliph Uthman’s reign establishes Islam’s first naval force: Muawiyah ibn Abu Sufyan-governor of Syria, Palestine, and Jordan–dispatches a fleet of 500 ships under Abdullah ibn Qays Harthi to conquer Cyprus. During Uthman’s reign, Muslim armies expand deeper into North Africa, Asia Minor, and Central Asia. |
652 | Muawiyah dispatches his namesake Muawiyah ibn Khudayj on the Muslims’ first raid against Byzantine Sicily. Despite having an alliance with Gregory, the Byzantine governor in North Africa, the Muslim flotilla doesn’t make much headway aside from some loot and captives. |
653 | Muslim led by Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan control Cyprus.
Umm Haram dies. She took part in the battle of Cyprus. She fell off her mount after the victory and was buried in Cyprus. |
654 | Muslims raid the island of Rhodes. |
667 | Abdullah ibn Qays leads the Umayyad fleet on another expedition against Sicily. It returns with some jewel-studded icons of silver and gold. A possibility exists of follow-up campaigns against the island by Abdullah in 668 or 669. |
672 | Muslims occupy Rhodes |
674 | Muslims wrest part of the island of Crete. |
697 | Byzantine and Berber refugees from North Africa flee to Sicily following the Muslim conquest of Carthage. Sicily becomes a base from which the defeated lead attacks against the Muslims. Due to its strategic position in the Mediterranean and its ownership by the enemy (Byzantium), Sicily –since the initial attacks in 652–becomes a focal point of attacks from the Muslim forces. |
704 | Musa ibn Nusayr, the Umayyad’s governor of North Africa, sends his son on campaigns against the Mediterranean islands of the Balearics, Sicily, and Sardinia. |
710 | Musa sends an expedition against Sardinia. |
711 | Muslims attack Byzantine Sardinia. An account by Ibn Athîr relates that due to the atrocities committed by the Muslims, a storm destroyed many ships on the return voyage. |
727 | Bishr ibn Safwan leads a Muslim force from North Africa against Sicily. |
728 | Ubayda ibn Abd al-Rahman, successor to Bishr, dispatches Uthman ibn Abu Ubayda to head a campaign against Sicily. |
729 | Ubayda sends Mustanir ibn al-Harith on another attack against Sicily. |
730 | From Syria, a Muslim force raids Sicily. |
732 | Abd al-Malik ibn Qatan raids Sicily.
Abdallah ibn Ziyad leads a Muslim attack on Sardinia. |
733 | Byzantines use Greek fire to defeat a Muslim attack on Sicily led by Abu Bakr ibn Suwayd. |
734 | Ubaydullah ibn Habhad, governor in North Africa, sends an unsuccessful attack against Sicily. |
735 | Ubaydullah ibn Habhad dispatches an attack against Sardinia. |
740 | Ubaidallah ibn al-Habhâb, governor in Africa, calls off a siege of Syracuse, Sicily, upon payment of tribute. The expedition, under Habib ibn Abu Ubayda, designed to conquer the island has to be delayed due to a Berber revolt in North Africa. |
753 | Abd al-Rahman, son of Habib ibn Abu Ubayda, sends his brother Abdullah on what is to be the most successful Muslim expedition against Sicily to date. Like the one in 740, this too must be called off on account of a revolt in North Africa. The Byzantines take advantage of the distracted Muslims and refortify their position in the Mediterranean making them safe from Muslim attack. |
798 | Muslims invade the Balearic Islands. |
800 | Ibrahim I ibn al-Aghlab, a former officer in the Abbasid army, begins his reign as Emir in Ifriqiyya (Tunisia). Members of his dynasty (the Aghlabids) will become major players on the Mediterranean scene. |
810-820 | Muslims attack Sardinia, Corsica, etc.; they occupy the Balearic Islands, Nice and parts of Southern Italy. |
812 | Abul Abbas Abdullah I becomes the next Aghlabid ruler. |
813 | Aghlabid ruler Abul Abbas Abdullah I concludes a ten-year peace treaty with Gregory, the Byzantine patrician of Sicily.
Pope Leo III lets Charlemagne know that Muslim emissaries sailing to Sicily are using Venetian boats. |
817 | Aghlabid emir in Tunis, Ziyadat-Allah I, begins his reign. |
818 | Umayyads control the islands of Corsica, Izira, Majorca, and Sardinia. |
819 | Muhammad ibn Abdullah bin al-Aghlab commands a Muslim expedition from North Africa against Sicily. |
825 | The rebels who were defeated by al-Hakam in 814 conquer Crete with the support of Egypt. |
The betrayal of a rogue Byzantine officer gave Muslims, specifically the North African Aghlabid dynasty, an opportunity for the conquest of Sicily. The Muslims embarked on what was to be a 130-year conquest of the island. Like Spain, Sicily became an exemplary Euro-Islamic state marked by an appreciation for erudition of all peoples and the diversity within its own population. Muslim power passed from the Aghlabids to the Fatimids who gave control of the island to the Kalbites. In much the same way as the island came into the hands of the Muslims, it was so taken away. A disgruntled governor appealed to the Normans (Vikings) in Italy for aid against his own coreligionists.
Euphemius, Byzantine naval commander, revolts in Sicily against Constantine, the Byzantine strategist of the island. He occupies Syracuse but is ousted by one of his own officers. Euphemius seeks support of the Aghlabid emir Ziyadatullah in North Africa by offering suzerainty over the island, but maintaining governorship for himself. | |
826 | The forces of Euphemius join the Aghlabid fleet –which is comprised of Arabs, Berbers, Spanish Muslims from Crete, and possibly Persians – led by Asad ibn Furat, the qadi (judge) in Sicily. Some Muslim historians have conjectured that Asad ibn Furat is the progenitor of the family of Napoleon Bonaparte; Asad’s descendant’s were known as Banu Furat and Buonofart. |
827 | The forces of Euphemius join the Aghlabid fleet –which is comprised of Arabs, Berbers, Spanish Muslims from Crete, and possibly Persians – led by Asad ibn Furat, the qadi (judge) in Sicily. Some Muslim historians have conjectured that Asad ibn Furat is the progenitor of the family of Napoleon Bonaparte; Asad’s descendant’s were known as Banu Furat and Buonofart. |
828 | Asad ibn Furat dies of disease that broke out in the Muslim camp during the siege of Syracuse. The army elects Muhammad ibn Abi al-Jawari to leadership. |
829 | Minting of the first Sicilian Muslim coinage takes place during the first siege of Castrogiovanni. Muhammad ibn Abi-l-Jawari dies during this siege. Zuhayr ibn al-Ghawth is chosen as his successor. The Sicilian towns of Mineo and Mazara are under the Aghlabids. |
830 | Ziyadatullah sends reinforcements to the Muslim force in Sicily. Asbagh ibn Wakil, a scion of the Berber tribe of Hawwara and soldier of fortune, lands in Sicily with some followers from Spain. This group augments the Aghlabid force until the death of Absagh after some of the Spanish Muslims returned home. |
831 | Palermo in Sicily falls to the Muslims. |
832 | Ziyadatallah appoints his cousin Abu Fihr Muhammad ibn Abdullah as wali (governor) of Sicily. |
835 | A revolt breaks out in the Aghlabid army. The rebels kill Abu Fihr and take refuge with the Byzantines. Ziyadatullah appoints Fadl ibn Yaqub as temporary governor of Sicily. After five months, Abul Aghlab Ibrahim ibn Abdullah, brother of Abu Fihr, ascends to governorship of the island. |
837 | Aghlabids attack Castrogiovanni, which became the center for the partrician and Byzantine administration on the island since the fall of Palermo, and enter the city. A truce is signed and the Aghlabids return to Palermo. Alexis Mousélé, son-in-law of the Byzantine Emperor Theophilus and governor of Sicily, is recalled to Constantinople after being accused of conspiring with the Muslims. |
838 | Aghlabid emir Ziyadatullah dies. His brother Abu Iqal al-Aghlab ibn Ibrahim succeeds him. Reinforcements are sent to Sicily. |
840 | The Sicilian towns of Platani, Caltabellotta, Corleone, and possibly Marineo and Geraci surrender to the Muslims.
The Muslims of Sicily campaign in the Adriatic in the region of Istria and launch attackes against Osero in the island of Cherso. |
841 | Muhammad I takes power as Aghlabid emir. |
842 | The Muslims in Sicily now occupy the whole of the Val di Mazara region and enter into alliance with Naples. |
845 | The Aghlabids occupy Modica in Sicily. |
846 | The forces of Aghlabid officer Fadl ibn Jafar occupy Lentini in Sicily. |
851 | Abul Aghlab dies after sixteen years of holding governorship of Sicily. Abbas ibn Fadl succeeds him. |
856 | The reign of Aghlabid ruler Ahmad commences. |
859 | Castrogiovanni falls to the Muslims, under Abbas ibn Fadl, in Sicily. The capture of this town was essential as it allows the Muslims to control east Sicily. The Byzantine emperor sends reinforcements to Sicily to recover losses. Many formerly Byzantine towns revolt against the Muslims; however, Abbas defeats all of them in a battle near Cefalu. |
863 | Ziyadat-Allah II and then Abul Gharaniq Muhammad II reign as Aghlabid rulers. |
864 | Noto, Sicily falls to the Muslims. |
865 | The ruler of Leon sues for peace with the Muslims.
Byzantines defeat an Aghlabid force, under Khafaja’s son Muhammad, near Syracuse. |
868 | Muhammad, son of Khafaja, defeats a Byzantine fleet near Syracuse. |
869 | After the assassination of his father Khafaja, Muhammad becomes governor of Sicily. |
870 | Malta falls to the Muslims under the Aghlabid prince Ahmad ibn Omar with reinforcements from Sicily. |
871 | Palace eunuchs assassinate Muhammad ibn Khafaj. The Sicilian Muslims choose Muhammad ibn Abu Husayn as successor, but the Aghlabid Emir in North Africa replaces this choice with Rabah ibn Yaqub. |
873 | Abul Abbas ibn Abdullah becomes governor of Sicily. Abu Malik Ahmad replaces him this same year. |
875 | Ibrahim II becomes the new Aghlabid emir in Tunis. |
877 | Under the new Aghlabid governor Jafar ibn Muhammad, the Muslim forces besiege Syracuse. A Byzantine fleet relieves the city. |
878 | The Muslims resume the siege of Syracuse and in spring it falls. Soon after, Jafar ibn Muhammad dies in an ensuing palace conspiracy. Husayn ibn Rabah succeeds him. |
880 | Byzantines occupy Taranto. |
881 | Hasan ibn Abbas becomes governor of Sicily. |
882 | Muhammad ibn Fadhl replaces Hasan ibn Abbas as Sicily’s Muslim governor. |
885 | Sawada ibn Muhammad ibn Khafaja, new governor of Sicily, leads an attack on Taormina but doesn’t take the town. |
886 | A rebellion in Sicily breaks out between the Arabs and the Berbers. The rebels will send Sawada back to North Africa and choose Abul Abbas ibn Ali as governor. However, the Aghlabid Emir will send Sawada back to the island with a successful force to suppress the rebellion. |
889 | Another rebellion breaks out in Sicily, this time between the native Sicilian Muslims and the North African Muslims, that will last until 894. |
891 | Muhammad ibn Fadl replaces Sawada as governor in Sicily. |
898 | The conflict between the Arabs and Berbers in Sicily restarts. |
899 | After Ahmad ibn Omar had difficulty pacifying the civil strife, Abdullah, the son of the Aghlabid Emir Ibrahim II, leads a force sent to restore order. |
902 | Muslims, led by Ibrahim II, wrest control of Sicily from Byzantines with the fall of Taormina. Following the fall of Taormina, Ibrahim ibn Ahmad lands on mainland Italy and marches from Calabria to Cosenza. He falls ill and dies while besieging Cosenza. Italians saw his death as Divine deliverance.
Abdullah II succeeds Ibrahim as Aghlabid emir. |
903 | Ziyadat-Allah III becomes the new Aghlabid ruler. |
909 | Fatimids, a dynasty of Shiite Muslims who claim descent from Fatima the daughter of Prophet Muhammad, rise to power defeating the Aghlabids and taking over their domains. In Sicily Ali ibn Ahmad ibn Abul Fawaris, a former deposed governor of the island, champions their cause. |
910 | Ibn Abu Khinzir, also known as Hasan ibn Ahmad, replaces Ali ibn Ahmad as Sicily’s Fatimid governor. |
912 | Ali ibn Omar al-Balawi becomes governor of Sicily. |
913 | Arabs and Berbers revolt against the Fatimids in Sicily electing Ibn Qurhub as their Emir. For this period, Sicily returns to Sunni rule. |
916 | Rebellion breaks out against Ibn Qurhub in Sicily. The rebels appeal to the Fatimids and Sicily will thus be returned to their rule. |
917 | Salim ibn Rashid ascends to the Fatimid governorship of Sicily, a post he will hold for the next twenty years. |
937 | After a revolt in Sicily, the Fatimid Caliph al-Qaim replaces Salim ibn Rashid as governor of the island with Khalil ibn Ishaq. |
947 | Following the suppression of the North African rebellion, Fatimid Caliph al-Mansur sends Hasan ibn Ali al-Kalbi as governor to deal with the rebels in Sicily. After his success there, Hasan will establish a semi-autonomous dynasty in Sicily recognizing Fatimid suzerainty. |
948 | Control of Sicily passes from the Fatimids to the Arab Kalbites, their first leader being al-Hasan ibn Ali al-Kalbi. |
962 | Ahmad ibn Hasan ibn Ali al-Kalbi wrests control of the Christian parts of Sicily that declared their independence. |
965 | Byzantines recapture Taormina.
Muslims conquer Rometta completing the 130 years of Muslims conquest in Sicily. Sicily prospers under its Kalbite Emirs, dependents of the Fatimids. The medical university is said to rival those in Baghdad and Cordova. |
966 | Hasan ibn Ali al-Kalbi dies during the siege of Rametta. |
970 | Abul Qasim Ali ibn Hasan becomes governor of Sicily. |
973 | Ibn Hawqal visits Sicily. |
983 | Jafar ibn Muhammad becomes governor of Sicily following the deposition of Jabir ibn Abul Qasim. |
986 | Abdullah ibn Muhammad succeeds his deceased brother Jafar as Sicily’s governor. Abdullah dies this year and is succeeded by his son Abul Futuh Yusuf. |
998 | Jafar ibn Yusuf replaces his father, who was incapacitated from a stroke, as governor of Sicily. Kalbite rule in Sicily begins to decline with him. |
1000 | Around this year, paper manufacturing filters into Sicily. Papermaking was well underway in Baghdad, Damascus, and Transoxiana. Some historians attribute the Muslim world’s knowledge of paper to the Chinese prisoners of war captured during the Battle of Talas in 751. Christian Europe will not see mainstream papermaking until much later. |
1015 | With the help of Berber and Negro slaves, Ali ibn Yusuf revolts against his ruling brother in Sicily. Ali is defeated and executed. |
1019 | Palermo revolts against the Kalbites. The paralyzed Yusuf deposes his son Jafar in favor of his other son Ahmad, known as al-Akhal. |
1034 | The Byzantines send an embassy to the Sicilian court. For the time being the Muslims will be on the defensive from the Italian states. |
1035 | Byzantines seek truce with the Kalbite-Zirid alliance.
Abu Hafs, leading a revolt in Sicily, succeeds in receiving aid from the Zirids. |
1038 | Abu Hafs defeats and executes al-Akhal.
Byzantine General Maniakes attempts to re-establish Christian control in Sicily. Despite some success in holding Messina for two years, the Byzantine attempt did not yield long-term results. Harald Sigurdson, younger half-brother of St. Olave (Olaf Sigurdson, former king of Norway), accompanies the Byzantine forces. |
1040 | Muslims recover control of Sicily after Maniakes is recalled to Constantinople. |
1044 | The Kalbite dynasty ends in Sicily with the deposition of Hasan al-Samsam. As with the Andalus, Sicily will split up into several petty principalities. |
1060 | Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn al-Thumna emerges as a powerful force in Sicily defeating some of the petty states and occupying Syracuse. Ibn al-Thuma loses support after his failed siege of Castrogiovanni under the leadership of his brother-in-law Ibn Hawwas. |
1061 | The Normans begin invading Muslim Sicily with the fall of Messina; civil strife among the Muslims facilitates the eventual success of the Normans. Ibn al-Thumna, following his defeat, is said to have invited the Normans under Roger and his brother Robert Guiscard to Sicily. |
1062 | While Roger returns to Italy, Ibn al-Thumna dies in battle. The Normans must vacate Troina and Petralia. |
1063 | Normans conquer Cerami and reoccupy Troina in Sicily. |
1068 | Misilmeri in Sicily falls to the Normans opening the way for an attack on the capital, Palermo, and eventually the entire western island. |
1072 | Normans conquer Palermo. Muslim’s resistance in the island is lead by an individual the European chronicles call Benavert. |
1076 | Normans besiege the Muslim Sicilian town of Salerno. In this and other engagements, historians mention the presence of Muslim regiments within the invading Norman army. |
1077 | Trapani falls to Normans. |
1079 | Normans annex Taormina in Sicily. |
1081 | Benavert wins over the Norman commander of Catania, who is a Christian convert from Islam, but eventually is driven south. |
1085 | Muslim Sicilian town of Syracuse falls to Norman control. |
1086 | Benavert is killed and the Normans take Syracuse. |
1087 | Hammud, the princeof Castrogiovanni surrenders to Roger, accepts Christianity, and receives a land grant in Calabria. Castrogiovanni becomes a part of Norman Sicily. |
1091 | Noto in Sicily falls; the Normans, under Count Roger, rule Sicily. The Norman conquest effectively ends over 250 years of Muslim rule, but not Muslim influence; Muslims continued to be a big part of court life during Norman rule. |
9. Muslims in Non-Muslim Sicily
Despite ousting the Muslims from power, the Normans were very receptive to the former’s culture. The new dynasty employed Muslim scholars in its courts, soldiers in its army, and even women in its harems. With the switch from Norman to Swabian power, Muslim influence steadily declined. When Frederick II brought many of the rebelling Muslims to a colony called Lucera on the Italian mainland, much of the Muslim presence slowly became insignificant. During the height of the Ottoman power, raids on the Sicilian coasts became frequent until that Muslim power also declined.
