This week in history, a battle that radical Muslims of the ISIS variety all but venerate took place between Muslims and Christians in Spain, or al-Andalus.
Context: in 1085, Alfonso VI of Leon-Castile captured the Muslim city of Toledo, thereby formally initiating the Reconquista. Great was the lamentation among Muslims and great the rejoicing among Christians. The Muslim emirs of al-Andalus—notorious for their disunity, dissipated lifestyles, and disinterest in jihad—had to act fast, for “the arrogance of the Christian dogs,” to quote one Muslim, had “waxed so great.”
So they called on their fanatical coreligionists in North Africa, the
Almorivades, a sect devoted to waging jihad and enforcing sharia.
Their elderly leader was Yusuf bin Tashfin, “a wise and shrewd man,” who
had “passed the greater part of his life in his native deserts; exposed
to hunger and privation, he had no taste for the life of pleasure.”
Dressed all in black with a veil covering everything but the zeal in his
eyes, the 76-year-old sheikh accepted the invitation and entered
al-Andalus........To Read More...
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