Christians in Spain

 In ch. 34, Wilken turns toward Spain.

"The first mention of Christians in Spain appears in a writing of Tertullian of Carthage at the end of the second century" (Wilken p. 324). This is apparently the Adversus Judaeos 7.4. 

It was Cyprian's Epistle 67 (here) that is addressed to two Spanish bishops. This fact suggests, as Wilken points out, that there is an ecclesiastical structure in place in Spain, and the Spanish church looks to Carthage for guidance rather than to Rome. There was a Council in Elvira in the early fourth century (wikipedia). 

Hosius of Cordoba (c. 256–359, wikipedia) was a Spanish bishop who became an advisor to Constantine. He presided at the first ecumenical council at Nicaea in 325. 

Hosius of Cordoba, Wikimedia Commons

He sent a strongly worded letter to Emperor Constantius, preserved by Athanasius (History of the Arians 44, here), protesting against imperial interference in ecclesiastical matters. 

Prudentius (c. 348 – c. 413, wikipedia) was a Spanish poet who wrote about spiritual warfare (Psychomachia, wikipedia), and he celebrated martyrs from Spain and elsewhere in his Crown of Martyrdom. There is a Loeb edition of his works. 

In the fifth century, the Visigoths conquered Spain, established a capital at Toledo, and were Arian Christians, until King Reccared (wikipedia) converted to Catholicism in 586. 

Reccared I Conversión, by Muñoz Degrain (1888); Wikimedia Commons

Isidore of Seville (c. 560–636, wikipedia) merits a brief mention. 

Jews were targeted in some canons at the aforementioned Council of Elvira, and Reccared and his successors further limited Jewish freedom. Wilken doubts the extent to which these proclamations affected real-life Jews. But things seem to have improved for the Jews with the coming of Islam. "With the onset of Muslim rule the political and legal status of the Jews changed, and over the next several centuries Jewish intellectual and literary life flourished" (Wilken p. 326). Wilken notes that Maimonides (wikipedia) was born in Cordoba in 1135 (or, maybe, 1138; wikipedia comments). On the statue below, see here; it is located near the Cordoba Synagogue (wikipedia) in the Tiberias Square (Plaza de Tiberíades), named in honor of the city in Israel where Maimonides is buried. The synagogue is medieval, but what with the expulsion of Jews from Christian Spain in 1492 (wikipedia), it has not served as a synagogue for a long time, and it became a museum in 1985. 

Statue of Maimonides in Cordoba, Wikimedia Commons

Muslims conquered the territory of Spain in the early eighth century (wikipedia), having crossed over from North Africa, separated by the Strait of Gibraltar by only a few miles (wikipedia). Charles Martel (wikipedia) defended the Franks from succumbing to the expanding territorial ambitions of the Muslims. The decisive engagement was the Battle of Tours in 732 (wikipedia); on this battle, see the recent episode of The Rest Is History podcast (YouTube); for the passage from Gibbon quoted at the beginning of the episode by Dominic Sandbrook (and quoted also by Wilken), see here (= vol. 5, ch. 52.2). Muslims remember this battle location as "the Plain of the Martyrs" (wikipedia). 

Over the course of several centuries the descendants of the Umayyads forged a distinctive and brilliant Islamic culture in a land far to the west of the heartland of Islam. By all accounts the Spanish Umayyads were remarkable rulers gifted with intelligence, imagination, and longevity. And they were great builders. Muslim Cordoba was a sparkling jewel of a city in contrast to the drab landscape of western Europe. (Wilken p. 327)

Wilken describes the magnificent mosque in Cordoba (construction began in 756), converted to a Christian cathedral in 1236 (wikipedia). The mosque is "the most majestic and enduring artifact of the grandeur of the Umayyad Kingdom of Spain" (Wilken p. 328). This mosque is also praised on another episode of The Rest Is History from a couple years ago, covering in one swoop the history of Muslim Spain. 

Paul Albar (c. 800–861, wikipedia). Wilken cites the testimony of Paul Albar regarding the attraction of Arabic culture and literature for the Christian community of Spain. And for an example of the attractions of Islam, leading to the conversions of Christian to Islam, Wilken cites Gomez (or Comes) ibn Antonian ibn Julian. My googling has suggested that this fellow is not well known but when he is mentioned by modern scholars he is usually referred to as Ibn Antonian. Fortunately, an open-access book by Jessica Coope (Michigan, 2020) tells his story in ch. 3 (pp. 77–78), with citation of primary sources. I believe those primary sources are the Muslim historians noted at Wikipedia here, here, and here. This Ibn Antonian lived under the ninth-century Umayyad ruler Muhammad I of Cordoba (wikipedia). The story goes that he converted to Islam in order to advance his career, but the Muslim members of the king's court fomented suspicions about him that his conversion was a sham and he secretly maintained Christian practices. 

In contrast, there were the Martyrs of Cordoba (wikipedia). These are Christians that deliberately provoked Muslim rulers in order to achieve martyrdom. The first was the monk Isaac, who was decapitated on June 3, 851. (Or, at least, Wilken says Isaac was the first. Wikipedia thinks there was an earlier one, Perfectus. But, according to Jessica Coope [p. 19], Isaac was the first one to deliberately seek martyrdom. Perfectus, on the other hand, had first been approached by Muslims.) He soon had imitators. The movement was recorded by Eulogius (wikipedia), who himself eventually became one of the martyrs. There were 48 martyrs in the decade. 

While Latin continued to be the language of Christianity in al-Andalus, some Christians learned Arabic well. Wilken tells about the Englishman Robert of Ketton (twelfth century, wikipedia), who came to Spain because of his interest in science. Peter the Venerable in France persuaded Robert to work with others on translating the Quran into Latin. The result was Lex Mahumet pseudoprophetae (wikipedia). This translation was later criticized as too free. Mark of Toledo (turn of the thirteenth century, wikipedia) produced a more literal translation of the Quran. 

What these critics did not realize is that Ketton knew precisely what he was doing. He was not simply translating the Arabic of the Qur'an, he was interpreting what he found in the text with the help of Muslim commentators on the Qur'an. When his translation is compared with what Muslims saw in the text he is remarkably on target, often reproducing in Latin what Muslim scholars were writing in Arabic. (Wilken p. 332)

In this concluding evaluation of Robert's paraphrase of the Quran, Wilken is, I believe, relying on a seminal journal article from 1998 by Thomas E. Burman, who also has a book on the topic.