1101 | Count Roger dies. His widow, Countess Adelaide, rules as regent of Sicily and Calabria for ten years. |
1111 | Roger II becomes ruler of Norman domains in Sicily and Calabria. |
1127 | Banu Maymun raids the Norman domains of Patti, Catania, and land near Syracuse. |
1130 | The Papacy crowns Roger II King of Sicily, Calabria, Apulia, the principality of Capua, the honor of Naples, and protectorate of Benevento on Christmas Day. Due to successful naval campaigns in North Africa, Roger will later add King of Ifriqiyya to his name. Many Muslims play active roles in his court such as Abu’d-Daw, Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Omar, and the celebrated al-Idrisi. His reign also sees the employment of “palace Saracens,” castrated Muslims who had converted to Christianity. These eunuchs, who hold very prominent official roles, will often be accused of being covert Muslims and protecting Christian reverts to Islam. Roger begins construction of the Palatine Chapel in the Royal Palace at Palermo exhibiting some of the finest elements of Latin, Byzantine, and Arab architecture. |
1135 | Zirids make a truce with the Normans following an internal strife in North Africa. |
1153 | Philip, the “palace Saracen”, is executed in December. Roger II discovered Philip, despite being raised from childhood as a Christian, was actually a convert to Islam when he found that the eunuch sent oil to Medina to light lanterns at the tomb of the Prophet. Arabic sources say that the downfall of Philip resulted after the leniency he showed Muslims during the sack of Buna, North Africa. |
1154 | Roger II dies. William I succeeds him. William spoke fluent Arabic, kept a harem, and kept a bodyguard of Negroes commanded by a Muslim. |
1163 | The “palace Saracen” Gawhar is tortured and then drowned for allegedly stealing the royal seals. Peter succeeds him as Master Chamberlain. |
1166 | William II succeeds his deceased father as Norman ruler in Sicily. Like his father, he keeps a harem, speaks Arabic, and patronizes Muslims in his court. Many of the women in his harem are Muslim and are said to be secretly converting the Christians concubines to Islam. |
1167 | Peter the “palace Saracen” flees to al-Maghrib (North Africa) after an unsuccessful naval assault on Mahdiyya. |
1189 | William II dies. Nobles faction Sicily despite William’s wishes to have Constance, the daughter of Roger II and wife of German emperor Henry VI, to succeed him on the throne. |
1190 | A Muslim revolt in Sicily settles. |
1194 | The Swabian rule replaces the Norman rule in Sicily with the island’s conquest by Henry VI. With the change from an administration that was sympathetic to the Muslims, many feel threatened with the new regime. |
1197 | Muslim riot in Sicily upon the death of Henry VI. |
1199 | Markward of Anweiler, an Hohenstaufen agent before being expelled from Sicily, arrives in Trapani in Sicily –with aspirations of conquering the island– and wins support of many resident Muslims. |
1200 | Papal armies arrive in Sicily to combat Markward and his forces, which count Muslims among their numbers. Markward will go on to control the island until his death in 1202. |
1206 | Pope Innocent III sends a letter to various qadi-s (judges) in Sicily stating that the Muslims would be rewarded for their continued support of the crown. |
1219 | Muslim rebels, under Muhammad ibn Abbad, sack the Spedale di San Giovanni de’ Leprosi, nearly to Palermo’s gates, and take captive of the bishop of Girgenti. |
1222 | Frederick II of Hohenstaufen –Holy Roman Emperor, ruler of Germany and King of Naples and Sicily, and (after 1225 via a marriage with the heiress) the King of Jerusalem– leads a successful assault against the base of Muhammad ibn Abbad in Iato. A legend exists of Ibn Abbad’s daughter continuing the resistance after his defeat and ambushing some of her would-be-conquerors before committing suicide rather than being captured. |
1223 | Frederick II sends another military force to Sicily to crush Muslim opposition. Frederick II begins resettling the Muslim rebels on mainland Italy in a Muslim colony known as Lucera. Some evidence suggests that transfers may have started after the rebellion in 1222. |
1224 | Frederick II establishes the University of Naples, the first European university to be founded by a definite charter. The institution housed many Arabic manuscripts which were translated and distributed to Universities of Paris and Bologna. Thomas Aquinas studied here for a time. |
1226 | Fakhr ad-Din ibn ash-Shaykh, envoy of the Ayyubid sultan in Egypt, arrives at Frederick’s II court to discuss an alliance. |
1228 | The Sixth Crusade begins. Frederick II and Sultan al-Kamil of Egypt actually complete the first crusade absent of bloodshed with the signing of a treaty that gives Jerusalem to Frederick. Ironically, despite achieving the goals of the Crusades, Frederick and the Pope are at odds which sees the former become excommunicated. |
1236 | Abd al-Aziz, nephew of the ruler of Tunis, comes to the Kingdom of Sicily. |
1240 | Giovanni Moro, possibly a Black African Muslim convert to Christianity, holds influence in the court of Frederick II. |
1242 | Ibn Sab’in, a Murcian philosopher of Neoplatonic tendencies and Sufi, finishes his Al-Ajwiba ‛an al-As’ila as’Saqaliyya (Answers to Sicilian Questions). This treatise is a response to the questions of Frederick II sent to various Muslim rulers regarding philosophy and theology. |
1243 | A small Muslim rebellion breaks out in Sicily. After three years, Frederick defeats it and sends its members to Lucera. Islamic presence in Sicily nearly ceases completely. |
1250 | Frederick II Hohenstaufen dies. Despite his battles suppressing Muslims in his Sicilian realms, he heavily supported Islamic customs and Arabic culture to the point where he was derogatorily referred to as a baptized sultan. He kept a harem and an Oriental-like court. He also maintained friendly relations with the Ayyubid sultans in Egypt. One of their diplomatic exchanges brought the first giraffe (the word from the Arabic zarafah) to medieval Europe and a white bear and white peacock to Egypt. |
1254 | Giovanni Moro abandons the Hohenstaufen cause and joins Pope Innocent IV. |
1260 | Manfred, son of Frederick II, becomes King of Sicily. |
1261 | An emissary from Baybars, Sultan of Egypt, comes to the court of Manfred. |
1266 | Charles of Anjou, brother of Louis IX defeats Manfred, the last Hohenstaufen, at the Battle of Benevento. Receiving papal support to take possession of the Kingdom of Sicily the previous year, Charles of Anjou now becomes King Charles I. Charles I levies heavy taxes on Lucera but permits the practice of Islam. |
1285 | Charles I dies at Foggia. |
1289 | Charles of Salerno is crowned King of Sicily. He continues the employment of Muslim soldiers as well as Muslim tentmakers and weapons manufacturers. |
1293 | Muslims fight for Charles II in the War of the Sicilian Vespers |
1345 | Salem de Messana dies. This resident of Palermo was one of the last prominent Muslim merchants in Sicily |
1402 | A Muslim serves as headman in western Sicily’s tunny-fisheries. |
1533 | Khairuddin Barbarossa raids Sicilian and Italian coasts. |
1561 | Ottomans raid Sicily. |
10. The Mediterranean islands after the Sicilian conquest
Different Muslims and Christian European powers traded control of various Mediterranean islands after Sicily was consolidated. What was once considered a Muslim lake, the Mediterranean was then culturally and religiously divided. At the end of the Middle Ages, it became a theater of war between the Ottomans and rival Christian powers.
903 | The Muslims capture the Balearic Islands defeating the Franks. |
960 | Muslims conquer Sardinia. |
961 | Byzantines retake Crete and end over 140 years of Muslim control on the island. |
1026-1035 | Muslim forces from Sicily combined with the Zirids from North Africa attack Byzantine holdings of Illyria, some Greek islands, and the Thracian coast. |
1090 | The Muslims are expelled from Corsica and Malta. |
1192 | Richard I of England captures Cyprus. |
1231 | The Templars of Majorca receive a Crown charter from King James I to settle Muslims in their share of the island. To coax the Muslims, King James offers them regalian tax exemption and protection. Dom Pedro receives the lordship of the island. |
1240 | Prince Peter of Portugal, Majorca’s lord, receives a reprimand from Pope Gregory IX urging him not to settle any Muslims on the island. |
1287 | The Muslim population succumbs to slavery upon the fall of Minorca to the Spanish. |
1353 | The Byzantine Empire gives Ottoman sultan Orkhan the fortress of Tzympa after being loaned Turkish troops. The fort, located on the European side of Hellespoint, gives the Ottomans their first foothold in Europe. |
1397 | Ottoman Sultan Bayazid I invades Greece capturing many strongholds until the Greeks sue for peace and become a tributary of the Ottomans. This came a year after defeating a coalition of the Europe’s Christian forces –in one of the largest crusading armies, it contained forces from France, Germany, England, Hungary and ships from the Grand Master of the Hospitallers, Genoa, and Venice– at the Battle of Nicopolis (in Bulgaria) and devastated the countryside around Budapest in Hungary. |
1430 | Ottoman Turks, under Sultan Murad II, capture Salonika in Greece from Venetians with help from the Duke of Milan. |
1461 | Ottomans conquer Greece and the Aegean. |
1482 | Jem Sultan (b. 1459), son of Ottoman Sultan Muhammad II, sends a letter to Pierre d’Aubusson, with his two trusted companions, Doğan Bey and Firenk Suleyman Bey, requesting refuge. Jem Sultan temporarily stayed in Pisidia after losing the war for succession to Ottoman throne to his brother Bayazid II. He is advised to seek asylum in Europe rather than Asia as the Christian rulers seeking leverage against the rising Ottomans would be more amenable to Jem’s position. Firenk Suleyman was a European convert to Islam (Firenk being a corruption of“Frank” meaning “French” or “European”) who provided superior communication capacities with the Knights. On 29 July, Jem (also spelled Cem) will land in Rhodes to a welcoming and curious crowd. Jem’s residence is known to the present day as the Palace of Zizim. After 34 days in Rhodes, Jem set sail to France accompanied by his entourage of 57 and a 300 knight escort. |
1499 | At the first Battle of Lepanto, the Ottoman navy defeats the Venetians annexing some Venetian islands and coastal holdings in the Aegean and Ionian seas. |
1516 | A Mamluk ambassador comes to Rhodes to demand the surrender of Prince Murat, son of Jem Sultan. Murat fled Cairo fearing he woud be given up to the Ottomans and executed. The Knights refused the Mamluk offer. Murat converted to Catholicism and took the name Pierre Mehmet Sayd. In 1492, Pope Alexander establishes the Principate de Sayd as a fief for the descendents of Jem and King Ferrantino names Pierre Mehmet Viscomte de Sayd. Some branches of Maltese nobility claim direct descent to this Ottoman line even today. |
1522 | The island of Rhodes in the Mediterranean falls to Suleiman the Magnificent. The Knights are allowed to leave the island with their property and the citizens are granted freedom of worship and property. Suleiman demands the surrender of Prince Murat, known as Pierre Mehmet Sayd, and has him executed. Some records state that Little Jem, grandson of Jem Sultan, was also executed, but European records state that he went with the Knights to their new base in Malta. |
1551 | Ottoman navy sweeps the Western Mediterrancean. Bastia in Corsica falls. |
1556 | Ottomans attack Corsica. |
1565 | Ottoman Admiral Draghut Rais dies during an attack on the Knights of St. John stronghold of the island of Malta. The siege is lifted. |
1566 | Suleiman the Magnificent dies.
Ottomans capture the Genoese held island of Chios. |
1570 | Ottomans begin a conquest of the island of Cyprus from Venice. |
1571 | In response to the capture of Cyprus, the Christian forces– Spain, the papacy, and Venice– under Don Juan defeat the Ottoman navy at the Battle of Lepanto (Greece). The victory is a significant one for the Christians as it shatters the image of Turkish naval invincibility; however, due to internal instabilities and the immediate renovation of the Ottoman navy, Europe cannot consolidate the win. Christendom counts Miguel Cervantes, renowned author of Don Quixote, among the many wounded; he lost the use of his left arm earning the nickname el manco de Lepanto (the one-handed soldier of Lepanto). The Ottomans suffer heavy losses, but thanks to Uluj Ali, the Turkish left were saved. |
1669 | Candia falls giving Crete to the Ottomans. |
1685 | Venetians attack Ottoman Greece. |
1687 | The Venetian force occupies Greece. During the battle, the Parthenon sustained heavy damage. During transportation to Venice as trophies, the chariots and horses of Athena fell and were badly damaged. |
1718 | The Peace of Passarowitz between the Ottoman Empire and Venice and Austria followed Ottoman wars with the two European powers over Crete, Greece, and parts of the Balkans. |
1798 | A Tunisian raid on the island of San Pietro, near Sardinia, sees the capture of nearly 1,000 slaves. |
1803 | Napoleon forces Tunis to free all the slaves captured in the San Pietro raid in 1798 |
1821 | Greek insurrection against Ottoman rule begins in Morea igniting the Greek War for Independence. |
1822 | Greeks proclaim their independence at Epidauros. The Ottomans occupy Chios initiating the Battle of Chios. The Ottomans invade the Grecian peninsula and besiege Missolonghi. |
1823 | Ottomans lift the siege on Missolonghi. |
1825 | Ottoman Sultan Mahmud appeals to Egypt’s Muhammad Ali for help against the Greek revolt. The latter sends his son Ibrahim with a fleet and an army to Morea while the Ottomans dispatch Reshid Pasha from the north. The European powers give their support to the Greeks. |
1827 | At the Battle of Navarino of the Greek War for Independence, French, British, and Russian ships destroy the Turko-Egyptian fleet. |
1828 | Egyptian forces begin the evacuation of Greece. |
1832 | The Treaty of London officially establishes Greece as an independent country. |
1877 | Turkey transfers Cyprus to British control. |
1930 | Turkey signs Treaty of Friendship with Greece and joins the League of Nations. |
1953 | The French force Moroccan Sultan Muhammad V into exile in Corsica. |
Initially, attacks on Italy seemed to be extensions of the Sicily campaigns. Significant steps were made by the Muslims: establishing of ties with the merchant states, founding of a temporary Islamic state, and the invasion of Rome. After Sicily began to fall to the Normans, the Pope started to use his power to take advantage of the crusading spirit and call international crusades against the Muslims. The next noteworthy Muslim presence occurred during the 13th century when Frederick II established a Muslim colony at Lucera. After it was dismantled, the Muslim impact remained in the form of ambassadors, scholars, etc. Since Rome was the spiritual head of Europe at the time, it came into heavy contacts with the Ottomans. Sultan Muhammad II made use of Italians in all functions of his reign. He died in hopes of conquering the south European nations. Throughout these centuries Italian art from carpets to painting reflected contacts with the Muslim world.
810-820 | Muslims attack Sardinia, Corsica, etc.; they occupy the Balearic Islands, Nice and parts of Southern Italy. |
813 | Muslims attack Nice, Corsica, Civita Vecchia (near Rome). |
836-909 | Aghlabids invade Italy. |
837 | Muslims first gain a foothold on mainland Italy after coming to the call of the Napolitans against the Lombards of Benevento. |
838 | Muslims allied with Naples attack the Adriatic coast of Italy temporarily occupying Brindisi after defeating a Venetian fleet. |
841 | The dynast of Benevento, Radelchis, appeals to the Muslims for aid against his rival Sikenolf, governor of Bari. The Muslims accept and occupy Bari. In response, Sikenolf fruitlessly seeks the aid of the Muslims in Crete against the Muslims in Italy. |
843 | With the help of Naples, the Aghlabids capture Messina and the strategic Straits of Messina. |
846 | Pope Leo IV implores the coastal cities of Naples, Amalfi, and Gaeta to join forces against Muslim invasion. Under Cesarius, son of the duke of Naples, the Italian fleets defeat the Muslims (a heavy storm facilitated this victory). Many of the Muslims captured and forced into labor, are used to fortify the Vatican City.
The Muslims reach the Italian town of Arrezo; the name derives itself from “Saracino” (Saracen was the common name for Muslims). This is the origin for the festival held in this city on the first Sunday of September at the Piazza Grande known as the Giostra del Saracino (Joust of the Saracen). |
849-866 | The Muslims occupy the Apulia region of Italy. Mufarraj ibn Sallam declares his independence in Bari occupying 48 fortresses in the region and raiding Napolitan lands. |
851 | The Muslims in Bari attack Calabria threatening Benevento and Salerno. |
858 | The Muslims of Bari raid Benevento. They defeat a Frankish relief force. |
859 | Prince Adelchis of Benevento pays the Muslims tribute. By this time, the Muslims have penetrated Campagna and raid the suburbs of Naples. The Volturno valley and Venafro are occupied. |
866 | Louis II attacks the Muslims in Italy occupying Matera, Venosa, and Canosa but fails to take Bari.
The Muslims besiege Ragusa until a relief force led by Nicetas Oryphas arrives. |
869 | Louis II unsuccessfully besieges Bari again. |
871 | Louis II successfully conquers Bari from the Muslims. |
872 | Muslims take the offensive in all direction of southern Italy defeating Prince Adelchis of Benevento and his Lombard troops three times. |
873 | Louis II conquers the Muslims of Capua. |
875 | Louis II dies. His campaigns against the Muslims prevented their occupation of a larger portion of Italy.
A Muslim fleet sails up the Adriatic to Grado and sets fire to Comacchio on the return voyage. |
876 | Muslims are joined by Italian states of Naples, Salerno, and Amalfi in attacking the Roman coast. Pope John VIII is forced to pay tribute. |
880 | Atanasio, the bishop of Naples, appeals to the Muslims for aid. Pope John VIII anathematizes him. |
881 | Muslims of Sepino, in alliance with Count Guy of Spoleto, occupy the valley of Volturno again after overrunning Isernia and Bojano. |
882 | Muslims establish a base at Garigliano. |
886 | The Byzantines wrest Calabria and parts of Apulia from the Muslims. |
888 | The Muslims defeat a Byzantine fleet near Reggio. In the counterstrike, the Byzantine capture the enemy commander Mujbir ibn Ibrahim. |
901 | After the Byzantines send forces to take advantage of the civil disorder of Muslim portions of Sicily, Abdullah ibn Ibrahim counterstrikes with an attack on Reggio on the Italian mainland. |
905 | The Muslims at Gargliano raid Capua, then in alliance with Naples. |
911 | Muslims colonize the Alpine Passes. |
915 | Pope John X, with aid from other Italian states, drives Arabs from their base at Garigliano. Central Italy is freed from Muslim invasions. Some view this victory as the best show of Italian unity during the century.
Ibn Qurhub sends an expedition against the Italian mainland. Eustathius, the Byzantine strategist of Calabria, pays tribute to the invading Muslims. |
920 | Muslims attack the Italian Piemonte in the east and upon Marseille in the west. |
925 | Expeditions from Sicily attack the coasts of Lombardy and Calabria. |
929 | Fatimids raid Naples and Salerno. |
934 | Fatimids, based in North Africa, capture Genoa. |
935 | Following the capture of Genoa, a Muslim flotilla defeats a Byzantine fleet sailing in Corsican waters. |
942 | Muslims occupy Mount Jupiter (Great St. Bernard). |
952 | Muslims sailing up from al-Madhiyya establish a short-lived mosque in Reggio in southern Italy. |
956 | Kalbites attack Calabria. |
972 | St. Maiolus, while returning to Cluny from Rome, is captured by Muslims when he tries to use the St. Bernhard route. Muslims ransom him for 1,000 pounds of silver. |
976 | Abul Qasim leads a Muslim expedition into southern Italy. |
982 | The Kalbite forces of Abul Qasim defeat the Frankish Emperoro Otto II in Capo Colonna in Calabria. |
986 | Muslims occupy Gerace and advance to Cosenza in Italy. |
994 | Muslims occupy Matera in Italy. |
999 | Gerbert is consecrated as Pope Sylvester II. Around 952, he entered an abbey. After growing tired of monasticism, he went to Muslim Spain (around 960) where he learned the sciences. He became so learned in these sciences that many in his homeland accused him of acquiring this knowledge via a pact with the devil.
Abu Bakr ibn Omar al-Gutiya, Andalusian historian and descendent of Gothic Princess Sara, states that Ibn Faruq of Granada sailed from Kadesh into the Atlantic, landed in the Great Canary Islands, and went west to Capraria and Pluitana islands. |
1002 | Venetians take Bari from the Muslims. |
1005 | The Pisans inflict a heavy defeat on the Muslims in the strait of Messina. |
1006 | Byzantines, with Pisan aid, repel a Muslim attack. |
1009 | Muslims again march through Calabria and occupy Cosenza. |
1011 | Muslims sack Pisa. |
1012 | Mujahid ibn Abdullah of Denia, with a Muslim fleet from Spain, attacks Pisa (the event is also dated in 1015). Since about 1010, Mujahid looked to establish himself in the Mediterranean with the conquest of the Balearic Islands. |
1016 | Muslims besiege Salerno. |
1020 | Muslims in alliance with the Apulian Rayca occupy Bisgnano in Italy. |
1021 | After seven years of battle, the Pisans and Genoese defeat Mujahid. |
1029 | Muslims from Sicily with Rayca raid the southern coast of Italy attacking the castle of Obbiano. |
1031 | Muslims raiding Italy occupy Cassano. |
1032 | The Byzantines and the Ragusans defeat a Muslim fleet in the Adriatic. Another fleet from North Africa suffers defeat off the west coast of Greece. |
1074 | The Zirids send a flotilla to attack Nicotra in Calabria in response to Norman incursions in Sicily. The Normans repulse this attack. |
1084 | Benavert raids the coast of Calabria and the suburbs of Reggio. He takes the monastery of Rocca d’Asino and all its priests captive. This prompts the Norman conflict with the Muslims to take on the aura of a crusade. |
1088 | Count Roger occupies Butera and exiles the Muslim inhabitants to Calabria. |
1113 | Zirid ships raid Naples and Salerno. |
1122 | The Banu Maymun, clients of the Almoravids, sack Nicotra in Calabria. |
1145 | A bishop from the Outremer (the independent Crusader states in the Middle East) tells the Pope about a wealthy and powerful Christian monarch from the east who has come to aid in the fight against Islam.The Prester John legend enters history with this rumor. The basis for this mythical figure may stem from the victory of the Qara-Khitai people in Central Asia over the Muslim Seljuk Turks in 1141. |
1177 | Pope Alexander III sends an embassy to the mythical Prester John; it will never return. |
1202 | The Fourth Crusade is summoned. This one ironically is not carried out against the Muslims but the Christian-held Constantinople. This event agitates bitter feelings between the Greek Orthodox and Catholic realms. The dispute will prove detrimental when the Ottomans rise and Europe is split. |
1218 | Egypt becomes the target of the Fifth Crusade backed by Italian states seeking commercial dominance. This crusade was marked by heavy naval engagements and failed to achieve its goal. |
1223 | Frederick II sends another military force to Sicily to crush Muslim opposition. Frederick II begins resettling the Muslim rebels on mainland Italy in a Muslim colony known as Lucera. Some evidence suggests that transfers may have started after the rebellion in 1222. |
1237 | Frederick II uses the Muslims of Lucera in his military campaigns in Northern Italy. |
1239 | A leopard keeper is known to exist in the Muslim colony of Lucera; by 1280, up to six Muslim leopard keepers are employed in the colony.
