A slightly obscure, but not really odd question…if you were an late 8th century Moorish nobleman from Muslim Spain, what denomination of Islam would you likely belong to? Back then, did Islam even have denominations as we know them today (Sunni, Shi’ia, etc.)?
Well, thanks for your patience,
Ranchoth
As it just so happens, I just read a book about this very subject, The Ornament of the World by María Rosa Menocal. It’s all about al-Andalus (Muslim Spain), and has a lot of these particular facts in it. Al-Andalus was conquered near the end of the Umayyad caliphate, the first great house of Islam. In A.D. 750 the Umayyads in Damascus were massacred by the rival Abbasid caliphate, who then became the ruling house. Abd al-Rahman, the heir to the Umayyad caliphate, reappeared about five years later in Spain and founded a new kingdom based in Córdoba (Qurtuba in Arabic).
Al-Andalus was a predominantly Sunni state, which at first paid nominal tribute to the Abbasid authority in Baghdad, but in 929, Abd al-Raham III declared himself caliph, directly defying Baghdad and establishing al-Andalus as an independent power. Spain under the Umayyad caliphate was known for being very cosmopolitan and tolerant of other cultures and religions within its bounds. *Dhimmi * (people of the book; Jews and Christians) were strictly protected and even allowed to practice their own religions, and a language called Mozarabic, a blend of Arabic and the native post-Latin dialects, was the common tongue. Unfortunately, a series of incompetent leaders in the late 10th century led to the downfall of the Umayyad caliphate, and al-Andalus was invaded twice by rival Islamic factions from North Africa (first the Almoravids, then the Almohads). Al-Andalus broke apart into city-states (taifas), which waged war amongst themselves and amongst the northern Christian states until the last one, centered in Granada, was conquered in 1492 and the remaining Muslims in Spain were deported or forced to convert to Christianity.