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The Emergence of Sibling Cultures (600-750) - The Making of Western Europe - The Iberian Peninsula

9 important questions on The Emergence of Sibling Cultures (600-750) - The Making of Western Europe - The Iberian Peninsula

How did Roman cities do in Spain, after the Visigoths arrived?

In Spain, Roman cities had continued to flourish after the Visigoths arrived.

Where did merchants from Byzantium go to visit?

Merchants from Byzantium regularly visited Mérida, and the sixth-century bishops there constructed lavish churches and set up a system of regular food distribution.

What did king Reccared do?

King Reccared (r.586-601) converted from Arian to Catholic Christianity, thereby cementing the ties between the king and the Hispano-Roman population, which included the great landowners and leading bishops.

What happened at the Third Council of Toledo?

In 589, at the Third Council of Toledo, most of the Arian bishops followed their king by announcing their conversion to Catholicism, and the assembled churchmen enacted decrees for a united Church in Spain, starting with the provision "that the statutes of the Councils and the decrees of the Roman Pontiffs be maintained."
Here, as in England a few decades later, Rome and the papacy became the linchpins of the Christian religion.

How was the Roman inheritance in Visigothic Spain clear?

The Roman inheritance in Visigothic Spain was clear not only in the dominance of the Hispano-Roman aristocracy and the adoption of its form of Christianity but also in the legal and intellectual culture that prevailed there.
Nowhere else in Europe were Church councils so regular or royal legislation so frequent. Nowhere else were the traditions of classical learning so highly regarded.

What did Isidore of Seville do?

Isidore of Seville (c.560-636) drew on centuries of Latin learning to write the encyclopedic Etymologies, in which the essence of things was explained by their linguistic roots.

What happened after King Witiza died?

When King Witiza died in 711, the civil war that followed opened the way to the Islamic invasion of the Iberian Peninsula.
While royal claimants competed, a large army led by Tariq ibn Ziyad acting in the name of Musa, the governor of Ifriqiya, killed all the Visigothic rivals and marched on Toledo.
Its bishop fled and some of its nobles were executed.
Musa and his son soon arrived with reinforcements, and between 712 and 715, most of the peninsula was taken over through a combination of war and diplomacy.

Who were responsible for the conquest of Spain?

The conquest of Spain was less Arab or Islamic than Berber. Musa, his son, and other generals leading the invasion were Arabs, but the rank-and-file fighters were Berbers from North Africa.
Although the Berbers were converts to Islam, they did not speak Arabic, and the Arabs considered them crude mountainfolk, only imperfectly Muslim.

What kind of peoples were there in the Iberian Peninsula?

Perhaps a million people settled in the Iberian Peninsula in the wake of the invasion, the Arabs taking the better lands in the south, the Berbers getting the less rich properties in the center and north.
Most of the conquered population consisted of Christians, along with (perhaps) a sprinkling of Jews. A thin ribbon of Christian states survived in the north.
There was thus a great variety of peoples on the Iberian Peninsula.

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

A Short History of the Middle Ages, Sixth Edition | 9781487541019 | Barbara H Rosenwein

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