Muslims of Lucera are among the troops that advance against Frederick’s Milanese enemies. |
1240 | Muslims work as camel keepers in Lucera. |
1243 | Pope Inncocent IV receives Abdullah, brother of Ibn Sab’in, as envoy of the Almohad ruler. |
1245 | At the Council of Lyons, called by the Pope, Frederick II is criticized for his support for Muslims (which include accusations of taking Muslim concubines), especially his stand on the colony at Lucera. |
1254 | Giovanni Moro abandons the Hohenstaufen cause and joins Pope Innocent IV. |
1255 | Pope Alexander IV sends an army against Manfred, son of Frederick II who recently came into conflict with the papacy following the slaying of a papal auxiliary, and his base with the Muslims at Lucera. |
1260 | Manfred becomes King of Sicily. |
1264 | Pope Urban IV calls a crusade against Manfred and the Muslims of Lucera (due to their support of Manfred). |
1265 | A month after being consecrated, Pope Clement IV also calls a crusade against Manfred and his Muslim supporters. The Pope will also preach crusades against the Muslims of Spain and Africa.
The Pope and other European monarchs receive embassies from the Ilkhans (the Mongol dynasty of Persia) proposing collaboration against the Mamluks of Egypt. |
1266 | Charles of Anjou, brother of Louis IX defeats Manfred, the last Hohenstaufen, at the Battle of Benevento. Receiving papal support to take possession of the Kingdom of Sicily the previous year, Charles of Anjou now becomes King Charles I. Charles I levies heavy taxes on Lucera but permits the practice of Islam. |
1268 | Muslims rebel in Lucera upon the arrival in Italy of Conradin, Frederick’s grandson. |
1269 | The Muslim rebels in Lucera surrender. Many Muslims become fugitives all over Italy. |
1270 | Muslims in Lucera find employment in falconry.
Charles I orders that all Muslim fugitives must be returned to the colony. |
1273 | Ibrahim, captain of the Muslim forces for the Angevins, leads his group to parts of Achaea.
Leone, a Lucerine Muslim, becomes the captain of the Angevins’ Muslim forces in Durazzo. A month later, Musa replaces him as commander of the 200 Muslim stationed. |
1275 | The Muslim knight Riccardo, real name Abu Abdullah, gathers 100 archers from the colony at Lucera to fight in the Angevin campaigns in Durrazo, Albania.
Ibrahim replaces Musa as commander of the Muslims at Durazzo. |
1276 | Charles I reissues the laws prohibiting Muslims from leaving Lucera. Around this time, Christians from Provence are settled in Lucera. |
1277 | Charles I grants Musa tax immunity for his service in Durazzo. |
1278 | Riccardo and Leone select fifty Lucerine laborers to work on the castle at Melfi in Italy. |
1279 | Charles I orders that fifty-three of the best Muslim archers from Lucera are to be selected to go to Durazzo. |
1280 | Charles I orders 300 Muslim crossbowmen, under Riccardo, to report to Brindisi for eventual shipping off to Durazzo. They will participate in the unsuccessful siege of Berat’s castle. |
1282 | Charles orders 100 horses to be supplied to the 100 Muslim crossbowmen fighting in the royal army in Sicily. 500 Muslim foot soldiers are recruited for the army. |
1283 | The Aragonese bring war onto the Calabria region of Italy. Leone, the Muslim knight, leads Muslim soldiers for the royal army in Nicotera in Calabria throughout the 1280s. In this year Musa is ordered to recruit Muslim archers for the army. |
1284 | Musa, Suleiman, and Salem serve as the captains for the Muslim forces during the siege of Scalea in Italy. |
1285 | Charles I dies at Foggia. |
1289 | Charles of Salerno is crowned King of Sicily. He continues the employment of Muslim soldiers as well as Muslim tentmakers and weapons manufacturers.
Riccardo ascends to the position of captain of the city of Lucera, the only Muslim to hold that position. This same year he is accused of committing crimes against the king’s property among other things. Charles II orders his property and possessions seized. Profit from Riccardo’s property is used for the War of Sicilian Vespers. |
1294 | The judge Pietro Spitaneta, an exile of Benevento, returns to his city with 1,000 Muslims causing unrest in the region. |
1295 | Charles II issues a letter to the Muslims of Lucera affirming that he does not want them unjustly disturbed. |
1296 | Charles II grants the Muslim knight Abd al-Aziz the tenement of Tertiveri. The conditions upon the land grant are similar to the fiefdoms granted to Christian nobles. |
1298 | The Muslim knight Abd al-Aziz receives a lease for lands from the monastery of Santa Sofia ofBenevento.
Muslims in Lucera become famous for tentmaking; tents are sent to Lucera for repair and experts were sent from Lucera to Naples. |
1300 | Under the orders of Charles II, Giovanni Pipino, count of Altamura, leads a successful assault on Lucera. The colony is dismantled and many of the inhabitants are enslaved. The mosque is destroyed and no Islamic architecture remains. |
1302 | Charles II permits the establishment of 200 Muslim hearths in the land of Civitate. |
1304 | Muslim slaves from Lucera are sought as fugitives. |
1315 | Muslim slaves left from the dismantled Lucera colony are still known to escape and become fugitives. |
1328 | Robert the Wise, son of Charles II, orders officials to track down Muslims still residing in southern Italy to tax them for the defense of the kingdom. |
1344 | Venice negotiates a five-year dispensation from the papacy’s sanction against trade in Syria and Egypt as long as no arms or war materials are traded. By the next year, the Republic will open service to Alexandria. |
1348 | The Black Plague reaches Europe devastating populations all over the continent. It is believed that Genoese ships brought the plague over from Caffa, a city on the Black Sea, which Genoa owned at the time. A couple of years earlier, the Golden Horde (Mongol rule in Russia) besieged the city by catapulting infected bodies over the walls of the Crimean city thereby spreading the disease to the population. Caffa proved to have a very profitable slave market where Eastern slaves (mostly Tartars but also Circassians, Armenians, and many others) of both Muslim and Christian origin were brought to Italy. |
1363 | Following the expansion of Italian trade in the East and the devastating effects of the Black Plague, the Priors of Florence issue a decree on 2nd March to allow the importing of foreign slaves, provided they were not Christian (a provision that did not always hold true). In addition to the ethnic variety brought in from the Caffa markets, slaves from Africa and the Middle East were brought over to serve in the households of Tuscany. By the end of the 15th century, with the loss of the Black Sea markets and the decline of markets in the Levant, this importation of Eastern slaves steadily comes to an end. |
1397 | In Florence, the incomplete Registro degli schiavi reports that between 1366 and 1397, registered slave traders in the city sold 274 Tatars (majority female), 30 Greeks, 8 Turks, 4 Circassians, 13 Russians, 5 Bosnians or Slavs, 1 Cretan, and some Arabs or Saracens. |
1400 | Tamerlane, Muslim conqueror from Central Asia, invades Syria and captures Damascus. He disrupts the Damascene trade in pottery and glass in the Mediterranean as part of his policy is to transfer craftsmen to his capital of Samarkand. Ceramics and glassware from Damascus were in demand in many European states, but after its capture and destruction, the industries will never completely recover. Trade in the Mediterranean shifts in favor of Europe. The Venetians employed Syrian techniques of making and painting glass over a century ago into their own craft. |
1442 | The Mamluk sultan sends the doge of Venice ambassadorial gifts including scarce Chinese porcelain, which will become popular among many of the elite of the Mediterranean. |
1453 | Constantinople falls to the Ottomans, under Muhammad II, ending the Byzantine Empire. Constantinople is renamed Islampul and eventually the modern Istanbul. A wave of fear grips much of Europe, especially Italy as this is perceived as the fall of Eastern Christian power. Muhammad reportedly had been surprised at the reaction in Italy, given his close relations with some Italian powers and the notion that both Italian and Turks shared a common. Trojan heritage which should have taken pride in a defeat over Greeks. |
1454 | Venice signs a commercial treaty with the Ottomans. |
1461 | The Pope publishes his controversial Epistola ad Mahometem, in which he claims the Ottomans are greater than the current Christian rulers and if the Sultan accepts Christianity, the Pope would invest him as successor to the Emperors of Rome. |
1471 | Scholars have concluded that Venetian diplomatic exchanges with Persian ruler Uzun Hasan between now and 1474 bring Persian artisans, and their influence in various crafts, such as Mahmud al-Kurdi to Venice. |
1478 | Bernardo Bandini Baroncello flees to Istanbul after murdering Giuliano de’ Medici in the “Pazzi Conspiracy.” Muhammad II orders the arrest and extradition back to Florence of Bernardo, where he is tried for murder and executed. In appreciation, Lorenzo de’ Medici, brother of Giuliano, commissions Bertoldo di Giovanni to make a portrait medal of the Sultan. |
1479 | Gentile Bellini, sent by the Doge of Venice to Muhammad II, goes to Istanbul where he will paint his famous portrait of the Ottoman ruler. |
1480 | Ottoman sultan Muhammad II lands in southern Italy and captures Otranto. His death impedes plans of a conquest of Rome. |
1487 | Egyptian Mamluk Sultan Qait Bay dispatches an embassy to Florence to negotiate a commercial treaty. Among the gifts is a giraffe, among the earliest seen in Europe. The negotiations include discussions about moving Jem Sultan from France.
In Ancona, officials arrest two agents of Sultan Bayazid. It is believed they may have been assassins sent to rid the Sultan of his brother Jem in France. Their fate is unknown. |
1488 | Ferdinand of Spain sends Innocent VIII a gift of 100 Moors. The Pope distributes the exotic slaves among nobility and cardinals. |
1489 | Jem Sultan arrives in Rome to the court of Pope Innocent VIII.Jem Sultan develops friendly relations with many at the court especially the pope’s son Franceschetto Cibo. Jem rejects an offer by the pope to convert to Christianity. A few days after his arrival, Jem discovers a Turkish assassin sent to kill him. Cibo had the man tortured into confession. |
1490 | The Pope has Cristoforo Castracano, also known as Macrino and cousin of Boccolino Guzzoni, drawn and quartered. After being removed by the Pope from his fief in Marche de Ancona, Macrino seeks refuge with Bayazid II agreeing to assassinate Jem. In Venice, Macrino is arrested and given to the Pope. Under torture, Macrino admitted to a number of assassins being sent to kill Jem.
Mustafa Pasha, an Ottoman envoy, meets Innocent VIII to negotiate terms regarding Jem. Mustafa and Jem arranged a meeting where Jem received a letter from his brother. While Mustafa was still in Rome, an envoy from Sultan Qait Bay came to Rome to attempt to pay the pope to have Jem sent to Cairo. The Pope kindly declined after he already accepted payment from Bayazid II. |
1492 | Jem witnesses part of a festival celebrating the Spanish conquest of Granada from the Moors. In a letter to the Pope, King Ferdinand of Spain stated that King Ferrante of Naples covertly assisted the Muslims of Spain during their last hours. |
1493 | Ottoman envoy Kasim Bey, Chasimpueg in Italian chronicles, arrives in Rome to provide payment for Jem’s upkeep to the new Pope Alexander VI. Kasim Bey and Jem have a chance to meet and speak with each other.
In Ferrara, Ercole I d’Este hires Sabadino Moro (also known as Sabadino Negro), from Cairo, to manage a carpet shop. Sabadino will stay on until 1530. Al-Hassan ibn Muhammad al-Wazzani al-Fasi (also al-Hassan al-Wazzan), the future Leo Africanus, is born in Spain to a middle class family. His family will soon moved to Fez where he received most of his education. From here he would journey throughout North, West, and Central Africa recording his travels. |
1494 | Twelve Turks attended the ceremony of investiture and coronation of Alfonso II as King of Naples. During Mass, the Turks were excused.
A dispatched Ottoman embassy, including Kasim Bey, is attacked and robbed in Ancona. Citizens of Ancona rescue Kasim so as to divert wrath of an Ottoman attack. Diplomatic letters fall into the hands of the Pope’s enemies. |
1495 | Jem Sultan leaves Rome with French King Charles VIII after over 5 years with the papacy. In Naples, Jem becomes progressively sick and eventually succumbs to an illness, possibly pneumonia, despite attempts by Charles’s physicians to help. |
1496 | An Ottoman envoy comes to Gaeta to discuss payment for Jem’s body.While attempting to depart, French troops arrest the Ottoman diplomat and records do not say what became of him. |
1499 | An Ottoman ship lands on the port of Lecce with the message that if King Federigo of Naples does not turn over Jem’s remains, the kingdom would suffer an attack. The King acquiesced and Jem’s remains were turned over to the Ottoman envoys. Upon receiving the body of Jem, Bayazid II confirmed friendly relations between Naples and the Ottoman Empire. |
1500 | The Ottoman navy, under Kamal Rais, defeats the Venetians at the second Battle of Lepanto, also known as Modon. This success allows the Ottoman cavalry to cross the Julian Alps into Italy as far as Vicenza.
Italian artisans integrate Muslim geometric patterns into their ceramics. |
1504 | Leonardo da Vinci enters into negotiations with Ottoman Sultan Bayazid II to construct a 350-meter bridge over the Bosphorus. Bayazid soon drops the plan. |
1506 | Sultan Bayazid invites Michelangelo to perform the bridge construction, but negotiations fall through. |
1507 | Taghri Berdi, a Mamluk ambassador, concludes a treaty in Venice. Taghri Berdi –a man of unclear origin, although likely Spanish Christian or Jewish–aided in the negotiation in 1489 between the Republic and Mamluks concerning Cyprus. Of the 20 treaties between Venice and Mamluk Egypt, this is the only one where the Mamluks sent a representative to the Republic. |
1514 | The first known instance of the printing of an Islamic book in the West occurs: an Arabic book on the times of prayers printed in Italy under the patronage of the Pope Leo X.
King Manuel of Portugal sends to Rome gifts and samples of his conquests including a white elephant from India and its two Muslim handlers, a black “moor”, and al-Farab, a “Saracen.” Al-Farab would stay on to attend the elephant until its death 2 years later. |
1518 | Christian corsairs capture a ship with al-Hasan al-Wazzan on board near Tunis. With Africanus is a draft in Arabic of his book The History and Description of Africa and the Notable Things Therein Contained. The corsairs take him to Rome where Pope Leo X receives him. Soon the Pope frees the captive and baptizes him as Giovanni Leoni (Yuhanna al-Asad, in Arabic), but he becomes known as Leo Africanus. |
1521 | Leo Africanus stays at Campo Marizio quarter in Rome. A census taken a few years later reveals the names of numerous courtesans such as Maria the Moor. |
1525 | Leo Africanus completes his correction of Johannes Gabriel’s attempt at Latin translation of the Quran. |
1526 | Leo Africanus finishes his book on his account of his travels in Africa. |
1533 | Khairuddin Barbarossa raids Sicilian and Italian coasts. |
1535 | Cardinal Ippolito de’ Medici dies. His court included a highly diverse troop including Turkish and Moorish Horsemen, Mongol archers, black African wrestlers, and Indian divers. On his death, this mourning group carried the cardinal on their soldiers from Itri to Rome. |
1537 | Suleiman the Magnificient declares war on Venice. The island of Corfu and the land around Taranto experience attacks.
A Venetian printing house publishes an Arabic Quran with intent to sell to Ottoman lands. Due to the numerous errors, most copies were destroyed. |
1538 | Under Admiral Khairuddin Barbarossa, the Ottoman navy defeats a coalition force of Spanish, Venetian, and papal fleets under Andrea Doria at the Battle of Prevesa. Barbarossa then captures the coastal Italian cities of Reggio, Citraro, Sperlonga, and Fondi. |
1539 | Venice sues for peace with the Ottomans. |
1543 | Pope Paul III founds the College of Neophytes to assist converts from Islam and Judaism in Rome. |
1547 | In Venice, Andrea Arrivabene published the first Quran in Italian |
1550 | Leo Africanus’s The History and Description of Africa and the Notable Things Therein Contained is published in Italian. It is held as one of the best accounts of the region until the 19th century. He wrote other works including The Epitome of Muslim Chronicles, The Faith and Law of Muhammad according to the Malikite School of Law, and the collective biographies On Some Illustrious Men among the Arabs (with On Some Illustrius Men among the Jews). |
1552 | Leo Africanus dies. Many believe he died in Tunis where he returned to Islam. |
1599 | Uruch Beg, son of a Persian nobleman and one of four secretaries to the Persian ambassador, leaves Isfahan with Sir Anthony Sherley for the countries of Europe. |
1600 | The journey of Uruch Beg and the Persian ambassador Husayn Ali Beg takes them to Norway, Germany, Switzerland, Prague, and throughout Italy including Rome. |
1601 | Three members of the party of Husayn Ali Beg covert to Christianity during the ambassador’s stay in Rome. The embassy moves on to Spain. |
1645 | The Ottomans begin an attack on the Venetian island of Candia in retaliation for the capture of a Turkish merchant fleet.
John Evelyn witnesses the conversion of a Turk and a Jew to Christianity in Rome. |
1854 | Muhammad Ali ben Said, an African slave, enters the service of Russian aristocrat Nicholas Trubetzkoy. With his master, Muhammad (also known as Nicholas Said) will tour Germany, London, Paris, and Italy. In Germany, Said attends a conference with many European leaders leading him to ponder about the plight of his people back in Africa. In 1860, he will set sail for America where he will eventually join the Union army in the Civil War. |
1929 | King Amanullah of Afghanistan abdicates and is exiled to Italy. |
1944 | Goums, Moroccan regiments in the French army, play a significant part in the Allies’ capture of Rome. Prized for their mobility in mountainous terrain and clad in their striped djellaba-s (long traditional dresses) accompanied by a supply train of 4000 mules, the Goums traversed the thought-to-be impregnable Aurunci Massif range. Despite distinguishing themselves in battle, many Goums are cited for atrocities against Italian civilians—an incident of rape from this will provide the backdrop for a future Sophia Loren movie. Goums will go on to serve in liberating Marseilles with Algerian counterparts in Germany; they previously participated in campaigns in Sicily. Following the War, they will serve in Indochina. |
Muslim activity seemed to be sparse in Northern Europe although a presence, especially economically did exist. Vikings made raids on Muslims lands in Spain and down from Russia to the Abbasid holdings in the east, so the Nordic peoples were not entirely ignorant of what the Islamic world had to offer. Even though not too many Muslims are known to have settled the Viking regions, many northerners did come to stay in Muslim lands, especially during the time of age of corsairs in the 16th and 17th centuries.
910 | The dirham, a silver coin, begins to filter in large quantities to Sweden and Gotland from Islamic Central Asia. |
921 | Ahmad ibn Fadlān, a 10th century Arab Muslim writer and traveler, began his travel to , as a member of an embassy of the Abbasid Caliph of Baghdad to the king of the Volga Bulgars. When he returned to Baghda, he wrote a famous account of his travel, the Kitāb ilā Malik al-Saqāliba. This text was one of the earliest detailed descriptions of the Vikings (whom he called Rūs, or Rūsiyyah = Russians) of the Volga, by the Black Sea, the Caspian and other northern regions. Ibn Fadlān’s adventures were the inspiration for the well known novel Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton (filmed as The 13th Warrior (1999) directed by John McTiernan, with Antonio Banderas as Ibn Fadhlan) in which the Arab ambassador is taken even further north and is involved in adventures inspired by the Old English epic Beowulf |
950 | Al-Tartushi, a Jewish merchant from Cordova, visits Hedeby in Denmark. Hedeby, the largest commercial center of the Vikings, attracts merchants from all over the Mediterranean and the Middle East. |
1616 | Simon Danser –known as Diablo Reis, or “Captain Devil”– leads an Algerian fleet in an attack on Iceland. Despite remaining covertly Christian, Danser proves to be a great addition to the naval exploits of the North African realms. |
1627 | Murad Reis –with a crew of Moors, English, and a Dutch pilot– raid Reykjavik, Iceland obtaining salted fish, hides, and four hundred slaves. |
1672 | Forced baptisms of Muslims are reported in Sweden this year and again in 1695. |
1709 | After losing to the Russians at Poltava, Swedish monarch Charles XII seeks asylum within the Ottoman Empire. He will remain in Turkish domains for five years. |
1732 | The Ottoman ambassador Mehmed Said Efendi arrives in Stockholm to collect Swedish debt for the Empire (upon his departure from Ottoman lands, King Charles XII borrowed money from the empire) and assess the Russo-Swedish relations. |
1978 | A Muslim school opens in Copenhagen. |
1990 | Somali refugees start to arrive in Finland via Moscow. A previous Muslim community in Finland comprised of Mongol-descent people (Tatars) from the Russian Empire. |
Muslim presence in the British Isles is better known at the end of the Middle Ages when the British and the Ottomans began cultivating relations. Problems between the two worlds arose during the Crusades and the exploits of corsairs of the Mediterranean. As Britain’s involvement with India increased, many Indian Muslims came to the islands. With the height of British colonialism during the Victorian Era, Muslims of all nations came to the isles. By the beginning of the 20th century, quite an established Muslim community formed.
