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Joseph Wilson

The Reconquista


"The Surrender of Granada" by Francisco Pradilla Ortiz

Fueled by religious zeal, the Reconquista was an era of almost constant conflict between the Islamic taifas (or city-states) in Southern Iberia and the Roman Catholic kingdoms of the north. But warfare wasn't always about religious conquest. In several instances, kingdoms and taifas swapped alliances, exchanged mercenaries, and exchanged goods and ideas- the most famous of which was likely the game of chess transferred through Al-Andalus (Islamic Iberia) to Christian Europe through Mozarabic (Christians living under Islamic rule) merchants. By the end of the 15th Century however, unified Iberian kingdoms under Queen Isabela and King Ferdinand captured the final taifa- the Emirate of Granada- ending the Reconquista and starting a campaign to forcibly convert Jews and Muslims throughout the region to Catholicism.

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