Visigothic identity of Spain

[macmaster at RISEUP.NET]

It's worth recalling that the actual numbers of Berbers and Arabs who
migrated into Spain in the centuries after 711 was very, very small (I've
seen the estimate for the full period to 1492 as being well under 100,000)
yet, within a very short period, Muslim Spain had become one of the most
advanced and developed societies in Europe - and, before 1000 AD, Muslim
Cordoba was definitely the most advanced and largest city in Europe
outside Constantinople.

How did they create a large prosperous Islamic society so quickly? 
Clearly, in much of Spain, the emigrants from North Africa could only have
been a tiny minority ... so, clearly, thousands, if not hundreds of
thousands, of subjects of the Visigothic state must have converted.  And,
more than likely, a great many of the ruling class must have converted to
Islam ... not so long before, their great grandfathers had converted to
Catholicism when the state ordered them to do so.  Surely, many
"Visigoths" did so now.

As the Visigothic settlement was largely in the center of the peninsula,
I'd venture that the majority of Visigoths converted; history shows that
the Reconquista originated in the far north of the peninsula and largely
among the Basques.Logically, the notion that the hill tribesmen who were
the ancestors of the Castillian nobility were the descendants of the
Visigoths seems unlikely;far more likely to me would be to find the
descendants of the Visigoths amongst the Muslims who were expelled to
Northern Africa ... perhaps, the 'Barbary Corsairs'were the last of the
Goths ...

TomMacMaster
PatrMcGin at aol.com wrote:
> I made this remark based on my own experience in law practice with clients
> who had so called family traditions of background and my own family. There
> are
> secrets of origin that are passed from generation to generation. They may
> not
> be true in the literal sense of the word but in their totality they are
> true.
>
> I cannot recall all of the sources that I read but many of them described
> how
> the Visigothic nobles had to cope with the Muslim conquest. Many fled to
> the
> North. But many converted to keep their lands. They also like many Irish
> people Anglicized their names to be more acceptable to the persons in
> power.
>
>
> I just thought that the remark was a propos.
>
> Patrick McGinnis
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>




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