774 | Anglo-Saxon ruler King Offa Rex mints coins imitating that of Arab currency. Ironically, inscribed in Arabic on the coins is the Muslim profession of faith (shahada) with “Offa Rex” inscribed upside down. |
1504 | Two “blackamoor” girls are brought to the Royal Court in Scotland where they are baptized, given the names Elen and Margaret, and educated. |
1509-1547 | Tudor King of England Henry VIII reigns. In addition to Scots, Spaniards, Italians, and many other European races, Turks and Tartars are counted among his mercenary troops. The Tudor monarch was known to make heavy use of foreign troops. |
1579 | Via negotiations with William Harborne, the Ottomans open correspondence with Queen Elizabeth. |
1581 | England’s Sir Francis Drake releases 100 Ottoman men from Spanish captivity. |
1583 | England begins its diplomatic relations with the Ottoman Empire by dispatching William Harborne as ambassador to Istanbul. |
1584 | A money collection is taken in London to free sixty Englishmen held in Muslim captivity. |
1586 | The first record of a Muslim convert to Christianity in England takes place: Chinano (who adopts the name William), a man from an island bordering Greece. Chinano had spent 25 years in Spanish captivity before his release by Sir Francis Drake. Men like Chinano are believed to have been galley slaves to the Spanish, freed by the English, and brought to the Isles until they could be returned to Ottoman lands. During this period, the English government heavily pushes for an Anglo-Turkish alliance against Catholic nations. |
1600 | Queen Elizabeth receives a sixteen-member Moroccan embassy. |
1605 | An allowance is paid to a Turkish captive who embraced Christianity in England and assumed the name John Baptista. |
1607 | Mustapha, an Ottoman official known as a chiaus, seeks audience with King James to discuss exploits of English sea captains in the Mediterranean Sea. The King was very reluctant to receive him and some English treated him with suspicion. Soon, the word chiaus entered English colloquialism as a synonym for swindler. |
1613 | In a parish register, an entry includes the marriage of a Samuel Munsur (Mansur?), a Blackamore, to a Jane Johnson at St. Nicholas’s Deptford. |
1617 | A Turkish ship is captured on the Thames. |
1624 | In England, a general collection is taken to ransom 1500 Englishmen enslaved in North Africa. |
1625 | North African corsairs seize captives from Plymouth, England. About 60 men, women, and children are taken from Church of ‘Munnigesca’ in Mounts’ Bay (Cornwall) by the corsairs |
1626 | 2,000 wives petition the King, the Duke of Buckingham and Parliament for aid in ransoming their husbands from Muslim detention.
The Spainish capture two renegade captains: a Francis Barney, pilot of a Tunisian ship, and a Robin Locar of Plymouth, who adopted the name Ibrahim. |
1631 | Murad Reis sacks Baltimore, County Cork, Ireland. A suggestion exists that a Catholic named Hackett –who may have purposely allowed himself to be captured by the corsairs– guided Murad to the capture of Baltimore in order to weaken English influence there. Other evidence points to conspiracy: Murad’s release of the Celtic prisoners, not the English ones; Hackett’s hanging for treason against interests of the English, not the Irish, on the island. |
1634 | North African corsairs continue to invade the British Isles. They capture two barks from Minehead sailing to Ireland. |
1635 | Corsairs from Salé capture a ship off Scilly (British Isles). |
1636 | Three fishing boats with fifty men are captured by the “Turks” near Black Head, between Falmouth and the Lizard. The British coasts are said to be teeming with the North African corsairs. |
1637 | London receives an ambassador from the Moorish Corsair Republic of Salé. The ambassador, a Portuguese convert, impresses the English with his character and culture. |
1640 | The families of 3,000 English captives in Algeria petition the King for their ransom.
The British Parliament establishes a Committee for Algiers whose main task is to ensure the ransoming of English captives. |
1645 | Seven Barbary ships land in Cornwall. |
1654 | William Erbery, the Welsh millenarian, born 1604 is accused of preaching Islam; he denies all allegations. |
1658 | John Durie praises a Muslim convert to Protestantism in London. Efforts are made to try and get Muslims to accept Christianity, but lack of appeal, both theologically and culturally, ensures little success to this. |
1659 | Yusuf, an Ottoman administrator from Negropont, is baptized in England and takes the name Richard Christophilus.With the influx of Muslim merchants and diplomats into England due to improved Anglo-Ottoman relations, a race for Muslim converts begins between the Cromwellian party and the Anglicans. |
1668 | A patent in England authorizes the collection of money in all churches and chapels for two years for the ransoming of English captives in the Ottoman dominions. |
1714 | George I becomes King of England taking with him from Hanover his two protégés, Mustafa and Mehemet. Mehemt’s mother and Mustafa’s son will also reside in England. Due to their prominence in the court, Mustafa and Mehemet are depicted in the murals of Kensington Palace. |
1716 | King George I ennobles Mehemet, who adopts the surname von Königstreu (true to the king). |
1721 | Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, wife of the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1717-1718, actively promotes smallpox inoculation (called variolation) as done by the Turks. After the two daughters of the Prince of Wales were variolated, the practices would spread more. Edward Jenners’ vaccination would not come until 1796. The practice of inoculation was known since ancient times in various parts of the world including China, India, and Africa. |
1726 | Ludwig von Königstreu, formerly Mehemet, a servant of King George I, dies. Mustafa takes over his duties. |
1733 | Ayyub ibn Suleiman and Thomas Bluett set sail for England. Ayyub (Job), an African Muslim from a respectable family, was captured and enslaved in Africa. He was sent to Maryland but escaped to Pennsylvania where he was arrested. Upon hearing his plight, Thomas Bluett and some other gentlemen took up his cause and helped him try to win his freedom. In more than a year in England, Ayyub impresses noblemen and the wealthy with his civilized decorum, religious debates, and writing of three copies of the Quran from memory. The Spalding Gentlemen’s Society even inducts Ayyub as a member before his return to Africa. |
1765 | Mirza Itesa Modeen (I’tisam ud Din), an emissary of the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam, travels to Britain. |
1768 | Dr. Alexander Russell sends a letter to Earl of Morton, President of the Royal Society of London, recounting a letter from his brother Patrick, a physician at Aleppo concerning smallpox inoculation practices in the Middle East. |
1772 | Claud Russel, employee of the East India Company, brings Munshi Ismail to England to be his personal Munshi (teacher). |
1776 | Muhammad Husain comes to Britain to study astronomy and anatomy. |
1777 | Munshi Mahomet (Muhammad) Saeed puts out an advert in a London newspaper as a teacher of Arabic and Persian. |
1784 | Dean Mahomed (1759-1851), member of the Bengal Army of the English East India Company, emigrates from his native India to Cork in colonial Ireland with Captain Baker, an Irish officer in the Army. Mahomed, a native of Patna and descendent from Shiite immigrants to India, belonged to a family of Muslim service elite (his father achieved the second highest rank that an Indian could get in the Company’s army). |
1786 | In Cork, Dean Mahomed elopes with a young student named Jane Daly. |
1793 | Ottoman Sultan Selim III sends an emissary to London in an attempt to improve contacts with Western Powers. Ambassadorial missions to Berlin, Paris, and Vienna will soon follow. |
1794 | Dean Mahomed publishes The Travels of Dean Mahomet becoming the first English book written and published by an Indian author. |
1799 | Mirza Abu Talib Khan, a native of Lucknow, tours England and Ireland (also Asia and Africa) until 1803. He spends time with the aristocracy of the Isles including a visit to the Baker household where he meets Dean Mahomed. He applauds many aspects of English society including division of labor between genders; however, he feels that Muslim women in India held more rights, despite not being as active in the community. Muslim women in India could have property while English women had to wait until the Married Women’s Property Act in 1882 |
1807 | Dean Mahomed moves to London. |
1808 | Dean Mahomed’s daughter Amelia is born. Mahomed finds employment in a vapour bath establishment offering “shampooing” or therapeutic massage. |
1810 | Dean Mahomed establishes his Hindoostanee Coffee-House at 34 George Street, Portman Square in London offering Indian foods and an Indian atmosphere. |
1812 | Due to the high expenses of his Coffee-House, Dean Mahomed declares bankruptcy. |
1814 | Dean Mahomed settles in Brighton, a resort town on the southern coast of England, where he becomes a shampoo surgeon at the Devonshire Place bath-house. He will establish another Indian- themed business with his Indian Vapor Baths and Shampooing Establishment. |
1822 | Dean Mahomed first publishes his Shampooing, or, Benefits Resulting From the Use of The IndianMedicated Vapor Bath, as Introduced Into This Country, by S.D. Mahomed (A Native of India). |
1824 | In an Anglo-Netherlands treaty, Malay goes to the British. |
1825 | Dean Mahomed, reaching the pinnacle of his success by becoming the Shampooing Surgeon to King George IV and then William IV, installs an Indian vapor bath at the Pavilion. |
1834 | Mahomed Ebrahim Palowkar (b. 1811 in Bombay) comes to Britain with his father Abu Syed to petition the East India Company concerning their lands. |
1835 | Palowkar marries an Irish woman named Eleanor Deegan. |
1838 | Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II sends an envoy to London to court an alliance through trade concessions. It is unsuccessful. |
1839 | The Ottoman Tanzimat (Reorganization) reform movement begins. This period will see rapid changes in Ottoman administration including numerous high ranking officials receiving their higher education and postings in the Western nations. Rashid Pasha (1800-1858) serves as Ottoman ambassador to Paris and London in the 1930s. One of his disciples and future grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire, Ali Pasha (1815-1871), will also serve as ambassador to London in the 1840s. Fuad Pasha (1815-1869), a very well educated student of the former and associate of the latter personality, will also received appointment at the Ottoman London embassy before rising in public office in his own nation. |
1842 | James Abdoolah (Abdullah), a native of Bombay, comes to Britain as a servant to a Bombay Artillery Major. |
1850 | For the first time in Britain, an attorney swears on the Quran on his admission. |
1851 | Dean Mahomed dies. |
1854 | Muhammad Ali ben Said, an African slave, enters the service of Russian aristocrat Nicholas Trubetzkoy. With his master, Muhammad (also known as Nicholas Said) will tour Germany, London, Paris, and Italy. In Germany, Said attends a conference with many European leaders leading him to ponder about the plight of his people back in Africa. In 1860, he will set sail for America where he will eventually join the Union army in the Civil War. |
1855 | Mahomed Ebrahim Palowkar dies a respected tobacconist in Bishopsgate at age 44. Because of the belief during World War I that Palowkar is a German name, Mahomed’s descendents changed their name to Wilson. |
1859 | Imam Shamil, leader of a resistance movement in the Caucasus region against Russian imperialism, surrenders to the Czar’s forces. Throughout his struggle against the Russians, Shamil became a popular figure among the English public. Newspapers covered his exploits and Caucasus affairs became commonplace in English politics. Shamil’s significance to the English was due to the assumption that his war impeded Russian designs on British India. Shamil even made appeals to Queen Victoria for aide. |
1861 | Indian Muslim Mir Aulad Ali, who married an English woman, becomes Professor of Persian, Arabic, and Sanskrit at Trinity College in Dublin. His tenure ended in 1898. |
1869 | The opening of the Suez Canal sees many Muslims find employment with the British.
Syed Ameer Ali –activist, scholar, and jurist from Cuttack, Orissa– comes to England on a government scholarship. He will go on to devote most of his work to the betterment of Muslims. |
1877 | Queen Victoria is proclaimed Queen-Empress of India. |
1882 | The Islamic reformer and revivalist Jamal al-Din al-Afghani leaves Calcutta for a short stay in England. While there, he publishes many newspaper articles such as “English policy in Eastern countries” and “The Reasons for the war in Egypt.” Al-Afghani stands at the forefront of intellectual Muslim resistance against imperialism during this period. He considers nationalism –as well as other ideals such as communism and nihilism– to be evils that divide people and contradict their nature. Al-Afghani preaches a unity amongst Muslims that supersedes the limitations of national or cultural lines. |
1884 | Syed Ameer Ali marries Isabella H. Konstam, sister of the actress Gertrude Kingston, in Little Portland Street.
Frederick Akbar Mahomed (b.1849), grandson of Dean Mahomed, dies in England. He was an acclaimed physician earning numerous prestigious awards and positions as well as contributing to the study of hypertension. |
1885 | Al-Afghani visits England in July and meets with Randolph Churchill, Secretary of State for India, and Sir Henry Drummond Wolff. Their discussions for joint Anglo-Islamic settlements and efforts against Russian encroachment on Muslims of Central Asia bear no fruit. During this period, al-Afghani establishes contacts with Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II. Ultimately, he leaves England this year for Persia. |
1887 | Queen Victoria receives several Indian servants including Muhammad Bux and Abdul Karim. |
1888 | Frederick Mahomed (b. 1818), son of Dean Mahomed, dies. He opened up a successful fencing academy and gymnasium in Brighton. Of his eight children, his five sons each had an Arabic name in addition to their Anglo-Saxon ones. One of the sons explained that the family was proud of their descent from the Prophet Muhammad. |
1889 | In England, building of the Shah Jahan Mosque in Woking commences with the sponsorship of Hungarian Orientalist Dr. Leitner.
Queen Victoria promotes Abdul Karim to the position of munshi (teacher) and begins learning about Indian culture including language and religion. |
1891 | After being exiled from Persia for his revolutionary ideas, al-Afghani makes his way to London where he continues his struggle for Muslim unity and reform. Again he writes several newspaper articles; however, this time he also attacks the corruption of the Persian administration. He leaves London the following summer for the Ottoman court. |
1894 | Abdul Karim receives the title of Hafiz rising to the position of Queen Victoria’s Indian Secretary and earning the award of the Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire. Despite winning the Queen’s favor, Abdul Karim meets prejudices among many of the members of the English nobility. |
1897 | Aziz Ahmad, from Lucknow, founds an Indian Mission at his home in Glasgow. The mission focuses more on educating incoming lascars rather than preaching to them.Aziz Ahmad, a convert to Christianity, came to Glasgow sometime around 1883 (dates for his conversion and settlement are sketchy). He lived with his Scottish wife and three children lecturing on Islamic studies. He contributed many articles to Indian newspapers criticizing the Christian missionaries in India and British colonial rule. The articles spark an investigation by the police at the behest of the Indian Criminal Investigation Bureau; police found Ahmad to be harmless. He disappears from the Glasgow directory around 1925. |
1899 | Dr. Leitner dies and the Woking mosque becomes property of his heirs. |
1901 | After Queen Victoria dies, Abdul Karim returns home to Agra. |
1905 | Reverend E.B. Bhose, a Bengali chaplain at St. Luke’s Lascar Mission in Victoria Docks, dies. In his reports for the Lascar Mission, he reports the celebration of Muslim holidays by the lascars while in port. |
1908 | Syed Ameer Ali becomes the first president of the London branch of the All-India Muslim League.
Dr. Nazim and Ahmed Riza, two leading the Committtee of Union and Progress (the Young Turk’s political front), travel to London to seek an Anglo-Ottoman alliance. Their goals are not met. |
1911 | The British Red Crescent Society, a Muslim version of the Red Cross, forms. |
1913 | Under the sponsorship of British Muslim Lord Headley, Khwaja Kamaluddin buys the Shah Jahan Mosque and establishes a center for Muslim missionary work. |
1914 | Indian lascars make up 17.5% of the total seamen employed on British ships. Muslims comprise a large portion of these lascars.
Many Muslims, part of the eventual 1 million total Indian soldiers, fight on the side of the British in the Great War. |
1925 | M.A. Khan, R.E. Franklin, and South-Africa-born Indian Muslim Sulaiman Katwaroon begin the Indian Freedom Association, later the Indian Freedom League, in England. |
1926 | Mehmet VI, the last Ottoman Sultan (r. 1918-1922) dies in exile in San Remo. During his exile, he became the only Ottoman Sultan to make the hajj to Mecca (Jem Sultan also made the hajj, but he was not considered Sultan of the entire Ottoman Empire). |
1928 | Lord Headley, with the Nizam of Hyderabad, opens the London Nizamiah Mosque Trust.
Syed Ameer Ali dies at age 79 in Sussex. |
1934 | The Jamiat ul-Muslimin is established in east London. |
1943 | Shah Abdul Majib Qureshi and Ayub Ali establish the Indian Seamen’s Welfare League in London. |
1944 | Many Muslims come to the British Isles following World War II as labor migrants. |
1970 | The Union of Muslim Organisations of the UK and Eire is established. |
1974 | A Muslim father founds the Muslim Parents Association (MPA) in Bradford. |
1978 | Union of Muslim Organizations establishes the National Muslim Education Council for the United Kingdom. |
1981 | The Bradford Council for Mosques is established. |
1990s | Muslims figure prominently various facets of western life as activists and scholars such as Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens), Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Martin Lings, Jamil Sherif, Gai Eaton, Zaki Badawi, Rana Kabbani, Tariq Ali, Ziauddin Sardar, Akbar S. Ahmed, Ayyub Khan Din, Shabbir Akhtar, Hanif Kureishi, and more. |
1994 | The London borough of Waltham Forest produces the first Muslim woman to be elected mayor. |
Outside association with Muslims power in Spain, Franco-Muslim relations flourished during the reign of Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent who established ties with Francois I. By the end of the 17th century, the once dominant Turkish power looked to France for its technological and cultural superiority: a role reversal of the previous centuries. During the 17th and 18th century, the French prized the Turkish/North African galley slaves for their physical vigor and prowess; for various reasons, the number of these “elite” slaves decreased during this time. As French dominion expanded into Muslim nations, many Muslims came to France in the 19th and 20th centuries.
1095 | Pope Urban II proclaims the First Crusade at the Councils of Placentia and Clermont. In 1099, Jerusalem falls to the crusading forces. With this, Islamic power sees a temporary recession as, in addition to the Crusades, Muslim Spain is falling to the Reconquista and the Muslim Sicily fell to the Normans. |
1147 | St. Bernard of Clairvaux preaches what will become the Second Crusade in response to the success of Imaduddin Zangi, particularly the fall of Edessa. Conrad III of Germany and Louis VII of France, among many others answer the call. |
1189 | The Third Crusade begins in response to Saladin’s campaigns in the east including the fall of Jerusalem. Richard the Lionheart of England, Frederick Barbarossa of Germany, and Philip II of France lead this Crusade. |
1198 | The Order of the Trinitarians, based in Cerfroy and St. Maturin’s in Paris, opens with the mission to free Christian captives in North Africa. |
1212 | The supposed “Children’s Crusade” occurs. Believing that the innocent must take up the crusade in order for it to be successful, numerous European children are said to embark on a journey for the Holy Land only to fall victim to slave traders and distributed to the various slave markets around the world. |
1244 | The Seventh Crusade led by Louis IX will begin around this time following the fall of Jerusalem into Muslim hands. Louis will be captured by enemy forces during this crusade and ransomed. |
1270 | Louis IX leads the Eighth Crusade to the Levant. He will die of illness on the African coast. |
1482 | Jem Sultan, pretender to Ottoman throne, comes to Nice with the Knights of St. John and 57 members of his entourage. Firenk Suleyman, a close associate, is arrested for espionage by the knights but through Jem’s intervention succeeds in escaping never to be heard from again. |
1483 | The Knights move Jem from Nice. Turkish tradition states that the prostitutes the knights brought the royal hostage provided two parting gifts, a chimpanzee that could play chess and a white parrot that could speak Turkish and Arabic. Jem will be moved numerous times throughout his European captivity. At Sassenage, Jem falls in love with Philipine Helene, daughter of a knight of St. John who had a chateau in the region, becoming the subject of many legends and songs. Unfortunateley for the lovers, Philipine Helene was promised to a French nobleman. Local tradition states that Philipine gave birth to a son from Jem in 1484. The boy would be raised Christian and married to a kin. |
1484 | Local tradition states that while at Bois-Lamy, Jem had a romantic affair and son by Jeanne, daughter of Duke Jean IV le Veste, Lord of Boussac. Some sources seemed to confuse this affair with the one between Philipine and Jem. Around 1500, Pope Alexander VI attempted to confirm this rumor but his agent Zorzi Paxi was told by Louis XII that it never occurred. |
1488 | Guy de Lanchefort with his knights leave for Italy with Jem Sultan and his entourage. |
1533 | Sultan Suleiman sends an envoy to France’s François I. |
1542 | François I of France concludes an alliance with Suleiman the Magnificent. |
1543 | A combined force of French and Ottoman fleets, under Khairuddin Barbarossa, sacks Nice. |
1571 | Ottoman Sultan Selim II (known as “the Sot”) sends an envoy to Charles IX |
1575 | Francois Nalias, a French Huguenot on trial for heresy in Saragossa, confesses under torture that he helped negotiate two years ago between Moriscos of Aragon and Baron de Ros, son of M. de Ros, viceroy of Béarn, for a possible invasion of Spain over the Pyrennes. Spanish intelligence will reveal many other plots, real and pretended, involving France, the Ottomans, and the Barbary States attacking Spain with the aid of the Moriscos. |
1581 | Ottoman Sultan Murad III dispatches an envoy to the court of Henry III. |
1601 | Ottoman Sultan Mehmed III dispatches an envoy to Henry IV. |
1648 | The French appoint a consul to reside in Salé, Morocco. |
1669 | Louis XIV receives the Ottoman ambassador Suleiman Agha. Agha introduces France to coffee. |
1700 | Louis XIV establishes one of Europe’s earliest schools for training interpreters in Arabic and other Eastern tongues. |
1706 | France receives the Persian ambassador Muhammad Riza Bey from Shah Husein. |
1720 | Ottoman ambassador Mehmet Effendi arrives at the court of Louis XV. Effendi, a former Janissary and attendee of the 1718 negotiations at Passarwotiz with the Austro-Hungarian empire, is to observe the French society and any aspects which may be applied to a weakening Ottoman one. His trip will be written in an account known by the abbreviated title of The Relation. |
1721 | Mehmet Effendi returns to Constantinople three members short: the Jewish attendant Moise and two others who stayed in France. The Ottoman embassy sparks a trend in Turkish fashion known as Turquerie, which is part of a larger Oriental trend, in France. After the envoy’s return from Paris, the establishment of a Turkish printing press is encouraged. In 1729, Ibrahim Muteferrika, a Hungarian convert to Islam, produces the first Turkish printed book. |
1727 | Sultan of Morocco Mouley Ismail dies. Morocco experienced a culturally prosperous period under his rule. Mouley Ismail established commercial and diplomatic relations with many European nations throughout his reign, particularly Louis XIV (the Sultan invited him to Islam); his ships raided the coasts of some of these nations as well. European presence noticeably existed in his court: numerous European servants, ambassadors, and even one of his wives was an English woman. |
1741 | Mehmet Said Effendi, son of Mehmed Effendi, becomes Ottoman ambassador in Paris. He mastered the French language and appreciated many French customs. |
1786 | Ottoman Sultan Selim III sends Ishak Bey to Versailles to ask Louis XVI for aid in modernizing the military in order to contain the advancements of Russia. Later in his reign, Selim will dispatch resident ambassadors to St. Petersburg, Vienna, and Berlin. |
1801 | Jacque Abdullah Menou returns to France with his wife and child. This general under Napoleon during the Egyptian campaign converted to Islam during his stay there, although his motivation for conversion was always treated with suspicion.The Muslims of Egypt thought his embracement of Islam was a political ploy while the French suspected his conversion was due to his wish to marry Zubayda, a bath keeper’s daughter. Menou succeeded Kléber as commander-in-chief of the French forces in Egypt after the latter’s assassination in 1800. His poor choice of defenses against Turco-British attack saw the eventual French capitulation and evacuation of Egypt in 1801. His politics, like his religiousness, were constantly criticized. Menou had enemies among some of his superior officers and faced heavy criticism for his military tactics and prowess. His dream of a flourishing Franco-Islamic state saw him establish his own version of Islamic laws, require registered births and deaths, improve various quarters of Cairo, and found the first Arabic language newspaper. Most of his plans were put to rest by the British invasion.
While in Egypt, the French establish a Mamluk regiment to serve with their forces. After the French defeat, many including members from Napoleon’s Légion Grecque and Légion Copte chose self-imposed exile to France. The Mamluks themselves will be from diverse ethnic/religious backgrounds that were present in the Middle East (Albanian, Caucasian, Greek, Sudanese, Syrian, Crimean, Ethiopian, Coptic, Orthodox, etc.); later French, other Europeans, and Haitian will be allowed to join their ranks, but will be issued Oriental uniforms. Even before Mamluks became established in Napoleon’s army an “à la mamelouk” style becomes fashionable. Napoleon would bring two Mamluk servants sparking a trend for those in power to have Mamluk servants; included would be future Viceroy of Italy (Napoleon’s stepson, Eugene Beauharnais), marshals Marmont, Lannes, Soult, Bessieres, and the future King of Spain (Joseph, Napoleon’s brother). |
1802 | By official order, a second formation of Mameluk composed of the native exiles of Egypt become part of the Consular Guard. Two years later, they would be administered as part of the corps of Mounted Chasseurs of the Guard. This formation, which proved to be among the most exotic of Napoleon’s regiments as they continued to wear uniforms derived from traditional garb, saw action in nearly all of Napoleon’s major battles. The Mamluk were significant at the Battle of Austerlitz against the Russian Imperial Guard in 1805 and against the British at Benavente in 1808. |
1807 | The decorated Mamluks return to Paris following successful campaigns in Austria (1804), Prussia (1806), and Poland (1807). |
1808 | Napoleon designates his brother-in-law Joachim Murat as King of Naples. The last name Murat (Murad) suggests Arab or Muslim ancestry. |
1813 | Captain Samuel Ulan, leader of Napoleon’s Muslim Lithuanian Tatar regiment, comes to France to attempt to strengthen his unit with Muslim prisoners-of-war who were captured from the Russian Army and other regiments. Ulan is able to collect a number of them but not enough to reach his goals and by the next year, the remaining Tatars are returned to Lithuania. |
1814 | The Mamluk regiment participates in Napoleon’s final imperial defense in France. The Bourbons disband the Mamluk regiments due to suspicions of loyalty to the deposed Napoleon. By this time most of the guard ceased to be of Oriental origin. |
1815 | During the Hundred Days return to power of Napoleon, the Mamluks were reorganized at Versaille. Following the Battle of Waterloo they will be disbanded at Libourne and Agen. Following the backlash after Napoleon’s deposition, royalists massacre some Mamluks in the Egyptian refugee communities of Marseille. Some attempted to return home to Egypt only to suffer the wrath of the local government who saw them as traitors. |
1826 | Muhammad Ali, Khedive of Egypt, sends Rifa’a At-Tahtawi (1801-1873) to Paris to serve as imam for a group of Egyptian students. The imam remains in Paris for five years acquiring fluency in French. He recounts his experience in his Takhlis al-ibriz fi talkhis Bariz. At-Tahtawi would be a key in influencing Muhammad Ali’s founding of the School of Languages in 1835. |
1830 | France resolves to conquer Algeria; the North African country will remain part of the French Empire for over 130 years. |
1844 | Muhammad Ali sends a student military mission to France. One of the students, Ali Mubarak (1823-1893), will be promoted to high offices back home and do much to reorganize and improve Egyptian life. |
1845 | A Moroccan embassy sails for Paris on the French steamer the Météore. The envoy includes the head ambassador Abd al-Qadir Ashash and the scholar Muhammad al-Saffar. The mission deals primarily with the implications of France’s newly acquired Algeria. Among the gifts to the French Monarch are six Arabian horses, a lion, two ostriches, three gazelles, and Barbary sheep.
Ibrahim Pasha, commander of Egyptian forces and son of Muhammad Ali, is given a banquet during his stay in Angoulême. Among his retinue include Suleiman Pasha (Colonel Seve), a French convert to Islam, who served as Ibrahim’s chief of staff. |
1846 | The Moroccan embassy returns home from Paris. Muhammad al-Saffar writes an acclaimed account of this voyage. |
1847 | Although being promised safe conduct to a Muslim country, Algerian revolutionary leader against French invasion Abdul Qadir is sent as a captive to France. |
1852 | Napoleon III of France releases Abdul Qadir. |
1855 | The first telegrams between the Ottoman Empire and London and Paris occurs. |
1856 | An armistice ending the Crimean War is concluded in Paris. This will be the only time in the 19th century where an Ottoman representative will sit on the winning side at a peace conference after a war with Russia. |
1866 | Yousouf, known as the Mura de l’armée, dies. When young he was captured by pirates and made a Mamluke at the court of the Bey of Tunis. After fleeing Tunis when caught with Princess Kabboura, he came to Algiera where he joined the French military hierarchy, in which he became an interpretor. He participated in the Battles of Smala and Isly during the French conquest of Algeria. Following these he fought in the Crimean War and was favorited by Napoleon III. Upon marrying a French aristocrat, he converted to Christianity. |
1867 | Paris hosts the Universal Exposition. This world’s fair displays many Muslim peoples –especially North Africans, Turks, and Bedouins– in displays of their indigenous environments. Included exhibitions are arts and crafts, food, music, and belly dancing (which was particularly popular). More world’s fairs will be held here in 1878, 1889, and 1900. In this year’s fair, Governor Ismail Pasha of Egypt and Ottoman Sultan Abdul Aziz attend as guests of Napoleon III and become popular attractions themselves.
Sudanese troops are entertained in Paris after a return from service in Mexico. Five years earlier, the Egyptian government agreed to loan Emperor Napoleon III a battalion of Sudanese troops to assist in defending French holdings in Mexico. These returning and decorated soldiers will serve in many significant conflicts of Sudan’s history including in Equatorial and Mahdist campaigns. |
1873 | First International Congress of Orientalists is held in Paris. Periodically, it will then convene in various capitals. |
1878 | Shah Nasiruddin attends the world’s fair in Paris. |
1883 | Jamal al-Din al-Afghani settles in Paris. Here he continues to write numerous articles about Islam, its politically current state, and the need for unity among its followers. |
1884 | Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and the exiled Muhammad Abduh, another Muslim revolutionary thinker and eventual Grand Mufti of Egypt, publish the journal Al-‘Urwa al-Wuthqa (The Firmest Bond) in France. Printed between March and October of this year, the eighteen issues discussed politics, religion, and social issues in the Muslim world. It vehemently condemned Western intervention into the East. |
1888 | The Orient Express now allows a traveler to go from Paris to Istanbul in three days. |
1889 | Shah Nasir ud-Din visits the Universal Exposition in Paris.
Muhammad Sharif Salim, an Egyptian visitor to the world’s fair in Paris criticizes the representation of his native country with a cafe, stables, and female dancers. Mustafa Kamil (1874-1908) enrolls in the Cairo School of Law. He will eventually earn his law degree from the University of Toulouse. Kamil proved an effective journalist and patriot publishing the popular al-Liwa (The Standard) newspaper in Egypt in 1900 criticizing the current repression of his nation by the British and Ottomans. Taha Husayn (d. 1973) is born in Egypt. He will figure prominently in Egyptian nationalism in the 20th century. He will receive an advanced degree in Sorbonne University. |
1900 | Shah Muzaffar ud-Din, son of Nasir ud-Din, visits Paris to attend the world’s fair. Ahmad Zaki, director of the Translation Bureau of the Council of Ministers in Cairo, also visits the exposition. The Eiffel Tower impresses him immensely but the Egyptian display with its dancing girls and lack of intellectual representation disappoint him. |
1902 | A member of the Ottoman royal family, Prince Sabaheddin, hosts a conference of Ottoman liberals in Paris. The congress promotes the ideas of bringing constitutional reform to the Ottoman government. Throughout this period, exile communities of Ottoman political thinkers remain active in Geneva and Paris. |
1907 | A Second Young Turk congress is held in Paris. |
1908 | The company of Goums, native Moroccan irregulars, is established by the French forces in North Africa to assist in quelling local and regional rioting. Four years later, Morocco will become a protectorate of France. Other utilized North African regiments that would participate in World Wars with the Goums included the Tirailleurs, Spahis, Zouaves, and Chasseurs d’Afrique. |
1913 | The Arab Paris Congress, organized by the Party of Ottoman Administrative Decentralization (an Arab organization that came about during the Young Turk era) and an Arab students organization in Paris, convenes. Although this congress was viewed as a beginning point for Arab nationalism, its goals were to work with the Ottoman government, not separate from it. During the Young Turk era, certain Arab families lost status within the Ottoman government and sought refuge in Paris. |
1914 | World War I breaks out. West African Muslims make up many of the 46,000 French colonial troops that fight on the Western Front or garrison areas throughout the empire. These Muslims serve in the Tirailleurs Sénégalais, a colonial unit established in 1857. France will use 175,000 (around 25,000 will die) North Africans to serve in the French Army and another 132,000 to work on French farms and factories. |
1919 | Prince Faysal, who fought with Lawrence of Arabia against the Turks, goes to Paris in order to attempt to reach an agreement about the status of Syria. He also attends the Paris Peace Conference. |
1921 | Abd el-Krim begins his revolt against colonial rule in the Rif region in North Africa. The fight for independence and massive operations employed to quell this resistance will attract much international attention. A German adventurer and deserter from the French Foreign Legion, Joseph Klems (a broadway musical Desert Song was said to have been inspired by him), will join the cause of Abd el-Krim as will many other outsiders. By the end of the revolt in 1926, international opinion of French colonial policy declines. |
1926 | The Paris mosque opens under direction of Algerian, Senegalese, Tunisian, and Moroccan representatives. The Sultan of Morocco inaugurates it. |
1944 | The last Ottoman Caliph, Abdul Majid II dies in Paris. He dies on August 23rd, the same day Allies make headway into Paris. He will be buried in Medina.
Following the end of World War II, many Muslims will immigrate to France looking for work. |
1968 | About 1 million North Africans live and work in France. |
With the success of campaigns in Spain and France, Muslims made headway into Switzerland, but nothing that lasted beyond the Middle Ages. Austria came to the forefront of Muslim-Christian theaters of war during the height of the Ottoman power. Soon after the latter’s fall, a reverse of roles occurred as the Austrians came in control of a large Muslim population in Bosnia.
906 | Muslims occupy Piedmont, Liguria, and parts of Switzerland. Soon Grenoble, Frejus, Marseilles, and Nice will fall to them. |
911 | Muslims colonize the Alpine Passes. |
942 | Muslims occupy Mount Jupiter (Great St. Bernard). |
952 | Muslims control all of Switzerland. Evidence of Muslim presence in Switzerland, France, and Italy exists in names of many locations: Monte Moro (Moor) on the Switzerland-Italian border; Mont de Maures in southern France; Pontresina (Pons Saracenorum), a town on the Bernina Pass road; Almagell (Al-Mahall, the place) a village near Mont Moro; Allalin (ala al-Ain, to the source), a mountain near the head of the Saas Valley. |
1529 | The forces of Suleiman the Magnificent besiege Vienna, Austria. Due to the weather the siege is lifted; this day is celebrated by the Austrians as Deliverance Day. It is also a benchmark of Muslim expansion into Europe. |
1532 | Suleiman leads an unsuccessful renewed invasion of Austria. |
1600 | The journey of Uruch Beg and the Persian ambassador Husayn Ali Beg takes them to Norway, Germany, Switzerland, Prague, and throughout Italy including Rome. |
1665 | The Ottoman embassy of Kara Mehmed Pasha arrives in Vienna to fulfill diplomatic obligations. |
1683 | Under the Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa, the second siege of Vienna fails after intervention of the Polish army. This loss is a huge blow to the prestige of the dynasty. Culinary history enters a new phase after this battle. Coffee enters mainstream Austria after the beans are recovered from the Ottoman camps; the legend arises that the bakers saved Vienna, who upon hearing the noise of the Ottoman miners, alerted the Austrian defense. They commemorated the event by baking crescent buns, or croissants. Kara Mustafa will be executed by strangulation for this loss on Christmas day by order of the Sultan. The gruesome relic fell into the hands of Austrians and was later put on display at Vienna’s Historisches Museum where over three hundred years after the failed siege, it was still exhibited. |
1687 | The Ottomans lose a battle of Mochas to the Austrians. |
1688 | The Austrians capture Belgrade from the Turks. |
1699 | Christian powers and Ottomans sign the Treaty of Karlowitz.The latter loses much territory and begins a retreat of power. The Habsburgs, based in Vienna, gain most of Hungary; the Ottomans lose the rest of Hungary with other territory in a 1718 treaty. Karlowitz is often designated as a documented decline of Ottoman power due to lack of expansionist activity following the treaty. |
1713 | War breaks out again between Ottomans and Austria and Venice |
1718 | Ottomans sign the treaty of Passarowitz with Austrians and Venetians. |
1719 | Grand Vizier Ibrahim Pasha becomes the first Ottoman official to send envoys to the more prestigious European capitals, including Vienna this year. Other envoys will be sent to Paris and Moscow within the next three years. |
1754 | Lord Keith, tenth Earl Marischal of Scotland, becomes governor of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. With him is his entourage known as the little horde of Tartars: Ermetulla the Turkish Lady, daughter of a janissary who entered Keith’s company as a young girl after the Battle of Ochakov (1737) and is said to have lived until the age of one hundred; Stepan the Tibetan, kin of the Grand Lama of Tibet; Ibraham (Ibrahim) the Kalmuck; and Mocha, a black servant. |
1781 | Russian monarch Catherine II signs a treaty with Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II. This treaty outlines a division of the Ottoman Empire and a rebirth of the Byzantine Empire. |
1809 | Napoleon’s Mamluk regiment participates in the French victory against the Austrians at the Battle of Wagram. |
1867 | The Ottoman Sultan Abdul Aziz visits Western Europe with his son and two nephews (including the future sultans Murad V and Abdulhamid II). This will be the first time an Ottoman sultan visits a non-Muslim country outside a wartime condition. His tour includes visiting Emperor Francis Joseph in Vienna. |
1873 | Vienna hosts a Universal Exposition. Much like the world’s fairs in Paris, this one features an Ottoman display, an Egyptian display, and other Muslim exhibitions. Persia’s shah Nasiruddin visits this exposition. This year he also takes a trip to Moscow and London for diplomatic purposes. |
1878 | The dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary will have a large Muslim population after obtaining the formerly Ottoman Bosnia-Herzegovina. Soon there will be a resident mufti and laws regarding religious recognition will be enacted. |
1883 | Translation into German of a Hanafi code of Islamic family law takes place in Vienna. Prompting for this translation came when the Austrian courts had to recognize Islamic family law within its courts for Muslims of Bosnia-Herzegovina. |
1892 | Khedive Abbas II begins his reign in Egypt. This nationalist leader received schooling in Switzerland and Vienna. |
1917 | Ahmed Bey Zogolli, the future King Zog of Albania, will be detained in Vienna until 1918. Here Zogolli will become well versed in many aspects of Western culture. |
1962 | In Austria, Austrian Muslims of Bosnian origin establish the Moslemischer Sozialdienst, or the Muslim Social Service. |
1979 | The main mosque and Islamic Center at Vienna opens. |
Like the rest of this region in Europe, contacts were sporadic until the era of the Ottomans and the whole of Europe was forced to recognize Muslim power. The Dutch were heavily active in trade with some states professing Islam overseas. In the 20th century, a more structured Muslim community started to develop and socially mobilize in this area.
1457 | The Council of Cardinals meets in Holland and discusses Crusades in Africa. |
1500s | The Flemish aristocrat and Habsburg ambassador Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq introduces tulips, which he learned of in the Ottoman court, to Europe. Tulipomania will grip both its native Ottoman lands and Europe in the coming centuries. |
1611 | Ahmad ibn Qasim al-Hajari, an Andalusian moriscos, travels to France and the Netherlands as part of a delegation from Morocco seeking compensation for goods taken by Christian corsairs from Muslims leaving Spain during the 1610. His account, The Supporter of the Faith Against the Infidels, describes his engagement in debates with Christians he came across in order to dispel many of the pervading falsities concerning Islam. The Sultan of Morocco commission this work and publication occurred in Tunis. |
1622 | While on an expedition into the English channel, Murad Reis decided to restock on provisions in the port of Veere in his former home Holland. Due to the peace between Holland and Salé, Murad is left unmolested, but he receives far from warm treatment. There, his Dutch wife and children attempt to convince him to give up his new life but to no avail. |
1643 | The Dutch appoint a consul to Salé. |
1769 | In his memoirs at the Hague, Rev. Mr. Chais writes about smallpox inoculation as done on the Barbary Coast and Bengal (in the East Indies). He recounts various sources regarding the subject, including Libyan ambassador to London, Cassen Aga. |
1932 | Indonesians in the Hague set up the first formal Muslim association in the Netherlands. |
1949 | At the Round Table Conference in the Hague, the United States of Indonesia is founded with Dr. Sukarno as President and Hatta as Prime Minister. |
1960s | Many Turkish and Moroccan immigrants come to Belgium. Labor migrants from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh come to Bradford, United Kingdom. |
1969 | The Islamic and Cultural Center (ICC) opens up in Brussels. |
1970s | Many Muslim umbrella organizations spring up in the Netherlands: 1973-1982 The Netherlands Islamic Society serves the Surinamese community; 1975-1981 Federation of Muslim organization in the Netherlands operates (after it starts to fold, its members establish the Muslim Information Center in the Hague); 1978 Founding of the Union of Moroccan Muslim Organizations. Due to insufficient funds and staff, most of these organizations fold. |
1975 | The Netherlands opens its first official mosque in Almelo and Muslim cemetery in Rotterdam. |
1977 | Dutch government legalizes ritual slaughter according to Islamic rite. |
1981 | Turks and Moroccans establish the Muslim Organizations in the Netherlands Foundation. |
1982 | The Netherlands Islamic Parliament is established by the Surinamese community to be inclusive of other Muslim nationalities. |
Germany made contacts with numerous Muslim rulers from Spain to Asia. Sparse and temporary Muslim appearances litter German history with Muslim slaves from Africa, Persian emissaries, and Turkish ambassadors. Following World War I and the Turko-German alliance, many Turkish Muslims settled in the European nation. Many German scholars were known for great contributions to scholarship regarding various aspects of the culture and practices of lands of Islam.
973 | The Jewish Moor Ibrahim ibn Yaqub reports the use of Muslim coins (from the Samanids) in his account of the German imperial city of Mainz. This Arabic- speaking physician and merchant traveled throughout Europe including Prague and Cracow. |
1189 | The Third Crusade begins in response to Saladin’s campaigns in the east including the fall of Jerusalem. Richard the Lionheart of England, Frederick Barbarossa of Germany, and Philip II of France lead this Crusade. Frederick drowned in a river in the Middle East. |
1473 | According to Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus, Muhammad the Conqueror offers to conclude peace with the monarch in exchange for passage through Hungary into Germany.Muhammad maintains an espionage network in Europe that extends to Germany; this leads some to believe that had it not been for his wars with Uzun Hasan, Central Europe would have fallen to the Ottomans. |
1600 | The journey of Uruch Beg and the Persian ambassador Husayn Ali Beg takes them to Norway, Germany, Switzerland, Prague, and throughout Italy including Rome. |
1619 | Relations of the Christianitie of Africa, and especially of Barbarie and Algier, published by Purchas, states that between 1609 and 1619, the highest number of renegades came from lower Germany with 857 renegades, followed by 300 from England. |
1699 | Charge of the private purse of the future King George I of England falls to an Ottoman captive named Mehemet (Muhammad). Mehemet, a trusted member of George’s circle, will convert to Christianity taking the name Ludwig Maximilian Mehemet and remain in the service of England’s king until the former’s death. He will go on to marry a wealthy Hanoverian and one of his two children by her will rise up to captain of cavalry in Hanover’s army. |
1703 | Mustafa, a Muslim captive taken by Swedish officer Balthasar von Klinkowström at Mistra in the Morea, enters the service of the future King George I. |
1714 | George I becomes King of England taking with him from Hanover his two protégés, Mustafa and Mehemet. Mehemt’s mother and Mustafa’s son will also reside in England. Due to their prominence in the court, Mustafa and Mehemet are depicted in the murals of Kensington Palace. |
1731 | The Duke of Kurland presents King Frederick William I with twenty Turkish guardsmen. |
1745 | King Frederick the Great forms the first Prussian lancer unit known as the Muslim Riders from Albanians, Bosniaks, and Tatars. |
1760 | A so-named “Bosniakcorp” of about 1000 men is established from deserters of the Russian army; among them is Lieutenant Imam Osman. This unit will take part in various battles in the Seven Years War. |
1761 | Ottoman Mustafa III signs a treaty of friendship with Prussia. |
1778 | The Bosniakcorp participates in the War of Bavarian Succession. Regiments of Muslim Tartars from newly-conquered West Prussia will be formed in the years leading up to the Napoleonic Wars. |
1798 | The newly established Muslim cemetery opened at Columbia Dam houses the body of Ottoman envoy to Germany, Ali Aziz Effendi. |
1805 | The Mamluks of Napoleon have their first battle at Nuremberg in October. In December, they will participate at the Battle of Austerlitz. |
1812 | Napoleon establishes a squadron of Lithuanian Tatars, under Mustapha Murza Achmatowicz, to assist in his battles against Russia. Following a heavy loss at Vilna, Captain Samuel Ulan (successor to the fallen Achmatowicz) with Lts. Ibrahim and Assan Aly lead the remaining unit of about 46 men back to Germany and were briefly attached to the Third Guard Lancers. After Napoleon’s fall, they will be returned to Lithuania. |
1813 | Mamluks will be present in Napoleon’s German campaigns, including seeing the defeat at Leipzig. |
1814 | Goethe visits Bashkir Muslims of Czar Alexander’s army at prayer in a gymnasium at Weimar. The German poet had recently acquired an old Arabic manuscript of the last Sura in the Quran from a German soldier returning from Spain. |
1854 | Muhammad Ali ben Said, an African slave, enters the service of Russian aristocrat Nicholas Trubetzkoy. With his master, Muhammad (also known as Nicholas Said) will tour Germany, London, Paris, and Italy. In Germany, Said attends a conference with many European leaders leading him to ponder about the plight of his people back in Africa. In 1860, he will set sail for America where he will eventually join the Union army in the Civil War. |
1878 | Congress of Berlin meets to attempt to resolve political and territorial issues between the Great European powers and the Ottoman Empire. Delegates from the Ottomans included a Phanariot Greek, a Turkish official who has been in Berlin for two years, and a German convert to Islam who deserted the Prussian army. Treaty of Berlin sees Ottomans loses four-fifths of their European territory. |
1889 | Al-Afghani meets with Shah of Persia Nasir ud-Din in Munich.The Shah offers Jamal al-Din a position as Prime Minister in Persia. |
1915 | Around 15,000 Muslim prisoners of war during World War I are in Berlin. This year, the first mosque in Germay is founded servicing them. In 1930, it is removed. |
1919 | Johannes Avetaranian (born Muhammad Shukri in 1830 in Turkey in 1861) dies in Weisbaden. A descendent of Prophet Muhammad and a mullah himself, Johannes converted to Christianity and took up missionary work. He traveled to the Caucaus region, Chinese Turkestan (he translated texts into Uighur), Bulgaria and did worked with Americans, Europeans, and Asians. |
1922 | Students and merchants found the Islamische Gemeinde Berlin. |
1924 | Emily Ruete (b. Sayyida Salme in 1844, daughter of Sayyid Said bin Sultan Al-Busaid, Sultan of Zanzibar and Oman) dies in Germany. After marrying her neighbor Rudolph Heinreich Ruete, a German merchant, Salme converted to Christianity in 1867 and moved to Hamburg.Published in 1866 was her popular Memoirs of an Arabian Princess from Zanzibar. She revisited Zanzibar and lived for a time in Lebanon before returning to Germany. |
1941-1945 | Muslims fight on all fronts of World War II. Thousands of Muslim volunteers from the Caucasus, Crimea, Central Asia, Arabia, India (regiments from here also included Sikhs and Hindus), and the Balkans fight for the German army under the banner of anti-communism or anti-colonialism, two regimes which severely oppressed them. Colonial powers such as France and England counted significant numbers of Muslim troops from occupied areas in their forces. |
1951 | Geistliche Verwaltung der Muslimflüchtlinge in der Bundesrepublik Deutschlnad (Spiritual Administration for Muslim Refugees in the Federal Republic of Germany) forms. |
1980 | The Islamic Federation of Berlin opens. |
18. Converts, Corsairs, Renegades and Rebels (14th-20th Centuries)
Large numbers of native people converted to Islam in Euro-Islamic states of Spain and Sicily. Large numbers of converts from non-Muslim controlled areas of Europe also occurred during the end of the Middle Ages. A height came during the age of corsairs in the 16th and 17th centuries where many men (and some women) embraced Islam upon escaping unfavorable conditions in Europe. Various diplomats, scholars, and monks also found peace with Islam throughout history.
1370 | Anselm Turmeda, born in Palma de Mallorca around 1350, travels to Bologna to study theology as a novice in the Franciscan Order. |
1385 | Anslem Turmeda, now a friar, travels to Tunis. Here he embraced Islam marrying a rich heiress and becoming a customs officer under the name Abdullah al-Taryuman al Mayurqui. Writing in both Catalan and Arabic, Turmeda gains respect from both Christians and Muslims; the Pope even offers him a pardon for his conversion. |
1430 | Abdullah al-Taryuman al Mayurqui, the former Friar Anselm Turmeda, dies in Tunis. |
1502 | Rodrigo de Triana (Rodrigo de Lepe), the first to sight land on Columbus’s ship, converts to Islam. |
1520 | The Calabrian Luca (possibly Giovanni) Galieni is born. At the age of sixteen he will be captured by Muslim corsairs and convert to Islam. As Uluj Ali, Galieni will become one of the Mediterranean’s most famed corsairs. |
1553 | John Ward, one of the most famous of North Africa’s European corsairs, is born in Kent, England to a poor fisherman. |
1583 | The Spanish word “renegado” meaning a convert to Islam from Christianity enters the English language. The voyage made to Tripolis is the first English source to mention an English convert to Islam. The convert is John Nelson, the son of a yeoman. |
1590 | Christian monk Fra Marino converts to Islam upon finding the <>iGospel of Barnabus in the Library of Pope Sixtus V.This highly controversial and aporcryphal manuscript claims that Jesus was not crucified and that another prophet, Muhammad, would come after him. |
1599 | A Venetian ship captures Albert Drew, an English renegade. |
1603 | John Ward finds himself impressed into the Royal Navy. Due to the horrible conditions of navy life, Ward and other disgruntled sailors embark on a career of piracy. |
1604 | Ward arrives in Salé in Morocco; his first trip sees a run in with the English adventurer Richard Gifford, who is burning ships in that harbor. Ward resolves to continue to roam the Mediterranean accumulating a vast amount of wealth and power. |
1606 | John Ward, with his 200-ton flyboat the Gift, settles in Tunis with the aid of Kara Uthman, ruler at the time. From his new base in Tunis, Ward captures the English vessel John Baptist.The English appoint Benjamin Bishop consul to Egypt. He eventually embraces Islam and disappears from the public records. |
1607 | Ward captures the Venetian galleys the Rubi and the Carminati. A third Venetian vessel he captures, the 600-ton <>iReniera e Soderina off the coast of Cyprus, creates considerable disturbance to the Italian republic’s maritime business. |
1608 | Sir Francis Verney, a young nobleman, leaves England after a dispute with his stepmother over his inheritance. Verney settles in Algiers where he joins up with the North African corsair exploits.
Venetian galleys defeat a squadron led by a leading captain of Ward’s, the Flemish Jan Casten. Casten, along with fifty men, fall in battle. |
1609-1619 | Large numbers of Europeans –including Germans, English, Dutch, Flemish, Poles, Hungarians, and Muscovites– begin abandoning Christianity for Islam. North African states become a haven for these renegades looking for a new life. |
1609 | John Ward converts to Islam taking the name Yusuf Reis. He marries a convert from Palermo named Jessimina; despite this marriage, Ward continues to send money to his wife in England. He builds a beautiful marble and alabaster palace for himself in Tunis. Europe, especially England, vilifies him as an apostate; two pamphlets about Ward are printed in London that year: Andrew Baker’s True and Certaine Report of the Beginning, Proceedings, Overthrowes, and now Present Estate of Captaine Ward and Dansiker, the Two Late Famous Pirates and the anonymously authored Newes from Sea, of Two Notorious Pirates, Ward … and Danisker. |
1610 | Sir Francis Verney converts to Islam.
Sampson Denball, another English renegade, takes the name Ali Rais and becomes admiral of Tunisian ruler Yusuf Dey’s navy. |
1613 | An English ship captures an Algerian vessel commanded by the English renegade Ambrose Sayer. The captain of the English ship sends Sayer to England to stand trial for piracy. Despite being convicted, Sayer manages to escape. |
1615 | Francis Verney dies in Messina after being a galley slave for two years. He supposedly reconverted through the efforts of an English Jesuit. |
1618 | The Holland native Jan Janz converts to Islam upon capture by the Algerians. Although initially the religion may have been forced upon him, Janz seems to have sincerely embraced it as he never showed signs of wanting to apostatize. |
1619 | Murad Reis, formerly Jan Janz, settles in Salé, where he is elected leader of this newly declared republic. To show his devotion to his adopted home, Murad marries a Muslim woman; like John Ward, he also left behind a wife and family in his native Harlem. His son, a “Troublesome Turk”, Anthony Van Sale, will come to New Amsterdam in America and become the first non-Native American settler of Brooklyn. His lands in Coney Island will be known as “Turk’s Plantation.” Although his religious views are not well established, he is believed to have brought a copy of the Quran with him to the New World. |
1622 | While on an expedition into the English channel, Murad Reis decided to restock on provisions in the port of Veere in his former home Holland. Due to the peace between Holland and Salé, Murad is left unmolested, but he receives far from warm treatment. There, his Dutch wife and children attempt to convince him to give up his new life but to no avail.
Due to the large number of European enslaved by Muslims, captivity narratives become popular in Europe. John Rawlins writes of his plight in The Famous and Wonderful Recovery of a Ship of Bristol, Called the Exchange, from the Turkish Pirates of Argier, with the Unmatchable Attempts and Good Success of John Rawlins, Pilot in Her, and Other Slaves in this year. This work names many Englishmen who accepted Islam: John Goodale; Henry Chandler, a chandler’s son in Southwark, who adopted the name of Ramadhan Reis; Richard Clarke who had changed his name to Jafar; George Cooke who had become “Ramedam”; John Browne who had become “Memme”; and William Winter who took the name Mustapha. |
1623 | Yusuf Reis, formerly John Ward, succumbs to the plague and is buried at sea. Despite being vilified by contemporary ballads and other media, Ward was known to have freed Englishmen enslaved in Tunisia and was even considered generous by the Scottish traveler William Lithgow. |
1625 | Francisco de Luque, a renegade who not only became a Barbary corsair but made the pilgrimage to Mecca, is captured and brought to Cordova. He is given two hundred lashes, four years in the galleys, and perpetual imprisonment. |
1626 | The Spanish capture two renegade captains: a Francis Barney, pilot of a Tunisian ship, and a Robin Locar of Plymouth, who adopted the name Ibrahim. |
1637 | The Sultan of Morocco hires French convert Morat Reis to take advantage of dissension in Salé and capture the Casbah. |
1638 | Picenino, also known as Ali Bitchnin, flourishes on the Barbary corsair scene. An Italian by birth, Picenino converted to Islam and settled in Algiers. He becomes a prominent figure in the region becoming admiral, owning two palaces, building a mosque, and maintaining thousands of slaves. Other renegades in Muslim service during this period include the English Reis Jafar and Case Mareys, the Dutch Maime Reis, the Ligurian Osa Morato, and the Spanish Ali Campos. |
1643 | Spaniards catch the English convert Suleiman, formerly known as John Talla. |
1646 | The Dutch pirate Cornelis Verbeck captures the Portuguese convert Chaban Reis, who at the time commanded the Algerian vessel The Crabbe. |
1658 | Dutch seamen capture Ahmad al-Cortobi, a Spanish renegade or morisco. Due to the relations between Holland and Salé, the nation pays reparations to the North African republic including the release of Ahmad. |
1658s | Johan Hjuljammar, a Swede sergeant of the Life Guards, embraces Islam. |
1705 | The Historia de la villa imperial de Potosí by Nicolás de Martínez Arzans y Vela recounts the tale of a Captain Giorgio Zapata, who in 1561 claiming to be under the service of European officials, came to Potosi in Spanish Peru. Working under a German miner, Zapata amassed an enormous wealth and respect from the profitable silver mines partnering with a Rodrigo Pelaez. After many years, Zapata decided to return home to his native Istanbul. His real name was Amir Çighala and after presenting himself to the Ottoman Sultan received significant political positions (including in the navy and governorship in Algeria). In 1596, Pelaez went to return to Spain when English corsairs captured him. After a number of resales, he ended up being bought in North African by Amir Çighala’s older brother. Upon discovering this, Amir freed his old partner and sent him back to Spain laden with gifts. |
1727 | Claude-Alexandre, Comte de Bonneval, enters Ottoman service at age 52. A former French general who served under Louis XIV (and against him) and Prince Eugene went to Venice seeking support before crossing into Bosnia and Ottoman lands.He later became known as Kumbaraci Osman Ahmed Pasha and took great steps to modernize the Ottoman army. This, however, did bring him into conflict with certain Ottoman officials opposed to reform. |
1783 | Orazio Paterno Castello, of the Catanian family of the marquis of San Giuliano, becomes a fugitive after killing his wife. Corsairs from Tripoli will capture him; he will convert to Islam taking the name Hamad and serve as an interpreter. |
1809 | Omer Lufti Pasha (Omar Pasha) is born Michael Lattus in Croatia. As an army cadet for Austria, Michael will desert, enter the Ottoman service, and embrace Islam (adopting the name Omar). The Austrian government, who will regard him as a renegade and resent him, while the Ottoman Empire will respect him as the great commander of their forces during the Crimean War. |
1850 | Ottoman pasha Murad Tewfik dies. Born as Jozef Bem in 1794, he rose to prominence as a distinguished Polish military officer. He joined the Polish Revolution of 1830, but upon its defeat fled to Western Europe. He then joined the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 (known as the March Revolution) where he became one of its top generals and most popular figures. After the defeat of the Revolution, with thousands of Hungarians, Bem crossed into Ottoman territory. To avoid being extradited to Austria, he converted to Islam and joined the Turkish military. He died as governor of Aleppo in Syria and to this day is a national hero of Poland and Hungary. |
1887 | While touring the Ottoman Empire and Morrocco, Shaykh Abdullah (Henry William) Quilliam accepts Islam. The Ottoman Sultan appoints him Shaykh al-Islam of the United Kingdom and the Shah of Persia appoints him consul at Liverpool. |
1891 | Shaykh Abdullah Quilliam in Liverpool founds a Muslim center in a group of terraced houses. He establishes prayer, festivals, weddings (the first Muslim marriage occurred this year between a London Indian barrister and Charlotte Fitch, an Englishwoman), funerals, classes, a hostel, library, and printing press. |
1904 | Isabelle Eberhardt (b. 1877 in Geneva) dies in a flood in Algeria at age 27. She lived a romantic life between two worlds. She became a polyglot at an early age, Arabic included, and became enamored with the Orient. She became a prolific author, even writing under Arabic pseudonyms. She converted to Islam (she stated that she had always been a Muslim) and lived a very unorthodox life, often dressing in men’s clothes, in both Algeria and Europe. This same year saw the death of Lalla Fatima Zeineb, a spiritual mentor for Isabelle and an Algerian national hero for her resistance against the French and deep religious knowledge. |
1908 | Shaykh Abdullah Quilliam departs Liverpool for good amidst accusation of treason due to his support for the Caliphate of the Ottoman Sultan and the protests against British operations against the Mahdi of Sudan. Much of his domestic Muslim work in the community weakens with his exit. |
1917 | Ivan Agueli, a famous Swedish artist born in 1869, dies. As a Muslim convert, he took the name Abdul Hadi al-Maghrabi and spent his life in publications, including a Cairo newspaper. |
1930 | British Muslim Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall publishes a translation of the meaning of the Quran. |
1937 | Gustaf Noring, a Swedish author and diplomat born in 1861, dies. This convert to Islam had moved to Constantinople taking the name Ali Nouri. |
19. Monks, Historians, and Scholars
The contacts between Western Europe and the world of Islam took also the form of scholarly work aiming at studying Islamic civilisation and trying to understand it. From the 12th century, monks and scholars took up the cause translating Muslim works and writing numerous works on what the Islamic creed really means and what were the contributions of the Islamic civilisation. By the 19th century, and even in the 18th, more and more European scholars took a more objective look at Islam as a religion, culture and a way of life, praising its good qualities. This section surveys some prominent works of this kind and includes also references to many of the famous Muslim scholars who inspired European scholarship.
670s | The Frankish bishop Arculf visits Muslim lands around the Mediterranean such as Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. He relates his travels to a scribe in a monastery in western Scotland. It remains as one of the earliest accounts of Christian-Muslim interactions in Western Europe. |
735 | Bede, a Christian monk and biblical scholar, dies in the monastery of Jarrow in Northumbria in England. Some of his works, such as Ecclesiastical History (731), mention Muslims who were making headway in France. |
800 | Medicine from the Arab world begins to filter into northern Italy. |
812 | The chronicler Theodulf of Orleans reports of Muslim goods and coins circulating throughout southern Gaul. |
815 | Jabir ibn Hayyan, considered the founder of Muslim alchemy and founder of modern chemistry, dies. His sulfur-mercury theory is a forerunner of the modern acid-base theory. His classifications of chemical substances and modifications of the Aristotelian theory remain influential in Europe until the advent of modern chemistry in the 18th century. His Book of Seventy and Composition of Alchemy will be translated into Latin in the 12th century. Jabir flourished at the Abbasid court during the reign of Harun al-Rashid until his fall at the hands of political intrigue. |
847 | Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi –mathematician, geographer, musician, astronomer, and historian– dies. His celebrated work on algebra Hisab al-Jabr wa-‘l muqabala (Book of algebra) enters into the West with a 12th century Latin translation and will remain a staple text of European universities until the 16th century. His work is also credited with introducing the Indian number system, the zero, and negative signs into the mainstream academia of the Islamic world and the West. |
925 | Death of Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi, known as Rhazes in the West (b. 865). This Persian Muslim was known as one of history’s greatest physicians.His numerous works encompassed topics such as impaired vision, gynecology, obstetrics, and ophthalmology. His pamphlet Of Habit which becomes Natural was a precursor to the Reflex Theory. His book Al Judari Wa-‘l-Hasbah, on smallpox and measles greatly pioneered the field and will be translated into many European languages, including Latin and English, and published in excess of forty times between 1498 and 1866. Razi wrote twenty volumes in what would be the most comprehensive encyclopedia of medicine, al-Hawi (Continens). |
1013 | The physician Abu Qasim al-Zahrawi (Albucasis) dies. His medical book, exhibiting advanced surgical tools and methods, will be translated in Venice in 1497, Basel in 1541, and Oxford in 1778. He has been known as the Father of Modern Surgery. |
1037 | Ibn Sina, also known as Avicenna (980-1037), dies. He mastered all the sciences of his time by the age of eighteen before leaving his birthplace of Bukhara. He found many patrons throughout the Islamic world and his works garnered him much fame. Known in the West by the epithet “Prince of Physicians,” Ibn Sina’s masterpiece called the Canon, a work on medicine, was translated into Latin during the 12th century and became a virtual medical textbook in Europe until the 17th century. His works on musical theory and geology (he wrote a treatise on the latter published in Latin as De Conglutiatione lapidum also heavily influenced Western thought. |
1040 | Ibn al-Haitham dies (Alhazen, born 965). Known as the Father of modern optics, he described various parts of the eye, gave scientific explanations for vision, and studied atmospheric refraction. |
1064 | Ali ibn Hazm (born 994) dies. This grandson of a Spanish Muslim convert from Christianity served as vizier to the Umayyads before the dynasty’s fall. Ibn Hazm took to a life of scholarship where he is said to have written over four hundred volumes on history, theology, tradition, logic, poetry, and similar subjects. His al-Fasl fi al-Milal w-al-Ahwa’ w-al-Nihal (the decisive word on sects, heterodoxies, and denominations) established him as one of the first scholars of comparative religion. |
1070 | Ibn Rashiq (born 1000), a famous linguist of Sicily of Greek or Italian ancestry, dies. His Kitab al-umda, written in North Africa, is considered one of the best poetic criticisms in Arabic. |
1105 | Ibn Bassal, an Andalusian agronomist whose works were translated into Castilian in the Middle Ages, dies. |
1111 | Pedro de Alfonso (b. 1062), a Christian covert from Judaism, dies. His criticisms of Islam’s prophet are considered highly influential and perpetuate for generations. |
1120 | William of Malmesbury becomes one of the first Western Europeans to differentiate the Muslim faith from paganism, a fact not many were willing to accept at the time. |
1124 | Ghyasuddin Abu ‘l-Fath ibn Ibrahim al-Khayyam (Omar Khayyam), born in Nishapur (Khorasan province of Persia) in 1048, dies. He was a multifaceted scholar whose scholarship encompassed a wide array of subjects and was well patronized by government officials. He constructed the famous At-Tarikh al Jalali calendar, which, in many respects, is more precise than the Gregorian calendar. Al-Khayyam’s celebrated Algebra, a mathematical work that advanced on that of al-Khwarizmi, saw translation in Europe in 1851. His poetical masterpiece, Rubaiyat, entered the West with its 1859 translation by Fitzgerald. |
1127 | Stephen of Antioch, a Pisan, translates a significant medical treatise of Ali ibn al-Abbas al-Majusi (d. 994, known as Haly Abbas in the West). |
1132 | Ibn Hamis of Sicily (born 1055), knows as the Wordsworth of the Arabs, dies. |
1141 | Peter the Venerable, the Abbot of Cluny, commissions a team of Christian and Muslim scholars, under Robert of Ketton, to translate Muslim texts. The project, completed two years later, will yield the first Latin translation of the Quran, a Muslim history of the world, religious explanation, and The Apology of al-Kindi. |
1143 | Robertus Rotenesis and Hermannus Dalmata complete the first Latin translation of the Quran. It will not be published until 1543. |
1154 | Al-Idrisi (1100-1166) completes his principal geographic work known under its abbreviated title as The Book of Roger. Al-Idrisi, a favorite at the Sicilian court, also produced a spherical globe for King Roger II. |
1161 | Death of Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik Ibn Zuhr in Seville. His Book of Diets and other works garnered him repute as one of Muslim Spain’s greatest physicians. He belonged to the Ibn Zuhr family, Avenzoar in the West; for two generations they produced many famous doctors, including a woman, in al-Andalus. |
1170 | Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Mazini (born ca. 1080), the Granadan geographer, dies. This Hispano-Arab visited Russia in 1136 and reported the first known documented case of trade in fossil mammoth ivory. The ivory was exported as far as Central Asia. |
1172 | The Arab-Sicilian intellectual Ibn Zafar al-Siqilli dies in poverty in Syria. Born in 1104 under Norman rule, Ibn Zafar left Sicliy and traveled around the Arab world. He is best known for his Sulwan al-Muta fi ‘Udwan al-Atba (Consolation for the Ruler During the Hostility of Subjects), translated into Italian in 1851 and into English in 1852. Scholars consider this work, which advises a ruler on actions pertaining to restless subjects, a precursor to Machiavelli’s The Prince. |
1183 | Muslim historian Ibn Bushkuwal (Abul Kasim Khalf ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Masud ibn Musa) dies. He was born in Cordova in 1101. |
1185 | The celebrated philosopher, physician, and poet Ibn Tufail dies in Morocco. During his lifetime he held the position of chief physician to Abu Yusuf Yaqub, the Almohad caliph. Some scholars argue that his philosophical treastise Hayy ibn Vaqzan (the living son of the vigilant), about an individual alone on an island discovering the truths of God, is an early example of the novel and the inspiration for Defoe’s Robinson Cruseoe. The piece was translated into Latin in 1671, Dutch in 1672, Russian 1920, and Spanish in 1934. |
1198 | Ibn Rushd, known as Averroes in the West, dies. Born to an eminent family of judges (qadi-s) in 1126 in Cordova, Ibn Rushd would establish himself as one of the world’s greatest scholars. His numerous works encompassed medicine, philosophy, jurisprudence, grammar, and astronomy. His thoughts and rationalist views, known as Averroism, eventually found popularity in Europe. Ibn Rushd’s Kitab al-Kulliyat fil Tib (General Rules of Medicine) saw its Latin translation under the title Colliget in 1537. 1859 gave Germany a translation of his philosophical works Kitab Fasl al-Maqal and Kitab al-Kashf Manahij al-Adilla. His commentaries on Aristotelian and Ancient Greek thought reintroduced Europe to these philosophical doctrines. Ibn Rushd’s works saw greater popularity in the West than in the Muslim world. |
1200 | Oxford University is established in England. It counts as one of its first instructors Adam da Marisco (Adam of the Moors or Adam of Moorish blood). |
1231 | Spanish Muslim historian Ash-Shakandi (Abul Walid Ismail) dies. |
1240 | Ramón de Peñalfort resigns his post with the Dominican friars to devote his time to preaching to Muslims, which results in the founding of missionary schools for Arabic.
Ibn al-Arabi (born 1165) of Murcia, the renowned devot and Sufi, dies. His famous works include al-Futuhat al-Makkiyah (Meccan Inspirations), Fusus al-Hikam (Gems of Wisdom), and Tarjuman al-Ashwaq (Expressions of Longing). |
1245 | St. Albert the Great arrives in Paris, as tradition holds, wearing Arab dress. |
1248 | Ibn al-Baitar dies. This Malaga native is considered to be the last of the great Muslim botanists and pharmacologists, two fields that the Spanish Muslims dominated. |
1311 | At the Ecumenical Council of Vienne, Majorcan Ramón Lull (1232-1315) –knight, author, traveler, and spiritualist– convinces the clergy to establish schools at universities such as Paris, Oxford, Bologna, and Salamanca teaching Arabic and Islamic studies. |
1375 | A Catalan map drawn by Abraham Cresques of Majorca depicts an image of the Muslim ruler of Mali Mansa Musa. Mansa Musa and his realm will appear on maps well into the next two centuries with the inclusion by Martin Waldseemuller in 1516. |
1406 | The scholar Ibn Khaldun dies. Known as the father of social sciences, he is best known for his Muqaddima (Introduction or Prolegomena), a highly influential social critique. He was well traveled and known among many contemporary rulers including Pedro the Cruel and Amir Timur. |
1458 | Spanish bishop John of Segovia dies. His translation of the Quran, done with the help of a Muslim Spaniard, disappears after his death. |
1460 | Nicholas of Cusa writes Cribratio Alchoran (The Sieve of the Quran). |
1482 | Florentine humanist Francesco Berlinghieri dedicates his Latin translation of Ptolemy’s Geography to Bayazid II. Originally, he dedicated it to Muhammad II, but changed it following the latter’s death. |
1486 | Europe’s first known printing of Arabic writing occurs in Bernhard vonBreydenbach’s Peregrinationes, which discusses trade and customs of the East. |
1529 | Martin Luther’s On War Against the Turk comes out. It advocates the rationale that the Turks act as God’s scourge against the Christians for their deviation from the true faith. |
1531 | Otto Brunfels, dubbed the father of botany, edits a publication of the 9th-century scholar Ibn Sarabiyun (Serapion the younger), who had influenced the former in his field of expertise. |
1538 | The Latin text of Andreas Vesalius’s six anatomical tables, preceding his main work Fabrica, gives a large number of Arabic terms. |
1550 | Published in Basel, the Sylloge scriptorum adversus mahomedanos becomes a milestone of Islamic studies in Europe. Due to its attack on the Catholic church, it will not see too much circulation in Catholic areas. |
1593 | Ibn Sina’s Qanun is printed in Rome and will soon become a staple in European medical curriculum. |
1600 | John Pory translates Leo Africanus’s Geographical Historie of Africa. |
1603 | Richard Knolles’s The Generall Historie of the Turkes comes out. |
1615 | English Arabist William Bedwell (1563-1632) writes Index Assvratarvm Mvhammedici Alkorani, That is, A Catalogue of the Chapters of the Turkish Alkoran, as they are named in the Arabicke, and known to the Musslemans . . . Gathered and digested according to their naturall order, for the benefite of Divines, and such as favour these studies |
1619 | Relations of the Christianitie of Africa, and especially of Barbarie and Algier, published by Purchas, states that between 1609 and 1619, the highest number of renegades came from lower Germany with 857 renegades, followed by 300 from England. |
1637 | Archbishop Laud presents to Parliament A Form of Penance and Reconciliation of a Renegado or Apostate from the Christian Religion to Turcism discussing readmission of converts to Islam back to the church. |
1638 | Edward Pocock presides as the first Professor of Arabic at Oxford. He translates Arabic texts into Latin becoming his Specimen Historiae Arabum. |
1647 | Andre du Ryer, French Consul in Egypt, translates the Quran into French from the first Latin translation by Rotenesis and Dalmata (1543). It will be heavily criticized by future scholars for its gross mistranslation. |
1649 | Alexander Ross, for the first time in English history, translates the entire Quran under the title The Alcoran of Mahomet, Translated out of Arabique into French; By the Sieur Du Ryer, Lord of Malezair, and Resident for the King of France, at Alexandria. The translation is poor, but it gives the English some idea of Islam as a religion. |
1652 | Joshua Notstock writes The Confusion of Muhamed’s Sect assuring his readers not to fear a mass conversion of Christians to Islam due to the Quran translation. |
1654 | Matthias Wasmuth, Holstein Orientalist and Biblical scholar, publishes Grammatica Arabica noting the importance of Arabic in the study of medicine. |
1664 | Zurich Orientalist Johan Heinrich Holtinger’s Bibliothecarius Quadripartitus contains an appendix in its third part that surveys Arab scientists. |
1697 | Barthélmy d’Herbelot publishes Bibliothèque orientale, a piece which will serve as the standard authority of Islamic and Oriental studies in Europe until the 1800s. The author made use of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish sources. |
1698 | Father Ludovic Maracci, the confessor of Pope Innocent XI and taught Arabic by a Turk, translates the Quran into Latin. Many future translations into European languages will be based on this one. |
1705 | Charles Hornby finds one of the earliest works in English written in defense of Islam under the title An Account of the Rise and Progress of Mahometanism, and a Vindication of Mahomet and his Religion from the Calumnies of the Christians. It is attributed to Henry Stubbe.
Adrian Reland (1676-1718) produces a work on the biography of the Prophet Muhammad. |
1708 | Simon Ockley produces the first volume of his History of the Saracens, which takes the approach of looking at history through Muslim eyes. |
1709 | Antoine Galland serves as professor of Arabic in the Collège Royal in France. |
1723 | Abu’l Fida by John Gagnier (1670-1740) comes out; it is a translation of the works of Abu’l Fida (1273-1331), including a biography of the Prophet Muhammad. |
1728 | La Vie de Mahomet of Comte de Boulainvilliers (1658-1722) praises the personality of Muhammad as sincere and enlightened, although still maintains criticism of Islamic theology. |
1734 | George Sale translates the Quran into English. Some speculation exist that Ayyub ibn Suleiman may have helped in this translation. Despite its many errors, it is translated into Dutch in 1742, German 1764, French in 1750, Russian in 1792, Swedish in 1814, and Bulgarian in 1902. Although the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge commissioned the work and Sale appeared to uphold Christian superiority, he was still criticized for his validation of Islam and its Prophet. |
1735 | The anonymous essay Reflections on Mahometism and the Conduct of Mohammed appears. |
1738 | The Gospel of Barnabus, along with the rest of the library of Prince Eugene of Savoy, goes to the Hofbibliothek in Vienna. Councillor of the King of Prussia, J.E. Cramer presented the manuscript to Prince Eugene in 1713. |
1751 | Voltaire’s Les Moeurs et l’esprit des nations points out the rationality of the Islamic religion in a political system. |
1788 | In the included biography of his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon portrays Islam and its Prophet in a negative way. |
1809 | Captain A.N. Mathews translates Mishkat al-Masabih, a collection of Hadith organized by al-Tabrizi. |
1829 | Apology for the Life of Mohamed by Godfrey Higgins (1771-1833) comes out.
Mahometanism Unveiled by Charles Forster (1787-1871) appears. |
1832 | German poet and scholar Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (born 1749) dies. Throughout his life, Oriental studies attracted Goethe. Unlike many European philosophers of the period, he held a respect for Islam. However, he never completed his poetic play on the life of the Prophet Muhammad.
American author Washington Irving (1783-1859) writes his Tales of the Alhambra reviving an interest in the preservation of southern Spain’s Muslim heritage. |
1840 | Carlyle’s On Heroes and Hero-Worship portrays Prophet Muhammad in a more positive light (compared to some contemporaries) as an outstanding figure in history. |
1843 | Gustav Weil (1808-89) publishes his Mohammed der Prophet. In 1864, he will publish a translation of Ibn Hisham’s Al-Sira al-Nabawiya (Biography of the Prophet). |
1851 | Washington Irving publishes his Life of Mahomet in London.
Aloys Sprenger (1813-97) publishes his The Life of Muhammad from Original Sources. |
1861 | Alois Sprenger writes and publishes his Leben und Lehre des Mohammad acknowledging Muslim contribution to European academia and exposes many myths about Muhammad.
J.M. Rodwell publishes in London an erroneous translation of the Quran. |
1867 | On his visit to London, the Ottoman Sultan escorts Queen Victoria to a luncheon at Windsor. The Queen makes him a Knight of the Garter. |
1874 | Reginald Bosworth Smith (1839-1908) publishes his Mohammed and Mohammedanism. |
1880 | E.H. Palmer publishes his translation of the Quran in London. It is said to contain many omissions and mistranslations. |
1892 | J.E. Renan dies. This scholar held the view that free thought in Islamic Civilization died with Ibn Rushd. |
1899 | Two Volga Tatars Fatih Karimi, a writer and graduate of Istanbul University, and Shakir Ramiev, a wealthy industrialist, set off from Russia on a three and a half month trip to Belgium, France, Italy, German, Austria, and the Ottoman Empire. In 1902, Karimi published a record of the excursion titled Yavrupa Siyahatnamese. The work proved interesting in its perspective of the West through Muslim eyes, particularly of these men who were Russian citizens and proponents of Jadidism, a movement for the social, religious, ecomonic, and intellectual reform among the Muslims of Central Asia and Russian territories. The work offered praise for the achievements of the West as well as some criticism and lamented the stagnation present in the Muslim world. |
1918 | Tor Andrae’s Swedish work appears in German as Die Person Mohammeds (The Personality of Muhammad) portraying the Prophet Muhammad as a social and religious leader. |
1961 | Montgomery Watt’s Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman appears. |
Late 1970s | In France, the Catholics Bishops’ Conference creates a Secrétariat pour les Relations avec l’Islam (SRI) to help educate the church about Islam. |
1978 | Edward Said’s Orientalism appears and dramatically changes the criticism of scholarship regarding the Middle East. |
20. Literary and Artistic Presence
During the Golden Age of Islamic civilisation, Muslims held a standard for literary and musical developments. Muslim Spain and to a lesser extent Muslim Sicily offered Europe many of its notions on poetry, chivalry, and instrumentals. By the end of the European Middle Ages Islam and its followers became the subjects of literature and music. During Elizabethan England, some Muslim representative (usually chosen via political motivation) revolved around the themes of literary works. Authors and playwrites consistently used “Turning Turk” (converting to Islam) as a means of conveying their own ideas as well as reflecting the fears of the time. During the Romantic Era (which was brought on by Goethe, a sympathizer of the Muslim world, or at least its ideals), the forbidden Orient and fantasies of Arabians Nights became the subjects of poems, paintings, operas, and plays. The 18th century saw a Turkish theme to much of the European tastes that encompassed clothes, candy, and tobacco. Themes from Muslim nations continued to be subjects of much artistic endeavour in the next two centuries. Like other sections, the entries in this list could be innumerable if every work mentioning Islam or some component of it was included; by no means does exclusion from the list signify inferior contribution to the discourse of Islamic studies or the perception of the Islamic world. Included in this section are some Muslims who contributed to the development of some aspects of culture in Western Europe.
645 | Khansa, a famous poetess, dies. As an old woman, she came to the Prophet Muhammad to accept Islam. All of her sons were martyred in the battle of Qadsiya (between Muslims and Persians). Her poetry would be published in Beirut in 1888 and translated into French in 1889. |
786 | The Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid begins his reign in Baghdad. The Abbasids reach their height in splendor and culture during his rule, which lasts until 809. He proves to be an effective administrator and able leader. Harun al-Rashid would become popular in the West partially through the romanticizing of the Arabian Nights. |
822 | The multitalented Abul Hasan Ali ibn Nafi, also known as Ziryab (a nickname referring to a bird of black plumage) settles in Cordova from the court of Baghdad. He is credited with developing a new five string lute (a precursor to the guitar), founding a conservatory of music in Cordova, inventing a toothpaste, introducing into Spain the practice of presenting meals in courses rather than all at once, introducing Europe to asparagus, in addition to setting trends in attire and hairstyle. |
888 | Abbas ibn Firnas dies. After Ziryab, he heavily propagated Oriental music in Spain. Like Ziryab, the music of ibn Firnas is Perso-Arabic in nature. Soon Muslim Spain will come to dominate the cultural music scene overshadowing Baghdad, especially in the 11th century. Ibn Firnas was known to make glass from stones, built a planetarium in his home, and attempted to fly. His flight suit was comprised of feathers with wings which carried him some distance before he experienced a hard fall. He attributed the rough landing to not making a tail. |
1095-1291 | The range of the Crusades to the Holy Land occurs during this period, which typically begins with the proclamation of the First Crusade in 1095 and ends with the fall of Acre to the Mamluks in 1291. Numbers of Crusades vary, although typically are put at nine, since many of the mobilizations of European nations occurred in waves lead by groups with varied motives. The exchange between the Muslim Middle East and European Christendom during this period is often overemphasized, but cultural diffusion did exist prominently in many aspects. Such influences from the East included the renewed importance of the public bath (last flourished in Europe under the Romans), exotic fabrics and metallic wares, and expanded gustatory interests with the popularity of spices, soft drinks, and sugar. Oriental themes in the works of Chaucer and Boccaccio are believed to have originated from this period. |
1184 | Capellanus pens Love and Its Cures, a treatise on courtly love. Early 12th-century monarch King Guilhem of Aquitaine is said to have introduced many of these principles of courtly love. The idealism of chivalry and courtship that penetrated into Western Europe in the 11th and 12th centuries, inspiring troubadours and the writings of numerous epics, came from Arab culture. The combination of horsemanship and poetry, ubiquitous aspects of Arab life, gave the backdrop for ideals of mercy in war and regard for women.The latter was further developed with the advent of Islam and its restrictions on premarital relations; the male had to win the woman’s heart, not with physical endowments, but with individual skill. The mercifulness of Ayyubid ruler Salah ud-Din (Saladin) toward the Crusaders popularized the ideas of Muslim chivalry in this period. These ideas also filtered into Europe through Muslim Spain.
In the next couple of centuries Arthurian legends feature Palomides the Muslim knight who converted to Christianity and joined the Knights of the Round Table. He has a significant role in the post-Vulgate Roman du Graal as the enigmatic knight tracking the Beste Glatissante and in Tristan where he is both a companion and rival (particularly for the love of the Queen Iseut) of Tristan. Palomides is noted for his valor and chivalry. |
1200 | Italian artisans begin to implement the pottery adornment of the Muslim world into their ceramics, which previously were typically utilitarian and lacked décor. |
1307-1321 | Dante’s The Divine Comedy, considered to be an epitome of Western literary achievement, finds basis in much of its imagery on Muslim literature. Inspirations stem from the Mi‛raj (Prophet Muhammad’s ascent to heaven), the renowned Ibn Arabi’s Meccan Revelations, the works of Abu al-Ala al-Maarri, Quranic descriptions of hell’s punishments, and accounts of heaven. In the work itself, a number of Muslims make an appearance; The Prophet Muhammad and Ali ibn Abi Talib suffer perpetual torture as provokers of schism while Ibn Rushd, Ibn Sina, and Saladin –unable to achieve salvation because of their denial of Christianity, yet unworthy– of hell because of their good deeds– remain in limbo. |
1310 | Muhammad ibn Daniyal al-Khuza‛i al-Mawsili, Muslim physician possibly of either Christian or Jewish origin who flourished in Egypt, dies. His famous Tayf al-Khayal fi Marifat Khayal al-Zill (Phantoms of the imagination on the knowledge of shadow play) is the only known example of dramatic poetry from the Islamic world during the Middle Ages. These puppet plays, which the Islamic world retrieved from India or Persia, will filter into Europe through Egypt and other bordering Muslim nations. |
1316 | Simone Martini’s Saint Louis of Toulouse Crowning Robert of Anjou, King of Naples stands as one of the earliest examples of the use of Oriental carpets from the Islamic world in Italian paintings. |
1330 | Giotto’s painting Madonna and Child reflects the popular use of tiraz, bands of Arabic inscriptions marking royal garments and other textiles in the Muslim world. Italian artists employ Arabic and pseudo-Arabic in many works echoing their regard for Muslim calligraphy. |
Ca.1440 | Leonardo Bruni’s Historia Fiorentina, produced in Florence, reflects the influence of bookbinding and design from the Muslim world. |
1493 | To demonstrate the value of imported Oriental carpets from the Muslim world, Lorenzo de’ Medici’s best table carpet exceeds in value two sculptures by Donatello owned by Luigi Martelli.
Around this time Gentile Bellini’s Madonna and Child Enthroned depicts a Muslim prayer rug under the Madonna’s throne. |
1511 | Albrecht Dürer paints A Turkish Family. |
1516 | Ludovico Ariosto’s chivalric poem Orlando Furioso revolves around the conflict between Charlemagne and the Muslims. |
1563 | The first Italian costume book, printed in Venice, depicts a Turkish servant, Ethiopians, three Africans, and Tatars. |
1587 | Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine , Part I opens. The play is based on the Turco-Mongol Muslim (although Marlowe’s rendition exhibits the title character as polytheist) Tamerlane, who was a famed conqueror in the late 14th century. In 1402, Tamerlane (also known as Emir Temur) defeats and captures Ottoman Sultan Bayazid at the Battle of Ankara. Bayazid dies in captivity effectively halting his attempt at a Constantinople conquest and further invasions into Europe. The event gave rise to many European romances of Tamerlane, who was perceived to have saved Europe from conquest by a Muslim power. |
1588 | Marlowe’s play Tamburlaine, Part II comes out.
Robert Greene’s play Selimus, Emperor of the Turks opens. Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek, a dramatic work by George Peele, opens. |
1589 | George Peele’s comes with another work of orientalist nature with The Battle of Alcazar. |
1591 | Orlando Furioso, the play by Robert Greene, hits the stages. |
1592 | A story about a Turk who falls in love with a beautiful Christian captive is told in Thomas Kyd’s play The Tragedye of Soliman and Perseda. |
1594 | Marlowe’s The Second Report of Doctor John Faustus appears in London. The title character Faustus joins forces with an evil Turk.
Fulke Greville’s play Mustapha appears. |
1601 | William Percy’s Arabia Sitiens opens. |
1602 | Thomas Heywood’s play The Fair Maid of the West, or A Girl Worth Gold Part I opens. Part II will come out in 1630. |
1604 | Shakespeare’s Othello, a play about a converted Moor in Venice, first premiers. This play, like many others of the period, allegorically presents many of the ideological and cultural concerns that plague the time. |
1607 | John Mason’s The Turke comes out. |
1612 | Robert Daborne’s play A Christian Turn’d Turk is performed in London. “Turning Turk” becomes popular during this period due to the large number of Christians who are converting to Islam and settling in North Africa.
Thomas Dekker’s play If This not be a Good Play, the Divel is in it includes as characters Simon Danser and John Ward, two European renegades employed in North Africa. John Ward also appears as the main character in A Christian Turn’d Turk. |
1613 | Around this year, Thomas Goffe writes the play The Couragious Turke, or Amurath the First. |
1620 | The play by Rowley and Middleton All’s Lost by Lust portrays the motif of Christians falling in love with seductive Muslim women and turning Turk. |
1622 | Due to the large number of Europeans enslaved by Muslims, captivity narratives become popular in Europe. John Rawlins writes of his plight in The Famous and Wonderful Recovery of a Ship of Bristol, Called the Exchange, from the Turkish Pirates of Argier, with the Unmatchable Attempts and Good Success of John Rawlins, Pilot in Her, and Other Slaves in this year. This work names many Englishmen who accepted Islam: John Goodale; Henry Chandler, a chandler’s son in Southwark, who adopted the name of Ramadhan Reis; Richard Clarke who had changed his name to Jafar; George Cooke who had become “Ramedam”; John Browne who had become “Memme”; and William Winter who took the name Mustapha. |
1624 | Philip Massinger’s play The Renegado tells of a young Venetian, coming to rescue his sister from slavery in Tunis, falling for a beautiful Turkish princess who he eventually convinces to accept Christianity and a renegade named Grimaldi who returns to Christ. |
1631 | Thomas Goffe writes the Raging Turk, or Bajazet the Second. |
1656 | Davenant’s The Siege of Rhodes depicts Suleiman the Magnificent as the noble Turk. |
1658 | The account of a Muslim convert to Christianity, named Dandulo, The Baptized Turk, Or A Narrative of the happy Conversion of Signior Rigep Dandulo, . . . and of his Admission unto Baptism by Mr. Gunning at Excester-house Chappel the 8th of Novemb. 1657 appears. |
1672 | Racine’s drama Bajazet (Bayazid) appears. |
1673 | Guy Allard writes his novel Zizime prince ottoman, amoureux de Philippine-Helene de Sassenage. The story commemorates the love affair between Jem Sultan and Philippine Helene during the royal hostage’s captivity in France. |
1686 | Johann W. Franck’s opera Cara Mustapha features events of the Ottoman siege of Vienna three years earlier. |
1693 | Reinhard Keiser’s opera Muhammed II comes out. |
1704 | Antoine Galland –a polyglot who speaks Arabic, Persian, and Turkish– translates and publishes the first volume of the Thousand and One Nights. |
1724 | Handel’s opera Tamerlane opens. The scene where Ottoman Sultan Bayazid drinks poison was celebrated as one of the Baroque era most powerful opera scenes. Bayazid was also one of the earliest major tenor roles in opera. |
1728 | Leasge’s Achmet et Almanzine features Achmet dressing up as a woman in order to rescue his lover, Almanzine, from the harem. |
1732 | Voltaire’s Zaire utilizes Ottoman themes and images of the Grand Turk to convey messages about ethics. |
1735 | The opera Scanderberg, music by Rebel and Francoeur and libretto by Houdar de La Motte, depicts the exploits of Albanian hero Skanderbeg as he triumphantly defied Ottoman expansion. |
1753 | The opera Solimano, based on Suleiman the Magnificent, by Hasse first comes out. |
1761 | Charles-Simon Favart’s Libretto of Soliman II ou Les Trois Sultanes, about competition between the concubines of the Ottoman harem, opens. Madame Favart, playing the role of Roxelane (historically Suleiman the Magnificent’s favorite wife), wears authentic Ottoman attire brought in from Constantinople. This popular play exhibits for the first time such detail of Ottoman life in the performing arts of Europe. |
1770 | Most European armies employ marching bands similar to those of the Janissary corps of the Ottomans. Augustus II of Poland (r.1697-1704) is the first ruler to have an Ottoman-inspired band. Many of the early musicians were Ottoman but then replaced by “Black Turkish” musicians. |
1782 | Mozart’s opera The Abduction from the Seraglio opens at Burgtheater in Vienna on 16th of July. The piece takes place in 16th century Turkey with characters named Selim Pasha and Osman. The story ends with the Ottoman characters displaying righteousness and nobility. |
1783 | Gretry’s La Caravane du Caire opens and will receive 500 perfomances in Paris by 1829. Louis XVI was believed to have had a part in the composition of the libretto. |
1812 | Josef von Hammer-Purgstall translates into German many of the poems of the Persian Hafiz under the title Der Diwan von Hafis. |
1813 | Giacchino Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri is performed. |
1814 | Giaocchino Rossini composes the comic opera Il Turco in Italia (The Turk in Italy).
Voyages en Asie et en Afrique by Ali Bay el Abbassi (Domingo Badia y Leblich) becomes the earliest published account of a European incognito going to Mecca and Medina. |
1817 | Percy Bysshe Shelley’s The Revolt of Islam appears. |
1819 | German intellectual Goethe’s West-Oestlicher Divan, a book of poems, exhibits Oriental influence. |
1822 | Albanian ruler Ali Pasha of Ioannina (born ca. 1750) dies. He ruled as virtually an autonomous sovereign, although technically under the Ottomans, of Albania and mainland Greece. He became the subject of numerous Orientalist works in literature and art where he was depicted as an archetype for the cruel Oriental despot. Accounts of his personal life were wrought with exaggerated legends; however, he was a very powerful regional ruler that was sought by the European powers thwarting Ottoman influence in the region. Works that featured him included Lord Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Composer Giovanni Martino Cesare’s score La Ioannina, Albert Lortzing’s composition Ali Pascha von Janina, and John Howard’s Ali Pacha.
Many of the Albanian soldiers in the service of Ali Pasha had seen military action in Europe as mercenaries in France and Italy. Ali’s court had a number of Western Europeans present including a French physician, An Italian named Colovo who served as court secretary, Marco Quirini, a former Roman Catholic priest who for a time converted to Islam taking the name Mehmet Effendi while serving as secretary for foreign affairs before leaving the court for other European territories and renouncing Islam, and the Frenchman Ibrahim Manzur Effendi whose specific identity is debated. |
1826 | Oberon, Carl Maria von Weber’s opera, premiers at Covent Garden. The story takes place during the 9th century in France, Tunis, and Baghdad. Characters include Caliph Harun al-Rashid, Razia, Fatima, Almanzour, Abdullah, Charlemagne, and many more. Oberon has been considered a basis of German romantic opera and the triumph of Weber’s career. |
1829 | Victor Hugo, author of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, pens numerous Oriental-based and Islamic-themed poems in Les Orientales such as “The Turkish Captive,” “The Dervish,” “The Lost Battle,” “The Djinns,” “The Sacking of the City,” and more. |
1859 | E. Fitzgerald publishes the Rubaiyat (Quatrains) of Omar Khayyam.This work on poetry makes Omar Khayyam famous in the West for his literary contributions. Ironically, his popularity in the East is due to his scientific and mathematical works. |
1863 | French painter Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix (b. 1798) dies. Many of his works incorporated romantic and classical themes in an Orientalist setting. His works often depict many of the exaggerated images Europeans associate with Islam and the East. The artist himself made one trip to North Africa. His notable works include The Death of Sardanapalus (1844), The Loin Hunt (1855), and The Collection of Arab Taxes (1863). |
1867 | Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (b. 1780) dies. This recipient of the Croix de la Légion d’ Honneur and elect to the Institut de France produced such famous Orientalist paintings as Odalisque and Slave (1842). He never traveled out of Europe. |
1876 | British painter and former resident of Cairo John Frederick Lewis (b. 1805) dies. His Orientalist paintings include An Intercepted Correspondence, Cairo (1869) and A Mamluk Bay, Egypt (1868). |
1893 | The foundation of the Société des Peintres Orientalistes becomes the first establishment for Orientalist painters. |
1894 | Characters from the exotic nations including Muslim lands became popular characters during the Golden Age of professional wrestling in Europe and America. These were the ancestors to many contemporary exaggerated ethnic characters of today’s professional wrestlers.
This year saw the French wrestler Joseph Doublier, in an attempt to seek revenge on his rival Ferdinand Sabes, return to Paris with the Terrible Turks: Youssuf Ishmaelo, Hassan Nurullah, and Kara Osman.Ismaelo would become very popular billed as the Sultan’s favorite wrestling and competing in celebrated bouts in Europe and the United States; two of his famous ones included a victory over the celebrated Ed Strangler Lewis and his brutal bout in Paris with another Turk named Ibrahim Mahmout. Ishmaelo was said to have drowned in 1898 due to the weight of $10000 gold belt, which he refused to relinquish when his ship, SS La Bourgogne, sailing back from America sunk. The Terrible Turks, a popular gimmick which lasted for years to come, were ethnically diverse and the heritage of even the more famous ones is disputed. Ahmed Madrali, unsuccessfully brought in to challenge George Hackenschmidt, was another famous “Turk” of this era. |
1888 | Sir Richard Burton’s A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights in 10 volumes appears. Burton, a widely celebrated traveler, journeyed throughout Asia and Africa including disguising himself to make a pilgrimage to Mecca. |
1900 | In Paris around the time of the Great Exposition, in a famous match of ethnic professional wrestlers, the Hindu Ghulam defeats the Turk Cour Derelli. |
1904 | Jean-Léon Gérôme (b.1824) dies. This French Orientalist painter was appointed Professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and elected to the Institut de France. He made numerous trips to the Middle East inspiring his famous paintings such as Dance of the Almah (1863), The Moorish Bath (c. 1870), The Carpet Merchant (c. 1887), and The Whirling Dervish (1895). |
1907 | Prague-born, German poet Rainer Maria Rilke writes Mohammeds Berufung (Muhammad’s Call). |
1910 | Bengali billionare Sharat Kumar Mishra sponsors a tour bringing popular Indian wrestlers Gama, Imam Bux, Ahmed Bux, and Gamu to the professional wrestling scene in London. Imam Bux held a celebrated victory over John Lemm. The highly successful Gama wrestled Stanislaus Zbyszko. Ahmed defeated the Swiss Armand Cherpillod. The following year another batch of Indians came to England. Gulam Mohiuddin, wrestled a celebrated match with Maurice Gambier, was in this group. |
Abu: Arabic for “father of”.
Al-: The (used to give prominence to a noun).
Bint: Arabic for “daughter of”.
Caliph: Title of the head of state in some Muslim countries. It means successor (to the Prophet).
Corsair: Privateer enlisted by a country to perform naval duties and attack shipping and commerce of enemy nations. Although they may use tactics of piracy, they are not pirates (some formerly were); pirates work independently.
Emir: Prince or commander.
Goum: Name for certain Moroccan battalions fighting for the French military during the French occupation of that country. Goumier is the name for the individual soldier. The British soldiers popularize the phrase “gouming it” for any audacious attack due to the stealth and ability of the Goumiers.
Hâjj: denotes a Muslim who has performed the pilgrimage to Mecca, or Hajj.
Ibn or (ben): Arabic for “son of”.
Imam: Leader of the prayer, and also leader of the community.
Imamate: Realm or domain of the imam. In some parts of the Muslim world, particularly in the Shiite doctrine, the Imam is a politico-spiritual title.
Ismailite (or Ismaili): A branch of Shiites.The sixth Imam of the Shiites was Jafar al-Sadiq. His eldest son Ismail, who was to have succeeded him, died within Jafar’s lifetime. Some Shittes declared that Musa, brother of Ismail, to be the seventh Imam; however, there were those who argued that the Imamate should have passed to Muhammad, the son of Ismail. The Shiites who believed that the lineage of leadership should have been passed through Ismail’s line were known as Ismailites.The Qarmatians, the Assassins, and the Fatimids were all Ismailites. On the other hand, Ismailite is the name given in parts of Medieval Europe to describe Muslims due to the dogmatic concept of a lineage from Ismail instead of Isaac.
Janissaries: Young Christian boys from the Balkan conscripted into Ottoman service. They received a martial education allowing many to rise to high positions in Turkish society.
Lascar: Indian sailors who crewed British ships.
Mamluk: “Owned” individual; the term came to refer to soldier slave unit in various Muslim armies including in Egypt, Spain, and India.
Moor: Term traceable to 46 BC used by the Romans who encountered black Africans whom they called Maures; later used in Europe to refer to the Muslim invaders of Spain and then as a blanket term (at times pejoratively) for any Muslim.
Morisco: Muslims who converted to Christianity during the Reconquista or the Inquistion. Many remained crypto-Muslim.
Mudejar: Signifies a Muslim remaining under non-Muslim rule in Spain after the Reconquista. The term is dating back to at least the 15th century Castilians.
Mujaddid: Reviver or reformer.
Muslim: “One who submits to Allah”, follower of the Islam.
Qadi: Muslim judge.
Reconquista: Christian re-conquest of Spain from the Muslims.
Regulares: Moroccan regiments fighting within the Spanish Army during the 20th century, especially during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39).
Reis (or rais): Captain or commander in the Ottoman navy.
Renegado: Renegade or apostate; designate mainly Christian Europeans who converted to Islam, especially during the 16th and 17th centuries.
Saracen: A term designating Muslims, typically as represented by Arab powers during the Middle Ages. It originates from the Arabic sharqiyun, meaning easterner.
Shiite, schism: A branch of Muslims who believe that leadership in the Islamic world should have passed from Prophet Muhammad to his cousin Ali and his descendents (known as Imams).
Taqiyya: Religious ruling allowing outward renunciation of faith while maintaining inward loyalty in times of extenuating circumstances (i.e. religious backlash from Reconquista in Spain or Russian conquest in Central Asia).
Umm: Arabic for “mother of”.
The following set of references correspond to the sections of the timeline in this temporal, geographical and disciplinary order:
1. Muslims in Spain
Sections included: Conquest of Spain and Campaigns into France, Spain’s Caliphate, Post Caliphal Spain through the Reconquista, The Last Muslim Power in Spain, Muslims in Iberian Peninsula After Granada’s Fall
Muslims in Sicily and the Mediterranean Islands
Sections included: Early Incursions into Sicily and Other Mediterranean Islands, Muslim Sicily, Muslims in Non-Muslim Sicily, Mediterranean Islands after Sicilian Conquest.
Muslims in Italy
Nordic Muslim Relations
Muslims in Britain
Franco-Muslim Relations
Muslims in Alpine Nations
Muslims in Benelux Nations
German-Muslim Contacts
Converts, Corsairs, Renegades and Rebels (14th-20th Centuries)
Monks, Historians, and Scholars
Literary and Artistic Presence
General References on Muslim history and Contacts with Western Europe
* Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
End Notes
[1] Note of the editor: The facts given in the timeline are under the responsibility of the author. If necessary, our readers are requested to check the sources listed in the references file below. These references are presented in the same order as the sections of the timeline.
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